"There is a sense in that," a thief said in support.
"We can ensure that any enemy trying to breach these walls, be they thieves or guard, will be hip deep in their own blood within minutes."
"That is no way to gain victory," Wendric said.
"The first task is to survive. Once we can prove we can defend ourselves, once we show the Guild that they cannot wipe us out without sustaining untenable losses, their attacks will stall."
"I agree," said Nate. "Once we break the back of their main assault, then we can think about hitting back. If we prolong this long enough, their alliance with the Vos guard may break down. Without that support, it is the Guild that becomes vulnerable."
"It would be ironic if the guard then decided all thieves were its enemy," Elaine said, thinking through the course ahead. "Suddenly, it is the Guild that is the most visible, while we are hidden here. When the guard starts hitting back at thieves, they will be targeting the Guild. How long will it be before the Guild is reduced in strength to our level? Suddenly, things become even!"
A ragged cheer went through the crowd, though only a handful of thieves added to it.
"That is pretty fanciful," Wendric said.
"Yes, of course it is," Elaine said. "What is important is that we realise that there are many other options open to us, so long as we can survive the next few days. We can make this guildhouse near impregnable. We can play the waiting game now - the Guild cannot."
Seeing Nate nod in agreement, Wendric looked down the table. "So, we have a consensus?"
"No."
Lucius had been brooding, following only the gist of the debate at times. He leaned on one elbow as he sat in thought. He was only faintly aware that he had uttered his disagreement, and it was the silence that followed that shook his attention back to the chamber, as the assembled thieves waited for his next words.
Looking down the table, he saw Wendric raise his eyebrows in surprise, while Nate frowned in frustration. He tried hard to ignore the dangerous look Elaine flashed him, there only for a second, but no less threatening for all that.
"Make your preparations," he said. "Build the defences you suggest round the guildhouse. Whether necessary or not, they are certainly prudent. And yes, I agree that no one should leave unless on absolutely essential business. You will need the manpower anyway to defend this place. But I do not suggest that we simply sit here, waiting for the hammer to fall. That, it seems to me, would be a very foolish thing to do."
"So, what do you suggest?" Elaine asked, and he could sense the coldness in voice, the faint warning that now was not the time for the Council to be divided, that they could not risk the Hands disbanding.
Laying his hands flat on the table, Lucius sat straight in his seat, staring at the wood between them. He thought of the attack on Magnus, the guildmaster cut down in the street like an animal. He remembered Markel and Treal, two children who had been butchered by the Guild, just to make a point. The disaster at the docks, and the inhuman allies the Guild had apparently gained, still a secret to those in this chamber. Too much blood, too much killing, and for what? So one group of thieves could run the city the way they saw fit?
It ended here.
"I say we attack."
The suggestion was met with silence, and Lucius continued, his voice even, measured, dangerous. "We have little else to lose, and they will be at their most confident. We hit them. We hit all of them. We start with Loredo, Jewel, von Minterheim, and work down from there. We kill their leaders, their senior thieves, the guard sergeants, and anyone else who gets in the way. We pay them back for the blood they have stolen from us, drop for drop. In one evening, we finish this war."
Silence reigned in the room, until Nate coughed, then laughed.
"I see," he said. "We just kill them all. Why didn't we think of that?"
"Lucius, we have already tried to hit Jewel, and it failed. Badly," said Wendric.
"Then we do it properly this time."
"And von Minterheim as well?" Elaine asked. "You suggest we just walk into the Citadel and assassinate the military leader of the city?"
"Yes," he said. "That is exactly what I propose."
Elaine threw up her hands in disbelief. "And how do you propose we accomplish this great night of murder?"
"It's war, Elaine, not murder," Lucius said. "Never forget that. This is how we avenge Magnus, Caradoc and everyone else taken from us."
He stopped for a moment, then cleared his throat. "I'll make an agreement with you, Elaine. You carry on with your preparations here at the guildhouse. If we fail to end this war, your plan will be the only one open to us anyway. I will take care of von Minterheim. This evening."
"By yourself?" Nate asked incredulously.
"I won't require any of you to come with me," Lucius said. He managed not to sound evasive, but he already had an idea of who he could go to for help. "If I succeed, the guard will be thrown into chaos, at least temporarily, and their ties to the Guild will be weakened."
"This sounds like madness," Nate said.
"I would listen to him, if I were you," said Grennar. "If I were all of you. If anyone here can reach the Captain of the Vos guard, I think it is Lucius."
"I agree," said another woman, and Lucius saw Grayling throw a quick wink at him. "Though if he does need any help, I will gladly volunteer for that mission."
He smiled back, but shook his head slowly. No, his gesture said, it would be too dangerous for an ordinary thief. Silently, she nodded in understanding.
"If I fail, then you will have lost nothing," Lucius continued, turning his attention back to Elaine. "If I reach him, we go on the attack tomorrow evening. I'll form the team to strike at Loredo and Jewel myself. The other targets we will divide up amongst us. Grennar, the beggars will act as spotters, watching the Guild's movements so we can be ready to strike at Loredo when the guard are at their most distracted."
"They won't be able to sneeze without one of us being nearby to see it," Grennar said. "When the time comes, we'll have your target in our sights."
As arguments between the thieves began to break out, some supporting Lucius' bold plan, others counselling caution, Lucius looked down the table at the other members of the Council.
"Do we have an agreement?"
Wendric looked sideways at Elaine. "We have little to lose. Without being callous about it, we risk only one man."
"I think this is the last time I may see you, Lucius," Elaine said. "But if there is the slightest chance you can succeed... it is an appealing idea. Nate, what say you?"
"I still think it is madness," Nate muttered.
"Then we are agreed," Elaine said, her voice suddenly hard and sure, carrying across the crowded council chamber. "We will start our reprisal this evening."
Lucius stood. "I must prepare."
As he strode out of the council chamber, he ignored the looks the thieves threw him, ranging from outright support to complete mistrust. His mind was fixed firmly on reaching von Minterheim. First, however, he had to enlist the help of someone else. And that would not be easy.
CHAPTER 17
Closing his eyes, Lucius half-smiled to himself as he felt the threads of power buckle and twist slightly, their natural movements disrupted by the approach of another practitioner. He still lacked the finesse to decipher everything they were telling him, but Adrianna's approach was becoming easier to monitor the closer she came. Whether it was the magnitude of her skill in magic that caused the little fluctuations in the threads, or her emotions at having been summoned once more, Lucius could only guess. He found himself thinking of her anger acting as a bow wave ploughing through their energy, as a ship made its presence felt across the vast ocean.
The analogy seemed to hold true as she strode across the empty warehouse, dust curling up behind her footsteps.
"I am not yours to summon and command, Lucius," she said, contempt evident in her voice. He sighed inwardly, knowing his mission here was not going to be easy.
"You turn your back on us, ignore the calls of Master Forbeck, abandon the training generously offered to you, and then expect... what? Why have you called me here?"
"Good evening, Adrianna," he said, forcing a grim smile.
"Just get to the point."
"Your current employers are finished," he said. "Within the next day, their hold on the city will be shattered, their members scattered and bleeding."
Adrianna's pace had slowed as she approached him, and now she stopped altogether, her expression a mixture of puzzlement and exasperation.
"Perhaps you have not been keeping up with recent events," she said carefully, and he realised she was studying him carefully. She had not assumed he was bluffing, instead trying to determine the path he had chosen; she was no longer dismissing him as unimportant. "The Hands are in retreat all over the city, your guildmaster and most of the Council are dead, and you are now just waiting for the end."
"I'm waiting for nothing, Aidy. I told you, this war will be over within the next day."
"This is not your fight, Lucius. Leave them. Leave the Hands. There is no future there, and your allegiance should not be to a den of thieves. You could be so much more than that."
"So you have told me."
"Then why stay with the Hands?"
He smiled wolfishly at her. "I like them."
Snorting at that, Adrianna shook her head. "Are they worth dying for?"
Considering her words, he finally shrugged. "They are certainly worth fighting for, and that is what I intend to do. Without me, they will all die, or otherwise be all but enslaved by the Guild. I can make the difference here, Aidy."
Placing a hand on her hip, she looked at him curiously. "And when did you find something to believe in? Where is the selfish Lucius we have come to know and despise, the one who runs from responsibility? They cannot be paying you that much at the moment, I know. If there is no profit, why are you staying to defend them?"
Lucius opened his mouth to answer, then found precious few words. "That is something of a surprise to me as well," he finally muttered.
"If only you had found a similar loyalty for us."
"I still may." The words amazed him as much as they did Adrianna. Somewhere along the line, he found he had decided to stay in the city, to carve his own niche and no one would be forcing him out. Not the Guild, not Adrianna and definitely not the Shadowmages. Turnitia was after all, his home. He was done with running.
"What are you saying?" she asked, suspiciously, still expecting a trap somewhere down the line. As it happened, she was not so very wrong.
"I'll tell you what I am going to do," he said. "And I'll ask a simple request. What happens then is up to you. You will have the chance, at the very least, to protect your employer's interests, and perhaps deliver victory in this war to them single-handed. That would do much for the reputation of the Shadowmages and herald their return to the city, would it not?"
"Go on."
"Loredo has been clever, building alliances and ensuring he has some of the best thieves in the city on his side. Even his thugs are well-directed and motivated. He has a Shadowmage in his employ, and can call upon the services of demons from the sea. But central to his plans are his ties to the Vos guard."
"And these are the enemies you are determined to make?" Adrianna asked. "You have a chance to escape all of this, and there are those within the Shadowmages who would protect you from further harm if you walked away now. Remember, we always look after our own."
"In a way, I am counting on that," Lucius said, but evaded her questioning look. "However, it is plain that we cannot fight them all, not in open battle."
He ran a hand through his hair as he debated his next words. If he had misread Adrianna, what he was about to say could finish the Hands before a single attack was launched. Still, he forged ahead, determined to test his own instincts.
"We are going to strike them down from the shadows, hit the power base of the Guild." He said. "The enforcers on the streets, the contacts that form their network of spies, the highest earning merchants in their protection rackets, Loredo and Jewel themselves."
"You have already tried to take down Jewel," Adrianna interjected. "That did not go so well."
"We'll be prepared this time, and she won't have so many allies to call upon when we make the move. I'll do it myself, if I have to."
"Have a care. She is as dangerous as her reputation suggests."
"Your concern is touching," Lucius said, but when he saw Adrianna about to react to that, he waved her fury away. "By the time I reach Jewel, she will have a great many things to occupy her thoughts."
"Such as?"
"This all happens tomorrow evening. The Hands will leave their guildhouse and kill everyone connected with Loredo that can be found." He was acutely conscious that if Adrianna did not do as he expected, he had just doomed every member of the Hands.
"How can you be sure you will be able to find all the targets you seek? You know Loredo has moved the location of his guildhouse, specifically to avoid any reprisal like this?"
He did not know that, and Lucius hesitated before offering up the final part of the plan hatched by the Hands. "We have the beggars on side. They are watching the movements of the Guild, tracking down everyone we have deemed important to Loredo's operations. They'll find their new base of power."
"The beggars? Clever." Her compliment was muted, and he could see her mind was ticking away, gauging the threat he and the Hands posed, and how it affected her position with her employer.
"It was Magnus, not me, that brought the beggars into the fold. And he paid for the alliance with his life."
"And what, exactly, is your part in all of this, Lucius?" Adrianna asked.
"I'll be there every step of the way, Aidy. I'll lead the attack."
"You realise, of course, that this will likely bring you into direct conflict with another Shadowmage."
"I have no quarrel with you, Aidy. I am not looking to fight you."
"If you are leading the assault, it becomes damn well near impossible to avoid, doesn't it?" she said, her anger finally boiling over. "Do you understand what you risk, Lucius? Not the dangers in fighting the Guild, but in taking a stand against us?"
"I'm not taking a stand against you or the other Shadowmages, Aidy."
"My contract with the Guild predates your involvement with the Hands, and so takes precedence!"
"I have no contract, Aidy. I am here because I have to be, because these people need me. Because they will die without me, and that is not something I can walk away from. I fight because I have to fight."
"God damn you, Lucius!" Adrianna spat, and went on cursing him, decrying amateur practitioners and their lack of respect for the Shadowmages guild. He let her anger ride out, knowing he risked her striking him down on the spot, but also hoping he had understood how her loyalties ran.
When her fury was spent, she whirled back on him. "You don't leave me any damned choice, do you?"
He waited for her next words, though he found it difficult to hold her stare.
Closing her eyes, Adrianna sighed, and with the release of breath, so the fire of her rage seemed to dissipate. "It seems you have a personal stake in this war, Lucius, and it is clear that I don't. I'll release myself from the contract with the Guild. To continue would risk coming into conflict with another Shadowmage and however agreeable that may be on one level, I will not do it."
"Thank you, Aidy," he said.
"Oh, don't thank me, Lucius," she said. "I am well aware I have been played, and there will be a reckoning after this war is done."
He nodded slowly, then played his next card. "After this, I will take up my training in earnest."
That made her look twice at him, and she frowned.
"It is a promise I make to both you and Master Forbeck," he said. "I will dedicate myself to the Shadowmages, learn all I can, and abide by the rules of the guild."
Clearly sceptical, Adrianna co
cked her head. "Why?"
"I am going to stay in this city, Aidy," he said. "It is going to become my home again. I'll always have an allegiance to the Hands, but I will also pledge myself to the Shadowmages. I want to learn about our gift. I want to be more than I have been."
"Your record in this matter is hardly sterling."
"True," he had to concede. "But please allow that a man can change. I don't want to be your enemy, Aidy. We should not be enemies."
Taking a step closer, Adrianna dark eyes bored into his own, as if trying to plumb the depths of his mind for the truth. "If you do as you say, Lucius, you will have my support. But my God, if you should prove false..."
"I know," he said simply.
She took a step back, preparing to leave. "We have an understanding, then. I will not interfere with your plans, and will henceforth break off contact with Loredo and his Guild."
"There was... just one more thing," Lucius said.
"Oh, with you there always is," Adrianna said, but waited patiently to hear him out.
He took a breath, preparing himself to see how far his relationship with Adrianna truly stretched. "The Hands' assault on the Guild begins this evening."
She frowned. "I thought you said..."
"Tomorrow is when the Hands move as a whole. In a few hours, however, I will enter the Citadel and strike at the heart of the Vos guard. Their captain, von Minterheim."
Adrianna just looked at him, mouth open, dumbstruck.
"That is the signal for the Hands to begin. With the guard paralysed and leaderless, they will be of little aid to the Guild, for a time at least."
It took a while for Adrianna to find her voice again. "That... is either incredibly stupid and ill-conceived, or..." she trailed off.
"Whatever it is, it won't be easy. However, my request..." he hesitated for a moment before steeling himself to continue. "I wanted to ask you if you would come with me, to fight by my side and ensure the mission's success."
Trying very hard to ignore Adrianna's dark eyes, Lucius began to explain. "I cannot offer you money or anything that would be the equal of the contract you have lost, but this is important to me Aidy, and -"
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