The Lostkind (34 page)

"They were taking the elevators up to their chamber when you left, then Connie changed her mind and jumped to one going the other way." Dorcan called up. "I was supposed to watch them both, and they split up! What was I supposed to do?"

"Exactly what you did, but I'm wondering if you weren't doing something else at the time too." Yasi was merciless.

"Yasi, I've been your second for years! You've known me my whole life." Dorcan snapped.

"I remember." Yasi nodded. "And I also remember that you didn't put your name forward to be my second until three years ago. Within a few months of this whole thing starting in fact." She glared at him. "What was your real reason for suddenly being at my back the whole time?"

Dorcan's mouth shut with an audible sound as his teeth slammed together sharply.

Yasi nodded. "Okay. Talk to you again soon Dorcan."

And the hatch swung shut with a resonant bang.

~oo00oo~

"He might have a far more innocent ulterior motive for wanting to get close to you y'know." Keeper challenged.

"I know." Yasi admitted. "It's threatened to be a problem for a while, but I can't trust anything else he says right now."

"He likes you, that's hardly a threatening problem." Keeper caught her arm. "Yasi, my dear... do we need to have a conversation?"

Yasi tensed. "About?"

"It's no secret that Dorcan was a little sweet on you. Good looking man, someone you trust, you're in a high-placed job, don't have a lot of confidants... you have a tough day, you decide to talk to someone, you realize he's the only one around..."

"I haven't told Dorcan anything he couldn't have got from his post."

"Nothing?"

"No."

Keeper just looked at her, until even Yasi wilted a little under the fierce glare. "What?"

"We talked about this, about you keeping everything close to your chest. We talked about you trusting your people, and showing them that you trust them... This was a big night, for good
and
bad reasons..."

Yasi wondered sometimes how much Keeper knew. For sure she knew the answer to every question she asked. "Spit it out Keep."

"I know you've already confided in
someone
, and it wasn't me or Archivist..."

Yasi wanted to look at her feet for some reason, but she spoke the truth. "It was Vincent."

"You want to know how many ways that's a bad idea? Getting chummy with him?"

"He's not the bad guy Keeper."

"He's not exactly one of the good guys either. At least not one of
our
good guys." Keeper shot back.

"He's proven himself to be a friend to us, and trustworthy with our secrets. As of now, we can't say that about
our
good guys, let alone anyone from the surface, or any other Underside out there."

"He froze during the fight, he froze at the jump during your little initiation test two years ago."

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"I know everything." Keeper softened, at least for her. "Yasi, this is me you're talking to. Why Vincent?"

Yasi sighed hard. "There's nothing going on between me and him."

"No there isn't. If there were, I would have put a swift brutal stop to it long before now, but you've never been this open with anyone before. Why him?"

Yasi struggled with the question for a second. "I... I never really thought about it before, but maybe... maybe,
because
he isn't one of us. Maybe because with everyone here, all the Lostkind... I can't be relaxed when I'm the Captain of the Shinobi. Vincent didn't have a clue what a Shinobi
was
when we became friends."

"And the fact that he can't be relied on?"

"If I need a warrior, I look in a mirror." Yasi scorned. "Have I ever needed someone to look after me?"

"Constantly, but not like that." Keeper shot back and rose to her feet. "So. Where the hell did that Invasion come from? You and Watcher were so convinced that someone had cleaned out the River and lower levels. You said that the Riverfolk weren't there any more."

"We thought that because we found a bunch of Riverfolk bodies." Yasi nodded. "And at the same time; there was dead silence from the River. So I figured something had happened to them. They can't go the surface and survive the pressure change; so if someone was kicking them out; the only place they could go is here."

"So. We know they're still down there. We know they had casualties long before they came up. What's option three?"

"That someone has taken over, down below our feet." Yasi nodded tightly. "But we can handle the River with a few more Razor Nets. It's a blow; but one we can handle."

~oo00oo~

With some of the ropelines severed, and neither Connie or Vincent able to scale the walls as easily as the Lostkind, the most convenient private place to talk was at the stall the two of them had taken refuge in.

"You really think Dorcan is working for Vandark?" Vincent asked. "I mean, he did sort of save my life today."

"Yeah, but we know they weren't after you." Yasi responded. "I've known him for years, trained him myself. I can't believe he's a traitor either, I just can't see any more likely suspects out there."

"We'll find out eventually." Keeper said coldly. "I told him to keep an eye on you and Connie. But it took him a few minutes to get to the Seven Steps when the Riverfolk attacked. Where was he for those few minutes?"

"Owen's escape could have been anyone. The fight was far from there. Anyone could have got the door open."

"Doesn't matter." Yasi said. "We won."

"Won?" Vincent repeated. "We lost Owen, we lost two Shinobi… where did we go right?"

Connie looked cannily at Yasi. "You found something didn't you? In Owen's locker. Something that changes the whole game."

"No." Yasi said. "Something that
wins
it."

~oo00oo~

"We've got the information." Yasi waved the package victoriously. "All the secret ways in and out that he spent two years finding, we got all of it. I don't know how much Owen had committed to memory, but I highly doubt he would have written so much of it down if it was enough to be worried about."

"Owen must be freaking out, trying to decide what to tell Vandark." Keeper cackled. "I'm told he doesn't have a ‘shoot the messenger' policy, but do you really wanna find out?"

"Does this mean we did it?" Vincent asked, delighted. "I mean… Owen will never get away with that trick twice, surely…"

"He tries, you know where to find me." Yasi chuckled. "We did it. The real question is what to do next."

Everyone turned that over in their heads for a moment.

"Yasi." Archivist interrupted powerfully. "Take the civilians home."

Vincent and Connie reacted with surprise. "Now?"

"The danger is over." Archivist reasoned. "You two have lives of your own that you're on the verge of screwing up, and Owen is still at large. If he tries to get back into the City Planners Office to recreate the information we lost, Vincent can find out. If not, Vandark will almost certainly kill him for blowing the whole invasion. The crisis is over. Go home, declare victory, get some sleep."

"You've done us a fantastic turn today, and like as not saved this place." Keeper put in. "We got long memories down here, and it's probably a good idea that you take some time to sort yourselves out before you come back."

"Come back?" Vincent and Connie both repeated in unison; though Vincent sounded a good deal more hopeful.

"Hate to say it, but this whole thing could have been over a year ago if we'd sought Vincent's help when we had the chance. I was the vote against bringing him back in on it while Owen was there watching." Keeper conceded. "I wish I liked him more, but it's probably a good idea to have someone in the City Planner's Office."

Yasi met Keeper's gaze. Was that true, or was the old woman giving Yasi a legitimate reason to keep Vincent around? Either way, Yasi gave away nothing.

"And as for you Connie, well... we've wanted to recruit you for three years." Keeper continued.

"You have?" Connie and Vincent said in shared disbelief.

Archivist nodded. "I suggested it. Tecca and Wotcha thought highly of you."

"They were watching me at the Clinic?" Connie stared at him. "What did they say?"

"They said that you had the gift of empathy, and that you had love for strangers. That's a rare gift. Tecca said that you always remember the kid's names, and that you sat and read with the while their parents were with the doctor."

Connie looked down. "Family member with a fatal disease needs to go to the free clinic... Doesn't seem right to leave their kids alone."

Vincent watched the Triumvirate subtly. They liked that answer. "So, now that we know; now that we've been here, is the offer still open?"

Yasi looked at Archivist; Archivist looked at Keeper; Keeper glared at Yasi. "Take them home."

Yasi was on her feet instantly. "Yes'm." She led the way out, Connie and Vincent following.

"I thought you didn't like him." Archivist said to Keeper as soon as the door closed.

"I don't." Keeper said immediately. "But... Yasi likes him."

Archivist smiled broadly. "You old softie."

"Don't spread that around." Keeper sighed. "My little attempts to push her and Dorcan closer together seem to have backfired spectacularly, and against all natural laws she seems to trust the yutz from Upside... and he
did
help us out. Twice now."

Archivist was still smiling broadly at her.

"Stop that." She growled. "I'm not being nice to him, I'm just looking out for Yasi. I don't want her moping."

"Was she moping two years ago?"

"Not as such, no." Keeper admitted. "Things might be different now, and I figured – Stop smiling at me! – I figured handling the people who work here is my job."

"Yes, of course it is." He made no effort to hide his amusement. "But of course; you have to tell Yasi that you're against it."

"If I told her anything else she'd push back. This way it's her idea."

"Has it occurred to you that we could all save ourselves a lot of time and effort if we just said what we thought?"

"Ahh, but then we wouldn't really be Lostkind, would we?"

"You're a good girl." He told her primly.

"Well, you didn't marry me for my money." Keeper demurred. "And stop smiling at me!"

~oo00oo~

"Put your paws down Vincent." Connie said lightly as they walked. "You've been drooling like you smell a roast dinner ever since Keeper said you might get to come back."

"Oh come on. You don't want to see more?" Vincent waved a hand around at the market and its stalls. Life was returning to normal in the Underside after the attack.

"I've seen plenty." Connie retorted. "I saw kids in Halloween costumes killing people. I saw ninjas jumping across rooftops and coming into our home with swords..."

"You've seen the worst day we've had in decades." Yasi retorted. "This isn't our life. What you saw before the attack, down on the Seven Steps? Lots of trading, music, traffic... That was our real life. We laugh, we cry, we hurt, we love... Just like anyone else does. We're not so different, we just live a few feet out of sight."

"I know, I know..." Connie admitted. "But, I got a job, and I got a life, and I like where I am with both of them. I don't want to get a second job that involves sneaking through sewer grates when nobody's looking."

Yasi nodded. "Sure. Most people wouldn't, which is why we almost never ask. Think about that for a second. You got an offered something that several million people would never know was possible."

"Yeah, but... I didn't get an offer. I got drafted the second the Riverfolk broke into our apartment." Connie retorted. "And maybe what happened today means they can't hurt us any more, but you know that's not really the end of it. They spent three years on this plan, Vandark whoever he is, is patient as hell."

The three of them paused to let a team of Borrowers through to the stairs with their heavy loads; waiting beside a stall full of ‘borrowed' clothing. Yasi sent a nod to the stall-merchant; when something occurred to Vincent suddenly. "Yasi, what time is it up above?"

Yasi drew her fob watch, and checked the extra two hands. "Early morning. Sunday. It'll be just after dawn when we get there…"

"Our anniversary was Friday night…" Connie looked to Vincent. "My god. We might just get away with this."

Vincent looked down at himself. They both had filthy torn clothing, and Vincent's bruises were becoming more visible as they healed. "Assuming we don't get caught climbing out of the subway looking like we've been mugged six times."

"Mm. There's a thought." Yasi grabbed clothing off the stall's pile and pushed them at Connie and Vincent. Cloaks; sweaters; casual clothes that covered up the damage. "Here. Take these and cover up."