The Magic Thief (14 page)

E
ven from outside and across the room, I could see it absolutely clearly. The jewel was about as big as the palm of my hand, leaf shaped and leaf colored, and faceted all over so that it glittered in the light.

“Are you ever coming back to the academicos?” Rowan asked.

The jewel was the centerpiece of the lady's necklace, which looked like it was made of diamonds and smaller green jewels, but I didn't care about the other stuff, only the one that was mine, the leaf jewel.

“Conn?” Rowan asked.

What? Oh, the academicos. “I don't know,” I said. “D'you see that lady over there?” I pointed. The woman was sitting on a fancy chair, speaking to some people gathered around her. She wore a dark green dress similar to Rowan's, and my jewel glimmered against the green, almost as if it was calling to me.

Rowan leaned over to follow where my finger was pointing. “Yes, I see her.”

“D'you know where she lives?” I could sneak into her house, wherever it was, and steal the jewel after she'd gone to sleep. Easy.

“She lives here,” Rowan said. She looked at me with a half smile on her face. “She's the duchess.”

Oh. Right. Well then, I wouldn't have far to
go, would I? All I had to do was wait for the party to end, and in I would go. It'd be risky, but it'd be worth it to get the jewel.

At the other end of the terrace, one of the windowed doors opened. “Lady Rowan?” a deep voice called, accompanied by light music and laughter from the party.

Before he saw me, I ducked behind Rowan, then went over the low wall, where I crouched in the shadows.

Up on the terrace, Rowan scuffed around. Erasing my footprints, I guessed. “Yes, I'm here, Argent,” she said. She sounded annoyed. “I needed a breath of air.”

“You should come in. The night is exceedingly cold.”

It wasn't
that
cold.

Rowan murmured something in response, and they went in, the door closing with a polite
click
behind them.

The night felt suddenly very empty. Snow
wafted down from overhead, and the party windows shed their bright lights across the shadowed garden.

I needed someplace quiet and dark to wait until everybody went home and the Dawn Palace went to sleep.

The wall where I'd come in was as good a place as any. Staying close to the shadows, I crept through the garden and back to the wall, where I settled behind a bush.

The night deepened. The snow stopped falling and the clouds drew off, leaving the sky velvet-black and pricked with stars. The cold seeped into my bones, but I couldn't manage to care about it. The lights from the party went out, one by one, and the faint sound of music and laughter faded away. I got to my feet and paced back and forth behind my bush, my hand on the wall to steady myself. Every part of me tingled with excitement, like tiny needles pricking over my skin, making my hair stand up on end and my fingers twitch.

It was time.

I took off my coat and scarf because the black sweater Benet had knitted for me would blend more easily with the shadows. Quick-quiet, I eased from behind the bush and ran lightly across the garden, and then up onto the terrace to the windowed doors. I crouched there for a moment. Nothing moved in the garden. Stars glittered overhead. Beyond the palace, the faintest touch of gray stained the eastern sky; morning wasn't too far off. No matter. I'd be in and out in minutes. I knew exactly where the leaf jewel was.

I tried the door, but it was locked, so I pulled out my knife and stuck it in the lock. It turned, smooth as butter, and the door clicked open. I slid inside, closing the door behind me.

I was in a ballroom, huge and dark and echoey, smelling faintly of sweat and leftover flowers from the party. I took off my boots and socks and put them next to the door where I could pick them up on my way out. Keeping to the edge of the
ballroom, I barefooted to a dark doorway, which led in the direction of my jewel, and paused to listen.

Nothing, only silence.

I eased into the shadowed hallway and wound my way deeper into the palace. I turned a corner, then another, and went up a flight of stairs. I met no one, saw no lights. I came to yet another corner and peeked around, finding a long, carpeted hallway lit by a single werelight turned low; halfway along the hall was a door, which was blocked by a huge, alert guardsman wearing a green uniform and holding a pike. As I snuck another look at him, he turned his head to survey the hallway, and I drew back into the shadows, holding my breath.

Drats. That guard was a lock I could not pick.

But the leaf jewel was behind that door. Which meant I had to get in. Find a window, maybe, and go in from outside? Try to distract the guard? Hide and wait for daytime and hope the door would be left unguarded?

No, I couldn't wait. The jewel wanted me to come and get it
now
.

Then my problem was solved for me.

In the distance, from outside the palace, came a faint shout. It was answered a moment later from inside.

Peering around the corner, I saw the guard stiffen and grip his pike. The noises from below grew louder: shouting, then someone ringing a bell. From the other end of the hallway, another guardsman poked his head in and called the guard in front of the door. “All clear, Jas?”

The jewel's guard stepped away from the door and faced the other guard. “Clear. That you, Merik? What's going on?”

In my hiding place around the corner, I crouched, ready to go. Just one more step, guard, and I'd have enough space to reach the door. Just one more step…

The other guard answered. “Gate guards found footprints in the snow by the garden wall.
Captain Kerrn has called an alert. We're searching the grounds and the palace now.”

Drats. I'd forgotten about footprints. Stupid.

The door guard took a few more steps toward the other guard. “Well, everything's quiet up here—”

That's all I needed.

Quick as thought, I darted from around my corner, down the hallway, to the door. I had the knife in my hand and jammed it into the lock as the guard turned; the lock flicked open, and as he lunged to grab me, I was in, with the door slammed behind me and the knife snicking the lock closed again.

I whirled, panting, and surveyed the room. Dark, curtained windows, stone floor, gilded pictures, padded chairs, and a desk.

And standing beside a canopied bed was the duchess, her eyes wide, her gray-streaked red hair in two braids, a lit candle in one hand and a knife in the other.

“Who are you and what do you want?” she asked sharply. The candle flame flickered, sending shadows reeling across the walls and ceiling.

She said something else, but I could hardly hear her. The jewel's call was so loud.

From behind me, the door thudded with the guards' blows. One of them shouted for help.

My eyes were drawn toward a carved wooden box on a table across the room.

Yes, of course it was there. Its call washed over me like a crashing wave.

I crossed the room to the box. It was locked. I didn't have time for this. “Keys?” I asked.

The duchess, who had not moved from beside the bed, looked down her nose, proud. “I will not give you the keys.”

Oh well, the knife had worked fine so far. I stuck it into the keyhole and it didn't so much turn the lock as explode it, as if the jewel inside wanted to get out as much as I wanted to get in. The lid of the box burst open. Behind me, the
duchess's door shuddered with the guards' efforts to get in.

Inside the box, the necklace was arrayed against a lining of dark green velvet. And in the center of the necklace, the leaf-green jewel glimmered as if it was lit from within. I reached in and cut it from the necklace with my knife, prying it from its setting. It came into my hand as if it was part of me. I was meant to have it.

From behind, the door splintered open. The guards bulled into the room, shouting.

“He's got a knife!” somebody yelled.

As I turned, a heavy weight hit me and I crashed to the floor with a guardsman on top of me. The knife—
and my jewel
—flew out of my hands and skittered across the polished stone floor. The guard held me down, and I struggled, kicking and twisting; I bit a guard's hand and his grip relaxed for a moment and I squirmed away.

Then there was a flash of light, a pain in my head, and I was out.

W
hen I came to, the call of the jewel had faded so that I could barely feel it. But it was nearby, so I figured I was still in the Dawn Palace somewhere. Just not in the nice part.

I was sitting in a hard chair with my hands chained behind me. My head hurt. I opened my eyes. Damp, gray stone walls. No windows. A
werelight in a metal lantern cast flickering shadows across the room. Two fierce-looking guards.

I was in big trouble.

One of the guards, a big man with a bristling gray and black beard, noticed that I was awake. “He's up,” he said. “I'll give him the phlister. Call Captain Kerrn.”

“Right,” said the other, and left the room.

The remaining guard went to a table, where he poured out a mug of water, to which he added a powder from a vial. He stirred it with a finger, then carried it over to me.

“Drink this,” he said.

I eyed the water. It looked greasy, with a film of powder on the surface. I was thirsty, but I wasn't drinking this stuff. I shook my head.

The guard grabbed me by the scruff of my neck. “You drink it,” he growled, “or I force it down your throat.”

Which is what he managed to do, eventually. I came out of it gasping and choking and wet down
the front of my sweater, and he got his shins kicked.

I expected the phlister to be bitter, like poison maybe, but it didn't taste like anything except water.

After a short time, which I spent contemplating the lock on the door and testing the manacles on my wrists, the captain arrived.

She was tall—all the guards were tall; they must have a height requirement—and had blond hair in a braid down her back and hard gray-blue eyes like chips of ice. She wore the same dark green uniform as the other guards, with a gold stripe stitched on one sleeve. “Has he had the phlister?” the captain asked.

“I could pick that lock with a couple of wires,” I said, pointing with my chin toward the door. “And I've got two wires in the collar of my shirt.”

Now why had I told them that?

The guard and the captain looked at me. “I see he has,” Captain Kerrn said. “Wait outside.” Her words sounded funny, the
r
's all gargled in the back of her throat and the
s
's pronounced “sh.”

The guard nodded and went out, the door locking behind him.

The captain stood with her arms folded, glaring down at me.

“You can glare all you want,” I said. “But I'm used to it. Benet does it all the time.”

“What is your name?” the captain asked.

“Conn,” I said promptly. “Connwaer, actually. It's a kind of bird with black feathers. I don't usually tell people that.” I gave her a suspicious look. “Did the phlister make me tell you?”

“I ask the questions,” Kerrn said. “You answer them. Why did you try to assassinate the duchess? Who are you working for?”

I blinked and stared at her. “Why would I want to kill the duchess?”

“You tell me, Connwaer.” The captain leaned forward and spoke in a soft, menacing voice. “Why would you want to kill the duchess?”

I considered the question. “Well, maybe if I was crazy I would. Or maybe if I thought she was truly evil?” I shook my head. “Even then, I
don't think I'd actually try to kill her.”

Captain Kerrn narrowed her eyes. “So you were not trying to kill the duchess.”

“No!” I said. “Why did you think I was?”

The captain relaxed ever so slightly and leaned against the table. “You were captured in her chamber, with a knife.”

I nodded. “That's right. I had to get the jewel.”

At that, Captain Kerrn straightened. “You mean the ducal regalia.”

“No,” I said. I shifted in the chair, which had gotten harder. “I mean the jewel. The one that glimmers green, like a leaf in the sunlight? It's beautiful. D'you know the one I mean?”

“Yes, I know it,” Kerrn said. “Go on.”

“It's mine,” I said.

“No,” the captain said. “It is part of the ducal regalia.”

“No,” I said firmly. “It's mine.”

“Who asked you to steal it? Are you working for the Underlord?”

“Nobody asked me to, Kerrn. It's mine.” I
shook my head, frustrated. “Clear as clear, I have to tell you the truth because of this phlister stuff. So why don't you believe me?”

The captain scowled. “Because you are asking too many questions.” She turned and paced across the cell and back. “The phlister is not working,” she said to herself.

“It's working,” I said. “You're just not asking the right questions.”

Kerrn took two quick steps across the room and grabbed me by the front of my sweater. “Then tell me the right questions.”

I thought about that for a moment, while Kerrn released me and folded her arms, waiting. The right questions.

“I haven't even asked myself the right questions,” I said slowly. “Conn,” I asked. “Why did you break into the Dawn Palace?”

“To find the jewel,” I told myself.

“But
why
?” I asked.

And the answer washed over me like a flood of
sunlight filling every crack and corner of the damp, dim room. Of course. How could I have been so stupid? I looked up at the captain, the happiness bubbling up inside of me.

“I had to find the leaf jewel, Kerrn. It really is mine. I'm a wizard, and it's my locus magicalicus.”