The Palace Job (7 page)

The explosion a few moments later was small, more of a rapid burn than an actual explosion
per se.
It did, however, open a tidy hole in the wall, and when the acrid purple smoke had cleared enough for safe breathing, Icy and Tern were on their way.

"Almost wish I could be there to see the look on his face when he opens the safe," Tern said as they reached the market square.

"What did you do?" Icy asked. "I assumed you had simply removed evidence that could incriminate us."

"Oh, no. When he opens it, a bunch of papers with
I killed Guildmaster Halistan
written on them are going to burst out and fly all over the room like an Imperial party favor. He's going to know
exactly
why we took him down."

Icy glanced back at the town jail behind them. "The hole we left in the wall probably communicated the same message."

"Don't ruin the moment for me, Icy." Tern sighed as the shouts began. "Oh, forget it. Looks like we're running."

When the stiff-necked justicar and the warden had gone, Archvoyant Silestin turned to the shadows near the door. "The white prisoner dies before he tells any embarrassing stories. The two Urujar come back. Make sure this wasn't a double-cross by the guild leader who turned them in." He turned back to his plate, then raised an eyebrow as another thought came to him. "And deal with Pyvic if you deem it necessary," he added, pointing with his fork.

The shadows rippled and slid into a perfectly black humanoid shape, the colors streaming off like water down an oiled raincoat.

Silestin's First Blade bowed once, turned, and then was gone.

Loch and Kail found their first potential recruits on the road outside town.

"Look about right?" Loch asked as they neared the other pair.

"An Imperial guy in robes and a woman in spectacles? Not a usual combination." Kail nodded as the other pair stopped, watching them. "I'm guessing they're ours."

"The woman with the spectacles has really good hearing," said the woman, raising a crossbow with a lot of gears and fiddly bits attached to it.

"Almost positive," Kail added to Loch, and then said to the woman, "I'm looking for a safecracker named Tern and a man named, ah, Cold?"

"Icy," said the Imperial man. "You have found us."

"This isn't one of those silence-the-thief deals, is it?" Tern asked. "Because I've been double-crossed before, but if the
Textile
Guild is screwing me—"

"Relax." Loch held up a hand and made the shape of the local guild for this province. "I'm Loch. This is Kail. We've got a job for a tinker and someone comfortable in uncomfortable spaces. Word on the street says you've taken down a lot of rich bastards."

"Well, the poor bastards don't have much money, or any challenging safes." Tern squinted behind her spectacles. "What's the job?"

"Long story," said Loch. "High-risk, high-reward."

"We must finish our business before entertaining new prospects," Icy said politely. "Where would we meet you if we were interested?"

"Ever been to Ros-Uitosef?" Kail asked.

"A few days north of Ros-Sesuf?" Tern said.

"There's a restaurant named Uribin's," Loch said. "They serve the best damn catfish you've ever had."

"Crusted with sweet potatoes," Kail added, "in a cream sauce. We'll see you there two weeks from today."

"Two weeks?" Tern asked. "Heading to a few more cities to recruit?"

"Actually," Loch said with a smile, "we're heading into the woods."

Three

"Jeridan!" came the guard's call, and everyone in the Cleaners' dining hall paused.

People had kept quiet since the escape. Orris was gone, but Tawyer was throwing his weight around, making sure that prisoners weren't going to escape on his watch. People who mouthed off spent a night dangling by a leg-chain.

And some bastards Jeridan had won money from were whispering that Jeridan had helped Loch and Kail and Akus escape. It was true, but they were still bastards for saying so.

"Jeridan! Tawyer wants to see you." The guard smiled.

Jeridan got to his feet slowly. "He say why?"

"Nothing
bad,
Jeridan!" The guard laughed and clapped Jeridan on the shoulder. "Warden Tawyer just wants to talk to you!"

Jeridan filed away the plans he'd secreted in his bunk, the things people could prove he'd done. He'd been planning his story ever since the escape. He was ready.

Nobody in the Cleaners ever saw him again.

"I don't love it," Kail said as they hopped off the wagon and walked the last quarter mile into Woodsedge.

"I'm hurt, Kail."

"There was a fairy on the Thieves' Guild register back in the last town," Kail said. "Reasonable rates, references available—"

"You have to be careful with magical creatures, Kail." Loch looked at Woodsedge as they approached, the wagon slowly pulling ahead of them. It was a new settlement, freshly carved out of the forest, with none of the smoke and smell of an established town.

"That's why they have references, Captain."

"Kail, how'd you end up in my unit?"

"It was either join the scouts or go to jail after the rest of my team threw me to the sheriff, and yes, I see your point, honor among thieves, fine." Kail squinted at a hunting party heading back into town. They were empty handed, clutching weapons and looking back over their shoulders. "And these fine people have found something bad in the woods."

"Ogres." Loch pointed off to scratch marks on the larger trees. "See the territory markers?"

"I did study
some
of the scouting manual." Kail looked up at the spring clouds. "And they'd just be coming out of hibernation. These people are digging themselves right into a bloodbath."

"Looks like." Loch looked at the hunting party again. They had reached the village already, and were yelling excitedly. One of them, a rangy young man who couldn't have been more than eighteen, hung back from the crowd. "And this is where she'll be."

"This fairy you know and trust, even though she isn't on the register."

"Magical creatures have their own motives," Loch said, and smiled. "I know hers. She's here."

"And how do we find her?" Kail asked, scanning the crowd of villagers gathering around the hunting party.

Loch gestured. While the rest of the crowd yelled angrily and drew their weapons, the rangy young man was making his way slowly back into the woods.

"We watch him."

The humans had come, and with them had come axes and fire.

Ululenia stood in the clearing and waited. Around her, light danced, catching the pure white of her snowy flanks. Butterflies circled her shining horn, and then fluttered away when she sent them off with a blessing of peace and the promise of sweet nectar in the bushes nearby.

Axes and fire killed, as swiftly as the hunter's arrow, as surely as the mountain lion's fangs. As surely as an ogre's spiked war staff.

Ululenia waited. Though the spring was still new, flowers shot from the earth and blossomed around her hooves.

But fire was part of the forest. No man brought the thunderstorms whose lightning ignited the forest. And when it finished burning, new growth rose from the ashes of the old.

Ululenia waited, and finally Merigan came.

He saw her, saw her snowy flanks that denied the shadows, her horn that shone like a rainbow before a waterfall, and he dropped his hunting bow and stared.

You
alone can stop the bloodshed, Merigan,
she spoke in his mind. You
alone must lead your people.

He dropped to his knees. "W-why me?"

Because when you hunt in my woods, your thoughts are of food for your family and not death for your target,
Ululenia said, and her horn blazed.
Because when you saw the signs left by the ogres, your thoughts were not of the glory and terror of spilled blood, but asking why the ogres would do this. Because you alone are the spark that will burn clean and let the new growth come.

Merigan flushed and dropped his eyes. "What would you have me do?"

Ululenia told him.

Loch and Kail filed into the village hall. It was filled with a lot of scared people, and the yelling had already started. Villagers scuffed the sawdust on the floor and brandished clubs and knives while a tall, dark-bearded man standing behind a table banged a wooden mallet and called for order.