Thief: A Fantasy Hardboiled (Ratcatchers Book 2) (33 page)

There was a knock at the door to Heden’s room.

Aimsley looked sharply at Heden. “You expecting company?” he asked.

Heden frowned. “No,” he said and got up.

He walked to the door, grabbed the doorknob, and looked back at the table.

The polder had disappeared. In spite of there being no obvious place to hide.

Heden nodded and opened the door.

A bottle of wine was thrust under Heden’s nose. He looked at it, looked at the man offering it, and frowned.

“It was going to be flowers,” Gwiddon said, “but I thought people might talk.”

Heden held the door open and stared at his former friend.

“Are you going to let me in?” Gwiddon oiled, “or shall we do our business in the common room?”

“Ugh,” Heden said, and retreated inside, leaving the door open. Gwiddon followed, closing the door behind him.

He took Aimsley’s seat and watched Heden put the bottle away.

“What was your polder doing,” Gwiddon asked, “visiting you in the church?”

“He’s not my polder,” Heden said.

“Uh-huh. Are the two of you moving against the count?”

“Are you asking on behalf on the king, or the bishop?” Heden asked.

“The king,” Gwiddon answered plainly, as though Heden’s question hadn’t been filled with venom. “I seem to be doing a lot of work for him these last few days,” he added casually. “Are you moving against the count?” Gwiddon asked again, less casually.

“Last week,” Heden said, cleaning up the uneaten meal, “I was almost killed on High Bridge.”

“I know,” Gwiddon said. “We weren’t having you followed then, I apologize. We are now.”

“’We’ being the king’s spy network, or the Darkened Moon?”

Gwiddon yawned and stretched his legs out, leaning back in the chair. “The Moon doesn’t have any interest in following priests. Though it would have been nice if you’d taken care of Garth for us.”

Again, Heden reeled at the mind of a man able to keep all this in his head at once.

“Useful to be the head of a spy network and a thieves’ guild,” Heden said.

“And I double for the church,” Gwiddon pointed out, a little challenge in his voice.

“I hadn’t forgotten,” Heden sneered.

“I’ve noticed. Why’d you let me in, if you’re just going to be peevish at me?”

“I need a favor,” Heden said.

“I thought as much.”

Heden explained his plan to Gwiddon. Gwiddon’s eyebrows slowly climbed up his forehead as he listened.

“Somewhere in this city there’s a plan of the citadel,” Heden finished. “I need it.”

Gwiddon blinked.

“Are you joking? No, are you
mad?
”

“You owe me, Gwidd.”

“Not that much I don’t.”

“Yes you do. Because the polder and I are going to do your dirty work. We’re about to go into the ragman’s fortress, ferret out the count, kill him, arrest Garth, and bring their whole operation down, and you walk away clean. Everyone gets what they want. You got a better plan?”

“By Cavall,” Gwiddon said. “You’re serious.”

“Don’t say that,” Heden snapped. “Say what you’re thinking. I’m right. It will work.”

Gwiddon’s eyes were unfocused.

“It might.”

“Can you get me that plan?”

“I don’t…I’m not sure…,” Gwiddon was, for once, at a loss for words.

“Gwiddon,” Heden said, and the master spy looked up at his friend. “Vanora is in there. You remember her, right? The little girl you sent me to kill before sending me into the wode to slaughter those knights?” His fists were clenched.

“Get
me that plan,” he barked.

A moment of silence. Gwiddon stood, looked down at Heden.

“Get more friends,” he said, and walked out, sweeping his cape along after him like a dancer.

“You’ve gone fucking mental,” Teagan said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall of the jail.

“You, me, the polder,” Heden said. He was sitting on a cot in an empty jail cell. “We get in, a priest and a watchman, no problem, we find the count, we down him, we get out. Problem solved.”

“Mental,” Teagan said shaking his head.

“We save the city.”

“City can take care of itself,” the watchman said.  “Count’ll be underking soon, everything goes back to normal.”

“Not if the Moon holds out,” Heden said.

“Which it won’t. How can it? Army of deathless. Come on,” he said, asking Heden to be reasonable.

“How many people die between now and then? How many innocent people?”

Teagan took a deep breath, made an “ugh” sound and shook his head.

“You sure about this polder?” he asked.

Heden frowned. “Sort of. We’ll see.”

“We’ll see? You got some balls. The count and Garth against you, me, and ‘we’ll see.’”

Heden looked at the ground. “There’s more,” he said.

“Oh of course there is,” Teagan said.

“There’s a star elf somewhere inside the citadel.”

“A what now?”

Heden explained.

“Cyrvis’ thorny prick. You got a flattering idea of fair odds, I’ll give you that.”

“You’re the best swordsman I’ve ever seen,” Heden said.

Teagan looked down at the priest sitting on the cot. “Garth,” he said.

“Garth’s good, but he has tricks. He relies on tricks. Shadow magic. Not you. You took out three yellow scarves in the Rose in the time it takes to blink, and me blinded and poisoned.”

“You’re not doing a good job convincing me of your own abilities here.”

Heden leaned his elbows on his knees, looked at the floor.

“If you’re telling me no,” Heden said, and then looked up at the man, “I understand. But I need an answer.”

Teagan thought for a moment. Sighed.

“We need to ask Domnal,” Teagan said.

“No we don’t.”

“You think I’m going with you into the ragman’s fortress without my boss knowing?” Teagan asked incredulously.

“You don’t want to do it, I can’t make you, but either way taking it to Dom is a mistake.”

Teagan pushed himself away from the wall of the jail cell. “We don’t know each other well enough for you to call me a coward.”

“You’re not a coward, you just need to exercise your judgment,” Heden said. “Think about what happens if you ask Dom…,”

“I’m thinking about what happens to me if I don’t. I’ll be looking for another job, and there’s not a lot of steady work for people with
our
background,” he said, looking Heden up and down.

“It’s a mistake,” Heden stressed.

“This whole thing is a mistake,” Teagan said. “I’m hoping Dom will talk some sense into you.”

Gwiddon looked at the two maps, compared them.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked.

The young man who’d brought him the maps of the citadel nodded. “There isn’t a master map,” he said. “You know what the castellans’ like.”

“He’s more paranoid than I am,” Gwiddon said, looking closely at the diagrams.

“But this is close enough,” the novice spy said. He explained the workings of the citadel.

“You bring the keys?” Gwiddon asked.

The young man produced two of the sigils that permitted unrestricted movement with the castellan’s fortress.

Gwiddon thanked him. “Any danger this will get you in trouble?”

“Long as you get those back to me in the next…48 hours? Everyone’s busy dealing with the count. No one’s going to notice two keys missing.”

Gwiddon took a deep breath, rolled the maps up.

“When I told you about this, you volunteered. Before I could ask you. Why?”

“I’m the only man you’ve got inside the citadel,” the young spy said, and then shrugged. “And I want to see the priest succeed,” he admitted. “The wode, the knights, the girl, the abbot? He needs some luck. I want to give it to him.”

Gwiddon smiled. “Takes a rare man to spy for the king,” he said. “And a first-rate watchmen to boot.”

“Yeah well,” Aiden half-smiled back. “Tell that to Fandrick and Rayk.”

“Tell him,” Teagan said.

Heden threw the watchman a look, then turned to his friend, the captain.

“I need someone to help me infiltrate the citadel,” he said.

“Infil…what?” Domnal said. Sitting at his desk in his office, he looked from one man to the other, priest to watchman, for an explanation.

“Sneak in without anyone knowing.”

“You want to break
in
to the ragman’s fortress? Are you mental?”

“See?” Teagan said.

“Heden what the fuck are you on about?”

Heden explained his plan again.

“Cavall’s warty nutsack,” Dom said, dragging his fingers through his hair. “You want to get killed that’s your own business, but you’re not taking mine. Anyone gets caught with you, they’re through.”

“I can’t do it alone,” Heden said.

“You can’t do it at all!” Domnal said. “What happened to you out on High Bridge? You go funny in the head? They let you out of hospital too quick, you need to get back right away.”

“Dom,” Heden said, and the watch captain calmed down a little, tried to listen. “Dom, the count is in there. The citadel protects him. If the castellan finds out, he’ll arrest him and by the time it’s before the magistrate the count’s agents will be running the city.”

Domnal’s brow furrowed.

“Now, I can get in there, Teagan can get in there. We can take care of the count. You got another idea, I’d like to hear it.”

Domnal didn’t say anything, just stared at his desk, his palms flat on them as though he were trying to stop the desk from flying away.

“The moons are turning, Dom,” Heden said. “If you’re saying no, I have to find someone else….”

“I’m not sayin’ no,” Dom said shaking his head, not looking at either of them. “I’m saying I can’t send my man when I should go.”

“You?” Heden asked.

“Well why you got to say it like that?” Domnal looked at him, his face pained. “I’m captain ain’t I?”

Teagan shook his head, once. “Dangerous,” he said.

“Of course it’s fucking dangerous!” Domnal said. “It’s fucking mental is what it is! But what do you think happens to you, ragman comes in and finds you leading this one,” he said, waving a hand at Heden, “skulking around in his fortress, murdering people.”

Neither Heden nor Teagan had any answer for this.

“Has to be me, for fuck’s sake. If it’s me, it’s the law. If it’s you lot, it’s a bunch of ratcatchers going to war with the ragman.”

“It’s not about him,” Heden started.

“Fuck you it’s not,” Dom said. “You don’t get to say how he’s gonna see it. He puts everyone in two buckets. Us, them. That’s it. You break into his palace under his nose murder his prisoner, you’re one of
them
. And this one too,” he said, nodding to Teagan.

“You, stay,” he ordered Teagan

“I have to go,” Teagan said.

“Balls you do,” Dom said. “You’re the only one in all this gonna have a job when this is over. You fucking stay here.”

“I’m sorry,” Heden said. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No you should not have!”

“Let’s forget it,” Heden said. “I’ll figure something else.”

“Well I got no choice now,” Dom said. “Either I go with you to the citadel or I go straight to the ragman. I’m a fucking copper, ain’t I? I can’t let you go off and murder people. Only chance we got now is your plan works and maybe ragman lets me keep my job after. Fuck.”

No one in Dom’s office spoke. Dom got up, grabbed his keys.

“Alright, come on,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

He stuck his face out at Teagan as he walked by. “And YOU, stay HERE. Fuck.”

Heden gave Teagan a foul look. The tall, lanky watchman frowned, but said nothing.

“Twelve more dead on Warren Road,” Gwiddon said. “Everyone at the docks, the city gates, all the stables, farriers, ostlers, Count’s running them all now.”

“All the transport,” Heden said. “Smart.”

“No one ever said he was stupid.”

Gwiddon held up the maps. “Time for you to get to work,” the spymaster said.

They were in Heden’s basement. They unrolled the maps.

“It’s like a warren down there. All twisting stone, darkness. Designed to get lost in.” Gwiddon put the two maps next to each other. “This is level nine, and level ten,” Gwiddon said. “We did some measuring, compared this with a duplicate set of plans. There’s a whole section here,” he pointed to the level nine map. “Six cells, extending down a level, completely isolated from the other two floors. There’s one way in, a triple-hinged baffled door set back into this wall. No one can see who goes in or out.”

“I feel like a campaigner again,” Heden said, listening to the elaborate defenses of the dungeon.

“But that’s not the interesting part,” Gwiddon said.

“I’m listening.”

“There’s a special guard on that entrance. Castellan selects him by lottery. The guard who gets the prize is told anonymously, double-blind. No one knows who it is except the guard himself.”

“So you can’t bribe your way to him. No one knows who he is.”

“Correct. It also means, if you figure out who it is, and replace him, no one knows. We figure Garth ferreted out which one the guard was. It’s his style.”

“Count’s using the castellan’s own plan against him,” Heden said.

Gwiddon looked at the maps and nodded. “You’ve got to admire the count’s ingenuity,” he said. “It’s about as good a plan as I’d have devised.”

Heden looked at him and smirked. Then his smile dropped. “Gwidd,” he said.

“Yes,” Gwiddon said rolling the maps up. There was a note of anticipation in his voice.

“You didn’t figure all this out in the last six hours.”

“No,” he agreed, and handed Heden the maps.

“You’ve got a man inside the citadel.”

“Yes,” Gwiddon said sharply. “And I’d like to keep him there, so if you would be so kind as to not get found out, I’d be grateful. Castellan has access to the
Aduro Vera
I’d hate to see the wreckage from this if you get put under.”

“Is this man spying for the king, the church, or the Moon?” Heden asked.

“You’ll need these,” Gwiddon said, ignoring him while he extracted two of the silver amulets that allowed the special watchmen to come and go from the citadel. It wasn’t the only security, but it was among the hardest to forge.

“The two of you wear these, you’ll be able to get down to level nine without anyone stopping you.”

Heden stared at Gwiddon waiting for a reply. When there was none, he scowled and snatched the amulets from him.

“There’s three of us,” Heden said. “The polder and a watch captain.”

Gwiddon looked at the amulets. “I can get another one, but it’ll take a day.”

Heden shook his head. “No need. The polder’s not coming out.”

Gwiddon stared at Heden.

“I thought you were working together,” Gwiddon said.

“We are.”

“I thought you trusted him.”

“I do, for the moment.”

“So how come…,” Gwiddon started. Heden gave him a look.

“He killed the abbot,” Heden said. Gwiddon took a sharp breath.

“I thought Garth…,”

Heden shook his head, once. “Nope. The polder did it. Killed the abbot and got the girl and gave them to the count. That’s why Brick is still in business. The polder fixed it.”

“And now you’re working with him. How is that?” Gwiddon was baffled.

“I forgave him.”

“Black gods. Heden that man was a father to you.”

“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Heden explained. “He was out of his head with drink and killing. He doesn’t even remember it.”

Gwiddon was clearly confused. “So if you forgave him, if he’s helping you….”

“The one’s got nothing to do with the other,” Heden said without inflection. “He killed the abbot, he’s going down for that. Me forgiving him is beside the point.”

Gwiddon said nothing for a few moments.

“You might be the hardest man I know,” Gwiddon said. Heden said nothing.

Gwiddon held out his hand. “Maybe that’s why I think this ridiculous plan is going to work.”

Heden took his hand, and they shook. Friends again? Neither could be sure.

“Good luck Heden.”

“Thanks, Gwidd.”