AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Understanding flows through that final sensation with the usual certainty of my gift. What would make him happiest is for me to believe him and give him a chance to work alongside me. He wants to take action, to prove himself.
The headache from repeated use of my magic jabs deeper through my mind, but a sense of triumphant relief rises up all the same.
I can bring this man back to the rightful queen. I can show him how to overturn the villains he once worked with.
I hold out my hand. “How would you like the chance to not just avoid your mistakes but turn them around?”
Fourteen
Ivy
As he studies the sketched diagrams one of Garom’s people passed on to us, Alek rubs his hands like he’s about to dig into his favorite meal. I can’t help smiling at the scholar’s enthusiasm, despite the dangerous mission ahead of us.
It reminds me of way back in my early days at the royal college, when he and I worked together to sneak into the college library’s accounting room so I could steal Ster. Torstem’s financial records. I never would have guessed during our initial meeting that Alek would be the first to join me in a criminal scheme.
But he does love putting his mind to a problem, no matter how legally questionable.
Now, he taps one point on the map where it’s spread on the dining table. “Here’s the access spot closest to this building. You enter there and follow this path…” He draws his finger across the passages marked like a diagram laid over the city streets. “Straight ahead until the third tunnel on the left, then the second on the right, then the first turn to the left. There’s another access spot a short distance down that one. It’ll let you out just a block from the guardhouse.”
Stavros studies the map with a tick of his head to clear his vision. “Are you sure we can open up those access spots without significant difficulty?”
Alek nods. “A jolt of Rheave’s magic should melt off the lock. The openings are covered by a simple grate that’s heavy but not very intensively secured.” The scholar glances up at us with an apologetic wince. “Most people aren’t eager to go down into the sewer system.”
I have to snort. “I don’t think ‘eager’ is the right word in our situation either. At least it’ll get us through the city without having to pass by any scourge sorcerers, as long as we don’t need to go to the outer wards.”
The underground system of drains and channels was built centuries ago before the city had expanded quite so far. The tunnels only extend beneath the inner wards and partway through the middle wards.
But we need the extra subterfuge where we can get it. The new ally Casimir brought into the fold yesterday, an apparent defector from the Order of the Wild, told us that Lothar has assigned more of his followers to patrol the city streets in search of Petra’s allies. A few among them have talents for sensing magic, others for seeking out targets.
If we pass too close to either, even Tinom’s concealment charms won’t keep us hidden.
Stavros straightens up. “If the sewers are our best option, then into the sewers it is. It’s late enough. Let’s get to work.”
Rheave’s eyes flash with a light that actually could be called eager. “I’m ready!”
I give him a teasing nudge as we head for the door. “You won’t be so excited once we’re down in the stench. I just need to get my cloak.”
I expect to simply duck into the bedroom to grab the swath of dark fabric, but Stavros follows behind me. When I tug the cloak over my shoulders, he steps in to fasten it for me.
I hardly need the help, but I release the clasp to his deft grip, his prosthetic managing to hold one side in place while his fingers manipulate the other. His massive frame looms over me, the once intimidating presence now nothing but comforting.
Except I’m not sure why he’s here.
A quiver of doubt pricks at the base of my throat. I keep my voice light. “Giving me a closer look to make sure I’m up to the job?”
Stavros sputters a guffaw. “I have no doubt that you are, Lady Thief. I just—I needed a moment away from the others. If you don’t mind the intrusion.”
His own tone is casual, but not quite enough to disguise a slightly ragged edge that creeps into it. When he lowers his hands, I grasp them between us, both the one of flesh and the one of metal. “Are you all right?”
He gives his head a brief twitch to meet my gaze a little longer before his eyes go distant. A sigh tumbles out of him. “I will be. It’s ridiculous. I’ve felt like a wolf in a cage, cooped up in here, not being able to risk participating in most of the missions we’ve been carrying out—and now that I have the chance…”
I stroke my thumb over the side of his knuckles. “What?”
His mouth pulls into a grimace. “A lot of the men and women killed or taken captive from that guardhouse will have been people I trained with. People I once gave orders to. People who’ve counted on me one way or another. I can barely wrap my head around how many lives the Order of the Wild has destroyed in a matter of weeks, and we’re stuck picking off pockets of strength bit by bit. It doesn’t feel like enough.”
I offer him a tight smile, my chest constricting around my heart. “It doesn’t to me either. But we’ve got to build up to bigger things, right? The more the scourge sorcerers falter, the more support for Petra can grow.”
Stavros’s answering smile slants at a self-deprecating angle. “I know that. It’s just harder to accept it when every part of me is screaming to end them all now.”
