Chapter 14
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.”
I reach up to pat his cheek. “I’m sure you’ll get plenty of chances to end loads of them in the future.”
Another choked laugh escapes him, and then he’s pulling me to him, claiming a kiss so fierce I wish it didn’t have to end.
When he eases back just an inch, his low voice grazes my face with his breath. “The only reason I’ve made it this far is because I had you with me. Don’t you ever let a single one of those fools Tinom pulled together make you feel you haven’t earned their loyalty. You know you have all of mine.”
I bob up on my toes to hug him, even though his words can’t quite penetrate the uneasiness simmering in my gut. “And you have mine. Let’s take back some more of what the scourge sorcerers have stolen from us.”
We rejoin Rheave in the hall and slip down the stairs, donning our concealment charms as we go. Rheave sets his hand lightly on my back, and I hook my fingers around Stavros’s elbow so that we can still see each other fully.
We step out into the night. The windows around us have gone dark, the blackness only broken by the glow of the intermittent lanterns along the street.
Somewhere around a corner, a drunken laugh peals out, but no one’s wandering along this road at the moment.
We hurry across the cobblestones, take a turn, and come up on the grate Alek indicated. It’s wide enough that even Stavros should be able to fit without having to squeeze, and only secured by a single, regular padlock.
At the rap of determined footsteps, we pause. A middle-aged man in a thick cloak strides past us down the middle of the street—maybe an Order member on patrol, or maybe an ordinary citizen with some urgent midnight business.
My heart thuds faster with a jolt of my magic coming to attention, but he doesn’t glance our way. I don’t sense any sorcery emanating from him.
As soon as he’s out of view, Rheave kneels by the grate. With a faint crackle, the padlock falls aside.
Stavros hefts up the grate and motions for us to descend.
I find the rungs of a ladder just beyond the opening. Gripping them, I clamber down as quickly as I can manage, wrinkling my nose at the damp grit that sticks to my fingers.
To my relief, the passage below isn’t quite as awful as I imagined. It rained most of last night, which must have swept the worst of the collected refuse away. Still, the stink of urine and feces turns my stomach.
The men climb down behind me, Stavros shutting the grate in his wake so it’s not obvious someone made use of it. More than a few steps beyond the faint glow that seeps through the bars, the blackness is so complete there’s no need for our charms.
“Stay close to the walls,” I murmur, and start forward in the direction Alek indicated.
The sewage flows turgidly along in the wide channel at our right. I set my feet carefully to ensure there’s no chance of slipping into that noxious river.
After a few minutes, Rheave lets out a gagging sound. “Physical bodies do produce some unpleasant substances.”
I guess spirit creatures don’t shit. I glance back in the direction of his voice with an arch of my eyebrow. “That’s the price we pay for getting to eat.”
The daimon-man grunts in acknowledgment. “I suppose that is a fair trade-off.”
If I had a list of places I’d least like to spend time with any of my lovers, this sewer would be right near the top. But as we venture on through the putrid darkness, my spirits buoy me beyond the stench.
Here I am, in the middle of a scheme that all four of my men have set in motion with me. One that doesn’t require any of my unpredictable magic.
Like the old days… except now I’m no longer alone.
In this moment, it doesn’t matter what magic fidgets in my chest or what people like Tinom or the Black Talons’ bosses think of it. I can make a difference without being seen as any kind of monster.
We mark off the turnings with our hands against the stone wall, noting each passage until it’s time to turn. Thankfully the rickety maintenance bridges at the intersections allow us to cross without needing to risk a jump.
Stavros ends up taking the lead, the thud of his boots guiding me onward. Rheave stays close enough to regularly caress my back through my cloak, as if he needs periodic confirmations of my presence to reassure himself.
When we reach our destination, Stavros climbs up to the grate and peers at the street beyond as well as he can from the low vantage point. He swings to the side and motions for Rheave to join him. “I don’t see or hear anyone nearby right now. Give that lock a zap.”
In less than a minute, we’re scrambling out into the fresh if chilly air above. Stavros lowers the grate back into place, and we hustle down the quiet street toward the guardhouse.