Chapter 24 #2
‘Do you ever keep your mouth shut, Reinhart?’ Hark grumbled, shoving past her to clap each of the men on the back before dropping into one of the wooden chairs. It snapped Arla out of that spiralling emotion that was too close to jealousy.
She pasted on a smirk, calling forth the swagger she so often flaunted in her own kingdom and began the act of circling the room.
‘Somebody’d better start speaking,’ she said, twisting a blade between her fingers as each of them watched her with morbid curiosity.
‘Is she serious?’ the silver-haired girl spoke, spinning to face Hark with a look of utter disbelief and … hatred for the hurricane that had blown into their lair.
‘I’m afraid so.’ Hark looked exhausted as he ran his fingers through his hair, and it amused Arla to know that he was fully anticipating her attitude and need to control the situation. Too bad he’d chosen to keep this information from her; now she would become intolerable.
‘Good morning, Lady Reinhart.’ She was greeted by a tall, muscular man, with hair the colour of rich chocolate and a soft smile, who stepped forwards from the flames and bowed exaggeratedly.
It was enough to stop her pacing and bring her close enough to the firepit to feel its heat seeping into her skin.
‘I like him,’ she said, tossing her braid over her shoulder and staring directly at Hark.
He only rolled his eyes at her, sighing deeply and pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘I thought you might.’
‘Now, somebody’s going to start explaining to me what’s happening or—’
‘Or what?’ the silver-haired bitch interrupted. Arla’s hands twisted, itching to throw something sharp at her.
‘Or I will cut each one of those jewels out of your ears and shove them down your throat.’ She smiled sweetly, surprised at how easily the words came. She watched the girl’s lip curl, and she did not miss the hand that strayed to the dagger resting on the table.
‘Easy, Kase,’ one of the other men murmured, not yet introduced, and doing an excellent job of not looking Arla in the eyes. Clever man.
‘And you are?’
‘Jaz. And you are upsetting what was a very easy apple cart, Miss Reinhart.’
Oh, this was going to be fun. No wonder they were friends of Hark’s; each of them seemed as self-important as he did.
And none of it was getting her any answers.
She squared her shoulders, rocking forwards on the balls of her feet as she took a deliberate step towards the dark-skinned man and his firm grip on the girl who’d now been identified as Kase.
‘Oh, I think there are going to be quite a few apple carts that are going to find themselves very upset,’ Arla said, her voice lethally quiet.
‘As it stands, I have you down for treason and theft. I can add many more offences to this little … outfit and have you strung up in front of the king before you can even think.’ Her foot swung out, catching the leg of a discarded chair and spinning it behind her to knock the walking stick clutched in a scrawny hand she had noticed in the corner of her eye before its wielder could even think of daring to lift it from the floor and strike her.
A deadly silence fell, and Arla’s eyes flickered between Hark and his four accomplices.
‘Glad to know you weren’t lying, Stappen.’ The man who had bowed to her chuckled, leaning against the wall of the chamber and flashing a grin between her and Hark, who looked positively fed-up with the back and forth already begun between his friends and the assassin he had brought along with him.
‘No, Sebastian, I wasn’t lying. And neither is she,’ he snapped, slamming a hand down on the table.
The group immediately turned to face him and Arla fought the urge to laugh.
Hark so rarely revealed any loss of composure.
Maybe the closeness of the walls and the knowledge that these tunnels could collapse at any moment was getting to him. It certainly was her.
‘This is Arla Reinhart,’ he began, standing up and beginning to pace the room.
‘She is assassin to the King of Hadalyn, and she will sooner kill you than hand you over to him, so I suggest we all start cooperating. The same goes for you.’ He shot Arla a pointed look, and she feigned surprise.
Something had worked him up and it had been enough for him to start lecturing them all on respecting her.
Perhaps he was worried she would turn them in.
She couldn’t deny this little covert operation had her intrigued, but if it weren’t for their clearly successful track record of freeing the slaves, she’d have dragged each and every one of them back to Hadalyn already.
But what if what Hark had said was true? That both Cyrus and Elrod knew what was going on and were actively involved in trading slaves?
Gods, she needed Hark Stappen and his little band of thieves as much as they needed her not to blow this entire job out of the ground.
Hark looked at her directly. ‘This is Kase, Sebastian, Jaz, and Jack – my crew. Under my command, they’ve been rescuing the slaves, though it has admittedly become harder since the kings found out the slaves have been going missing.
What began as smuggling a few people out in the middle of the night is now turning into deadly combat with soldiers.
It’s why Cyrus sent you up here – to neutralise the threat.
Little does he know that the person behind his shipments going missing has been living under his roof all this time. ’
How had she missed all of this? How had Cyrus kept something so …
substantial from her? None of it made any sense.
Why was her king even trading slaves in the first place?
And when had the two kings decided to put aside their differences and work together in such a despicable – not to mention, illegal – trade?
‘What exactly do you expect to happen now? The security on the camp at the northern border is tighter than anything I’ve ever seen, and they are obviously aware that slaves are being stolen – which I will come to in a moment – but what do you think happens now, Stappen?
You surely can’t be planning on extracting more people from a camp as secure as that? ’
‘That’s exactly what we’re planning.’
Gods help her, he wasn’t joking.
‘Right. And where do these slaves go? You set them free and expect them to survive only to be dragged back here in chains?’
‘Don’t be so—’
‘Kase!’ Hark warned, cutting the girl off before she could throw what was surely an insult in Arla’s direction ‘They are … safe.’
‘Excuse me?’ Everything about Hark Stappen was so gods-damned cryptic, and she was sick of it.
‘They are safe, and that’s all you need to know. Right now, we need to focus on getting the rest of them out and figuring out what to tell the kings,’ Hark said, every inch of him the commander of an army, not the Kastonian ambassador who read letters out at court meetings.
‘We have a problem,’ Kase said, green eyes glittering like emeralds.
‘What?’ both Arla and Hark said in unison, and Arla cursed herself for becoming so invested so quickly. She didn’t trust these people, yet somehow it seemed she had been made an accomplice and traitor in more than one kingdom.
‘The winter festival is tonight and it’s the perfect opportunity for Elrod’s soldiers to fill their slave quota. There’ll be people going missing on their way back home to replace the ones we’ve been freeing.’
‘Then we kill them before they have the chance,’ Arla vowed.
There was a beat of silence before Jack spoke. ‘It’s not as easy as that, Arla.’ Her name sounded strange on his tongue. Too … casual. ‘They’ll be undercover, quiet. They’ll keep their plans in hushed tones between themselves. You likely won’t know they’re there until it’s too late.’
‘You forget it’s my job to spy on people,’ she said, her voice filled with a certainty that bolstered the nerve she had felt herself losing on her way down here. ‘It won’t be difficult to discover who’s planning on causing trouble.’
Each of Hark’s crew was staring at her as though she was mad. As if spying was the most preposterous idea anyone had ever suggested.
‘I suppose it could work,’ Jack mused, smiling at Arla as if she’d passed some unknown test. ‘The minute the music starts and the ale flows, their disorganisation and loose tongues will reveal all we need to know—’
‘If we can get close enough to listen, Jack!’ Kase snapped, spinning to face the hunched man, silver braid flying behind her. ‘They’ll sooner cut their tongues out than speak of anything important if they see any of us sniffing around.’
‘Leave that to me,’ Hark began, a smile creeping across his mouth to reveal a dimple tugging the corner of one cheek. She hadn’t noticed it before. ‘I brought you the King’s Assassin, didn’t I?’
‘I think you put too much faith in the King’s Assassin,’ Kase chirped, the venom around Arla’s title a wicked, burning thing.
‘I don’t think you put enough,’ Arla replied.
Yes, it was refreshing to have a female opponent; she had forgotten just how sharp her claws could be.
‘Now, if you don’t mind,’ she continued, turning on her heel and marching for the narrow tunnel by which they had entered.
‘I don’t wish to spend the remainder of my day in this …
pit you’ve chosen as a meeting house. Some of us have work to do.
’ She plunged on into the darkness, not allowing her fear of the tight space to touch the mask she was slipping back into place.
Good.
She didn’t miss the low chuckle as she melted into the tunnel, nor did she miss Kase’s shrill voice spewing a string of curses after her. And though she was now too far away to make out what was being said in the chamber, she didn’t think she missed the ‘Told you’ that came from Sebastian’s lips.