“Then we’re finished?”
“We are.”
Ayana looked a little disappointed. “Why tomorrow?”
“Because I need you all to not tell anyone until then.”
“How will you know if we told anyone or not?”
“Because if you do tell anyone, I’ll be dead before the sun comes up tomorrow.”
He couldn’t help feeling a little disgusted with himself for saying this, since it was a form of threat, an attempt to manipulate the children using the prospect of being responsible for his death. Ayana and the children had done well so far, and there was no sign of them having ever talked to anyone about him. But he needed to make sure this continued.
Ayana was solemn. “All right. We won’t tell anyone. And you won’t die.”
Cain quoted a Bachrian proverb: “Silence and care catch lions.”
Ayana made a big smile and replied, “While loose lips and inattention lose buffaloes.”
He dismissed them, and stood up from the crate. He took off his spectacles and put them away in their case again, and left the alleyway.
Cain went to the shop where he’d purchased the new clothes and pack for Arienne twenty days ago. He needed supplies of his own now. Cain knew the shop clerk had leaked his whereabouts to the agents after his last visit, but either he did not recognize Cain today or he simply did not understand the magnitude of what he had done to him. The man only smiled warmly and said “Your good benefit!” about the hooks and ropes he recommended to Cain.
Gladdis’s house had only two entrances: the front and the back. Both doors had guards. But there was a possible point of entry in the small gap between a toolshed and the outer wall. He couldhide in the gap and cross the unlit yard to approach the side of the main building. Ayana had told him about it when she’d climbed to the top of a bell tower to peer into the property. The wall was high. It required ropes and hooks to scale, but thankfully it was by an alley that rarely saw passersby. If he went over that part of the wall quickly and silently, he would land behind the shed without being noticed.
As it was the season for the last of the year’s Dalosian olive oil to come in, the docks were busy day and night and the patrollers were mostly concentrated near the off-loading areas. As long as he was dressed like a dockworker, it would attract no suspicion to be holding a sack full of equipment.
It wasn’t as if he had never broken into a home in the middle of the night before. Before Fienna got him the job at the oil shop, Cain had committed almost every crime a child could possibly commit. He had also been lighter and faster than other children, which allowed him to become adept at breaking into homes on the second floor. Like Ayana, he had also done surveillance jobs for adult burglars. But all that was years ago. Could he scale this wall without getting caught? If the silent man Safani was inside, he could be watching this very gap on the other side for all Cain knew. Or the ex-legionary from the dark alley that night. Sneaking in was one thing, but he had never learned how to fight properly. There were so many ways this could go wrong, even after so many days of preparation.
But no one was there to do it for him. For Fienna…
Later that night, Cain approached the alleyway next to Gladdis’s house. He was dressed in dockworker’s clothes, with his new black coat over them to guard against the cold. On the limewashedouter wall, right at the bottom edge, was a mark Ayana had left with her sandal. This was where the shed would be when he climbed over the wall. Not even Ayana could determine what the security situation was like inside the main building itself, but crawling into a window should have the least chance of being discovered. No one would leave a window open in this cold, but he had a crowbar in his sack that, properly used, could quietly dismantle windows, in case it was not possible to simply open them.
He stuck a lead panel on the base of the streetlamp in the alley. The light blinked for a bit before going dark completely. Days of reconnaissance had established that this was a common enough occurrence in this part of the city.
He tied his sack to his shoulder and threw the grappling hook over the wall, which was about three times his height. It lodged firmly in the iron spikes on top. The clang of the hook was louder than he’d expected; he looked around him one more time and adjusted his spectacles so that they were secure on his face. He climbed the rope, almost bounding up the wall. At the top, he loosened the hook, and lowered himself over the side of the wall until he was hanging with his arms fully extended. He let go and landed on his feet against the dark ground. It was soft earth and weeds; he staggered a little, having expected a firmer surface.
The shed smelled of rot from its damp planks, thanks to the warmer weather melting the snow. Careful not to make any sound, he walked sideways through the gap. The yard was quiet. The three-story main building had no open windows, as expected. There was almost no light seeping from the windows on the upper floors. A lamp shone by the front door. From there, the guards’ shadows reached almost to Cain’s feet, stretching toward him like giants inthe sliver of light. He could see at least two of them standing at the front door. There could be more patrolling the grounds.
Cain skittered across the yard until he was hugging the side wall of the house. He clenched and unclenched his freezing hands a few times to get his blood circulating, then skillfully climbed up the side of the house. Decorative divots in the brick wall served conveniently as hand- and footholds; with the high outer wall and guards, intruders weren’t expected to make it this far.
As he climbed, he thought over what he might encounter in a moment’s time. In a three-story house, the master bedroom was typically on the second floor. If the woman Ayana had seen that day was indeed Gladdis, that was where she would be at this hour.
He steadied himself against the wall, holding on to the windowsills. A gap in the drapes of one of the windows allowed him a glimpse into a corridor, though it was too dark to properly see anything. But that darkness also meant there was likely no one in this hallway. He pulled the crowbar from the sack on his back and carefully wedged it between the window and window frame. There were no bolts. Only a small creak announced his success.
Cain parted the curtains and slipped into the house.
21ARIENNE
Arienne felt a chill as she looked down at the book. There was a subtitle on the cover, its gilt peeled off but the words still legible, revealing the full title.The Sorcerer of Mersia: The Grim King’s Fall.The prospect of Eldred’s memories leaking into her own made her skin crawl.
The book in her hand looked older than it had in the room of her mind. Arienne was exhausted from all that had happened since spotting the inquisitors that morning at breakfast, but her curiosity revived her. She had to know what this book was. As she carefully opened it, Eldred spoke with irritation in his voice.
“Where did you get that?”
His tone was different than she’d ever heard it. He almost sounded appalled.
“I brought it from the room,” she said, her voice casual, though in truth she did not know how she’d been able to take the bookfrom the room. The thought had simply occurred to her that she could, and she had done it.
