“It does,” she allowed the tiniest smile in return. “What about Bosh then? Isn’t he a bit young to be running heists? What if he were caught? His family would never forgive you.”
“He doesn’t have any family,” I replied, shrugging. “He wants to find a Jinni who can help him locate his father, who abandoned him in a village when he was a baby. But I think...” I hesitated. Why was I sharing so much with someone who was still a stranger?
She blinked, breaking my gaze. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“That’s alright,” I said. Something made me feel like I could trust her. “I thinkwehave become his family in a lot of ways. He’s been with us for four or five months now, but it feels like he’s been part of the group forever. He doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Oh...” she whispered.
We were quiet for a long moment. I didn’t feel the need to break it.
The door to the roof burst open and Bosh stepped through first, followed by the others. Naveed held a tray of cups filled with tea and he set the tray down. Everyone took a cup.
“I was thinking, maybe now that we have Arie we could do the ‘Dancing Chicken?’” Ryo said without preamble as they all came to sit with us, pulling up chairs.
Arie blinked at the strange name for the con, and I held back a laugh. We’d been planning the heist for weeks now; we already knew every second of how the job would go down tonight. But the men still liked getting a rise out of her.
“I vote we do ‘Parade of Princes,’” Daichi chimed in, grinning, which made Ryo mutter about how he always disagreed with him.
I leaned back and stayed quiet. Let them get this nervous energy out of their system.
“Which one is that again?” Bosh spoke up, “Is that where they line up or the one where we—”
“We stick to the original plan,” Illium interrupted, his deep voice carrying over the racket. He looked to me for confirmation and the others turned my way as well.
I switched the warm tea to one hand so I could lean on the other. “We keep the plan,” I agreed. “We’ve had Ryo in place for almost two weeks now. He knows most of the kitchen maids. Among other things. Now that Arie’s here, I have the perfect role for her.” I’d come up with the idea last night, but hadn’t told any of them yet.
“Me?” she said, biting her lip, which only drew my attention there. “What will I do?”
I mulled over how much I should tell her. Her eyes flashed to my face as if she could sense me holding back. I just popped a sugar cube in my mouth and smiled. “We’ll need you to be our driver.” That’s all she needed to know for now. Keep it simple for her first heist. It wasn’t technically the job I had in mind, but somebody had to drive the wagon. The men glanced at me curiously, but didn’t say anything.
“Do you know how to drive a wagon?” Bosh asked her eagerly.
“Um... no?” Arie was frowning at me.
“She’ll learn,” I said as I took one last sip of tea and stood. “We only have a couple hours left to get ready.” Everyone tried not to tense at that, but the nerves always came into play around this point.
“Naveed and Bosh, it’s time for you to collect the horse and wagon. Illium will finish mixing his concoctions. Ryo, you’ll go ahead of us to the castle and charm your way inside. Take Daichi with you. Teach him the ropes.”
“But he’ll get in the way,” Ryo complained. “You can’t flirt with a woman when someone’s watching. It’s just not right.” He stood too, moving back across the roof.
Daichi bristled, following him. “What’s not ‘right’ is the way you constantly lie and manipulate. Have you ever kept a promise you made to a woman? Hmm?”
“Absolutely!” Ryo huffed. “I phrase my words carefully so there’s never any real lies. It’s an art really. A skill.”
“Teach him this supposed ‘skill’ then,” Illium growled from his corner, still finishing his tea.
“Naveed’s intel says we’ll need two men to lift the bar for the back door,” I explained calmly, interrupting the fight about to break out. “Unless you’ve been lifting tree trunks in your spare time, you’re too weak on your own.”
Ryo grumbled to himself. “C’mon,” he said to Daichi, opening the door. “Let’s go.”
“I’m going to run an errand in town,” I added before they disappeared. “Don’t forget. Right before the dinner hour. You’ll hear the cue.”
“You got it, boss,” Daichi said and Ryo nodded. The door closed behind them.
Our plan had officially begun.
