The girl is still gazing at the bottle she’s holding with awe.
“Can someone please tell me what’s happening here?” Vergel asks. He’s standing with his arms crossed, impatient.
I hold the glowing bottle up to show him. “Zagar didn’t lie. This is the score of a lifetime,” I tell him. Meanwhile, the city’s alarm continues to blare. Trumpets and the clatter of hooves in the dark.
For Ophir, these relics hold immeasurable worth. The power that once made Ophir float on the sea rests in these relics. Not only are Vergel and I about to be wealthy beyond our wildest dreams, but we’ve found a power that could change everything in Lacon forever. That could change the fortunes of our people.
“The voice inside the bottle says they come from the floating city,” the girl says, her voice full of wonder.
Vergel peers inside the barrel. “Now what?” he asks. Inherent in his question is also what he doesn’t say:What do we do with the girl?
“We’re splitting it up, like I said,” I reiterate. It goes against my immediate reflexes—to take it all, the girl be damned—but I’ve already made a promise to her, and she’s an Ophir, and a street thief to boot.
“As weagreed,” the girl says.
“I don’t remember you agreeing to that,” I say mildly.
She snorts.
I look inside the barrel again. Aside from the glowing bottles, there are piles of gems and jewels—emeralds the size of goose eggs, rubies, sapphires, and pearls lying on a bed of shiny gold and silver coins. There are so many that I can’t even begin to fathom their worth.
A strange look passes over the girl’s face. She slides the glass bottle into her pocket. Hmm. I’m not sure I said I didn’t want that one.
Then she gestures to one of the fallen men and curses.
I follow where she points. The dead thief’s shirt is raised, exposing a tattoo on his forearm. My heart skips a beat when I see it: the symbol every common thief in Ophir fears. It is simple enough, a circle split in two by a line, symbolizing the sword and the coin.
The mark of the Thieves’ Guild.
She looks at me, alarmed.
My heart sinks. We all know what this means. I’d assumed we were robbing another independent operation like ours. Thieves who wouldn’t be missed. Street rats, slumdogs, no one anyone cares about. Instead, we’d robbed—and worse,killed—Guild thieves from Lacon.Licensedthieves. Legal thieves with the power and backing of the Great Houses. Godsdamnit all, this is against all the rules of the kingdom. If we get caught, we’d all be executed on the spot.
We’ve gotta get out of here. Now.
CHAPTER EIGHTGIN
The three of us stare at each other, wide-eyed at the Guild mark on the dead man’s arm. I’m growing frantic, though I try not to reveal that to the other two Ophir thieves. They’ll sense my weakness and pounce on it. Exactly what they’re waiting for. Why are they even keeping me alive?
My luck keeps getting worse and worse. I should’ve followed my instincts—I knew this was a bad idea when Aris offered me the job. I should have taken my chances on the streets instead of returning to night work.Why did I go back?A foolish question and a pointless one—I know why, I was desperate. What’s done is done.
“We’ve got to hide them!” I say, motioning to the dead men. The streets will be teeming with Blackcoats any minute.
“We don’t have time to conceal the bodiesandtake the loot,” the tall one named Eban says, as if he knows exactly what’s going through my mind. And the way he looks at me, like he sees right through me, past the façade I try so hard to project, intrigues me and makes me uncomfortable at the same time.
“Then we should only take the loot,” says the younger one, Vergel, his voice urgent. “Forget the bodies. They’ll be found no matter what we do with them. Let’s go.”
“Hiding them buys us some time,” I insist.
“Not necessarily.” Eban crouches next to one of the Guild thieves and begins checking his pockets. “Remember what Zagar told us? That they stole all this from House Dominant.” He stands up, empty-handed. “In which case, they broke the pact.”
It’s forbidden for Guild thieves to target the high houses, as every thief—licensed or not—well knows. They’d face swift punishment if they did. Which was exactly why Aris wanted nothing to do with them, never joined the Guild. He’d always said he’d rather rob the wealthy than those who struggled alongside him. But he also knows better (or knew better, I realize with a pang) than to rob a Guild thief directly—like I just did, however unintentionally.
“They were doing an illegal job,” I say quietly. “Maybe the Guild won’t be interested in avenging them.” I look at the two strangers hopefully, urging them to agree. “Maybe?”
Eban and Vergel exchange an anxious glance. They don’t agree. We all know we’ve stumbled onto somethingfarabove our station. Whatever this is, now the three of us are involved with it, too. We’ll be accused of both conspiring with the Guild thievesandmurdering them. And even if the Blackcoats don’t get a hold of us, the Guild will. It’s an easy tale to spin: We all conspired together, then turned on the Guild thieves and killed them to take all the bounty for ourselves. We’ll all hang within days, if not earlier.
I feel a lump in my throat and swallow hard. All roads lead to the gallows. I wonder how many times I’ll be able to evade that fate before it finally catches up to me. Perhaps it already has.
