Eban sees my panic. “Don’t worry, we’re almost there,” he says, offering me a hand. I take it, and he pulls me onto a narrow ledge high above the Sleeve where an abandoned cottage overlooks the cliffs.
“It’s not much, but it’s dark and quiet and no one will find us here,” he says as we step inside.
The cottage is empty aside from a few stools and some discarded glass bottles. The floor isn’t clean, exactly, but it has been swept recently. A makeshift ladder leads to a hole in the ceiling.
Eban walks through the cottage, then starts up the ladder. Vergel collapses on the floor with his arms spread. We’re exhausted, but we’re free, and we just made the best score of our lives, despite having to leave most of it behind.
I sit on the floor and reach into my pocket to feel how many coins and jewels remain. I don’t want to count them in front of my new acquaintances.Imagine what else we left behind there.But I can’t allow myself to ponder that; I’m alive, and that’s the most important part.
“That was close,” Vergel says, sitting up. “I thought we were goners, for sure.” He laughs. “I can’t believe we got away.”
“Me either,” I agree. I twist my hair back into a bun. I survived yet another close call. I’m grateful, and lucky. I try not to wonder how long that luck will last.
CHAPTER TENGIN
Eban turns to me. “So, how did you find out about this score?”
I lean against the wall, exhausted. Too much has happened in such a short time; it seems surreal that just this morning I had woken up in a bed in a palace, looking forward to morning meal. “I don’t know… Aris just told me he had a gig… but not who hired him… although I remember there was this guy talking to him, right before we left.”
“What did he look like?” Eban asks, leaning forward.
I squint, trying to recall. “Straw hat… tattered brown clothes…”
“Looked like a beggar?” he asks.
“Yeah, except he had this…”
“Silver ring,” we both say at the same time.
Eban laughs. “Fantastic. This whole thing gets better and better. We were both set up.”
“Obviously.”
“But what I don’t know is if we were supposed to steal from you or you were supposed to steal from us,” he muses.
I shrug.
“Actually, I think we were both supposed to take care of each other,” Eban says at last. “We were supposed to kill the thieves, and then each other, and if we didn’t, then the Blackcoats were supposed to take care of all of us. None of us were supposed to survive tonight.” He pushes away from the wall and begins pacing. “We’re going to have to take care of him. Zagar, I mean. That’s his name—the guy who set us up.” His hand rests lightly on the hilt of his sword.
Vergel screws up his face. “He doesn’t matter. Zagar’s nobody. An opportunist, like everyone else.”
“If the Blackcoats find him, we’re dead,” Eban says to Vergel. “So we’ve got to get to him first.”
“He knows what wealllook like,” I realize aloud. “And he’ll know it was me for sure when word spreads about Aris being killed. He saw me tonight. He’ll know the three of us are alive.”
Eban nods. “She’s right. When people find out that your mentor—Aris, was it?—that his body was found next to Guild thieves, Zagar, our mutualfriend”—he says the word sarcastically—“will know who’s responsible, and will know for sure we got away with at least some of the treasure. He’ll want his cut, and then it’s likely he’ll double-dip as well.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. I sit up straighter. “If he gets his cut, won’t he leave us alone?”
Eban shrugs. “Maybe, but unlikely. Both the Guild and the Blackcoats will be offering rewards, whether for us directly or for information leading to us. That’s all this grifter does, sell information. Zagar doesn’t do any of the work. He doesn’t take on any of the risks. He’ll be more than willing to sell us out. In fact, that was probably his game all along.”
I know he’s right. That’s how it works in the Sleeve. Betrayal is currency. The only kind most people have to trade.
“So we pay him first. We pay him more than they’re offering,” Vergel suggests.
Eban shakes his head. “That’s not enough. Why would that stop him from wanting more? He’ll take his cut from us and then go straight to them afterward.”
We’re all quiet for a second.
