The Dragon Rogues, page 18
“Sober yourself up.”
“Why?”
“So that you can do what we need you to.”
“No,” Heziah said. “All you want is for me to break these enchantments. That’s simple enough when I’m drunk.”
He dropped to the ground and pressed one palm to a stone, and the enchantment cracked. He crawled to the next one and did the same thing. Heziah made his way toward another, and then he slumped down, collapsing to the ground.
Jonathan waited for him to get back up, but he didn’t.
Matthew lifted the one remaining enchantment. “He was almost there.”
“He can do it,” Jonathan said.
“If he can stay sober. I don’t even know if we can trust him to do that.”
Jonathan looked over to where Leland was still crouched from avoiding the attack. Elizabeth sat next to him, staring, though she didn’t seem to be quite as troubled as the others. Jonathan frowned.
Why wouldn’t she be bothered by all of this?
“We’ll regroup and try this again later,” he said. “Meet back at the tavern tonight.”
Leland nodded to Heziah. “Will he be here?” He dusted himself off as he stood.
“We need him. I’ll see what I can do to get him to sober up.”
Leland snorted. “Good luck with that. I don’t want to end up in prison just because some sorcerer decided he needs to drink constantly.” He strode out of the warehouse.
Elizabeth lingered a moment before following him out and disappearing.
Matthew looked down at Heziah, then turned to Jonathan. “They’re not wrong.”
“I know they’re not.”
“Do you really think he can do this?”
Jonathan glanced at the broken enchantments all around him. “Look at what he was able to do. He has power. You felt it.”
“I didn’t feel anything. I saw it, and I know you did too. Regardless, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we have somebody we can trust and rely on, and I’ll be honest with you, Jonathan. I don’t know that I can trust and rely on him. If it comes down to our safety…”
“We just have to find a way to get through to him.”
“And if you can’t?”
Jonathan shook his head. “If I can’t, then we have to have a backup.” He started toward the door, and Matthew caught up to him.
“What will you do with him?”
“He can stay here. We can seal the door closed with one of your remaining enchantments. If he breaks out, then so be it. Otherwise, he might be able to sober up by the time we get back.”
Matthew chuckled. “Or he’ll still be out when we return.”
“That’s a possibility too.”
Out on the street, they started to walk toward the tavern again, but Jonathan took a detour and headed for the distant sight of Vileforn’s home. He felt drawn to it.
“What is it, really?” Matthew asked. “You are after more than just the coin. If this is about revenge—”
“Only a little bit.” Jonathan looked over to him and sighed. It was time to be honest with Matthew. Truly honest. He deserved that from him. His friend had been with him for countless jobs over the years. He pulled one of the markers out of his pocket and handed it over. “This is what it is.”
Matthew turned the marker over and held it up, and the sunlight reflected against its surface. He paused on the side with the full moon, tracing his finger around it. “I take it that this means something to you?”
“I told you about the benefactor.”
“You told me that somebody helped you escape from prison.”
“Not so much escape as guide my way to freedom. There was a parole hearing. At that hearing, they made it clear I wasn’t going to be freed. At least, that wasn’t the intention. Vileforn had pressed for me to remain imprisoned.”
“What changed?”
“They told me that somebody had intervened on my behalf. And ever since I’ve been back in the city, I’ve been encountering markers like this. They seem to be giving me a countdown, but it’s not just that. With every trunk of gold that Vileforn carries out of the city, our cut diminishes.”
“Do you know who’s doing this?”
Jonathan shook his head. “I’m not even sure if they want me to do this, or if they’re sending me a warning. To be honest, I have no idea why they would be sending these to me.”
He fished out another marker from his pocket. He kept all of them together, feeling as if there had to be some reason they were made in such a way. They reminded him of enchantments, but they weren’t the same as the enchantments that could be purchased elsewhere. He traced his finger over the first marker he’d received, then handed it over to Matthew.
Matthew held the markers side by side and compared the two. “Does this symbol mean something to you?”
“It’s not really a symbol.”
“What is it, then?”
“It’s a message, like the other one.”
Matthew arched a brow. “What sort of message?”
“Well, the first one I showed you has a full moon on it.”
“I see. If that’s what you think.”
“I do. And that one,” Jonathan said, motioning to the marker he’d been given, “represents the crystal I took—or attempted to take—from Vileforn.”
“You think they want you to take the crystal again.”
“That’s my suspicion.”
“Why be so mysterious about it?” Matthew asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. It’s almost like they wanted to guide me but didn’t want to be seen as doing so. Does that make any sense?”
“Not really, but again, none of this really makes sense to me. If they wanted to hire you for a job, then why not just hire you?”
“I didn’t get hired for this, though,” Jonathan said.
“What?”
“When I’ve been hired for jobs before, I have a point of contact. A person to sell whatever we take. In this case, it’s just a marker. Just these.”
“And you’re concerned that if you do the job, and if we take what you think we are supposed to take, that—”
“That it won’t even matter. The payment is the vault itself, not the crystal. That wasn’t worth anything to me anyway. Somebody wants it, though, and they don’t want to be seen as wanting it.”
“Which is why you’ve been pushing for us to do this.”
“Part of the reason, but since I got that”—he took the marker with the full moon—“I’ve realized we’re on a tighter timeline than I thought.”
“You think that means we have to do this by the full moon?” Matthew looked up at the sky. The sun still shone overhead, and there was no hint of the moon, but Matthew stared almost as if he could see it. “That means—”
“It means we have only another day. Two at most.”
Matthew sighed. “I think it’s time for you to get help.”
“I have been trying to get help.”
“Not the kind of help for the job. This is the kind of help you need.”
Jonathan knew what he was implying, but he didn’t think he could do what Matthew wanted: go to his sister. “I’m not telling her what we’re doing. If she tells him—”
“You don’t have to go to her and admit what we plan to do. Just give her enough information to see if she can help you.” Matthew patted him on the shoulder. “She wants to help, Jonathan. She was trying to help you while you were in prison. The same as me.” He stepped away and left Jonathan in the middle of the street, still looking out in the distance toward Vileforn’s palace.
They had to move quickly. Time seemed to be of the essence, but Jonathan also didn’t want to rush the job.
As he started to turn, he noticed Leland walking up the street. Jonathan didn’t know the man well enough. Really, he didn’t know any of his team well enough except for Matthew.
He followed Leland as he turned a corner, and the Sorcerers’ Society stood in the distance. Leland went up to the entrance and spoke to somebody.
A sorcerer.
Jonathan’s heart sunk. The Society generally stayed out of politics, but the king trusted them in ways he didn’t trust many others. And given the kind of job his team was planning, anyone going to the Society would put them in danger.
What did Leland think to do by going to them?
Leland glanced in either direction as he talked, fidgeting with his hands. The sorcerer headed back inside the building, and Leland turned and left. As he walked down the street, he looked over his shoulder. He didn’t seem to see Jonathan watching him.
Not only had the locksmith failed at opening the enchanted lock, but now he had gone to the Society? It was a complication Jonathan didn’t need.
The only thing he could think of was that Leland had gone there to report Heziah. They needed Heziah, though. They needed Leland too. And Elizabeth.
Somehow Jonathan had to find a way to build up his team’s confidence and trust, and he had to do it quickly. How, though?
He didn’t have those answers. And increasingly, the time to find them was running out.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The caravan met up with others just outside of the city. They didn’t even go to the forest’s edge like they had the last time. There were only five with Vileforn’s caravan this time, and the party they met up with had twice that, though Jonathan suspected that there might be even more within the trees.
Matthew was with him, following him along the edge of the tree line, saying nothing.
At one point, he slipped off, Jonathan watched until he realized what he was doing. He unsheathed his sword in a quick flick, carving through a man in barely more than a single fluid movement, dropping the unseen archer. When Matthew returned, he shook his head.
“What was that about?” Jonathan asked.
Matthew shrugged. “Figured you didn’t want to be inadvertently shot.”
“So you just cut them down?”
“There are times when you make hard decisions,” Matthew said.
Jonathan wanted to argue, but maybe Matthew was right.
No. There was no maybe about it. Matthew was right.
Too often, he found himself not willing to make the difficult choice. Even when he had still been in the city, that had been one of his faults. The Dragon was not nearly as ruthless as his namesake would make others think. Jonathan didn’t necessarily mind, as he never wanted to be ruthless, only skilled, but still, he had a reputation to uphold, regardless of how difficult that reputation might be.
“How many of these have we seen?” he asked Matthew.
“They’ve done about ten of these transactions,” Matthew said. “So the amount of gold that Vileforn has exchanged has been considerable. If we wait too long…”
“I know,” Jonathan said.
The longer they waited, the more gold that Vileforn would spend and the less they would be able to take. That seemed like a minor concern in the grand scheme of things, especially given that he believed there was plenty of gold to go around and that Vileforn’s vault still had abundant wealth to be taken. Still, it did make him question if they needed to have a different sort of urgency.
Once the transaction was completed, Jonathan debate going after the mercenaries, saying as much to Matthew.
“There’s too many.”
“Even for you?”
Matthew frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s not supposed to mean anything,” Jonathan said. “I just know how skilled you are. That’s all.”
“Well, skill is one thing, but numbers can make skill a moot point. It might be easier to go after the gold that way, but if we do, we get one run at it. The mercenaries will realize that we’re on to them, and change tactics.”
“It has to be the vault,” Jonathan said.
“If you want to get your revenge.”
It wasn’t only revenge, but the revenge appealed the most to him.
“Let’s get back to the city,” he said.
They followed the caravan back into the city, and once they did, they split off, heading their separate ways. Jonathan watched Matthew leave, wondering what he was going off to do, but didn’t question his friend.
Jonathan wandered.
He wasn’t sure what called him back toward Vileforn’s palace again, but he stopped on a street leading up to it and watched the guards as they patrolled. The guards patrolled in a pattern, but it now changed. When he’d been in prison, Jonathan had countless hours to sit and study different patterns, trying to make sense of the guards’ patrols, along with the timing and frequency. There was a regularity in Nearnahl. Now he didn’t see anything regular. And perhaps that irregularity was the key.
Jonathan was good with identifying patterns. That was part of the reason he had been so successful in his chosen line of work. He could use what he noticed to find answers that others weren’t able to come up with. In this case, as he stared, he wasn’t able to see anything he could use.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something had called him here. He felt as if this was where he needed to be. Jonathan remained where he stood for a moment, then turned around. The rustle of a deep-blue cloak caught his attention, as did the familiar red hair beneath the hood.
Jonathan turned back and stared at his sister as she approached. “It was you,” he said, snorting.
“What do you mean?”
“I could feel it. You called to me. You wanted me to be here.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Did I?”
“Don’t act like that.”
She studied him with her arms crossed over her chest and her head tilted to the side, reminding Jonathan of their mother. It had been a long time since he’d thought of her.
“Act like what?” she said.
“Did you or did you not call to me?”
“I have been calling to you frequently.”
“At least you admit it.”
“Why is that anything I should keep to myself? You’re my brother, after all, and I want to see you. I want to know that you are well and that you haven’t gotten involved in anything you shouldn’t.”
“Anything I shouldn’t?” Jonathan said, regarding her. How much did she know? That was his greatest concern. He worried about Jayna learning that he intended to break into the vault, which would then force her to make a choice. He had done that to her in the past, and he didn’t want to force her to do so again.
“You know what I mean. I felt you here.”
“If you’ve been calling to me, then it’s not surprising you would feel me here.” How could she have been calling to him other than with her magic?
She watched him. There was a darkness in her eyes, along with a hardness to the set of her jaw that had not been there five years ago. Jayna had always been the gentle one. It was partly why he had felt a measure of regret in trying to draw her into his line of work, but he had always known that she would be valuable, given her magical ability. Now he wasn’t even sure she could be useful.
“You need to be careful,” she said. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I can tell you’re planning something.” She glanced back toward the palace.
What exactly did she know?
If Jayna could feel him, it was possible that she knew how often he came through here on his scouting missions. He needed information, and his sister had it. There might be a way to coax her into sharing something that she would not want to otherwise. In order for him to get her to share, he would have to offer some information himself.
“I saw Vileforn leaving the city,” Jonathan said. “I followed him.” Jayna regarded him with the same unreadable darkness, but he pressed on. “Considering he’s employing my sister, I wanted to know what he was about.”
“You would have me believe that you are doing all of this for some altruistic purpose?”
“Not altruistic. For you.”
“Hmm. I find that ironic, especially considering your attempts to draw me into your line of work.”
“You would’ve been useful,” Jonathan said, shrugging. “I’m not going to deny that. But I’m happy for you as well. I wanted you to have an opportunity to find something better.”
It was important that she know he felt that way, but he could tell from her lack of reaction that she didn’t believe him.
“What was the Academy like?” he asked.
“Enlightening,” Jayna said.
“And Matthew tells me you have been active outside the city, and the Academy, while I was gone.”
There was the slightest change to her expression, little more than that. She was trying to keep something from him.
“My role within the Society has required me to be proactive,” she said carefully. She twisted the ring on her finger—the one he’d noticed before but couldn’t see clearly. The ring held a ruby, the kind of jewel that he would never have expected her to possess. Then again, she was a sorcerer now, and she would have access to wealth he did not. “Much like I am trying to be proactive now.”
“With me?”
“I can see that you need my help. You’ve changed since you went away.”
“Oh, have I?” He scoffed. “What can you see?” Jonathan didn’t necessarily like asking for her opinion, but she had always been observant. And this was his sister. Someone who had known him longer than anyone else.
“Just that you still lean on Matthew.”
“And I shouldn’t?”
She paused. “You have a good friend there. You should trust him. And he should trust you.”
“You don’t think he does?” Jonathan asked, smiling. But he watched her as he said it. Her comment hinted that she knew more than she let on. Did she suspect the same thing about Matthew’s ability with the sword that he did? How could she?
She was a sorcerer. Of course.
They would have to be more careful.
“I think if you trusted each other, you could both benefit from it. But who am I to say anything?” She spread her hands. “I’m simply a sorcerer of the Society.” Jayna gave a slight smirk.
Now he was certain there was something she wasn’t telling him, but he wasn’t exactly sure why. Was it her remark about being simply a sorcerer? Or was it the part about the Society?
