The Dragon Rogues, page 22
“I know,” Jonathan said. “There aren’t many who know about that.”
Or any, for that matter. It was something Jonathan had made a point of keeping hidden. An aspect of his own connections and abilities that he found best to keep to himself.
“So?” Matthew said.
“So, I don’t know.”
“We are running out of time to dig. But if he is the benefactor, he seems to be actively trying to make it difficult to work with him.”
“I thought of that too,” Jonathan said.
“He’s not your benefactor, then.”
“No.”
“Do you think it’s the same person who sent you on your job in the beginning?”
Jonathan shook his head. “It’s possible. I never got a clean look.”
“Man or a woman?”
“Probably a man. I just don’t know.”
Jonathan had been approached in the shadows of a dark night by someone who had wanted to hire the Dragon. At that time, his name had already carried significant weight in the city, and he’d been able to be selective about his jobs, but this one had offered him an opportunity. He remembered the man’s voice well—deep, gravelly, and able to make the hairs on Jonathan’s arm stand on end when he spoke. He had magic, and whether he was a sorcerer or a powerful enchanter, Jonathan never knew. At that time, it didn’t really matter. He’d been asked to take a job that would be worth more than he’d made on any job over the last two years. He had a specific purpose for that money in mind. Not for him, though.
“I need someone who can get into a vault unseen,” the man had said.
Jonathan had glanced around the street. Somewhere out there, Grayson had been keeping watch as he always did. But he hadn’t seen this man approach. There were others out there too, though Matthew had slipped ahead, planning to meet them at the tavern. Jonathan had been left alone.
The Dragon did not fear being alone on the street in Ishan. It was his city, after all.
“I think you have the wrong person,” Jonathan said, flashing a smile.
“I don’t think I do,” the man answered. He took a step toward him, and Jonathan was drawn to an enchantment hanging from a cord around his neck. He couldn’t see it, but somehow he could feel how powerful the man was. Maybe he was a high-ranking sorcerer within the Society. “You only need to get in and out. Nothing else.”
“That’s it? You just want somebody to go into a vault?”
“There is a singular item that I want. Nothing more.”
“I still think you have the wrong—”
The man stepped closer. Now Jonathan could feel him. His hair was practically vibrating. “I have the right man. I need the Dragon.” He slipped a piece of paper into Jonathan’s hand, stepped back into the shadows, and disappeared.
Jonathan looked at the paper, which detailed the sum he’d been offered and the terms of the deal, and then walked into the alley to look for the man, but he was gone. There was no other way out of the alley, and Jonathan wondered if a powerful facade shielded him that he couldn’t see past. He found Grayson later and showed him the paper.
“I don’t much like working for the Society,” Grayson said.
“Why would the Society hire me?”
“Some things are meant to stay off the books.” Grayson shrugged as he took a drink of wine. It was always wine with him, never ale. He tipped it back, then looked around the tavern. It was a quiet place meant for business, for people like them. There were no revelers here, no singers or dancers, no minstrels. And certainly no gamblers. Men like that could be bought. “Now the question is whether it’s a job you want to take.”
Jonathan looked down at the black ink scrawled on the thick yellow paper again. As he traced his finger across it, he couldn’t help but wonder if he needed to turn down the job. He was the Dragon, though. He didn’t turn high paying jobs.
“Some upstart merchant’s vault? How hard can that be?” he said.
Grayson took another sip of wine. “Careful. Arrogance gets you into trouble.”
“Not if you can back it up.”
Grayson snorted and nodded. “Not if you can back it up.”
The job seemed simple. They scouted the vault, searched for weaknesses, and made preparations. Vileforn did not have much respectability or much wealth, so Jonathan did not prepare for any real dangers. He went searching for the man who had hired him but found nothing. It was almost as if he were a ghost. He scouted the Society house for the better part of three days, watching all comings and goings, but saw no one who left his hair tingling the way that man had, and no one who had an enchantment that seemed to draw his eyes.
By the night of the job, he still hadn’t found anything about their employer.
“I have a feeling he’s going to find us,” Jonathan said.
Grayson frowned. “I’m not a fan of a job like that.”
“No. Me neither.”
“Well, let’s go bust into a vault and get our fortune…”
Jonathan pushed the memory away. He found Matthew watching him, still picking at the bread and throwing it into the river.
“You know, I’m thankful you weren’t there with me that night,” Jonathan said softly.
“You are?”
“I think if you’d been there, you would have been caught too. I can’t fathom how I would’ve felt if I’d gotten my best friend locked up in prison.”
Matthew paused, hunk of bread in hand. “That’s the thing about friends, though, isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be there for each other when we need it?”
“I still am glad.”
“I’m not. I spent years trying to get any word about you. I had no idea what had happened. I didn’t even know if you were still alive. It was possible that you had died.”
“You would have heard.”
“Would I have? You haven’t even told me much about the job. You haven’t told me who hired you or—”
“Because I still don’t know. I brought Grayson and Burton into a job that I didn’t know all the details of. I got caught up in the money.”
“I see.” Matthew flung a piece of bread into the water.
“Do you?” Jonathan said, fixing him with a stare. “Do you understand why I wanted the money?”
Matthew held his gaze. “I do.”
And he did. Matthew was probably the only person who understood.
Jonathan sighed. “I don’t want to go into this job as misinformed as I was before. We need to know what Vileforn is doing.”
“Taking money out of the city. He’s been speeding up those deliveries. More and more coin is leaving.”
“For what reason, though?”
“I haven’t been able to determine that. I think if we had more time…”
Time.
It always came down to time.
When he had taken the initial job to break into Vileforn’s vault, he had gotten caught up in the fact that he didn’t have enough time. And now he still didn’t have enough. He was trying to prepare as much as possible, but it was difficult to do given their time constraints.
“We need to run them through other scenarios,” Jonathan said.
“Jobs or tests?”
“I think they have to be jobs. We have to have some potential for failure.”
“They are failing even the simple jobs, Jonathan. We can’t risk anything more.”
He sat back and closed his eyes. “They can be a good team,” Jonathan whispered. “I can see it. Elizabeth is powerful. Maybe not as skilled. Not yet, but she’s powerful. And Leland…” He shook his head. “We’ve never had anybody like him.”
“And we have never had anybody like Heziah.”
“I’ll keep him under control.”
“You think you can?”
“Probably not,” Jonathan said, smiling. “But I will do my best.”
Matthew snorted. “There was a time when I thought less than your best was still better than anyone.” He got to his feet, holding his hand out. Jonathan grabbed it, and Matthew pulled him to his feet. “Now you need help. Embrace that.”
“I am.”
“And don’t try doing anything on your own.”
“You sound like you’re trying to baby me,” Jonathan said.
“Well, you’ve been missing Grayson, so I figure I might as well treat you the way he did.”
Jonathan shook his head. “Great.”
“What?”
“You’re going to start drinking wine like him.”
Matthew laughed. “Well, I do like bread and cheese. Wine pairs well with it.” He tossed the rest of his bread into the river. “Let’s go run through a few more tests with them. We need to get ready.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“We are going to consider this a trial,” Jonathan said, looking at the others as they stood in an alley across the street from a small general store Matthew had suggested they target.
Matthew claimed the protections on the store were secure enough to pose a bit of a challenge but not so stout that they’d lose confidence. That was the entire purpose of the job—to gain the necessary confidence for what was to come. It was the reason he and Matthew had chosen this task for the team rather than picking up a job from someone like Bartholomew, who would’ve been more than happy to give Jonathan a few leads, though in exchange for information, he was sure.
“Do we have time for this?” Elizabeth asked. “You said we need to keep practicing, and if we do this—”
“This is practice,” Matthew said, hand near the hilt of his sword, though Jonathan had only seen him unsheathe it a few times and rarely with any real danger. “Sometimes practice can build confidence, and this team needs confidence.”
“I’ve got plenty of confidence,” Heziah muttered.
Jonathan looked over to the sorcerer, who shifted a dingy cloak over his shoulders. He couldn’t tell if Heziah was drunk or not. It was that way most of the time, which made it increasingly challenging for him to know whether Heziah would be useful or a hindrance to a job.
“Confidence is one thing, but don’t let yourself get cocky,” Matthew said.
“I don’t need an entire team to break into a shop like that,” Heziah said.
“It’s not about what you need. It’s about what the team needs,” Jonathan said.
He looked at each of them. Leland had been quiet, though Leland was often quiet. Knowing what he did about Leland and his struggles, he wasn’t going to push him, as he was happy that they had him with them. He was worth nearly as much as any good engineer. There might be things that Durant would’ve been able to do that Leland could not. Still, Durant never would have been able to open an enchanted lock, which Jonathan still suspected Leland would eventually be able to do.
Jonathan let the tension build for a moment. “We build the team, work together, and find a way to become more than just individuals. A well-run team is always more than the sum of its parts.”
It was more advice that he had gained from Grayson, but that didn’t make it any less true.
“What’s the plan?” Leland asked.
Jonathan held the locksmith’s gaze for a moment, and then pointed to the store. It was dusk when the light started to fade, which posed a bit of a challenge for Elizabeth. That was part of the reason that they had chosen this time of day. A bit of a challenge, but not too much of one.
“We cross the street. We unlock the door. We go inside. There is a small sculpture attached to the ground, and we need to release the enchantment holding it,” he said, looking over to Heziah, curious if he was even paying attention, “and then we get back out without anybody noticing us.”
“I could do this myself,” Heziah muttered.
“But you aren’t going to.”
“And what about you?” Heziah asked, looking up at his eyes were red and bloodshot.
Definitely drunk. Again.
“Your sneak gets us across the street,” he said, frowning at Elizabeth, “and your locksmith opens the door while I separate the sculpture from the floor, but what about you and him?” He nodded to Matthew, his gaze lingering on Matthew’s sword, as if trying to decide how much of a threat he’d actually be.
“We’re here to observe,” Jonathan said.
“So you don’t do anything.”
“That’s right,” Matthew said, stepping over to him, unmindful of threatening a sorcerer. “And that’s because we already have the experience we’re trying to help you obtain.”
Heziah looked as if he were going to argue more, but then he clamped his mouth shut.
The street was empty, so it was as good a time as any.
“Now,” Jonathan said.
Elizabeth immediately flashed her facade, holding it in place quickly and skillfully, forming something of a wall in front of them. She looked over to Jonathan, clenching her jaw, a bead of sweat already dripping down the side of her face, and then they started forward.
As they did, he watched Matthew, who was frowning. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” Matthew said, tracing a finger along the hilt of his sword.
They reached the far side of the street without any complications. So far, so good.
Leland stepped forward, and Elizabeth still held onto the facade, though the sweat streaming down her brow seemed to be even more than before. Her posture remained rigid, and he could practically feel the energy she was using starting to tremble.
“You have to hold onto it,” he whispered.
“I’m trying,” she said.
“You’re doing well,” he told her.
She nodded, though Jonathan didn’t know if she even needed his reassurance.
Leland pulled out his lock pick set and began to work at it.
“Does he even need that?” Matthew whispered.
“Maybe thinks he does,” Jonathan said.
It took only a moment, and then the door came open.
“I could have done all of that,” Heziah said, sweeping his hands out from him and stepping inside.
“Heziah—”
As soon as he stepped inside, a loud, blaring horn sounded.
Heziah looked blearily around, then began to form a magical spell, hurriedly twisting his hands in a pattern. Power started to build from him—power that Jonathan suspected he’d send into the shop, probably destroying anything it touched.
Jonathan stepped forward, grabbed Heziah, and jerked him back.
“You don’t need to destroy the shop,” he said.
“I’m just—”
“You forget. I can detect your magic,” he said, pulling out the same enchantment he had demonstrated to Heziah before. “And doing anything more will draw attention to our team and us.”
Gradually, Heziah relaxed, letting go of the magical power he’d been holding onto.
Lights turned on the back of the shop, and Matthew darted forward, briefly glancing over her shoulder to Jonathan, before shooing him and the rest of the team across the street.
Jonathan motioned for them to go, and they were near the middle of the street when Elizabeth’s facade disappeared with a pop. He felt it as it faded, and the energy suddenly exploded as she could no longer hold onto it. He didn’t know the limits to her facade, but increasingly, he started to think that he might need to test it so that he had a better idea of how long she could realistically be expected to hold out.
A couple carrying baskets of fruit at the far end of the street seemed to notice and pointed in their direction.
Jonathan gave Elizabeth a quick nudge forward, and Leland hurried, not needing the encouragement, with only Heziah staggering and stumbling to finish crossing the street. Once back in the alley, Elizabeth frowned, looking back.
“Don’t you think we still could have finished it?”
“The job was over,” Jonathan said. “We failed.”
“What happened?” Leland asked.
“The same thing as will happen on any job,” he said, looking at the three of them, and only Heziah seemed utterly oblivious to his irritation, practically ignoring him. “No job is going to go as you plan. If there’s any lesson I can impart, it’s that nothing is ever going to go the way you think it should. You have to prepare for possible failure points. You need to be ready for what you might do when those come up. In this case, we had an enchanted alarm. Now, had our sorcerer been open to detecting it, we might have been alerted.”
“Or you could have picked up on it. Don’t you have the magic detection enchantment?” Heziah asked.
“I do, but you darted forward. If you’re going to go off-script, I assume you’ll use your considerable abilities,” he said, watching the sorcerer, who just grumbled and turned away.
Elizabeth and Leland stayed quiet, though Elizabeth had flushed slightly. Was she ashamed of how she’d lost control of her facade? Before he had a chance to tell her that, Matthew came back, shaking his head.
“That was a disaster,” Matthew snapped.
“Not a disaster,” Jonathan said, making sure the others heard. “A lesson. A way to learn. Experience.”
“Well, I had to offer to pay a few reparations, but Harris is a pretty good man. He’s not that upset.”
“Wait,” Elizabeth said, looking across the street. “You know him?”
Matthew snorted. “I wasn’t going to put the team in danger making a run at someplace brand-new.”
“This was just a test? Not some preliminary job?” Leland asked.
“I told you that it was going to be a test.”
“I think the word you used was trial,” Heziah said, turning back to them and clutching his cloak around his shoulders. “And I agree with the others. We believed this was an early run at something necessary for the larger job.”
“Be thankful wasn’t,” Jonathan said.
Heziah snorted. “Thankful. Fine. I am so grateful that we didn’t get a chance to get into this merchant’s shop and take the sculpture. What is it, by the way? Something important to his family? Maybe a decoration that reveals his heritage? Or something even more interesting.” He turned to look back at the shop. “I can think of plenty of different enchantments a store owner might keep secured like that.”
