If it weren’t for the guards, looming silently in the corners, Garon might have tried to escape the room he was brought to. It was small and windowless, the only furniture a table with an oil lamp and a few rickety wooden chairs. There was only one door and the guards stood to either side of it. He didn’t know what he was waiting for, but it couldn’t be good.

Finally the door opened and Neal stepped in. One of the guards snapped the door closed tight behind him. “Lord Garon.” Garon winced at the dripping irony in Neal’s voice; it was clear he didn’t think of Garon as ‘lord’. “Let’s go have some coffee. There’s a nice shop just down the street. I believe you’ve been.”

Garon flexed his ankles, feeling the cold hard line of the knives against them. He’d been waiting in this room for at least ten minutes, though it felt like an hour. The two guards had watched him like hungry hawks the whole time. He was in the house, where he was almost sure Kiri was, and he couldn’t look for her. He wanted to draw the knives and go for it, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. He’d be dead before he ever got out of this stupid room. He was so close, though. And now here was Neal, wanting to take him away. It was obvious now he’d been watched all day. Neal knew he’d been to the shop. He felt so angry and stupid. And he couldn’t answer Neal. He couldn’t stand the idea of just walking away.

Neal watched Garon with one eyebrow raised. Garon was trapped, and he knew it. It just made him angrier. With a sudden violence that surprised himself he grabbed the oil lamp that was burning on the table and threw it at the wall. It broke with a crash and a surge of fire quickly gone. The only room in the light now came from the hall, filtering around the door in a glowing rectangle. Neal stood in the center of it. “Coffee, Lord Garon?” he said again, calmly.

Garon spat, “Yes.” He followed the other man with jerky motions, cursing himself for so pointlessly losing his temper. They went down a hall, through the door, the gold-posted gate, down Spring Street. Neal was silent as he led Garon to the coffee shop. The only sound was their footfalls, and those of the two guards who had followed them without any apparent order from Neal.

The short aproned man was still working in the shop. Didn’t he ever go home? He nodded at Neal’s “two” and busied himself with their drinks.

“Sit,” Neal said as he settled himself at a table and shoved back the opposite chair with his foot. Garon sat moodily. The two guards stood nearby and Garon tried to ignore them as much as Neal did.

“So you are Lady Mala’s brother,” Neal said. “And as stupid as your sister.”

Garon crossed his arms, glaring.

It was a coldly civil cup of coffee. The atmosphere was chill enough to completely undo the soothing warmth Garon was used to gaining from sipping the beverage. Had bringing him here, out in public, away from his house been a gesture of peace, or a threat? Either he was saying there was nothing to fear from him because here they were in public where the city guards could interfere, or he was saying he didn’t need to act in secret because the city would let him get away with anything. Garon wished he knew which one it was.

Maybe it was both.

“I want to leave before you, if you don’t mind,” Neal said. “We will be seen parting ways here. As anyone can see, nothing has happened to you in my presence.”

“My sister has the favor of the king,” Garon said.

“I have heard so. And thus…” He gestured around them. “But no one saw you enter my home in the first place, I think. Your sister’s favor in that case would not reflect on me. It was for another reason that I allowed you to leave.”

Garon waited for him to explain himself.

“The debt is repaid. Return the token.”

Regretfully, Garon pulled the token from around his neck and placed it in Neal’s waiting hand.

“You made poor use of it, in any case.” Neal said.

“I don’t think I was made to be a thief,” Garon said.

“No,” Neal said. “Skulking did not work out for you.” He placed his empty cup down on the table. “You might stay off Spring Street in the future. I’d hate to spoil our amicable parting.”

Garon gulped. Neal stalked out of the cafe without a backward word or glance. His two goons followed him, leaving Garon alone, slowly turning his coffee cup in the dark shop.

~

The swishing noise of the curtains being pulled back brought Kiri out of another dream. She opened her eyes to find Tango staring at her nose-to-nose. She pushed the cat back and sat up. Neal was standing beside the window, backlit by the screen-patterned morning sun.

“Eat quickly,” he said. “I will take you to the conservatory as soon as you are finished.”

She had a small urge to nibble and take her time just to spite him, but in actuality wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible, so she set to the food she found on the little table as fast as she could. Breakfast was a slim piece of toast drizzled with honey, thick porridge, and hot tea that burned her throat as she guzzled it down.

The table wobbled when Kiri slammed the empty cup down. She steadied it with her metal-gloved hand and wiped her mouth with the back of the other. “Will I be able to stay at the conservatory long?” she asked.

“Unfortunately not today,” Neal said. “I had an interrupted night and will be returning to rest soon, so we will have to cut the excursion short today. But it will give us a chance to establish our relationship. One needs a foundation of trust.”

Kiri did not say, though she thought it, that there was little chance of trust in a situation like this one.

“Perhaps tomorrow,” Neal said as he led her through the door.

The hallway was as nice as might be expected. Kiri wished she could peek into the many doors they passed, but figured it would not go toward establishing that trust Neal had talked about. Not that she didn’t have plans to blow that possibility right up, anyway.

The hallway brought them to a tightly spiraling staircase. It might have been the perfect moment to try for an escape if only there were any windows. But the staircase was encased completely in stone, meaning that if she got away from Neal she’d have to run around the house until she found a way out. Better to try to escape with a plan to get away from Neal and the house at once.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The stairs ended facing a full-glass door. Kiri had never seen such a thing in her life. She assumed it wouldn’t break too easily or the builder wouldn’t have made it, but she still held her breath nervously as Neal pushed it open. He waved Kiri in front of him.

She caught her breath, her steps slowing as she was overcome with awe.

The room was warm, much warmer than the rest of the house. It wasn’t just the door that was glass, but everything, even the roof and the walls. Not that she could see much of it. Most of that glass was half-hidden behind the green of the plants growing all around, plants unlike any Kiri had ever seen. Some had leaves bigger than her head. There were bright flowers, hanging vines, and everywhere, lush ferns.

“I thought you might like it,” Neal said. “It is my favorite room. It reminds me of home.”

“You are from a place like this?” Kiri asked. “Where is there a place like this?”

“Not in Laedinland,” Neal said. “Far to the South in Jerid.”

“And you grew up there?” Kiri said. “I have never met anyone who wasn’t from Laed.”

“I left as a small child,” Neal said. “When my parents died I became an apprentice to a ship captain. But he was cruel, and thus I ran away and fell into the life of crime, thus.” He gestured as if presenting his life on a platter and half-bowed.

“Well.” Kiri knelt down on a rock that was cut into the shape of a rough bench and bent over the back of it to smell a bright purple flower. Unfortunately, it smelled faintly like cow manure. She wrinkled her nose and leaned away from it. “Crime seems to be working out for you.”

“It can be a good life,” Neal said. “That’s what the Thief Lord would like you to understand.”

“Right,” Kiri said. “Well, I guess I’ll take a look around then. See what crime pays.”

Kiri wandered the conservatory, Neal dogging her steps. She was trying to figure out whether there was any way out, but she didn’t want to look like she was trying to do that, so she kept her path as aimless as she could. Eventually, by leaning close to smell a flower near the glass wall (this one luckily smelled much better than the purple one) she was able to spot something promising.

Beyond some leaves outside there was a stone wall, and moving past it, people who looked like they were walking in a street. Kiri could barely see them, but their movement made them possible to pick out. Her teeth worried at her lower lip as she straightened up. Tension built in her whole body and she bent her fingers, straining against the metal and chains. The heat came like she had hoped it would. She moved a little past the flower and put one leg up on the rocks that bordered the bed the plants were growing in, separating it from the tiled path.

“What is that flower called?” She asked, pointing behind him to the one she had just smelled.

Neal looked back, and at that moment Kiri leapt into the dirt and lunged, metal-encased palm out, right for the glass wall. There was heat, and a flash, then accelerating scritching and cracking of glass straining and shattering.

Kiri let her momentum carry her through the wall as it broke into a million little pieces. She felt some of the shards falling on her like cold, hard rain, and heard the bell-like tinkling as they fell all around. She kept going. She dodged around a tree-a branch tugged at her hair and pulled some out as she ignored it and pressed on. A surprised, angry-faced man appeared in front of her, holding a short sword. She grabbed it with her metal-trapped hand and pulled it away. Still running, she dropped the sword so she could seize the gate and swing herself over the golden gate post into the street. The people in the street scattered. But they weren’t running from her as much as the loud, armed, yelling men behind her. She heard the gate clanging, the pounding of feet getting closer, and kept running up the street. She didn’t dare take the time to look back.

Kiri reached a coffee shop with a few outdoor tables; its patrons were pouring out to see what was going on.

“Hey!” one of them yelled. Garon? Why was he being so stupid as to draw attention to himself? They should both run and regroup elsewhere.

But then she saw the black object he held in one hand and made straight for him. She slammed into him, his eyes widened, fixed over her shoulder at the pursuers, now almost on them.

In the next instant the shop, the street, and the chasing men were all gone. Kiri and Garon stood ankle-deep in muck, back in the tunnel.

“Here!?” Kiri said. “They know about here!”

“You’re welcome for saving your life,” Garon said. “This was the first place I thought of. Where do you think we should go?”

“Thanks, sorry,” Kiri’s panic faded enough to realize she was being very unfair. She should be grateful. “I’m not sure. Maybe we should just get out of Laed.”

“I don’t think this stone can take us very far.” Garon said. “I don’t think we’re going to be driven out of town. I don’t know if you know this, but Mala is well liked by the king, and I’m known to be her brother.”

“Well, I’m no one important.” Kiri said. “They’ve only kept me alive because the Thief Lord wants me to work for him.”

“Hmm,” Garon said. “You might be important. I told the Lord Commander of the palace guard that Mala’s best friend had been taken.”

“Garon!” Kiri yelled, forgetting she had just decided she should be grateful to Garon. “I came to this city to hide!”

“Are you sure about that?” Garon said. “Looks to me like you did anything but hide! Haven’t you been getting in the Thief Lord’s business since you got here?”

Kiri crossed her arms, but stayed silent. He had a point. She didn’t want to get anyone hurt, but she really didn’t want to hide at all. She wanted to fight.

“We can have the rest of this fight somewhere else, right?” Garon said. “You’re right, this isn’t a safe place.”

“Well, where can we go?” Kiri asked.

~

Ulrick, on his way down the stairs yet again, grinned at Garon as the younger man led Kiri up.

“Good catch, boy,” Ulrick said.

Kiri felt her cheeks get hot. She ducked her head and hurried past the leering man.

“I do not like him,” she whispered to Garon once they were out of earshot. “This looks really bad. Is this really the best place you could think of?”

“They can’t come after us here,” Garon said. “Neal made sure I was seen safely parting from him. He can’t be seen to be moving against Mala’s brother. The guard put up with a lot from the Thief Lord’s people, but I’m pretty sure one of the big rules is to leave the noble families alone. Here, this is my room.”

It wasn’t really any worse than the one Kiri stayed in at the Academy. Just a little shabbier, and the neighborhood obviously wasn’t as nice.

“I just realized,” she said. “I might be expelled by now. I haven’t showed up to class or to work in how many days?”

“Three?” Garon said. “I thought you were going to run away again, anyway. What do you care?”

“Nah, you convinced me.” Kiri sat down on the bed. There wasn’t anywhere else to sit. She drew her knees up and rested her chin on them. “I’m not running away again. They can’t make me.”

“Glad to hear it.” Garon sat down beside her, giving her a little hip-bump to scootch over and make room.

“So how do we do this?” Kiri said.

“Don’t worry,” Garon said. He reached out an arm and wrapped it around her waist. “We’ll figure something out.”

Kiri let out a long breath. We. This was new. She wasn’t used to the idea of doing this with someone. But it sounded...good.

“Yeah,” she said, and leaned her head against Garon’s warm shoulder. “We will.”