Colin proved to be fairly good at navigating the rooftops. His initial slip was probably just over-excitement, something to which he seemed prone. Kiri had to remind him often that they were supposed to be sneaking.
It wasn’t long before they reached Colin’s home. Colin had the idea that they come in by the back window. His neighbors knew that he was a friend of the Firebrand, he explained. Some might even be keeping an eye on his house to see if they could spot her. It seemed like a good idea until Colin, slipping in first, let out a choking cry, and Kiri saw with throat-tightening panic the unmistakable glint of metal flashing near his throat.
“Colin!” she hissed.
“It’s me! It’s me!” Colin squeaked.
“Colin?” It was Colin’s mother, her voice wavering. Kiri climbed in the window then to see Colin standing away from his mother, rubbing his throat. Lucky for both of them, his mother had not left any marks on him. Colin was shifting foot to foot and looking nervous; his mother looked chagrined, her knife held so loosely in her hand a stiff breeze would make her drop it.
“You should’ve announced yourself.” Kiri, after spending the last few minutes scolding Colin to move more carefully, easily took his mother’s side. “She’s understandably jumpy.”
“Sorry,” Colin said.
“Remember next time.” His mother pulled herself up and stood more confidently, her fingers closed tighter on the knife. “Firebrand. It is so good to welcome you into our home. You have come to speak to Tagg? And take him somewhere safe?”
Of course she wanted him out of her home; Kiri couldn’t blame her. The man was no friend of hers, a criminal and a kidnapper. It was only her son’s association with the Firebrand that had brought him here. Although she did feel responsible, Kiri had no idea where to take him. She didn’t have any safehouses in the city or the Outside. If Tagg with his connections didn’t know a better place than this one, there probably wasn’t one. But she couldn’t leave him here and endanger Colin and his mother, could she? There must be some place. Maybe with the servants in the school? Could she convince one of the Masters to hire him for menial work? Would he take it?
“Um,” Kiri said, realizing the woman was waiting for her answer. “I’ll talk to him. Where is he?”
Colin’s mother smiled tightly and gestured Kiri to a doorway. Tagg was waiting in the only chair in the tiny bedroom, a spindly legged thing shoved into the corner where you’d have to climb over it to get into the bed. He showed no sign of having noticed the commotion in the hallway, but Kiri knew he must have heard and listened. Kiri was about to speak when she noticed Colin was sticking to her and had followed her into the room. She pushed him back out into the hallway with one hand on his chest.
“But I-” he protested.
Kiri gave a little shake of her head, fixing her eyes on his. He sighed and settled back on his heels. She shut the door in his face, not quite slamming it, and turned around to lean against it. Tagg wasn’t exactly pretending he hadn’t seen all that, but he was acting as disinterested as he could manage.
How could he be calm at all? He must not have seen the inside of the warehouse. Even if his entire image was about being cool-headed, how could anyone act that way if he had seen the horror of what had happened to his people.
“I didn’t send Colin to find you.” Tagg spoke first. “I am not putting these people in danger.”
“Colin told me,” Kiri said. It was smart of him to point that out. He understood her if he realized what would be her biggest concern with him coming here. She cared far more about the safety of Colin’s family than she did about this bully.
It seemed he understood her better than she understood him. She still couldn’t believe how calmly he was sitting there, if he had even a suspicion of what had happened to the Outsiders. And he must, or why else was he hiding here? She thought she might as well stop guessing what he knew, and just ask him. “What happened to make you come here?”
“By chance, I was leaving the warehouse, just before the Enforcer arrived.” If the memory disturbed him, his eyes didn’t show it. He continued in a level tone, “I saw that he was coming for them, and there was nothing I could do to help, so I came here. You’re my only option for fighting the Enforcer.”
“You didn’t even try to help!” Kiri was angry at him, and his calm. “Do you know what he did to them! His dogs...how could you just turn your back on that!”
“There was nothing I could do,” he repeated. “I can’t fight those beasts.” His voice and air of nonchalance broke, and his eyes fell as he went on, quieter, so Kiri had to move towards him to make out the words. “You saw...what happened. I couldn’t kill anything that all of them--” He shook his head and lifted it, and his eyes were hard. “Did you see them? Did anyone else get out?”
“There were fifteen of them, the bodies.” Kiri said.
“Fifteen.” His voice dropped even further. “Everyone.”
“They were all...torn apart,” Kiri found herself whispering back. It was something she didn’t want to talk about out loud. “Maybe you’re right--maybe you couldn’t have saved them. But to just leave them to it...some of them were so young.”
“If you want me to feel guilty, I do,” Tagg’s voice rose with bitterness filling his words. “I was their boss, and I was responsible for them. But I’m not the reason the Enforcer came after them. That one is on you, Firebrand.”
Kiri swallowed hard. “Look, I’ll help you with the Enforcer. I don’t care about you. I would go after him anyway. For what he did. But you need to find a different place to stay. Colin is not going to die because of me, too.”
“You admit it’s because of you.” Tagg’s eyes snapped to her face and he seized on the position her words gave him as if he could now stand about the guilt. “I wouldn’t have come here if there was a better place. The Enforcer won’t look for me here.”
“Well, that’s a problem,” Kiri said. “You’re still the bait so I can take him out as far as I’m concerned. There has to be someplace we can tie you up and dangle you.”
“And then what?” Tagg actually had the audacity to sound contemptuous of her. “After what’s happened, don’t you think we need a real plan? No, thank you. I’ll just stay here until you are ready to take him out.”
“I can take him already.” Kiri crossed her arms over her chest. “I sent him running tonight when he caught up to me at the warehouse.”
“He was there? At the warehouse? Why didn’t you say so? Why didn’t you kill him?”
“He ran off,” Kiri said. “You may be right that we need a plan. We have to trap him so he can’t get out.”
“If you’re sure you can take him...and his dogs?” he waited until she nodded. “Then I have an idea. And you’ll like it, because we’re going to leave this house now. We’re already late.”
Kiri did like that he was ready to leave already. What she didn’t like, when she had a moment to reflect on it once they had left Colin’s house, was that she was now plotting a murder. Yes, it was a multiple murderer she was targeting, but she still didn’t want to be an assassin. But what else was she supposed to do, hand the Enforcer over to the guard? The man was an agent for the Thief Lord, and for all she knew, the guard would just let him right back out. Killing people in the Outside didn’t seem to qualify as a crime to them, anyway.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
~
They rode in a covered carriage from the docks to the steps of the palace. It was the only way a dress as perfectly white as Mala’s could make it through this dusty city and stay pristine. But even if she had been wearing black like Garon and Useph, they would no doubt have come the same way. Garon was trying to get used to the fact that his sister no longer walked anywhere. He spent all of his time walking, walking, walking, back and forth along the city streets, but she probably would be lost if she set foot out of this carriage, where he knew every turn and alley well.
It wouldn’t bother Mala that she didn’t know her way around the streets of the city. She seemed confident, at least, that she knew all it mattered know. While Useph stared, silently, at her pretty throat like a snake about to strike, she went on and on about the protocols of being presented at court. There was no way Garon could hope to remember it all, but by the time they reached the palace she had repeated herself so many times that he actually felt like he knew enough of what was expected of him that he wouldn’t embarrass anyone.
“Thank you, Mala,” he said. “I will keep all of that in mind.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. She couldn’t have expected such a humble response, but she quickly recovered and smiled graciously. “Of course, dear brother. As I said, just follow my lead.”
The groom opened the carriage door, and Useph stepped down and offered Mala a hand out. Garon got out on his own and followed the couple to join the stream of guests leaving similar carriages before and behind them to converge on the wide steps of the palace. They were already inside the palace’s outer wall. Since they had passed through, they were surrounded not by the close streets of the city, but the manicured gardens that were the queen’s pride. It was sunset, and the colors of the flowers in the bushes around them reflected the many colors of the sky.
This was going to be a different kind of experience for him, Garon could already tell. The palace was beautiful, but it was still going to be a slow and uncomfortable evening. He thought of the masquerade he and Kiri had spent standing by the snack table, and wished she was here at the least. Seeing Mala here, but not Kiri, felt incomplete.
Garon decided he would count the night a success if he could even get a single woman to dance with him, like he should have asked Kiri to dance with him back then. It wouldn’t be the same, but Mala would be proud of him, or at least, less embarrassed. His sister must not mind his presence too much, anyway. For all her acting like he didn’t belong, she was the one who had invited him, and not because he had wanted to come.
They were announced and entered the bright ballroom, lit by a hundred hanging lanterns high above. The dancing couples swirled across the floor, the ladies’ coloful dresses standing out against their partner’s inevitable black suits. Looking over the tops of their heads Garon could see the thrones of the King and Queen up on a dais, but for the moment they were empty, so he would be spared the most nail-biting introduction at least for a while.
“Isn’t it lovely?” Mala said in his ear. “Go on, enjoy yourself!” And Mala squeezed his hand before leading Useph straight out onto the dance floor.
Garon spotted the buffet table at the edge of the marble floor, and he started to head for it, but his eyes met those of a dark-haired girl standing against the wall. She reminded him of Kiri, so why not? He approached her and bowed over her hand as Mala had shown him. “I’m Garon of Westfall Valley,” he said. “May I have this dance?”
~
“That isn’t a plan,” Kiri said. “That is barely an errand. You shouldn’t have said you had a plan. You should have said you were hoping a plan would present itself. Why would this man have left you any note anyway? He most likely thinks you’re dead.”
“I would have left a note.” Tagg’s face was half concealed in the shadows of the alley they were walking down, hiding his expression. Was he really as confident in this idea as he was acting? “It’s the easiest way to clean up if I happened not to be there, which I was not. He will send me somewhere to be picked off by the Enforcer.”
“But then it’s just going to lead you into a trap.” Kiri was nearly having to run to keep up with Tagg’s broad steps, and it tried her patience as much as his absurd plan. At least in this part of the city she could be relatively confident she wasn’t walking in something nasty. “Do you not realize that’s backwards? We need the Enforcer in a trap, not you.”
“Yes,” Tagg said sharply. “But it’s the best I’ve got right now. I need to figure out what they expect me to do.”
“They could just attack you when you come to pick up the note.”
“No, they wouldn’t do it there,” Tagg said. “The guards frown on murder in the High District, even of low-lifes.”
“We’re going to the High District?” Kiri stopped stock still for a moment. “Isn’t that where the palace is?”
“Yes, it is,” Tagg said. “Why? Do you have some problem with the palace?”
“Maybe I do,” Kiri said. “It’s not any of your business.” He didn’t stop and try to discuss it with her anymore, so she thought in silence as they walked on. They were sticking to quiet alleys, and ducking out of the way to avoid any passers by. The rooftops were hard to navigate in this part of the city, and very high and dangerous for someone like Tagg who didn’t have the Firebrand’s skill at climbing. Despite all that had happened already, it was not yet that late. The party was probably still going on at the palace.
“Look, I have some business at the palace..that’s none of yours,” she added quickly when he opened his mouth. “You say you’ll be safe at your meeting place?”
“Trust me on this one,” he said. “The Enforcer won’t do anything in that part of the city.”
“I still think it’s strange that you have a contact point with the highborns,” Kiri said.
“I’m not talking to one of the Lords,” Tagg said. “There are lowborns everywhere, you know. The wealthy all have servants. Anyway, he’s called the Thief Lord.”
Kiri shrugged.
“It’s certainly no stranger than someone dressed like you showing up to the palace,” he said.
Kiri looked down at the slim-fitting black clothes she was wearing and touched a hand to her mask. “Good point,” she said. “We have to make a detour.”
“Why don’t we just part ways now?” he said. “We can meet up later.”
“Nope.” Kiri shook her head. “I’m not leaving you until we’re in a well lit and wealthy part of the city. How will I trap the Enforcer if he’s already eaten the bait?”
They veered off to one of Kiri’s hiding places. Tagg tapped his foot while Kiri retrieved her shoes and dress from the rain barrel where she had hidden it and slipped it on. He had turned his back as she’d insisted, but he clearly had little patience for the whole exercise.
“We’re wasting time,” he said. “I don’t want to be too late.”
“Almost done,” Kiri said. She started to take off her mask, then hesitated. She didn’t want him to see her face. But she would look strange with it on, and they would make better time if they didn’t have to avoid others on the street. He’d said he was already late. With a grumble, she pulled off the mask and tucked it into her boot. “Ready, you can turn around.”
Tagg unabashedly looked her up and down, finally landing on her face. One corner of his mouth quirked up. “Pretty,” he said. “Aren’t you young to be a warrior?”
“Is that what I am?” Kiri asked. “Aren’t you young to be a crime boss?”
“I’m older than I look,” Tagg said. “And I’m nobody’s boss anymore. You look like you’re ready for the palace now. The servant’s door, anyway. Let’s go.”
The shift in surroundings when they crossed into the High District was obvious. The streets were perfect and immaculate, and, most notable of all, there were lights. Balls of fire suspended in circular globes hung from tall poles at every intersection of streets. It was so much safer that people walked around in the night laughing and talking without guards or any seeming thought to the possibility of a lurking cutpurse.
“Let’s part ways here,” Tagg said. “You can see why I said I’d be safe, can you not?”
Kiri nodded. “Where will we meet, and when?”
“Tomorrow,” Tagg said. “I can’t be sure I will be done until dawn. I will meet you back at your young friend Colin’s house.”
“No,” Kiri said. “I got you out of there. We aren’t leading the Enforcer back to them.”
“He won’t come in the daytime.” Tagg gestured dismissively, both hands pushing Kiri’s objections away. “Even more than the Firebrand he works at night. Can you imagine the attention his dogs would attract in the daytime? Everyone knows the Enforcer only acts at night. You meet me there tomorrow and I’ll be out of there before the night.”
“Fine,” Kiri said. “Get out of here.”
“Don’t forget,” Tagg said. “You’ll need to go in by the servant’s entrance.”
Kiri resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him.