She knew he was following her. The damned wraith. He finally cornered her in an abandoned underpass near the border between the Shards and Dorfchester. She had been carrying Dudley across an entire borough before finding what was left of her fellow rats. They gathered under Maximus Bridge. Her thieves looked at her as if she were a ghost.

“We thought you dead, My Queen,” one of them said, aghast.

The Queen of Thieves frowned at him. Such lack of urgency when Dudley was visibly dying around her shoulder. She could no longer get words out of him. Only the occasional whimper or pained moan. The reality of her King’s mortality only just struck her. He won’t stay on these courts for much longer…

Then the three of her underlings gazed upwards, as if their King and Queen didn’t exist. They turned their tails and fled from her. She was truly alone. She would soon be alone forever. Victoria rested Dudley on the floor. This would be where he died. He deserved to die somewhere better. At least he would be with his Queen as he passed. She lifted the bandanna above his head. The crowned raccoon smiled at her as she scrunched the black cloth and threw it onto the wet cobblestones. Dudley’s face had never appeared so pale. His eyes were dewy, his once glorious black locks sweaty and deflated. The green veins stretched across the side of his cheek and down through his neck.

“I warned you.” The voice was inhuman and echoed under the bridge.

Victoria felt her fists tighten. She grasped her magpie cane. How dare he disturb her now, during her grief? The irksome Night Fang stepped out of the darkness. The sapphire side of his breastplate and mask glowed in the dark. The horned silver tiger on his chest snarled at her, yet the Night Fang’s lightning blue eyes were remorseful. How dare you pity me! I bested you. I kicked you from my tower. You have no right to think me below you!

“Come to gloat at him as he dies,” the Queen of Thieves asked with ardent scorn.

The Night Fang stepped closer. She was in no mood. It all seemed so futile now. All the gold and gems in New Jade, the downfall of the city’s social elite. The battle and rewards felt hollow without Dudley.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

To her bemusement, the loathsome blue ghost did not try to fight her. The Night Fang held out his hand. A small syringe sat on his gloved palm. The liquid inside was clear as pure crystal, and it barely moved. A clear jelly. “Give it to him,” the impertinent Ninja ordered.

“Why should I trust your black magic?” she asked harshly.

“Not magic,” the Assassin echoed. “Alchemy. It’s an antidote to combat the poison. The only one I have left.”

Victoria doubted this façade of altruism. Then she heard Dudley release an agonised howl behind her. She heard his boots kicking into the puddles and water splashed against the ends of her cloak. He was a dead man, still suffering. She reached out to take the supposed antidote, and the Ninja snapped his hand back.

“I would appreciate you returning the favour,” the Night Fang said coyly in that ghostly voice.

Victoria scowled. She clenched her hand tight around her magpie cane. Was he too foolish to understand that she would happily kill him if it meant a chance at saving Dudley? She was about to pull a dagger from her boot before the insolent Assassin spoke again.

“Dorian Ambrose is the Velociraptor.”

Victoria laughed. She was not certain if it was hysteria from losing her King or the thought of Dorian Ambrose being the one behind all her misery. “The flamboyant knight?” she questioned incredulously.

“He’s going to unleash a plague on your new turf.” The Night Fang’s words were dry and matter of fact, yet through that deep echo came a cadence of sincerity. “Then the whole city will fall after that. I know we’ve been at odds since I arrived, but surely you and I can both agree that New Jade City doesn’t deserve to burn to the ground?” He offered her the needle. “Help me or leave. I won’t force you to decide. However, if I die trying to stop Ambrose, everything you built will be for nought.”

Victoria frowned at him and snatched the antidote from his grip before he could retract it again. She knelt over Dudley and injected the liquid into a bulging green vein down the side of his neck. He coughed and wheezed and then turned silent. After a painfully long moment, he began to slumber. He no longer kicked or writhed in agony. Victoria finally felt her heart rest. Perhaps she would not rule her thieves alone. She kissed Dudley on the forehead. Then she reluctantly turned her attention back to the Ninja. She snarled at first, out of habit. Then she relented. “Dorian said that he was going to light a beacon at Lucious Church,” she told him after a heavy sigh. “That will be the signal for his clan to release the weapon.”

The Night Fang’s blue eyes cast over her. “Thank you for telling me,” he echoed before turning to leave.

“Allow me to get Dudley somewhere safe,” she called out hastily. “Then we’ll go together.”