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My body protested loudly at every tiny movement but I ignored it and pushed down the handle of the kitchen door anyway. Inside, I was met by the heavenly scent of fried eggs and pork.
“What the hell happened to you?” Zaina exclaimed as she looked up from the frying pan.
The rest of my friends were seated at the sturdy table on the other side of the room. Shocked expressions settled on their features as well when they took in the state of my face. Liam shot up from his chair.
“Are you alright?” he asked, making a move to round the table.
I waved him back in his seat and strode towards one of the empty chairs. “I’m fine.” After I had carefully lowered myself into it, I turned to Zaina. “I ran into the Rat King.”
While I recounted the events of last night, the Pernish smuggler brought the last pan of eggs over. She put it down on the table and motioned for everyone to dig in before turning back to me. “Damn. Sorry about that. It seems like he’s gotten more powerful in the months I’ve been gone. Smart move by Marcellus, though. We’re gonna have to stop outside recruitment now. Any jobs we do are gonna have to be limited to what the seven of us can pull off because antagonizing the Rat King won’t lead to anything good.”
“Who is he?” I asked around a mouthful of fried eggs.
“Some jumped up gangster,” Zaina said. “He’s pretty savage, though. He rules his gang with an iron fist and he pits his own people against each other. There’s no protection or loyalty, only obedience or death.”
“Well, he sounds fun,” Haela commented while scooping more food on her plate.
“Right. Well, apparently, the Fahr brothers sent him.” I flicked my eyes to Liam. “They threatened you again. Said if I didn’t back off, from ruining Marcellus’ campaign I assume, you’d meet with a terrible accident.”
Liam’s dark blue eyes filled with sadness and exasperation but before he could reply, Shade cut in.
“It’s an empty threat.”
“How so?” Haemir asked.
“They can’t kill him, or any of us, until after the election. If any of us die under mysterious circumstances then it would taint the election. And Marcellus can’t have that.” The Master Assassin looked to me. “That’s why this Rat King only beat you up instead of killed you.”
“I know.” I squeezed my hand into a fist on the table. “But spreading rumors isn’t enough. I want Marcellus humiliated.”
A cackle rose from Haela’s throat. “I actually had an idea about that. What if we drug him?” Mischief sparkled in her eyes as she swept her gaze around the table. “Before he goes on stage for the debate.”
“We make him look like he’s drunk in front of hundreds of people.” Elaran ran a hand over his tight side-braid. “Yes, that could work really well for us.”
“So how do we do it?” Liam asked.
A still warm frying pan hissed while our scheming group considered the question.
“If we do it too early, he will claim health issues and just cancel his appearance,” Shade finally said. “We have to do it at the debate.” His intelligent black eyes found mine. “You have to do it at the debate.”
“You want me to...” I paused and massaged my forehead. “Let me get this straight. You want me to drug someone? On stage? While hundreds of people are watching?”
“Yep.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“You’re a thief,” Elaran cut in and pushed a plate out of the way. “Figure it out.”
“Yes, I’m a thief. I steal stuff, I don’t manipulate elections!”
Haela gave me a bright smile “Just think of it as you’re stealing his... sanity.”
Even I couldn’t help laughing at that. I shook my head. “Okay, fine. But I need to see the debate hall to make a plan.”
“I can probably get you in,” Zaina said. She scratched her sharp jawline. “Just give me like an hour. I need to set up a few things first.”
I nodded at her.
“Alright, good,” Shade said. “Storm and Zaina will start looking into that. And the rest of you know what to do.”
“Yes, we know what to do, thank you,” Elaran said, biting off each word.
Acid dripped from the stares the assassin and the ranger shot each other but they didn’t continue the argument. While we cleared the table, I wondered how a full-blown fight between those two would end. I chuckled softly as I followed the others out the door. I would even pay to see that.
***
SUN BEAT DOWN ON ME as I sat cross-legged atop the stone wall surrounding the school. Heat from the stones beneath me seeped into my legs while I waited for Zaina. Across the fenced-in yard, Liam played with a group of students. I studied him.
His blue eyes glittered and a wide smile accentuated his beautiful features. When a boy caught him in a game of tag, he threw his head back and released a rippling laugh. It was a truly heartwarming sound. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Liam this happy. His whole soul practically glowed.
When my friend noticed me studying him, he patted the boy on the shoulder and jogged over to me. “Did you know that Norah doesn’t charge tuition?” he asked, breathless after the wild game of tag and the jog.
“No, I didn’t.”
Liam leaned back against the wall I sat on. “All these kids are from poor families who wouldn’t normally be able to afford school. Isn’t that amazing?”
“It is.” I smiled at him. “Norah is a kind person.”
A wistful look swept across his face. “She’s more than kind. She’s... extraordinary.” He shook his head in a quick jerky fashion. “I mean, the work she’s doing is extraordinary.”
I gave his shoulder a soft push from atop the wall. “So, how are things going with you and Norah?”
His cheeks took on a deep red color that had nothing to do with the heat or the run. “I don’t know if there is a me and Norah yet.”
“But you want it to be?”
“I...” Liam hesitated and kicked at a stray stone in front of his boot. “I mean... I...” He snapped his eyes to the side of the yard. “Oh, look! Zaina’s back. You should head over so the two of you can go look at the debate hall.”
I arched an eyebrow at him but he glanced away, that deep red color still on his cheeks. “Alright. But we’re gonna finished this conversation later.”
Liam coughed. “Right. Sure. You should...” He pointed towards Zaina. “I’ll just...” He waved a hand towards the kids.
“Uh-huh.” I chuckled. “See you later, moron.”
My friend mumbled something and drifted back towards the students. I’d never seen him this embarrassed before. It was quite fun. And it confirmed my suspicion: the boy was in love. A wide smile spread across my own mouth as I jumped down from the wall and trotted to where Zaina waited. After everything he’d been through, it was nice to see him happy.
“Hey, is everything set?” I asked once I reached the Pernish smuggler.
“Yep.” Her eyes lingered on the dark bruise across my cheekbone. “You ready?”
“Always. Lead the way.”
She blew out an amused breath and jerked her head. “Alright then, follow me.”
Morning business was in full swing. We had to dodge vendors, customers, and horse-drawn carriages on every road. The smell of baking bread along one street was replaced by exquisite perfume on another, only to be ruined by a large heap of animal droppings as we rounded the corner. I was starting to get used to the incredible amount of people who lived in this city, but at times it was still overwhelming.
“Whoa!” I stopped dead in the street and stared into the window of a shop. “Is that magic?”
Zaina drew up next to me and peered inside. A small upside-down pyramid floated in the air above a metal plate. The shop clerk held it up to a customer inside the store and pointed at different areas of the contraption. When the customer shook his head, the seller instead pointed to a pearly white orb the size of a palm with some kind of transparent air shield around it.
“Yeah, it is,” Zaina said. “But it’s just items with a simple spell on them. It’s nothing compared to what it used to be. At least, that’s what people say.”
“What does that mean?”
The dark-haired smuggler motioned for us to continue walking. “Apparently, there used to be these great mages but they haven’t existed for... centuries? I think. Of course, there are still people with different kind of powers.” She threw a quick glance at me. “Like you. But there haven’t been any great mages since the dragons disappeared.”
I stared at her. “Dragons are real?”
“Yeah. Or they were, at least.” She shrugged. “No one knows if the dragons disappeared because magic did or if magic disappeared because the dragons did.”
“Wow.” I weaved through a group of people blocking the road in front of a hatmaker’s shop. “The world is so much bigger than I thought.”
Zaina gave me a bright smile. “And there’s so much more still to see.”
It took great effort not to ask any more questions about magic. There was so much I wanted to know but it wasn’t exactly a safe topic. I had sworn not to ask about Ashaana and I also had a feeling that it was best not to mention that Elaran and the other elves from Tkeideru could practice magic. So instead of voicing what was really on my mind, I continued pushing my way through the crowd in silence until another thought struck me.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” I began. “Norah is what, eighteen?”
“Nineteen.”
“Liam told me the students don’t pay to go to her school.” I turned to the smuggler and furrowed my brows. “How did she manage to buy a whole school? And how can she keep it running?”
“The school runs on donations.” Zaina let out a brief chuckle. “My sister is a very charming person and when she asks people for donations, they happily part with their money.”
I released a soft laugh too. “Yeah, I can imagine. But how did she afford buying it in the first place?”
“She didn’t.” My walking companion fell silent. For a moment, only the chatter of people and rattle of carriages filled the space between us. “I traded my ship for it.”
My mouth dropped open. “You... you what?”
Zaina lifted her toned shoulders in a shrug. “It was a small one, not like the warship we arrived on, but still... it was enough for my smuggling operation up and down the coast. And enough to buy a school.” A sad smile blew across her striking face. “We’ve been on our own for a while. She’s my sister. I need her to be happy, and being a teacher makes her happy.”
Not only was the world more complicated than I’d imagined, there were also a lot more layers to Zaina than I’d originally thought. No wonder she and Haela got along so well. And the two of us too, for that matter. We all had a someone, family by blood or choice, who we would do anything for.
“We’re here,” Zaina said, breaking my wandering thoughts. She motioned at the large rectangular building in front of us before moving towards one of the short sides. “I’ve bribed the guard at the back.”
As promised, the man guarding the small back door let us in after Zaina dropped one of our pearl pouches into his palm.
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“About ten minutes. So make them count.”
A narrow corridor met us inside the door. After a quick nod to my criminal companion, we snuck forward. Labeled doors dotted the hallway but my excitement over being able to read the signs on them was tempered by the fact that they said unhelpful stuff like storage and other useless things.
“Whoa,” I commented when the corridor dumped us on the floor of a great hall.
Stairs to our right led up to a gigantic stage while a vast sea of chairs spanned the area in front of it. Remembering that we only had a few minutes, I jogged up the wooden steps to the podium. It was bare save for the row of lecterns pushed against the stage wall and a stack of empty glasses and water pitchers.
“Hmm...” I mused while studying the carved wood. “I could lace his lectern with a drug that can be absorbed through the skin.” I shook my head. “No, that wouldn’t work. I won’t know which lectern is his until he gets on stage and by then it’ll be too late. Damn.”
Darting back and forth across the podium, I mapped the audience’s viewpoints and the potential spots where I could move unseen. The results were disheartening. I threw my head back and let out a frustrated sigh. Beams. I snapped my gaze back to the chairs and then the stacks in the corner.
“Ohh this might work!” I thundered down the stairs and ran past a startled Zaina.
“We only have another minute or two,” she called after me as I disappeared into the mass of chairs.
“I know,” I called back before stopping at a random point in the audience and tilting my head back. Sprinting through the gathered furniture, I did the same at other spots throughout the room. A grin spread across my lips. “They won’t see a thing.”
When I finally reached the confounded smuggler again, I was thoroughly out of breath. “Alright, I have a plan.”
“Good, because we’re out of time.”
“Can you get me a liquid drug?” I asked while we jogged back down the corridor. “Not a powder or a pill or something, but a liquid.”
Zaina was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I think I know something that’ll work.”
“Great!” That wicked grin was back on my face. “There are a few more things I’ll need but yeah, I know how to drug Marcellus.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” Zaina said with an equally excited smile as we slipped through the door.
Noise from people and carts enveloped us when we rejoined the city. How about that? It turned out that I would be able to steal Marcellus’ sanity. On stage. In front of hundreds of people. I chuckled as we steered back towards the school. Thieves. We sure are a versatile lot.