the entire countryside is overrun with thieves and brigands. Perhaps we should send a whole army of mercenaries along the west highway. I’ll get my damn wine then.”
“Speaking of, uh, wine,” Potts said. “Our own stores have gotten uncomfortably low. My usual contacts within the city’s underground have refused to sell me even the cheapest vintage for any price, no matter how outrageous.”
“I told you they meant to starve me!” Leon howled. His fat shifted in the bath, splashing the two maids. They winced but held their tongues. Potts held his as well, not daring to say how he felt Leon could use a solid week of starvation.
“It appears Thren has begun a new tactic,” Potts said instead. “Instead of trying to bankrupt us, he does what he can to make our lives miserable. He’s disrupted Gemcroft’s caravans as well.”
“Make us miserable?” Leon fumed. “They live in guttershite and eat out of assholes yet they try to make me miserable? We must strike back. This nonsense has gone on far too long.”
“Perhaps, if you have a plan, you can bring it up at the Kensgold?” Potts suggested.
“Ugh,” Leon said, sinking deeper into the bath. More water splashed out the sides. The two maids were thoroughly soaked by now, but if they were disturbed by the contact with Leon and his dirty water, they hid it well. “I grow so tired of these Kensgolds. Didn’t they used to be every four years instead of two?”
“They did,” Potts said. “But when the Trifect declared war on the guilds, it was decided that meeting more often would be best for coordinating our efforts at destroying them.” The advisor coughed. “It was your idea, master.”
“Bah. Then I was an idiot.”
You still are, thought Potts.
“One last thing,” Potts said, determined to finish so he could leave before the thoroughly grotesque sight of Leon getting out of the tub, the water dripping down from his fat in a wide circle around the floor. The maids could never get the towels around him fast enough to suppress the horrible spectacle.
“What’s that?” Leon asked.
“It appears that the rest of the thief guilds have turned against the Ash Guild. They’ve taken nearly all of their territory except for a few streets.”
“Really?” Leon asked. “Did their guildleader die?”
“There doesn’t appear to be any good reason, not that I have heard.”
“Hrm.” Leon scratched his chin as he thought. “To have so many guilds turn on one implies a severe weakness. Thren must have turned on them. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Try to capture one of the Ash Guild’s members before they’re all dead. We might be able to snag ourselves an ally.”
“As you wish,” Potts said with a bow. He saw Leon grab the sides of the bath, preparing to stand, so he beat a hasty retreat.
K ayla sat alone in her room, feeling restless. For whatever reason, Thren had not taken her and Senke with him, only Will and his son. Senke had told her it had something to do with the Ash Guild, but would not elaborate. He had run off to do a spot of wenching, which left her alone, bored, and restless. Ever since rescuing Robert Haern from prison, her duties had dwindled down to nothing. She figured in a day or two she’d beg for something as simple as leading a caravan robbery, just so she could have something to do.
She practiced with her daggers to pass the time. She had mentored under an elderly man many years ago, and from him learned many stances and techniques. She ran through them one by one. If she was to serve Thren, she’d need to be at her finest. Her daggerwork was far from the best. If Thren’s life ever came to depend on her, mediocre would not do the job.
How many hours she practiced, she didn’t know, but when she finished her body was coated with sweat and her arms throbbed. She collapsed on the bed and gasped in air. When someone knocked on her door, she was too exhausted to bother getting up.
“Come in,” she said. “It’s not locked.”
The door crept open. Kayla had expected Senke or Will, maybe even Thren, but instead Aaron crept inside and quietly shut the door behind him.
“This is a surprise,” she said, sitting up on her bed. She caught his eyes wandering, then realized her shirt was unbuttoned and open at the top. Fighting away a blush, she fastened a few of the buttons, feeling silly all the while. She’d shown far more to men when she wanted to get her way. Still, Aaron was young, and she was well aware of his crush on her.
“I have something for you,” he said.
“Oh, do you now? Let me see.”
Kayla outstretched her hand. His blue eyes stared at her fingers, and she caught his lips trembling as if he were struck with indecision. Remembering how much she hated being his age, and how uncomfortable everything always seemed to be, she tried to prod him through.
“Don’t make me wait,” she gently teased. “You’ve said you bring gifts, so give them to me. I may steal and spy, but I like presents just like any other girl.”
His neck flushed a bit, just around the collar, but then he outstretched his right hand and dropped a set of earrings onto her open palm. They sparkled with blue sapphires and white gold. Kayla gasped. She had expected cheap jewelry, a flower, or some poorly written poetry. The gift in her hand seemed more apt to have been stolen from a woman of royalty.
“Where did you get this?” she asked.
“Father has begun paying me for my aid,” he said. “He says I need to be treated like any other of his men if I am to earn their respect.”
“He must pay you well,” Kayla said, holding the earrings close so she could admire their sparkle. Clearly they had been polished and well-cared for. A part of her felt too cheap and dirty to wear them.
“You’re beautiful,” Aaron said. His voice, his eyes, his demeanor: everything about him, so normally quiet and secretive, made no attempt to hide the plain truth he spoke. He thought she was beautiful, and that simple belief was enough to have her put them in her ears, pressing them through scarred over holes from earrings she had worn as a girl. A bit of blood ran across her fingers, but she made sure none dripped across the silver.
“Thank you,” she said. She kissed his forehead, amused at how red his ears turned.
“Senke says I’ll owe him for the next five years,” Aaron said, babbling. He clearly didn’t know how to react to the kiss. “But I’ll keep paying him, and it shouldn’t be a problem, unless I die, but then I don’t need to worry about paying him back do I? Not unless he can find my ghost and…”
“Shush, Aaron,” Kayla said. At the invoking of his name, his whole body seemed to shrivel inward and slip behind a protective mask.
“Haern,” he said.
“Sorry,” Kayla said. “This kiss is for Haern, then.”
She kissed him just above his right eye.
“You’re a cute boy,” she said. “Now run along and do something appropriate for your age.”
He nodded, the blush from his ears and his neck having connected at his cheeks. His apparent love, so juvenile and simple, was enough to brighten Kayla’s night. She ushered him out the door, then plopped back down on her bed. As she spread her arms through the fabric of her covers, she let her mind wander. Aaron was cute, and more importantly, Thren’s son. Once he got older, maybe sixteen or so, perhaps she could arrange for a marriage. Her place in the guild would be solidified so completely she’d rule once Thren died.
Assuming Thren ever died. The tough bastard looked ready to live another forty years. When he did pass away, she wondered if the Spider Guild would even survive.
What am I thinking? she thought. Of course it will last. Thren won’t spend his whole life building a castle of cards. He wants a legacy.
Kayla dozed off, her light sleep broken by a firm knock on her door. A tingle in her temples told her to open it herself. Her warning was correct; Thren stood waiting, his arms crossed, his swords hanging from his belt.
“You should be more alert when I am gone,” he said as he stepped past her into her room. “If something should happen to me, an attack on our guild would immediately follow.”
“A silly worry,” Kayla said as she shut the door. “Since when can something happen to you?”
He looked at her as if deciding whether to smile or scowl. So instead he shrugged.
“Even the impossible tends to find its way to our everyday lives. I have a task for you, Kayla, one more suited
