'It seems you are the one in need of help, Magnus,' said Sebastian. 'Alliances, you see, are built on mutual goals. You are currently engaged in a war, one that you are losing. The bodies of your members are found every night in dark alleys, and your numbers shrink daily. And now the Vos army itself has targeted you for destruction. Why would we want any part of that? I have no wish to see my own people decimated in retaliation.'
'The risks to you would be minimal. No active operations. Just information, a regular flow. That is all.'
'The role of a spy can be the riskiest of all.'
'I suspect you already have much of the information we require,' Magnus said. 'You need do little more than you do now. As you said, your guild comprises the lowest and most humble. You are all but invisible to our enemies — else they would have approached you already.'
'What makes you think they haven't?' Sebastian asked.
'I know Loredo. I know how he thinks.'
Sebastian shrugged. 'Not completely useless then.'
'In return, I offer you ten per cent of our guild's takings over the next five years. After that, we review the arrangement, see whether it is still beneficial to the two of us.'
Lucius stifled a sharp intake of breath. That ten percent would cut deep into the franchise agreements within the Hands, and he could imagine plenty of thieves loathe to share their ill-gotten gains with beggars.
'Plus, we can train any member of yours that wishes to become a thief,' Magnus finished.
Sebastian hooted at that, and that encouraged laughter from the rest of his entourage. 'I already told you, Magnus, many of the beggars in this city are wealthier than your thieves. And I won't have you sap my guild's strength to bolster your own.'
'Then stop playing, Sebastian,' Magnus said, allowing impatience to creep into his voice. 'What are you after? You already knew I was coming to see you, and if I did not have something you were interested in, we would not have got this far. So, what is it?'
Pursing his lips, Sebastian looked down at Magnus as if considering his options.
'The ten per cent I'll take,' he said. 'Though only for one year. You will have trouble enough keeping your thieves in line for that arrangement, and you won't get them to agree to it for long when the danger has passed. Maybe we will continue the alliance thereafter, maybe not. It all depends on which guild earns more during that time.'
'Agreed.'
'Furthermore, you will give us the Five Markets.'
Magnus frowned. 'I thought you said you weren't interested in territory.'
'Oh, we're not,' Sebastian said smoothly. 'But visitors to the Five Markets all come with a finite amount of coin in their purses. Most they will spend, but some they give to the poor, starving beggars that walk among them. However, a man who has just been robbed has neither the ability nor the inclination for charity, and your pickpockets have become too good at what they do.'
'That is too much to ask.'
'It makes perfect sense. It is a small price to pay for our support. And what you are doing in the Five Markets is not good for business. People become tighter with their money, the guard move us on that much quicker. It's bad business, Magnus, you only have the greed of your thieves to blame.'
Exhaling noisily, Magnus eventually nodded. 'For the duration of one year only, Sebastian. I'll withdraw our teams from the Five Markets tomorrow, but they come up for negotiation again when we discuss the continuance of our alliance.'
Sebastian, still crouched on his crate, looked down at Magnus imperiously for a moment, then smiled.
'Then we have an understanding. I'll arrange for one of us to report to your guildhouse daily. We'll update you with anything learned, and you can suggest where we concentrate our efforts.'
'Good enough,' said Magnus. 'I presume you already know where our guildhouse is.'
He received a look of scorn for his trouble. 'Magnus, we already know the knock code to gain entry through your own front door.'
'Of course you do,' Magnus muttered, and Lucius guessed that the system would be changed wholesale that very night. 'Who will be our liaison?'
'Grennar, I think. She is most suited to the task.' Magnus looked doubtfully down at the young girl, who stared back defiantly. 'Don't let her tender years mislead you, Magnus. She is probably smarter than both of us.'
Magnus shrugged. 'Fine. Send her to us tonight.'
'She'll be there,' Sebastian said. 'One other thing, a down payment on our side of the bargain. Have a care as you walk about the city, Magnus. Your enemies know you have left the guildhouse, and that disguise is not going to fool anyone'
Lucius looked up at Sebastian in alarm. 'How do they know?'
'The Guild's own spy network is not as extensive as ours, but it's still shrewd enough. Loredo is playing his own game at the moment, pulling on the Vos army for muscle and information, while giving as little in return as possible — Grennar will tell you what we have learned there later. But, for now, be careful. Assassins are on the streets looking for you.'
'We should go, quickly,' Lucius said, turning to Magnus. He glanced at Taene and Narsell, and saw both had their hands on their weapons and were already scanning the nearby crowds for danger.
Magnus agreed, then faced the beggars. 'Sebastian, a pleasure.'
The beggar master nodded once. 'Just make sure you stay in one piece. I don't want to have this conversation with Loredo down the line.'
Taene and Narsell hustled them away from Ring Street, choosing quieter side roads and the wider alleys in an effort to avoid crowds. Now their mission was done, there was no need to take unnecessary risks, and the bodyguards placed themselves ahead and behind Magnus and Lucius.
'That was an expensive agreement,' Lucius said cautiously.
'It could have been far more costly,' Magnus said. 'I was expecting him to demand a portion of the vault from the outset, as it will take time for our operations to reach their full potential again, even if this war is won quickly with the minimum of bloodshed. But I think he had already fixed his sights on the Five Markets.'
'Ambrose will not be happy with that, nor will the others involved in the pick-pocketing.'
'The Five Markets represent a higher cost than that, Lucius,' Magnus said. 'They are a magnet for everyone in the city, be they resident or visitor. The pickpocket teams are where we have always trained the youngest among us, bringing fresh blood into the guild on a regular basis. Now, those children will become beggars, while we must look elsewhere for recruits. That is the true value of the territory.'
Lucius had not considered that, and it began to dawn on him just how complicated the structure of these negotiations could become. Narsell, leading them down a narrow street lined with tanners, ironmongers and other tradesmen, suddenly hissed, and Lucius looked up to see a patrol of Vos guard rounding the junction ahead. They steered right, heading down a short alley behind a carpenters but, as they emerged into the parallel street, they saw another patrol just a few dozen yards away.
'That's no coincidence,' Magnus muttered, and Lucius felt the tension rise in both Narsell and Taene. They headed away from the patrols, directly back to Ring Street, with Lucius reaching beneath his cloak to feel the reassuring presence of his sword. They could see the crowds churning along Ring Street just a little distance ahead, but the Vos patrol had already changed its course to follow them, and they were not being discrete about it.
'Get ready to run,' Narsell whispered, and Lucius saw him raise a hand in preparation for the signal to take action. Before he could give it, two groups of men stumbled out of opposite alleyways ahead of them, some singing drunkenly, others stumbling as they clutched bottles.
The timing of their appearance set Lucius on edge, and he felt in his stomach that these were no mere revellers in search of another tavern. Magnus and the bodyguards had stopped, and Taene's blade was half drawn. Lucius looked back at the Vos guards, who had not quickened their pace, but still continued towards them relentlessly. If the drunks proved hostile, they were cut off from any path of escape, but he did not relish trying to smash through the soldiers while fleeing.
'Carry on,' Magnus urged. 'We'll do better with the drunks than the guard.'
They moved to obey, and watched as the two groups of men merged with one another, laughing and slapping one another on the back, seemingly oblivious to the four thieves marching warily toward them. However, Lucius had
