Nate's question had been on everyone's mind and hearing it voiced caused some to start shuffling their feet and looking over their shoulders, as if expecting to see the entire Vos army crash through the door of the council chamber.
'Because Loredo is no fool,' Grennar said, and Lucius saw Nate colour slightly as the girl looked at him. 'Because the Vos guard have
'Well, that doesn't make sense,' Wendric said. 'The Vos guard won't see themselves as junior members in that partnership. They will want to run the Guild, not the other way around.'
'That is exactly what Loredo fears.'
'If the Hands fall and only the Guild remains, Loredo wants to retain his independence,' Elaine said. 'He does not want his thieves to become stooges for the Empire.'
'Exactly,' Grennar said. 'He is playing a dangerous, but — it has to be said — clever game. He has brought the Vos guard onto his side, and that is a powerful ally for any thieves' guild to have, normally only possible in the most corrupt Pontaine cities. He is playing things down the middle, taking what support he can easily get from the guard, while giving them as little information as possible.'
'The guard cannot be happy with that,' said Nate.
'The Captain of the Guard, von Minterheim, was seen raging in the Citadel this morning. He has been telling his sergeants to lean on their Guild contacts, to start squeezing them for information. He wants this war over quickly, as it is beginning to make the merchants nervous. If they decide it is safer and more profitable to start trading in another city, Vos' hold on Turnitia is weakened.'
Nate gave Grennar a strange look. 'And how, exactly, does the Beggars Guild know what is happening within the Citadel?'
She shrugged. 'As we told your guildmaster and Lucius here, we have eyes everywhere.'
'In the Citadel?'
'Beggars can go where others cannot. No one sees us, and so if a few beggars remain in the courtyard after a hanging or two, well they will be thrown out eventually, but no one is going to hurry to do it.'
'Magnus was right about you,' Wendric said quietly, and Lucius could see the man had a new appreciation of their ally, despite her young age.
'So where does that leave us?' another voice in the crowd asked.
'Without much time,' Elaine answered. 'If von Minterheim is pressuring Loredo, he will be forced to move quickly. He doubtless feels we are crippled and defenceless, so his end game will start soon.'
'One thing is certain; he will want this guildhouse,' Wendric said. 'There are too many treasures and secrets within these walls for him to ignore.'
'A direct assault, then?' Nate asked.
'That will come sooner or later,' Elaine said. 'The streets will become no-go areas for all of us first. And if they discover our relationship with the beggars…'
'Don't worry about us,' Grennar said. 'We would not enter an agreement with you if it meant suicide. Our presence will be kept hidden, one way or another.'
'In that case, we go fully defensive,' Elaine said. 'We lock down the guildhouse, use only the sewers when moving about the city, and stay away from the areas the Guild controls best — the docks and merchant quarter. This place, we fortify. We'll get our trapsmiths to work and plunder the armoury for weapons.'
'Just sit and wait?' Wendric asked.
'We cannot fight them directly,' Elaine pointed out. 'They are too many. However, if we know they have to come here, and our friends among the beggars can tell us when, then we regain an advantage. Superior numbers will mean nothing when the fight is on our territory.'
'There is a sense in that,' a thief said in support.
'We can ensure that any enemy trying to breach these walls, be they thieves or guard, will be hip deep in their own blood within minutes.'
'That is no way to gain victory,' Wendric said.
'The first task is to survive. Once we can prove we can defend ourselves, once we show the Guild that they cannot wipe us out without sustaining untenable losses, their attacks will stall.'
'I agree,' said Nate. 'Once we break the back of their main assault, then we can think about hitting back. If we prolong this long enough, their alliance with the Vos guard may break down. Without that support, it is the Guild that becomes vulnerable.'
'It would be ironic if the guard then decided all thieves were its enemy,' Elaine said, thinking through the course ahead. 'Suddenly, it is the Guild that is the most visible, while we are hidden here. When the guard starts hitting back at thieves, they will be targeting the Guild. How long will it be before the Guild is reduced in strength to our level? Suddenly, things become even!'
A ragged cheer went through the crowd, though only a handful of thieves added to it.
'That is pretty fanciful,' Wendric said.
'Yes, of course it is,' Elaine said. 'What is important is that we realise that there are many other options open to us, so long as we can survive the next few days. We can make this guildhouse near impregnable. We can play the waiting game now — the Guild cannot.'
Seeing Nate nod in agreement, Wendric looked down the table. 'So, we have a consensus?'
'No.'
Lucius had been brooding, following only the gist of the debate at times. He leaned on one elbow as he sat in thought. He was only faintly aware that he had uttered his disagreement, and it was the silence that followed that shook his attention back to the chamber, as the assembled thieves waited for his next words.
Looking down the table, he saw Wendric raise his eyebrows in surprise, while Nate frowned in frustration. He tried hard to ignore the dangerous look Elaine flashed him, there only for a second, but no less threatening for all that.
'Make your preparations,' he said. 'Build the defences you suggest round the guildhouse. Whether necessary or not, they are certainly prudent. And yes, I agree that no one should leave unless on absolutely essential business. You will need the manpower anyway to defend this place. But I do not suggest that we simply sit here, waiting for the hammer to fall. That, it seems to me, would be a very foolish thing to do.'
'So, what do you suggest?' Elaine asked, and he could sense the coldness in voice, the faint warning that now was not the time for the Council to be divided, that they could not risk the Hands disbanding.
Laying his hands flat on the table, Lucius sat straight in his seat, staring at the wood between them. He thought of the attack on Magnus, the guildmaster cut down in the street like an animal. He remembered Markel and Treal, two children who had been butchered by the Guild, just to make a point. The disaster at the docks, and the inhuman allies the Guild had apparently gained, still a secret to those in this chamber. Too much blood, too much killing, and for what? So one group of thieves could run the city the way they saw fit?
It ended here.
'I say we attack.'
The suggestion was met with silence, and Lucius continued, his voice even, measured, dangerous. 'We have little else to lose, and they will be at their most confident. We hit them. We hit all of them. We start with Loredo, Jewel, von Minterheim, and work down from there. We kill their leaders, their senior thieves, the guard sergeants, and anyone else who gets in the way. We pay them back for the blood they have stolen from us, drop for drop. In one evening, we finish this war.'
Silence reigned in the room, until Nate coughed, then laughed.
'I see,' he said. 'We just kill them all. Why didn't we think of that?'
'Lucius, we have already tried to hit Jewel, and it failed. Badly,' said Wendric.
'Then we do it properly this time.'
'And von Minterheim as well?' Elaine asked. 'You suggest we just walk into the Citadel and assassinate the military leader of the city?'
'Yes,' he said. 'That is exactly what I propose.'
Elaine threw up her hands in disbelief. 'And how do you propose we accomplish this great night of murder?'
'It's war, Elaine, not murder,' Lucius said. 'Never forget that. This is how we avenge Magnus, Caradoc and everyone else taken from us.'
