He stopped for a moment, then cleared his throat. 'I'll make an agreement with you, Elaine. You carry on with your preparations here at the guildhouse. If we fail to end this war, your plan will be the only one open to us anyway. I will take care of von Minterheim. This evening.'
'By yourself?' Nate asked incredulously.
'I won't require any of you to come with me,' Lucius said. He managed not to sound evasive, but he already had an idea of who he could go to for help. 'If I succeed, the guard will be thrown into chaos, at least temporarily, and their ties to the Guild will be weakened.'
'This sounds like madness,' Nate said.
'I would listen to him, if I were you,' said Grennar. 'If I were all of you. If anyone here can reach the Captain of the Vos guard, I think it is Lucius.'
'I agree,' said another woman, and Lucius saw Grayling throw a quick wink at him. 'Though if he does need any help, I will gladly volunteer for that mission.'
He smiled back, but shook his head slowly.
'If I fail, then you will have lost nothing,' Lucius continued, turning his attention back to Elaine. 'If I reach him, we go on the attack tomorrow evening. I'll form the team to strike at Loredo and Jewel myself. The other targets we will divide up amongst us. Grennar, the beggars will act as spotters, watching the Guild's movements so we can be ready to strike at Loredo when the guard are at their most distracted.'
'They won't be able to sneeze without one of us being nearby to see it,' Grennar said. 'When the time comes, we'll have your target in our sights.'
As arguments between the thieves began to break out, some supporting Lucius' bold plan, others counselling caution, Lucius looked down the table at the other members of the Council.
'Do we have an agreement?'
Wendric looked sideways at Elaine. 'We have little to lose. Without being callous about it, we risk only one man.'
'I think this is the last time I may see you, Lucius,' Elaine said. 'But if there is the slightest chance you can succeed… it is an appealing idea. Nate, what say you?'
'I still think it is madness,' Nate muttered.
'Then we are agreed,' Elaine said, her voice suddenly hard and sure, carrying across the crowded council chamber. 'We will start our reprisal this evening.'
Lucius stood. 'I must prepare.'
As he strode out of the council chamber, he ignored the looks the thieves threw him, ranging from outright support to complete mistrust. His mind was fixed firmly on reaching von Minterheim. First, however, he had to enlist the help of someone else. And that would not be easy.
CHAPTER 17
Closing his eyes, Lucius half-smiled to himself as he felt the threads of power buckle and twist slightly, their natural movements disrupted by the approach of another practitioner. He still lacked the finesse to decipher everything they were telling him, but Adrianna's approach was becoming easier to monitor the closer she came. Whether it was the magnitude of her skill in magic that caused the little fluctuations in the threads, or her emotions at having been summoned once more, Lucius could only guess. He found himself thinking of her anger acting as a bow wave ploughing through their energy, as a ship made its presence felt across the vast ocean.
The analogy seemed to hold true as she strode across the empty warehouse, dust curling up behind her footsteps.
'I am not yours to summon and command, Lucius,' she said, contempt evident in her voice. He sighed inwardly, knowing his mission here was not going to be easy.
'You turn your back on us, ignore the calls of Master Forbeck, abandon the training generously offered to you, and then expect… what? Why have you called me here?'
'Good evening, Adrianna,' he said, forcing a grim smile.
'Just get to the point.'
'Your current employers are finished,' he said. 'Within the next day, their hold on the city will be shattered, their members scattered and bleeding.'
Adrianna's pace had slowed as she approached him, and now she stopped altogether, her expression a mixture of puzzlement and exasperation.
'Perhaps you have not been keeping up with recent events,' she said carefully, and he realised she was studying him carefully. She had not assumed he was bluffing, instead trying to determine the path he had chosen; she was no longer dismissing him as unimportant. 'The Hands are in retreat all over the city, your guildmaster and most of the Council are dead, and you are now just waiting for the end.'
'I'm waiting for nothing, Aidy. I told you, this war will be over within the next day.'
'This is not your fight, Lucius. Leave them. Leave the Hands. There is no future there, and your allegiance should not be to a den of thieves. You could be so much more than that.'
'So you have told me.'
'Then why stay with the Hands?'
He smiled wolfishly at her. 'I like them.'
Snorting at that, Adrianna shook her head. 'Are they worth dying for?'
Considering her words, he finally shrugged. 'They are certainly worth fighting for, and that is what I intend to do. Without me, they will all die, or otherwise be all but enslaved by the Guild. I can make the difference here, Aidy.'
Placing a hand on her hip, she looked at him curiously. 'And when did you find something to believe in? Where is the selfish Lucius we have come to know and despise, the one who runs from responsibility? They cannot be paying you that much at the moment, I know. If there is no profit, why are you staying to defend them?'
Lucius opened his mouth to answer, then found precious few words. 'That is something of a surprise to me as well,' he finally muttered.
'If only you had found a similar loyalty for us.'
'I still may.' The words amazed him as much as they did Adrianna. Somewhere along the line, he found he had decided to stay in the city, to carve his own niche and no one would be forcing him out. Not the Guild, not Adrianna and definitely not the Shadowmages. Turnitia was after all, his home. He was done with running.
'What are you saying?' she asked, suspiciously, still expecting a trap somewhere down the line. As it happened, she was not so very wrong.
'I'll tell you what I am going to do,' he said. 'And I'll ask a simple request. What happens then is up to you. You will have the chance, at the very least, to protect your employer's interests, and perhaps deliver victory in this war to them single-handed. That would do much for the reputation of the Shadowmages and herald their return to the city, would it not?'
'Go on.'
'Loredo has been clever, building alliances and ensuring he has some of the best thieves in the city on his side. Even his thugs are well-directed and motivated. He has a Shadowmage in his employ, and can call upon the services of demons from the sea. But central to his plans are his ties to the Vos guard.'
'And these are the enemies you are determined to make?' Adrianna asked. 'You have a chance to escape all of this, and there are those within the Shadowmages who would protect you from further harm if you walked away now. Remember, we always look after our own.'
'In a way, I am counting on that,' Lucius said, but evaded her questioning look. 'However, it is plain that we cannot fight them all, not in open battle.'
He ran a hand through his hair as he debated his next words. If he had misread Adrianna, what he was about to say could finish the Hands before a single attack was launched. Still, he forged ahead, determined to test his own instincts.
'We are going to strike them down from the shadows, hit the power base of the Guild.' He said. 'The
