The inn was bustling with activity that night. Marcus was in his usual seat of power, dispensing the members of the Guild to go where they could to do their thieving. Ridley was bouncing back and forth, talking to Donald and helping Marcus. Only Jack wasn’t in his usual spot. Donald hadn’t seen him yet that evening.
Finally Grace emerged from the kitchen area, looking more than a little drawn. Jack was with her, leading her by the hand, but once they came into the common room he released her. Donald was too distracted at seeing Grace again to notice. He jumped from his seat and left Ridley in mid-sentence.
He pulled Grace into a great bear hug. “You caused so much trouble for me! When Ridley said you had been sent away, I feared the worst.”
“She didn’t mention Henry?”
“Well yes, but all I heard at first was, ‘Grace has left the inn.’” He led her to the table he shared with Ridley and Jack sat with them. This time both Ridley and Donald took note of how closely they sat to one another.
“I am sorry, Donald.” Grace reached across the table and clasped Donald’s arm comfortingly. “You know I never meant to distress you. Please order our dinners,” she said suddenly. “Donald, will you come with me?”
~*~*~
Donald sat at the little desk in Grace’s room while Grace lay on her stomach on the bed. Jack and Ridley came and went with their food; leaving the Arganis natives alone in Grace’s stable room. Since Grace’s injury the two had not spent much time in each other’s company.
Now she listened with great interest to the story of Donald’s journey to the spice islands of Nareroc, and hoped she would one day get the chance to go there herself. But when his tale was finished, she had to start in on her own.
She told him about Mac and how she knew he was the man who stabbed her in the woods, and then she told him about Marcus’s cousin and how she was the woman Mac killed in front of Grace that night. Finally, she told him of the scuffle between her and Mac and Jack in the stables. She even confessed that Marcus had guessed her secret. Just how, neither one could fathom. As her tale grew to a close, the suspicions and theories began.
“And why do you think Mac kidnapped her in the first place? What would killing Marcus’s cousin have to do with taking his throne?”
“I don’t have the slightest idea. Marcus doesn’t trust him, but he pretends to believe Mac’s tale of finding his cousin on the side of the road beside her ‘murderer’, who was killed by The Death Dealer. Mac is brewing trouble. Marcus knows it, but hasn’t been able to call him out of hiding. I hope that with my return, I can find him.”
“Good luck. No one has heard a word of Mac for three days, I’ve been told. Rumors at the dock were that Marcus drove him out. Other rumors say he fled Cesernan altogether.”
“Can you keep your eyes and ears open down by the docks? I can get most any news I need here, but I cannot be all over Glenbard at once.”
“I can see what people know, at least. There are a few members of the Guild who worked on board with me,” Donald said. “Just try not to get too far in. Mac has beaten you twice and I’m sure he could do it again. Marcus cannot protect you if you go out looking for trouble.”
“I will be fine. I just have to keep Marcus and the Guild blind and deaf to what I’m doing until I know something for sure. You and Jack can help with that part.” Grace rolled off her bed and pulled her Death Dealer jerkin from her trunk.
Someone knocked on the door, causing Donald to jump slightly. Grace returned the jerkin to its spot and closed the trunk. “Hello?”
“It’s Marcus.”
Donald rose. “I’ll leave you to talk with him in private. No need for me to hear any of this. But please be careful.” He touched Grace’s shoulder and kissed her cheek.
Opening the door, he bowed his head to Marcus and left. The King of Thieves entered and closed the door. “Welcome home. I would have liked to welcome you properly, but my dear, we have business to attend to.” He sat in the chair Donald had so recently occupied.
He looked old these days. The rumors flying around Glenbard said that for almost a decade, no one had challenged Marcus for his throne in earnest. Many tried, but if what Ridley and others said rang true, no one had ever gone to the lengths Mac was going to now. Grace hated to think it, but it was very possible that the fierce old man could lose his seat of power to scum like Mac.
“My leaving didn’t draw Mac out, but I expect you think my return will?”
“Nah – originally I believed his pride was hurt because he couldn’t conquer you, but now I think he has learned to have as much patience as he needs. Mac figures he’ll have his chance at you when he sits on my throne. I’ve called you back because only one person has the ability to sneak around this city and the surrounding woods.”
Grace removed her jerkin and hood from the sack under her bed. “I can try to track down Mac tonight.”
~*~*~
At one o’clock that morning, Grace went out into the dark alone. Since first coming to Glenbard, she had discovered a weak line in the gate that circled the city for protection. Using any of the roads to head out into the wooded areas was impossible, but Grace had found a small hole she used to crawl through that led directly out of the city. Crawling through the muck and mud, Grace emerged on the other side of the city walls.
The last anyone heard in regards to Mac was that he was moving about close to Glenbard. These, of course, were marketplace rumors and based on the sightings reported by traveling merchants, who had a tendency to exaggerate the truth. Still, Marcus advised Grace to take heed of the reported sightings. If their eyes had not deceived them, Mac and his band were some five miles east of the city.
Trying not to crunch the leaves too much underneath her feet, Grace moved about as best as she could in the dark until a dim fire came into view. Grace kept low to the ground and moved forward. Voices murmured, but she wasn’t able to make out anything distinct. She needed to get closer. Grace grabbed a low branch of a nearby tree and climbed to a higher branch before crawling out as far as she could. She had a better view from her new spot and she could better hear those down by the fire. This move was risky because if just one person looked up into the trees, they might see her eyes peering from her hood. For the moment no one looked, and she easily blended into the shadows.
There were about twenty men sitting around the fire. Grace recognized several of them to be lesser members of the Guild, and then she spotted Mac. He stood beside the fire and began to address the men that sat around him. “Everything is in place, then. More of my men will be arriving from Salatia any day now, and then all we have to do is lure Marcus away from Thom and those other grovelin’ fools in the Guild. We will dethrone the King of Thieves and I will take his place. Then you rogues will have your day. Marcus don’t believe in takin’ women as part of our plunder or in killin’ those that get in the way. Once he, Thom and Ridley are taken care of, there’s no one to stand in our way.”
“How do you plan on gettin’ Marcus out here, anyway?” Grace recognized the voice of Geary; a relatively well-known member of the Guild. Grace had never pegged him as a dishonorable fiend like Mac.
“Leave that to me,” Mac growled. “It shouldn’t take much to lure Marcus out. He just needs the right incentive.”
Grace crawled back toward the trunk of the tree. There was no time to waste. She scrambled down the tree and hurried back toward the city as quietly as a mouse. Crawling back through the gate’s hole, she took to running again; keeping to the shadows and the alleys. Marcus lived on the fringe of Glenbard’s lower city, so getting there unseen was easy. The city seemed almost designed that way so thieves could move about easier.
The lights in the narrow two story house were all extinguished. Waiting until morning wouldn’t have hurt, but Marcus needed to know now since Grace didn’t hang around long enough to hear the rest of Mac’s plot. Knowing he would strike soon was all she needed. Unsheathing her sword, she poun
ded on the door with the hilt. A few minutes passed before candlelight appeared in the kitchen window. A drowsy Thom opened the door. Upon seeing the executioner’s hood outlined in his candle’s light, he dropped it; extinguishing the flame.
“You! What business brings you here so late?”
Grace pushed past Thom. “I need to speak to Marcus and it cannot wait until morning! Please wake him for me.”
Thom was tired and groggy. He was a loyal servant and friend to the King of Thieves, and knew urgency when he heard it, even if it was only in troubled whispers. “Wait here.”
Overhead, Grace heard Marcus order Ridley and Thom back to bed. Marcus came down the stairs in only a pair of tattered old breeches. “Well?”
“I am truly sorry to disturb you, but it’s about Mac. I saw his camp tonight. He has at least twenty men with him, and he said more were to arrive soon from Salatia.”
“Pox and rot!” Marcus pounded his right fist into his left hand. “Salatia has had problems for two seasons now. I should have known Mac was inciting them. His brother lives there, and for the past year he has spent much of his time there.”
“What do you plan to do? Geary is among Mac’s number.”
“That is no surprise. He has tried in the past for my throne, but was too weak to take it. He would ally himself with Mac despite all my efforts to keep him close.” Marcus smiled and patted Grace’s shoulder. “I will have a plan to handle the situation. Right now I won’t raise the alarm. If we start a war in the city, Frederick’s men will be on us and no one will be left to defend my people. Go home and get some sleep. I will call for your aid if it is needed.”
Marcus climbed the stairs back to his room and Grace left the house thinking about the fate that lay before her friend.
“Why exactly did you need to see the King so late?” Grace looked up and saw Jack standing beside Marcus’s fence.
“What are you doing here?”
“Walking home from the Angel. I do leave, you know.”
Grace sighed in relief. She was afraid he’d been following her around. “It was about Mac. I was out tonight and overheard his plan to dethrone Marcus. I had to warn him.” Grace stood beside Jack and saw the doubt written all over his face.
Jack took Grace firmly by the shoulders and steered her up the street. “And?”
“Marcus told me to wait and that he would call for help if he needed it.”
“Marcus is going to need it. Rumors at the Angel after everyone turned in revolved around Mac and the sightings people have had of him hiding out in the woods. There could be a war here for the common born, and if you meddle further into these affairs, you’ll be the spark that ignites it. You know better than most that playing with fire is dangerous.”
Jack was afraid that she was getting involved too heavily with the Guild, and that was a dangerous game. Others had tried to dethrone the King of Thieves before. The king who sat before Marcus had usurped the throne from his own mother, and then he met a nasty end by the hand of Marcus when he was too ineffectual for the thieving game. And though Jack had only known of the Thieves’ Guild for seven years, he saw many men try to usurp the throne from Marcus in that time. Many ventures to do so ended in bloody confrontations for the men, as well as those who followed them.
He knew Grace had no idea what she was getting herself into. If Mac was successful they would find out that Grace tried to help Marcus, and who knows what would happen to her after that?
Jack took her by the arm and walked her back toward the Angel. “I hope you’re not planning on doing anything rash concerning Mac. He’ll kill you the next time you fight, that I can say with confidence.”
“I’m not going to just sit back and let him hurt my friends.”
“Neither are your friends. Leave this to Marcus and Thom. You just go back to fighting petty rogues in the wild and let Marcus do what he does. You’ll be safer that way.”
“Do you even care about Marcus? I could help protect him!”
“I care more about someone protecting you.”
“Why? Marcus is just as much your friend as he is mine.”
“Marcus is a grown man. You, Death Dealer, are a small, hooded, and stubborn person who will get hurt if rashness prevails.” Jack stopped them in the alley behind the Angel. “Don’t be stupid. Do what Marcus said. Sit back and wait.” He bent forward, pulled her hood up and kissed her softly.
Jack pulled back and stroked her cheek. Turning on his heel, he disappeared into the shadows.
Thirteen
Grace had been back in Glenbard for three days. Her birthday was two days away, but she wasn’t able to muster any excitement for it. Geary tried to lure Marcus from his home early one morning, but Marcus turned him away with many harsh words. Grace was unsure exactly what was said, but she was tremendously worried that Jack was right and war would erupt.
No one had heard from Mac since the day Kay left the city, and an uneasy feeling fell on Grace. Donald told her there was little to fear, but what did he know? In a few days he would be headed back toward the Nareroc Islands, unaware of what was really happening in Glenbard.
On the third night after Marcus and The Death Dealer met to discuss Mac, Grace was having a troubled sleep. She chased something, yet she could never catch it. Stopping her hunt, she lay in a grassy field and watched the clouds that threatened to rain upon her. Suddenly a weight pressed on her chest, and fighting to wake up, Grace opened her eyes to find a black wolf standing on her chest. Its eyes gleamed silver with no pupils.
Get up! a voice broke through Grace’s thoughts; terrifying her. The voice echoed through her entire mind; howling through it like wind howled through a tunnel. This animal was blessed by the gods and chose to come into Grace’s life. The wolf jumped down and looked at her pointedly. Get thee gone, Death Dealer! The villain has made his move!
Grace needed no more urging. She was dressed and out her window in record time.
~*~*~
Port side, Jack awoke to the same howling voice. It simply said “Thom” to him. Needing no more urging, Jack dressed and headed to Marcus’s. The door to his house was open, nearly broken off its hinges. Inside, dishes were broken, the table was overturned, the chairs were smashed, and poor Thom was bound, gagged and unconscious.
Running out to the well near Marcus’s, Jack retrieved a bucket of water. Instead of dousing Thom, he untied the poor fellow and found a ladle to pour some water onto his face. He only groaned at first, but when Jack dumped the rest of the bucket on his head, Thom sat straight up. His breath was ragged and his eyes were full of concern and anger.
He took hold of Jack’s shoulders and pinched him hard. “They’ve taken Marcus and Ridley! I came home from running messages and found two of Mac’s men looting the house. They spared me…I don’t know why, but they did.”
“Be thankful they have.” Jack ripped up a tablecloth to bandage Thom’s wrist, which had been cut by a dull knife and irritated by the rope used to bind him.
“I have to raise the alarm!” Thom tried to get to his feet but Jack forced him down.
“Think sense! You’re in no condition to move yourself. Stay here and I will go to the Angel and raise an alarm.”
“But—”
“Stay, let me get you a healer. Don’t risk your life just yet.”
Jack helped Thom into what was left of his bed before heading off again. Outside Marcus’s house, the silver-eyed wolf sat. Don’t raise the alarm just yet. I have sent the Thief King aid.
“You can’t mean Grace,” he snarled.
Mac is waiting for a large scale attack from Marcus’s followers. That is why Thom lives. At dawn you may raise the alarm, but tonight his men are poised and ready for attack.
“And what of Grace? They won’t be prepared for The Death Dealer to appear?”
Mac believes she will lead the offensive. Alone, she can sneak into the camp and free the captives, but only if she is given the chanc
e. Wait an hour or more before calling Marcus’s followers forth. By then Grace will have freed her friends, or died trying. If the alarm is sounded now, everyone will know who The Death Dealer is. That is as much a danger to her as to Mac.
Jack growled and jumped at the wolf, but it took off into the dark. He stalked off to the temple district to make hasty prayers to Kamaria, Ciro, and Diggery for the safe delivery of Marcus and Ridley, and most especially for Grace.
~*~*~
Grace pushed herself to the spot she had been only a few precious nights before. If it wasn’t for the executioner’s hood, Grace’s face would have been severely cut by the whipping branches. Unlike the last time she spied on Mac, she wasn’t being careful or quiet. She ignored the stinging sensation she felt underneath her hood and stopped running for a moment.
There had been a fire in this spot recently, and she guessed Mac and his group put it out in the last few hours. These men were no fools; they covered their tracks well. Grace guessed they went north, but their tracks led off in all directions. Mac must have guessed their secret hideaway was not so secret, after all. After Marcus sent Geary away, Mac probably guessed he was being watched closer than he believed.
Enraged by it all, Grace kicked a charred log across the campsite. Mac was already one step ahead, and if she took the wrong path it would cost her precious hours. Already she was wasting time trying to guess which way the real path was. She took off north. The next largest city was north of Glenbard and she figured Mac might try heading out there. It would take days of travel to get there, but if Mac had enough of a head start and had horses with him, Grace knew she would never catch him.
Something growled and barked. Grace turned in her tracks and saw the large black wolf again. It barked angrily at Grace, although it made no move toward her, so she slowly walked toward the northern path. Seeing this, the wolf leapt after her and blocked the path.
It was steering her away from the northern route. Then Grace noticed something odd…the wolf’s silver eyes sparkled in the dark. Tales had been told and many legends consisted of a wolf just like this, and Grace, now fully awake, understood what was happening.