Thief: A Fantasy Hardboiled (Ratcatchers Book 2) (19 page)

When he woke up, his door was open, and Ballisantirax was sitting on his chest, staring at him with her wide, black, yellow-rimmed eyes.

“Mow.”

One of the girls must have opened his door to let her in. They’d do that if she was persistently yowling to get in.

He stretched and looked at his cat.

“You hungry?”

“Mow,” Balli said, still staring at him. She jumped off the bed and padded to the doorway. She turned in the doorway and looked at him, eyes still wide. Hunting mode.

“Mow.”

Heden sat up and watched his cat.

“What’s wrong?”

Balli disappeared out the door and, after a moment, stuck her head back in the doorway.

“Mow.”

“You want me to follow you?”

“Mow.”

“Uh oh,” Heden said, and went downstairs. It took him a few moment’s searching before he understood why Balli was worried.

Vanora was gone.

Heden stood in the middle of the common room, not panicking. It was morning, and the girls were setting up, and none of them were acting strange. If there was a problem, he was sure they’d show it.

He noticed the shorter of Vanora’s two lieutenants, Caerys, watching him expectantly from behind the bar.

He walked over and put his hands on the bar calmly.

“Where is she?”

Caerys shook her head quickly.

“You don’t know or you won’t say?”

“She wouldn’t tell me!”

Heden nodded slowly, just to be encouraging. “Is she alright?”

“I…I think so,” Caerys said.

“Tell me everything,” Heden said.

Caerys nodded, wound herself up, and let go.

“She went to the fishmongers last night and I asked, I said, ‘do you want me to go with you?’ And she said ‘No,’ and I said ‘ok,’ and she went and came back two turns later and something had happened, I could tell and she said ‘I have to go,’ and I said ‘what else is there to do?’ because there’s just the fish buying at night and she said ‘No, I mean I have to leave’, and I said, ‘where are you going?’ And she said ‘I can’t tell you,’ and I asked ‘why not?’ And she said ‘because if you know, they can get it from you,’ and I said ‘Violet what are you talking about?’ and she said ‘I’m not sure.’”

Caerys took a breath finally and Heden blinked at her.

“Ok,” he said, with some idea what was happening. He let his suspicion stay unformed in his mind, the way he was taught. “Did she give you the impression she went somewhere safe?”

Caerys nodded.

“Hm,” Heden said, frowning.

“You’re worried she went back to the count,” Caerys guessed.

Heden shook his head. “I would be, but no one knows where the count’s operation is.”

It was Caerys’ turn to stare at Heden blinking.

“Violet knows,” she said.

A chill went down Heden’s spine. “What?”

“Violet knows where he is.”

“You don’t…,” Heden began. “He has a club. You’re thinking of the Lamplighter's club. But he's not there anymore."

Caerys shook her head. “Un-uh. Everybody knows about his club. This is his other place. Violet said he told her all about it once. His hideout. We sort of thought he meant like a second house? Lots of clotpoles have second houses they use to see the girls when they want an overnight.”

Heden ran a hand through his head as he looked around, at nothing, stunned. “Black gods,” he said.

“But I’m pretty sure that’s not where she went!” Caerys offered quickly. “I mean, she talked like she was going somewhere safe, somewhere she’d be ok. I sort of thought she meant the Rose, but that doesn’t make sense because she could just tell me and anyway the count would just….”

Heden stepped around the bar, and put his hands firmly on her shoulders.

“Caerys,” he said. “Are you sure Vanora knows where the count’s operation is?”

Frightened, she tried to back away, but Heden held her fast. “I don’t know!” she cried, alarmed. Confused at why Heden was mad. “She said so! Maybe.”

Heden realized he was scaring the girl and pulled back. He stood up straight, his mind reeling. “And she never said anything about it? Where it was? What kind of place it was?”

Caerys shook her head. “I didn’t…none of us thought…,” she shrugged. “It didn’t seem important. They all brag about stuff.”

Three people walked into the inn. Heden saw them and recognized them as Not Customers. They didn’t look like thieves, which left little room for anything else.

“Alright listen to me,” Heden said to Caerys quickly and quietly. “Do not tell anyone this. No matter what, never tell anyone that Vanora, or anyone knows where the count’s hideout is. And try not to lie, just
don’t answer
. Can you do that? Can you just twist the conversation away from the question?”

One of the three customers asked a girl, and she pointed to Heden. The other two, and older man and woman, went and found a table.

Caerys nodded, smiling. Happy that Heden seemed to know what to do now. “Oh sure,” she said. “It’s easy to change subjects when a man asks you something.”

Heden nodded. That was probably true. “Alright,” he said. “Back to work, act like nothing happened.”

The younger of the three approached Heden.

“Your name’s Heden,” he said. He was young, maybe a little older than Vanora. He had sandy brown hair and blue eyes. “You own this place.”

Heden watched the older two of the three as they ordered. What was going on?

“Yeah,” he said to the lad. “Why aren’t you eating with your friends?”

“Oh, a lot of reasons,” the lad said, seeming more adult than he looked. “We’re from the castellan,” he said.

Heden looked at the two watchmen sitting waiting for their food. They had the look, absolutely.

He looked back at the lad, skeptical. “I’d recognize the sigil gets you into the citadel.”

The boy raised his eyebrows in surprise. He reached a hand in through the top of his jerkin, fished around, and brought out a silver amulet on a chain, showed it to Heden.

Heden held it in his palm and looked at it. Minor magic on it, he could tell. Not impossible to fake, but given the circumstances he was willing to believe the boy.

“You’re a little young for a special,” he said, letting the amulet drop. The lad stuffed it back in his shirt.

“Look,” he said, “I’m not going to do the whole thing I did with them,” he nodded to his partners, “with you all over again, ok? I’m young, you’re old, I get it. Is there someplace we can sit and talk?”

Heden looked around the inn. It was mostly empty, this early in the morning.

“I mean in private,” the lad said, looking at some of the other patrons suspiciously.

“This is my place,” Heden said. “It’s as private as I get. Pick a table.”

Once seated, the boy introduced himself.

“Nice name,” Heden said. ‘Aiden’ was the southern version of his own name.

“You probably haven’t heard, but there was a fire last night in the rookery,” Aiden opened.

“I was nowhere near the place,” Heden offered.

The lad frowned, giving Heden a sharp look, then relaxed. “Oh you’re being funny. Somewhere over thirty people died. Maybe more, it’s going to be a while before know. If we ever know. And this isn’t the first time. Nor will it be the last. The entire city is under attack.”

“What’s this got to do with me,” Heden asked.

“The fire was started by a half dozen ghouls on a murderous rampage,” the boy said, watching for a reaction.

He gave the standard reply but, he realized, it took him just a blink of an eye too long, and the lad saw it. “There are no more deathless.”

“Uh huh,” Aiden said. “And you don’t know anything about this,” he said.

“Nope,” Heden said.

“And you didn’t hear anything about a ghoul ripping a half-dozen thieves apart in this room we are now sitting in.”

“I wondered what that mess was,” Heden nodded.

Aiden ran a hand through his hair.

“You want something to drink,” Heden asked.

“I don’t drink,” Aiden said. “We figured, you being out of town at the time, you had no idea what happened in here….,”

“That’s true.”

“But then something interesting happened last night,” Aiden continued.

“In the rookery?”

“Un-uh,” Aiden shook his head. “Down at the docks. Fishmonger says three assassins came into his place, assaulted him, and then tried to kidnap a girl. Customer of his.”

Heden went still.  The specials knew about Vanora know, and knew the connection between her and the inn. No point in playing anymore.

“Did they get her,” he asked, flatly.

Aiden took a deep breath, through his nose. “Well, that’s where things get interesting because the fishmonger says a woman, a wizard he thinks, stepped in and there was a fight.”

Heden frowned. “Who was the woman?”

Aiden gave him the fishmonger’s description.

“Black gods,” Heden said. Reginam. Looking out for Vanora. For him.

“You know her?”

Heden stared at the special watchman. The castellan’s man. Who’d given up a lot so far without any promise of return.

“Yes,” he admitted. “She’s a wizard of the Quill. Reginam. Before she joined the Quill, we were campaigners together.”

Aiden nodded and gave Heden a strange look. “Thank you,” he said. “When was the last time you talked to this wizard?”

Heden shook his head. “Years ago.”

“So why is she looking out for this girl?”

“I don’t know,” Heden said, and wasn’t sure if it was a lie or not.

“Interesting,” Aiden said, watching Heden. He got the impression the boy could read his mind. “So these three assassins come in to grab a girl, but they’re thwarted by a wizard you used to campaign with. Which is doubly interesting to me,” he said, “because the fishmonger said the girl was from here too.”

“Her name’s Vanora,” Heden said.

“Fishmonger said Violet,” Aiden said

“She was a trull,” Heden said. “Went by Violet. Real name Vanora.”

Aiden twisted around to see Fandrick and Rayk, eating and talking. Then he turned back to Heden, smug. “They thought coming here was a waste of time,” he said.

“What happened to the girl,” Heden pressed.

“Well, by the time we got there, the assassins had been melted, so we’re pretty sure they didn’t get her. But melted or not, they made a play for the girl and at
this point
,” the young special said, “I start to feel like I’ve got all the pieces of a very large puzzle.

“You tell me how this sounds to you. The count wants this girl, we don’t know why, doesn’t matter. He sends his men here a fortnight ago. You’re not here, but the girl is. And someone else. Maybe this Reginam. Someone looking out for your interests while you’re away. They try and thwart the Black,” Aiden said.

“Thwart?” Heden said.

“I read a lot,” Aiden shrugged, and continued. “So the Black conjure up a ghoul. We thought the ghoul was brought up to stop the Black, but I think it’s the other way ‘round. But the ghoul can’t be controlled and it ends up killing everyone while the girl gets away.

“Assaulting this place didn’t work so he waits. Eventually the girl goes to get some fish, Count tries again. Again, someone stops them. This time, before they can create more deathless. So the girl gets away, again. And I have it on good authority,” he said, looking over at Fandrick and Rayk at the next table eating in silence, “that we’re lucky because if the count got her there wouldn’t be a damned thing we could do about it.”

“Can’t arrest the count,” Heden said.

“Well, that’s not…,” the young man said, squirming in his seat, “that’s not completely obvious to me,” he said in frustration. Heden smiled. He liked this boy.

“So how am I doing?” the boy asked.

Heden nodded. “Pretty good,” he said. “You got the connection between the count and the deathless, between the girl and here. You know just about what I know.”

“Why don’t you help me fill in the gaps,” the boy said.

“I’m not obligated to help the castellan,” Heden said.

“I’m not obligated to help you find the girl,” Aiden countered.

Heden gave Aiden a skeptical look. “I’m not sure you can help,” he said. “I don’t know where she is, and if I don’t, probably no one does.”

“Someone does,” Aiden countered. “She’s not alone. She needs help, if the count’s after her.”

Heden shrugged.

“Give me something,” the boy said, “so I don’t look like an idiot in front of my betters,” he indicated the other two watchmen.

Heden didn’t count the castellan a friend, but nor was he an enemy. He was someone it paid to stay on the good side of.

“She used to be the count’s personal whore,” Heden offered. “He tries to keep it to one girl at a time. Limit the number of people who can get close to him.”