Kingdom of Scourge and Shadow (The Sightstone Series #1)

Chapter Seven: Zoya

"And when he and Evgenia were wed, Sankt Aleksandr, the first king of an independent Saroviya, gave to her a necklace, the likes of which had never been seen before, and blessed it with health, good fortune and protection."

-from the Spirity Sanctiy (The Saintly Spirit, or The Lives of Saints, depending on the translation)

***

 Karl de Jong lived in a sprawling mansion in the heart of the Jewel, separated from the houses on either side with wide gardens and high walls topped with barbed wire. Guards patrolled the perimeter, looping once around the walls every half-hour. Breaking in would have been the sort of challenge Max and Jan loved, and Zoya pretended to hate.

But they weren't there to break in.

Their business that night was legitimate–well, semi-legitimate. If they were going to steal Sankta Evgenia's necklace and take the Serpents out of the running, they needed de Jong to formally hire them, or else there was no guarantee that they'd be able to deliver the necklace to de Jong and get the payout before de Vries's team, not that any of them were under any illusion that de Vries stood much of a chance.

It was a cunning gamble on Schuyler's part, Jan had remarked. If de Vries succeeded in retrieving the necklace, then Schuyler got a quarter of a million krone and got to bloody up a rival gang. If de Vries failed, then Schuyler walked away without a mark.

Instead of trying to break in, Jan led the way straight up to the gate, with Natalie and Max right on his heels. Zoya stopped a short distance away, hidden from the guards' view by the thick, nighttime shadows, untouched by the glow of the nearest streetlamp.

"Hey!" a guard called as Jan leaned against the gate. "You can't loiter here!"

"I'm not loitering," Jan drawled. "I have an appointment with de Jong. Well, sort of."

"He didn't say anything about that!" the guard snapped. "Go away, and take your people with you."

Natalie stepped up to lean on the gate next to Jan and pushed back the hood of her blue cloak. Her dark curls tumbled free, and she tossed her head as if to rearrange them, batting her eyelashes at the guard and giving a tempting smile.

Max followed her lead, unbuttoning his coat to reveal the waistcoat he wore without a shirt underneath. The two of them looked exactly like what they needed to get through the gate: a pair of high-price escorts de Jong had quietly hired to see to his needs. Jan, in his severe, dark clothes could easily have been their pimp.

And Zoya? Zoya would stay invisible until she wanted to be seen, or until Jan wanted her to be.

"Please, sir," Natalie trilled, her voice saccharine and shrill. "It's cold out here, and, if de Jong doesn't want us anymore, the least he can do is let us in to warm up a bit. But I'm sure he does want us, you know. He's already paid his deposit."

"Of course," the guard said hastily. The mention of money always opened doors in Allerstad that would usually be closed. "So sorry for the delay. Just a moment."

He disappeared into the guardhouse and, a few seconds later, there was a loud clank, and the gate swung open with a groan. Jan led the way inside, Natalie and Max trailing after him, Natalie pulling her hood back up again, still playing the part of a pair of escorts, and Zoya darted in after them, just as the gate swung shut. The guard never even looked at her as they hurried up the path, through the overly-manicured gardens, towards the squat, ostentatious mansion.

At the door, another guard let them in without even asking why, and Zoya had to shake her head in disgust. Laziness. They could always count on it to help them along when guards couldn't be bothered to do their jobs properly. Evidently, de Jong was secure enough in his high walls and imposing gate to allow his guards to slack off. Good for the Specters; not so good for de Jong.