Without a King (Greatest Thief 1, mxm)

Chapter Twenty-eight

We ended up staying at the celebration for hours. Neither Tannix nor Tandrin could leave long enough to get me out of the Order's walls, and with all the guards around, there wasn't a chance of me risking it by myself. I followed them as they made their way through the crowds, talking to almost every lord and lady we passed. They had casual conversations with the ones they already knew, and lengthy introductions with those they didn't.

I didn't mind following them. It was interesting to hear about the nobility, their names and where they came from. When the servants started carrying around food, I was even more glad to have stayed. Though I couldn't take any from them myself, Tannix often took food that was offered to him and handed it back to me. I'd never seen such fancy foods. There were little pieces of bread with various toppings. There were different types of meat and fancy foreign fruit. Everything was delicious and I more than ate my fill.

By the time I got back into the lower city, Lothian Dusk had come and gone, and real night was settling over the city. As I neared our old building, I could hear voices. Castin and Stria were sitting outside, talking quietly. They looked up when I passed, and Castin nodded at me.

The way Stria and Castin felt for each other wasn't a well-kept secret, but something about seeing them sitting so close together suddenly bothered me.

Pretty soon Tannix would be sitting like that with Lady Mayah.

I forced the image out of my head and walked through the door, already undoing the ties on my blue cloak.

"Baisan! I'm back," I called while still in the hallway.

"Thank Zianesa," he said, appearing in the doorway ahead of me. "What happened?"

I shrugged and brushed past him. "Tannix is a full member of the Order. He'll be leaving Zianna." It wasn't something I wanted to think about, so I turned back to Baisan and reached into my pocket.

His eyes widened when he saw the little pile in my hand. Three rings, two bracelets, and a pin. I couldn't help myself. "They'll sell well."

Baisan picked up one of the bracelets to inspect it. "I'm going to assume he didn't realize you were doing this?"

"He would've been furious." I took off my belt and knife and dropped them on top of my cloak. "But you should have seen these people. They were so rich, they'll just buy more and not be any poorer for it. But us? If we sell these we'll be able to feed ourselves for months."

Baisan nodded. "They're definitely more useful to us." He took the rest of the jewellery from my hand and slipped it into a pocket. "We'll go out tomorrow and look for customers."

"Check the brothels first."

"Yes, I know." He paused. "Did Kassia find you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Right after you left, she went after you. She wanted to tell you something."

I shrugged. "No." I started to walk over to my corner, and then froze as something occurred to me. "She hasn't come back?"

"No. That's why I thought she found you."

It was so obvious I was surprised that I hadn't realized it before. Things fit together in my head: things she had said, things Tannix and I had mentioned around her, the way she'd acted—the girl we'd seen with the director.

"Finn? What's wrong?" Baisan asked warily.

"It was her," I muttered. Then I turned and ran.

Getting to Tannix would be impossible. The Order was still filled with the nobles, and there were many more guards than usual. I didn't even know if I could make the climb. My trip over the dividing wall had been hasty, and I'd already wrenched my wrist a bit. I made up my mind quickly.