Page 37 of Dishonor Among Thieves
Neo pressed his lips together, his eyes never leaving my face. Beside him, Rain raked a hand through his sandy blond curls and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. The question sounded so childish, even as I uttered the words. The simpler question might have been what wasnotwrong. “Have I interrupted something?”
“Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.” Rain’s indignation was tiny compared to the sudden swell of concern in my belly. “It seems we have a reversal of opinion. While I’ve seen the light of reason and beg further investigation, your husband now plans to ride to Haeloc’s manor. Right now, this morning.”
“Alone?” I asked, the swell of concern rising to a powerful wave. “To what end? Do you plan to take the man on? After what happened in the sanctum, do you think that’s wise?”
“I do not make a habit of making myself a fool,” Neo gritted. Gone was the warm, caring husband I’d slept beside. The bitter vampire replaced everything I was beginning to like about him.
“Is that so?” I murmured, fully aware that I was poking the beast within him.
“Caution, wife,” he sneered. “Busy yourself with our guest and leave matters of revenge to me.”
I combed my fingers through my sleep-mussed hair and pretended to be fascinated with the state of my tangled ends. “Matters of revenge?” I repeated. “Those are definitely not the musings of a fool.”
He stormed across the quiet hall and presented the mask to me like the horrifying token it was. “See this?” he asked, pointing the tip of the dagger at the very place it had pierced the replica of young girl’s face. “I have exactly what I need to confront the monster. I don’t know how he’s connected to this, but I am certain he is. Not that I need more evidence to justify ridding this Realm of Haeloc.” He sucked his lower lip between his teeth. “The evidence of his evildoing is all over my body.”
I tried not to think of his body as I replied. “Why the rush to run there now? Are there not leads to pursue? Perhaps someone among the goblins was aware of a threat from another who might be to blame?”
Rain threw his hands in the air dramatically. “Thank you, sister! This is the point I’ve been trying to make. If the rumors are to be believed, the queen’s spies are thick in the shires. Some say they have infiltrated the guilds and masquerade as common people—our neighbors, villagers, merchants. Lying in wait for any evidence of the use of magic, any sign that the creatures long forgotten are in fact right before the common people’s faces!”
“I have more pressing concerns that the foolish pursuits of a queen whose line has long denied the truth any fool would admit!” Neo stormed up his brother, gesturing angrily. “Do you think I don’t know how dangerous this Realm is to those like us? To any who are not ‘harmless’ common folk? Do you think I have not asked myself a thousand times if our own family might be doomed simply because our father insisted on staying on this ancestral plot?”
Rain hung his head, the spiral curls of his hair covering his eyes. “If our mother had only sold this land after our father died. Moved to parts of the Realm where magic and misfits were not forced into hiding, were not persecuted.”
My pulse thundered in my throat as I listened to this part of their story. My mother had often spoke of other places, Realms across valleys and distant seas where beings like her lived in the open. Places where my kind and hers were allied in society, in love, and in work. Places where magic was practiced openly, where memories of the good that magic could do hadn’t been buried by fear and time.
That meant, too, there were also places where the inhabitants were at war. Where magic was a dark force that brought no light into the lives of creatures and commoners. Efimia, all of the known world, was ruled by the balance that had been ordained by the gods since creation. If good existed, evil was not only real, but it was equally as powerful.
My mother and I never had the chance to leave the shire of Byrlad, let alone the Realm of Tutovl, in search of safer shores. But I now realized despite our very different circumstances, the same choices may have plagued this family. This family that by marriage was mine now, too.
“Had our mother had access to magic…” Neo grunted and shook his head as a firm knock sounded at the door. “That’ll be your apprentice,” he barked. “Let him in, and by the gods, brother… Speak no more of the rumors of spies.”
Rain pressed his brows between his thumb and finger and shook his head. “I will, brother, if you will please speak no more of storming Haeloc’s manor! Listen to reason. Let’s make a plan. Be methodical.” He opened the door to Flynn just as Antonia dashed into the hall pushing the butler’s cart.
“Mornin’, Rain.” Flynn stumbled through the door, his hair askew and his clothes very much rumpled. “Neo, you’re looking exceptionally…awake…this morning. Salutations to you, lovely Miss Brexia, I mean,Lady. Lady Oderisi.”
I nodded to the boy and watched as he took in my bare feet, thin breeches, and sleep-wrinkled tunic.
He widened his eyes and moved his head slowly from me to Neo to Rain. “Why do I feel like something’s afoot?” he asked.
Neo shook his head. “Nothing is afoot, Flynn. At least nothing you should concern yourself with.”
Flynn stepped closer and pointed to the dagger. “Where did you getthat?” He raised a brow and ran a hand through his hair, which only made the unruly strands stand up higher. “The only person I know who can make daggers like that is my brother. But this may exceed even Syndrian’s skills. Is that…enchanted?” He whispered the word and looked over one shoulder then the other, as if spies of the queen were lurking. Listening even within these stone walls for any trace of the illegal use of magic.
Neo extended the grip of the dagger toward Flynn. “Look closely,” he said. “What do you make of it?”
Flynn held his hands in the air, refusing to touch the thing. “I don’t know anything about magic or weapons. I didn’t want to follow in my family’s footsteps. I’m just a lowly apprentice thief.”
“What does your family do?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. I noticed Neo’s expression darken at my bare feet, and I curled my chilly toes.
“My father’s a cutler. My brothers are cutler. My sis—”
“I believe she gets the idea, Flynn. Cutlery is the family business.” Neo palmed the dagger, turning the pommel away from Flynn as Gia came down the stairs with her sister close on her heels.
Odile looked at me straight away. “How is he? How was the night?”
I flicked a slightly guilty glance at Neo. “I admit I slept deeply and didn’t keep the careful watch I’d hoped. But I checked him just a moment ago, and he is breathing steadily. Seems a bit more responsive.”
