Page 105 of Realm of Thieves

I sigh while a few others snort. If he’s not kept in check, he’ll literally ramble on for days with all sorts of tangents and contingencies.

“How about I go over the plan,” I tell him.

“Yes, please,” Kirney says with a tired sigh.

Andor stares at me and I can see his stubbornness wanting to fight me on it. Another example of him not wanting to yield.

But he knows his faults.

“Have at it,” he says, slumping down in his seat.

I stand up and look at the crew, clearing my throat. “An hour before dawn, at first light, Toombs will bring the ship here.” I point at a place on the map just off a rocky peninsula. “This is the most northern point of Esland and the least patrolled, from what we have gathered from the Kolbecks’ intelligence agents and what I know from my own birthland’s history. We won’t even anchor, for fear of the noise of the chain attracting attention. The two skiffs will be lowered and we will quietly row ashore. While there may be civilians about, there shouldn’t be any of the Black Guard—but that doesn’t mean we can relax. The six of us, armed with rope, will climb up the sand cliffs that line the shore. Once we’re up, we split into two groups. One group, consisting of me, Andor, and Kirney, will take this road here that leads to the underground spring. This spring isn’t mapped, but Iknow people do go down there and it should lead all the way to the cistern under the Daughters of Silence. With any luck, we will be able to come up through the bottom of the convent.”

“You keep saying ‘with any luck,’ ” Steiner says. “You do realize that luck is something we can’t depend on.”

I roll my eyes. Always so literal. “Yes, Steiner, I realize that. But most everything in life is luck.”

He purses his lips and frowns, and I know he doesn’t agree with that at all. “And you used the word ‘should,’ ” he adds. “As in it ‘should’ lead to the cistern. But you don’t know that for a fact.”

“Steiner, give it a rest,” Andor says, palming his mug of ale. “I think we all know that every second of this heist is based on nothing but sheer chance and foolish hope.”

“How reassuring,” Steiner comments quietly, looking at his nails.

“But if luck is on our side, then we have a lot to hope for,” Andor says. “This will change our lives.”

And then everyone starts breaking out into chatter of what they would do with the gift of immortality. I have to admit, it’s hard not to get swept up in the dreams, but I haven’t yet decided if I would even want to be immortal. I may not have a faith, but I do feel in my heart that when death comes I will be reunited with my family again. I would hate for immortality to take that away from me.

I clear my throat to get everyone’s attention, but they’re just yapping louder, clinking their glasses together. “Fellas!” I yell.

All at once they stop and Lemi punctuates the silence with a well-timed bark.

“Meanwhile,” I say loudly, “the other group of Vidar, Raine, and Belfaust will go along the main road to here”—I point at an X on the map beneath a crudely drawn picture of the convent—“to the fortress at the eastern gate of Lerick. It’s a station for the Black Guard but one of the smaller ones. They’ll take out the Black Guard, disguise themselves, and steal their horses so that when we make our way to the gate from theconvent, we’ll have safe passage through the city streets, all the way to the docks where the boat will be, with Toombs, Steiner, and Feet acting as merchants from Altus Dugrell. If this is timed right, through some magic, then the ship should be just pulling up and we’ll look like customs agents out to meet it. Then we set sail for the Midlands, looking as if we were turned away. With any luck, we will be long gone before they discover what happened at the convent and the east gate.”

“How much self-defense do the women in the convent know?” Kirney asks. “What about weapons?”

I give him a wry grin. “A good question. Don’t let their cloaked, benign appearances fool you. Everyone in Esland, every gender, must serve in the military for two years. They have the training, though I am unsure about the weapons. Perhaps a couple of swords for self-defense. Or punishment,” I add, shivering internally, remembering how Sister Marit would whip us repeatedly if we would even so much as coughed. She was always veiled, one of the Sisters of the Highest Order, just below the Harbringer, so I never saw her face as she made us bleed for daring to cry, but I know she would have been smiling. Not to mention the fact that many Daughters often went missing and we were never allowed to inquire about what happened to them. But we knew. Death was in the walls.

“Any other questions?” Andor asks, stifling a yawn as he looks around the galley. “I don’t know, Brynla, I think you’re trying to keep us up past our bedtime.”

I give him my most frightening killer look, which makes everyone else go “Ooooh.”

Meeting adjourned.

—

I barely slept. The seas seemed to get even rougher, tossing me and Andor around in our bunk like rag dolls. Even Lemi looked a little queasy. But had it been smooth sailing, I don’t think I would haveslept anyway. There’s too much on my mind and so many things that can go wrong.

We lowered our little boat and rowed in through the pounding surf to the shore, everything in muted shades in that gray dawn before the sun appears. I didn’t let myself feel tired. I couldn’t afford it.

We pull the boat ashore, quickly hiding it behind some sandstone rocks. All six of us have been silent so far, communicating with hand signals. In the distance the dark ship continues heading around the west side of the land, where they should meet us in Lerick in eighteen hours. I feel bad having to leave Lemi behind, but I know he’d only endanger us and possibly himself. But Steiner will take good care of him in the interim.

Andor pulls the rope from the boat and puts it on his shoulder. It’s a heavy, giant spool of thick fibers, but to him it barely weighs anything. He goes to the cliff edge and starts climbing up the near-vertical face, his fingers and toes wedging into the smallest cracks as he scales it like a spider.

“Pfff,” Belfaust mutters. “I could do that with my eyes closed.”

“Well, you’re going to have to,” I remind him just as Vidar puts his finger to his lips to remind me to be quiet. I immediately bite my tongue. As I had told the others, this part of the land is scarcely populated, and there are no towns between here and the convent aside from rockdeer grazing lands, but even so, we could easily be spotted by a straggler before we have a chance to spot them.

Once Andor gets to the top, about forty feet up, he secures the line somewhere and then beckons for us to ascend the rope, one by one. I go after Kirney, and it takes every ounce of muscle to pull myself up. By the time I get to the top, scrambling over the edge on hands and knees, my palms are bleeding, rubbed raw from the rope, and my arms are shaking.

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