Page 108 of Realm of Thieves

“I didn’t learn it here. Very few people have been inside the convent, and people like to gossip about what’s hidden from them. We talk about what we don’t understand, we invent things to make us feel important.”

We fall silent at that and keep swimming, and I know that the moment I step inside the convent, most of the legwork is going to rely on me, the only one who knows the building, the culture, the rituals, and the only woman of the group. I’ll have to do a lot of it alone. They may have been able to save me just now from the snake, but if anything goes wrong while I’m up on the administrative levels of the convent, there’s a chance they won’t get to me in time.

I take a deep, shaking breath to calm myself. This place fucked with my head when I was a child and there’s no doubt it will do it again.

Stay focused on getting the revenge, I tell myself.Stay focused on the egg.

“I see something,” Andor says, and I squint ahead. Instead of the incessant darkness, there’s a light up ahead.

Not daylight, but…fire.

Chapter 31

Brynla

The fire flickers in thedistance, reflecting on the black surface.

“The cistern,” I whisper, keeping my chin above water as the dread in my gut grows larger. “They keep torches lit so we can check on the water. There’s usually no one there, though, only in the mornings to light the torch. There will be a door to the side right next to it.”

The stream collects in the cistern while a small channel of it runs off into the caverns, continuing the journey into Lerick. For a moment I wonder if we should have focused our revenge on the Saints of Fire and the Esland government. We could have so easily poisoned the water supply.

But then I remember that there are families just like the one I had, and though I am prepared to kill in self-defense, I’m not about to take the lives of innocent civilians.

We swim across the round opening and haul ourselves up the metal steps. Buckets and other collection materials line the cistern, some on rails that dip into the water, others hanging from pulleys.

The three of us sit on the rocky side, catching our breath, relievedthat we’re no longer in the water. All my exposed skin is absolutely wrinkled like a prune and I would love nothing more than to take off the wet leather armor, which is a hundred times heavier now. But we have a schedule to keep and I feel that the journey took us longer already than it should have.

“Are you ready?” I ask the guys after a moment.

Andor puts his hand on my shoulder. “Brynla, we don’t need to rush into this. You almost drowned back there. And I know how close this whole situation is to you. It’s all right if you want to take a bit of time to—”

“No,” I say quickly. “We have to get moving. You know we do. And more than that, if I spend another minute here, I might lose my nerve.” I don’t want to admit how close I am to just throwing myself back in the springs and letting them take me all the way to the ocean.

He stares at me for a moment with a rumpled look on his face, then leans forward and grabs the back of my head, giving me a quick kiss on the forehead. “You’re so very fucking brave. I hope you know that. I hope you know how impressed I am by you, how we all are. We couldn’t do this without you, lavender girl. None of us could.”

My throat feels thick at his words. I don’t even know what to say.

“Wow,” he says quietly, flashing me a smile. “She’s speechless. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve made you at a loss for words.”

“Don’t push your luck,” I tell him, getting to my feet. I cringe at the water squishing at the bottom of my boots. But if everything goes as planned, I won’t be in these wet clothes for long.

I walk to the door, stepping aside for Andor as he puts his ear against it to listen.

“I don’t hear anything,” he whispers. “You sure this is a safe place to enter?”

I nod and look at Kirney. “Are you dry enough to check the map?”

Kirney reaches for the small satchel at his side and unsnaps it,pulling out a small cylinder made of reeds found in the marshes around Stormglen that Steiner had discovered act as a waterproofer. Kirney takes the leather cork off and pulls out the map. We’ve looked at it a lot already, this cruddy map of the convent I drew from memory, but it doesn’t hurt to have a refresher now that we’re here.

I point to an X at the bottom. “This is where we are. It opens into the cellar and cold storage. Only the cooks would be here in the morning and then before supper. They don’t linger here, though; they get the food and then they head back up to the kitchen.”

“But we don’t know what time it is,” Andor points out. “It might be just before suppertime.”

“If it’s quiet, then I think we’re fine.” I turn my attention back to the map. “After we leave the cold storage, we head up the servants’ stairs back here. These are Daughters of Silence, working for the convent. Even if we come upon them, they won’t scream. The punishment for making a sound is worse than what we’ll do to them, and they know it. It goes without saying, please refrain from killing anyone unless you absolutely have to.”

“That’s where I come in,” Kirney says as he pushes his thumb into his chest, reminding me of his gift, which isn’t just strength and fantastic aim but the ability to disarm people temporarily by pressing his thumb into their exposed skin. Apparently it doesn’t work on dredgers, though.

“Right,” I say. “Let’s always let Kirney disarm people when he can. These Daughters are just like me, stuck in something with no escape. I don’t want any harm to come to them.”

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