Page 85 of Realm of Thieves

“I promise I won’t leave you,” he says, his voice rough with determination.

Then he crouches low beside me and before I know what’s happening, he’s stabbed a needle into my arm.

The shock of his action registers before the pain does.

I yelp, the sound strangled, and try to move away from him but my aunt’s body is suddenly too heavy.

“What did you do?” I cry out, twisting futilely, while Lemi gets up and delivers a low, threatening bark aimed at Andor.

“I had to,” Andor says, holding the needle out as if he might do it again. “It’s the only way I’ll be able to get you out of here.” He glances at Lemi warily. “I know you’re just a dog, but you have to let me do this, for her own good. Don’t make me use this on you too. I don’t know how I’ll be able to smuggle a girlanda dog out of here.”

I blink at him slowly and try to speak, but no words come out. The room starts to spin.

No, I think. He can’t have drugged me. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t take me away from here, from my aunt.

But from the apologetic look on his brow, watching as I slump to the floor, I know that’s exactly what he plans to do.

“You’ll wake up on the boat, safe and sound,” he says to me, his voice echoing and becoming farther away as my eyes close. “I’m not about to lose you and I promised I wouldn’t leave.”

Then all sound ceases.

And everything is black.

Chapter 24

Andor

“About time the sun cameout,” I say as I exit the back of the castle and walk toward Solla, Vidar, and Steiner, who are sitting at the oak table situated among the vines and fruit trees, the last of the cherry blossoms scattered on the ground in mounds of white and pink.

My siblings are in deep discussion about something, but all talking abruptly stops when I sit down at the table and take a sip of the cold beer in my hand.

“Didn’t bring any for the rest of us?” Vidar asks, raising his empty mug and tipping it against the edge of the table in show.

“Another? When I asked the cook it seems the keg has nearly been drained dry,” I tell him. “Next time I go inside, I’ll get you a refill.”

“Nah,” Steiner says. “Next time you go inside we won’t see you again for a day or two.”

“How is she?” Solla asks me, meaning Brynla. She’s the reason I’ve been so preoccupied over the last few days. “I keep bringing her food but she barely touches it. She won’t say a word. Even her dog won’t bark.”

“Is this why you called this family meeting?” I ask. “Are you legitimately worried about her?”

“Yes.” Vidar nods. “I also think we all need to have a frank discussion about what happened out there in the Banished Land.”

I take a long sip of my beer, preparing to get the third degree from my older brother. “I told you what happened. We were ambushed.”

“But by whom?” he asks.

“Again, I don’t know.”

“Well, Brynla must have some idea. Have you asked her?”

I give him a steady look. “What do you think? Of course I’ve asked her. But she’s inconsolable. She’s lost the last person close to her. Her whole family is now gone. She wasn’t even paying attention while the attack was happening, she was trying to prevent her aunt from dying.”

Although that’s not completely true. Brynla was paying attention. She helped kill two of the attackers. But she doesn’t know if they were sent by the Black Guard or House Dalgaard. It could be either. The Black Guard might have been tipped off that Brynla was stealing eggs for us, perhaps by Dalgaard themselves. Or maybe the assassins were hired by Dalgaard to take her—and me—out of the picture.

It doesn’t help that Brynla refuses to talk to me about it. My siblings think I’ve been spending a lot of time with her, but the truth is more that I’ve beentryingto spend time with her. She’s giving me the cold shoulder, pissed off at me for drugging her the way I did and bringing her and Lemi back on the ship.

I don’t blame her; I know I violated her trust by doing that, but I didn’t have a choice. I wasn’t about to wait in the Dark City for the next ambush, one that we probably wouldn’t survive.

---