Honor Among Thieves Read Free Page B

even think about it!”
    “Why not? By your own reasoning, wings would distract
people and keep them from looking at my face.”
    “A full-scale invasion of flying monkeys would be
insufficient to that purpose,” he said. “Now, for the love of a
thousand tiny gods, pull up your hood.”
    The girl blinked. A small, pleased smile curved her
lips as she arranged the folds of her shawl around her face.
    They left the square and headed in silence down Twin
Gate Way, a broad street lined with shops and ending in a pair of
high, gated arches. Both gates stood open, and several uniformed
guards monitored the flow of traffic into the walled district.
    The sprawling complex known as Rhendish Manor crowned
Sevrin’s tallest hill. The hill itself had come to be called
Crystal Mountain, not because of any mineral deposits it might
contain, but to reflect the particular obsession of its arcane
lord.
    Beyond the right-hand gate a long road wound uphill
past the workshops of artisans who crafted bits and pieces for the
adept’s creations. A short line of carts and carriages awaited
inspection. Crafters came and went on foot. People bound directly
for the manor, however, gathered at the left gate to ride the Mule,
a wonder of ropes and pulleys and clockwork machinery that lifted
passenger carriages up over the steep rock of the mountain’s north
wall.
    Fox steered Vishni toward the queue awaiting the
Mule.She shaded her eyes with one small hand and fixed a doubtful
gaze on the mountain summit and the carriages swaying in the high
wind.
    “I don’t like this.”
    A short huff of laughter escaped him. “Fear of
heights, Vishni? Completely understandable. It’s not as if you
could fly . . .”
    “No one flies far in a cage.” They edged closer to
the left gate. “And only a fool willingly steps into one.”
    “Stop fussing. We’re not riding the Mule.”
    He tipped his head toward the other gate. Her gaze
followed the gesture. Her eyes widened at the sight of the
black-bearded official who stood with one booted foot on a cart’s
wheel spoke, scowling down at a bill of lading.
    “Is that—”
    “The hero of ‘How Gompson Wed the Gorgon?’ The man
whose bride you locked in a root cellar because switching brides
made for a better story? That’s him.”
    “ Hero?” Vishni sniffed. “Gompson knew full
well the girl under the veil wasn’t the girl whose dowry he’d
already spent. He just thought it was a different different
girl.”
    “Thanks to your illusions.”
    “So? Every story requires a twist or two,” she said
as they shuffled a step closer to the gate. “Everyone assumes true
love will win the day. A good storyteller subverts expectations. If
you ask me, it’s more satisfying to see a trickster paid in his own
coin.”
    Fox nodded as he scanned the bustling scene.
    “I could create a diversion,” Vishni said.
    His gaze snapped back to her. “Yes, because that
worked out so well last time.”
    She pouted and folded her arms. “It’s not my fault
Delgar got himself captured.”
    Actually, it was, but Fox saw no profit in pointing
this out. More to the point, a diversion of another sort demanded
his full attention.
    A pair of barefoot urchins clambered up the
mountain’s steep rocky face, sure-footed as mountain goats. They
climbed to a jutting outcrop of rocks that came within a few feet
of the Mule’s lower rope. One of the boys shuffled carefully to the
edge of the rock.
    Someone noticed and raised a hand to point. A murmur
ran through the crowd, and people fell back from the gate to get a
better look.
    A Mule carriage swept downward toward the boy’s
perch. It would clear the rock with little room to spare.
    The woman behind Fox gasped like a blacksmith’s
bellows.
    “Too low,” she moaned. “Flatten him, it will, like a
cartwheel over a toad.”
    Other people were coming to the same conclusions.
From somewhere in the crowd, a woman screamed at the boy to get
down. Two of the guards tried to climb