Page 29

At that I stand up, grab my overnight pack, and start taking what I might need for the journey back to the Dark City.

I eye the dresses that the Kolbecks’ seamstress made for me and wish I could take them along, but I would stand out like a sore thumb in them.

The high life was just a temporary world.

All I really need is what I’m wearing, the poppy resin, and some food.

I leave my cabin and head into the galley without managing to see anyone.

I go through the pantry, taking the lightest but most nutrient-rich food: almonds, dried sliced beef and strips of salted cod, and dried apples, and fill my canteen with water from the jug.

Then I grab some fresh fish that was left on the counter and toss it to Lemi for good measure.

He wolfs it down in seconds flat, leaving no evidence except fishy dog breath.

By the time I head up the stairs to the deck, we’re just passing through the wards, the familiar prickling sensation making the hair at the back of my neck stand on end.

My mouth goes dry as adrenaline surges through me, my pulse quickening, my stomach doing flips.

Even Lemi gives an impatient whine, his tail wagging at the prospect of doing his job again.

It’s hard to tell the time because of the glow from the volcanoes perpetually lighting up the sky while the fog and ash smoke darkens it.

I know it should be the late afternoon but it could be the middle of the night for all I see.

Though I’ve been to this part of the Midlands a few times before, it seems foreign this time. Probably because I’m not alone.

While Toombs is back at the helm, the rest of the crew are all gathered at the bow as we head into the harbor, with Kirney at the base of the ship’s bolt thrower.

The giant crossbow was crafted specially to defend against incoming dragon attacks, with spears and arrows big enough to take down a flying beast. It’s an intimidating weapon and one that will safeguard the ship until we get ashore.

For the first time, I feel like House Kolbeck knows what they’re doing.

“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Andor says, patting the gigantic crossbow with affection as he walks over to me.

With the breeze blowing his dark hair back and the sparks and embers in the air behind him, he looks like he’s in his element, like he was born here on in this wild, inhospitable land and somehow survived—and thrived.

Just like earlier, a strange fluttering sensation happens in my chest, like I’ve forgotten to breathe for a moment.

I swallow it down and force a smile.

“She’s very dangerous looking,” I tell him. “I hope you won’t have to use it.”

After hearing Torsten blather on and on about the house and their history of dragon hunting, I know that killing the beasts is in Andor’s nature, even if it’s just out of survival, but there’s always been something about it that rubs me the wrong way.

I fear dragons. I’ve escaped death many times.

And yet all those times I did what I could to not kill them.

Killing them out of anything but absolute necessity feels wrong, like killing a dog.

“Me too,” he says. He looks down at Lemi, and then his eye pauses at the pack I have on my shoulder. Something dark comes over his gaze for a moment, then vanishes before he looks back to me, his eyes seeming to glow in the firelight. “Are we ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

He nods and yells for the boys to get the rowboat ready.

They work fast and in no time, Andor, Lemi, and I and our gear are lowered to the sea. The waves are still rolling in, but at least we’re far enough from the shore that they’re not breaking over us.

Then we’re set loose from the ship and Andor starts rowing us to shore.

“Are you nervous?” he asks.

“I always get nervous before a raid,” I tell him. “Don’t you?”

“Every time. But then again, there’s nothing else quite like it. Nothing else that makes you feel so damn alive.” He pauses, his mouth curving up. “Other than sex, of course.”

He’s joking, so I laugh and ignore the heat flooding my cheeks.

I blame it on the wind that’s blowing the fires off the distant volcanoes.

“Other than that,” I tell him, staring at the artistic way that the lava flows have sculpted the shoreline and not at the heat in his own eyes.

The last thing I need right now on top of everything I’m feeling and everything I have planned is to start thinking about sex.

And especially not sex with Andor, someone I hopefully won’t see again after tonight.

I cough and pull up the extra fabric that’s sewn into the neck of my armor, having forgotten what it’s like to breathe the Midlands air. “So,” I say, my voice muffled by the cloth. “I suppose House Dalgaard has one of those bolt throwers too. And what about House Haugen?”

“House Haugen has their own ways of defense. They also have their own area. They take the west of the Midlands, we take the north. It’s the agreement between our houses. As for House Dalgaard? You should know better than anyone.”

“I’ve only done what they’ve told me, and on my own. I’ve never seen them in action, never met with them on any of my raids.”

“Well, while you’re on your raids, they’re out here with crews of their own, larger than mine. They seem to pick clean the entire southern coast every moon cycle. They work with great haste, something that doesn’t seem to bother anyone but me.”

I shrug. “Collect water while it rains, I guess.”

“No,” he says, almost to himself. “And, honestly, and I mean this with the greatest of respect for you, Brynla Aihr, but I don’t understand why they’ve gone out of their way to bother with you.”

I blink at him, feeling surprisingly dejected, just as the hull of the boat scrapes against the rough stones of the shore and Lemi shifts himself so he appears on the land, already chasing a bunch of black lava crabs.

“What do you mean?” I say as Andor hops out of the boat and starts pulling it ashore with me still in it, like the boat weighs nothing in and of itself.

I scramble out of it, leaping off the bow and onto the rock.

“You’re the one who blackmailed me into working for House Kolbeck.

Did you ever believe in me, or was this some sort of pissing contest between the houses? ”

He gives me a placating smile and raises a palm in surrender before he pulls the boat the rest of the way.

“I wanted to see what the big deal was,” he says.

“And I still stand by you being a great benefit to us. To me. Without any suen in your blood, what you do…is remarkable. But I don’t know why House Dalgaard in particular needs you.

A magic dog is a great asset, and so is a skilled thief.

But they have many skilled thieves, Brynla.

They have armies of people trained to sacrifice themselves for their house. ”

“If they have to sacrifice themselves, that doesn’t sound like skill to me,” I grumble, looking back over the dark seas to where the ship starts to pull away, the sails flapping in the hot wind.

“No, it doesn’t, but they’re expendable down there.

The Sorlanders have started to worship suen the same way the Soffers worship the dragons themselves.

They say the king has already gone mad on it, crazier than Grandpa Ollie.

Anyway, the point of my meandering thoughts is this: why you?

Why add you to their endless supply of thieves?

What do you and your dog bring to the table that no one else does? ”

I scoff, shaking my head. “Why are you asking this now? Why didn’t you ask this before you fucking kidnapped me?”

He doesn’t seem at all bothered by my indignation.

“Because I wanted to see if I could find the answer. Even Steiner doesn’t understand it, and he’s been observing you around the clock since you arrived.

But there’s something there, Brynla. There’s some reason.

And it’s not your dog, as crucial a component as he is.

It’s you. And I am determined to find out what.

” He reaches into his leather pouch that attaches with a belt around the waist. It’s where he’s storing the suen extractor needle, the tranquilizer serum, as well as the empty, protected vials for the suen.

“Regardless, tonight will be the first test,” he finishes, coming over to me with a short black stick between his fingers. “It’s salve. Ring your eyes with it.”

I’m about to tell him I have salve, but it’s back in the Dark City. And I’m sure this is Steiner’s formula, which probably has some added properties to it. Laced with suen, the Steiner Kolbeck special.

I run the stick around my eyes and then Andor takes it back from me, doing the same. The way the amber gold of his eyes stands out against the black reminds me of some sort of viper.

“Shall we get going?” he asks casually as he slips the stick back in his pouch, as if he didn’t just try to undermine his whole reason for kidnapping me.

I stare at him for a moment and then exhale, shaking my head. “Lead the way.”

He starts walking toward the highest point of the shore, and I call Lemi away from the crabs so that he’s at our side.

Well, it’s a good thing you’re planning to leave him to the dragons since he doesn’t seem to believe in you much anyway , I tell myself as I walk behind Andor up the rocky slope, black pumice and pebbles spilling out from under my boots.

Yet I know I’ve often thought the same thing.

I didn’t realize how many thieves Dalgaard had working for them, but I did wonder why Sjef Ruunon sought me out.

Having an egg-sniffing, shifting dog is a great advantage if you don’t have any other advantages, if you’re down to bare-bones tactics like House Kolbeck.

But if you’re already stocked and armed… why me?