The Royal Thief

Chapter 66: Spies in Our Midst

No new news for the comic, I'm afraid... but up in the media is a line-up of my favorite tries at drawing Morane! As you can see, her face keeps changing... I haven't gotten her right yet, but I think the second to last is the closest! I think it's 50% her pose and 50% her muscles. Oh, who am I kidding. It is 100% her muscles.

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Once again nearly midnight, the princess's room lit by a single candle as I tugged her hair into some kind of coiled braid that would stay pinned beneath her scarf. Remembering what Xalva had mentioned last time, I stuck in one of my knife-clips too, hoping to add to her credibility. Really, I realized, what I should have done was have Caer tell us about Parodar for a lesson, but it was too late now. I sighed. There were too many things going on at once-Iso to worry about, the rebels to plan with, the mystery of Joshua and the Sage and the Sage and Caer and Caer and Joshua. I still had no idea why Jaden wouldn't explain his note about "the other one" or what it was Joshua was planning with the Sage on the night of the princess's ball, or why Caer had lied to me about the Book, or what was going on with Joshua that he knew about.

And yet, despite all these things, I had gone and added yet another problem to my endless list of things to worry about-Magali. Magali in the city, pretending she was from Parodar, while an assassin who would kill a royal without a second thought, who really was from Parodar, assumed she was here "on business" and was at any point just a sentence away from realizing she was lying.

It was almost comical, the amount of trouble I could make for myself. Jaden would never have understood how a student of his could possibly have managed to get herself in a situation like this.

"Coming?" Vain called from the other side of the door as I pulled it open.

"Relax, we're ready. It's not like we've got an appointment we could miss," I pointed out, rolling my eyes. He was clearly stressed about all of this, even though I'd already told him his presence was completely unnecessary and he wouldn't have to do anything. He was only coming because it was the price of keeping Abram happy.

"Let's get it over with," he said tersely.

"Fine." We'd decided, or rather, I had decided, to use the same method of exiting the castle as last time. So with Magali and Vain following shortly after, I climbed down my ladders, jumping the last few feet down to the damp grass. We'd had a short rainfall earlier, but the clouds blew away quickly, as summer storms do.

Maybe if the clouds hadn't been swept away not even an hour earlier, I wouldn't have noticed what I did as I began walking towards the low hill down the city: a single rider on horseback, galloping down to the city with its black cloak whipping behind them.

"What was that?" Magali asked, squinting after it as she reached the ground.

"Messenger, probably," said Vain, but he was wrong. He'd caught only a glimpse of the rider's back, but I'd had several moments longer to see that this rider had worn no royal or noble uniform, only rough, dark clothes under a darker cloak that all spoke of secrecy, not a simple mission. But more than that, I saw its-her-face.

When Iso threatened to kill who I loved most, every thought of every other thing he said that night flew out of my mind. So I never figured out how he knew I was working with the rebels.

We had a traitor. A spy. And who better to be a spy than the spymaster herself?

By the time Vain and Magali followed me over the low crest of the hill, Dell had vanished into the city.

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"You seem awfully familiar with this place."

It was a measure of how much Dell had distracted me that it was Magali, of all people, to notice first that Vain hadn't needed directions to the Black Horse despite insisting on scouting ahead of us.