Kings and Thieves

Chapter 22

**Guess what!!! It's finals week! Thank goodness I wrote these chapters in advance... stay tuned for more notes at the end of the chapter.**

Chapter 22

Lyla had been having a lovely day by herself on the beach. She'd come across some tide pools and spent most of her morning squishing the sea sponges with her fingers, having a grand old time, until she was ready to tell Ari's sentry that it was alright for him to come out of hiding. She'd assumed Ari would have sent someone after her, but couldn't bring herself to mind, especially in light of the circumstances.

He didn't speak much of her language, but Lyla was content to walk along the beach with him silently, enjoying having a giant bodyguard accompanying her as she went inside each of the shops.

She'd found Eli and Aveline in the marketplace shortly afterwards, each sporting stylish red scarves. Aveline kissed the crewmember on his cheek- Lyla realized with embarrassment that she didn't even know his name- and sent him off to go do something else, Lyla had no idea what. Sometimes Ari's crew seemed to her like a large, dysfunctional family, and Lyla caught herself wishing she could be a part of something like that.

Afterwards, they'd run into Ari and Jamie on the beach, and now, Lyla stood in the mouth of the cave Jamie said they'd found. Seawater rushed into the parts that it could reach, but the tide was low and there lay a large pocket of sand, well-hidden by the thick, mud-colored walls of the cavern.

Someone had used the area as a living space. Rumpled quilts spread out on the sand. There was a large stack of books, and parchment papers nailed to the cave walls. A thin trail of smoke fizzled from a candle that had just been blown out.

"They left in a hurry," Aveline muttered, kneeling down to roll the blackened wick between her fingers.

"That's because Ari chased them down," Jamie supplied helpfully as Aveline eagerly snatched at one of the books on the ground.

Ari reddened. "They got away." Lyla could understand his frustration, but sometimes it seemed that Ari unnecessarily intensified every emotion he ever felt. Which explained a lot about him, now that Lyla thought about it...

"Who cares?" Aveline closed the book with a snap, cutting him off. "You and Jamie may have just found the kidnappers' hideout, and... " she stopped suddenly, her gaze clasping onto something just behind Ari. "What's that?"

She shouldered past her friend to the other side of the wall, and Lyla nearly tripped over her skirts following her.

For a moment, Lyla couldn't figure out what Aveline was looking at. Dozens of faded pages had been nailed into the hardened clay. She stepped closer, trying to discern some of the faded letters, but most of the papers only contained various dark scribbles with names and places she didn't recognize.

Something that Lyla guessed had used to be a map had been pinned up as well, but someone had spilled over most of it with dark ink to the point of illegibility.

She could feel heavy breathing over her shoulder as the others crowded around the rock. Finally Lyla followed Aveline's pointed finger as it stretched towards one of the discolored pages.

Lyla couldn't tell what it was, at first. If she had to guess, it looked like some sort of list. Two columns, haphazardly scrawled on both sides of the pages... full of names.

The handwriting was messy and blurred, but Lyla had spend enough hours poring over all of the monarchical records to recognize them.

"Those are the names of the missing royals," she gasped, not really caring if she was stating the obvious.