The Royal Thief

Chapter Twenty-two: In My Bones

Yes. I know it's been forever since I updated, @SmashItWithAHammer is going to kill me, I am an awful person, blah blah blah... if it makes you feel better, it's been even longer since I updated my other books.

Yeah. Writing rut. Blagh.

Anyway. Commence with the REVOLUTION!

Or not.

I mean, I don't want to drop any spoilers on you. So. Form your own opinions on what's gonna happen...

ALSO. You guys are in luck because my sister has decided I'm not allowed to kill off any of her favorite characters. Which are all of them. -_-

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There were a lot things I could have said to that.

Are you out of your minds?

Why?

Is this a joke?

And what does this have to do with me?

Isn't that a bit ambitious?

But all I did was lean back in my chair and look the old man straight in the eyes. "Explain."

"What's there to explain?" Nali burst out. "A revolution. Revolution. Revolu-shun. Rev--"

"Quiet," the man said firmly. The girl bit her tongue and sat back in her chair, but she was clearly buzzing with energy. 

"Explain what?" Beck asked. He seemed perplexed by my reaction. What had they been expecting? For me to jump up, screaming, Yeah! Rebellion! Throw out the king!"

Well, in their defense, I could kind of see myself doing that. But... revolution? Rebellion? Against what?

"You could start by introducing yourselves," I suggested. "Oh, and why you're here, how you met, how this involves me, and why the hell you're planning a REVOLUTION."

"Are you serious?" Nali questioned, and didn't seem intimidated by my glare.

"Shush, Nali. You will not address a Guardian in that manner." The old man gripped the back of her chair as he looked down at me. "I am Aiden. Here is Nali--" 

The girl gave a little wave as though I hadn't already figured out her name.

"And Stubbe--"

Stubbe was the slight, dark-eyed dock-hand who sat next to Sir Pessimism. He caught my eye and gave me a nod but I wasn't in the mood to be friendly.

"Jan--"

That was Pessimistic, with his deep-set scowl, and the two woman were Rayna and Dell, Rayna being the petite castle servant and Dell, who I recognized as a friend of Gordan, apparently a city-dweller.

And of course, Beck standing like a sentry near the door, and Kemp perched like a large, knobby bird in the corner. His eyes were very big and owlish, watching us almost without blinking. 

"Right. Fine." I clamped my mouth shut, having no idea what to say. 

"Yes," Aiden said calmly, ignoring the awkward silence that came from having seven people staring at just one person. "That's us. And, I believe, your second question was why we're here. Which is obvious, of course. As I've already told you, we are planning a revolution." He raised a hand, cutting off what I had been about to say. "Yes, I am going to answer all your questions. Though it may be difficult. We had expected that you would have been much more prepared for this."

"How?"

"Well, most people have some sort of understanding that this is going on," he said, with undertones that seemed to imply I should have, too.

I almost laughed. "If almost everyone knows about this, how are you still alive?" King Aeric may not have been the most observant king, but I thought he would be interested in this. What other point could there be to a revolution than to depose a king?

"Just because they know we're here doesn't mean they know we're here," Nali explained smugly.

Aiden smiled a little. "In other words, it's like trying to get rid of cockroaches. Oh yes, the government knows we're here, and the king and all his helpers are scuttling around trying to drive us out. But they have to find us, first. And hopefully before they do, we manage to bring their house down."

"You still haven't answered my most important questions. Why are you doing this, and how does it involve me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Beck snorted. 

"It's obviously not. So shut up and answer the question."

"He can't shut up and talk at the same time," Nali said in a very teenager kind of tone. Annoying girl. She'd get along well with Nick. Or Caer. Or Sam. And Cara would love her. Huh. She kind of reminded me of me, about two years ago.

Beck ignored her, which most of them seemed to do. "How can you not understand? Don't you see anything going on around you? What they've done to this country?"

With a groan, I closed my eyes, pressed my fingers into my head and gritted out through my teeth, "Get on with it."

"They've ruined us!" He snapped. "They-- they-- they're poisoning our cities one by one, starving our people, enslaving our citizens, taxing us for our basic rights and keeping us all silent with the threat of being taken away! Haven't you walked through this city? We're dying, all of us down here, while they sit on their mountain and watch us!"

"You," I said without opening my eyes, "Are delusional."

"And you are sitting up there with them ignoring everything that goes on down here!"

That got my attention. My head snapped up. "Excuse me? Ignoring what goes on down here? I've got no clue what you're even talking about!"

"I thought you were a Guardian," He said, staring at me. He looked angry and defiant, although who he was defying I wasn't sure. "I thought you protected us."

And maybe that was the problem here-- no, it definitely was. Because I had to face it-- I knew nothing about who I was supposed to be protecting. Was I loyal to to the king and his Heir, my princess, Magali? Or to the people of Solangia, those who were Solangia? If there was anything Caer's lessons had taught me so far, it was that no one actually knew. Was my loyalty already embedded in my bones, marked on my skin along with the Guardian Sign? And if so, didn't that mean I was my princess's tool, and if that was true, why did I feel this sort of tug, a pull that yanked on my heart when Aiden said so simply, "We're planning a revolution" and when Nali repeated the word in her young, fiery fervor, and even when I saw the sharp gleam in Kemp's eyes through the darkness?

Stubbe's voice was so soft I barely heard him. "She won't believe you just because you say it. Show her."

"Yes," I said. "Show me."