The Royal Thief

Chapter Forty: Xalva

Important: I'm removing the index. It will be put back in once the book is finished, at the very end. Just thought you might want to know-- so if you ever have a question because you forgot a name, place, character, etc, you can comment your question and I'll be the human index :)

Not Important: Wattpad deleted a bunch of this chapter and I had to rewrite it late at night when I really just wanted to be asleep so I hope you guys like this chapter a lot.

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It had been two days since I'd been down to the city at night-- two days since I'd last met with the rebels. I should have been excited to jump back into the action, to commit myself even more to the rebellion. But I wasn't. Little things still nagged at me-- What would happen to Sam, our half-prince? How would they defeat the entire army? What were their plans for the nobles? More than any other time before I had reason to worry about what their plans for the nobles were. But even that, I realized, was not the real reason I had dreaded nightfall. 

No, my apprehension came from just one thing, one tiny thing-- Aiden's fire-glass. I did not want to be in the room with it ever again. That little bit of burning glass hated me, I knew it. But that was ridiculous, and I couldn't let it keep me away. So when the sky had dimmed to dull black and the stars flickered fitfully between drifting clouds, I was over the wall and deep in the city. 

Nali awaited me at the door of the Black Horse, hood casting her face in inky shadow. "Not here," she answered to my raised eyebrow. With one hand she stroked Pitch's muzzle; she placed the other on his neck, stilling his impatient shifting. "We're doing something else tonight."

I dismounted, landing silently on the uneven cobbles out of habit. Her low voice and drawn up hood showed that this was no ordinary night. It was a night of secrets, I thought. I glanced up at the sky. Stars winked, disappearing and reappearing between clouds.

Once, the Sage had told me that the Guardians up in the sky, the constellations, will always watch over their earthly incarnations-- when they can. Tonight, I thought, eyes still trained upwards, the Thief's cluster of stars might have a hard time keeping track of me through the foggy, shifting clouds.

But that was only a story. I stabled Pitch and followed Nali down a side-street, surprised to realize she was leading me to the match house. At the door, she cast a look around for passers-by before showing Brock a scrap of fabric embroidered with a red feather. After a cursory examination, he bent his head down from his great height and said something to her softly, his accent sliding his words together. Of course-- he was from Maenar, where the rebellion had begun. It was too much of a coincidence that he was also the doorkeeper of a place where many rebels gathered. He was in it, too.

She nodded at him, and we slipped inside. But rather than following the narrow corridor to the great, wide hall where the fights were, she opened a rickety door and lead me up a flight of stairs. The wooden walls were dark, perhaps once stained red, so it would have been hard to see what I did. But thieves train to notice everything. Scored deep into the wall, with precise, sharp lines, was another feather. 

There was no door at the top, just a narrow, empty arch to the balcony overlooking the fighting hall. I could see the small groups entering, and the the older men who gathered at the betting counters, and the stage, drawing the crowd closer like bees to honey. There were plenty of people up here, too. Several tables were pushed together, Aiden sitting at the head, Beck to his right and another man I didn't know to his left. Dell, too, was close to him, surprising me. Being close to Aiden was clearly a sign of importance among those gathered here, just as much as sitting at the king's table in the noble hall. I hadn't thought Dell to be very important at all.