Stepping Wild (Dungeon Runner 04)

Tibs sipped his ale, enjoying the stares and Cynta's glare.

"I thought," she said, "that the point was to not be noticed by the Master's people."

He smiled. "If we're careful, we won't."

"I'm…" Charlie looked uncomfortable. "With her. The Master's got his eyes on everything. He's not going to take us doing this well. And I don't mean dragging me into an alley for a beating this time." He made a stabbing motion. "It's going to be one of those when we aren't looking."

Tibs looked at Uzoma.

The archer drummed fingers on the table, thinking. "Is this about getting back at the Master for something?"

"No. I'm just not going to let anyone tell me what I can and can't do. Especially if the way I have to get their approval involved handing over part of what I steal. I'll listen to reasons why I shouldn't carry through with my plans, but a 'because I say so,' or, 'only if you pay me off,' aren't arguments I'm accepting. If my target wasn't staying here for a while, I'd have moved on with her. But this is the situation I have to work with and I'm not letting her get away with what she did any longer."

"And what exactly did they do?" Cynta asked.

"That doesn't matter to you. What does is deciding if you're in or not. I'm not saying this will be easy. It is a noble I'm going after. But we pull this off correctly, and each of you will have enough coins to get away from the Master and live the kind of lives you've dreamed of."

That had them pensive.

"Not you?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm not doing this for the money. I'll take what I need to move on and get started elsewhere."

Uzoma was first. "So long as I don't find out this is to stab the Master in the back, I'm in. I want out of this place."

"I won't be leaving," Charlie said. "This is my home. But money will make things easier."

Tibs looked at Cynta. "You?"

"I need more details. I'm not against a risky job, but I'm not joining something I don't think can be pulled off."

He nodded. "How do you want it done?"

They stared at him. Her, suspiciously, the other two in surprise.

"Isn't it your plan?" she asked.

"My plan is to make her pay for what she did. I do that by taking what nobles like her care about the most. Their money. If I thought I could do that on my own, I'd have already done it. But I don't want just what I can carry with me. I want them to lose everything. That means a team. And that means people who know the stuff I don't." He motioned to them. "I don't make plans that take time to execute. I case the place, get in, get what I want, and leave. That's why you're here, Cynta. You know how to think far ahead. Anticipate what might happen. You, Charlie, know the kind of thugs anyone hires. Probably fought some of them in those arranged fights, or when you start one out of boredom."

"I never—"

Tibs grinned at him. "And you, Uzoma, know the city. Its streets and its roofs. You can get us where we need to go with alternatives for when things go wrong."

"I'd rather they don't go wrong," the archer replied.

"Don't we all." Tibs looked them over. "But I've pulled enough of these to know something always goes wrong, so you all have to keep that in mind." He returned his gaze to her. "So, Cynta. What do we need for this to be doable?"

"Knowing the target is a good place to start."

He shook his head. "She's been tipped off too often, and slipped away before I could get my revenge. She's a noble. She brought a lot of money with her when she got here. And she hates parting with it. It's going to have to be enough for you to work out how to get it almost all done. Once we're close enough to ready that she won't have the time to gather her money and run, I'll tell you who they are. If that means we need to make changes. We do that."

"How long has she been here?"

"Not too long."

She didn't press for more, so it was vague enough he'd be able to find one of the nobles that fit. With all the money they had, nobles had the luxury to move about. Not so much there was a lot of shifting in a city's noble population, but enough he'd be able to find a noble that fit what he needed.

She put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her laced fingers. "You aren't going after just a noble, are you? That's a high noble. One you chased here."

He shrugged.

"It's easy then," Charlie said. "We dress pretty and get ourselves invited to one of the parties they're always throwing."

She shook her head, not looking away from Tibs. "She might not know who all the city's nobles are, but those attending the party will."

"Can we go in as servants?" Uzoma offered.

"Any of you every work for a noble?" she asked.

Charlie snorted, and Uzoma shook his head. Tibs waited a handful of heartbeats, then shook his.

"Then we don't have the kind of skill needed to get one of them to hire us. High nobles don't get servants off the streets. They pay good money to get properly trained ones. We want in on that party Charlie suggested, as one of the attendees."

"But." The fighter looked confused. "You said they're going to know we aren't one of them."

She smiled. "Then we don't claim to be. We present ourselves as visitors. We're here for a few days. Maybe while the caravan we are traveling with does its business, when it leaves, so do we."

"Even low nobles travel with an entourage," Tibs said.

"As will we. They'll be staying in their temporary lodging." She smiled at Tibs. "We, of course, won't go anywhere without our personal guards." She motioned to the other two.

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"I don't know if I can play noble," he offered as a protest, uncomfortable with the way she looked at him.

"I'll do it," Charlie hurried to offer.

She shook her head. "You have the look of a guard. All Thibaud needs is a well-trimmed beard, the right clothing, and a good-looking woman at his side, and everyone will see a noble's son, traveling away from his family to establish himself. To do that, he needs to spend time among the nobles of a city. Get to know them. See if this is where he wants to settle."

"I thought he was moving on when the caravan left," Uzoma said, puzzled.

"The plan's changing." She smiled. "Now, he only leaves if the city's nobles can't convince him to stay."

The archer shrugged. "Nobles in the city have more than two guards when they walk around the city."

"I'm sure Charlie knows someone we can add to our group," she said. "Three guards will be—"

"No."

They looked at him.

"This is the team."

"Cynta's right," Charlie said. "I know someone we can trust with—"

"I said no."

She studied him, and he stared back.

"Five would be better," she said. "Three guards will be acceptable for the couple will pretend—"

"We tell them one of them died keeping us safe," he countered, having to work at keeping his tone even. "The team's the four of us. If you can't work with that, I'll find a different one."

"I'm good," Charlie rushed.

Uzoma smirked. "I don't care. I'm just the lookout playing a being a guard in this plan."

"Can you make this work?" he asked her.

"It's a needless complication," she replied. "Anything that gets the mark to ask questions is a spot where thing can go wrong. But yes, I can make it work."

"What do we need to be traveling nobles?" Tibs asked, and the smile she covered up made him realize he'd put himself in the role of the noble after protesting he couldn't do it. And she hadn't said anything to change his mind. He'd be annoyed, but it was why he'd picked her.

"The right kind of clothing, To start with."

"Noble clothing isn't going to be cheap," Charlie pointed out.

She smiled. "We can't buy them. We aren't locals, remember? We need to arrive dressed in the garb of where we are from?"

"And where are you from?" Uzoma asked.

"It depends on what languages Thibaud can speak."

"I can pull off a good Pursatian," he said, in his native tongue. After so many years without speaking it, it felt like he had an accent. He was confident he could lose that with some practice.

"Mine is bad," she said, and he winced at the mangling of so few words. She said something, and he shook his head. Two more times she spoke, and he didn't understand her. "Hopefully Kadalisaran is one you know. This works better if we're both from the same kingdom. Accents can be explained as being from different region."

"Kadalisar had multiple languages." His chest tightened as speaking the language brought Carina's memory forth. He'd learned it to honor her. "Especially if it's a city near one of the borders, or Dorltemar, which had a dungeon. You can find someone there who'll speak just about any language you want."

"Is that where you're from?"

The chuckle died as he remembered the pyre. The clerics purifying Carina's body back to the elements. "I traveled there."

"That kingdom is far." She considered something. "But we can make use of it. It can explain why our two guards only speak Forsterian." She looked at them and asked in that local language. "Do either of you speak Kadalisaran?"

"If that was what you two were speaking," Charlie said. "It's a no for me."

Uzoma shook his head. "Never set foot outside the walls."

She closed her eyes. "Leaving from Kadalisar, Bortomir is the only choice to come In this direction. From there, the main caravan routes go in three directions, but two reconnect and come into the kingdom from Arteron, which is too close to explain the guards. We need to go through Hertomatio, from there, Zizkama and Furtin. That puts us on the far side of Forsterim. It would be a year of traveling in the kingdom. Enough time to explain how we picked up the language."

"Wait," Charlie said, before Tibs could comment. "Why so much traveling? Can't you just be from…whatever the other city is?"

"Barikan," she said. "It's too close. Only three months' travel. And Thibaud would need to become completely fluent. It also wouldn't explain why we're down to two guards. Two local guards."

"Okay, then why the caravan?" the fighter asked. "Don't nobles use the platforms to go where they want?"

She stared at him, as surprised as Tibs was. "I hadn't expected you to think of that when I forgot about it."

Charlie shrugged. "It's right there." He pointed in the wrong direction.

"Transportation platforms are expensive," Tibs offered.

"But you two are nobles," Uzoma countered.

"And the platforms remove the dangers." She returned her chin to her laced fingers. "How do we reframe the story?" the silence stretched. "Thibaud is the son of a noble, but one that's not well thought of by his family. He isn't traveling just to establish his name, but to get away from theirs. He's doing this without their permission, which limits how much money he can leave with, as well as the size of his retinue. The further a platform takes you, the more expensive it is. Like all nobles, he doesn't want to part with his money unless he has no alternative." She smiled. "And that's why he traveled by land."

"It also explains why we're dressed in clothing of this kingdom," Tibs added. "We'd have to buy them to replace what gets worn out."

She shook her head. "As visiting nobles, we want to be noticed. We don't want to be just some other nobles. We want to proclaim where we're from. We would have a set of our best Kadalisarian clothing just to make our entrance in."

Tibs raised an eyebrow. "That means we can't be from Dorltemar. That city is all about purity on account of their dungeon. Everything's in whites and grays. I doubt it even has nobles, since they only believe in hard work there.

"We definitely aren't from there." She smiled. "We are going to be bright and flamboyant."

"How expensive will it be to buy clothing that will pass as coming from there?"

"We aren't buying them. We are going to have that made. I know a seamster who can make us what we'll need."

"How expensive will that be?"

She shrugged. "However it costs to get him the materials he'll need."

"Like jewels," Uzoma said. "Nobles love to cover themselves in those."

"Do you have a way to explain why we don't have that many?" Tibs asked. "The Master's going to pay attention to any of those that go missing."

"I wouldn't worry about that," she said, smiling. "But, as a son without his family's favor, you'll have to have parted with many of them as part of your traveling expenses."

"So whatever I'll have will be significant to me. Either in their cuts, or because of their history."

She nodded.

"You know a jeweler," he said. There had been no light when she said not to worry.

"She isn't a jeweler, but we bring her the materials and she can set a jewel into anything and make it into the centerpiece of what you'll wear."

"When I entered the city," he said, looking for a way to get what he needed for his research as part of the job. "I was questioned. I saw papers being handed over. What do nobles go through?"

She nodded. "We need papers of travels. No matter how unhappy with us they are, at least one of your parents will have written a letter of introduction. If we can include letters of recommendations from nobles we've met while traveling, that will help. But we can't have too many. The more names we show the nobles in the city, the higher the chances are one of them will recognize it and ask question we can't answer."

"Why not just make all of them up?" Uzoma asked.

"Not the nobles within Forsterim. To be credible, those names have to be recognized, but they need to be nobles we have enough information on so we can give the right answers."

"I can supply names from when I was in Kadalisar," Tibs offered. "It was years ago, but the families will be around. You have names from this kingdom we'll be able to use?"

She nodded. "I know a merchant who traveled most of his life. He'll have all the names we'll need. We can create more from far kingdoms if we decide we don't have enough."

"Who do you have to write the letters?" he asked.

She shook her head. "My scribe is how the Master took notice of me. He sold me out for the money."

Tibs looked at Uzoma, who shook his head. Charlie looked pensive.

"I might have someone," the fighter said, and Cynta didn't hide her disbelief. "He's the brother of a fighter who got on the bad side of the Master, like I did. He arranged for her to be beaten bad. So he hates the man. If we coax what we're doing as something to hurt the Master, I can probably convince him to help. He's a scribe at the commerce office."

"He won't have access to the kind of papers referral letters are written on," Cynta said. She looked at Tibs. "But I know where to get those."

"Does that cover everything?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Not the money we're going to need to pay for all that," Uzoma said. "None of that can be cheap."

Tibs smiled. "Money's easy. You tell me who has it that you want to lose it, and I make it happen."