Night of Masks and Knives (The Broken Kingdoms Book 4)

Acold wind cut through the narrow laths of a supply hut. From hooks on the walls hung spades with splintered handles, scythes with bits of hardened rust on the cutting edges, and forgotten axes once used to shape and build the entire estate.

In my hand, I tossed a gold penge coin. To some it meant a lifetime of scrimping and eating thin gruel, to others it was hardly an amount worthy of note. To me it didn’t matter the size of payment, what mattered was the fear and hopelessness behind it when it landed in my hands.

When desperation and need were considered, this particular coin was worth more than the treasury of the Black Palace.

When the door, broken off one of the hinges, opened, I didn’t turn. Merely tossed the penge back and forth between my hands, eyes on the cold ribbons of moonlight spilling over the dust and misuse.

“You’re late,” I said, gathering shadows around my shoulders and hands. Some believed I had power over darkness. In truth, all my mesmer came from fear. Shadows could be credited to those who feared the pitch of night.

There was a great deal of power to be had when terror grew potent. I felt it now, and I was glad for it. The shadows kept me a mystery. Unrecognizable to those, like my guest, who might recall my face from a past life.

If I were a better man, I might embrace a bit of respect for my visitor. He carried fear, no mistake, but it was dulled by a fierce anger, probably hatred for me.

Bold. A little brave.

The door closed with a loud groan. “I had children to tend to.”

I scoffed. Always excuses. Littles could survive without fathers. I did.

Then again, I was not the sort mothers hoped their young ones might become, but I could say I survived, and held the power in my hands tonight. More than most pathetic littles could say when they grew into pathetic servants for wealthy houses.

I faced the grounds master of House Strom. The coin he paid me nearly two turns before rolled between my fingers. A flicker of new fear in his gaze at the sight of it was unmistakable. Fear never slipped past my notice.

When my power lived in those rushes of panic, suffocating, tight fear was all I felt.

To the man’s credit, he buried his disquiet in a few breaths and leveled me in a harsh stare. “This was not part of our deal.”

One side of my mouth curled into a grin. “I did not know you set the rules, Ansel. Our deal was you would owe me a favor if I delivered the tonic your boy needs. Has there been even one month where the delivery was not made?”

Ansel was a tall man. He could be formidable if he did not open his chest so wide and let others see what mattered most to him. When his young son contracted the Wild Fever two turns back, his heart was forever weakened. But herbs and elixirs with a touch of mesmer were expensive to come by.

I’d arranged for an Elixist—an Alver with a marvelous gift for mixing potions and poisons—to create the tonic for the boy. Saved his little life.

″And I am grateful—”

″You do not sound grateful.”

Ansel shook his head. “Why do you need her? What is this scheme? She came to me tonight, knowing things about our . . . interactions only Kryv would know. How?”

″Ah. My business with you does not require me to answer your questions. My deals are simple. Grant my favor when asked, and the tonic continues to arrive every first moon. Do not follow through on your part and it stops. Simple.”

A groove gathered between his eyes. “Will you tell me if you plan to kill her?”

″No.”

″No you don’t plan to kill her, or no you won’t tell me?”

″No.”

The grounds master glared at me like jagged glass. “You’re of the hells.”

I chuckled and pocketed his coin. “Am I? Your lovely wife doesn’t seem to think so.” I reveled a little too much in the way his face shaded a deep red. “Don’t look so violent. She’s oddly devoted to you. But she’s begun to leave us little spice cakes on the night of delivery, and my guild finds them delicious. A woman who knows how to show appreciation.”

When he looked away, I made quick work of chasing the space between us.

Shadows spilled throughout the supply hut. My hand pressed against his chest, absorbing every rapid thud of his heart as I slammed his back against the wall. The grounds master stood taller by half a head, but the look of pure, dripping fear in his eyes powered heady, skeins of night from my body.

Each shadow chilled the surface of my skin, while in the same breath my blood heated with the use of mesmer.

The hut darkened, like I looked at him through a sheer, dark cloth. Inky black covered my eyes. Normally, I could coat my eyes in darkness when I pleased. Tonight, the whites blotted out as emotions heightened.

I hated teetering so close to losing control.

″One penge.” My voice was a dark rasp. “That was all you had, so I allowed the remainder of your debt to be paid by granting me one favor whenever I came to call. No questions.” I pressed my brow to his. “Curse my name, I care little, but bring the woman to my dealmakers in one piece. Should you fail, I will take the balance of our deal another way. Your wife would be a good place to begin. We could use a pretty serf.”

″You bastard.”

My hand was light on his chest, but coils of shadows snaked around his throat and wrists, squeezing until he winced. “What is your choice? I truly don’t see the trouble. The idea to meet the Kryv was already placed in her head. She will do this with or without you, but this way she makes it to us alive, your debt with the Guild of Kryv will be square, and your boy lives.”

Ansel’s gaze dropped to the dust on the floorboards, but he nodded.

″May I take that as an agreement?”

″Yes.” The man’s voice was haggard and broken.

It was perfect.

I released him from my mesmer shadows. My skin burned in the strange icy heat as the darkness recoiled back into my blood. All but my eyes.

I reached into my pocket and removed the penge. With a flick, I let it fall to the floor. “Deliver her and consider our dealings complete.”

In three long strides I reached the door, but stopped at Ansel’s voice.

″She’ll fight you. If you bring her harm, she’ll fight you. She’s an Alver, but you probably know that.”

Hand on the knob, I glanced over my shoulder.

Ansel reached for the coin, then faced me, a broken smile on his face. “There is something powerful about her. I don’t know what, but she will have even less than I with which to pay you. Since she cannot pay, I’m sure you mean her ill. An innocent who has lost too much already. I hope the gods curse you for this.”

″Ah, never fear, they often do.”

If only he knew how much I’d tried to keep this night from unfolding. But no matter what careful steps I took, I failed. Our paths would cross, and it would likely end in death if I did not step back into the past I wished I could forget.

The childish wooden rose scorched where it touched my chest beneath my tunic. I refused to think on it, not even for a moment.

″Until tomorrow.” I opened the door, grinning at him. “Oh, and Ansel, don’t be late again.”

In the natural shadows was where the world could stop spinning. The relentless thrum of my pulse could slow, if only for a moment.

It would be a welcome relief to the heat in my chest. I’d stepped wrong, made a mistake, and I did not make mistakes. To slip in a game of knives like this meant death and blood.

For nearly two turns we’d been searching for, and bribing others, on behalf of those who wanted Hagen Strom. When we found him, we’d worked meticulously to arrange for his release from the north Howl prison.

Our forged release papers were perfect.

But in one night he’d slipped through our fingers. How had the masquerade caught wind of him? Even with the shock, I could’ve worked with the surprise of the masquerade. The trouble came when she’d stepped out of line. If she’d kept her head, if she’d disappeared into the stables, I would not still be fighting this bleeding fight.

“He’s gone quiet, Tov,” Gunnar whispered as he lifted an old flacon and took a swig of brän ale.

″Never a good sign,” Tova returned. She flicked her catlike eyes my way, studying my profile as if I could not sense her stare. “Do you think he forgot we were here?”

I rolled my eyes. For how much folk in the regions trembled at the name Nightrender, I’d think my own bleeding guild would have a touch of respectful adoration for me. If only those who spread such infamous rumors could see how little the Kryv feared their leader, it would hardly bode well for a murderous reputation.

″Maybe tell him how I stopped the old skydguard from blocking our way,” Gunnar went on as if I weren’t standing beside him. “I’m still impressed with myself.”

″Ah, yes. The princeling . . . oof.” Tova glared at Gunnar when his elbow smashed into her ribs.

″Quit calling me that.”

I almost laughed. In the moment he looked entirely like the boy of sixteen I’d met two turns back, when we’d journeyed to the northern fae kingdom.

Gunnar could split a hair with the point of an arrow, and, as a Hypnotik Alver, had the ability to warp the mind into doing whatever he wanted it to do.

A gift I exploited to the fullest.

When our neighbors to the north rose against their king in rebellion, the Kryv voted to sail to their shores for a peek. My guild went out of curiosity; I saw a way to line our pockets with foreign coin.

If I’d known the move would toss me into the path of Hagen Strom, I would never have gone.

Anything to do with Hagen, naturally, would place me in the path of her. A woman who was better off believing I was dead.

Her searches for a boy would always end in disappointment. I’d never reveal my face.

At least that had been the plan. Our destinies were tangling together, and I could not stop it. Wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to stop it.

A man would be a fool to risk drinking his poison. To knowingly weaken his resolve.

I was becoming the fool.

The order to my guild had always been to keep the stepdaughter of House Strom out of harm’s way. She was not part of our ploy to find Hagen. Merely an Alver to be watched. So, we’d watched. Waited. For nearly a damn turn we’d waited for this moment, and I’d let Hagen go because I put her neck above his.

We would be forced to change our plans to a more dangerous game.

″Are the others in place?” I snapped, silencing the bickering over Gunnar’s title.

″Oh-ho, someone is rather irritable tonight,” Tova said, tossing one of her nuts at my head. It missed and landed at my feet.

″Tova,” I warned.

″What?” She pinched her lips and cut me with a glare. “Clearly there is something you aren’t telling us about this memory thief. Why are we here instead of chasing down that transport? I think we—Gunnar most of all—deserve to know.”

She wasn’t wrong, but I would never let her know it. Couldn’t was more like it. But she wouldn’t know the truth of that either.

″The only thing any of us deserves is to keep breathing,” I said, voice low and rough. “Trust me to do that or leave.”

Tova’s eyes widened. I clenched and unclenched my fists, unsettled I’d spit the words at her. Never, in turns, had I ever told anyone in the guild to leave.

For a few breaths we locked gazes, a struggle of who would bend first. Gunnar shifted in the tension, slowly side-stepping away from the both of us as if we might draw blades against each other.

At long last, Tova let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.

″I’d rather keep our guild intact if it’s all the same to you,” she said, the hurt in her voice grated down the hidden scars of my back.

I offered a stiff nod, then glanced at Gunnar. “What did you do to the skydguard?”

Gunnar stopped fidgeting, and took a swift step toward me, fire in his eyes. “Had him put the order out to an entire unit not to come to this side of the docks for at least two days. Had my mesmer working almost immediately.”

″A stretch,” Tova said. “It took him four tries.”

Gunnar huffed. “I said almost immediately. We’ll be safe to make a deal, then . . . go after him?”

The words came out as a question, a plea. When I allowed him into the Kryv, he vowed never to question me. He didn’t want to now, but like Tova, no doubt he wondered what I had planned for us. Likely he could not make much sense of anything. But on this, I could not give up more.

″Don’t look so defeated, Gunnar,” I said. “We are steps ahead.”

″Not if the memory thief ruins everything again.”

He blamed her instead of me, but I would always shoulder every misstep.

″At least tell us why we are interfering with this woman,” Tova said. “Why is she all at once important to us?”

I could not tell my guild everything, but I could tell them something. “This is nothing more than fixing damage done by missing my mark.”

Tova and Gunnar shared a look of surprise. I rarely admitted fault, but my carelessness was no secret. I should’ve been there before Hagen was taken to House Strom, I should’ve anticipated the possibility of the masquerade, but allowed myself to be distracted elsewhere.

Kryv did not get distracted. If we did—blood spilled.

I cleared my throat and stared at the slice of dawn rising over the Howl Sea. “Out there, she will be a risk to our plans. She is too emotional, too unskilled. Better to keep her close. Although, she knows a great deal about House Strom and the masquerade. We exploit what she knows for our benefit.” When Gunnar’s jaw flicked with tension, I gripped the back of his neck. “What did I tell you when you joined the guild?”

He swallowed with effort. “You told me you would fight to the end and would not stop until he was found. D-Dead or alive.”

″Do you still believe me?”

Gunnar nodded.

″Good.”

Tova tilted her head, a sly grin on her mouth. “So, who goes to the meet?”

″You and Raum,” I said.

″Do we send Elof?”

″Yes.” I drew in a long breath of the cold dawn. “Whether she wants to admit it or not, she trusts him.”

″What should we know of her mesmer?” Gunnar asked.

″She is an Anomali,” I said. “She doesn’t know the game she’s playing is reckless and will interfere if left unhandled.”

″Then we ought to just kill her,” Tova said as if it would not tear a hole in the center of my chest.

″As I said, even with her shortcomings she could be useful.”

I hated intertwining our fates to the marrow of my bones, but I had no other way to keep her hidden and breathing. To know what would become of her if she walked into another masquerade, well, I was vicious, wicked, but I could not let her do it alone.

Still, it did not mean anything would change. I would be the villain in her eyes. It would be better for her to hate me, to hate us all.

Gunnar sighed; pain written on his face. “I didn’t think we’d ever get here.”

″Think it. We’re close.” I grinned. “But prepare yourself because your father’s sister is not easy.”

With a simple wave of my hand, we drifted into the trees where the rest of the guild waited. My pulse wouldn’t stop racing, but I locked it inside.

No room for emotion here. We had a deal to make.