Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 38

"Like plotting against me?" Tibs asked with a chuckle. "Did Jackal really come up with the plan?"

"It's not like I could tell him what I wanted to do."

"We did try," Ganny said. "Sto wrote a long page about how he wanted to lure you into a new section, then split you away and use golems he'd make look like the rest of your team and have them attack you and put it on the ground when he realized Jackal was coming."

Would that have worked? With realizing he wasn't as close to the others than he'd thought, he had his doubt. "He didn't read it, did he?"

"He tried, I think," Ganny said. "He stared at it for a while, frowning. Then he said he didn't know his letters and told us what he wanted to do."

"I didn't think it would work," Sto said. "I was so...simple. I also didn't think he could survive what you'd throw at him."

"Do you—" his throat constricted. Did Sto know how Jackal had survived? If he did, did Tibs want to learn it from him? He hadn't found the courage to ask Jackal yet, and this felt like... cheating.

It shouldn't matter to him. He was a rogue. Cheating was what he did.

"Simple sometimes works best," he finally said. "And Jackal knows how to hurt me." Tibs hadn't thought his friend could be so cruel.

"I wouldn't have thought to say what he did," Sto admitted.

Tibs nodded.

"You aren't wearing your bracers. Did they get damaged?"

"No. I'm not... I'm scared of what I'll do with the essence in them. It's too... easy to use it."

"What about Water?" Ganny asked. "You're channeling it right now."

"Not because I want to." If he'd had a way to hide his eyes, or change their color without having to channel an element, he'd have done so. "And I'm terrified of what it'll make of me if I suffuse myself. But at least it's not as immediately destructive as fire. And it doesn't feed on my anger." He rested his head against the rock. "Ganny, what do you need me to do to make this right?"

"You don't—" Sto started.

"I'm asking Ganny," Tibs cut him off. "Because I don't need someone who cares right now. I hurt you, Sto, and I have to make amends. And she's the best one to come up with a proper punishment."

"I don't know if I'm the right one for this, Tibs," she replied. "I'm not a person. Other than making you promise you'll never do something like that ever again, and that you'll always treat Sto with respect, I don't know what I could tell you to do."

"You could have me be hurt the way I hurt him."

"I think... I don't think you need me for that."

"I should pay," he cursed. "No one's holding me responsible for what I did. I can't go to Irdian for arranging the fire or getting Runners caught, because that would get in the way of our runs. Jackal is just happy I'm better, and Kroseph is making sure I don't wallow. I almost hurt them more than anyone else and they won't punish me."

"What do you want them to do?" Ganny asked.

"I don't know! I just—" He put his head in his hands. "I don't deserve to simply get away with what I did."

"If I think of a way to punish you," Sto said, "I'll let you know."

Tibs snorted at the utter lack of conviction it the dungeon's voice.

* * * * *

They were staring at him.

He felt the eyes on him as he followed the clerk through the guild corridors. They knew. They knew he was plotting against them. They knew he'd iced himself for months. They knew Sebastian had attacked the town because of how Tibs had hurt him, that all the troubles Kragle Rock suffered now were his fault. They also knew he didn't need the clerk leading him anymore. That he had a medallion that let him navigate the building.