Rileus was punctual, arriving with the servant who carried the tea-laden tray. It took only the first sentence from him to figure out the dynamics between the two men. "Alright, Esme, you've cost me ten years worth of contacts. I want to know why."
The servant had barely left the room. Althalos had begun to fill their plates and cups. "Greetings, cousin. Be civil."
It was like a lit fire and deep water. Suddenly she was grateful that her bond wasn't to this new man. He'd eat her alive. "If you lost contacts, that's not my doing. They'd be gone after such an operation, anyway. We're talking about a massive group of vendors and those with publicly known connections. You know you were risking them."
A derisive snort, that's all this new Aelif gave her as a cue on his feelings. "How can you be so sure?"
"Hrm...The rumors surrounding this heist were of retirement wealth. That was a warning in itself--most heads did not trust it. The three that thought it would be worth the risk still needed a fourth-my master-for experienced hands. It was thoroughly checked over for months, until we thought we had a weakness figured out. My master almost cut me from that list to put in better talent. A massive screw-up on my part was what exposed you, and I had no way to call it off but to burn my only home and life."
"You do have those, here, you know." Rileus waved that jab away dismissively. Neither of the Aelifs had a clue that the wrong man spoke the objection. "I don't need the..."
"I do not wish to interrupt your thought's path, but you're insane. What I have is more sex than I want and an unbearable wait until I butterfly on out of here." Esme's hands shook in annoyance, so she placed her plate beside her to watch the lean ebony figure pace the room as if he would punch a wall. Fat lot of good that would do-stone wouldn't bend to mere physical force. "The Elder bondmaid called this exile. I'm more inclined to call this the waiting place of the dead. This isn't a life. It's more a prison where I've started bedding down with my jailor. I had more when I called a man my master. So, please don't pretend that I should be enamored-no, fooled-by a title, a pretty face, and a few baubles."
Rileus didn't flinch, but Althalos' response was a bit pained by her outburst. "We can see that you gain as much freedom as needed, if you will help us with capturing these 'heads' you mentioned, my dear."
The former thief laughed so hard, she nearly wept-a good excuse as any to pick up her plate and start picking at the food-not that they were giving her any time to eat. "You really can't help yourself, can you?"
Rileus finally sat down across from them, picking up his own plate. "Well, if we are going to make reasonable decisions, you're going to have to give us some sort of information, here."
"Again, there isn't really one guild with a master-we are called clans for a reason. We don't fight for territory, as that would have you down on us in a heartbeat. None of the groups are wholly alike. Mine was small with one leader who was both master and head. Some are bigger. The only control they have over each other is demanding someone like me be ousted. I know of a dozen such groups, in passing: no names, few faces, and most of them are people of the least power."
Althalos shook his head as the arrangement struck him as haphazard. "What stops more clans from forming?"
"You capture the new ones. If they survive they form a clan. But rarely, when they are good at our job but are not enough like us? We kill them. There's been three new clans settle in over the past decade: one large split, and two annihilations. It all could be lies told to those of us who couldn't prove anything, anyway, as we were deliberately isolated. Could, but I walked through the Shards in all that I owned, save my clan earrings. The last I wore that little in a much safer area of the city you were upset by it, Althalos. I've slept, drunk, in public, and was not harassed at any point-that speaks to the reach of the clans as nothing else would."
Rileus growled in frustration. "You're painting a world where I won't have any access to the guilds through you, at all. But I know you ran a cart, Esme. All I have to do is haul in Lady Fane's servants."
Neither man had known that one so pale could grow even more ashen. "You go after them and I've been promised my death."
Rileus' tone became scathing. "What, you don't trust Althalos to protect you?"
Esme gave a swift gesture of supplication. "No offense is intended, but my experience with my betrothed is that he's horribly easy to elude. And your men couldn't find forty people around a plaza. Besides, they're easy to spot, moments before they break from cover. You're asking me to place trust over experience."
"We did get close enough to experience the bond, Esme." At this point the man was pointedly looking at her plate. Her inability to eat was catching his attention, unfortunately.
"I'm known to daydream. I assure you, those chosen to off me would lack of that quality. Besides, you're ignoring what I've said. People are isolated and replaceable. You would have to take over Lady Fane's to try to prevent it, but then would have to expect that any woman sent to you would be from a thieve's control before they get in. And then there's the danger of trained young men taking care of poor women with as little clothes as I had. Fear of what backed me kept me safe on the streets. Those men wouldn't fear any backing but yours. You'd have a bunch of pregnant, destitute vendors who did nothing to ask for that life--still pedaling stolen goods out of fear."
Rileus scoffed, finding the idea rediculous. "You really think guardsmen are low enough to rape?"
"Did I say that?" Her lip curled, knowing that there was always a few who would, but that wasn't what she was thinking about. "Give a girl a few pats of attention, some food, maybe a trinket, they'll trade their souls for that care. These women are starving, without any hope for a future. And so few of those relationships last. Your men are decent, but they aren't looking to be tied to whatever waif they bed." That was a silent admission as to how close she would have been to selling herself.
"Were you scared for your life, as a vendor?" Althalos finally decided on a question of his own. Of course, it was one he could have asked earlier-no surprise there to the former thief. Deep water studied a situation, often for quite some time before asking questions.
"Every item I sold was either stolen or off the body of a guild-murder. I did fear accusations and a public hanging as the only name I knew was yours. I wasn't sure of the lines you fed me--or your name. In the end I was too worn down to care-it was either go with you or pray for a quick death."
"You could have come to me." Her lover's tone made it clear that he wished she had. Not that she had any doubts on that, not by how much strain they were under when she gave in.
Esme shook her head. "Only snitches seek out guards. I would be long dead if I was caught searching for you. Possibly both of us-although the type of hell that would reign down on killing an Aelfine would cause hesitation. This bond is not something they would understand, but everyone knows about nights of passion. They're also used to women being spirited off by such men and laying aside the cart. The only thing that is going to confuse anyone is why a 'skirt is in the King's residence."
Althalos rasied one eyebrow at that, which was so arched on Aelifs that any movement was a tad startling to the woman. "My betrothed is no 'skirt. I am your first, and by the Gods-if you stay-I will be your last. You're not one to sleep around."
The look they shared was not one of endearment-it was damn near an argument. This was the first he demanded loyalty from her, and she wasn't sure that he intended the same of himself, in spite of earlier protests. But that wasn't the conversation to have now. "You should know that my watchers know nothing of your sentiments. Besides, I certainly as hell feel like one."
Rileus waved away their potential fight. "A couple of outings where you're displayed by your title-when ready-will kill the talk. Get back to the task at hand. You're still painting a picture of where it is useless to go after my quarry. Since you're ever-so-smart to explain how my way is futile, give me something to work with as my options without help is to go after Lady Fane's workers."
Esme both expected and dreaded the pressure from this Aelif. She wanted to live, but had shown her reaction to the previous threat. The answer had to give him everything yet cost her nothing. "You're going at it from the wrong end. Just like the poor little tradeswomen have their patron, we have our Lord. Look to your own ranks. Take out our greatest source of access to wealth."
That caught both men's attention. As they were more accustomed to, Rileus spoke for both of them. "You're selling autonomy, then spring the idea that you aren't."
That got a harsh laugh out of her. "Strange, isn't it? I know both to be true. We are autonomous, answer to no one, yet we have a patron. Stranger still, the various masters are usually the ones to remove any individual thief. This Lord demanded my removal. I suspect you have an imperfect leak-one who caught wind of me faster than my merry chase through half the damn city, but still missed out on your trap-at least in time to warn us. Not that I could prove any of this, but I've never heard of our Lord caring about an individual's removal, yet mine was ordered. And my master wouldn't have made a slip like that."
Rileus looked towards the ceiling-a common posture for a thinking Aelif. "What time did you get to your...ah, place of residence?"
"I was chased about for more than six hours before I managed to slip past the last of your men. Stronger, faster? They should have had me, save their egos. It's like they couldn't tell me what their weaknesses were."
The heir's heir refused to chase down her diversion. "And this man knew before you made it in?"
"Yes."
"That would at least limit it to all those that were in the King's chamber, and all they met with by tea, that day." Althalos directed this point towards Rileus.
"That's got to be half the Aelfine regularly in town, at least!" his cousin protested.
"I'd just start rumors for the next potential heist, giving different locations and dates to people. See who takes the bait, start whittling down that number, if I were you."
Esme shook her head-to herself-at Althalos' idea. She wasn't surprised that the two men were so easily lost to their conversation-she didn't matter enough to either for them to try to include her in it once they started. It wasn't all bad-she did finally manage to eat a few bites of her now cold meal. After a few more minutes of being completely ignored, she had enough. "Shouldn't you make plans a little more securely than in front of me? This bond ties me to his bedchamber, not to his will."
Rileus was the one to protest. "You said you were kicked out."
"Yes, and likely by one of the many relatives of yours that I will be forced to endure over the next few months. I still have loyalties tied to elsewhere for all that the debts are paid. Besides, if I'm just going to 'fly away', what's there to be loyal to?"
Althalos looked her over, scrutinizing her posture, trying to see beyond the bravado of her words. "I don't think you would. At least not clandestinely-you're being too open right now to try it later. But anyone would try to use you as misdirection for their misdeeds. Get something together, Rileus, and I'll see about giving you a hand later. She must have nothing to do with this trap."
And that ended the former thief's foray into the world of informant-she hoped.