Part 12 (2/2)
”Just make sure you actually have have a plan this time,” Josef called as he walked back toward the hut for the rest of his weapons. a plan this time,” Josef called as he walked back toward the hut for the rest of his weapons.
Eli folded his arms over his chest, glaring at the swordsman's bandaged back. ”Do you believe that?” he grumbled. ”And after all the sc.r.a.pes I've gotten him out of.”
Nico shrugged. ”With all the sc.r.a.pes you get him into, I think it works out about even.”
”Don't you start, too,” Eli sighed. ”In the year you've been with us, have I ever let us down? Don't you trust me yet?”
”Josef trusts you,” Nico said, starting toward the hut as well. ”That's enough for me.”
Eli sighed again, louder this time, but Nico didn't look back. Shaking his head, he jogged after her, stopping a moment to say good morning to Gin, who was still growling, before joining the others in the hut.
”You know this is a terrible plan,” Gin growled.
”Yes,” Miranda said, pulling the long tunic dress over her head. ”You've told me so every ten minutes since sunrise.”
They were in the tiny s.p.a.ce behind the forester's hut, wedged between the trees and the crumbling stone. Gin was slouched by the hut's corner, his body blocking the opening to the clearing so Miranda could have some privacy while she changed into the costume Josef had shoved into her hands a few minutes ago, when he and Nico had finally returned from wherever they'd been. She'd never been so happy to see them. A whole morning alone with the king and Eli had almost been more than she could stand.
”Disguise yourselves and sneak into the castle?” Gin snorted, making the low-hanging branches dance. ”How are you going to get through the doors with no spirits? Wait for the thief to charm them all? And he didn't say a thing about what you'd do when you actually got in. I'm telling you, it's never going to work.”
”I wouldn't be so sure about that,” Miranda said, finding the opening for her head at last. ”Eli's terrible plans have an interesting habit of working out.”
Gin rolled his eyes. ”Because his kidnapping plan went so so well.” well.”
”Up until us, yes it did,” Miranda said, giving him a sharp look. ”I don't like this any more than you do, mutt, but we're in deep now, so we might as well do our best.”
Gin kept grumbling, but Miranda ignored him. She smoothed the bulky dress over her s.h.i.+ft with a final wiggle, and then, reaching awkwardly behind her, tied it with the strings sewn into the back. Next, she reached up and pulled her hair as tight as she could, knotting it in place at the base of her neck with a bit of twine. She grabbed the thick veil from a waiting branch and draped it over her forehead, letting the rest hang down her back so that her red hair was completely covered. Last of all, she fixed the small cap at the crown of her head with a long stickpin that held the whole affair in place. She gave her head an experimental shake to make sure the veil wouldn't slide off. When it stayed put to her satisfaction, she turned around.
”There,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. ”How do I look?”
Gin eyed her up and down. ”Like a librarian.”
”Such flattery!” Miranda folded her hands over her chest dramatically. ”Be still, my trembling heart!”
”What? That's the point, right?” Gin said, getting up.
Miranda grinned at his confusion and tucked her discarded clothes under her arm before pus.h.i.+ng her way through the giggling trees. Gin padded after her, muttering under his breath.
The tiny clearing outside the hut that served as Eli's hideout had become quite crowded since Nico and Josef had returned. Most of the s.p.a.ce, however, was taken up by the new additions. Laid out on a ratty blanket, two men and a woman, dressed only in their underclothes, were sleeping peacefully in the tree-dappled sunlight-castle servants, the sources of the costumes. King Henrith was crouched beside them, his hands moving in worried circles on his knees. He had traded out his filthy silk clothes for what looked like a set of Josef's spares, though it was hard to tell without the knives. The bad fit and the king's dour expression as he hovered over the unconscious servants made him look like a refugee from a tragedy play.
”I don't see why you had to knock them out like this,” he muttered.
”It was the simplest way to get the sizes correct,” Josef said in a bored voice. He was lounging beside the hut, with his back propped against the ever-present camouflage thatch of branches provided by Eli's arboreal admirers. His enormous sword was stabbed into the ground beside him and a pile of throwing knives was spread out in the gra.s.s at his feet. His normal array of cross-belted sheaths was gone, and in their place he wore the chain and blue surcoat of a House Allaze royal guard, which, judging from the gaps at the shoulders, had recently belonged to the narrower of the sleeping men. ”They'll wake up soon enough, no worse for wear.”
”And you'll be here, sire,” Eli chimed in, fastening the cuffs of his valet's coat. ”A free evening off work and a touching reunion with their monarch. I'd say we're doing them a favor.”
”What I don't understand,” Miranda said, kneeling beside the distressed king, ”is why we're stealing costumes to sneak into the castle when Josef and Nico already snuck into the castle to grab these three.”
”We did nothing of the sort,” Eli said. ”Every servant doesn't live in the palace, you know. Josef spotted this lot walking into town from the outlying village. He merely gave them an involuntary night off. Oh, don't look like that.” He waved his hands at Miranda's horrified expression. ”If Josef says they'll be fine, they'll be fine. He's a professional. He does this all the time.”
Josef nodded sagely at the pile of knives he was polis.h.i.+ng. Somehow, Miranda failed to find the gesture comforting.
”Of course,” Eli put his hands in his pockets, ”the real question here is why we had to resort to this in the first place. I thought you said you had a contact in the palace?”
Miranda shook her head vehemently, making her veil fly. ”There's no way I'm letting you drag Marion into this, not after she already stuck her neck out for me once. Just look what you did to one of her coworkers.” She pointed at the unconscious girl, whose librarian uniform dress Miranda was now wearing. ”Besides,” she muttered, ”I spent a good deal of time correcting her ideas about wizards. I don't want her meeting you lot and getting the wrong impression all over again.”
”You cut me to the bone, lady,” Eli said, clutching his chest. ”Are you implying that I blacken the reputation of wizardry?”
Miranda c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at his theatrics. ”The Rector Spiritualis wouldn't have sent me out here if you were doing it a benefit, Mr. Monpress.”
”Ah yes, the great Etmon Banage.” Eli smiled. ”How nice of him to draw the line between good wizard and bad wizard so clearly. Truly a civic-minded man.”
”Master Banage is twice the wizard you are, thief,” Miranda hissed, leaping to her feet. ”How dare you even mention-”
A black blur shot in front of her face, and Miranda flinched as the long, pitted blade of Josef's sword came into focus an inch from her nose. The swordsman was lounging against the hut with his arm extended, holding the enormous blade between Miranda and Eli with one hand.
”Children,” he said, ”not now.”
Miranda blinked nervously. The sword hung in the air in front of her. This close, she could see the deep gouges from a lifetime of battles that ran like canyons along the blade, though the sword's surface was like no metal she had ever seen. It was blacker than pot iron, and dull as stone. Its cutting edge was uneven, splashed here and there by a redder darkness, like old blood that could never be scoured off. The blade looked impossibly heavy, but Josef's arm was firm as an iron beam, and the sword did not once waver in his grip.
His point made, Josef plunged his blade back into the moss beside him and calmly resumed cleaning his knives as though nothing had happened.
Miranda turned to Gin as much to get away from Eli's triumphant grin as to fix the small bag containing her rings to the rope around his neck.
”I could eat him for you,” Gin growled in her ear, his eyes on the swordsman. ”It wouldn't be any trouble.”
”No,” Miranda said, adjusting the small bag, her fingers lingering over the familiar shapes outlined through the soft doeskin. ”Without you around, we'll need someone who can look threatening. Besides, he'd probably give you indigestion.”
”Without me?” Gin snorted. ”I'm going with you.”
”No, you're not. We've been over this.” Miranda pulled his head down, bringing his orange eyes level with her own. ”If there's one thing we do know about Eli, it's that he's a master thief. If he says he can get us in, then I believe him, but even Eli can't work miracles, and that's what it would take to sneak your fluffy face past the walls. No, your job is to stay and guard the king. The Powers know he can't guard himself.”
Gin glanced over at the king, who was prodding the pa.s.sed-out guard with his finger, and gave a mighty sigh. ”All right,” the dog growled and shuffled over to sit next to Henrith, who looked none too pleased by this turn of events, ”but I'll be listening.”
”I'll call if I need you,” she said.
Gin snorted, but left it at that.
”All right,” Eli said. ”If the girl and her puppy are finished saying their good-byes, let's get a move on.”
Josef nodded and stood up, his ill-fitting armor clanking loudly. Since his outfit didn't have room for his usual a.r.s.enal, he had been forced to make do with a knife in each boot, one behind his neck, and one at his waist. Still, he could almost pa.s.s for a normal soldier. Almost, that is, until he ruined the whole look by fastening his black sword across his back with a leather strap.
”You can't wear that,” Miranda said, pointing at the blade. ”What's the point of wearing disguises if you're just going to give it away by carrying that monstrosity around? I mean, if I left my rings, surely you can go an hour without your sword?”
Josef looked her straight in the eye and pulled the strap tighter. ”If the Heart stays, I stay.”
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