I awoke with a boot to my ribs, which was better than I’d expected. When I opened my eyes, Erick towered over me, his arms folded. Fink stood in the shadows behind him. He had a dark bruise on his forehead from where I’d kicked him. A better person might’ve regretted kicking a kid. I didn’t.
“You’ve got a rat behind you,” I muttered to Erick.
Fink shook his head. “No, my pet’s in her cage.”
“I wasn’t talking about your pet.”
“Call me whatever names you want,” Fink said. “They said as long as I watch out for you, I can stay too.”
If he expected a congratulations from me, he was going to be disappointed. This was no place for someone his age. Nor mine, I supposed.
“Why didn’t you run?” Erick asked. “It appears our knots were no good for you.”
“Undoing all those knots made me tired. Besides, you and I have business to discuss.” I eyed Fink. “Without him.”
“If it wasn’t for me, they would have killed you already,” Fink said.
“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here in the first place,” I retorted.
Erick grabbed my shirt and yanked me to my feet, then led me forward with Fink at my heels. Every time he got too close I stopped walking, forcing him to run into me, then I turned around and grinned back at him. It irritated him, but I was bigger so I didn’t think he’d try anything back. Of course, the last time we met I had kicked him in the face, so maybe he would.
They led me into a makeshift tent on the edge of camp. From the looks of it, this was a supply tent, though there wasn’t much here to offer. In the center was a small table. Lying on it were my knife, sword, and the satchel of coins I’d given to Fink.
Erick motioned to the items. “Explain these.”
I flashed a wry smile. “If you don’t know what these are, then you’re in the wrong business.”
He wasn’t amused. He picked up the satchel by a seam and dumped the coins on the table. “These are Carthyan and in new condition. How do you come to possess so many of them?”
“I took them.” Which was easy to do because as king, they were mine.
“So you’re a thief.”
Casually, I shoved my hands into my pockets. “Looks that way.”
“Are you any good?”
My answer only required a nod at the coins.
“Where’d they come from?”
“Why do you want to know?” As if that weren’t obvious.
“You told Fink you could get more.”
I eyed Fink. “He should’ve realized that secret divided better between only the two of us.”
Erick was quickly losing his patience. “So are there more?”
Folding my arms, I said, “You can’t expect me to answer that. If there are, I’d rather save that news for the pirates.”
Erick grinned slyly. “Ah. You think with some treasure you could earn yourself a seat at their table?”
I didn’t need a seat. Just a sword and a lot of luck.
Erick continued, “It won’t work because they don’t know you. They would take the coins and then give you a quick beheading.”
“I’m very opposed to any beheadings involving my own neck,” I said. “So tell me how to make it work. Maybe you know the pirates.”
“I know a few.” Erick scratched his jaw. “If you told me where this treasure is, I could tell the pirates.”
“Which still results in my headless problem,” I said. “I have access to the coins, but I can’t get them alone. And no offense, but I wouldn’t trust your amateur bunch of thieves with stealing a single coin from a wishing pond, much less the treasure I have access to. It has to be the pirates and it has to be me who tells them.”
Erick pulled out a knife and shoved me against a post of the tent. “There’s no treasure. I think you’re making it up.”
Which was rather insulting, because if I’d intended to make up a story, I could have done far better than this. However, my focus remained on the knife at my throat. “You don’t want to do this.”
His lip curled. “Yes, I do.”
I considered that. “Fair enough. But it’d be a mistake. The coins are real and there’re thousands of them. They’re in a secret cave in Carthya. The royals keep only a small portion of their wealth in the castle. If it’s ever overrun, they don’t want their enemies to have all the treasury.”
“How do you know this?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t? It’s common practice for all royals, not just Carthyans.”
“I thought that was a myth,” Fink said.
“I’ve been there,” I said. “I’ve stood inside the walls.”
That had happened only once, when I was still quite young. I had a memory of having gone there with my father and Darius. My father had caught me using the coins as skipping rocks across a wide pond at the far end of the cave. My backside still remembered his anger for that.
Erick finally released me, then rubbed a hand along his unshaven jaw. “Where’s the cave?”
“You think it’s that easy to find?” I chuckled. “I could draw you a map and you’d still miss it. You’ll have to keep me alive if you want to see it.”
“How much is in there?” Fink asked.
“More than you’ll see in a lifetime. There’s enough for every pirate to split a healthy share, and I figure it’s more than enough to earn me a seat at their table.”
“And perhaps me as well.” Erick shook his head. “You can’t go to the pirates alone, but if I brought you along, they’d hear you out. I could bargain with them, that in exchange for the treasure, I’d earn a place with them too.”
“Could you include keeping me alive as part of that bargain?” I asked.
Erick grinned. “That’s not my top priority.” I started to protest but he added, “You’re not leaving here on your own. But if you’re one of my thieves, with me as your partner, then you might have a chance. Besides, there’s no other way you can find their camp.”
With a stubborn frown, I said, “You’ll get all the glory for my coins.”
“We’ll both have it. You said yourself you couldn’t get them on your own and the devils know I won’t let you go without my share. So don’t look at it as losing the glory. You’re gaining a partner.”
In fact, I looked at it as neither of those. But I made the appropriate expressions of thinking his proposal over, then nodded. “All right, I’m in. But we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Why not?”
Because time was not on my side. It was now only five days until the regents met. However, I figured that detail would only complicate our tenuous relationship, so I said, “There’re others who know about the cave. We have to get there first, or not at all.”
“Then we’ll go to the pirates soon. But first, you must prove yourself.”
Suddenly anxious, I cocked my head. “I already have. I brought you those coins.”
“Yeah, but I never saw you take them. Did you think I’d recommend you to the pirates unless I saw you for myself?”