Life for Life
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The vault wasn't far. Maybe one or two turns; a hundred steps or so. Not a lot of time for Jed to make up his mind. I didn't want to have to kill him, but I'd much sooner have to hurt him than any of my other colleagues, people I'd worked with and shared beer with.
Step. Step. Step. When we reached the first turn, I pushed the dagger against his neck and let out a sigh of feigned nonchalance.
"Agh!" Jed cried, and his warm blood dribbled across my fingers.
"Who is it?" I demanded.
"It's Eaves," Jed hissed. "It's fucking Eaves. You couldn't leave well enough alone, Myra."
Eaves. Eaves? "You're telling me that Baron Eaves managed to find The Hole and enlist you in the couple hours since I left his estate? Don't lie to me!"
"No!" he cried, breathing fast. "The last time. The last time you were there, and you botched it. He found me then and said he'd give us all up to the magistrates unless I played along. He wanted you. I have no idea why, but he wanted you."
"Keep talking."
Jed swallowed. "I couldn't just...just truss you up and get rid of you. No one in the Guild would trust me again. They'd think I was a traitor. I was trying to think of a way to hand you over to him, organize some kind of capture on the next hit, but you went back to his place anyway. You broke the decree. And I was able to convince most of the men here that to keep you in line, we had to punish you. That you were putting us all at risk with your recklessness."
"Unbelievable. You didn't have any backup plan? Is this the first person who's ever found The Hole? How many other members have you had to give up to save face?"
Jed laughed, like I was being stupid. "You don't know Eaves, Myra. There's no dealing with him. There's no intimidating him, or threatening him. The man is...he's not natural. He doesn't scare. His resources are unimaginable. The only choice was to bend to him."
"I would have found another way," I said with confidence. I wanted to embarrass him. Meanwhile, my heart was pounding out of my chest. This was beyond just questioning me in his castle because I had broken in—Baron Eaves was after me. Me. And I knew it had to do with Lero, and what Eaves knew about him.
And suspected, then, of me.
I gritted my teeth and eased on the dagger a bit, but still held Jed in my grasp. "Walk, Jed. We're going to the vault."
Jed knew what I was doing. "You're going to use me as a bargaining chip for your friend. And then what, Myra? Escape? Without you two, Eaves will have us all hung by tomorrow. If you and Lero get away, you'll kill us all."
I swallowed. Breathed. "I will deal with Eaves. I'm not leaving you all to die, but I'm not letting you just hand the two of us over."
"Let us return just him to the Baron," Jed bargained. "He may spare us, and we won't have to give you up in turn. You could save us all."
"No," I responded.
"Why do you care what happens to him?" Jed sneered. "You've known the man for hours."
How could I explain that? How could I explain that it was like some invisible bunch of strings were tying me to Lero, so much that even being this far from him for this long was paining me, clawing at me like some trapped animal I needed to soothe? How could I explain to Jed, or even to myself, the connection I felt with Lero?
I couldn't. So I didn't. I just moved us forward to the vault.
"Open up!" I screamed at the door, my prisoner in my arms. Surprised noises came from inside, and the door swung open with Seamus at the helm. He took in the scene before him and bared his teeth.
"She's here! She's got Jed!" Seamus started forward.
"Ah-ah! One more step and he's dead! Who's going to protect you from the Baron then?"
That stopped Seamus in his tracks. A couple other men emerged around his large frame. One of them was Barney, who had let Lero and me in through the front door just a short while ago. I hated to have him see me in a position like this.
"Myra, you wouldn't," Barney said.
I ignored him. I had to. "Lero comes out, unharmed, in ten seconds. Or I kill Jed." Jed twitched in my arms. "Don't even try it," I hissed. Then, louder, "Ten seconds! Now it's nine! You want Jed's blood on your hands?" That same blood was drying on mine.
"Get the prick!" Seamus roared, whipping his hand backward towards the vault and forcing Barney out of the way.
I waited patiently for them to untie Lero and bring him out, on the highest of alert. Even when they walked Lero out and my instinct was to relax and let that relief course through me, I stayed firm.
"Come on, Lero," I said. "Barney, you too. In front. You're leading us out of here."
Lero came first, and he was wearing a little grin on his face even in this somber situation. "Impressive," he muttered to me. "I'll watch Barney. You keep them at bay with Jed."
I nodded and stayed facing the group of men who were standing ten feet away, Lero's former guards. He didn't look like they had roughed him up at all, and I was glad for that. Seamus was very excitable.
"Everybody stay back," I cautioned. "This knife isn't going to leave Jed's throat until we are out the door. If you make the mistake of trying anything, he's dead."
The men didn't say anything. They just stared. I didn't care if Jed was signaling them with his eyes or not saying a word. I had them backed up against the wall, and they knew it, Jed and the rest of them. There was nothing they could do unless they were willing to sacrifice themselves, and they weren't.
Thieves are similar that way.
Barney was in front of Lero, and Lero was in front of me. I was facing backward, watching the rear, so Lero took command.
"Move," he said to Barney. "To the front. And I was dragged all the way here right from the front door, so I know the way back. Don't try to take us anywhere else in this pit."
Hole, I thought, absurdly. I heard the steps start, and I moved after them, urging Jed along.
"I don't know what you think you're going to be able to do," Jed said, stepping backward carefully. The last thing he wanted was to trip and end up impaled on the dagger after all this rigmarole.
"That's not your concern."
"Ha." Jed sniffed. "It's very much my concern. For all I know, you're going to flee as soon as you're out, and leave us all here to dry."
"Believe what you want, Jed," I said, loudly enough for those present to hear, "but my friends know that I would never let that happen to them. Even if they don't work under me." I watched the men in front of me, and it was clear they were listening. "I will not let anything happen to The Hole. If we decided to run, the Baron would just enlist you all in our capture, and we'd never be able to show our faces in any town again. I know how this works," I said, "and I know the only way to finish it is with the Baron.
"So quit your cowardly blathering, Jed, and let me deal with this."
I swear I saw Seamus grin, but it could have been a trick of the light. Jed didn't have anything to say to that.
We crept down the halls slowly, making our collective way to the door, a strange, slow-moving group. I never let the dagger waver, and none of the men, including Barney, tried anything suspect.
When we got to the door, I spoke to Barney. He was the one with the keys.
"Get it open, Barney," I said. "The quicker we're out of here, the sooner all this nasty business is over."
"Aye," Barney muttered, clearly not happy to be caught up in any of this. With Lero keeping an eye on him, the doorkeeper worked his magic on the slab of steel that separated us from freedom. For being just a door, it really was an intricate work of machinery, and Barney was the man who worked it best. Nothing means more to a thief than a secure door to be safe behind.
Except maybe an exit.
"There," Barney said, and shortly after I heard the familiar heavy groans of the heavy door being pulled aside, and the smell of fresh air from the outside world. "Go on."
"Lero, you first," I said, still holding Jed firm. "Barney, get back here with the others." I eased my way over to the left side with Jed to give Barney berth to pass. I held my breath, but he walked by without incident, and I let it out slowly.
Lero was out. I heard his feet crunch on fallen twigs that had gathered outside the door.
"All right," I said, mostly to myself. I backed up towards the door.
"Hold it—aren't you going to release me?" Jed said, a little panicked. I just took us both to the entryway of the door until we were standing on the precipice.
"Lero, the door."
Lero came up and rested his hand on the outside handle. Now that the door was unlocked, we would be able to close it from here.
"Everyone," I said, "I'm sorry you all got dragged into this. I'm sorry I endangered you all. I...we will fix this. I promise you that. And Jed," I added, "that was a weak decision, working with the Baron. The men and women here see it too. You'd better work on that." In one quick motion, I withdrew the knife from his neck and kicked him forward so that he stumbled back into The Hole.
Lero grabbed the handle of the door in both hands and heaved it shut, grunting with the effort as he slammed it closed.
"Let's move," Lero said, and for a while that was all there was to do. We squeezed out of the narrow confines of the path to The Hole, then broke into running once we emerged into the clearer parts of the forest.
I think we both expected to hear footsteps and shouting behind us as we fled, but as it turned out, we weren't pursued from The Hole. Maybe the people back there trusted us. Or maybe they just didn't trust Jed enough after he got himself captured and scolded by the very person he was targeting.
Either way, we got away clean. For now.