Her Reputation (The Empire: Book 1)

CHAPTER 13

  Rhys walked down the hallway, deep in thought. Now that the Princess was safe and the source of the rumors identified, he had nothing to distract him from his own problems. The Bloodstone had been safely returned, and the Queen had not mentioned the incident, but that was not the most pressing matter at the moment.

  He had spent the afternoon trying to figure out how to keep Jak from killing him. The deadline he’d imposed ended tonight, and even if Rhys didn’t show up for the meeting, Jak would hunt him down. Two weeks hadn’t been nearly long enough to come up with the ridiculous sum of five hundred gold, even if he had used his connections. While he could tell his mother about his predicament, and probably be assigned guards for the rest of his life to ensure his survival, it would put a damper on the rest of his plan. Even though Jak wanted to kill him, Jak was just a crony. Rhys now had the respect of three of the four main gangs in the city. He couldn’t afford to have guards following him around now that his ideas were actually taking shape. And besides, he hadn’t spoken to his mother since he’d found out that she may have been involved in even worse dealings than him. And yet still has the gall to admonish me for my choices. He took the purse out of his pocket and examined the contents.

  Rhys had gathered as much of the money for the debt as he could, including the fifty gold from the Queen. He even sold his prized possessions in order to attempt to make a dent in the outrageous amount, but it still fell short. He should have known better than to borrow money from the slippery man in the first place.

  Rhys had first become involved with Jak when a street child of no more than five had been found dead from an overdose of the Sparkle Dust drug. While Rhys had less sympathy for those who chose to ruin their lives with the stuff as adults, he was appalled that such a young child had been able to get his hands on it. Rhys’s investigation into the matter had resulted in the discovery of a rogue faction of the gang and a face-to-face with its leader. The leader of the Falcons, the same gang that Jak was a part of, agreed that the matter with the child was unacceptable and had been impressed with Rhys’s assessment of what needed to change to prevent it. He also appreciated Rhys’s discovery of the men who had been ripping him off while selling to children. As the leader had said, it wasn’t profitable for him to have his underlings killing off the people who would make him money. Rhys would be happy if his involvement saved even one child’s life in the future. The whole matter had sparked Rhys’s master plan, and the Falcon’s leader had pointed him in the direction of Jak, a loan shark, when he had brought the plan to him. In order to make it work, all of the major gangs in the city – the Shadow Sisters, the Crows, the Falcons, and the Hawks – would have to agree to it.

  He swirled his fingers around in the sad offering of his coin purse. He had also entertained the idea of stealing another artifact from the vaults. Queen Layna had trusted him the first time, after all. But after he returned the Bloodstone, he felt an immediate strengthening of the wards that protected them. He doubted he’d be able to get in a second time. Besides, he didn’t want to betray the Queen’s trust; she also had a vital part to play in his plans.

  He could ask the leader of the Falcons for a reprieve – as Jak’s superior he’d be in a position to grant it – but this course of action was likely to lose the respect Rhys had gained with him. It was even possible that the man’s suggestion that he go to Jak was a test in and of itself. It certainly tested Rhys’s resolve to complete the project by having to deal with the man.

  Sighing, he resigned himself to the inevitable. He would simply have to face Jak with what meager amount he’d been able to come up with and plead for mercy and more time.

  Rhys moved amongst the shadows of the city. Evening was fast approaching, and vendors were packing up their wares. He was in a dark mood, and didn’t even bother snatching the purse that was just begging to be grabbed from a young woman’s belt.

  Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He froze, detecting the presence of several other shadows in the alley with him. He braced himself for an attack.

  “Be at ease,” said a voice. “We come only with a message.”

  Rhys didn’t let his guard down, nor the knives he now held before him. “What’s the message?” he asked warily. Perhaps Jak knew he hadn’t the money and had decided to do away with him without bothering to hear him out.

  “You contacted our boss and asked him for something,” the voice continued. Rhys relaxed the tiniest of bits. He had almost forgotten that he was still awaiting the third and final request that could complete his plans. It seemed pointless now that Jak was about to kill him anyway. A token was slipped to him that indicated that these people were indeed from the Hawks.

  The voice went on, “For this, he asks something in return.”

  Rhys waited.

  “You know of the Lady Alina?”

  Rhys nodded guardedly.

  “She wears a ring on her left hand. Index finger. Bring it to us.”

  The shadows disappeared before Rhys could ask how he was supposed to contact them when he acquired the ring. If I acquire it, he corrected himself. He thought of the Lady Alina and shuddered. How was he supposed to steal anything from her, let alone an object she carried on her person? He conjured up an image of the ring from his memory. It was a plain-looking ring, but the design would be too difficult to counterfeit. More likely than not, the Hawk’s boss would have someone watching Lady Alina and the proof of Rhys’s success would be in its absence rather than being able to authenticate the ring itself anyway. How else would they have known of its existence unless they already had someone watching her? Rhys only knew because it was his habit to categorize and assign figures to people’s possessions. The ring he’d chalked up to no more than a trinket, worth no more than the metal it was made out of. But that wasn’t the challenge. The challenge was that it belonged to Lady Alina. And that made the task nearly impossible.

  Rhys deflated. It probably wouldn’t matter anyway. He’d most likely be dead before the night was over.

  The building looked darker and more ominous than it did normally, and Rhys paused at the door. He took a deep breath and knocked. No one answered. He knocked again. There was a rustling inside, and finally the door cracked open.

  An eye appeared in the crack. “Who’re you?”

  “Um, I’m Rhys,” he stammered, “I’m supposed to meet with Jak.”

  The eye disappeared and Rhys heard the man yell, “It’s someone named Rhys. Lookin’ for Jak.”

  “Let him in,” another voice commanded. It was Jessup.

  The door opened wider, and Rhys moved forward, furrowing his brow. The man who had answered led him into the adjacent chamber. Instead of the usual sea of semi-lifeless bodies strewn over the floor, the room was packed full of very lively – and very agitated – men.

  “Ah, Rhys,” Jessup greeted him, smiling with what teeth he had left. “Come to pay up have you?”

  “Where’s Jak?” Rhys asked, eyeing the men closing in around them.

  “Jak is indisposed,” Jessup said, obviously repeating the word from someone who actually knew what it meant. Several men around him sneered. As usual, Jessup didn’t know when to shut up. He continued, “Seems he musta gotten into a little too much of his own goods. Knocked ‘im out but good. Real bad trip.” He grinned at Rhys. “So it looks like your debt to him is now a debt to me.”

  Rhys glanced around and saw more sneers. Obviously, Jessup’s hold on the position was a tenuous one. “When did that happen?” he asked, trying to buy time.

  “A week or two ago,” the man answered, too dull to even consider not doing so. Not that it mattered, Rhys was only buying time, but had it been Jak still in charge Rhys was sure to have gotten laid out flat for asking questions.

  Rhys’s mind whirled for a means to escape. There were too many of the thugs to push through, and they’d circled around behind him. The wind
ow to the right was too small to get through, and he’d have to smash it through first anyway. A couple weeks. Jak has been gone for almost the entire deadline countdown. To think, if I had only known I might have avoided this mess. With Jessup in command, if I hadn’t shown up, the dullard probably would have forgotten all about me. It was only Jak and the loyalty he’d somehow managed to command from his crew that made him so dangerous. Jessup clearly did not have the same charisma.

  That probably meant it was soon after Rhys had almost been caught by Jessup and the nameless thug after seeing Phoenix at the Gardens of Intrigue. Otherwise Jessup wouldn’t have been still playing the role of enforcer that day. If only he had known, he would have spent more time in the city searching for clues rather than avoiding it for fear of the man. He may have been able to have spared Phoenix her ordeal…

  He suddenly stopped. It would have been right after he’d encountered Phoenix in the Gardens of Intrigue. Right after he’d stolen a potion from the strangers. Right after Jessup had taken that potion off of him.

  Several of the thugs moved to the window, drawn by a commotion outside, and allowing Rhys to see farther into the shack. He could see Jak laying on a cot in the corner. The man was drooling and staring at nothing in particular. He jerked his fingers now and again as though trying to move but not quite getting the commands where they needed to go. Seeing Jak suddenly sparked a realization for Rhys.

  “The bad trip that Jak went on,” he speculated, “was it from something in a strange-looking bottle perhaps?”

  “Yeah, so?” Jessup made a face at him.

  Rhys smiled to himself, but plastered a dumb look on his face as he turned back to the crowded room. “It just seems like maybe I’ve seen something like that before.”

  Jessup simply stared at him, but several of the men surrounding them moved closer. “Do you know who did this to him?” one asked.

  Another jabbed his sword into Rhys’s side. “You’d better tell us if you know something.”

  Rhys watched the wheels turning ever so slowly in Jessup’s head. Finally, Jessup raised both eyebrows. He’d made the connection. He knew that Rhys knew who Jak had gotten that potion from, who it was that made their boss indisposed.

  “I’m not sure,” Rhys drawled, his tone surely sounding like he was a dullard to the thugs, but hoping that Jessup would pick up on the threat. “My memory is awfully fuzzy. I’m not even sure why I came here today since I’ve already paid off my debt. Isn’t that right, Jessup?” He paused and watched Jessup’s face contort with rage. To the rest of the thugs he said, “Give me a second and I’ll try to remember who might’ve done that to Jak. I tried out the stuff too, so my memory’s a bit spotty, but if I try real hard I’m sure I can think of it.”

  Jessup finally spoke up, his voice shaking with anger. “Yeah, yeah you’re right,” he said, “You did come in here and pay that debt off already.”

  “Right,” Rhys agreed. “I was probably looking pretty worse for wear at that point, wasn’t I?”

  “Yeah, you were,” Jessup agreed, though by his blank look he didn’t see where Rhys was going.

  Satisfied, Rhys turned to the thugs. “I musta come here right in the midst of it. I remember now. I’d gotten some stuff off a rogue outside of town. Came in a funny little bottle. The man said it was some new formula he’d made. A green liquid of some sort.”

  “That’s the stuff!” one of the listeners cut in.

  Rhys nodded knowingly, as though just remembering. “Yeah, I bought it off him with some of the money I owed and when I took it, the stuff had an amazing high. Didn’t come down for days. Really messed me up.”

  “Did you give it to Jak?” a thug demanded, jabbing him from the opposite side as the knife already poking him.

  “Of course not,” he said with exasperation, as though it was a silly question. “I wasn’t gonna share my stuff.” The men gave him appraising looks and then nodded. Addicts weren’t known for their sharing.

  “How did it get to Jak if you didn’t give it to him?” a thug asked. Jessup watched Rhys carefully.

  “How should I know?” Rhys asked, shrugging. “I only said I knew of something like that.”

  “You also said you came here to pay a debt. Why’d you come back today if you’d already paid up?” someone asked. Jessup gave him a triumphant glare.

  “Well, I told you,” Rhys pointed out patiently. “I was in the midst of the high when I paid up and I forgot that I’d been here with most of it. But I used some of the money I owed to get the stuff, so I was coming back to square up the rest.” He tossed a few coins to Jessup. “That ought to take care of it, wouldn’t you say? We’re good?”

  Jessup was grinding the last of his teeth. Rhys bit back a laugh. He’d better be careful or he’d grind away all he had left. Finally Jessup spoke. “Yup, that’ll about do it.”

  Once that was taken care of, the men grilled him about the fictional rogue who’d supposedly been selling the drug that put Jak into whatever state he was in. “Was he one of the Crows?” one of the thugs asked derisively.

  Rhys pretended to consider this. “I don’t think so,” he finally answered. “I think he was from out of town. Had longish red hair, real matted up and dirty. And a scar down the side of his nose.”

  “Did he have anyone with him? A horse? Did he say where he was going?”

  “No. No. And no.”

  “Well, what use are you?” said the thug who had been with Jessup when Rhys had bested the two of them. He was leaning against the wall and glaring at Rhys.

  “We have a description,” another man said, ignoring the last thug, “let’s get out there and find him! Maybe he’ll know how we can flush it out of Jak’s system.”

  Jessup looked annoyed. No doubt he would rather move forward with himself as the new leader rather than search for a fictional character that might be able to help Jak. But the other thugs disagreed and most were out the door before the hulking man could form a sentence to stop them. Rhys high-tailed it out of there the moment they gave him the opportunity.

  He sprinted down the lane and around the corner. When he’d put a fair amount of distance between him and the dreadful place, he paused to catch his breath. He bent over and put his hands on his knees. Laughing out loud, he drew strange looks from onlookers, but he ignored them.

  Jak would no longer be a problem it seemed. After a few minutes of hysterical laughter, he sobered and drew a few deep breaths. Of course, if he were to come out of it, it may be a different story, but for the moment he was safe. Now all he had to do was steal a ring off the Lady Alina’s finger.

  No problem…