The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(95)

Somewhere above us, I heard someone shout. Footsteps creaked against the floors over my head. Gio’s Shardless and unwitting accomplices at the gate.

“Those were the only guards in this section,” Gio said as I caught up to him. Lanterns hung from the stone walls, placed at long intervals, leaving the spaces between dark. “There will be more when we get to the main floor. Once we go up the stairs, we’ll take a right, then the second left, straight through the dining hall, and the governor’s suites are just beyond that.”

The sound from the gate grew to a dull roar. “Quite the riot your Shardless have started,” I said.

“It’s been brewing for some time. You’ll understand once we reach the main level. Now quiet.”

I held my tongue as we crept around the corner and up a set of stairs. Gio checked the landing before gesturing for me to follow. I obeyed, and walked into something from the opulent dreams of the Ioph Carn. Gold trim and paint accentuated the murals on the walls. The tiles inlaid into the ceiling were stamped in curving patterns, then glazed a cerulean blue. They glinted in the lamplight, and for a moment I had the odd impression I’d found an underwater cave, rife with treasures gathered from sinking ships.

I’d seen the gutter orphans in the streets of the city, hungry for any scrap of food. I’d seen the shard-sick, withering away. And here was enough wealth to feed a hundred orphans and care for all the shard-sick. “It’s too much,” I whispered. Gio shot me a glare and I snapped my mouth shut. But it was too much. I wished I hadn’t seen it.

We made it to the second left before we ran into more guards. We stopped at the corner. Another pair of them, a man and a woman. Both had their gazes fixated toward the front gate, listening to the sounds of the riot.

“Should someone tell the governor?” the man asked.

“He can hear it,” the woman said. “They’ll take him out the back way if the rioters breach the walls. You heard our orders. They don’t need us at the walls just yet.”

Gio patted my arm to get my attention. He motioned – you take right, I’ll take left. And then a countdown with his fingers.

At his nod, we both burst into the next hallway. I could see now that there must have been some truth to the stories. Gio moved with a light, silent step, his twin daggers like extensions of his arms. Despite his graying hair, there was strength in his limbs. I was louder, but we still took both guards by surprise. No inexplicable tripping this time, only two guards lying at our feet. It took me longer than it took Gio, and I received a shallow slice to my ribs. The pain in my arm had lessened, though it hadn’t healed yet. I was going to have a veritable litany of injuries by the time I lived through this. If I lived through this.

“His personal guard will be with him. Six of them, all well trained,” Gio said, his breathing heavy. He gave me a sidelong glance, his gaze dropping to the guard on the floor.

I’d learned a thing or two when I’d rescued the children from the Tithing Festival, but without Mephi I was weak. I hadn’t realized how much that power had compensated for my lack of skill. Always had been more of a talker than a fighter. “My arm,” I said. “I’m slower than I usually am.” Did I sound nervous? Did I sound like I was lying? I shouldn’t have said anything. Never could just let a silence sit.

“There will be more difficulties ahead. Take a breather if you must.”

I could see the doubt in his eyes. I wondered how long it would take until he figured out that my strength had left me just as Mephi had grown ill. If anyone made that connection, they would try to take Mephi from me. And I’d left him in the midst of the Shardless Few, asking him to disguise himself as a harmless pet. Damn that construct for finding me, damn this whole ill-begotten plot, damn my involvement. “I’m fine,” I managed. Best get this over with – find out my fate, one way or another. I needed more rest than I would get.

“A bit of that magic you used earlier might help us in the next fight,” he said. Before I could bite back – again! – that I’d not done anything to fling the soldier down the hillside, he opened the door to the dining hall and slipped inside. I followed.

The dining hall was an ostentatious room of turquoise and gold, painted peacocks with bright yellow eyes adorning the walls. Even the goblets were sculpted, the bowls rimmed in gold. I was surprised the Ioph Carn hadn’t already found a way to plunder this palace, smuggling out pieces of it a little at a time. It was the sort of task Kaphra might have set me to.

Above us, I heard the toll of a bell.

“The rioters have breached the walls. The guards will try to take the governor out the secret passage.” Gio opened the door on the other side of the dining hall and peered through. “They’re in disarray. We can take them by surprise. I’ll go left. You go right.” And then, without waiting for a response, he was gone.

Did he not want to hear me? I didn’t have my powers. I tightened my sweat-slick palms around my staff. The muscles of my injured arm protested; the skin there burned and stretched. But I’d backed myself into this corner. Me, Mephi, Gio. Emahla.

The door to the governor’s suite was open, a guard halfway in and halfway out, shouting into the room. “We need to leave now. Forget the armor – he won’t need it if we hurry.”

Gio ducked and ran the length of the hall, swift and silent as a snake in the water. He thrust one of his daggers into the guard’s back. The man let out a little gasp before crumpling. I dashed down the hallway, sounding like an elephant compared to Gio’s mouse. But the element of surprise was gone and stealth no longer mattered.