Chapter Eleven

We waited until the sun was starting to rise, after realizing that I might have trouble finding a window I had never been to in the dark. We spent the time talking, partially, I thought, because Tannix wasn't sure if he trusted me yet and didn't want to go to sleep. He even went down to the kitchens to get me some food. When he returned, he sat on his bed, and I once again buried myself in the comfortable chair. He was asking me questions, but I didn't mind answering them, not after getting the hard topic of my parents out of the way.

"So, that dagger?" he began, after giving me a moment to start devouring the bread he had brought me. "Fairly soon after you left, one of the others started complaining about how he couldn't find one of his daggers. I assume that's it?"

I nodded.

"And the cloak too?"

"Someone else's," I explained. "I knew better than to take both things from the same person."

"And the ring is Lord Co's?"

I nodded again. This time I took the chain I wore around my neck and pulled it out from under my tunic. The ring still hung on it. The key I'd long ago given to Baisan so that he could use my little chest for our money. "I was thinking of selling it, but I got a little attached to it. I didn't know I was getting myself into anything important when I took it, I just thought it was another piece of jewellery." I tucked the chain back under my tunic and tore a piece off the bread.

"You like jewellery?"

"It's easy to hide and easy to sell," I told him. I was a little surprised at how open I was being about my life, but Tannix seemed fascinated by the way I lived. "There's always a prostitute who wants to make herself look nicer."

"Know a lot about prostitutes, don't you?"

I looked up from my bread. "For the love of Zianesa, I grew up in a brothel. That doesn't mean I go visit them often. I couldn't afford them anyway, not like you could."

Tannix laughed. "I have been, more or less, locked up in this compound since I was fourteen," he pointed out. "When do you think I would have time to go to a brothel?"

I shrugged. "You're the son of West Draulin. I assumed you could make time."

He shook his head. "Why did you decide to stay here for as long as you did?"

I hesitated. "To be honest, it was for the food at first." He looked a little insulted. "You don't understand. You've spent your whole life being given enough to eat. I've had to fight for food. This," I waved the piece of bread, "is a day's worth of work for me. All you had to do was walk downstairs and ask for it. At the very beginning, when you tackled me, I went with you to avoid suspicion. Then the next morning I heard about food, and I couldn't help myself. I found you again because you'd been nice to me the day before. I was used to being on my own, but as soon as I started sticking with you and we became friends, I don't know, something changed. I didn't choose you because of your status; I didn't even know who you were until the second day."

"So we became friends because you were hungry?"

"I'm always hungry," I said. "After leaving, I didn't want to be on my own again, so I joined a group of other thieves. The one that attacked us when we were out with Malte, remember?"

"You joined someone who attacked you?"

"They didn't attack me." I paused to eat another piece of the bread. "They thought I was following you two because you had something good, so they decided to help out. The only reason they left is because I told them to."

"And they listened to you?"

"You're important in your world, I'm important in mine."

We carried on like that, him asking questions and me answering them, until we noticed the room beginning to lighten. I'd finished my bread long before, and had started toying with my Order ring while we talked. I could tell he was still a little uncomfortable with me having it. When the room started getting brighter, I sighed.

"I should go."

Tannix nodded. "Yes, you should," he agreed, getting to his feet. "Come back here afterwards, if you can."

"I will." I put the ring back on my little chain and draped it over my neck while walking to the desk to glance over the drawings one last time "Shouldn't take too long." I picked up the letter and slipped it under my tunic. The last time I'd climbed out of this window, it had been in a panic while trying to escape. This time, I was more careful about it. I climbed back up to the familiar roof, where I could stop to figure out what to do next.

The director's office was on the fifth floor, and his window was facing the opposite side of the building as Tannix's. I walked across the roof and peered over the edge. One floor down, two windows across. I rolled my shoulders before starting down the wall cautiously. The window was easy to reach and I risked a quick glance in. The room seemed to be empty. I carefully stepped onto the thin windowsill and pushed on the window, but just as I expected, it didn't swing open. It was held shut by a little latch on the inside.

I shifted to steady myself with my right hand and carefully pulled out my dagger. I dug the tip into the wooden window frame, as close to the glass and the latch as I could. After some wiggling, I managed to get the tip to poke out the inside of the frame. I nudged at the latch until it came loose. The window swung open smoothly and I hopped into the room before reaching back to tug my dagger out of the wood.

The office had a large wooden desk in the middle of it, piled with papers. There were various other things sitting on the desk, as well as a quill, resting in a little pot of ink. The far wall of the room was covered entirely by bookshelves. Large paintings hung on the other walls. Pushed in one corner was a cushioned chair similar to Tannix's. The thief in me wanted to explore every drawer of the desk, but I fought the urge.

I walked across the room cautiously and placed the letter in the centre of the desk, where it could not possibly be missed. I was just turning around when something caught my eye. One of the objects on the desk was a tiny sword. Confused, I stopped to pick it up. It was barely as long as my hand, and very dull. I ran my finger down the blade, and felt wax at the end. Its purpose suddenly dawned on me, as I looked at the letter and remembered Tannix breaking the seal with the tip of his knife.

The door swung open suddenly, before I had even registered it moving. The little sword dropped from my hand, and for a moment I was frozen, staring into the confused eyes of the man at the door. Then instinct kicked in, and I ran for the window.

The man charged across the room after me, but I grabbed the bricks above the window and pulled myself up before he could reach me. I had almost reached the roof when I glanced down and saw that he was following me.

Panicking, I hauled myself onto the roof and ran across it as fast as I could. I swung over the other side, scraping my right palm across a rough brick in the process. It hurt, but I couldn't waste time favouring it.

I descended more rashly than I usually would have, but I reached Tannix's window, jumped into his room, and closed the glass before the man could make it to the wall to see where I had disappeared. I leaned against the wall and sank to the floor. My heart was racing, and it took me a moment to get my breath back.

I had just calmed down when I heard footsteps outside of Tannix's door. Startled, I dove for his bed and crawled under it, ignoring the dull throbbing in my palm. I tensed as the door opened and someone walked in. The door was closed, and to my relief, Tannix said my name.

I rolled out from under the bed and got to my feet. "Thank Zianesa it's you."

"You were seen?" Tannix asked. "How? What happened?"

"I know," I groaned. I sank down into the comfortable armchair by his window. "He walked in just as I was leaving. He tried to follow me, but I was too quick."

"Good. But now the alarm's been rung and the guards are checking all the rooms for signs of you."

My stomach dropped. As much as I liked to think of him as a friend, it had still been four years since we had last seen each other. "You're not going to turn me in?"

"No, of course not," Tannix said. He began to pace in front of his door, but stopped. "I hear them in the hallway, get back under the bed."

I dropped to the ground and rolled under the bed just in time, as there was a knock on Tannix's door. It creaked as he swung it open. Between the edge of the blanket and the stone floor I could see two sets of shiny black boots. One set stepped into the room, and Tannix moved out of the way.

"May I ask what is going on?" Tannix asked, politely but with all the authority his title offered him.

"There is an intruder," one of the men replied. "We're checking all the rooms, sir."

"If there was an intruder in my room, I think I would know," Tannix said dryly.

"We're just doing our job, sir," the guard said. The second set of boots had stepped into the room by then, and their owner was walking over to Tannix's closet.

"Gentlemen, that was my subtle way of telling you that I am a busy person and I would like not to be disturbed. If there were an intruder in my room, I would know. It would be better to check the next room."

"It'll just be a minute, sir."

"Do you know who I am?" Tannix asked. I could hear that the second man was opening the doors of his wardrobe.

"Orders are orders, sir."

"I am Lord Tandrix of West Draulin," he said. "And I would like to get back to work."

The noises I could hear from the man rummaging through the wardrobe suddenly stopped. Tannix's name had worked like magic. The two men swiftly left the room.

"My apologies, my lord. We did not mean to dis—"

"Of course you didn't," Tannix interrupted. "Carry on your search, then. Good luck." He closed the door without letting the man stammer out another apology. "Finn, you're lucky you made friends with someone so important."

"I know," I replied, once again rolling out from under the bed. "Thank you."

"What did you do to your hand?"

I glanced down at my bloodied palm. There was dirt in the cuts, but I assumed it would be all right. It wasn't the first time I'd hurt my hand while climbing. "I scraped it. It'll be fine."

"Let me see."

I reluctantly got to my feet and offered Tannix my hand. He looked over it for just a moment before gesturing to the armchair.

"Sit down. I have to clean it out."

"No." I pulled my hand away from him.

"Finagale." He sighed my name. "Don't fight me."

I met his gaze for a moment, then groaned and plopped myself down on the chair. Warily, I watched as he went to his wardrobe and pulled out a fancy golden pin meant to hold his cloak in place. He moved the chair from his desk over so that it was sitting in front of the armchair, and once he was settled down, he held out his hand. I timidly placed mine in it. "Please don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to try to hurt you. Don't sound so afraid."

"I tend to avoid getting hurt," I said. "Or at least I..." I stopped when Tannix poked the pin into my cuts.

"And yet you lead such a dangerous life," Tannix said.

"I avoid conflict. I run away from danger. I'm a coward, really. I'm only as brave as I have to be to survive." He poked me again and this time I flinched and pulled my hand from his grasp.

"Give it back," Tannix said.

"No. I need a distraction," I said. "Can I see your ring?" He looked confused. "I like rings."

He slipped the ring from his finger. "My father would kill me if he saw me handing my crest ring to a thief." He dropped it into my left hand, and then grabbed my right before I could try to move it out of reach.

"I can't exactly get away." The ring was doing its work, and I almost didn't notice when he poked into my hand again. I slipped it onto my middle finger and absentmindedly started twirling it with my thumb. "Tannix?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you still training with Malte? Wrestling in the courtyard and climbing walls?"

He shook his head. "No. First year is just basic knowledge, and they assess us to see where we would be most useful for the kingdom. I have more specialized instructors; Malte only deals with first years. I've been training with swords, daggers, and hand-to-hand combat. I've been trained to fight on foot or on horseback. I've had lessons in battle strategies and how to handle troops. I've been studying the strategies of Deorun and Navire. You would have found it all quite boring, I imagine."

"If I had been a lord and I was still training here, what would I be doing?"

Tannix was silent for a moment. "Second year they would have probably trained you to be a spy. If you were any good with weapons, they'd try to have you be an assassin, but as I recall, you aren't. By now, you'd be able to speak, read, and write Teltish—which actually you should have already learned as common education—as well as Deoran and Navirian. You would be learning about codes, making them up and decoding them. You would be practicing your climbing ability, different ways to sneak around. Knot tying, lock picking... Can you pick locks?"

I shrugged. "Sometimes, depends on the lock."

"You'd be training in close combat fighting skills, just in case you were captured or attacked. Not as much as if you were an assassin, though. You would also learn about Navire and Deorun, their cultures and customs, things like that, so that you'd be able to blend in."

"Sounds less boring."

"You would think that," Tannix agreed. He grabbed a piece of white cloth I hadn't noticed earlier and gently wiped the blood away from the cuts. His tenderness surprised me, after all his talk about being a soldier. Once he was satisfied, he wrapped my hand in a second white cloth. "There, that wasn't so bad. Can I have my ring back?"

I placed it in his hand. "Do you think it's safe for me to leave now?"

"Not with that hand," he replied. "Even if you do manage to climb with it, you won't be able to outrun anybody. Stay here for a while. You look exhausted."

I nodded, suddenly realizing just how tired I was.

"Go to sleep, then. I'm on my own time, so I'll stay here to watch over you," Tannix said. "Tonight, if the guards have given up searching, you can go."

"All right." I nestled further into the chair, trying to get comfortable.

"You can use the bed, you know."

"I can?" I looked at him, shocked. I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept in a bed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," he nodded towards it. "Go ahead."

Gratefully, I climbed out of the chair and collapsed onto his bed. I pulled the blankets up over my body, rested my head on the pillow, and marvelled at the comfort and warmth. I was asleep almost instantly.

I slept almost the whole day. When I opened my eyes, it was once again dark in the room. Tannix was sitting at the desk, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the table. I moved slightly and muttered, "Are you allowed to sit like that?"

He didn't seem startled to hear my voice, and didn't bother turning around to face me. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're a Telt," I said. "You're supposed to be proper and well mannered."

"I think you've only ever seen Teltans at formal occasions," he replied. "We're just as badly mannered as the rest of you when we're alone, which you'll notice if you plan on spending any more time in my bed."

I groaned and buried my head under his blankets. "Tannix," I began, sure my voice was muffled, but not caring to move to blanket out of the way. "I sleep on a pile of clothing, pushed into the corner of a ruined stone room, with a fire in the middle being the only thing keeping me warm. If I could figure out how to steal this bed from you, I would do it. I just might have trouble getting it out the window."

"And getting it down the wall would be no trouble at all," Tannix said sarcastically.

"After getting it out the window, the wall would be easy."

"Of course." I heard the chair legs scrape against the floor and when I poked my head out from under the blankets, Tannix had gotten to his feet. "I'm going to go get you some food, and then you should go."

I reluctantly tossed back his blankets and sat up. "Yes, you're right."

"Don't be so disappointed, Finn," Tannix told me. "I've been awake since you got here last night. You're lucky I didn't make you leave earlier."

"I'm lucky about a lot of things, I think," I said.

Tannix nodded. "I suppose you are. Stay here," he said as he left the room, as if I would leave when he was bringing me food. When he returned, I had moved, but only so that I could sit in his comfortable chair. He handed me a spoon and a bowl containing some kind of stew.

Tannix sat on his bed and watched me eat. "You don't ever get enough to eat, do you?"

"Not since I stayed here," I said. The stew was already half done.

He was silent until I had finished the whole bowl. I scraped the edges to get as much of the sauce as I could before holding the bowl out to him. "Thank you."

He took it. "If..." he paused. "If I gave you some money..."

My eyes widened in shock. "You'd give me money?"

Tannix shrugged. "If you wanted some."

"I do," I said quickly. As an afterthought, I added, "But I don't need it." Our friendship had never been about money and I didn't want him to think it was. Four years ago, I had been drawn to his friendliness, not his wealth. I couldn't even begin to guess what he had liked about me back then. No matter what it was, our connection had survived the years apart, and already felt as easy as it had the first time.

"I don't want you going hungry." Tannix placed the bowl on his bed and went to the desk. After a moment rummaging through the top drawer, he pulled out a small blue pouch, which he tossed towards me without warning. It was heavy despite its small size. "You can have it, if you want it."

I wanted to protest; for once in my life, I was hesitant about taking someone else's money. But then I thought of Baisan and the rest of my little family, and I nodded. "Yes... yes, I do. Thank you, Tannix," I said. It would have been selfish to turn away the money because of my own sense of pride.

Tannix looked a little uncomfortable and shrugged. "I don't need it. Don't overthink it, I'd like to be able to help you. So, come back in a couple of days, if you can."

I nodded as I slipped the money pouch into my pocket. "I will."

"Goodnight, then. Be careful. Don't fall."

"I will," I promised again. "And I never fall." I paused at the window to wiggle the fingers on my right hand. It hurt, but it wasn't excruciating and I knew I could make the multiple climbs that would get me home. "Goodnight." I glanced back quickly before carefully climbing onto the windowsill and starting my descent.