Thief (Brotherhood of the Throne Book 1) (17 page)

Brenna
reached
for old steel to see if any from the Brotherhood were close and was surprised that the third man carried a piece, a sword. Was he Brotherhood? But something didn’t feel quite right, somehow and tentatively she probed the sword, like a sore tooth. She shuddered. The pairing of Thorold’s man and his old steel weapon was very discordant. The song was raw and out of tune. Brenna quickly clamped down on the old steel to make sure it didn’t react to her presence.

“Well, get on with it,” Fridrick said impatiently. “You must have some idea of what’s here.”

“Yes sir, there’s something in this book,” Randell said.

She heard a book drop onto the table.

“Here it is, sir,” Randell said. “This passage, right here.”

“Move over.” Feet shuffled for a moment.

“Ah, yes. ‘And as King Wolde came unto his dotage he became ever fearful that his line would weaken and so plunge Soule once again into the chaos of war and conflict he’d raised it from.’”

This was the exact same passage Randell had found for her some weeks ago! What in the gods names was Duke Thorold doing looking for information on the Brotherhood?

“Very good. This is most helpful,” the scholar said. “What else is there?”

“Nothing else my Lord.” Randell sounded frightened. “I’ve not had a chance to fully sort through this section. These books only recently came from the king’s storage. And I’m sorry my lord, but you can’t take that book with you.”

“Really? You’re telling me that I cannot take a book to my master? How do you think Duke Thorold would react if he heard that?”

Brenna shivered at the coldness in the voice. Let him have the book Randell, she prayed.

“Oh, of course not, my Lord. Of course the duke can have the book. He can have it as long as he wishes, of course.”

“That’s better. Now, I will be back late tomorrow. I expect you to have catalogued every single passage in every single book in this room by then, am I understood?”

“Yes my Lord. Of course my Lord.”

“Good. I suggest that you start now. Guard!”

Footsteps retreated down the hall and light dimmed. The bastards had even left poor Randell in the dark! She could hear the sounds of his erratic breathing. After a few minutes there was the rustle of feet and a thud and a muffled grunt of pain as poor Randell bumped into something on his way out of the room.

Brenna slowly moved her limbs. She’d spent more time wedged into book shelves than she’d spent searching them tonight. She quietly lowered herself to the floor and edged around the table to the door. She’d wager Randell would be back with a lamp as soon as he could. Cataloguing this section would take a long time. She hoped Randell could find enough about the Brotherhood to keep Thorold’s men happy.

She’d have to come back for the old steel items later. They still called to her, but right now she had to get back to Feiren’s. She needed to talk to Kane right away.

eleven

“You did what?” Kane couldn’t believe it. He sprang from his chair and paced his uncle’s study. “Brenna …” he stopped. What to say to her? At least she had the decency to look guilty. He looked at Uncle Feiren, who only shrugged. Kane turned back the Brenna. “What were you thinking?”

She looked up at him defiantly. “I was thinking that a visit to the library late at night was the safest time for me to do it.”

“But you could have been caught.” Or worse, he thought. The orders for the Brothers who were watching her were going to change. The minute she stopped moving he wanted to know about it.

“But I wasn’t,” Brenna said, and when he glared at her she lifted her chin a little.

Oh, his orders would change - even if it meant he was woken up multiple times every night.

“You are too important to risk this way,” Kane said. She’d been so close to real danger and she didn’t seem to understand. Or care. “Brenna, the Brotherhood has waited two thousand years for you.”

“Oh yes, the precious Brotherhood.” Her voice was bitter. “What about me? Ever since I met you and your Brotherhood my life has not been my own. I’m shut up here for almost two months with no contact with anyone I know because they all think I’m dead.”

“Brenna, you know that’s for your own safety,” Feiren said and Kane sent him a grateful look.

“Someone tried to kill you,” Kane said. “And I might add, the Brotherhood has been protecting you ever since.”

“I know, I really do understand,” Brenna said. “You believe I’m the one prophesied about and that I’m destined to sit the throne. Except we already have a king. What am I supposed to do while I wait for him to die? Sit here and play games with the youngest members of the Brotherhood?” She glared up at him, brown and green eyes daring him to disagree with her.

Kane sighed and sat down in the chair seat beside her.

“All right,” he said. “You need something to do. But you have to stay safe. Maybe we can send you down to the training school. Jik knows you can use some more work with the sword and staff.” A thought struck him. “Do you know how to ride?”

“A horse? No,” Brenna said. “I’m not sure I want to be put in a training class with students ten years younger than me.”

“I hope you could help train them as well.” She sent him a puzzled look. “You’re helping to train the Brotherhood right now.” He smiled at the disbelief on her face. “Some of them are becoming very good at tracking in the city because of you.”

“But I check for old steel whenever I leave.”

“I’m sure you do.” Kane’s smile widened at her puzzled look. “Which is why some don’t wear old steel weapons. For the last three weeks I’ve had fewer reports of you being out of sight. I have detailed reports of where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing.” Suddenly Brenna went very still. That was interesting. He’d need to look at the reports again and see if he could find out what she was up to.

“Sorry Uncle Feiren.” Kane looked up at his uncle. “I didn’t feel that it was my place to tell you Brenna was going out at night.” Uncle Feiren looked at him for a few seconds before he nodded.

“No doubt you have your reasons,” Feiren said. “I hope to hear them later. Right now we need to focus on what happened to Brenna. I didn’t actually call you over here so you could lecture her.”

Brenna snorted but Kane ignored her.

“Brenna has more to tell,” Feiren continued. “Brenna?”

“Um, yes, well. I went to the library to try to find the plans for the house.”

“Plans for what house?” Kane interrupted.

“This one, of course.” Brenna shot him an innocent look. “We talked about recording all the exits for the house so I thought I’d start with the library.”

“Why would you think there would be anything there?” Kane asked.

   “I’m a thief, remember,” she said. “And a very thorough one. There’s a section in the library filled with building plans for many of the oldest structures in town. I mostly kept to the public ones, inns and such, but I’ve certainly come across plans for some of the older houses.”

Astonished, Kane sat back in his chair. “There are public documents that may show some of the secrets of this house?” How much could have gone wrong over the years with this type of information out there? An even more uncomfortable thought struck him. “Have you come across any such drawings for the castle and grounds?”

“Yes, but you’d need to be a fool to try to steal from the castle.” Brenna paused. “It would be very dangerous to try to sell that type of information.”

“But worth a lot of money to the right buyer,” Kane said. He rubbed his hand across his brow. “Uncle? Have you any knowledge of these records?”

Feiren shook his head. “No. I’d not known of them, nor do I think my father or great uncle. Surely no Captain of the Kingsguard would let these plans out of their hand.”

“I must get them as soon as possible,” Kane said. “Tonight.” He started to rise but his uncle waved him back down.

“The lass isn’t finished yet. Go ahead Brenna.”

“All right,” Brenna said. “So I was looking for plans for the house when I decided to check for Brothers, to see if I’d been followed. And I felt something. It wasn’t old steel exactly, but it felt similar in some ways. I tracked it to a section of the library that has some very old books. Later I heard Randell; he’s the head library clerk, say that these books had recently come from the castle. Anyway, what I felt was a book.  A very small book that had the feel of old steel. So I took it.”

From a pack that sat on the floor, Brenna pulled a tattered book. Kane reached out for it and the leather of the binding crackled under his hands. There were splatters on the front cover and he traced a finger along one. It was smooth to the touch and shimmered slightly.

“Something’s been spilled here,” he said as he turned the book over. The back of the book was almost completely covered in the shiny substance.

“Old steel,” Brenna said and he looked up at her in surprise. “At least as far as I can tell. Here,” she closed her eyes and he saw the splotches on the book glow unevenly. “But it feels out of balance somehow.”

The splatters dimmed and Kane flipped the book open. “It’s a work book,” he said. “The Brotherhood has been searching for this for centuries.” He tried to read the fine script but gave up after a few tries. The words crawled and wriggled across the pages. Magic, it must be. He gingerly laid the book on the table in front of his uncle.

“And we’ve finally found it,” Feiren said. “I looked through it all ready. Between the spatters of old steel on the cover and drawings I could make out, I’m convinced this book holds the secret to forging old steel weapons.”

Kane sat back and stared at the small book. All the documents they had made it clear that old steel was a key to restoring Wolde’s line to the throne. Over the years Brotherhood families had died out and others had grown beyond their few weapons. Today many Brothers did not have old steel and others did not have the right type of weapon. Now they’d be able to change that.

“Do we know who can read this?” Kane asked.

“No,” Brenna said. “But I can tell it doesn’t match you any more than it matched your uncle. You know, the way your family swords match you.”

Kane nodded. And the way she’d known that the knife the Guild Master’s daughter had wasn’t from their family.

“So you think the person whose family this is from will be able to read it?” He asked.

Brenna nodded.

“All right,” Kane said. “I’ll have Dasid look through the Brotherhood records to see who might be from an old blacksmith family.” Finding the book was yet another sign that Brenna truly was the one prophesied. All the pieces were falling into place. And quickly, which he found a little disturbing. King Matthias was yet a young man.

“Dasid is already on his way here,” Feiren said. “But Brenna still has more to tell.”

Kane looked from his uncle to Brenna. How much more could there be?

“Um, yes.” Brenna hesitated. “While I was at the library I heard a noise. As I said earlier, I hid on one of the bookshelves. Unfortunately, three people came into the room I was hiding in.”

“Yes, very unfortunate,” Kane said. Brenna shot him an annoyed look and he crossed his arms. She was annoyed with him? After she’d put herself in such danger? He stared at her until she lowered her gaze. There, that looked like a little remorse.

“One of the men was Randell,” Brenna continued, her gaze averted from him. “The head clerk. Another one was obviously a guard of some kind and the third was a scholar. Randell called him Master Fridrick.”

Brenna glanced at him and Kane felt a sudden chill. Fridrick was one of Duke Thorold’s advisors. If he had found Brenna …

“And that,” Brenna continued. “Was when Randell mentioned that the books and scrolls in this section had recently come from the castle. Then Fridrick told Randell he had to find the information the duke was looking for. Information on the Brotherhood.”

Kane sucked in a breath. How did Duke Thorold know about the Brotherhood? “Did Fridrick mention what they knew about the Brotherhood?”

“Not really.” Brenna shook her head. “Fridrick must have told Randell what to look for earlier. Randell found and read the same passage he’d shown me when I first learned about the Brotherhood.”

“I hope they are not able to learn more,” Feiren said.

Kane could only nod in agreement

“That may be a problem,” Brenna said. “Fridrick is going to return tonight. He charged Randell with cataloging the rest of the books before he returns. Which is impossible.” Her smile was sad. “I don’t want anything to happen to Randell. He’s been a great friend for a lot of years.”

“We’ll figure out a way to help him,” Kane said. And he would, as long as Brenna and the Brotherhood were not put at risk. “We must get any books that contain information about the Brotherhood. And the plans for the castle.” That unnerved him. The castle could be vulnerable. “We’ll go tonight.”

“There’s more,” Brenna said and Kane sat back in his chair again. “I didn’t mention it to Feiren yet either.”

Kane looked at his uncle. He seemed rather bemused at Brenna’s words.

“I did another search for old steel while Fridrick was there,” Brenna continued. “His guard was wearing an old steel sword. But it was wrong. Not just mismatched the way Carolie’s knife was. It felt as though the sword was in some way tainted by the guard.”

Kane met his uncle’s grim look. So that’s what Thorold was doing with the old steel- arming his men. The question was, why?

“And I found more old steel there. At the library I mean,” Brenna said. “It was very powerful.” Brenna looked up at him in confusion. “There’s just no other way to describe it. At first I thought it was on a bottom shelf, but it’s buried behind the actual wall.” She paused. “There are two items and they’re calling me. It’s a very strong call.”

Kane watched her face. Brenna was definitely worried about these two items.

“We’ll collect them when we head to the library tonight,” he said. “I have full authority to seize any books or documents that may be a threat to the safety of the king or country. Dasid will come as well. I’ll need a student who is familiar with the layout and contents of the library. Brenna, I think you already have a disguise?” She nodded. “You have to be careful. Randell must not see you. And if we meet Master Fridrick I want you to hide.” He hated to bring her, hated the risk it put her in, but she was the only one who could locate the old steel. The book on forging old steel had been out in the open on a library shelf - by the old gods, what could be so important that it had been buried within the wall?

Brenna tugged her hat down low over her hair and trailed Dasid into the library. While Kane talked to an extremely flustered Randell, she and Dasid headed to the room that contained the plans. She shook her head sadly. Poor Randell. Not only did he have Fridrick to worry about, but now the Captain of the Kingsguard was demanding full access to the library. She tugged on Dasid’s arm and steered him towards the correct shelves.

Before long a pile of books and scrolls covered the table. Kane had advised them to take anything that looked likely - they could always return books that were of no value to them. Brenna had taken Kane at his word and had added a few books on healing that she’d always found useful. And she’d found the book that held the plans to Thorold’s estate. Over the latter she’d whispered her mother’s concealment spell. If Dasid and Kane found the book, so be it, but if at all possible, she wanted that one for herself.

Dasid had found a large selection of scrolls that dealt with the castle and grounds as well as a leather bound volume that detailed Feiren’s house. He’d chuckled when he’d spotted it. Brenna had pretended not to notice but she knew exactly where it was on the table. It looked much like the book on Thorold’s estate, which gave her hope that there were shared secrets between the two houses. Dasid would be surprised when that particular book didn’t make it to the Kingsguard offices at the castle.  He’d get it eventually, but not until she’d looked at it first.

Soon they had sorted through all the shelves and Dasid went in search of Kane. Once he’d left the room, Brenna took the two books she wanted and hid them in her pack. Long ago Mistress Dudding had sewn a false compartment in her pack and the books fit in nicely. The weight of the pack would give it away but there was only a slight bulge when she slung it over her shoulders.