Stupid, but thrilling. To be the rack who stole from the Yelen and lived. Or rather, one of the pair. Him and Josie—together no one could beat them, never had been able to, and that was what he had to show her, that apart they were nothing, together they were unstoppable.
He started on the next letter of the name, his hands moving on their own as he thought. How to get in? You had to get into the city, into the palace, and not be suspicious, not look like a rack. Josie had always had trouble with that, with her fair hair and those braids. Unmistakable. The city was hard enough for her to get into without being noticed, and getting into the palace would be a thousand times harder.
Van Gast though, Van Gast could blend in smooth as silk, something they’d used time and again in their scams. Shame all his gear was on the Ghost. He’d have to improvise. He leaped to his feet, almost laughing with the thrill of it. All of a sudden this was no longer about getting Josie back, getting his ship back, his life back. This was about him doing what he did best, and laughing while he did it. The stupid-but-exciting thing, always. He didn’t know quite how yet, but he was going to scam the Yelen until their teeth bled.
First he had to find where Josie was berthed. He wrenched open the door to his quarters, strode across the deck—quiet now during the hottest part of the day, when most everyone slept—to the stairwell, dove down into the cramped darkness below and opened a door without knocking. It was his ship, after all.
Guld fell off his chair, the silver ball of magic balanced on his palm disappearing with a faint popping sound. He landed in a heap of tatty robes, stammering, “Van, I—um—”
Van Gast took pity on him, helped him up and tried not to be too impatient while Guld dusted himself down and arranged his robes so the burn marks didn’t show too much.
Finally, Van Gast couldn’t wait any more. “Well? Have you found where she’s berthed?”
Guld blushed and stared down at his stained fingers, the mark of his magic. Kyr’s mercy, he was such a mouse, but very good with his magic, which was why Van Gast kept him on. Well, possibly a bit of pity crept in there—Van Gast was determined to find Guld a lady for himself at some point. If Guld could ever get a sentence out in the presence of any woman over sixteen and under sixty without twice as many “ums” as words.
“Not yet, Van. There’s, um, hundreds of places she could be and—”
“And what? What do I pay you for?”
Guld ticked off on his fingers. “Weather control, scrying, contact with other racketeers and their mages, occasional explosions.”
“And finding people I ask you to find, add that to your list. Comes under scrying, I expect. You’ve asked the other ship’s mages? Someone must have seen her, the ship, something.”
“I’m sorry, she’s running without a mage at the moment, so no one’s been in contact with her. If she’s in port—”
Van Gast recalled the taste of her lips on his, all sea salt and wind and wide skies. The hint of her wink, the hint that he had a chance still, of glorious, scamming, thieving possibilities. A chance of her. He wasn’t sure which made his heart beat faster. “She’s here, for sure. And planning something. Something big.”
“Well then, she’s keeping quiet about it. I dare say she’s altered the ship enough it won’t be mistaken for yours. It could take me days, maybe a week, Van. Sorry.”
Van Gast sagged into the chair, all the wind out of his sails. If he could find the ship, he could sneak in, no problem. Sneaking was second nature, and once in, he could be alone with her, and that was always his best bet. In public she was all sharp sword and sharper words, brittle and dangerous. Alone…alone she was something else, the other side of her, the soft part. Alone he could make her see, he was sure of it, and then they could plot and plan and come out rich as kings. After he’d spent a good long time making up for lost time in bed. The thought of that part brought him out in a sweat.
“All right, you haven’t found her. Yet. Keep looking. In the meantime, anything else for me? What are all