The room fell into total silence. Glorissa looked at Rose.

  “What did you say?” Glorissa asked.

  “You heard what I said, Glorissa,” Rose said. “Yarid is sleeping with Nathan.”

  Glorissa’s gaze shifted from Rose to Yarid.

  “Is it true?” Glorissa asked. “Tell me it isn’t true, Yarid.”

  Yarid swallowed. “I cannot lie. It is true.”

  Tears began to pour down from Glorissa’s eyes. Without another word, she stood from the table and ran from the room as the teardrops flowed down her cheeks like rivers.

  Yarid turned to face Rose. “Why did you do that?” Yarid asked, his voice so loud that it was a scream. “What did I ever do to you? I would not have done that to you! Why did you do that to me?”

  “I make no excuses for my actions,” Rose said.

  “You truly are the least trustworthy, most horrible woman in the world!” Yarid said. His lips were twisted into a snarl, and his fae teeth were sharper than any human’s. “I hate you! You’re despicable! You have cost me the woman I was falling in love with! I could not tell her the truth yet, but I was thinking of making Glorissa my wife, my queen! I curse you for all eternity! I HATE YOU! And I will never, ever, ever trust you again! And I want my cut of the money from the Van Rozen’s loot! The pact between you and I is broken! And from now on, we are just two people who happen to work at the same job! We are not friends: we are enemies!”

  Yarid’s body began to glow with yellow light. He disappeared.

  Suddenly the moment was over. Rose realized what she had done, and only now felt the emotions from the fallout, like a punch to her stomach.

  “What have I done?” Rose asked. No one answered her. “Have I endangered the heist? And now I owe Yarid a ton of money! Ugh, what did I do?” She clenched her fists, forcing her red gloves tight against her fingers. Then she tugged the red hood of her wizard robes tight around her head, pulling its sides almost completely around her face. She looked at the soup, but she could not eat another bite. This heist is going to fail because of me. Maybe my life is worthless, Rose thought. I staked my survival on this heist, and then I put the heist at risk. Why? For Glorissa, that stupid girl? She means nothing to me! Arghhhh!

  “I’ve ruined everything!” Rose said. Tears leaked from her eyes and soaked into the cloth of her mask at her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I have to leave.” She got up from the table and swiftly walked out of the dining room.

  “Rose does seem to be very upset,” Nathan said. “As strange as this is, I think that she is the unofficial leader of our team, and if she backs out of the heist, the heist won’t happen. Rose is a wizard, and it is unwise to allow a wizard to be emotionally agitated in the vicinity of oneself, if one values one’s life. I will go console her and tell her to maintain her resolve.” Nathan stood up and left.

  Only Sylis, Kylus, and four empty seats with four unattended bowls of soup remained at the table.

  “I think the soup is very good,” Sylis said, trying to change the subject. “Really great soup. Loving it. The best soup ever. You’re a very good chef!”

  Kylus looked at all the bowls of soup that had been left behind.

  “It was a total waste for me to cook all of this,” Kylus said. “But I blame Yarid and Nathan for hooking up. Sex always causes trouble.”

  “You don’t like sex?” Sylis asked, as he moved his spoon into his soup and hunted for vegetables.

  “Ew, no,” Kylus said. “Sex is gross, yucky and disgusting.”

  “But that’s just because of Nathan, right?” Sylis asked. His hand let go of the spoon, leaving it dunked in the soup. “No one wants to think about Nathan having sex. I mean, hypothetically, if you and I hooked up it would be kind of cute, right?”

  Kylus shook his head. “Um, no. I am asexual. I do not have sex and I do not feel sexual desire. I’ve been with men and women, during my youth in Leree, and sex made me want to vomit it’s so dirty and repulsive. I find all sex hideous and gross.”

  “Oh,” Sylis said. “Really? Are you serious? This isn’t a joke?”

  “Yes. And please don’t make jokes about it. My body works fine, my mind works fine, I just don’t want sex. I am what I am. I will not be mocked for it, and I will give you a friendly punch in the face if you start making fun of me for it. I know you’re a wizard, Sylis, and you were born a man, and I was wrongly born a woman, but somehow, I suspect you are not strong enough to beat me in a fight.”

  “I don’t want to fight you!” Sylis said. He thought: I want to have sex with you instead! But he did not say this. “No jokes. Got it. You’re asexual. Okay. Right. Great. No, I won’t make jokes about this. I always treat people with respect. I will have respect for you.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it,” Kylus said. “You’re a very nice and respectful person, Sylis. I appreciate that fact about you. I like you for it!”

  I wish you liked me for it, Sylis thought. I wish you liked me. But I guess you will never like anyone.

  Rose and Nathan were lying under the sheets of Rose’s bed. Nathan’s mask was off, revealing his pale white face and messy raven-black hair; his cheeks were flushed red from having just made love to Rose. Rose’s red-and-pink mask and red clothes were on the floor in a pile halfway between the door and her bed, with Nathan’s black mask and black wizard robes on the floor next to hers. Both of their bodies were naked. Rose turned in the bed and stared at Nathan’s face. He did not turn out to be as ugly as I had expected when he took his mask off, she thought. He is not beautiful, but his looks are rather plain and average. He was a better lover than I expected. Maybe Yarid taught him some tricks.

  “Do you have any pipe-leaf?” Nathan asked. “I like to smoke after I make love.”

  How clichéd, Rose thought to herself. “Yes, I have some. In the top right desk drawer.”

  Nathan got out of the bed, completely naked, and walked to her desk. He found the pipe-leaf and a pipe, packed pipe-leaf into the pipe, and brought it to his mouth. He pointed at it and cast a fire spell. The leaf ignited. He took a draw from it, inhaling deeply. The pipe-leaf glowed red and a cloud of thick, coarse smoke entered his lungs. He coughed, but then he blew the smoke out in a perfect gray ring of smoke.

  “I hope that you feel better now,” Nathan said between drags of the pipe.

  “I do,” Rose said. “I was in a bad place, and you helped me out of it. I’m much calmer and more relaxed. Thank you.”

  “Happy to help!” Nathan said. He walked back to the bed and got back into bed next to Rose. “I need you. We need you. The team needs you.”

  “Yes. The team,” Rose said. “What the team really needs is money. Which we will have, and plenty of it, once we complete the heist. I owe Yarid a ton of silver coins now, but that amount pales in comparison to the platinum coins I will get from the Dark Wizard.”

  Nathan took another puff and blew another perfect smoke ring. “You know, you and I have a lot in common, Rose,” he said. “It makes perfect sense for us to be great friends. I do not date or marry, because those of us who wear black choose not to do so unless we gain some political or financial benefit by it. But I think you would make a very nice close friend for me.”

  “Do we have anything in common?” Rose asked. “I was not aware that we did.”

  “We both descend from noble families!” Nathan said. “The others on the team are commoners. You and I are the only nobles here! Of course we have something in common! I was shocked when you took your mask off, but I recognized the features of your face from my days at court as a boy. You are an obvious member of the Dashwood family: you have that distinctive red-brown hair that the Dashwoods are known for, which looks like someone took a brown tree and lit it with red fire, and you have those round cheeks and the sharp chin and the button nose that the Dashwood family is also known for. And you have your family’s red-brown eyes, Rose, almost the same color as your hair. I have met other Dashwoods during my youth. As a young noble and the son of a lord, my father brought me before the King’s court many times, where I saw several of your relatives. You could not hide who you are from me. You are wise to have become a Red wizard, to mask that beautiful Dashwood face of yours. Were you to walk around with your mask off, word would spread like wildfire that a beautiful Dashwood lady was among us, and you could hide from your true nature no more.”

  Rose frowned. “In the first place, Nathan, I used to be a lady, but I left all that behind when I fled from House Dashwood. I lost my title. I am no longer a lady. Second, Yarid is the king of the elves, so we two are not the only nobles here. Strange of you to forget all about your lover-boy fae prostitute.”

  “Bah! The royalty of faerie means nothing to me,” Nathan said. “And do not be so quick to declare yourself a commoner, Rose. You have left your name, but your name has not left you. What is in your blood never leaves—not until you die and the blood exits your body.”

  “I made a choice, and choices are stronger than blood,” Rose said. “I do not consider myself to be a member of House Dashwood any longer. That House belongs to my father, not to me. I will appreciate it if you honor my decisions.”

  “Your father means nothing! He lacks authority to strip you of your birthright,” Nathan said. “Are you ashamed of your nobility? Do not be! Embrace it!”

  “And why are you so excited about being a noble when House Darkchurch fell from grace?” Rose asked. “I embrace being a rogue boss and being one of the greatest thieves of Imperia. I embrace the fact that, after I fled my father, I joined a rogues’ gang, was taught Red magic, became a Red wizard, and made my way in the criminal underworld, quite successfully. Many rogues I knew died, but I always survived. That is what I embrace. I cannot be ashamed of what I am not, but I can be proud of what I am. I am not a noble lady. I am a rogue.”

  Nathan smirked. “You make a joke of yourself to deny the obvious truth, which is that you are a lady and always will be. It is funny, what you say. You do not see the joke, but I do. And, yes, House Darkchurch was destroyed. But once we complete the heist and I pay off my debt to my old master, the Smiling One, I will rebuild House Darkchurch. What was once dead can always be restored to life once more. The magic of Black has taught me nothing if not that.”

  Rose laughed. “Is House Darkchurch to become a zombie then? Good luck bringing some rotting thing with maggots crawling over it and blood leaking from its exposed flesh into the court of the King with all the noble lords and ladies. I am certain they will love having a zombie among them.”

  “Do not joke about it,” Nathan said. “I will do it.”

  “I have no doubt that you will,” Rose said. “And I wish you nothing but the best luck in doing so. But while you fight to restore House Darkchurch, I tell you that House Dashwood is behind me. House Dashwood is my past. Red magic, and being a rogue, is my future. I will never return to nobility. And I will do everything necessary to ensure that House Dashwood never learns that I am still alive and is never able to recover me and drag me back into that hell I escaped from.”

  Nathan took a drag and blew out a cloud of smoke. Rose could smell the burnt, acrid smell of his smoke. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

  “I think that is the difference between you and I,” Nathan said. “We were both born into Noble Houses and we both left them. You run from the Noble House you were born to. I would do anything to return to mine.”

  He lay back in the bed, smoking his pipe. I guess he’s just staying in my bed right now, Rose thought. It would be rude to ask him to leave when he just comforted me while I was sad. The price I pay for inviting a man back to my room. She picked up a book from a small table next to her bed, found her bookmark in it, and opened the book to the page she had left off at. Nathan idly blew smoke rings into the air, while Rose read her book.

  Suddenly Rose felt a strange feeling, like a magical intuition. As a Red wizard, she had learned to trust such feelings. She put down her book and looked around. She froze.

  “Nathan, what is your slime doing in my bedroom?”

  The ball of purple slime was sitting on the floor near their pile of clothes, its three tentacles wiggling about.

  “She’s very loyal,” Nathan said. “I have named her Lucy. She tries to follow me around wherever I go. I have attempted to teach her tricks, but she hasn’t quite learned any yet.”

  “GET YOUR SLIME OUT OF MY ROOM!” Rose said.

  “As you wish, my dear,” Nathan said. He calmly put down the pipe, got out of bed, dressed back into his clothes, and walked out of the room. Lucy obediently rolled away after him out the door. Rose breathed a sigh of relief, picked up her book, and continued to read.

  Sylis was lying in his bed fully clothed, staring up at the ceiling. His bedroom in the Van Rozen house was a small, rectangular room, with a bed, a desk, a window, some strange ornamental woodworked objects hanging on nails in the walls, and one other object: a tall, mahogany grandfather clock, whose gold-leafed pendulum swung back and forth, back and forth, guiding the movement of its heavy silver-coated hands on its pearl-like clock face. Upon claiming this room, Sylis had some fun using Blue magic to make the clock go super-fast or very slow, but the novelty had worn off, and now the clock was merely ticking off the seconds of Sylis’s agony.

  “Darn it!” Sylis said. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I really like Kylus. But he’s asexual! He won’t be attracted to me! He and I will never hook up or date or fall madly in love and marry and spend the rest of our lives together!”

  “What is the point of your getting upset?” his mother’s ghost said. She was floating up high, near the ceiling of the room, and looking down on her son. “He won’t change. People never change, and people especially never change for someone else who is in love with them. And if anyone ever tells you they will change for you, don’t believe them. They never do it. People never change. They are who they are.”

  “I don’t want him to change! I’m not trying to get him to change!” Sylis said in a loud voice. Better lower my voice, Sylis thought. I do not want Kylus to hear this conversation if he happens to be walking through the hall outside my door. “I do not want Kylus to change,” Sylis repeated in a softer voice. “I would be a horrible person if I did want him to change. I like him the way he is, and I have no right to ask or expect him to change for me. And he isn’t the type of person who adjusts for other people, anyway. But I have such a huge crush on him! I want him to want me. It makes me angry that I can’t have him. He makes me angry—because I love him.”

  “I don’t understand what you see in him,” Sylis’s Mom said. “He doesn’t have money or power, and you won’t need him for those things after you complete this job you’re working on, anyway. He’s not particularly attractive or smart or pleasant or funny. You are a powerful Blue wizard, and soon you’ll be rich. You can do better than him, to be honest. I float around sometimes through the halls of this house, and watch, and listen. You and that wizard of Black are the only ones who can see me; the others cannot. None of them know I’m here with you. I avoid the necromancer: he seems very creepy and unpleasant to me for some reason. But I have seen this boy, Kylus, whom you keep talking about. He is nothing, in my opinion. Why do you love him?”

  “I don’t know why I love him. I just love him,” Sylis said. “Do you need to have a reason why you love someone? Do I need to make an excuse for the fact that I like him?”

  “You do if your mother asks you about it, yes,” his mother said. “In theory, this person might be your husband and my stepson and the co-parent of my grandchildren, once you have kids, Sylis. So yes, I believe I am entitled to some say in the matter.”

  “You are not!” Sylis said. He grabbed the pillow that his head was resting on and squeezed it violently in frustration. A few down feathers popped out of the seam of its casing. One of the feathers fell onto his face near his mouth. He blew it away. “This is my decision. I’m just asking you for advice, which I will take, or leave, as I choose. Would I feel better if I told him how I feel? Just vent the steam and let the feelings out? He deserves to know why I’m mad at him and that it isn’t his fault. But what if that makes him feel sad or uncomfortable or angry? I don’t want him to think that I’m accusing him of having done something wrong by being who he is! That would be a horrible thing to do, and I won’t do it!”

  “Sometimes it’s not about what other people need,” Sylis’s Mom said. “Sometimes it’s about what you need.”

  “But I don’t know what I need!” Sylis said. “That’s useless advice, Mom!”

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  “You know, there are other young people in your thieving crew who would make a more suitable match for you,” his mother said. “That girl, Glorissa, she seems nice, and I just happened to overhear that she just broke up with that fae man. You and she would look like a very nice couple together. Blue and White do tend to make happy couples when they date or marry. I overheard the fae man mention to the necromancer that he’s planning to ask the girl of White to forgive him for lying to her and to get back together with him, so if you’re interested in Glorissa you need to ask her to date you quickly, before she gets back with the elf!”

  Sylis abruptly sat up. “I need to take a walk,” he said. “I need some time alone with my thoughts. I’m going outside. Do not follow me.”

  “As you wish,” Sylis’s Mom said. “Don’t be out too late. It will be evening soon. Have fun!”

  Sylis got up, went to the door, trotted briskly down the narrow creaking stairs, and darted out the front door. The sun was low in the sky but there was still plenty of light to see by. The air was chilly and salty, and a heavy wind was blowing in from the ocean, causing Sylis’s blue robes to sweep and billow around him. The breeze was cold, but nice. Thank God to get out of that house and get away from my mom, Sylis thought. She doesn’t understand that I’m in love with Kylus. I don’t know where I’m going but I think I’ll just walk around for a while.

  Sylis walked to the curb of the street. He looked left and right. No one else was visible on this street. He turned to his left and began to walk. He reached the end of the street. A few random people were walking along the avenue that adjoined the street the Van Rozen house was on. Not wanting to be seen by anyone, Sylis turned around and walked back to the hideout. But, as he approached the Van Rozen house, he saw someone come out from the house. This person was hunched over and crept along in the shadows cast by the various buildings on the west side of the street, which blocked the setting sun. This person is trying hard not to be seen, but I see them. Who are they?

  Sylis followed this person as they made their way down the street. When he reached the end of the street, Sylis looked all around but did not see them. Suddenly he felt something strange: his feet were sinking into the ground! It was as though the paving stones of the street were melting and becoming liquid. He pulled at his feet, but his legs were inches deep into the street and some force was resisting his motion, as if quicksand were sucking him in. He felt the ground harden around his feet and ankles, trapping him. Then, the person he was following appeared in front of him: a person in Red wizard robes, with a half-pink-and-half-red wizard’s mask.

  “Oh, it’s you, Sylis!” Rose said, laughing. “Here I thought you were a police officer tailing me. I wasted one of my best cards on you!”

  “Sorry?” Sylis said. “Um, do you have a card that can free me, maybe?”

  “Yes, I do,” Rose said. She reached into her red robe and pulled out a playing card. It was made of tattered paper, with a gold-and-red design on the back, and a black-ink-on-white-paper picture of rolling ocean waves on the front side. Rose held the card high above her head, a flash of bright red light blinded Sylis for a moment, and the card vanished. Instantly, the ground softened and flowed like water. Sylis jumped out of the puddle of liquid earth, and firmly placed his feet onto solid ground nearby.

  “Um, do you mind if I ask what you were doing, Rose?” Sylis asked.

  Rose paused for a moment, but then she spoke. “You’re probably the one person on the team whom I would trust without question, so I will tell you,” Rose said. “In fact, you might as well come with me. Two wizards are always better than one. I expect no danger, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Danger from what? Come with you where?” Sylis said.

  Rose began to walk, still creeping about where shadows were cast. Sylis trailed after her.

  “You remember the Dark Wizard’s plan for how we steal the Crystal, right?” Rose asked.

  “His plan was pretty complicated, but I remember most of it,” Sylis said.

  “Part of his plan is for me to have a magical bomb planted at the North Tower of the Temple of Light,” Rose said. “After we steal the Crystal of Light, I detonate the bomb, and that will break open the passages between the North Tower and the East Tower, enabling our escape. One of the cards that Red magic has is a fireball card, and I can combo two cards together, so that when I play one card, a second card will trigger. So I can ignite the fuse of the bomb with Red magic, by playing the right card. I’m to arrange to bribe the landscapers’ guild to have some of their gardeners plant the bomb for me.”

  “Yes, I remember that part,” Sylis said. I mean, I remember it now that she reminded me, he thought to himself.

  “I was waiting for Nathan to tell me the right spot for where to plant the bomb. He got that information from the spell he cast on the dead architect who built the Temple. He told me, and I bought the magical ingredients for a Red fireball magic bomb and I put it together. So right now I’m off to visit a trusted contact and rogue gang boss in the Imperia underworld, to hand him the magical bomb and give instructions for where his men are to place it for us. I have the magical bomb in my pocket, well-hidden inside the pocket dimension inside of a magical bag I made. The bag itself is the size of a coin pouch but could hold a horse; I’m rather proud of making it. I’m paying half of the bribe up front with the money we’ve made so far from selling the fake fae orbs, and I pay the rest when we have the rest of the money, which should be right before the target night for our heist.”

  “Oh my God, so I’m going into the heart of the criminal underworld with you?” Sylis asked.

  “Yes, boy! What’s the matter, you don’t think you can handle it?” Rose said with a smile.

  “I can handle it!” Sylis said. “I’m a thief, same as you! I can be a rogue! I mean, I am a rogue!”

  Rose laughed. “You’re no rogue, Sylis. You’re a nice boy. That much is obvious.”

  “No, I can be a rogue!” Sylis said. “Teach me how to be rogue like you, Rose!”

  “Can you, Sylis?” Rose asked. “Being a rogue is what the Red philosophy of life is. I’m not sure a Blue like you can handle it or even understand what it means.”

  “Blues are smart, so maybe I can understand,” Sylis said. “Can you tell me what it is?”

  Rose grinned. “It’s about being wild, lawless, and giving a big curse-you-to-hell to all authority,” she said. “It’s the thrill of getting away with it; it’s the feeling of knowing you are above the law, that you answer to no one, that you are a law unto yourself. Committing a crime makes you feel like a God: the rush, the excitement, the passion. Being Red is not about stealing for the money—although we do love money. It’s about stealing for the love of crime, and for the love of the chaos that it causes. That is what attracted me to Red to begin with; the gold you steal when you get away with a heist is just the happy icing on the cake of crime, merely a bonus on top of the excitement you win. Think you can be a rogue?”

  “Um… no,” Sylis said. “If that’s what being a rogue is, I can steal, but I’m not a rogue. I prefer to read a book and nibble on some sugar cookies and sip a cup of tea by a warm fireplace in my pajamas and wool slippers, I do not want to be stealing gold coins from a bank while getting excited by the thought of the police chasing me. That is not me. I really am a Blue: awe, wonder, thought, curiosity, contemplation, reason, and knowledge, are the things that interest me about human existence.”

  “You are a Blue,” Rose said. “You chose your color correctly. This is why Red is the best color for a gang of rogues, and most rogues are Red. It’s nice that I must teach a Blue how to steal. But the plan requires all six colors, so I must deal with a Blue who thinks he can be a thief. I told you that you are not a rogue, Sylis.”

  “You were right,” Sylis said.

  Around them, the large, square, ornamental houses of the Fancy District, all of which were painted with various colors on their fa?ades, gave way to the squat brick buildings and open marketplace tents of the Central District, but then that faded into smaller, leaner, wooden buildings, which had no paint to hide their rough wood material, and which were often stained black with dirt. I guess this is the Poor District, Sylis thought. Relax, you are a wizard, you have nothing to fear. And Rose seems to be good at sneaking, so if I just trail her no one will notice me.

  “Stop,” Rose said, while the two were deep in the shadows cast by one of the taller wooden buildings.

  “What is it?” Sylis asked.

  “I have something to tell you. Something that the other members of the team do not know,” Rose said. “And I would appreciate it if you would not tell them, unless I give you permission. But you’re such a nice boy, Sylis, so I trust you in a way I would never trust any of them. Will you keep a secret?”

  Sylis nodded. “Yes. I will.”

  “I do not trust the Dark Wizard,” Rose said. “As a crime boss in Imperia, I made my fortune by screwing over and betraying others. I know when someone else is planning to screw over and betray me. The Dark Wizard has written all over him that he has some sort of evil plan he did not tell us. When we open that magical box of his, I am convinced some horrors will come out, and I intend to be ready. We can’t steal the Crystal unless we open the box to counter the final spell that defends it, but I want to prepare myself for that moment.”

  “That seems highly intelligent,” Sylis said. Am I a fool for having believed that I should trust the Dark Wizard? The Dark Wizard’s motives are aligned with ours... right?

  “In addition to planting my magical bomb, I’ve asked my contact among the rogues for one other favor for me,” Rose said. “I asked him to do some digging about the Dark Wizard and see what information he finds. No one throws platinum coins around like that and doesn’t leave any traces of clues behind that others can use to learn things about him. Yarid took a ton of my personal money when I paid him his cut of the Van Rozen loot that I fenced, but I still have enough from the platinum the Dark Wizard paid us in Leree to pay for some information.”

  “Sounds good,” Sylis said. “Like you, I too am curious to learn whatever there is to know about the Dark Wizard. History says he died centuries ago, so it might be good to know when he came back to life, and what he’s been up to since then.”

  The sun was setting, and the city of Imperia was bathed in shadow. Rose led Sylis to the door of a three-story wooden building whose outside was nondescript except for being a shade cleaner than the nearby dirty wooden shacks. She made some sort of sign with her hands, although Sylis did not see anyone around and had no idea who could see it. The door opened. She walked inside. Sylis gulped, and plowed ahead, going through the building entrance.

  Inside a group of armed soldiers immediately surrounded them and brandished swords at their throats. The room was so dark inside that Sylis could not make out the men’s faces, but he saw the blades, long and sharp. He even felt metal underneath his chin, just shy of cutting him.

  “It’s me, Wallys,” Rose said.

  “Oh, so it is! Sorry, Rose!” one man said, and he and the others lowered their swords. “So hard to recognize you in that new mask of yours! You know we can’t see your face.”

  “I know. I have an appointment with Humbler.”

  “Yes, I know that,” the man, apparently named Wallys, said. “The boss is waiting for you. Through that door, same as always.” He gestured towards the door at the rear of the room, which Sylis could just make out in the dim light.

  “Come, Sylis,” Rose said. But before he could move, one of the soldiers grabbed him by the arm.

  “Wait,” Wallys said. “The boss only said he was expecting you. He said nothing about letting anyone else in.”

  Oh dear. I hope I don’t get in trouble for coming here!

  “I vouch for the boy. And he is a wizard, in case you missed it. He is quite powerful. I suggest you not trifle with him,” Rose said.

  “Well, in that case, and you say we can trust him, please go ahead,” Wallys said to Sylis. The soldier let him go. Sylis breathed a sigh of relief, and only now realized that his heart was racing.

  “Thanks!” Sylis said to Wallys. He followed Rose up to the door. She opened it and went in, and Sylis stepped in after her.

  Sylis was in what appeared to be an office. Someone was sitting in a chair at a desk. The light in the room came from the orb of a magical illumination spell, which floated near the ceiling; the room had no windows. The desk and chair faced away from the entry door, and the back of the chair was to Sylis, so he could only see this person from behind: red-sleeved arms rested on the arms of the chair, and red-booted feet went from the chair down to the floor. A bookcase was on Sylis’ left, and what might have been a set of magical staffs and rods was racked in rows on a holder on his right.

  “Rose! So good of you to come. Long time no see,” a voice said. The voice had a strange, deep, scratchy, rough quality, as of someone who has smoked too much pipe-leaf for too many years. “And you brought a guest into my wonderful house. Who is your friend?”

  “You can come out, Humbler,” Rose said. “The boy is trustworthy. You have nothing to fear from him.”

  Come out? What does she mean? Sylis thought. Then someone crawled out from behind the back of the desk, crawling along the floor on all fours. The person, and Sylis now realized it was a humanoid, was small, much smaller than a human, yet not thick and stocky like a dwarf, but also not very tiny like a gnome. What is he? Who is the person sitting behind the desk?

  This small humanoid person crawled right up to Sylis and Rose. The person was dressed in Red wizard’s robes cut small enough to fit a child, and a Red mask that was nothing more than a red-dyed cloth sack over his head covered his face and hid his entire head from view. The cloth sack had two tiny slits: one for eyes, and one for mouth.

  “Pleased to meet you! My name is Sylis,” Sylis said. The person or creature or whatever-he-was stared at Sylis through the eye-slits cut into his cloth sack mask. Sylis returned the gaze and saw yellow, reptilian eyes looking at him.

  “The boy’s innocence shines like a radiant light glowing from behind his young eyes,” the person said. “Where do you find such people, Rose? Not many other than you would bring one who is not irredeemably corrupt and crooked into my presence. I can sense that his magic is strong, but do his abilities suit you?”

  “Sylis has his uses,” Rose said.

  “Indeed,” the person said. “Sylis, I am Humbler. I also enjoy meeting you, as you humans say. My kind, of course, have less polite methods of greeting: a knife in the ribs, an axe to the head, a punch to the stomach, mud slung at the face. And for those we truly love, being thrown out of a high window.”

  “Your… kind?” Sylis said, and then tried to catch himself, but it was too late to not say it.

  “Yes. I am a goblin, as you may or may not have guessed,” Humbler said.

  “A goblin?” Sylis said. He looked at Humbler carefully, but he could not see any of his body past his thick red wizard-robes and the red sack-like mask on his head. “Really? I’ve never met a goblin before! And you’re a Red wizard? Wow! I’ve not heard of any wizards among the goblins.”

  Humbler sighed. “Indeed, and that is the precise reason why I live among the humans and not my own kind.”

  “Humbler is an exile, Sylis,” Rose said. “Humbler runs a gang that robs and murders for a living, yet he was not nearly evil enough for the other goblins to accept him. Any goblin who can use magic, or who can think, or who can read, the goblins exile from their society. The goblins mangle the legs of those whom they cast out. Most goblin exiles die. Humbler survived, by pretending to be human, learning our language, studying Red magic, and carving out his own criminal empire here in Imperia.”

  Sylis looked from the man at the chair at the desk and back to Humbler. The person sitting in the chair at the desk was a dummy, he realized. If Humbler had not crawled out from behind the desk, Sylis might have heard Humbler’s voice coming from near the desk and never have known that Humbler was a goblin and was not the dummy sitting at the desk.

  “Empire? You flatter me, Rose. As you know, the Death Otter put a mark on your life, and I could collect far more gold from him than you will ever pay me, were I to claim that mark. But if you continue to flatter me like that, such a thought will never cross my mind.”

  Rose laughed at Humbler’s joke, although Sylis thought he detected a hint of nervous anxiety in her laughter. Best to laugh at the jokes of the man who holds a knife at your neck, I guess, Sylis thought.

  “I joke, Rose. Of course you are safe here. But enough talk. Let’s get to business.”

  “As you wish, Humbler,” Rose said. She reached into a pocket of her robes and pulled out two small cloth pouches, one black and one red. She bent down and placed both on the floor. The black pouch rattled as if it contained coins. The red pouch landed with soft, deathly silence.

  “In the black bag is the sum of gold coins we agreed on,” Rose said. “Half now, and half once you place the necessary bribes to get the work done. The red bag is the work. Inside is a pocket dimension. Reach inside, and you will pull out a magical bomb and a map of the Temple of Light. The place where I want the bomb to be buried is marked with an X on the map. And do tell the gardeners who get bribed to be careful when they handle it! I don’t want any accidental explosions and to have to use my magic to create another one.”

  “Agreed,” Humbler said. “The gardeners who tend the lands of the Temple of Light belong to a landscapers’ union which is part of the laborers’ unions. Their leaders can be bribed. It will be done. No questions will be asked.”

  “Excellent,” Rose said. “And then there is that other thing I mentioned. Can you help me with that?”

  “The history lesson on the Dark Wizard? Why, yes, although to be honest you will have heavily overpaid me for such useless information. As all those who have read history books know, four hundred years ago the Dark Wizard raised an army and attacked the Imperium. The army of the Imperium won. Nothing is known publicly about what happened to the Dark Wizard thereafter, although rumors swirl. I have a source in the Star Knights Estate who has access to the voluminous library of books that the Star Knights keep in their castle. The Star Knights have in their private collection various history books that contain information that only the Star Knights themselves are ever meant to read.”

  “But your source has read them,” Rose said.

  “Yes, indeed. Their internal records say that the Dark Wizard was captured after the final battle and imprisoned by the Star Knights. However, two hundred years ago the Dark Wizard broke free from the Star Knights’ prison. The Star Knights sent a team of their best assassins after him, a team comprised of soldiers, wizards, and priest-knights, which they drew from the very tops of their ranks. They hunted the Dark Wizard down, found where he was hiding, and killed him. He was never able to raise a new army, nor did he return to his castle out west in time to lock its doors behind him to protect himself from them. Knowing that a wizard of Black has means to resurrect himself upon his own death, the Star Knights used White magic to banish his ghost from the realm, ensuring that his death was permanent. The Dark Wizard has been dead for two hundred years.”

  I don’t know whether to discuss this with Rose! Sylis thought. Best wait until we’re back at the hideout. And I won’t tell the others without Rose’s permission.

  “Are there any ways the Dark Wizard could have survived that? Could his ghost have come back anyway somehow?”

  Humbler shrugged. “I am no wizard of White. The magic of White and the full scope of its powers is not known to me.”

  Rose began to tap her finger against the chin of her mask. “Interesting,” she said. “There was one other part of this favor that I asked for.”

  “Oh yes, indeed,” Humbler said. “You gave me a copy of that letter of credit you had, to see if my contacts among the gnome bankers would trace the source of the funds through their banking system and who opened the account where that gold was initially deposited. The gnomes pride themselves on their moral integrity and honesty and incorruptibility, but any system has cracks and, when the correct pressure is applied to the correct locations, the cracks widen and break open, and then one can reach one’s fingers in. Stealing gold from the gnomes is very difficult, but merely obtaining information from the banks is far easier.”

  “And what is the information?” Rose asked.

  “My sources traced those gold coins back to a bank account that is under the control of the Star Knights,” Humbler said. “It is a bank account which the Star Knights use when they wish to conceal their actions, but my spies are talented, and they know that this bank account is a Star Knights account, although the Star Knights do not know that my spies know.”

  “I see,” Rose said. “Thank you. And you are wrong, Humbler: this information is so valuable to me that I underpaid you for it.”

  “Then perhaps I should retroactively raise my price!” the goblin said, but then he laughed, and Rose chuckled also. “Does that conclude our business, Rose?”

  Sylis had thought of something while listening to Rose and Humbler talk. Now or never, he thought.

  “Um, Mr. Goblin Sir, I do have one thing,” Sylis said. Rose gasped but did not have time to interject. “I, well, I was recently attacked, by a group of men, dressed in black, wearing particular uniforms and with swords and, well, goblin-hounds,” Sylis said. “If I describe them to you, can you find out who they are and, maybe, who would send them to attack a farm? I can pay you, I mean, I have coins, I can make payments, if you can help.”

  “Describe them. Then I will quote you a fee,” Humbler said.

  Sylis described the assassins who had come after him the night of the attack on his farm. He described the attack, omitting only the role his mother’s ghost had played.

  Rose shook her head. “Sylis! You don’t need to spend coins to learn who those men are!”

  “What? Really?” Sylis asked.

  “I could have told you,” Rose said. She gave him a look of frustration and annoyance.

  “Indeed, that information is such common knowledge that I shall charge you nothing for it,” Humbler said. “Every rogue in Imperia has been hunted by those men at one time or another. I have evaded them on no less than five occasions.”

  “They were Royal assassins,” Rose said. “That dress and those methods are unique and unmistakable. Royal assassins are the only humans who use goblin-hounds to hunt, they always attack at night, and the clothes they wear match precisely what you described. The Royal assassins are a division of the Royal army, a group of soldiers who report directly to the King.”

  “Thanks,” Sylis said. I don’t know what to make of that. Why would the King want to kill me or even know about me at all? Or maybe they were obeying orders direct from Renard Shass, and not from the King?

  “Our business here is concluded,” Rose said. “The boy and I will now leave. As always, a pleasure to see you, Humbler.”

  The goblin picked up the black bag off the floor and shook it, listening to the sound of gold coins clinking together. “As you humans say: the pleasure was entirely my own,” Humbler said as Rose and Sylis left.