Leyah had armed herself with so many weapons that they weighed her down as she walked. She snuck out of the warehouse, missing Lexie and Gupta by seconds. She figured they would find the note tacked to her board saying how she'd be back later. For insurance, she had left another note under her own pillow saying exactly where she'd gone, as Lexie would tear apart her room if Leyah didn't return.

She was headed for Giblin's brothel. Gupta had come back empty handed and without any information for her. Giblin claimed not to know where the missing maidens were. Leyah told herself that she was just making sure by checking on him.

She was dressed in brown tattered street clothes but her cloak was tied at her neck and at her middle to conceal her sword, knives, and ruby-hilted dagger. She had worn her blonde hair loose today and it was bunched up in the hood of her cloak that was hanging back her back. She'd twisted a couple of braids through it to keep it off her face. This was all deliberate. She knew Giblin favoured women with long hair, but she kept it out of her eyes in case she needed to use the weapons on her hips.

Leyah weaved through the market crowds as she emerged out onto Main Street, coming off of Old Montague Lane. She took a left and headed south toward the backstreets that came alive when the sun extinguished its light on the land.

Giblin's brothel wasn't hidden as it might once have been in a city Leyah might have ruled, but instead displayed posters of crudely drawn women and heart shapes all around them. But this street was virtually empty if not for the couple of urchins and drunks living the affects from the previous night.

Leyah wasn't about to take the back door so she pried the lock off the front door with the bronze hilt of her sword, a hilt that had been fashioned for exactly actions like these and it was the one thing Leyah actually liked about it.

The sword she had been given at birth, the blade named Cauchemar, was one made of Quel-yanian minerals and crafted by the Quel-yanian Smiths in their mines in the mountains. It had had a long, weighted blade with an intricate silver pommel that depicted stars and the moon. She had lost it to a Bardern soldier the day Creatia fell. Leyah had bought herself a new sword when she had realised that one ruby dagger wasn't enough to take back a throne. This one felt foreign in her hands and was weighted differently. It had never come close to Cauchemar which felt nothing more than an extension of her arm.

Leyah shoved the door in and blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. A man shrieked with the sudden light that the open door brought and Leyah swooped at flying fabrics and limbs as Giblin ducked away under covers of a lavish suite in the corner of the room.

"Giblin get your slimy arse up," Leyah commanded, snatching his wrist and hauling him to his feet. He was lean, skinny, and about as tall as Leyah herself. He had a cloud of dishevelled red hair and acne all over his hollowed face. The man wore no pants but Leyah was spared from discovering anything that might scar her permanently for the length of his shirt.

"Kings!" Giblin was screaming, "Getcha rotten mitts off the goods!"

It was then that Leyah realised he hadn't been alone under those sheets and pulled back when she saw the brunette's head emerge from the covers.

Ruby dagger in hand, Leyah pointed the blade at the girl who couldn't have been much older than herself, "Get out of here. Come back tomorrow for whatever this scumbag owes you!"

The girl scurried off, wrapping the sheets around her since she lacked any sort of clothing. Giblin snatched his hand from Leyah's grip and ran it through his hair in an attempt to smooth it down to the slicked look he had always favoured. Leyah gave him space, placing her hands on her hips.

"I already spoke to your Human Brick Wall!" Giblin said, patting himself down, "I don't have your missing minxes! Why you gotta harass me like this, Lady!"

Leyah had never indulged Giblin in her name, much less who she was. So he called her Lady. He was under the impression that she was just some town vigilante that blamed him for most of everything.

This, Leyah supposed, wasn't far from the truth.

"I'm not pleased that the city is misplacing their young women," Leyah told him.

"Yeah, Brick Wall said that too," Giblin muttered bitterly.

At that moment, the door to the brothel was thrown open again with such force that it banged against the wall. Giblin screeched again and fell to the ground.

Leyah's sword was out but it wasn't any threat to her that stepped across the threshold. The jingle of tiny bells sounded as Lexie slammed the brothel door behind her and strode into the middle of the room to stand at Leyah's side. Her bow was strong in her hand and her quiver strapped to her back, a small collection of bells hanging from it. Lexie held up the small piece of parchment in front of Leyah's face, the one Leyah had hidden beneath her pillow.

"SON OF THE KINGLY REGENT!" Giblin screeched at them, "I AIN'T OUT LOOKING FOR A NEW CHEST TAPPER!"

"Always so dramatic, Giblin. Your heart will be fine," Lexie sighed and Leyah knew she was annoyed.

Giblin's chest was rising up and down so fast that it took him a moment to regain himself, "I know nothing about nothing to do with your minxes."

"Oh bullshit," Leyah sheathed her sword and replaced it with her dagger, "You know something about every pretty woman in this city."

The slimy bastard was quick to agree, his shock being replaced with devious content, "Well, every minx except you two."

His eyes fixed on the low neck of Leyah's tattered shirt. She felt his gaze on her like a cold wind, making her skin crawl. In disgust, she pulled her cloak tighter around herself

"You might not have the maidens but can you tell us anything about them?" Lexie asked him, her nose turned up.

"I'm sorry to disappoint the Lady and her pretty Tramp, but I have got nothing for you," Giblin's eyes strayed again, but unlike Leyah, Lexie did nothing to cover herself and instead just formed her face into a furious scowl.

"I swear to the High King, Giblin if you don't keep your eyes on mine I will put an arrow in your throat."

Giblin sighed, "Fine. Why are you here then? Brick Wall told you I knew jack shit."

"Insurance," Leyah told him.

"She's scaring you into admitting anything you might have been keeping from our own Brick Wall," Lexie said, careful to avoid names in present company.

"But also," Leyah took a step forward, holding her dagger out in front of her, "I've decided to task you with finding them."

"Me?!" Giblin glanced over at Lexie as though for support but she just grinned.

"Yes," Leyah sheathed her dagger, "You've got connections, Giblin. Find me some information on the missing girls."

"Will you return my precious jewels if I do?"

Leyah's mind jumped to a small brown package that she had handed over to Hehpe Taavy, not unlike the one she had given him the other day, except that this one had been months ago now.

"No." She said lightly, "All your incentive should be keeping your life."

"Fine." Giblin said, eyes wary of both of them, "But I deserve some sort of payment, wouldn't you say, Lady? This is a King-kill-King city now and I need to protect myself!"

Leyah narrowed her eyes, "And what would you be negotiating for?"

A smug smile landed on his face, "Yourself. One night in this place. You were always one of my best sellers, Lady."

Lexie leapt forward so fast that Leyah couldn't even raise a hand to stop her if she had have wanted to. So instead she watched as Lexie's hands landed hard on his shoulders and her knee jerked forward with vicious aggression into his groin. Giblin crippled, screeching as he fell to the floor.

"Let's go, Lex," Leyah said, expression as cold as ice.

Lexie released her hold on Giblin and spat on his crumpled, whining form, "I'll be back in three days for the information you find."

As Leyah tramped out of the door, followed closely by Lexie, Gupta pushed himself off the wall of the brothel and fell into step with him.

"Anything I can do, Hehpe?" he asked, tone unusually hostile and Leyah guessed that he had overheard what Giblin had said inside.

"Once I take back my throne, burn that Kings-damned abusive sin hole to the ground."

*****

Ella and Micah walked along the backstreets. They had been quick to deter from the markets and the Main Street because they were probably known by the soldiers now. Micah's senses had gone into overdrive and a couple of times he had been set off by a rat by some dumpsters or a bird on a roof and grabbed Ella's arm in preparation to steer her from danger. She had said nothing about it yet but Micah guessed that if he kept this up she'd be making comments soon enough.

Ella was dressed back into her robes, the brown material draped over her head and across her face to conceal her in the way most Kannish women did. She had expertly wrapped it so that it wound around her chest and covered her even to her feet where the draping strands of the robes brushed across her ankles. She had left the baby in Martha's care and Micah swore he had never seen the woman so happy.

"So where 'zactly we goin'?" Ella asked him.

"South Street," Micah said.

"And who's ya contact?"

"A man named Benjamin Redhaven. He was my father's old Seer. He took care of me when I was little."

Micah had grown up with Benjamin at his beck and call. The man had been in his early fifties when he had been born and Micah knew that he would now be almost seventy years old. Not many people in this city lived that long.

"I 'ad someone a lil like that," Ella said, vaguely, "Cal and me needed 'em back when I was real lil."

"I haven't seen Benjamin since my kingdom fell. I don't know what shape he's in and I don't know whether he'll even want to see me. So just watch yourself, okay? He may not be as friendly as he was when I last saw him."

"But he raised you, di'n't 'e? 'S known you for too long to be anythin' but welcoming."

Micah shrugged, "I can't know that. I betrayed a lot of people the day I left."

Ella hesitated for a moment and Micah felt her shrug closer to him, her shoulder brushing his bicep as she walked.

"I'm sorry 'bout what I said when we first met," she muttered, "Y'know, about the Heir being a coward 'n everythin'."

"No, it's okay," But it wasn't okay because she had been so very right.

"No, I'm serious," Ella hung her head, "I guess meetin' ya put a new perspective onit. You must have been shitting yourself. And you had lost ya parents. I mean, I presume you were closer with your folks than I was. So screw duty. I would'a run too."

Micah didn't answer her, and instead, held her shoulder to pull her down an alleyway towards a couple of very run down properties. If Benjamin was indeed, still living in Florian, he would be here. He suddenly felt very vulnerable as Benjamin's dwelling came into view. It was a run down old shack, barely bigger than the cottage he and Jules had lived in. Wooden panelling was falling off the sides and the hinges of the door were perhaps the only thing that looked in full working condition.

One of the curtains shifted and Micah froze.

"Are you okay?" Ella asked, cautiously.

"Fine," Micah said through gritted teeth. But he wasn't. He was terrified. Micah was feeling completely on edge. He needed Benjamin's help, but above even that, he needed his comfort.

"I can knock if ya want," Ella was speaking low and carefully.

Micah shook his head, completely ignorant to the strands of hair that fell into his eyes because of it, "Just...stay here for a moment."

Ella did as he said and waited where she was as he inched forward. The road to the door was long but Micah found himself on the creaking veranda all too soon. Slowly, he reached forward and raised his fist to the wood, hanging his head and letting his other hand rest on the ruby hilt of his dagger.

Micah's heart was thumping in his chest as he heard shuffling from behind the door.

"Who's there!"

The shout made him jump but Micah was kept quiet by his own fear. More shuffling and the voice came again, but this time, Micah didn't understand it.

"Vho Tvava?" It was almost cautious in the way it spoke those words.

Micah's knowledge of languages was limited, but he recognised the dialect of the Tribesmen.

"Benjamin?" his voice came out timid and the complete opposite to how he had wanted to approach his old mentor.

The door swung open so fast that Micah was surprised the thing didn't fall off its hinges. Benjamin stood on the threshold. The man was older and hunched, with skin like crumpled parchment and white-grey hair just as dishevelled as his strewn spectacles. He was kept upright by the long, carved wooden staff around which his jittery old hand was gripped.

Benjamin pushed his spectacles up his nose and squinted at Micah.

"By the High Kings. You've come back." The words were neither endearing nor prompted any sort of emotion. Benjamin simply looked critical as he stared Micah down.

"I need your help," Micah said, clearing his throat.

"A lot of people needed your help, Carnaea. Where were you then?"

And just like that, Benjamin had plunged a dagger into his chest and twisted the handle so that his own heart punctured and withered. He had struck the Heir down, not even giving him the mercy of being on his knees before ripping the blade out and leaving Micah with an empty chest; a broken shell.

Except there was no dagger and however weak his knees were at that point, they hadn't given out. But Micah was sure that he had never felt such a blow from something as intangible as words. The harshness of it would become a lesson learnt not to underestimate the power of the spoken word.

"I...I..." he wanted to say so much but the thoughts died at his lips and his eyes started to well.

"How dare you return here," Benjamin did not look angry. He looked placid, but his eyes, the surging grey seas in them, Micah knew they would give away the disappointment and the fury that Benjamin had and that was why Micah dared not to meet them, "How dare you come back after you left us. After you left your country to burn."

"I've come to help—," Micah tried, dancing a fine line trying to keep his eyes from betraying him with their tears of red hot, burning emotion.

"To take back the throne? To sit where your dead father once ruled? What makes you think you could ever rule now? You left and you took the faith of your people with you. They will rise up against your claim and we will no longer find peace. This city will burn once more and you will orchestrate it once again!"

"Shut yer wrickly old gob, you slimy bastard!" Ella's shrill voice echoed all around and Micah didn't have to turn to know that she was trampling furiously down the road towards them, "This kid 'ere, this man, he wants to actually do some good and how dare you say those terrible things to 'im!"

Benjamin glared at Ella and said simply, "Carnaea, your bitch pulls on its leash. Restrain it."

Micah reached out to grab her but Ella surged forward, shoving him out of the way, her robes flying as she moved her palm hard and quick across the old man's face, "If you think for one blasted second that I'm gonna stand there and let Micah take this shite from you, you can damn well go shove that stick somewhere far enough so it reaches ya noggin! Because 'e came here for ya help and because there are only a couple people out 'ere who care 'bout 'im 'coz the whole rest o' them arses fink he's dead! Now you either help us or ya don't! But we didn't come 'ere to be abused!" Ella was radiating heat and the scarves covering her face seemed to intensify the hatred in her blazing gold eyes, "And I ain't no one's bitch."

Benjamin's face twitched from where Ella had slapped him and he stood in utter stillness once she finished. Micah was worried the old man was about to shriek at them both and he became aware that Ella was pulling against the grip he had on her arm.

Benjamin didn't once glance at Micah, but instead kept his spectacled eyes bearing through Ella.

"Come inside," He said and turned his back on the two of them.

*****

Leyah was striding back to her warehouse, Lexie and Gupta in her wake and her boots scuffing over the dirty cobblestones that paved the quieter streets. Her sharp ears picked up the squeaking complaints of a timber roof just as Ridley swung down from a dwelling near them. He was looking solemn, with a face marked by grime and his hair was unusually ruffled.

"Sargent," Leyah said in acknowledgment.

"Hehpe," Ridley nodded his head, "I have news."

"Walk and talk, Rid," Lexie told him and he fell into step with Leyah.

"Dalladune's guy, the palace servant? Yeah, he overhead a meeting Allist had today. With his Captain."

"And?" Leyah prompted.

"They were talking about Micah Baudille."

Leyah paused, her heart thudding, and turned to face Ridley, "What about him?"

She knew Lexie and Gupta would be hyper aware behind her, their ears pricked and muscles probably tensed. It had been a long time since she had heard Micah's name outside of her own head.

"They're anticipating his arrival into the city," Ridley said, "Allist forgot, apparently, that if the Heir is still alive, then he turns of age this season. Allist was pissed because he had wanted to be ready for this. He's got every guard in the city watching out for young guys around eighteen. And any young men wanting to enter the city now have to go for an interview in the castle."

"How the hell are they going to maintain that?" Lexie scoffed, "Half the merchants that come through here are young men."

"Dalladune's man said Allist was pretty serious."

"They'll compromise the markets," Leyah said, thinking out loud.

Lexie shook her head, "Impossible. Even Allist knows that the markets are the reason the city is still on its feet."

"He's scared," Gupta said, intuitively, "He's got to be worried that our Heir has already slipped through."

"Then he'll crack down on the security. Sargent, get word to all my scouts; Allist is upping security. Make sure they stay safe," Leyah instructed.

"Yes, Hehpe," Ridley bowed his head again.

"You're dismissed, Rid," Lexie told him and Ridley darted back out of sight.

Leyah's stride was faster as they resumed their way back to the warehouse and Lexie shot Gupta a worried look.

"Kitty?" She asked but Leyah didn't break stride so she sped up to walk beside her, "Kitty?" she pressed again.

"What?"

"Is the Baudille heir in the city?"

"The Baudille heir is dead. And if he isn't, he is not in my city."

Lexie nodded her head, knowing there wasn't much more that she was going to get out of her.

The trio snuck back onto the main road and then turned into Old Montague Lane. The market crowd thinned once they did so, and Leyah turned to her second and third then.

"If Allist is willing to shut down the markets, then we have to open one of the secret entrances. I suggest the southern most one. Most merchants come by the river anyway and if we can continue to shepherd some in, then we can keep the markets alive. Gupta, I want you to find Dalladune. He knows enough people and has enough influence to get word through the markets that there will be another way in. Lex, take a couple of recruits down to the south entrance and open it up. Make sure it's still hidden, but adjust it to get it ready for more occupants. We'll need a good system if we're going to do this without Allist's knowledge."

"What are you going to do?" Lexie asked.

"I'll head up to pay Lady Masterson a visit. See if I can't convince her to help our cause." Leyah's expression gave nothing away.

"And Hehpe?" Gupta reached out to brush her arm but Leyah flinched away from it. If Gupta was hurt by this, he didn't show it.

"Sorry," Leyah muttered.

"It's okay," he said, watching as she refused to meet his eyes, "But what would be your orders if we came across the person Allist thinks will try to get in?"

"You can say his name, Gupta."

"What if the Baudille heir does try to get in? What are your orders?"

Leyah kept her head up and her eyes down, "Don't let him into my city."