The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 60: Bad Ideas

So clearly I missed last week because life is busy and annoying like that, but here's a long chapter with important developments. I also edited the ending of the last chapter so the beginning of this one doesn't overlap with it, but no rereading necessary.

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I didn't like being back in the capital, back at the castle. While I'd expected some relief at being home, all I felt was heaviness in my chest and a claustrophobic feeling. I was the Thief; I wasn't supposed to mind being confined or hemmed in. But that's how I felt, and I minded. This was where Jaden had disappeared. Where I had fallen in with the rebels and betrayed them, sworn loyalty to Magali and ran away.

And it didn't help that I was there in disguise. Roman had pressed the point of no one knowing I was there to the point of breaking. With the lives of my friends in danger, I had decided now wasn't the time to go disobeying orders (possibly a first for me), but it gave me the uncomfortable sense of sneaking around my own home.

So I was on edge even before I was faced with the reality of working one on one with a man I had despised for years.

I waited outside an unobtrusive servant exit, listening to the faint sounds of the crowd gathered on the other side of the castle at the Green Gallows. I wondered if it bothered Joshua that so many people had turned up to watch him hang, but my wondering stopped the moment he swung out the door.

Clearly, Joshua was not concerned with his entirely false impending death. There was an expression on his face that reminded me far too much of my own grin, lethal and reckless. It was an expression that forced me to remember that if Roman was telling the truth, this rough, deadly assassin had spent five years pretending to be a respectable and upstanding citizen, and hated every minute of it.

"Laerhart."

"Coal. How'd you get out?" I shielded my nerves with a thick coating of disdain as I looked for any signs of a struggle on him, finding none. The Joshua I had known would have sneered back with contempt.

His grin twisted sideways into a smirk. "I found a loophole."

"That's my thing." And my line, from that duel we'd fought those two long months ago.

"Thieves aren't the only ones that steal things," he said, and started walking toward the city.

"Don't play word games with me," I retorted, catching up in a few long strides and feeling somewhat shown up.

"I'm done with games."

I shot him a look, wary of that tone. Maybe Abram had been right-- Joshua and I were more alike than I would have ever given him credit for. I recognized the implicit danger in his voice. He was exhilarated, but he was also furious. Tobias hadn't just released Joshua Blaisze onto the world-- he'd set free a man who had been locked up for five years.

"I don't believe you," I said. "And, I want to make it clear, I don't like you."

"Good. I'd hate to think Morane Laerhart had any kind of respect for me." Here was something of the mocking tone I remembered.

"Lucky for you, that day will never come."

"I wouldn't be so sure. I'm about to pull off a heist you couldn't do in your wildest dreams."

I narrowed my eyes. "You think so?"

"I'm going to steal five rebels from a royal fortress, so yes. And I'd watch your tongue, since those five rebels are your, what was the word Roman used--"

"You can brag all you want once you've pulled it off," I cut in. "What's the big plan, anyway?" Roman had refused to give me details on the basis that there could be no solid plans until we knew where they had been locked up, and only Joshua could find out for us. It all hinged on him making a plan for us based on the information he found. I wasn't sure I trusted him to do so, but I figured I could always make my own plan and do it myself. Prison breaks couldn't be that hard.