Annie tipped back her drink again before setting it on the table. “I’ll let you boys talk. I’ve got others in the tavern who need my attention. Most of them are far nicer to me than Leon these days, anyway.”
She got up, collecting the mug from where she sat, looking to Oscar who nodded, and headed toward the kitchen.
“Let’s see it,” the King said when she’d been gone for a while.
Oscar leaned off to the side and moved his pouch out so that he could flip it open. When he reached inside, he set a bundle of burlap onto the table.
The King looked around the inside of the tavern. It was empty other than a small booth in the far corner. No one from there would even be able to see them from where they were.
He started to unwrap the burlap around it.
“You sure that’s safe here?” Oscar asked. “You know where I went for that.”
“I’m well aware of where you had to go to retrieve this. That’s why I want to see it. Got to see if it’s what we were hired to get.”
Finn and Rock leaned forward. When the King had it unwrapped, he regarded the small bowl with writing all around the perimeter they’d taken. The bowl wasn’t even painted all that well, just swirls of pale red and some deeper maroon toward the bottom of the bowl.
Annie came from a nearby table and looked down. “I thought you didn’t want me talking about the hegen. Now you’ve got one of their bowls?”
The King looked up at her. “It’s not hegen.”
She shrugged. “Could’ve fooled me.”
She strode away, and Finn turned his attention to the bowl.
“With everything in that place, I still can’t believe that’s what we went for.” Finn shared a look with Rock. “I bet had the Archer known what we were after, he wouldn’t have cared. What does that Client want with that?”
These days, it was always about the Client.
The King had the contacts, and in this case, the contact provided the job. Sort of how Pegg would have needed to have someone lined up to move jewels from the palace.
“That’s not on me to know. Or care,” the King said. He held the bowl up toward the lantern resting on the table, turning it from one side to the other. The light didn’t reflect off of it.
Junk.
That was what it was. Not something valuable, though even junk could get them paid with the right buyer. This time, the buyer had made it known what they wanted, so they’d taken the job. It wasn’t even supposed to draw attention. Even if the bowl was hegen, it didn’t matter so long as they got paid.
The King reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of coins, setting them on the table in front of each of them. An equal cut this time. That wasn’t always the case.
Five silvers to take the bowl. Five silvers would get his mother closer to paying for a physician. He still didn’t know how much they’d need, but that had to be getting close.
“Now to talk business.” He glanced beyond them, toward Annie. “Not something I wanted to bring up today. Especially today. But we got a job offer from the Client. It’s not going to be easy. A job like this is going to take the whole crew, but the payout will be worth ten times what I just gave you.”
“Ten times?” Finn reached toward his pocket but noticed Oscar didn’t.
Rock did the same as Finn, looking across the table and grinning at him.
“What’s the job?” Oscar asked softly.
“It’ll be a difficult job. The kind of thing that I normally turn down, but the Client is insistent on this one. The timing could be better, but I figure with our crew, we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Besides, I got some inside information that should make it easier.”
“What’s the job?” Oscar asked again.
The King looked over at him. “The viscount’s manor.”
Oscar simply stared.
Finn realized Oscar had suspected something like that.
It was the pay.
The job they’d done earlier paid decently. Typical these days for the kind of thing the King asked them to do. Some of the jobs were easier than others, but all of them had a bit of danger—mostly exposing them to the Archers. They were the kind of jobs he wouldn’t get were it not for the King. Finn didn’t have those connections. He had to rely on pickpocketing and smaller jobs. Things that could go wrong. Draw in the Archers.
“Pegg—”
The King shook his head. “It’s not the same job as Pegg. He tried the damn palace. This is just the viscount.” He looked over his shoulder. “Despite what Annie might be trying to fill our heads with, this is just about the coin.”
Oscar leaned back, frowning as he stared at the table. “Job like that is too dangerous for us.”
“Client will hire another crew. Not just for this job but others. I can push for more pay. He’s already paying plenty—more than five times what this job paid. With what happened to Pegg, I should be able to convince him we need to double it…”
Oscar squeezed his eyes shut, and Finn could practically see him working through what to say. When he opened his eyes, he looked over at Finn for a moment before taking a short breath.
“Get him to double it. Triple if you can. And find out what we’re taking.”
“We’ll know what we’re taking by the time we do the job,” the King said. “I’ll have plans of the home to follow, and we go after the item only. Nothing else. We’ll have Shuffles here keeping watch, and Rock will help. The rest of us go in, finish the job, and be on with it.”
He said it with confidence that Finn didn’t necessarily share, but who was he to argue with the King? He had the reputation he did for a reason. If the King said they could do the job, then they could.
As Finn looked over to Oscar, he could tell the Hand was troubled as well, but rather than arguing, he nodded.
“When are we doing it?”
“He wanted it done soon.”
“When?” Oscar pushed.
The King started to smile. “Tomorrow.” He looked from Oscar to Finn. “So we’ve got to be ready.”
Chapter Four
Finn sipped his ale, looking over at Oscar. He’d been silent since the King got up and went over to chat with Annie. The tavern had gotten busier since he’d shown up but was still quieter than it would be later in the evening when a crowd filled it.
“What do you think, Shuffles?” Rock asked, leaning across the table.
“About the job?”
“Damn right about the job.”
Finn studied Oscar before turning his attention back to Rock. “It’s dangerous. Breaking into some high-class merchant is one thing, but this is the viscount.”
Rock leaned closer. “Your mother…”
Finn nodded. “That was my first thought.”
Oscar glanced toward Finn.
“Think about what this can do for her. For all of us. Damn, but we do this and then don’t have to do any jobs for a while.”
That wasn’t the way the King ran his crew, but the idea of having a score like that…
Oscar got up without saying a word and slipped out of the tavern.
“What’s up his ass?” Rock asked.