Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

furnishings or portraits, just a single yellow curtain he pulled back so he could stare out at the city through the diamond-shaped window.
    “Thren’s plan may be suicide, but there’s still a chance of it succeeding. If we opposed him any longer, we’d never last another night. They burned us out of our last two safe houses. Did you see?”
    She nodded. James shook his head, his hand curling as if he wished he had a drink to hold.
    “We’ve lost so many. Our territory is almost nonexistent. Even after this, we’ll still lose most of our members to other guilds unless we get lucky and hit a large haul somewhere. What would you have me do, Vel? Stand and fight him, fight the combined might of all the thief guilds?”
    “Other guilds must be getting nervous,” Veliana said. “Thren tried to recruit me to take your place. He feared others would abandon him if he tried to force anyone to his side.”
    James laughed.
    “He didn’t do any of this. He planted whispers, ideas, and let the rest of the guilds eat us alive. Those who were closest to the Spider Guild got the best territory …
our
best territory. He wanted you because it was easier. A quick coup, a few dead bodies, and then he’s got another puppet running another guild. Instead he had to spill a bit more blood. It wasn’t hard. You know Kadish Vel? His Hawks have wanted everything north of Iron Road for months. Now he’s got it. Five years we’ve fought that bastard’s war, five fucking years, and now because we don’t play along, we get thrown to the dogs.”
    “And the Shadows, Hawks, and Serpents,” Veliana said. “We have no friends. We never have.”
    James gestured once more to her face.
    “Who gave you that? Is that why you barged in here looking for me?”
    Veliana turned away, suddenly self-conscious of the wound.
    “That, no, Gileas did it, but he’s dead, I killed … James, Gileas sold information to one of Thren’s men less than two hours ago. He gloated over letting Felhorn know where we were hiding.”
    “It means nothing,” insisted James.
    “But he was so certain,” Veliana said. “He also claimed to have told the king’s men about Thren’s plans for the Kensgold.”
    At this, James’s face darkened.
    “Thren won’t believe you,” he said. “We tell him a dead man leaked his plan to the king, then demand he call it off? He’ll only assume we’re seeking a new way to sabotage his plan without outwardly opposing him. Worse, he’ll think we told the king ourselves. Damn that little worm.”
    Veliana knew she should have found that funny, but didn’t.
    “We can’t go through with this,” she said. “We can’t throw our lives away with him.”
    James wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close.
    “Tell me everything,” he said. “All that’s happened.”
    Veliana told her tale, of being captured and left for Gileas, and her encounter with the faceless women. She hid nothing, not even her trip to Karak’s temple. When she finished, his face was the calm, angry stone she most often saw when he was contemplating death.
    “So Vick betrayed you to the Spider Guild?” he said. “I knew he was gone, though I assumed he died in the ambush that had killed Walt, and presumably you. He must be laying low. We’ll find him in time and teach him the revenge of the Ash Guild.”
    “What do we do?” Veliana asked. “Gileas was supposed to tell them where Thren’s guildhouse is located, and convince him all the guildleaders would be there, working out a plot to kill the king. An entire army should have descended upon that Felhorn bastard’s base, but instead Gileas fucked that up and told him the truth. Now we’re sworn to a promise that means death, yet can’t back off from it else we find death in a whole new way.”
    James squeezed her shoulder.
    “We’ll play along,” he said. “I plan to survive, and settle our score with Vick and Kadish. But come the Kensgold, we will not be the ones dying that night.”
    “What do you mean?” Veliana asked. “Surely you don’t…”
    “I do,” said James. “What night will Thren be more vulnerable? What night will his entire reputation hinge upon? The Kensgold is the key, Vel. We wreck him, and everything he’s built fractures. We’ll negotiate our own peace with the Trifect. Let the others fight the mercenaries. We’ll make ten times their coin from our whores alone.”
    “I’ll trust you,” Veliana said, pulling out from his grip. “I’ll