Thief's War by Hilari Bell

Author:Hilari Bell [Bell, Hilari]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781634436793
Google: 6PWmoAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1634436792
Publisher: Hilari Bell
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It had taken me almost a week to study the Rose’s ledgers. There were nearly a dozen ships he wanted me to audit, with transactions going back for decades. Even looking over the last five years took a long time…and I didn’t just study the last five years. By the time I’d finished, I knew where the goods the captains fenced for Roseman came from, where they were selling them, and how much money they might have skimmed.

The one thing I hadn’t learned was where the Rose’s profit went. The totals were set up to be copied into another account book—but like the books that dealt with the “city tax” he collected, or any other scams he might be running, those were ledgers I wasn’t allowed to see.

Every night, Roseman put the books I was working on back in that locked room. Every morning they were brought out again. There was no entrance into that room from the corridor, which made it doubly secure. I thought there might be a window, but I couldn’t be certain—and the nightly guard patrols made burglary from the outside dicey.

I’d never been allowed even a glimpse past the door, and judging by the sums I was seeing, from just a small part of Roseman’s operations, it could have been a mammoth vault. But something about the sound when it closed told me it wasn’t a closet or a vault, but a decent-sized room. I was more and more convinced it was an office. The real office, where the real work was done.

Which was, no doubt, why Roseman kept the magica key on his person at all times.

I couldn’t get into that inner office, but as I worked with the ledgers of his fencing operation a plan began to form. I couldn’t see any way for Michael and I to escape from Roseman without help, and—though I hated to admit it—the most effective source of help would be the High Liege’s Guard. The best way to get the guard to come, would be to give the nearest honest commander…not just evidence, but evidence of so much corruption, and so much power, that he’d be willing to bring the better part of an army with him. If he just sent a few investigators the Rose would know who’d betrayed him…and Michael and I would die.

Most of that evidence was stored behind a lock Jack said was unpickable—and now that I’d met the Rose, I was even less eager to burgle any place he owned. But I could still start gathering evidence.

* * *

The Rose and Wiederman left town for some meeting. It was disguised as a party, but from the way they talked it was a meeting, and an important one—and he took his magica key with him. Soon after they’d gone, I told Jack I was ready to start talking to ship captains.

“And I hope you realize that if I show up with a procession at my heels, they’re going to know I’m not really a trusted accountant.

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