Ricko Daggerheart's Arc

Chapter 17 of 18

Ricko slammed his shoulder into the door again. The bolt held. Then, beyond the wood, the sultan screamed. Not at Ricko. The old man was shouting at someone already inside the room. Ricko froze. He pressed his ear to the door. He heard a struggle, a grunt, then a wet sound he knew too well. The screaming stopped. "Someone's in there with him," Ricko said. Kelli lifted her spear. T'Zaro went still beside them, his green eyes fixed on the door. The bolt scraped back from the inside. The door swung open. Jaina stood over the body. The servant girl had blood on her hands and a dagger in her fist. The sultan lay face down on the floor, his purple robe spreading dark. She had stabbed him in the back. Ricko stared at her. He had barely met this girl. She was T'Zaro's secret contact, the one who had unlocked the cellar door below. She had been a prisoner beside them in the deep cells. Now she stood calm, wiping her blade on her dress. "You," Ricko said. "How?" "I ran ahead while you fought on the stairs," Jaina said. "I know every hall in this palace. He locked himself in. He thought that would save him." She looked down at the old man without pity. "It never would have." T'Zaro stepped inside. He did not look surprised. "It was always the plan," he said quietly. "Hers and mine." Jaina nodded. "T'Zaro wanted the jewel. I wanted the throne. The old man burned my family's village when I was a child. I served him for three years, waiting for a crew bold enough to reach this room." She met Ricko's eyes. "You were bold enough." Ricko looked at the bed. On the cushions sat a crown of gold. In its center burned a single red jewel, the sultan's prize. The thing he had crossed the desert to steal. The thing Torin had died for. Jaina lifted the crown. She held it out to Ricko and Kelli with both hands. "Take it. The crown is not what I want. Only the seat beneath it. You did the hard part. Consider the jewel your payment." Ricko did not move. He had imagined tearing this from a dead man's hands. He had not imagined it given freely by a girl he hardly knew. His fingers closed around the gold. It was lighter than he expected. "The sultan who killed my pack is dead," Ricko said. He felt no joy. Only a strange, hollow weight. Kelli touched his arm. "The alarm's still ringing. Guards will come." Jaina was already at the window. "I stay. The throne is mine by morning. You run. Take the drains." She looked back once. "But know this. A new sultan rules by dawn, and she knows your faces."