An Aimless War (Greatest Thief 2)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The next day I felt well enough to do a bit of exploring. The building Tannix and the knights had taken over was a little larger than I had assumed, with a few different rooms. An old staircase led to what looked like a very fragile second floor. On the main floor, only my room was mostly intact. The other three only had walls, and hardly any remnants of a ceiling. One was the room the knights all slept in, a second smaller room was the one Lady Mayah had been given, and the third room was used for training.

I found Tannix leaning in the doorway to the third room, watching Joen and Evrik fight. Mandell and Acen were there as well, calling out advice. Tannix was quiet, watching them but clearly not really paying attention. He didn't notice me until I gently nudged him with my good arm.

"You should be sleeping," he said, without looking at me.

"I'm not tired," I said. "And I'm too busy thinking about how I'm going to steal this ship for you. I'm worried about things going wrong. You said Joen can sort of speak the language?"

He looked at me. "You don't have to steal the ship if you don't think you can. We'll figure something else out. I trust your judgement, if you're that worried."

"I'm not that worried." I tried to shrug, but the stiffness in my shoulder and the tight binding made it difficult. "I'm a thief, right? The greatest in Zianna. For you I would steal the moon."

The slightest hint of a smile appeared on his lips. "The moon?"

"If you asked me to."

Tannix smiled in earnest, but was also immediately distracted by a noise from the sparring men. "Wait, wait," he called loudly, stepping into the room. "Joen, Evrik keeps pulling the same trick on you. You're fighting with swords, but he still moves like an axeman. You're trying to follow the patterns Acen taught you, which you're executing very well, but in war people aren't necessarily going to use the same patterns. You need to be more flexible when you move, to be prepared for men like Evrik who don't quite fight like trained swordsmen."

Evrik narrowed his eyes. "If I can't fight with a sword, what am I doing in your personal guard?"

Tannix was obviously taken aback. "That isn't what I—"

"It was the axe throwing trick," Mandell interrupted.

"Shut it, Mandell. If you weren't so big, you wouldn't be in the guard either," Evrik said.

Despite the bickering, Tannix had turned back to Joen. Acen walked around the room to stand beside me with his arms crossed.

"Tempers are running a little short," he commented idly, leaning against the wall. "But it's nothing to worry about unless they draw weapons on each other. You know, Finn, the first time I got Tannix to let himself fall asleep, he insisted on lying right beside your mattress. So I sat there and watched both of you. You started talking."

I tore my gaze away from the other men to meet Acen's apprehensively. "I did?"

He nodded. "Loud enough that you woke up Tannix. But you weren't speaking Teltish, it sounded like Deoran. So maybe Old Ziannan? I didn't think anybody could speak it."

"We can't." I had an uncomfortable feeling I knew what I had been saying. "We have some traditional prayers that we still say in Old Zianna, but that's because we memorized the sounds."

He nodded again, more slowly. "Well... I ended up asking Joen about what you said. I remembered some of the words. Malan, for example."

I definitely knew what I had been saying. "Yes... that's a word."

"I know what it means," Acen continued. "Joen told me. I think you should tell Tannix."

He was right, but Tannix was busy. I nodded towards the trio in the middle of the room. "He's working with Joen."