The keep was on the other side of the sleeping forest town, but Harper seemed to know the terrain as well as Kale knew the deck of his Nephrite, and they reached the massive gray stone walls in a matter of minutes. Harper led Kale along the treeline, and he noted the lack of sentinels with a faint grin.

This was what the idiot Thief King got for partying all night while he had Curse in a cage not a mile away.

Harper stopped in the shadow of an oak and gestured at the flatland clearing leading to the base of the stone walls. "The sentries will all be on the other side," he said, his tone businesslike. "I can't get you in the gates, but we should be able to scale the wall."

"Good man," Kale said, dropping a hand to Harper's shoulder. Harper eyed him warily, not for the first time since their meeting less than an hour ago. Kale could well imagine what the man was thinking, and he grinned to himself. "Off we be," he told the thief cheerfully, and strode out of the trees.

Harper Hayes shook his head, following on light feet that barely brushed the grass. Kale didn't bother with a rope or a planned route. He just reached for the nearest jut of rock--barely big enough for his pinky finger to fit on--and started climbing. Despite the lack of holds and the slick stones, Kale scaled the wall quickly and easily, almost thoughtlessly.

True to Harper's words, there were no sentries at the top of the wall, and the tower on the corner was obviously empty. Kale looked down into a courtyard littered with scraps of metal and bum weapons. They must've been behind a smithy of some sort.

Harper hauled himself up beside Kale and pointed at an arch in the wall of the courtyard to their left. "Through there," he said softly.

Kale jumped, dropping the thirty feet to the stone courtyard, crouching to accept the momentum and absorb the force of his landing. He stood, glancing at the weapons scattered about. Most of them weren't even full weapons, probably the mistakes of an apprentice or a project gone wrong. But Kale spotted a few broken blades as well, weapons deemed too worthless to bother fixing.

He kicked one up into his hand, something that had once been a short sword but was now a long, broad, jagged dagger. Not elegant or even useful really--dull, too. But it'd kill a man easily enough if it came to that.

He tucked it into the waistband of his trousers and headed for the archway, Harper Hayes on his heels. 

"So what are you after, anyway?" Harper asked from behind, and he sounded almost curious, in a grudging sort of way.

"Ever 'eard of t' Gem of Shalae?"

Harper snorted. "Oh please tell me you're not one of those idiots who thinks it's Blessed by Dorian."

Kale grinned over his shoulder. "I don'a care who it be'a Blessed by," his grin turned into a smirk, "so long as I get me a fair price fer it."

The thief shook his head, slipping past Kale to lead the way down a set of stairs, into the darkness of the keep. "Shouldn't be anyone up," he said softly. "But best to move quietly."

Not that Kale was ever anything but quiet. His mother had always said that Kale moved like death. He followed Hayes down the stairs and then through a hallway. It was probably stupid to trust the man so soon--but Kale knew a thing or two about brothers, and about feeling protective. 

And about women.

It was obvious that Harper genuinely cared about his sister and that his desire to kill Kale was a real one. Kale doubted that the man would call his friends into what he viewed as a personal dispute. Not to mention that Hayes was not drunk, despite the revelry which had gone on for the entire night. Either he didn't have many friends and didn't like to party--making him a strange commodity in these parts and a curiosity to Kale--or he'd actually been doing work while the others played.

Either way he was of interest, and regardless, Kale was confident in his own abilities should he need to escape.

The hallways in the keep twisted and writhed, leading them below ground. Kale wasn't overly fond of being on the ground, so being under it gave him chills. He felt a bit anxious, closed in by the stone walls and the smell of the earth.

He'd be glad when he was back on the open sea with the wind in his hair and a deck beneath his boots. None of these enclosed spaces and soil scents--only honest wood and good old salt.

"Here," Harper said, softly, and gestured at  stone door in front of them.

Kale tilted his head at the structure and the complicated lock keeping them out.

"I can pick it, but it's going to take awhile," Hayes said, drawing a set of lock picks form one of his many pockets. Kale didn't doubt the thief's abilities, but he really didn't feel like waiting down in this dungeon for longer than was necessary.

"Be no'a need fer tha'," he said calmly, stepping past the small man. Harper raised his eyebrows.

"What are you going to do, break it down?"

Kale grinned. "Excellen' idea, we'll go wit' tha'."

Harper rolled his eyes, but before he could say anything, Kale rubbed his hands together and gripped the sides of the door. His fingers slid into the stone as if the door was made of soft cheese instead of hard rock, and the structure crumbled between Kale's massive palms like old cheese.

Harper gaped.

Kale grinned and jerked his head at the blackness beyond the doorway. "Off wit ye."

The thief eyed Kale warily for a moment before he shook his head and started picking through the rubble. Kale followed, leaping lightly--and soundlessly--over the mess.

"You realize that rumble could've woken the dead, right?" Harper asked, and it sounded as if the man was fighting to keep his tone casual.

Kale shrugged his shoulders and looked around the room, searching for his quarry. "So be i', den."

The thief sighed. "I'll find a light, just give me a moment."

Kale smirked. He had no more need of light than a king had need of gold. He could see in the dark well enough. But he'd let the little man have his delusions.

He spotted a chest near the back--one covered in twice as many chains and locks as the others. "Ye do tha'," he told Harper, as he made his way silently through the treasure trove to the chest. Of course, nothing guaranteed that the Gem of Shalae would be in this one... but if Kale had gotten his hands on something like it, and if he were a religious man, he'd have kept it under lock and key himself.

It took him barely a second to rip apart the chains, and he tossed them aside carelessly.

"What was that?" Harper hissed, and Kale glanced over to see the man still feeling along the wall looking for a torch. A torch that wasn't there, for some reason that Kale didn't care to consider.

"Don'a know, me," Kale said innocently. He started pawing through the junk in the chest, and sighed when the Gem of Shalae wasn't there.

He moved on to the next chest, then a crate, then another chest.

"How do you expect to find anything in the dark?" Hayes asked, in a sardonic tone. He'd lit a match at some point and was using that for light.

Kale shrugged. "Don'a need light. We pirates 'ave t' eyes o' t' Dina." He winked at the thief, who rolled his eyes again.

"Will you stop throwing things around? You'll bring the whole Keep down on us!"

Kale shrugged again as he moved on to a cloth bag, dumping its contents onto the stone floor. No giant black veined ruby. "Don'a care."

"You're insane, you know that?" Harper muttered, peering out the door as if checking to see that the coast was still clear. Kale ignored him, focusing on his task.

It only took him half an hour of rummaging to determine that the Gem wasn't there. "If'n I were a Gem o' Shalae, where'n would I be hidin' meself..." he mused, rubbing his stubble. He needed a shave.

Harper--who had been glaring at him silently for the last  fifteen minutes--snorted. "Who cares? We're going to die anyway, since I'm sure the whole garrison is gathered by now and waiting for us outside."

Kale shrugged.

"Stop that! Stop shrugging! You're going to get us both killed!"

Kale looked at him and grinned. "Oye, tha's nonsense, dere. I done tol' ye, ye'll be t' one what takes me life. Don'a fret." He walked over to pat the little man's head cheerfully.

Harper Hayes looked back at him as if he thought Kale was crazy. Kale agreed, so he merely grinned more widely as he left the treasure room.

"Where are you going now?"

"Ta find'a me tha' gem, o' course."

"Where?"

Kale smirked. "'e prolly keeps t'under 'is pillow, now wouldn't'cha think?"

Hayes snorted. "You're never going to find it at this rate."

"Ye be t' thief," Kale said, shrugging yet again. "If'n ye think I canna do t' job, how's abou' ye doin' it yersel'?"

"As if I'd help you."

"Twouldn't be 'elpin' me, now would i' boy? Seein' as 'ow me life is yers, if'n dey go an' take it, wha's lef' fer ye?"

"So leave then."

"I would, I would," Kale said, nodding seriously as he stopped at the top of the stairs. "'cept I ain't leavin' wit'ou' dat Gem."

Harper sighed deeply. "Fine. Wait outside--stand guard. Holler if you see anyone."

Kale grinned. "Good man," he told the thief, who merely shook his head and disappeared down another hallway.

Kale returned to the smithy and the courtyard from which they'd entered, and climbed up onto the wall. True to Harper's fears, a crowd of men was gathering near the Keep entrance. Kale settled into the shadows to wait, smirking. These little thieves. They were so amusing.

It was like they actually thought they stood a chance against him.

They didn't.

It didn't even take Harper ten minutes to find Kale, and he dropped a small pouch into the pirate captain's lap with a disgusted glance. "There."

Kale hefted the weight of the pouch before looking inside. It was a gem, all right--a large ruby, veined with black. But it wasn't real, just an imitation. He could tell with a single look.

He tucked it into his pocket anyway and pretended not to notice. It was a good imitation. No one else would've noticed--even the King of Thieves had failed to see the difference. Kale had figured that it wouldn't be the real one.

The real one was probably on some pedestal in the Between--where it belonged.

"Good man," Kale told Harper again, then leaped over the wall, landing easily on the other side. A second later Harper landed beside him, and the thief didn't look happy.

Kale sighed. "I told ye, I canna give up me life now. I 'ave a ship 'n crew what rely on me, an' I will'na turn me back on 'em."

Hayes glared at him for a moment. "How can I be sure you'll come back? That you won't get yourself killed out there instead?"

Kale shrugged. "Ye canna."

"Then why should I trust you?"

"Ye should'na."

Hayes' fists clenched and he opened his mouth, but Kale shook his head, stopping the man's words. "Ye can come wit' me. I'll give ye a place aboard me ship, an' ye'll be dere when t' time comes, 'ow's tha' sound?"

Harper waved a hand. "I can't go to sea."

"Why na? Ye think ye're friends 'ere'll miss ye? Ye think they will'na find ou' tha' ye 'elped me?"

The thief watched him with narrowed eyes. "You're really that eager to die?"

Kale smirked. "Ye canna kill me, boy, 'less I let ye. I fer one don'a care wha' ye be doan wi' yersel, but I made ye a promise an' t' Curse always keeps 'is promises. So ye can come, or ye canna."

Harper Hayes sighed and looked at the Keep, listened to the sound of the gathering crowd who were starting to surround the building. He looked back at Kale and Kale grinned.

"Off we go, den," he said, and turned, striding into the trees.

A moment later, Harper followed.

THE END