It was still there. My missing piece.
Now I knew how a handful of guardsmen and an army of peace-loving giants could force their way into a fortified city, and how they might stand the tiniest of chances against its legion of defenders and its tyrant of a ruler.
There was only one drawback.
It meant I was breaking into Altapasaeda again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Before we hurled ourselves into untold danger, it was vital we knew what had been happening in Altapasaeda these last few days.
That meant a visit to Navare, and that meant giving away Alvantes's one and only agent in the Suburbs. I could almost feel the resistance radiating off him as he hammered the reinforced door of Navare's shack.
The resulting pause gave us ample time to imagine the worst. Then the door opened the barest crack — just enough to reveal Navare's crossbow, and the man himself just visible in the gloom behind.
"Alvantes?"
"Sub-Captain Navare."
"I'd thought… there were rumours, and…" Abruptly, Navare's face split into a grin. "Well, what are you standing outside for, Guard-Captain?" In a hiss, he added, "You know they're watching, right?"
"Of course," Alvantes whispered back as we brushed past.
Inside, Alvantes briefly summarised the events of the last few days, avoiding most of our time in Ans Pasaeda and touching only lightly on our run-in with Guiso Lupa. His impatience for news was palpable, and I could see Navare recognised it too.
"Our men haven't been discovered," Navare said, "though there've been a couple of close calls, all right. Three times now, Mounteban's sent men to check the barracks. Fortunately, they had scouts out, and got hidden in time. He's also had his thugs hunting through the Suburbs. He calls them 'inspections'."
"But they haven't found anyone," Alvantes said — more to himself than as a question.
"No. Well, not until now, anyway."
Alvantes let the implied criticism slide. "What about the situation inside the city? No one's tried to move against Mounteban?"
"He has things locked down tight," Navare replied. "He's lost ground in a few areas — some of the families, the ones who rely most on trade, are furious the gates are still closed. I think it's thrown his nerve, knowing we're out here, but not knowing where. On everything else, though, word is the families are toeing his line. Mounteban's been making all the right promises… and he's kept a fair few of them too."
"How can he, with the city still shut off?" inserted Estrada.
"Well, there's the thing," said Navare. "Lupa wasn't alone. Mounteban's been sending agents out to all the towns and the larger villages. Most times it's one of his lackeys, but a couple of the families have gone over wholeheartedly to his cause now. I heard a rumour Lord Eldunzi's set himself up in Muena Delorca."
"Eldunzi?" I laughed. "He couldn't run a free water stand in a drought."
Alvantes looked at me with surprise. "You know Eldunzi?"
I realised I never had told the full story of my adventures in Altapasaeda. "We passed a little time together," I said. "It didn't end well. The man has a big mouth."
"That's one of the kinder things the Muena Delorcans have been saying," agreed Navare.
"Whatever Mounteban might have set up elsewhere," put in Alvantes, "the problem stays the same. Chop off the head and kill the body. None of this will hold together with him gone."
"You have an idea?" The hope in Navare's voice betrayed the strain he'd waited under these last days.
"Not me," Alvantes said. "Damasco thinks he can get us inside."
I flushed — partly with modesty, more with a thrill of horror at the thought of what I'd somehow got myself into. "Getting in will be the easy part," I said.
I realised Navare was staring at me expectantly. The heat in my cheeks deepened. Planning was one thing, taking part another, but being pushed into the role of leader was more than I'd ever bargained for.
Then again… it was my plan.
"All right," I said, "here's how we begin."
Time was crucial. Darkness was one of the few things on our side, and we'd likely only have a single night before Mounteban concocted a scheme against the giants or shored up his defences.
Navare set out minutes later to summon our forces waiting at the barracks. We would need them in the morning, and a little extra manpower wouldn't hurt in the meantime. Soon after he'd left, Estrada announced her intention to speak with Saltlick and the giants.
"You should get some rest, Easie," she told me.
The idea seemed preposterous. Then again, there was nothing I could do for the next few hours. I sat at the end of Navare's narrow cot bed and closed my eyes.
The next I knew, I was waking to the sound of pounding upon the door. I watched Alvantes cross to it, listen carefully and then draw it wide. Outside, Navare stood flanked by half a dozen figures in hooded travel cloaks. I vaguely recognised them from amongst the Altapasaedan guardsmen; as they strode inside, I caught flashes of the uniforms they wore beneath their cloaks. Tonight they'd be acting in their official capacity for the first time in weeks, and I suspected that fact meant a lot to them.
A few minutes later, the door nearly shivered off its hinges, with a crack like muffled thunder. My first thought was a battering ram; when the blow wasn't repeated, I realised the truth. Someone else was knocking, and only one person I knew could knock like that.
Alvantes opened the door to reveal Saltlick squatted on his haunches, with Estrada stood beside him.
"Ready," Saltlick rumbled, as if concluding a conversation started long since.
Alvantes's only reply was a nod to his men. Together, they trooped into the night, Saltlick falling in behind.
Estrada slipped inside and drew a chair from the room's small table. We sat in tense silence — until the first sounds of banging and clattering began a few minutes later.
"It's started," she said.
I nodded. "No going back now," I added — and wondered how true that was.
For my plan to work, it was vital Mounteban know the giants were coming. For all that there were similarities, invading Altapasaeda wasn't a sly housebreaking in the depths of the night. The last thing it required was discretion. Only when I'd fully accepted those facts had the last details swum into focus.
To anyone watching, the events taking place in the streets of the Suburbs over those next few hours would have looked much like the preparations for a war — a war of giant proportions. Estrada and I sat listening, far past the hope of sleep. I had a fair conception of what was going on outside. It had been my idea, after all. Still, just listening to the jarring shocks of noise from all around gouged at my nerves.
I remembered my first sight of Saltlick, hunched in shadow, a monstrous living sculpture carved from the fire-lit darkness. I remembered how I'd watched the giants fight at Moaradrid's behest, their colossal forms indistinct amidst the rain and the half-light of sunrise. Unless his agents were blind and deaf, Mounteban knew the giants were coming. I thought about how on edge he must be by now, desperately struggling to keep control over frightened minions — and I couldn't but smile.
My smile sagged. The night was almost done. It would be my turn soon enough.
Estrada must have caught my expression. "You really don't have to do this, you know," she said. "Any one of Alvantes's men could go in your place."
"I don't, do I?" Somewhere in the excitement of the last few hours, I'd managed to forget that simple fact.
A knock on the door nearly separated me from my skin. When Estrada opened it to reveal Alvantes and Navare, I wasn't sure if I should feel relieved. Was their arrival a reprieve or the last stick for my funeral pyre?