Angelfire | The Whispering Wall #3

Seventy Nine: Crowd Pleasing

"This doesn't feel like our best idea," Jes muttered.

Arlen glowered at him sidelong. "Are you going to say that about every plan from here on out, Jes? Because this is the second time you've questioned me and I'm already sick of hearing it."

The assassin didn't take his eyes off the building in front of him as he took a long, shaky drag from his blackweed cigarette. "We're fucking cracked for doing this, Arl. That doesn't mean we shouldn't."

Arlen ground his teeth together, then plucked the cigarette from Jesper's fingers and took a drag himself. "I know it. Fuck me, don't I know it."

Soft footsteps approached over the nearest rooftop. Arlen's hand flew to his dagger, but it was just Ashe, dropping quiet as a cat from the guttering. "All clear, far as I can tell."

It didn't mean anything, necessarily. All he had to go on was Callan's word that he was in the clear for this evening, for as long as it took for Marick to receive word about what he was doing. He'd give it an hour at most, no matter how distracted his old employer was.

"Is Usk in position?"

"Aye."

"Raz?"

"Aye."

Arlen nodded. He wished he still had Akiva with him for this; but there was no use in wishful thinking. He was where he was. His position weakened the longer he stayed away from this place. He was still inside the window where his absence could be excused as scheming, but only just. It was time to take things forward.

"What about the others?"

"They said they'd be ready." Jesper and Ashe were both watching him.

"We're doing it," Jes said, half question. "You think fancy-britches will follow through?"

"He left his go-between at my mercy," Arlen said. "With a generous down-payment. He needs us."

Even if it galled him to be working with Harkenn. He knew he risked his chances with the other Devils by doing so – but that bastard Unspoken had also been right that Marick was operating with forces he couldn't match alone. He needed his own wildcards if he was to survive this.

I don't know if you were witness to either siege in the past seasons, sir, but I'm sure you're already aware that if your opponent is working with the Caelumese, you're at a significant disadvantage.

He'd wanted to do something rash – like he needed to be condescended to by a fucking Whisperer. But that didn't make it any less true; if Marick had access to Caelum's resources, and Caelum was willing to back his defence in the challenge, Arlen was on a losing streak before he'd started. He'd hoped that not even Marick would sink so low as to allow the Annexe to meddle directly in Devil affairs, but that had proven categorically untrue, and he wasn't going to stake his life on it. He had no intentions of allowing Harkenn to use it as a foot in the door.

"Right." He dropped the cigarette in the gutter and stamped it out. "Ashe, you know what to do."

Her dark eyes glittered with anticipation as she nodded, then turned and scrambled back up the guttering, disappearing over the rooftops as silently as she'd come.

"You sure about this?" Jesper asked quietly. "No going back from here."

"There's been no going back for a long time now," Arlen murmured.

Jesper nodded, hands in his pockets. Then he grinned. "It's good to be doing something again. Even if it's insane."

Arlen couldn't help a returning smirk. He felt it too, the adrenaline rush of an approaching job. He'd never pulled anything off this ambitious. This potentially deadly. The closest he'd come had lost him his leg. But he'd spent months sitting back, running from place to place, reacting but never striking back. Despite everything he'd done since its loss, it was the first time he truly felt he had regained some control, an excitement he'd half-forgotten.