Erick pulled out a knife and shoved me against a post of the tent. “There’s no treasure. I think you’re making it up.”
Which was rather insulting, because if I’d intended to make up a story, I could have done far better than this. However, my focus remained on the knife at my throat. “You don’t want to do this.”
His lip curled. “Yes, I do.”
I considered that. “Fair enough. But it’d be a mistake. The coins are real and there’re thousands of them. They’re in a secret cave in Carthya. The royals keep only a small portion of their wealth in the castle. If it’s ever overrun, they don’t want their enemies to have all the treasury.”
“How do you know this?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t? It’s common practice for all royals, not just Carthyans.”
“I thought that was a myth,” Fink said.
“I’ve been there,” I said. “I’ve stood inside the walls.”
That had happened only once, when I was still quite young. I had a memory of having gone there with my father and Darius. My father had caught me using the coins as skipping rocks across a wide pond at the far end of the cave. My backside still remembered his anger for that.
Erick finally released me, then rubbed a hand along his unshaven jaw. “Where’s the cave?”
“You think it’s that easy to find?” I chuckled. “I could draw you a map and you’d still miss it. You’ll have to keep me alive if you want to see it.”
“How much is in there?” Fink asked.
“More than you’ll see in a lifetime. There’s enough for every pirate to split a healthy share, and I figure it’s more than enough to earn me a seat at their table.”
“And perhaps me as well.” Erick shook his head. “You can’t go to the pirates alone, but if I brought you along, they’d hear you out. I could bargain with them, that in exchange for the treasure, I’d earn a place with them too.”
“Could you include keeping me alive as part of that bargain?” I asked.
Erick grinned. “That’s not my top priority.” I started to protest but he added, “You’re not leaving here on your own. But if you’re one of my thieves, with me as your partner, then you might have a chance. Besides, there’s no other way you can find their camp.”
With a stubborn frown, I said, “You’ll get all the glory for my coins.”
“We’ll both have it. You said yourself you couldn’t get them on your own and the devils know I won’t let you go without my share. So don’t look at it as losing the glory. You’re gaining a partner.”
In fact, I looked at it as neither of those. But I made the appropriate expressions of thinking his proposal over, then nodded. “All right, I’m in. But we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Why not?”
Because time was not on my side. It was now only five days until the regents met. However, I figured that detail would only complicate our tenuous relationship, so I said, “There’re others who know about the cave. We have to get there first, or not at all.”
“Then we’ll go to the pirates soon. But first, you must prove yourself.”
Suddenly anxious, I cocked my head. “I already have. I brought you those coins.”
“Yeah, but I never saw you take them. Did you think I’d recommend you to the pirates unless I saw you for myself?”
Not necessarily, but I’d certainly hoped for it. “What do you suggest, then?”
“Every now and then a few of my boys cross the border into Carthya and cause a little trouble. The last group returned a couple of days ago, but, unfortunately, there were some injuries.”
If it was the men I had run into near Libeth, then I hoped there were some career-ending injuries.
“I haven’t gone with them in some time,” he continued. “You come with me and I’ll watch you in action, see if you really belong with us.”
“What if I don’t fit in?” I asked.
“Then you won’t come back.”