Holsley fed the cat on his shoulder a piece of bacon. The feline lapped it up greedily. Daringly, Holsley gave her a little scratch beneath the chin and was delighted to hear Tiacat purring in response.

'Holly. Why isn't the cat stuffed into a sack?' Roland had to ask from up ahead. He slipped a little and once again cursed his stone appendage. It wasn't easily crawling through the ventilation shafts with only one good hand.

'Well, I came to an arrangement with her,' said Holsley. 'In return for food, she'll stick with us.'

'And you trust the cat?'

'Yeah, why not?' Holsley replied, giving her a torn bit of chicken from his pocket. 'So, are we going to talk about the fact that you never planned on sticking to the deal with Her?'

'I'm surprised you didn't guess it already,' replied Roland, crawling around the next bend. 'I don't share the things I steal. You know that.'

'I did think you changed your mind a bit sharpish when she mentioned she knew about the Hangman.'

'Speaking of which, how are you feeling about that?' Roland looked back at him, his face sincere. 'I mean about Dan Biggens being involved with the Hangman of Tressa. I didn't want to say anything in front of Tyla.'

Holsley grimaced. 'I don't know.' He paused. 'Dan never mentioned anything about the Hangman. He never even mentioned being in trouble. He was just…a bard with a tavern. That's all I ever knew him as.'

'We'll get to the bottom of it,' Roland promised him. 'Dan was a good man.'

'Except for the fact he always hated you,' Holsley laughed.

'Most do.'

After a few more minutes, Holsley had to stop. There was a sudden cramp in his leg. Even days later, that carriage ride through the forest was still making his legs ache. The cat remained on his shoulder as he bent and sat up into an awkward position. His legs were splayed out in front of him, and he had to tilt his head in the tight space. 'Have you given any thought about just letting Her have the pieces of the ruby? I mean, you've still got a sizeable chunk.'

'The ruby's important to my plans,' said Roland, also stopping. 'It's not just a jewel.'

'Then what is it?'

A second passed between them.

'I can't tell you.'

'Oh, there it is again,' Holsley huffed. 'Why can't you just tell me what's going on? I don't get why you're keeping me in the dark?'

Roland grimaced. If you can't trust Holsley, who can you trust? He looked over at the bard, his closest friend, and Holsley looked back at him with something like expectation. 'I don't want to tell you anything because it puts you in danger.'

'I think I'm already in danger.' Holsley crossed his arms. 'If I'm caught, I'm hanged.'

'Not before they torture you first.'

'Torture?' Holsley gulped. 'Is that what those scars are from?'

'No.' The answer was immediate and stern. Roland sighed and ran a hand through his hair. It came back black. The boot polish was wearing thin, slowly turning his hair back to its original crimson hue. He stared at it. 'Okay. I'll tell you something.'

Holsley scuffled forward.

It's funny. Roland's first instinct was to tell him a lie. That could be truly damaging if he was ever found out, though, and he didn't really want to lie, but the words refused to come up. He didn't want to spew them out. It made his stomach turn to even think of such a thing. These secrets were stolen, and they were his.

'When we were on top of the Old Stone Keep, you asked me about the Golden Keep and Dlyn Whitmore,' Roland started. He took a deep breath. 'I found it, Holly.'

'Found it?'

'I found the Golden Keep,' he said. 'I've been inside of it. I've seen the mountains of gold and silver. The magic items piled high to the ceiling. The marvellous paintings and statues. I've seen it all.'

'I knew it!' Holsley grinned. 'So, it's real then!'

'I know how to get back there, too,' replied Roland. 'I'm the only one in the world that knows how to do it.'

'How?'

'I'm not going to say. Not yet.' Roland took a breath. 'I promise I'll tell you once we're out of the city.'

'Really?'

'Yes.' Roland held up his stone hand. 'I swear it.'

Holsley nodded his head. 'Man, I wish you'd told me sooner. Wait. You seemed so worried when I mentioned the Diamond of Death back in the keep? You said something about Love knowing about it. Why? Everyone knows about the Golden Keep, don't they?'

Roland bit his tongue. What's one more secret?

'I wasn't worried that she knew about the Golden Keep. I was worried that she knew about the second marker,' replied Roland. Holsley scrunched up his face, eliciting a smile from the rogue. He accompanied his next words with hand gestures. 'There are markers, like spots on a map. Dlyn left them behind to help him find the Golden Keep. The second marker was his ship, the Diamond of Death, but no one knows where it sank. Not even me. I think Love knows, though.'

'Are you discussing my master?' Holsley had almost forgotten about the cat on his shoulder.

'Yeah,' he replied to her. Holsley laughed at Roland's sudden confusion, to the rogue it probably sounded like Holsley had just meowed at her. 'Do you know anything?'

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'She spent days in that room with the boats,' replied Tiacat, licking her paw and rubbing her face. 'Days and days and days.'

'Does she know where the ship is?'

'I doubt it,' said Tiacat. 'Otherwise, she would've found the crown by now.'

'Crown?' Holsley raised an eyebrow. 'Don't you mean keep?'

'I know what a crown is,' the cat hissed. 'After all, I am royalty.'

'What's the fleabag saying?' enquired Roland.

'Just that Love hasn't found the Diamond of Death and that she was obsessed with a crown,' replied Holsley. 'Was there a crown in the Golden Keep?'

'Loads,' replied Roland, but then paused. A memory came back to him. There had been a room in the keep that led off from the treasure. An unusual room. He hadn't been terribly interested in it but had peered around the open door. There had been a crown levitating above a marble plinth. It wasn't anything impressive. No jewels or carvings or anything. He shook off the memory. 'Yeah, loads.'

'So, the ruby is really important to all this then?' asked Holsley. 'Your plans about getting back to the Golden Keep.'

'That's right.'

'Suppose we'd better get a move on then.'

It was incredibly easy to get lost in the ventilation system, even for Roland, who had crawled inside of them for the entirety of his childhood. They were a complex maze of constricting corridors. Whenever it felt like they were making progress, they hit a dead end and had to double back on themselves.

As they roamed on their hands and knees, they passed by grates that gave them curious insights into the goings on of the Whispers. Holsley would stare through each one he moved by. It was fascinating. He watched the people on the other side. None of them looked like thieves either, a lot had removed their black cowls for something more comfortable.

Some were reading, others were conversing, and, because of the time of day, most were curled up in bed asleep.

Then, he saw Tyla's room.

Holsley came to a complete stop to watch her. She was pacing back and forth. She seemed frustrated. Through the iron bars of the grate, he watched her remove her mask and take a seat on an old wooden chair. She didn't look like he had expected. Her hair was long, frizzy, and tied back. Her skin was darker, and her face seemed so much younger than the older woman he imagined in his mind. Freckles, no lines of age, pristine skin.

She wasn't disfigured or ugly as he had originally thought then. So, why did she wear that mask all the time, even to eat?

'Holly!' Roland hissed. 'Why have you stopped?'

It only took Roland a second to realise as he too found Tyla beyond the grate.

'Great,' he sighed. 'We're going in circles.'

'What happened between you two?' Holsley whispered then. 'She said you were close as children?'

Tyla put her feet up on another chair and crossed her arms. She looked like she was about to go to sleep, despite the fact there was a comfy looking bed right there waiting for her. Okay, not comfy, but at least a bed.

'I stole her necklace,' replied Roland. 'Then, I sold it.'

'In a world of thieves, that doesn't sound so bad?'

'It belonged to her grandmother.' Roland let that fact linger in the air. 'It was the only thing Tyla had left to remember her by. She died in the war.'

'Oh, Roland,' Holsley sighed. 'It's no wonder she's so mad at you.'

'I didn't know at the time,' replied Roland. 'I only did it to get back at her.'

'Really? What for?'

'Oh, I can't remember,' Roland said, but even Holsley knew that he was lying. 'It happened a long time ago.'

'She was more than a friend, wasn't she?' asked Holsley. 'I've played enough love songs to know.'

'We were never anything. She always told me I was too young for her.' Roland gave him a melancholy look. 'Still…'

'I'm sorry.' Holsley gave him a pat on the back. 'Should we keep moving?'

They got back to shuffling through the corridors, although in more silence. Holsley left Roland to his thoughts. The rogue had revealed a lot on this little trip through the shafts, and he didn't want to push him to his social limits. The young bard thought it better to let Roland be rather than try to pry more out of him.

'So, why does Tyla where the mask then?' he asked. 'No one else here hides their face?'

'It's not to hide her face,' replied Roland, peering back at him. 'It's a magical item.'

'Oh!' Holsley perked up, almost tripping over his hands. 'Really?'

'Yeah,' said Roland. 'It allows her to bring down a blanket of darkness which only she can see through. Pretty useful for a thief.'

'I can imagine.' Holsley thought on that for a moment and snapped his fingers. 'That's how she rescued us from Kythos.'

'In the Whispers, thieves are allowed to keep any magical items they find,' said Roland. 'It's kind of like a reward. Though, they are welcome to add it to Her hoard in return for lowering their debt.'

'Did you have a magical item?'

Roland let out a little laugh. 'I had a teleporting dagger, but it only comes back to you when you absolutely need it.'

'What happened to it?'

'It never came back,' Roland said, laughing again. This time Holsley joined him. 'Suppose it'll turn back up at some point.'

They continued for a while in silence until they came to an opening that was unlike the others they had encountered.

'Finally,' Roland whispered.

It was larger, circular, and with thick iron bars spaced apart from each other by about three inches. Beyond them, they could see, or more accurately not see, the darkness that filled the room like a wall of pure night. Holsley knew from looking at it that this was magical darkness — the most impenetrable of all the darknesses.

If that alone wasn't enough proof that the room ahead was the same room they'd find Her, they also saw that the bars were covered in a thick layer of frost. The same type of frost they'd seen on the doors to her domain. It was ice cold here.

'This vent is one of seven in the room,' Roland explained as he approached. 'I've never seen in there with a light before, but I think it must have been a throne room at some point. That's why it's so big.'

That had been Holsley's assumption too.

'Before we go in there,' he turned to Holsley. 'Can you still conjure your magical light?'

'Um, yeah?' Holsley replied hesitantly. He and Roland both knew that only a magical light could penetrate a magical darkness. 'Didn't you say something about her killing anyone that produces a light source, though?'

'Yup.'

'Okay then.' Holsley swallowed his fear. He still had his suspicions about what was truly in that room. In his mind, the young bard saw his light swiftly snuffed out by a ball of fire. At least it would be a quick ending. 'What's the plan?'

'Right now, She should be sleeping,' said Roland. 'We want her to stay that way, but if she wakes up, you're going to need to conjure the brightest and biggest light you can. It'll be our distraction so we can get away. Hopefully, we'll have found the ruby pieces by then.'

'Do you know what She is?'

'No, but I've heard things,' Roland admitted. 'I've heard she can kill you with a single touch, so watch out for that.'

'Are you absolutely sure you need this ruby?'

Roland gave him a wink. 'Every piece.'

'Alright.'

Holsley was afraid of a lot of things, but there was one particular creature of legend that held a special place in his heart — dragons. They were large, overpowered lizards that lived for an eternity and could destroy anything with a mere breath. In his youth, he had read stories about them and their raw power and had harboured a healthy fear of them. They were smart, cunning, and above all, dangerous.

Based on the clues, that's what he thought they were dealing with.

Roland didn't notice Holsley's hesitation, he was too busy concentrating on the ruby piece he had in his pocket. It was time to make use of that strange sense of his. The one that could help him recover his treasure. He closed his eyes.

'What are you doing?' Holsley asked as Roland took his piece of the ruby and placed it on the ground without looking. Roland didn't answer. He inhaled slowly and then exhaled even slower. Focussing.

'Okay.' Roland finally opened his eyes. 'We get in and out. Keep quiet. I'll find the other pieces of the ruby while you stand by with a light ready to go. Remember to be careful about where you tread and try to stay as close to me as possible. Hopefully, we won't wake her up.'

'Yeah, cause when has a plan never gone our way, right?'

Holsley fished into his pocket and retrieved the ring, which he passed to Roland. The rogue was the first one through the bars. He dropped down carefully and passed the ring back up to Holsley, who fell through the grate and landed with his back to the ground. He let out the beginnings of a grunt before Roland clapped his hand over the bard's mouth.

'Shhh!' Roland hissed.

'I'll wait here.' Holsley looked up to see the cat's head poking out of the grate. 'Do not die, food giver. Though, if you do, I shall not mourn you.'

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