Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

"How easily could one pick it?"

“Not very,” Ky said. “Well… I don’t know much about locksmithing. I’m sure it’s possible. But he got the best one possible and seemed to think either it was un-pickable or that it would take someone long enough that they’d get caught trying.”

Gaius nodded slightly. "What can you remember of the contents and information in the box you left at Wolf Keep?"

“We had rough estimates of all the territories up here.” She blushed a bit, embarrassed to admit they’d been spying on both of them before they got up here. “Most of the villages, their locations, rough census of each. We— he—“ she didn’t want to be any more associated with this than she had to be. “Found a weakness in the transfer of goods between towns in the Bledroe territory. And we also had a list of all the contacts we knew up in this area.”

"Who were those contacts?"

“Um, there was Jayk — he’s good, probably a bit better than Nyler — I heard he was heading to the Adrees. I’m not sure if he was trying to get hired by them or if he was spying on them. Aeron was spying in (Rein? I can’t remember the capital city).” She cringed. “I probably should have thought to mention that before. Sorry. I forgot about him. Um, Aldik and Aerik are both in Fangholm. In, uh…” she closed her eyes, trying to remember, but she couldn’t. She opened them again. “If I saw a map, I could probably remember.”

(Yep that's right!)

"Want me to find one?" Tomhaa asked.
"No." Gaius shook his head. "Later. What do they each look like?"

(Ayeee)
(Also I’m using random character names from my novel and am trying to decide how close to cannon to keep the relationships haha imma keep them as family even though that’s a big plot twist near the end that most people don’t know xD)

“Um, they all actually look really similar. Light brown hair, green?” She closed her eyes again, trying to remember if she was right. She opened her eyes again, deciding she was. “Green. Eyes. Pale skin. The three of them are actually brothers — pretty similar, average build. They don’t look particularly intimidating at first glance. Aerik is about Zander’s age; Aldik is a year or two younger; I think Jayk is early thirties. Then Aeron is Aerik’s —estranged— son. He hates him. But he’s built a lot more like Tadaaki. Absolutely gigantic but always grinning and joking around. Until, I mean, I’m guessing not when he, uh, yeah. But the only time I’ve seen him in a bad mood is when Aleth tried to hire them both at the same time and he ended up in a room with Aerik. That was a mistake. He’s, uh, probably 17? 18? A couple of years older than me. But good.”

"Who would he the likely to be called on to assassinate you and why?" Gaius asked.

"Um..." Ky rubbed her face with a sigh. It hurt to think about all the men she'd ever interacted with the entire year she was with Aleth might be ready to kill her at the drop of a hat. Even the ones that'd been kind to her. "I'm not actually sure any of them would be a likely choice. They do kill people -- "collateral damage" as Jayk calls it -- but they were all hired mostly to collect intel and occasionally threaten people. I don't know that Aleth actually hired any of them for truly violent acts. But any of them could conceivably pass along info of where I am if -- when -- they hear. They've all got their own mini-networks of people they get information from. Aeron travels the most, though, so he probably has a better idea of who might be after me."

Ky thought for a long moment. Who was coming for her next?

"But there's, ah, Kaidren. He's tall -- I probably come about to his mid-chest, and he's muscular but more like Pratik's muscles than Tadaaki's. Black hair, sandy-brown skin, dark eyes. He's probably mid-twenties. I don't have any idea whatsoever where he's at, but he was hired mostly for hits. And he's good."

She bit her lip. Only one other name was coming to mind.

"And then there was Aenyra -- I only saw her a handful of times, but she seemed very, very good. Good enough she rarely put up with Aleth's nonsense. She's a bit taller than me and very thin. Silver hair, purple-ish eyes. It's hard to describe her. I've never seen someone that looks like her before." Ky nodded. "I think the two of them would be most likely, aside from the three that already came or Pratik or Isya. The -- how many of them does that make, seven? of them -- are the only ones we called for important things. There were other mercenaries but I don't think Aleth would have trusted any of them for something like this. They were... meh..."

Then she hesitated. "I mean... they could easily get me, if it was one on one, but they were more likely to make mistakes. He only hired them if it didn't super matter that it was done right the first time."

"Where does Aleth keep information in his house? What hidden panels are there, false bottoms, things like that?'

"It's a two-story house. When you walk in, there's a big staircase right in front of you. Then the first room on the left was a big sitting room. There was..." She closed her eyes, remembering the details, a slight shiver running through her as she put herself back in that house. "There are two sofas across from each other, then an overstuffed chair on either side, making a little rectangle. The chair closer to the door is hollowed out underneath -- if you tip it up on end there's a locked compartment in the bottom. The key's in the office. Um, he kept mostly money there, but he also had a ledger of all the assassinations he'd organized -- who, when, where, who did it. Stuff like that."

It was a thick, thick book. She absolutely loathed that it contained her handwriting.

"Along the back wall, there's a fireplace with a mantle and a hearth. If you move the tool rack on it, then there's a stone that's a little higher than the rest. You have to step on it and at the same time pull on the third shelf down of the bookcase next to the fireplace. It swings outward. Then there are two little brackets on the bottom of the shelf above it that look like supports, but if you twist them then you release a panel that looks like the wall and you've got to turn it on end to get it out."

She took a moment to think of what all was there.

"That's where he kept all the information he had about wars in the East. He had a lot. There were a lot of notes on various officials that were getting into fights with one another all the time -- each of their weaknesses, available resources, and also temperaments on how likely they were to be easily bullied into paying Aleth more for his help."

"Does he have any living relatives?" Tomhas looked up in surprise at this question; what did Gaius think he could do with that information?

Ky shook her head. “I don’t know anything about his family whatsoever.”

"Where might we find that information, if at all?"