They’d been over this before. Kyra took a deep breath, trying to gather some patience. “Why’s fighting so important for going indoors? It’s the same guards, and nobody’s seen me yet.”

“It’s closer quarters inside,” said James.

“And there’s more places to hide. I’ve been doing this for a long time,” she said.

“That’s enough.” There was an edge to his voice. “For what I pay you, I expect you to learn quickly and do what you’re told.”

Kyra bit her tongue.

He sat back down at his desk and turned his attention back to his papers. “I’ll talk to Rand. I expect you to be ready in a few weeks. Is that clear?”

She pressed her lips together. “Aye.”

“Good.”

Flick found Kyra tossing pebbles down the second-floor hallway of The Drunken Dog. She was crouched on one knee beside a pile of rocks, her back to the staircase, weighing stones in her hand before throwing them one by one with a twist of her wrist. A few bounced off the wall at the end and came to a stop, while others ricocheted at an angle and clattered around the corner. Flick came up behind her and swiped two rocks from the back of the pile. Kyra ignored him for a few more tosses, then pulled both her knees to her chest and looked up at him.

“I heard you take them,” she said.

“Of course you did, master thief.”

A door halfway down the hall opened, and a disgruntled man looked out. “Quit the racket. I’m trying to sleep.”

Flick kicked Kyra before she had a chance to retort that it was well past noon. He gave the man a cheerful smile. “Sorry, Byron. We didn’t think anyone was still here. Though I’ll wager you had a late night because luck favored your dice last night?”

Byron grinned. “My purse is a mite heavier this morning.”

“Keep that up, and you’ve got to buy us all drinks,” said Flick.

“Mayhap I will, if luck smiles again.”

Flick gave Kyra a stern look as Byron returned to his room. Kyra rolled her eyes before he could start lecturing her about her rudeness. Flick shrugged in resignation.

“So what now? Is the Guild teaching you to kill people with gravel?”

Kyra snuck a glance at Flick’s face, but he seemed relaxed enough. They’d had a rough couple of weeks after she’d joined the Guild. He’d yelled at her, hurt that Kyra had made such a big decision without confiding in him, and worried about her safety. They didn’t speak much for a while, but eventually it became too exhausting to be angry at each other, and things slowly drifted back to normal.