Idalee smiled. “He forbade me and Lettie from keeping food in my room when I moved in.” She paused, and her voice became more hesitant. “Lettie’s a lot happier than she used to be. She’s got so much more meat on her bones now than when it was just me trying to feed us.”

“You’ve always taken good care of Lettie. Even when it was just the two of you.”

Idalee wiped a furtive hand across her eyes, and Kyra pretended not to notice. It was then that she remembered. “I’d forgotten. James gave me some extra coin to share with anyone who needed it. I can’t give it to my friends, but I’m sure we could pass it to the other gutter rats. Do you want to visit them tomorrow?”

“Coin?” Idalee looked confused. “Just to give out?”

“That’s what Rand said.”

Idalee’s eyes brightened and she gave a quick nod. “They’d really like that.”

Kyra smiled. “Great. We’ll find them tomorrow evening.”

It would be good for Idalee. For both of them.

She reported back to the Guildhouse a few days later. James was surveying the storeroom.

“How’s your shoulder?” he asked.

“Like new.”

“Really? I’d expected it to take a few more days.”

She swung her arm experimentally. There was a lingering bit of stiffness, but it wasn’t bad at all. “Mayhap it wasn’t as bad as it looked.” As proof, she pulled her tunic down over her shoulder. The skin was new but whole, and there were hardly any scars. James traced the pattern of what had been a claw mark. The light touch made her shiver.

“You’re right,” he said.

A voice in her head pointed out that with her quick recovery, Kyra could probably have run that job with Flick, no problem. She pushed it aside. They’d done fine without her—come back with several bags of flour and dried meat. She’d offered to help him carry his spoils into the back room. He’d declined.

James led her to his study, where he took out a map and rolled it open on the table. It was one of her earliest drawings of the outer compound.

He pointed at a building midway between the outer and inner walls. “This is the storehouse, right?”

Kyra nodded.

“Ideally, I’d send four men in, plus you. That’s enough to carry out the herbs of most value without being weighed down. The question is whether we can get four men in this far.”

Kyra looked closely at the storehouse, considering several possible routes. “I don’t think we can. There’s guards doing half-hour rounds in this region. We’d likely run into several, and a crew that big is hard to hide.”

James traced a path with his finger. “What about this way, through the kennels?”