When he stepped out of the room, Crow caught sight of the three guards in the corner of his eye and turned immediately to his right to walk away from them. He was careful to set a pace that was slow enough to keep close to Penelope, yet just purposeful enough that he would look like he had somewhere else to be. It seemed to work as he heard the guards speak to their female comrade from behind. They sounded flustered at first, but quickly accepted that they were looking at their king, just like he’d hoped they would.

As soon as the guards were out of sight, he doubled back toward the other side of the hallway, matching Penelope’s grin with one of his own. “You’ve gotten good at this,” he agreed when he reached her side. “They had no idea you were lying to them.”

When she said she would wait for him in the hall, he nodded. “Alright. I’ll make it quick.” Leaning down, he touched a quick kiss to her lips and then turned to keep walking down the corridor, marking out which doors were which in his head. [i]Fischbach is three doors down on the left, then Christopher is two doors after that, and Baltac is the last,[/i] he recited silently. Coming from the opposite direction as the Vermillions had directed him, that meant he should start with Baltac, who was six doors from the far end of the hall on his right-hand side.

When he reached the indicated bedchamber, he casted one more look around for good measure and slipped soundlessly inside. The interior of the room was pitch black, and the viceroy had to linger by the entrance for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. As he did, he could see the sleeping form of the man known as Baltac, alone in his bed. The noble’s chest rose and fell slowly, a good sign that he was still deep in slumber.

Silently, Crow crept over the wooden floor of the bedchamber, following the edge of the wall as he searched for a decent place to drop off the diamond pendant. He wanted to leave it in a spot where it would be easily noticed, but not so obvious that it would look like it had been intentionally placed there. His fingers trailed gently over the surfaces of furniture until he found a dresser with a mirror, not unlike his own. The glassy surface caught the moonlight, reflecting it off the pendant that dangled from around his neck and causing it to glitter in the low light.

The viceroy looked over the surface of the dresser until he spotted a collection of other jewelry strung up on a wooden stand. He smirked to himself and carefully took off the pendant, adding it to the rest. Hopefully when Baltac awoke in the morning, he would see it with his other valuables and assume he had missed it somehow when he’d thought it had been stolen.

With the first piece of jewelry returned, Crow snuck back toward the door and stepped into the hallway again. This time, he kept his right eye closed as he headed for Christopher’s room. It was another trick he’d picked up to work faster at night. If he was going to be dipping in and out of brightened spaces, he could save himself the trouble of letting his eyes adjust to the dark if one already was. It allowed him to keep moving without stopping every time he entered a room with no light.

It worked well in this case too. As he closed the door behind him, he opened his right eye and closed his left, looking over the bedchamber in search of Christopher’s dresser. He found it easily enough and set the bracelet down with the nobleman’s other valuables, just as he had done in Baltac’s room. Once it had been replaced, he slipped back into the hallway without a sound.

Feeling confident with how well the backwards raid was going, Crow stood a little taller as he made his way to Fischbach’s room. As he had done with the last two, he cracked open the door and slipped silently inside. In the blackness, he opened his dark-adjusted eye and glanced briefly at the bed to find that Adam was still sleeping soundly. The nobleman was lying on his side with one arm hanging over the edge of the mattress, completely unaware of the thief in his midst.

Crow smiled and crept over to the other man’s dresser to replace the “stolen” rings. However, when he reached it, he paused as he noticed that the surface of the furniture was clean. If Fischbach had any other jewelry, this wasn’t where he kept it. The viceroy crossed his arms over his chest with a frown, wondering if there was a better place to put the rings, until he remembered that this was the noble who’d framed him in the first place. It didn’t matter were he left the jewelry, because Adam didn’t need to be convinced that he’d misplaced anything.

Feeling better about the decision, he slipped the rings off his fingers and set them down on the dresser.

In the next moment, he flinched as he heard a floorboard creak behind him.

Without time to think, Crow ducked to the side just as someone’s hand flew past his head. He spun around to see Fischbach standing with a stone paperweight in his fist, precariously off-balance after his clumsy attempt to knock the viceroy out. The baron’s eyes widened slightly, and it became clear that he hadn’t expected the former thief to dodge his ambush. However, he recovered quickly.

“You messed up, thief,” he hissed, cocking back the paperweight to swing at him again. “As soon as the guards catch you here, you’re going back behind bars!” He grunted as he tried to strike the viceroy in the head once more.

Crow snorted. After dealing with knights and barons on the warfront who had much more skill, Adam’s weak attempt to attack him was child’s play. He caught hold of the nobleman’s wrist and twisted his arm behind his back, forcing him to drop his weapon with a pained whimper. “You were the one complaining that your rings were missing,” he shrugged carelessly. “I’m just giving them back.”

Adam curled his lip at him and took a breath. Realizing that he was about to holler for the guards, Crow quickly turned on his heel and knocked the baron’s head against the nearest bedpost with as much force as he could muster. The nobleman fell slack in his arms as he lost consciousness, and the viceroy rolled his eyes. “Should have just stayed asleep,” he muttered, dragging the other man’s body to the bed and tossing him unceremoniously onto the mattress.

He put some effort into making it look like Fischbach had never left his bed, pulling the sheets over his body and propping his head on the pillow. Once he was finished, he took a step back to review his work and gave a satisfied nod. However, he didn’t leave right away. Instead, he trotted over to the dresser and picked up the rings he’d set down. Out of spite, he slipped them directly onto the nobleman’s limp fingers. A petty little gift for when he woke up.

“Sweet dreams,” Crow grinned devilishly at the unconscious man. With that, he turned and made his way back to the door to rejoin Penelope in the hallway.