The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

drink than he usually does. The shot, it stopped his heart. He's dead."

Karl caught his head in both hands, wishing once again that he could turn back whatever clock had put his life on such an insane course.

He wasn't the least bit upset the man was dead, not after knowing he'd attacked Loretta yet again and planned to attack Gemma. He simply wished he didn't have to deal with it.

Bill spoke before Karl could find even a ghost of his own voice.

"Where is he?"

Loretta continued to pace. "I dumped him and Sophie in the cellar around back. To be honest, that's the main thing I need your help with. I've been trying to figure out what to do all day yesterday and today, and I think I might have an idea that would work. We can use your wagon, Bill, and dump him in the Fog. Every trace of him should be gone before the morning."

"Wait, just calm down and wait," Karl said. "Why would we dump his body anywhere, or your guard's? We need to report this so the Ministry will..."

Karl's brain locked up solid, like he'd seen gears do when they weren't maintained. Or when they were overworked.

"Will what, Karl?" she said, stopping in front of him. "Come here and question me, question Gemma? We've been seen together, so they'll question both of you. Then I'm quite sure they'll get around to Olsen and Roma Norwood. Do you think any of those have a chance of going well? Which one of us won't be exposed?"

"She has a point," Bill said, rubbing the back of his neck. "The best thing is if Rhysto disappears. He was a right bastard on a personal level, and I have to admit I'm glad he's dead. But he managed to keep most of the shaws in line. No one had managed that before, not in living memory. Most pilots aren't as gentlemanly as I. If it gets out that he's dead, that will bring his supporters down on Loretta, and his rivals into a disastrous struggle to take over. The longer people think he can just return at any time, the better."

Karl knew what they were saying made sense, but his brain still refused to accept what he was going to have to do.

"Isn't his airship still here?" he said. "No one's going to think he left without that."

"That's unfortunate, but not unprecedented," Bill said. "He's gone missing for days at a time before. A lot of us think he does that just to keep the shaws, and the Ministry, off balance. It works. All of that balance falls apart if people find out he's dead."

Loretta took Karl's hand.

"As much of a bastard as he was," she said, "people in Waldron's Gate will never take kindly to murder. And if what I used to do for a living gets out, I won't stand a chance. Even if that doesn't happen, they wouldn't decide I had no choice and let me walk away. Just having something like sedatives here will be enough. I won't have any way to protect Gemma, either. Once Parliament gets their hands on her, we'll never see her again."

"That much I worked out for myself," Karl said. "What about your guard? Won't people be looking for her?"

"No, not this one." Loretta looked down and shook her head. "Sophie was a lot like me. Came here from the wilderness, ended up caught out at the Convenience for a long time. Working for me was her first chance to earn a living not on her back. No family close by, and the ones she got away from aren't likely to care."

Karl breathed out sharply through his lips.

"So we just haul them out in Bill's wagon, dump them in the Fog, and pretend it never happened?"

"Yes. That's exactly what we do." Loretta started pacing again. "Then Gemma and I come stay with you for a while. That's the best way to keep her safe. If Rhysto just drops out of sight and no one puts him together with me, the heat will eventually die down."

Karl stared at her, wondering if she had any idea how cold she sounded, how inhuman. He'd moved bodies, more than he cared to count or remember. That was part of the job out at the Columns for a guy his size, whether he liked it or not. But even after so many years, he'd never thought it was no big deal, no different than taking out the garbage.

Would Loretta speak that calmly about dumping Bill's body? Or his own?

"I don't like this any more than you do, Karl." Bill spoke quietly, but his eyes and mouth were firm. "We all have too much to lose to walk away. Loretta and I could probably manage, but it would go a lot faster if you help."

"I'll help," Karl said. "I'm not sure this is the best idea, but I can't think of anything else. Listen, this gets one bad guy out of the way, and I'm sorry about how this sounds, but where's Rullin?"

"No, that sounds exactly right," Bill said. "My brother brings suspicion wherever he goes. He's in our cargo hold, in the closest thing I have to a dungeon. Two of my best men guarding him. They know if he gets away, it means their skins. I don't know what I'm going to do with him after that."

"Fair enough," Karl said. He couldn't ever remember feeling more weary. "Let's get this over with."

In the end, it took less than half an hour with the three of them and the wagon. Rhysto didn't smell particularly pleasant, but that didn't bother Karl. Carrying the slender body of the guard did.

Sophie looked barely into her late teens, far too young to understand the danger she was putting herself into selling herself out at the Convenience or working for someone like Loretta. And now she would never learn any better.

The Fog itself was only a few minutes away from Loretta's house, less