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Xuan had done thorough reconnaissance. They would set off alarms if they tried to do anything else, so they were going to do this in the light.
The Draka were fiercely possessive of anything that they considered “theirs.” Even things that weren’t for sale were kept behind many doors that could only be accessed with the right passes.
The right kind of access passes had taken a month to acquire. Phuong felt them nestled next to her stomach in the bottom half of her dress.
She felt like the Drakan guards could see through her clothes straight to the contraband passes. She was sweating, and she was grateful that her makeup seemed to be holding up.
Xuan and Phuong drifted towards the secret door while appearing to peruse the auction items. The guards kept their eyes on them. With their slightly darker skin, they stuck out in a room of Drakans. There had been enough intermarriage between Yore and Drakans that they could be Drakan nobility, but they didn’t carry themselves with the same kind of pure confidence that was bred in the bone.
Right on time, a bit of smoke wafted through the ventilation. Phuong could see the guards’ eyes widen as they quickly went to the source of the smoke, which was safely as far away as possible from the secret door while still being inside of the auction house.
Without any supervision, Phuong and Xuan walked towards the door, pulled out the pass, swiped their pass, and entered the protected halls of the auction house, the ones that would take them to the tunnels.
The secret door closed with a loud thunk. Xuan thought that there were probably security cameras around here, but whoever was watching them wasn’t part of the normal guard.
Phuong crept right along the wall. Xuan turned to give her a wink as they made their way even deeper in.
She pulled out a second pass, but there was a Draka guard.
“What are you two doing here? Nobody is supposed to be…”
Phuong gritted her teeth as her eyes turned silver.
“We belong here,” she intoned. “You never saw us.”
“You belong here,” he repeated. “I’ve never seen you.”
The moment passed as the guard moved along.
“You belong here,” he repeated again.
Phuong told Xuan, “I hope that he’s not stuck like that.”
“It’s fine. It’ll wear off. Don’t worry about it. Focus on the mission.”
Phuong hated being a thief. Yes, they had the right talent for it, but she didn’t like taking things that belonged to other people.
As they went through each door, they got closer to the Illinium. Phuong wondered how they were going to get out quickly, but she decided not to borrow trouble.
“Just one more door and we’ll be in Marc’s hoard.”
Then they went through the door using the pass, and they were greeted with the sight of more treasure than they ever knew existed.
“What is all of this stuff?”
It looked like a crazy person’s home. There were a lot of different things all over the place.
“Search for anything that might contain Illinium.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Not very. About 10 minutes.”
All that effort, over a month of working, just for 10 minutes inside of the hoard. Phuong really hoped that their mission was successful. It would stink if they’d worked so hard for nothing.
13
Glittering Hoard
