Page 31 of Winter's Edge
Someone's elbow jabbed a little too close to my healing ribs, and I let out a hiss.
Whoever it was just chuckled, a smoky, feminine sound that instantly made me think of sex. Not with her, but in general, like maybe she worked at one of the brothels in town.
"Sorry, dearie, but you're on the wrong side of traffic," she said.
Oh. I swatted at the ground with my walking stick and tried to maneuver to the right, but there were too many bodies. This place washell.
"Oh, for fuck's sake." I swung my walking stick higher and landed several hits until people finally moved out of my way.
The woman had been right. Over on the right side, the crowd flowed in the direction I needed.
Soon, my ears perked at the sound of horses snorting and pawing the ground up ahead. There was a hitching post there where Hellbreath always went directly to when Baba and I would arrive from the other side of town. Just to the right of it was where I needed to go.
When I got there, I could tell I was in the right place because of the booze and tobacco smell and the certainclang-flap-clangof what sounded like a flag with metal parts beating against its pole. From the sound Baba's voice had made when he was here, the place he went to sell the poison had a window with an awning over it within a small offshoot of a building. A man always stood behind the window, and I could hear him now, spitting into a tin cup and setting it back down again.
My stomach turned, but I tried to ignore it.
I iced my voice with as much authority as I could and said, "Here for a delivery for Gabriel or Faust."
"Faust's not expecting any deliveries today."
"That doesn't change the fact that I have one for him."
He sighed. "What is it?"
"It's the same thing my baba—my dad—brings every month." Was it called poison or something else? Baba never had to answer all these questions about it, so I had no clue what the answers were.
"Thefirstof every month," the guy said, seeming to know what I was talking about. He must’ve known my baba.
"Yeah," I snapped. "I left on the first and just now got here. Things happen."
The guy stood there, seeming to assess way too long. If I couldn't even hand the fake package off to Gabriel or Faust, this was a waste of time. I'd have to find another way to get the money, and fast.
I thought of the smoky woman who'd run into me on the way here.Did she work in a brothel? I could never do that. Jade could never do that. I wouldn’t let her even if she did.
The guy stepped back and parted a beaded curtain behind him. "Winky, is Faust here?"
"In the back," a voice hollered.
"Follow me," the guy said.
Follow him where? I gritted my teeth. "I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific than that."
"Why the fuck…?" He opened a door to his left, and mumbled low enough that I almost missed it, "Stupid helpless cunt."
A simmer ignited in my gut and flared outward under my skin.
“Sorry, didn't quite catch that last part," I ground out as I shoved past him through the door.
"I said solid, heavy coat. Yours, I mean. Great craftsmanship. Did you make it yourself?"
What a terrible liar. As his footsteps thudded past me, I swung my walking stick out at the last minute and cracked him hard in what sounded like his kneecap, enough to earn a grunt and then silence from him. I didn’t even try to look innocent afterward either.
I followed the sounds of his movements through the beaded curtain into a building with dusty wooden floors, drafty walls, and loud male voices ahead and to the left. As we moved to the right, all of my doubts hardened into stone. This wasn't a good idea, coming in here like this. Not where I felt trapped between walls. Not where there were fewer witnesses.
"How about I just give it to you, and you can give it to Faust in exchange for my money?" I asked.
He didn't say anything as he turned right, his footsteps clipping along the wooden floor.
