I sat alone, my back pressed into a corner, making a point of looking everywhere at once. A mug of ale sat untouched in front of me. Every so often, I made a half-hearted attempt to feign drinking, enough to make it seem like I was trying to drown myself in my ale like so many others in here. The serving women no longer bothered me as they had when I first came in.
What reason would Carth have for coming to Eban? And why had she drawn Orly’s attention? Did he know that she curated a network of spies? Did others?
That might explain the bounty, but I still didn’t know who offered it.
There was one person who seemed to know, if only I could find Natash again.
A younger woman came out from behind the kitchen and turned toward me. She smiled, and when she did, her eyes twinkled softly. Dark brown hair was tucked behind her ears and she wore a low-cut dress, revealing more cleavage than would have been proper in Elaeavn, though in Eban, it was still considered conservative. When she reached my table, she pulled out the stool across from me and plopped down.
“Galen. When I saw you sitting here for the last hour, I thought we were going to have some trouble.”
I smiled. I’d known Talia since I first came to Eban, long enough that she knew what I did, and long enough for me to learn how she was connected in ways that others were not. She could reach both merchants and the typical laborers coming through this little tavern, a place called the Brite Pot. With those connections, she usually heard more than I did, at least, more than I did until I was hired. Often times, she gave me a warning that I was about to be hired.
“Talia, I promised I’d never conduct any business here, didn’t I?” The tavern had the usual collection of people, mostly fishers or laborers, with the occasional merchant, though mostly they went to the fancier taverns. Nothing that I would ever be hired to handle. When I was hired, it was because the cost was worthwhile. Others could handle a place like this, stop in here long enough to slip something into a drink, or perhaps wait outside for the right time. They didn’t need me.
Talia coughed and glanced around. “So none of these men?” she asked.
Her eyes settled on a pair of men talking heatedly over a pair of dice. Neither seemed to notice how loud they were, or the fact that people sitting at nearby tables noticed their conversation. One of the men made a point of jabbing his finger toward the other, only to have the finger grabbed and twisted.
A blonde serving girl swooped toward them, stopping long enough to lean in and whisper something softly. As she did, the men visibly calmed, one releasing the other’s finger, and then picked up the dice, throwing them onto the table again. Their voices dipped, no longer boisterous and loud.
“Nothing here,” I answered.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I needed to talk to you,” I said. “There’s something going on in Eban that I don’t really understand.”
“And you think that I might have answers that you don’t?”
I touched the top of her hands and she smiled as she met my eyes. Were this a different time, or were I a different man, Talia would have been a woman to pursue. I couldn’t do that to her, couldn’t bring her down into the darkness that was my life, no matter how much she might suggest a willingness. “You always have answers that I don’t,” I said.
She smiled widely. “What’s this about? You haven’t touched your ale.” She took the mug and tipped it to the side, glancing inside. Her eyes narrowed as she did and her nose crinkled slightly, the way it did when she studied something. She sniffed at the ale before setting it down. “Maybe you should get another mug anyway,” she suggested.
She started to stand and made a show of carrying the mug away. As she did, she tripped, and the mug went flying to the ground, where it shattered. Talia cursed and knelt to pick up the pieces, shoving them into her apron. She glanced up at me when she finished and motioned with her eyes to the back of the tavern.
I’d missed something, but Talia hadn’t.
I studied the shards of the broken mug now scattered across the wooden floor. The ale pooled and would need to be wiped up. Talia had smelled something in the mug, but what was it?
My Sight wasn’t any help. The rough planks mixed with the pale yellow ale, and dirt from dozens of boots pooled within. What she’d noticed could have been anything. But the way that she’d grabbed the mug and hurriedly stood made me think that she’d seen something dangerous for me.
After Talia disappeared, I reached into my pouch and grabbed a fistful of darts, palming five. Three were tipped with coxberry, while the others had terad, enough to kill.
I stood and started toward the back of the tavern. The Brite Pot was connected to an inn, more of a boarding house really, with a half-dozen rooms that were usually rented by the same people. The minstrel playing at the lute winked at me as I wound past him, playing up a staggering sort of gait. I didn’t meet his eyes, not wanting to reveal myself yet.
When I reached the door to the inn, I glanced back. The two men dicing had started toward the back of the tavern. One was wider, almost flabby, and had graying hair. The other was lean and had a thick mustache of the style favored in Cort. I frowned. Neither of them seemed all that capable, but then again, with what I’d seen from Carth, I needed to be more careful with my assumptions. Another man, a muscular man with long hair hanging to his shoulders who had been sitting with a prostitute near the back of the bar, stood as well.
I made a point of banging on the walls as I climbed the stairs to the next level and then paused at the top. A narrow hall led to the rooms, three on either side. At the far end, another stair led up. Some of the girls stayed on that level.
A door closed and two sets of feet hurried up. I wondered where the third was, unless he stayed at the bottom to watch. I touched the darts and shrank up against the wall, listening.
“Came up this way, he did,” one of the men whispered. “Damn woman went and spilt the ale. Wasted good brew.”
“Nat wants to see him alive, so got to wait until he’s out. Put enough theazon in the ale to knock out a wolf, so we should be fine. ‘Sides, you saw him staggering up this way. Not much longer and he’ll be out.”
Theazon. A fragrant herb, and one that was potent when powdered. Mixed into a bitter drink—say, something like my ale—it wouldn’t have much of an odor, but there should still have been some sign. I’d been so caught up in trying to understand what happened with Carth that I hadn’t paid the usual attention to what else was happening around me. Had Talia not warned me, I might have made a mistake and taken a sip. Depending on how much they’d slipped into the ale, it might have been enough.
My irritation at myself got the best of me. As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, I flipped a dart at each. Both men made it a step before falling, hitting the ground with a grunt and a thud. I ignored them and stepped past.
The third man, the one who had been sitting at a different table, looked up. His eyes widened at the same time as I flung the third coxberry dart. He ducked, and the dart sunk into the wood of the door.
Staying low, he pushed open the door and hurried back into the tavern. I didn’t bother chasing him. If he was with these other two, there would be no point.
The door opened and Talia popped her head in. “I thought you said you weren’t going to conduct any business here,” she said.
“Not my business.”
She shook her head and grinned, then started up the stairs. At the top, she peered around the corner and saw the two unmoving men. She grunted softly. “Dead?”
“No reason to kill them,” I said. Not yet, at least. If they proved to be more trouble than I wanted, that might change. For now, I could keep them alive. They had mentioned Nat, and I could only assume that meant Natash. I didn’t think Natash was stupid enough to send his men after me, and considering how I had questions for him, maybe I should have let them take me. “Got a room I can borrow?”
“You thinking to take advantage of
them now that they’re all sleepy?” she asked. “I didn’t know that was your thing.”
I snorted. “Maybe a little.”
Talia led to the last door on the right, which she pushed open. I grabbed the closest man and dragged him down the hall and threw him inside. Then I went back for the other one. There was no reason to take it easy on them. They would have done the same with me had they managed to reach me.
The room was simple. A narrow bed pushed up against the wall. A stack of sheets was folded atop it, at least clean and recently washed. That wasn’t always the case. A short bench sat across from the bed with a washbasin resting on top of it. Nothing else.
Talia leaned against the far wall as I took the sheets and used them to bind the men by their arms and legs, tying them together. The coxberry would wear off soon, and I wanted to make certain that they were secured before it did.
“Why did you come here again?” she asked as I worked.
I grunted when I cinched the last knot tight. “A job I’ve been hired for.”
“You think I can help you with one of your jobs?”
I knelt in front of the men and pulled their boots off their feet, throwing them over near the bench. Then I searched their pockets, pulling a stack of coin from both. I wasn’t beyond pilfering from them, especially since they had seemed plenty willing to attack me. Talia arched her brow at me as I did, but said nothing. I checked them for anything else, taking a pair of knives from the thicker man with graying hair. The other one, thinner and with a bushy mustache, carried a short sword. I dumped all of this by the door as well.
“This is a different sort of job than I’m accustomed to accepting,” I started when I was finished searching them. “I was asked to capture.”
“I thought you’d appreciate the change in pace,” Talia said.
I took a seat on the bench across from the men. Neither yet moved much, but the wider one started to strain at the bindings. Likely he did it without realizing it. Once the coxberry fully faded from his system, he’d be moving with more agitation. The knots would hold. Either that, or I’d use the two terad darts I had in my pocket. It wasn’t that I wanted to use the terad darts, but I wasn’t about to put Talia in danger.
“Change can be good,” I agreed. “Most of the time. This was a simple request. I was to find a slaver.”
Talia’s mood changed immediately. Her face darkened and she started wringing her hands together as she leaned against the wall. Most women who worked the taverns in this part of Eban felt the same way about the slavers. Occasionally, slavers would think they could come and take the prostitutes, women who offered themselves willingly, and force them to become courtesans. There was a big difference between choosing to offer oneself and being forced to do it.
“There aren’t any slavers in town, Galen.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. With Talia, it was always good to question. She had different sources than I did and often knew enough that it changed my mind about certain jobs. If only I had a few more friends like her.
“I’d know.”
I thought that she might. It was the reason I cursed myself for not coming to Talia in the first place when hired to find Carth, but then, I tried to keep her from getting mixed up with Orly. There might not be any way to fully keep her protected, but of the thief-masters in Eban, he was the only one who left me with an uncomfortable sensation. The others wanted control and power, but Orly had those and still wanted more. He was a dangerous man, and one I wouldn’t risk exposing Talia to if I didn’t have to.
“Good. Turns out the person I was looking for wasn’t really a slaver anyway.”
I watched the men, waiting to see if they moved as I spoke. As soon as they woke, I had questions for them. They were the kind of questions that Talia might not want to be present for.
“What was he?” she asked.
I met her eyes. “Not what I was expecting. What do you know about a network of women informants in Eban?”
Talia laughed. “Spies?” she asked. “That’s what you mean by informants, isn’t it, Galen?” She tried to make her voice sound light, but the tension around her eyes, and the way the muscles around her mouth twitched as she said it, told me that she knew something. She squeezed her hands together, just enough to blanch the skin.
“I’ve seen them, Talia,” I said softly. “Why are women getting hurt? Who has a bounty on them?”
Talia worked to control her breathing, an exercise that strained her more than it usually did. I could see the emotion slipping across her face, that of concern for how much she should share with me mixed with what I suspected was a desire to protect the women involved.
“You’ve noticed that we have different women here tonight?” she asked.
I hadn’t, but then again, I hadn’t noticed that my drink had been poisoned. Had I attempted to take a drink, I might have been the one lying bound atop the bed instead of these two men.
Talia forced a smile. “Galen, you don’t hide your thoughts nearly so well as you think.”
I frowned, and she laughed softly.
“Your face. I don’t need to be one of the gifted from Elaeavn to know that you didn’t notice. You never really notice the women, do you?” she asked. There was a hurt note in her voice with the question.
“I would never treat a woman like that, Tal,” I said.
“I know you wouldn’t. Most of these girls come here because they know the coin is good. They know the inn is clean. And they know there are those willing to do whatever it takes to keep them safe.”
I sat up, the way she said it striking a chord within me. “You?” I asked.
How had she noted the theazon in the ale? Had I missed more than the companionship that Talia wanted from me all these years? Had I overlooked something else about her?
Then there were the abilities I’d seen from Carth and the other woman, abilities that seemed almost impossible, if not for the fact that I’d grown up in a place where impossible abilities were the norm. Talia had never shown anything like that before, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t possess them.
“I do what I can to keep our girls safe,” she said.
“I don’t understand,” I started. I shifted to the front of the bench, not trusting myself to stand. My fingers flipped through the coin that I’d taken off the men. “Who are these women?”
Talia stood still and dropped her hands to her sides. “Eban is a big city, Galen, and situated as we are on the Narahn, a place where traders move through. Knowledge comes through here. That knowledge has value.”
“And Carth?” I asked.
Talia’s eyes narrowed. “How is it that you know that name?”
“That’s who I was hired to find.”
Talia folded her hands in her lap as she looked at me. “You will kill her?”
“I’m not sure I can,” I said.
She breathed out a relieved sigh. “Good. Galen, you don’t know what you’re dealing with here. If you were to harm her—”
I shook my head and cut her off. “That’s not it, Tal. I’m not sure that I could kill her.” What I’d seen of Carth and what she’d shown me and now what I was beginning to suspect from Talia, explained why Carth needed to be as skilled as she was. If she operated on a scale like it seemed that she did, what was I, a single assassin from Eban, to her?
“You underestimate yourself,” Talia said, looking over at the two men on the bed.
Talia might have seen a slice of the type of work that I did, enough to know what I was, but taking care of these two men was quite a bit different than stopping Carth. “I’ve seen her, Tal.”
Talia’s breath caught. “She’s here? In Eban?”
“She’s here. And something is happening, though I’m not exactly sure what.”
“What do you mean?”
The leaner man on the bed twitched. Not much longer and they would be awake again. Then I’d have to begin a different line of questioning. “When I found her,” I started
, then caught myself. That wasn’t quite right, was it? I hadn’t exactly found her. She had found me. And then knew to trail me in the fog, using it to take advantage of me.
Carth had known.
First Orly tried to use me, now Carth seemed interested in trying to use me. But why? At least with Orly, I had the hope of coin, payment for my time. With Carth, I had no such promise. Only more mysterious visits.
“What happened when you found her?” Talia asked.
I shook my head. “She showed me a place of healing,” I said. “Mostly women, though there were some children. A half-dozen healers and twenty or so women, but room for many more.” Talia’s expression told me that she wasn’t surprised to hear this. “You know about it,” I said.
She nodded slowly. “Most in my position do.”
“And what exactly is that position?” I asked.
Talia tapped her foot, glancing from me to the men lying on the bed. “Have you ever wondered why most of the taverns in Eban are run by women?”
“Not particularly,” I said.
Talia snorted. “Like I said, Galen. You’ve never really noticed the women.”
I thought about the taverns I’d visited. In my line of work, taverns were a common place to visit. I was reasonably well-known in most, enough that I recognized the faces there, but not enough to know who actually ran the place. The Brite Pot was different, mostly because I came here for my own reasons, a place to sit and occasionally have an ale. At least it had been.
“The women own the taverns?” I asked.
“Some. More than what is typical, I think. But there’s a woman in a position like mine in every tavern.”
“You still haven’t told me what position that was,” I noted.
She shrugged. “I gather information and send it on to where the others can use it.”
“And the healers?”
She glared at the men on the bed. “Some men think they have a right to more than they’ve paid for,” she said. “Women get hurt. We take care of them.”
There was more to it, but I didn’t push. Partly because I had secrets of my own and I wouldn’t have wanted Talia to push for them, but mostly because I didn’t think that Talia would share. “Then why would Carth be here?” I asked.
A Game of Tsatsun (The Binders Game Book 1) Page 5