Torchlighters

by Megan R Miller

  Zenith Haywood was a cambion in her own right. She was slight and lovely with hair the color of the sky after a rainstorm; impossibly blue without some kind of planar interference. She smiled as Ely took a seat at a stool.

  “What can I help you with?” Zenith asked.

  “Peach wine,” Ely said. “Just a glass if you would.”

  Zenith gave a nod and turned around to pour it. The bar was a large round area in the center of the establishment, and unfortunately there wasn’t a defensible seat to be had around the island. It was also the hub of activity and if she was going to catch wind of something interesting it was most likely to happen here.

  Ely wasn’t technically old enough for the wine by Daelan City law. She was confident, though, that no one would ask and even if by some miracle a hellhound ended up in here and noticed, it was a fight they weren’t likely to pick. She was Joey Trezza’s daughter. Even if they were brave enough to push past that, her brother had just died.

  Zenith had a very different sort of power from Ely’s parents. Perhaps she didn’t have a personal army, but she certainly had dozens of men and women ready to jump at her call at any given moment. She offered the small diversions that made life in the city halfway tolerable, and it was amazing what the people were willing to do to keep her in business.

  It was quiet, subtle power. Ely respected that.

  “Hard to see the show when you’re not looking at it,” a voice said at her shoulder. Ely glanced up and chuckled, raising a brow. It was the magician, all loose dark curls, carefully groomed goatee and dark blue eyes that would have reminded her of her mother’s if they hadn’t been so human. She was surprised to realize he couldn’t have been much older than she was, two or three years at most.

  “I doubt you’ve met a single person in your life that’s ever characterized you as ‘hard to see’,” Ely said.

  “And yet you seem to have found a way. Impressive,” he said. There was a smirk on his face and several of the women that had been watching him on stage were craning their necks to get a look at who he was talking to. Wonderful, this was just what she needed. Attention called to her before she found the Asteri boy.

  She took a moment to consider the situation, and the options it brought with it. Throwing her drink at him would likely raise the ire of his gaggle of fans on the other side of the room. On the other hand, it seemed she’d already done that simply by being the target of his current interest.

  To make matters worse, Vivi Verida had just walked in with her half-imp paramour, Alric. That was the conversation she’d come here to listen in on. They were supposed to be making some kind of arrangement with the young business man.

  That did it. She had to get rid of him. In her experience, most men shared a single weak point, so she aimed at it mercilessly.

  “Really, are you so insecure that you need every eye in the room on you? Most people outgrow that phase by the time they reach age seven, you know. I’d have to guess that level of immaturity applies to every part of you,” she said, giving him an obvious once over that lingered a shade longer than necessary at the front of his trousers.

  “I don’t need it. You’re the one that was missing out,” he said, grinning like a dumb puppy.

  Ancients, he really meant that. What in all the hells had ever given a single person the right to that much confidence?

  “How sad for me,” she said, dryly. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight if Vivi coming toward the bar and turned her face in a last ditch effort to avoid being seen.

  “Asteri,” Vivi said. “I’m glad to see you’re punctual, I was hoping we could get this conversation over with quickly.”

  Damn. Asteri? This was Dorian Asteri? She had been expecting a three piece suit, pinstripes, maybe a little bit of the anxiety that comes with the aristocracy and merchant class when they’re dealing with criminals. Not an entertainer. What did he even need that performance job for?

  But even Elysia had to admit that on the arm of the man they came to talk to was the best way to ensure Vivi couldn’t send her away.

  “Well I never do anything too quickly,” the magician said. He winked at Vivi over Ely’s shoulder, and in half a beat she’d made her decision and fell into the role like she’d been born to it.

  “I can confirm,” Ely said, getting to her feet and slipping an arm through the magician’s. The smile on her face was every bit as bright and bubbly as the women at the tables near the stage had been. “I hope you don’t mind my little intrusion. Mr. Asteri and I were just having the most fascinating conversation about his prestidigitation.”

  Vivi’s eyes fell on her. There had been moments before, when Ely had seen her brothers make eye contact with people they hated, and she could have described it as a charge filling the air between them. With Vivi, and particularly with herself, that was not the case. There was a void between them as their eyes met. Vivi was as dead and unfeeling as a shark. Ely dimmed her own to match, in spite of the smile.

  The magician didn’t miss a beat. Ely couldn’t deny his grin was objectively dazzling.

  “So do you wanna talk here or should the three of us head somewhere more private?” he asked.

  “My husband,” Vivi said, putting particular emphasis on the words, “has secured us a booth in the back, Mr. Asteri. I had been hoping this would be a closed conversation, the young lady is a bit of a conflict of interest.”

  “I didn’t come here on business,” Ely said, with a chuckle. “All pleasure, I promise.”

  She put an emphasis on the word, and a hint of a purr.

  “Oh, I assure you,” Dorian said, in a voice as smooth as top shelf whiskey, “my interests are far from conflicted.”

  She threw a wink, mimicking the quirk of the lips Dorian had used when he winked at her as she walked by earlier. Vivi’s knuckles were turning white on the clutch of her purse.

  “Well it’s rude to keep a woman waiting,” Dorian said. “To the back then.”

  Ely decided he was either much dumber than he looked, or not nearly close to it. She leaned the latter. The three of them headed back to one of the tables behind curtains in the back room and Dorian pulled it back for Ely, bending slightly at the waist like a perfect gentleman and letting her sit first.

  It would have been insulting to dismiss the gesture like she dearly wanted to. This was going to leave her backed into a corner. If she needed to get out quickly, that was going to be a problem. Vivi smiled genuinely for the first time since she came in and Ely nodded back to Dorian as she slid into the booth.

  For the first time, she considered this might be a trap. What if he was just that charismatic? That good at weaving the web he wanted people to see, over the truth? And she had just walked right into it because he looked too dumb and pretty to be a liar. How stupid was she?

  She dismissed the thought almost as soon as it crossed her mind. How could he have known who she was? And no amount of smoke and mirrors could have caused him to attract that gaggle of society girls to his side.

  The weight of the gun in her coat pocket was a comfort, at least. Even if Zenith would have her head on a pike if she used it.

  Vivi slid into the booth beside Alric and straightened. Ely found herself on the same side of the table as the half-imp, the pair of them in stark contrast to one another. Alric was built like a brick with tomato red skin and a big metal stein clenched in his fingers. He took up over half the booth on his own. Ely was small and graceful, her complexion the color of half-dried sand, with a wine flute perched in her hand.

  “I’ll get to the point,” Vivi said. “We’re interested in buying.”

  “Of course you are, it’s a great product. The real question is, are you interested at the right price?” Dorian asked. His glass was more like Ely’s. Long-stemmed and glittering with something that smelled more like fruit than liquor. He was half-leaning on the bar and the smirk on his face was what most of the laymen would have called devilish.

  Ely knew better. No d
emon ever smirked like that.

  “A thousand sigils for a shipment the size of the one you sent to Neith,” Vivi said. “We can have it to you in cash by the end of the week.”

  “That’s wasteland robbery,” Ely said, blithely. It was a neutral enough statement to apply to anything. Hopefully, it would draw one of them into saying something more specific, to give her more context or maybe a confirmation as to what he was selling. If not it would at least throw some sand in the gears. If this was about what she thought it was, she was right.

  “I wouldn’t go that far, doll. But she’s got a point, Viv. We’re not making friends here with these things. If I’m gonna sign off on a shipment that size, the gears are gonna need a lot more grease,” Dorian said.

  Her blood heated at being called ‘doll’, but she kept her face that passive pleasant.

  “If you want to wait a few more days I suppose we can do a few hundred more,” Vivi said.

  “Only a few hundred?” Ely asked. She glanced sidelong at Dorian, giving him a dubious look. “How much did they pay you in Neith?”

  “Well it’s not good practice to disclose that type of information,” Dorian said, “but in the interest of fostering this new relationship, it was double that. I want to help you, Vivian, I really do, but we can’t give them away for nothing. I’m either gonna need to see some sigils, or we’re gonna have to work out something a bit more long term. Make sure the investment’s good, you understand?”

  “And if you want me to pay that much I’m going to need to see some proof that they work as promised,” Vivi said. She kept her calm, though Ely could see the veins beginning to pulse in the side of her neck.

  “A demonstration?” Ely asked, brightly. Vivi turned her gaze on Ely in a moment. Her look could have curdled milk. Ely was made of tougher stuff than that.

  Dorian smirked again.

  “Of course. That’s my favorite part,” he said, then chuckled and added, “It’s not, the money is, but this part’s close.”

  Vivi’s knuckles were turning white again. They had spoken so carefully to keep Ely from finding out what they were talking about this whole time and now she had managed to maneuver her way into not only hearing about it, but seeing the product in action.

  She felt the weight of her gun. This was going to be fine. Even if it was a trap, it was going to be fine.

  “When?” Vivi asked. The word was clipped. She was starting to lose her temper.

  “Oh, can’t we see it now?” Ely asked. She forced a spark into her eyes when she looked up at the magician, and squeezed his arm just slightly. She’d decided he wasn’t stupid, but she was relatively sure he did want her and leaning into that just a little couldn’t hurt.

  “You said you wanted this over with quickly. If muscles there thinks he can handle it, we can head out back right now,” Asteri said.

  Some kind of weapon, Ely had to guess. If this wasn’t the quick-summon circles they might be headed into some kind of trouble. Did it apply? If something broke out it might, but if it did, it would be a really dicey product. It was too late to back out now, and Vivi was as cornered as she was.

  “Alright,” she said, getting to her feet. “If it works I’ll go as high as two thousand and five hundred. I expect to sign on it before we leave tonight. I won’t have the Trezzas snaking this one out from under me.”

  Vivi gave Ely a withering look before starting for the back door.

  Dorian stood and looked back at Ely over his shoulder a moment.

  “Wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to stay inside,” he said. “What’s about to happen isn’t for the faint of heart.”

  She thought back to the dissection earlier that morning. This time, her smile was genuine.

  “I think I’ll be alright,” she said. She slid out of the booth, her wine glass still in her hand.

  Dorian led them out back into a small, fenced-in side yard and disappeared back into the bar. Ely stood across from Vivi for a moment, Alric with his arms folded across his chest behind her, and for a long moment none of them said anything. Breaking the silence was a demerit, after all, and what was there to say in a moment like this?

  Dorian returned with a briefcase clutched in his left hand. He opened it with a key from the chain around his neck and produced a ream of folded paper from the inside. This was it, then. Her interest stirred.

  He unfolded it, laying it on the ground and Ely’s breath caught when she saw what was on it. It was most of a functional summoning circle. Dorian drew a small notebook from the interior pocket of his jacket, and an ink pen from the same and scrawled a name between two of the spokes. In this, he was careful, and his penmanship was as good as his sleight of hand.

  “A single drop of blood,” he said, pulling the pin out of his stage corsage and driving it into the meaty part of his thumb. A bead of blood welled there and he pressed it into the center of the printed circle. There was a faint glow that grew brighter by the second until finally, a wind djinn stood in the center. “And there you have it. You’ve seen it with your own eyes.”

  “Why call me, mortal?” the djinn demanded.

  It was to wind as an afrite was to fire. His skin was mottled grey, and his translucent hair flowed around head and shoulders in a constant updraft.

  “Oh, right,” Dorian said, scratching the back of his head as he assessed the demon. “Uh. I’ve got big plans tomorrow night. Make sure it doesn’t rain.”

  Alric was laughing from his place on the other side of the small yard. Ely shook off her surprise long enough to break in.

  “By which of course he means, take the rain clouds elsewhere,” she said. “The wind can do that, after all.”

  The djinn’s tumultuous eyes fell on her.

  “Nephil,” they spat.

  “I’ll have you know, my father carries the blood of an afrite,” Ely said.

  “Then he’s disgraced himself,” the djinn said. “It is no concern of mine. Fine. The rain. Am I dismissed once that is done? Dusk tomorrow?”

  “Dusk tomorrow,” Dorian agreed, and the djinn vanished in a cloud that smelled of sulfur.

  “Two thousand five hundred sigils,” Vivi said. Ely’s insides twisted. She didn’t even know how big a shipment they were talking about but if the Gaters got their hands on something like this her family was in some really serious trouble. Even if Gate Street decided to sell off most of them in the first place.

  And on the other hand they could really use something like this.

  Vivi produced a folded paper from the inside of her sleeve and slammed it down onto the picnic table on her side of the yard. She took the pen from Dorian’s hand and signed her name at the bottom of the page in a single fluid gesture.

  “Do not disappoint me, Asteri,” Vivi said. She turned to stalk out of the yard, Alric lumbering close behind. Even as they disappeared in to the bar, Ely knew one thing for certain. She could not, under any circumstances, allow them to get their hands on that shipment.

  Once Vivi was out of earshot, Ely turned to look at Dorian sidelong, her face melting of the bubbly smile she’d assumed for Vivi’s benefit and resuming its usual schooled blank. She turned to the magician, straightening her shoulders.

  “The Torchlighters can do three thousand,” she said. “We can have it to you tomorrow.”

  “That is quite a bit of cash,” Dorian said, “but it’s not very good business practice, is it? Why don’t I just put you down for a separate order?”

  “Do you know who that woman is?” Ely asked, folding her arms and assessing him. He clearly knew something, and he certainly wasn’t as stupid as he looked at first. Foolish, maybe, but not stupid.

  “Honestly no, but I know she has the sigils and my father needs deals to start happening in this city,” he said.

  “She’s a shoeshiner,” Ely said. She made it sound almost casual. “So are we, but we’re not like her. The Gate Street Players are racketeers, they aren’t protecting their people from shit, they’re extorting money
and if they don’t get it, they cause problems. Burn buildings. Terrorize honest people. The Torchlighters exist because we forced trash like that out of the dock district. Imagine for a second what happens if a woman like that can call hell on a whim. Imagine for a second what happens when her boys get that kind of power.”

  Ely glanced back at the now charred ream of paper lying on the brick.

  “If that’s not enough to convince you, consider how strict the summoning laws are in this city,” Ely said. “There are penalties for unlicensed summoning. The aristocracy won’t be happy with you and they have ways of making life difficult. I’m not saying that’s right or fair but it’s the truth. And as far as I know your family are the only ones selling these.”

  “We know how strict the laws are,” Dorian said. “I knew Viv was a criminal element. That’s why we came to them in the first place. Once these get into the hands of the people, the law will be powerless to stop them and we can take this business legit.”

  “It’s cute that you think she’s going to distribute any of those to the people,” Ely said, raising a brow. “Let me tell you what she will do. She will hoard them. She will give them to her people only and use it to leverage power because that is what people like Vivi Verida do. You’re giving them a loaded gun with only a rudimentary understanding of how to use it and people are going to get hurt. This? It should be in the hands of the people. But not like this, not if they don’t know what they’re doing with it. Unless all you’re concerned about is how much money you can get this way.”

  She met his eyes again, and she could feel a burning behind her own. For a moment, she felt like she’d opened her mouth and her father had come out. That was a point of pride.

  It was also a big risk and a big assumption. If he really didn’t care about doing the right thing, it would be a massive tactical error and she would have to take care of the shipment another way.

  “And I’m supposed to just take you at your word that selling to her would be bad and selling to you would be good?” he asked, quirking a brow.