Skulduggery 8: Building a Criminal Empire

by Logan Jacobs

  “Alright, you got me,” Dar said. “I just wanted to tease you about the left turn being the wrong way to go.”

  “Well, aren’t you just hilarious?” I asked.

  “That’s what they tell me,” the halfling responded with a shrug.

  When we finally reached the caterer’s place to deliver our last two barrels of whiskey for the day, I waited in the wagon, while Dar went inside to make sure they were ready for us. We’d had to haul the barrels in ourselves at the spa and at Madame Felicity’s, but when Dar came back outside, there were two big-ass dwarves with him.

  I felt my back give a little sigh of relief.

  “Our lovely new friends here are gonna take the barrels in for us,” Dar said with a grin. “Isn’t that fucking great?”

  “Then I sure am happy to see you,” I told the dwarves. “The goods are in the back, so you just help yourselves. Dar, did you, um… you know?”

  “Get the money?” the halfling asked with a wink. “Yeah, I got the goods, don’t worry.”

  Each dwarf grabbed one of the barrels, and then they carried them back toward the caterer’s hall. Dar hurried back over to open the door for them, and as soon as they disappeared inside, he strolled back over to the wagon with a smile.

  “Well, that was a hell of a lot easier than I thought it would be,” he said as he climbed up beside me.

  “You’re telling me,” I said. “I think this means we can actually run back to the apartment and get properly changed before we have to head to the casinos again.”

  “Wait, was that not an option earlier?” Dar asked.

  “Well, we were always going to change,” I said, “but I wasn’t sure if we’d have time to really get cleaned up first.”

  “Fair enough,” Dar replied.

  By the time we took our horse and wagon back to the stables, went to our apartment, got cleaned up, and changed into our casino-appropriate clothes, it was early evening. We should arrive at the first casino just as the first wave of crowds started to come in, and that would give us enough of a chance to set up somewhere that we could evaluate people as they entered the room.

  There were dozens of different casinos to choose from in the Gold City, and I didn’t worry too much about which casino should be the start of our search. I had heard a few casino names mentioned at Tevian’s party the other night, and since they’d all been mentioned by elves, I figured that any of those would probably be a good place to begin with.

  In the end, we decided to start at a casino called Golden Showers. I shuddered at the name, because while there was a chance the elves had just meant it to be about a golden shower of coins, that wasn’t what I thought when I saw the name above the front doors.

  “Gross,” Dar said beside me.

  “Yeah,” I muttered. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to start here.”

  “Eh, don’t be ridiculous,” Dar said. “If I know anything about the elves, it’s that the kind of sap we’re looking for would definitely go to some place called Golden Showers. The idiot would probably think it was high class.”

  “Well, that’s probably true,” I laughed. “Do you want to split up once we’re inside?”

  “I think we’ll be able to cover more ground if we do,” Dar said. “Why don’t you try to get into the VIP section, and I’ll scout out the tables and see if any poor bastards seem ready to gamble their lives away.”

  “Works for me,” I replied.

  The dwarven security guard at the casino door narrowed his eyes at Dar, but when he saw me in my emerald-green gown, he smiled and waved us both inside. As soon as we were past him, I rolled my eyes and then nodded at Dar.

  “Meet you at the bar in about an hour to check in?” I asked.

  “Let’s make it two hours,” Dar said. “You know how time seems to disappear when you’re in a casino.”

  “Fair enough,” I agreed. “Two hours, and good luck until then.”

  “Shout if you get into trouble or need a hand with anything, okay?” Dar clapped his hand on my back.

  “You too,” I said with a nod.

  It was still early in the evening, so as we split up to make our way through the casino, we were able to pick our route forward pretty easily. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as Tevian’s party had been, but there were still enough people that I had to watch my back as soon as I separated from Dar.

  As I made my way across the casino, I glanced around to figure out where the VIP section was. There were several separate areas all along the walls of the casino, and they were blocked off with thick curtains and armed guards, so any of them could have been the VIP section. But since I didn’t want to accidentally walk into the middle of an actual golden shower, I wanted to make damn sure that I headed to the right section before I tried to enter one of them.

  Since I needed to take my time before I reached any of the curtained-off sections, I walked slowly through the room, as if it was my first time at a casino, so I wanted to take in all the sights and sounds. Of course, there wasn’t much about this place that I really wanted to see or hear, but I was a goddamn professional thief, so if I couldn’t pretend to be interested in a room while I was actually busy casing the place, then I really didn’t deserve the title.

  There were no auctions here like there had been at Tevian’s party, but even though I didn’t pass any gladiator fights, I did pass a cock fight close to the bar, and I winced as I heard the two roosters scream and charge each other. I heard a halfling talk about the dog race that was set to happen later that night, and I passed more than a few couples who had decided they didn’t need the privacy of a curtained booth to feel each other up to their hearts’ content.

  The Gold City was like uncharted territory compared to our hometown, and even though that made it more exciting and more relaxed, it also made everything seem just a little more dangerous. After all, if this was what people did in public, I could only imagine what they got up to behind closed doors.

  After I saw several people come in and out of the different curtained sections, I started to wonder if they were actually all VIP sections. I hadn’t seen that kind of setup before, but it was possible. It would certainly explain why there seemed to be escorts, dancers, and whores going in and out of all the booths, along with rich elves and even some well-dressed halflings and dwarves.

  “Okay, Penny,” I muttered to myself, “time to really turn up the charm if I’m gonna get myself invited into one of those booths.”

  I picked one of the booths that seemed to have less traffic, since I figured that might mean they were in need of a fresh face. But as I started to move toward it, I felt a slimy hand wrap around my waist, and I breathed in the distinct smell of some asshole’s fishy breath.

  “Come on, sweet cheeks,” the asshole laughed. “If you’re wanting to get into the VIP section, then ya just need to stick with me, see?”

  Before the fishy-breathed asshole could say anything else, I pulled my knife out from where I had hidden it deep in the folds of my dress. The moment it was in my hand, I jabbed it against the side of the man’s ribs, but I was careful not to push it through his skin. I just pressed it hard enough to let him know that I meant business, and then I turned toward him to see who the fuck thought he had a right to touch me.

  It was a barrel-chested dwarf, but I should have guessed that based on the stench of his breath alone. As I pressed my knife a little deeper into his skin, his face grew pale behind his dark beard.

  “I didn’t mean any--” the dwarf spluttered.

  “Fuck off,” I growled, “and don’t fucking make a scene about it, understand? Just drop your hand, and back off.”

  “I thought ya were an escort or something,” the fishy-breathed asshole said, but his voice was at least quieter now.

  “Do I look like a goddamn escort?” I demanded. “You’ve got three seconds to drop your hand before I slice it right off your body, and I don’t care if that does make a scene. Three…”

  The dwarf imme
diately dropped his hand and stepped back, so I slipped my knife back into the folds of my dress. I knew my face was flushed with rage, but when one of the security guards along the wall started to move toward us, I forced myself to smile and give a little laugh.

  “Now, wasn’t that fun?” I asked. “In fact, I’m not an escort, but even if I was, you should know better than to walk up to random women and put your arm around them. Buy a girl a drink first or something.”

  “Oh!” The dwarf grew a little less pale. “So do ya want a drink or--”

  “I wasn’t talking about me,” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes. “I was just saying, you know, in general.”

  “Right, sorry again,” the asshole said.

  “And eat a damn breath mint,” I said but then glanced over to see that the security guard was still moving toward us. “Shit.”

  “What?” Fish-Breath asked.

  “Okay, don’t read into this or anything,” I sighed, “but let’s you and me take a quick trip into that VIP booth, okay? But do not touch me, or I’ll cut off your fingers and make you eat them, got it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the dwarf said and then swallowed.

  I turned on my heels and started toward the VIP section again, and when the dwarf didn’t immediately move at the same time, I cleared my throat, and then the asshole fell back into line beside me. As we walked toward the curtained booth, we passed the security guard, and I gave him a friendly nod and smile.

  The security guard seemed a little skeptical, but since we weren’t fighting or disrupting anything, he shrugged, turned, and went back to his usual post.

  “Come on, we’re getting into that section,” I whispered, “but as soon as we’re through, you and I don’t know each other. Are we clear?”

  “Aye, absolutely,” the dwarf said. “Totally clear.”

  I would have ditched the fishy-breathed asshole right then and there, but I wanted to make sure that the security guard lost interest in what I was doing, so I figured that I could at least try to use this dwarf to get into the VIP section. After all, it was the least he could do after he’d mistaken me for an escort.

  As if I looked like a fucking escort.

  I was just glad that it had been a dwarf instead of some fishy-breathed elven asshole. It would have been a lot harder to squirm my way out of that problem, and it would have required me to be a hell of a lot nicer.

  Of course, even an elf would have been preferable to one elf in particular-- I shuddered at the thought that it could have been Tevian who found me in the middle of a crowded casino and tried to slip his hand around me. I might have felt him coming or sensed him in the room, but then again, he had magic, so I couldn’t really say that for sure.

  All I knew was that if Tevian really did know we were here, I needed to be extra careful. The night elf was a real son-of-a-bitch, and he gave me the creeps whenever he looked at me. The other night when he had looked out into the crowd at his own party, I thought for sure he might have seen me for a second before Wade froze the room, but I hoped that I was wrong.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t like when other people looked at me and admired me, just as long as they knew that I was fucking off-limits. But when Skeevy-an Tevian looked at me, it just made me think about the way all the elves looked at us-- like they owned us, like they controlled us, and like they could tell us how to live.

  Fuck that shit.

  I was glad that Ava was pregnant, and not just because that meant she and Wade would have a baby. It also meant that the timeline of our revolution had just been moved up, and that meant we would be able to get rid of Tevian and all the other assholes like him before too long. Their child would grow up in a totally different world than the one we had grown up in, and the thought of that was a beautiful fucking thing.

  The first time that I had ever met Wade, I had felt like he was meant to do something big. Of course, I hadn’t actually told him that at the time, and I certainly hadn’t known what that would be, but I’d just had this feeling like he was different from anyone else I’d ever met.

  And I’d be damned if I hadn’t been proved right over and over again.

  I shook my head when we had almost reached the guard at the curtained booth. There would be enough time to think about all the details of the revolution later, but right now, I needed to focus on making sure that Wade had the funds to actually carry it out. And that meant I needed to find some broke elven bastard to exploit on the other side of these curtains.

  “Ah, Yasbreth,” the security guard greeted Fish-Breath. “Go ahead inside, your usual table’s all ready for you.”

  “My thanks, friend,” the dwarf said. “And, uh, she’s with me.”

  “Of course, go right ahead,” the guard said with a nod toward me.

  “Thanks very much… friend,” I said between clenched teeth.

  As soon as we were on the other side of the curtains, I knew that I was in the right place. The rest of the casino was as bright as the Gold City itself, but in here, everything was dark, and it looked like just the kind of place that people would come if they had a fuck-ton of money… or if they wanted everyone to think that they did.

  The air was smoky, and at first, I couldn’t tell if it was from incense or from the clouds of perfume that seemed to lift off of all of the elves in the room. There were a few low-burning lamps along the edges of the room, but it was only enough to glitter off the jewelry of the dancers who performed for all the seated elves.

  Most of the room was occupied by elves and the dancers that they watched at all their different tables, but there were other tables, too. Some of them were filled with high-stakes card games, and others had games that I didn’t recognize. And through the scent of the perfume and the incense, I could still somehow smell the sickening stench of elven temple wine, so I knew it must be in all their glasses and on all the serving trays around the room.

  Of course, I could also smell the stench of fucking Fish-Breath, so I turned toward the dark-bearded dwarf.

  “That’ll be all,” I said. “And remember, I don’t know you.”

  The dwarf nodded, but I wandered off before he had a chance to put his foot in his mouth again. He could go to his usual table or go drown himself in the lake, for all I cared. I just needed him to be away from me, because this was about to be a one-woman operation.

  I moved across the VIP room like I knew exactly where I was headed, and I felt the eyes of more than a few elves turn to follow my walk. When I reached one of the serving trays behind a table full of elves, I snapped my fingers for the servant to pour me a glass of the nasty temple shit, and then once I held it in my hands, I turned around like I simply wanted to watch the dancers perform.

  But while I watched them, I listened to the elves.

  Several of them looked like promising targets, but my attention kept returning to one in particular. He was only a few feet away from me, but his back was to me, so I could study him without his knowledge.

  His pale hair and reddish skin told me that he was a day elf, and based on how soft he looked, I guessed that he wasn’t involved in the military at all. He wore so many silken robes that it was damn near ridiculous, and it was impossible to tell exactly what his body looked like underneath all those layers of soft fabric.

  When I took a step closer to try to get a slightly better look at him, I almost fell on my ass at the stench of perfume that came from his direction. Apparently, I had found the source of the strongest perfume scent in the room, and it all came from this one fucking day elf.

  It was hard to believe that the elves used to be mighty warriors. They had crushed every other race under their heels, but other than Tevian and some of the other military elves, most of their race now just seemed so… soft. It was like they had become so comfortable in their positions at the top of the food chain that they had forgotten all their strength and power.

  But that just meant they were ripe for a revolution.

  This elf in particular had caught my a
ttention not just because he was the most heavily scented fucker in the room, but also because he hadn’t paid for a single drink yet. The other elves at the table kept calling over the servants for more drinks, and they told them to put it on their tabs, but this perfumed elf hadn’t volunteered to do the same even once.

  And on top of that, whenever the dancers came close and offered private dances, the other elves quickly handed over their coin, but whenever this elf tried to touch without paying, the dancers swatted his hands away and turned their attention elsewhere.

  It only seemed logical to conclude that this elven asshole was broke.

  I was about to work my way over toward the day elf’s table to find out some more information about him, but just as I started to move, I overheard one word from the next table over that stopped me in my tracks.

  “…Wade.”

  “Shit,” I muttered, and then I moved as casually as I could toward the group of elves that had mentioned Wade’s name.

  “Isn’t that the name of some trader that just came to town?” one of the elves asked.

  “A human trader, right?” another elf added.

  “That’s right,” the first elf said. “He was throwing his money around at Tevian’s party, wasn’t he?”

  “No, no, that’s not right,” another elf joined in. “That human’s name was… Blade? Or maybe Suede?”

  “I doubt his name was Suede,” the first elf laughed. “Although it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a human out there with that name. You know how humans are, after all.”

  “Yeah, all their fucking names sound the same,” another elf laughed. “Wade, Blade, Suede-- who fucking cares?”

  I rolled my eyes and pretended to take a sip of the elven wine, just so I could stay where I was without drawing any attention.

  “Well, anyway,” the first elf said. “It doesn’t really matter what his name is if he’s a trader. Tevian’s looking for a human thief named Wade, not a businessman.”