Skulduggery 8: Building a Criminal Empire

by Logan Jacobs

  “And then before you know it, we’ll be knee-deep in revolution,” Cimarra whispered. “It’s still hard to believe sometimes.”

  “Which part?” Twila laughed. “The part where we’re helping sell illegal whiskey all over the empire? Or the part where we’re plotting to overthrow our elven overlords?”

  “All of it, I guess,” Cimarra said and then smiled at me. “Or maybe it’s just the part where we’re all in love with the same man, and no one seems to mind.”

  “Oh, that could be it, too,” Twila said as she grinned at me. “Has our sweet little Ashlin finally admitted--”

  “No!” I interrupted as my cheeks turned so red that they felt like they might just drop off my body. “I mean, no-- I think maybe it’s the part about plotting the revolution? Or… oh, I don’t know.”

  “It’s okay, sweetie,” Cimarra said. “We’re just teasing you. We don’t mean any harm.”

  “I know,” I said as I dropped my head into my hands.

  “We just don’t want you to feel embarrassed,” Twila said and reached over to squeeze my arm. “Your feelings about Wade are nothing to be ashamed of, and they’re certainly nothing that you need to hide from us.”

  “By the Ancients, is it that obvious to everybody?” I muttered and then suddenly raised my head. “Shit, is it that obvious to him?”

  “He might have guessed that you have a little crush on him,” Cimarra said, “but that’s completely normal. He’s not like anyone else, you know that.”

  “Can we please change the subject?” I bit my lip. “If it’s okay with both of you, I’d rather not think about all the possible ways that I’ve embarrassed myself in front of him.”

  “Of course,” Cimarra said, “but let me just say one more thing first. You’ve never done anything to embarrass yourself in front of him, Ashlin.”

  “In fact, Wade thinks very highly of you,” Twila added. “And your green eyes. And your beautiful dark hair. And your long, athletic legs. And your small but firm--”

  “That’s probably enough, Twila,” Cimarra cut her off with a smile. “The poor thing might actually pass out if she turns any redder.”

  “Just teasing you,” Twila said with a wink. “But I understand, so let me change the subject for you. Do you want to run an errand for us?”

  “Yes, please,” I said. “What do you need?”

  “Well, now that we’ve formed a human guard, we’re going to need the equipment for them,” the golden-haired halfie replied. “So, Ashlin, how would you like to go to the blacksmith for us to place the order?”

  “Oh, I can do that,” I said. “Just tell me what you need, and I’ll go right away. If I leave now, I can still make it back in time for tonight’s performance.”

  “It’s her last one, so she doesn’t want to be late,” Cimarra said to Twila. “She’s an official employee of Wade Enterprises as of tomorrow.”

  “Oh, then, congratulations,” the beautiful madame said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “So what do we need from the blacksmith? And, um, where exactly is this blacksmith?”

  “Well, we were going to place an order for fifty sets of armor and weapons-- you know, just standard guard sort of equipment,” Twila said, “but when I talked to Golierian, he said it was common practice for elven soldiers to all have a spare set of armor and a spare weapon, just in case they’re damaged in a fight.”

  “You mean so they’d immediately have a spare, instead of having to wait for a new order of equipment to come in?” I asked. “Kind of like the understudy guards?”

  “Exactly like that,” Twila replied.

  “I can’t believe Golierian told you that,” Cimarra said. “Doesn’t he suspect anything?”

  “The captain of the guard will believe whatever Wade tells him to believe,” Twila said with a shrug. “As long as he gets paid, I don’t think he gives a shit what we do, especially since a human guard for the human district means less work for him.”

  “So that would mean… a hundred weapons and sets of armor?” I asked. “Plus forty-eight for the understudies?”

  “Right again,” the beautiful madame said. “And since elven guards always have a spear and a sword--”

  “And the dwarven guards always had an axe and some other kind of blade,” Cimarra added. “Or at least, they did before Wade had them obliterated.”

  “Yes, so I think it would be perfectly natural for human guards to have two weapons as well,” Twila said. “What do we think would be the easiest weapons to train people on?”

  “Sword and knife,” I said. “I mean, that’s what Ava always says, anyway.”

  “You’ve been paying attention,” Cimarra said with a smile. “Good, so a hundred and forty eight swords and battle-ready knives, right?”

  “And the armor,” Twila said. “And when you place the order for the armor, make sure you tell the smith that it needs to be durable but lightweight. Something that could be worn without a lot of training or prep.”

  “Lightweight and durable, got it,” I said. “How much do you think all this will be?”

  Cimarra unlocked a drawer in her desk, pulled out a small sack of coins, and pushed them across the table to me.

  “That’s so much money,” I said.

  “Oh, that’s only half of what it’ll cost,” the raven-haired woman replied. “But the blacksmith only gets half up front. He’ll get the rest of his money when he delivers our order.”

  “Still think you can handle it?” Twila teased.

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I’ll be very careful.”

  “I know you will,” Cimarra said. “The blacksmith that you’re going to is a little rough around the edges, but he’s friends with Ava, so he’s one of the good ones. Don’t let him push you around, okay?”

  “Got it,” I said.

  After Twila and Cimarra told me where to find the blacksmith, I went back to my room, changed quickly into street clothes, and hid the money inside my cloak. I had been around Penny enough to know how to protect myself from any possible thieves, so I felt pretty secure as I stepped out onto the main street and started toward the blacksmith’s shop.

  I was just so glad that the other two women had trusted me to carry this mission out, especially because it was so important to Wade. I liked being the errand girl, just like I enjoyed being the messenger sometimes. It made me feel important-- like maybe I had something to offer, just like Cimarra and Twila and all the others.

  I knew that was probably silly, but I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to be useful and helpful in some way, and if the best way for me to do that was to deliver messages, run errands, or order and purchase armor from a blacksmith, then I would be the best damn messenger and errand-girl that had ever existed.

  And now that Cimarra had asked me to be her full-time assistant, it sounded like I would have even more opportunities to help with Wade’s business. I was still a little in shock that Cim had asked me, but I shouldn’t have been too surprised. After all, the other dancer had always looked out for me ever since I came to the theatre, so it was only natural that she would continue to look out for me even from her new position as Wade’s right-hand woman.

  Maybe it was because Cimarra was so much like me, or at least, it was because our backgrounds were so similar. She always said that she felt like an older sister, and I knew that was part of why she felt so protective of me.

  We had both been born in the city, and our parents had both died when we were still too young to really remember them. Cimarra had gone to live with a cousin, and even though the cousin hadn’t lived very long, either, it had given her just enough time to figure out how she was going to survive in the city on her own.

  She knew that there weren’t a lot of options for a human woman in the city, so she could be a whore, a servant, or a dancer, and she’d chosen to be a dancer because it would give her the most security and it would also allow her to travel more than she ever had.

  Those were more or less the same
options that I’d faced, but there had been no cousin for me to go stay with, so I had to figure out things that much sooner. I’d apprenticed as a dancer first at one place and then another, and every time, I’d been forced to move to the next place when I felt like they didn’t really want me to be a dancer-- or at least, that wasn’t all they expected me to be.

  So when I’d finally auditioned for Count Kieran’s show, I had been very skeptical that this was a legitimate show with legitimate dancers, but I’d run out of other options. But as soon as I had earned my place in the show, Cimarra had pulled me to the side and told me the ins and outs of how everything worked there.

  She told me that some of the girls chose to do extra work on the side, but she never did, and she would make sure that no one ever forced me to, if I didn’t want to. Cim said this was one of the respectable theatres in town, as long as we made sure not to linger too long in the back hallways and side alleys around our building. It might have been respectable, but it was still in the heart of the Entertainment District.

  Of course, even after I joined Kieran’s theatre, I wasn’t sure exactly what the future held for me. I just wanted to be able to dance for as long as possible, and then some time in the future, when my body couldn’t do it anymore, I would just have to figure out something else.

  I didn’t know what would happen to me, but I tried to stay as positive as I could. I just took one day at a time, and I hoped that the future would work itself out eventually.

  But then along came Wade.

  As soon as Wade first came to the theatre and then first started his whiskey business in the stables, everything had changed. Of course, I hadn’t really known what was happening in the beginning, but I knew that Wade was important and that he had visions and ambitions for the future, and I also knew that Cimarra loved and trusted him completely

  So I did, too.

  And the more Cim told me and the more they both trusted me, the more I started to hope that maybe there would be a place for me in their vision of the future. I had never wanted to just be a dancer, but that had been the only option available to me. I didn’t know what I wanted to be, but I just knew that I wanted… more.

  When they first told me about the whiskey, I hadn’t been shocked or alarmed. I had just felt excited, like I knew something secret that no one else did, but it wasn’t just the secrecy that made me excited. It was the fact that Wade knew exactly what the consequences were if anyone caught him, and he still chose to run his whole operation, anyway.

  I had never seen anyone stand up to the elves like that.

  Even when that guildmaster Clodia came to town and set fire to what felt like the whole Entertainment District, Wade didn’t back down. Instead, he found a way to get her on his side, and he even managed to earn the title of guild leader from her. Every move he made was so calculated and careful, but at the same time, he could strike as fast as a wolf whenever he needed to.

  After all, it was his quick instincts that had saved me on the night that Clodia set fire to the theatre.

  When I’d been trapped in the office with Jane from the dancehall, I thought for sure we were going to die. The ceiling had half caved in from the fire, and the air was so thick with smoke that I could barely see the exit, not that it would have mattered, anyway. The flames were too high and too hot for me to escape, but even though Jane had just curled up into a ball under the desk, I had stayed upright and just kept shouting in the desperate hope that someone might hear us.

  I just didn’t know that someone would turn out to be Wade.

  I still wasn’t sure how he had found us in the middle of the burning building, but I knew that he could use magic, so somehow, he had frozen all of the fire. When he’d taken my hand and led me back out through the frozen flames, the fire looked like a wild beast that Wade had tamed. Maybe he had just looked at it and told it to be still, and it had obeyed the authority in his voice without question.

  I had tried very hard not to be jealous of Jane. The poor girl couldn’t help that she’d gone unconscious, so Wade had to carry her out in his arms, but it was still hard to think about when I had wanted so desperately to be the one in his arms.

  Still, even just the fact that he had grabbed my hand to lead me out of the fire was more than I had ever dreamed of. He felt so strong, and he seemed so confident in every step that he took. Even in the middle of the fire, I had known that with Wade in the lead, everything was going to be okay.

  I glanced up at the street sign and realized I had almost reached the blacksmith’s shop, so I needed to focus if I was going to get this right. I knew that I looked young and naive, but I’d be damned if I let anyone take advantage of me. Especially not when it was Wade’s business and Wade’s money that was at stake.

  When I turned the corner and saw the blacksmith’s shop, I squared my shoulders and marched forward, as if this was something that I did every single day. As soon as he saw me coming, the dwarven blacksmith glanced up at me, raised an eyebrow, and went back to hammering some piece of heated metal in front of him.

  I just walked right up to his counter and stood there to wait for him to finish. When he didn’t even look up at me again, I clenched my teeth and decided that we could play this the hard way, if he wanted to. I reached across the counter, grabbed one of the daggers on display, turned around, and then started to walk away with it in my hand.

  Immediately, the sound of the hammer stopped.

  “And just where do ya think you’re going with that, lass?” the blacksmith called.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I said with a smile as I turned back around. “I thought this was a shop, but when no one offered to help me when I arrived, I thought maybe it was a junk-heap where everything was just free.”

  “You watch yer fookin’--” the dwarf paused. “Alright, I see what ya did there. It’s because ya think I was rude, isn’t it?”

  “I’m a legitimate paying customer, so yes,” I replied. “Or at least, I will be if you give me a chance to tell you what I need.”

  “Fine,” the blacksmith sighed. “If ya give me back mah knife, I’ll see what I can do for you.”

  “Good,” I said as I handed him the blade across the counter, “because I’d hate to tell Ava that you were anything less than helpful.”

  “Ava sent you, eh?” the dwarf asked. “Ya don’t look like an assassin, but then again, neither does she.”

  “It’s not really important what I am,” I said. “I’m just here to place an order for weapons and armor, and trust me, it’s a big one.”

  “Who’s it for?” the blacksmith asked.

  “The human guard down in the human district,” I said. “They require one hundred and forty eight sets of armor, plus fifty spares. And they also need the same sets of weapons, plus fifty spares. Each weapon set should be a sword and a battle knife, so that’s a hundred and forty eight swords and a hundred knives in total.”

  “Is that all?” The dwarf grinned.

  “Yes, that should do it,” I said, “at least for now.”

  “Did ya rehearse that order all the way here?” the blacksmith chuckled.

  “I definitely don’t see how that’s relevant,” I said as my face grew hot. “Can you do it or not? I can take the order somewhere else if I need to.”

  “Relax, lass,” the dwarf said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m only fookin’ teasing. Of course, I’ll take the order.”

  “Oh,” I said and bit my lip. “Okay, then. Good.”

  “When do you need them by?” the blacksmith asked.

  “As soon as possible,” I said. “I can give you half the payment now, and I’ll give you the rest of the payment when the order is completed.”

  “Fair enough,” the dwarf grunted.

  After I handed over the money that Cimarra had given me, the blacksmith wrote out a receipt and gave it back to me. I double-checked it just to make sure that the dwarf had written down everything that I told him to, but when I was satisfied that he wasn’t go
ing to try to cheat me or anything, I nodded and shook his hand.

  “Thanks very much,” I said. “You can send word to me at Count Kieran’s theatre whenever you finish the order. And remember--”

  “As soon as possible, I got it,” the dwarf said.

  I turned to head back the way that I’d come, and as soon as my back was to the blacksmith, I grinned at how pleased I was with myself. I hadn’t backed down, and I hadn’t let him intimidate me at all. Well, I might have been a tiny bit intimidated, but I hadn’t acted like it, so I would take that as a victory.

  I was pretty sure that even Wade would have been pleased with how I handled the blacksmith, and the thought that Wade might even for a second be pleased with me made my face flush all over again. I stumbled over my own feet and thought I heard the blacksmith chuckle behind me, but I just kept going until I turned around the corner and was out of sight.

  Maybe one day, I wouldn’t turn bright red every single time I thought about Wade, but I didn’t think that would happen any time soon. After all, every time I thought about him, I let my mind get carried away with fantasies and daydreams that he would come into my room, carry me away, and then lay me down somewhere before he made sweet love to me.

  My face was so flushed now that I started to sweat a little along my hairline, so I tried to stop thinking about Wade, but that was as impossible as it would have been for me to stop breathing.

  But at the same time, even if he never knew how I felt about him, that was okay. Even if my stomach still did flips every time he walked into the room, that would be alright. Because as long as I got to be around him, as long as I got to help him build his whiskey empire, and as long as I got to watch him stand up to the elves, that would be enough for me.

  It would have to be.

  Chapter 13

  I should have been exhausted after everything that we’d done for the last few days, but no matter what position I tried, I just couldn’t get sleepy. After Penny and I had set up our next meeting with Lord Flavius, we had come back to the apartment to rejoin Ava and Dar, and we had found that the two of them had already fallen asleep in their rooms.