Given that she was still surrounded, Moon had no choice but to say, "How, exactly?"
Loviva looked just like a shark when she smiled. Moon cursed herself for being so stupid as to get herself into this situation. Loviva wouldn't kill her, that would start a war, but it was naive to think she wasn't in an unfavorable position.
"I'd like you to pass me information on certain runs. Not every one, and not all the time. Just give me enough information on your husband's business that my people and I can get back what we've lost."
"Sure, whatever is most convenient for you," Moon agreed sweetly.
Loviva chuckled pleasantly. "Yes, I predicted you wouldn't agree out of hand. You can see I'm not unreasonable. All I want is the territory he stole from us. No one has to die. But if you do not help us, I'll be forced to kill Renat and take his territory by force."
Moon brushed nonexistent dirt from the front of her jacket.
"You do not believe me. Of course you don't, he's been Carnate's most powerful smuggler for many years now. But you forget I've been surviving for much longer than that." Loviva's demeanor changed. Her smile dropped off, and her face clouded. "I know who he is, Moon. I know his little hidey-holes and his close associates. I could kill him today if I wanted to, but why? Let's avoid the bloodshed. This city's seen enough of that. Give me what I want, and you'll see, everything will be fine."
"Why don’t I just tell you where you can stick it, demon spawn."
One of the crew stepped forward, but Loviva cut her off with a small gesture. The smile returned to her face. "Take some time to think about it. I've sent you some proof, enough so that you'll believe me when I say how serious I am. It's at your home now."
Moon's blood quickened at that. Had Loviva really found their base? The place in the world she felt safest? It wasn't possible.
"I'll send a runner in a few days' time," Loviva went on. "I hope you'll reply with a useful tip for me. Otherwise, the next time we meet won't be so cordial." The woman's voice became savage. "I know Renat doesn't have a Fade's appreciation for subtlety, but I think his wife's dead body will certainly get the point across."
Moon bared her teeth. She wasn’t afraid for herself. Yes, Loviva knew a secret about her that she’d only revealed to Renat. No one else in the entire city knew she was a Fade. She thought. But she hadn’t been afraid of anything since she’d been old enough to learn what a Fade was, and how her presence affected the people around her. But she didn't like the specificity of Loviva's threats against Renat. Had they gotten lax as business had improved? What did Loviva know, and how had she found out?
"Look for my runner," Loviva said. With that, the Demon's Breath crew filed out of the alley.
Moon became invisible, and left the small alley as quickly as was safe. No Demon's Breath waited to snare her. What 'proof' had Loviva sent to their home? What if Renat was in danger right now? She broke into a run.
~*~
Moon panted for air. As she'd gone further into Arrow territory, the streets had closed into slim, dank alleys. Refuse filled the streets, the homes sank into each other, badly in need of new roofs. She dodged a mule, who snorted as she passed.
Finally, she caught sight of the green gate that marked their home. She became visible warily, just out of sight of the gate sentry. Then she strode up to the gate, casting her gaze around the lane.
"Everything all right?" the sentry asked her.
"I mean to ask you the same."
He looked at her in confusion. "All quiet today."
She rushed on, into the cool courtyard. No one lived on this floor, and she went to the stair, taking the steps two at a time.
As she crossed the third landing, her environment changed. Suddenly, the walls were no longer bare. They were painted in pinks and purples. Clay vases and trellises bloomed with greenery. The late summer sun poured in, and a breeze wafted through. The space was open to the sky on three sides, and beyond the low wall, Carnate stretched out in a wave all the way to the walls. The tower sat dull and dark in the center.
She burst into the space, startling the lieutenants who lounged outside of Renat’s office.
“Moon—what’s wrong?”
“—Are you all right?”
“Any trouble today?” she asked even as she made a beeline for Renat’s door. “What news?”
“Nothing, Moon,” said Gawin, Renat’s righthand man. “Have you heard something?”
Her hand reached the doorknob. “I want a status report on everyone on a job. Find out if anything’s been off.” Then she burst into Renat’s office.
“Never been one to knock, my wife,” Renat said mildly, a laugh in his voice.
She ignored him—it was her office too, at this point—and cast about the room. No assassins the dark corners, no magical explosives, no guard clapping Renat in cuffs. Moon’s shoulders relaxed. Loviva had strung her along, that was for sure. She’d thought to scare Moon, and get to Renat that way. Well, it wasn’t going to happen.
She shut the door so he couldn’t see she’d sent the lieutenants off on a wild goose chase.
“No trouble here?”
Renat took a sheaf of papers in his big hands and tapped them into an orderly pile. “None, why?”
He gave her a cursory look. Renat had bold, proud features. An aquiline nose balanced his large eyes, framed by dark eyebrows and lush eyelashes.
“Oh—” Suddenly she couldn’t bear to tell him she’d been fooled so easily. Not only that, he wouldn’t like that Loviva had followed her. “The guard were out in full force today. I thought they may have planned a raid.”
“At the market? They must be more and more worried about civilian unrest.” He flashed her his heart-stopping grin. “We’re fine.”
She leaned against the door. Better than fine, lately. Smuggling was a good business to be in during a siege.
Renat rose from behind the desk. He didn’t bother to take his gold-topped cane, so his pain must be manageable today.
"I feel like I haven't seen you," he said.
She smirked. She'd only been gone a few hours, but he had a coy look in his eye. Renat came close, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her lips. She felt that flutter in her stomach, the one she always felt ever since she'd first seen him, across a darkened tavern.
He tilted his head, kissing her jaw. "You smell good," he murmured, as his hand drifted from her waist to graze her butt.
"It's the middle of the day," she said. It was a lame protest, and he could tell, for he continued to kiss her ear and neck. His fingers tightened on her butt, and he leaned his hips into her, pushing her against the door.
The flutter in her stomach was replaced by a spark of lust. Dammit, they had to put some boundaries on when they made love, otherwise they'd never stop.
She wasn't sure she was strong enough to be the one to call it off, especially not when his left hand undid the buttons of her trousers.
"Renat..." she said.
"I love when you say my name," he said, slipping his hand into her trousers.
She sucked in a sharp breath of air. The last bit of her resistance fell, and she tangled her fingers in his hair.
"Touch me again," she said. She pulled his face back to hers. They kissed against the door while his knee edged her legs apart. When he had more room, he moved his hand further down her trousers. She groaned.
"Shh," Renat said, reminding her that all the windows were open. He didn't seem to mind though; the usual laugh in his voice was present under the smoky layer of lust.
Her tongue parted his teeth, and Renat made a low sound that made her shiver all over again.
But just then, a light rap on the door interrupted them.
"Later," Renat said, kissing her hand. Moon sighed contentedly.
She went to the window while he answered the door, hoping whoever was outside it could not tell what they’d been up to. She couldn't wait for later; she already had a good idea how she was going to make h
im said her name.
She leaned a hip against the windowsill. Her smile dropped off her face. A wave of fear gripped her, a stark contrast from how she’d felt only moments ago. Her hands had been fidgeting in her jacket pocket, and she’d touched something that shouldn’t be there. Dread filled her as she pulled out the tracking charm. A cheap one, made of twine that was already disintegrating under the power of the spell.
It didn’t matter. The charm had traced a path straight to Renat. Because she’d run straight there, not realizing Loviva had just been distracting her while someone else slipped the charm into her pocket.
Moon’s fist clenched, crumbling what was left of the twine.
~*~
Renat answered the door to see Gawin there, his arms full of papers. Renat returned to his desk and settled behind it as Gawin spread papers across the top. Moon stood at the window, chewing at her thumb.
"What are you two working on?" she asked sharply.
"Just another trade run," he answered, hoping she couldn't hear the lie in his voice. He felt bad lying.
"Ah...Moon?" Gawin said, drawing her attention. "Ket needs you."
"Mm," said Moon, springing from the window. She'd always had a nervous energy to her, Renat recalled. It made it all the more fascinating to watch her work. Then, she would sink into a focused state, barely hearing interruptions, her movements efficient.
When the door closed behind her, Renat sent a questioning look to Gawin. His second-in-command shrugged. Renat decided he’d follow up later. He always wanted to know everything going on in his crew.
It was hard to trust in his line of work. So much could go wrong. That’s why he kept a close eye on his crew. Still, he knew he needed to get out, and provide a way for Gawin and Moon and others to get out, too.
The fact was that while the siege was great for his business, it couldn't last. Whether the Hji without or the unrest within, something would bring down Carnate. And he needed to figure out a contingency plan for every scenario.
Gawin gestured along a dry ravine outside the city. "This is the new way we've scouted." The skin around his eyes crinkled, his proud smile was so broad.
Renat eyed the dark slash of ink indicating the ravine, but he visualized the jagged sides of the ravine in his mind's eye. The sides rose almost vertically, and only a mountain goat – or someone shapeshifted into a mountain goat – would reasonably be able to scale them. "You mean to bring a cart through there?" he asked skeptically.
The younger man only confused Renat more with his enthusiasm. "The streambed is dry and flat. It winds around. There's a place where it seemed like there might've been a waterfall. But it's not a waterfall. The path of the stream was just covered by rocks and overgrowth. We cleared them aside, and the path of the stream continued, far past the Hji camp and scouts, south toward Ninia."
Suddenly alert, Renat sat up. "Show me again."
Gawin ran his finger over the proposed path. Out of the walls of the city, across the area razed by the Hji, into the ravine, along its path, and finally to safety in the forests. Eventually they could meet the road and take it south to better lives, away from the eye of the tower.
"How long to clear the way?" Now Renat was the one who couldn't keep his excitement concealed.
"Two weeks, if we can spare a few more from runs."
Renat rubbed his chin, considering. "Make it three weeks. We need the money from the runs more."
Gawin nodded and began rolling up the maps. As he turned to go, he hesitated. "And when would you like to tell..."
He meant the crew, but Renat thought of Moon and winced. He didn't want to keep anything from her but he also couldn't risk anything going wrong. Smuggling supplies in was one thing. Getting a large group of people out of the city was another thing entirely. They would only have one chance.
"We'll wait as long as we can."
~*~
Empires were built and burned over Fades. How one had ended up in his slum, and working for his ends, he couldn't say. He only remembered seeing her across a tavern (yes, like in those ridiculous romances put on in the market on feast days). It was a silly thing, to look across the noise and the dark and suddenly be arrested by a single face. Perhaps it had been his mood that day. His pain had been high but he hadn't wanted to keep his crew, then very small, from celebrating. So he smiled tightly, and didn't talk much, and everyone jeered him to lighten up every once in a while and not to worry so much. He still needed that advice, of course, but that hadn't been the problem that particular evening. But when he'd spotted Moon, he'd suddenly found something to keep his attention.
He hadn't quite the nerve to walk up to her – there was no chance of taking her home anyway, not with his pain as it was that night. But he'd watched her interact with enough people to gauge who she worked for.
That, and a few carefully-asked questions, led to her name, that she was new to Carnate, and had no family ties to speak of. A merc, then.
No sooner had he learned her name than it was everywhere. She was the best of the best, a terrifyingly skilled assassin and thief, or whatever you needed her for. She worked for no one, taking only one-off jobs. She could be contacted by notice at a tavern where no one ever saw her, and where she certainly did not live.
Everyone else was impressed, but Renat was not. He'd been born and raised on the streets of Carnate. He wanted to know every player in the city, especially while he was building his reputation as someone who could get you anything you wanted. He was becoming a respectable as it was possible for a smuggler to be. The nobles of the tower sought him to bring them banned magicks or rare artifacts, no questions asked. So of course he had followed her. Or tried to. Each night the innkeeper of the tavern accepted notices for her, which laid out what was wanted and for how much. She would not communicate, just do a job or not.
It was a nice arrangement for the innkeeper, who took a cut. But those who only care about money can be bought, and Renat had paid him off to make all other job offers vanish, leaving only the three he himself had drawn up. One was far too difficult, the other priced too low. The third was the most obviously desirable, a notice to steal from a nearby building that he could easily stake out.
Renat had hid it all from Gawin, knowing his obsession was bordering on uncomfortable. The distraction was taking him over, after a mere glimpse in a tavern. But he had to know.
She'd appeared in his room, suddenly, in the evening of that day. He'd been so surprised he hadn't even reached for a weapon at first. He'd just gaped.
Her appearance belied her reputation. Her long, curly hair spilled over the epaulets of a military jacket in blaze red. He didn't recognize the sign or seal, and had no idea where she'd acquired such a jacket. The medals on the front winked in the low light of the oil lamp.
"You're looking for me, Renat Defour?"
She flashed a smile. He couldn't see a single weapon on her. She was bold, he'd give her that.
"Do you approach all your clients this way, Moon? I thought I paid for a job, and you got it done."
"You bought off my man at the inn. That's not fair play."
"It is when I'm the most powerful man in this quarter of the city," he replied breezily. "I expect my jobs done first."
She settled back onto the window she'd likely entered through. On booted ankle crossed at her knee. "Well, forgive me. I wasn't aware I was in the presence of such a high-powered gentleman." She tugged her forelock in an imitation of a newsie. It was a ridiculous motion for such a beautiful woman.
Renat caught himself before following that thought. People didn't get reputations like hers without something to back them. And... well, seeing the room through her eyes, it was small and dim and old. But he'd seen people rise to power and buy up massive places, and get soft, and get killed or overrun or betrayed. He wasn't ashamed of his place.
"Can I help you, milady?"
This drew a chuckle out of her. "I'm not taking any of your jobs, Renat. Thank you for thinking of me.
But I think we can stay out each other's hair, don't you? It's a big city."
He didn't think it that big, and he had plans for the whole of it. "Counter offer."
She arched an eyebrow.
"You work only for me. I'm growing, you must've been in the city long enough to hear of it. These one-off jobs will fade--" She'd jerked involuntarily at the word. "-- with time, and you'll want to have hitched your wagon to someone who can provide you some stability."
"No thank you," she'd said, and tipped out the window.
He sprang forward, but she'd vanished from sight by the time he crossed the distance.
~*~
Moon was in agony. It had been a week since Loviva had cornered her. They'd worked three jobs, three hits on Renat's runners. Now she sat on a windowsill, one ankle crossed on the opposite knee. Two floors below, Renat's crew was due to meet with the contact in five minutes.
Her leg bounced. Her fourth interaction with the Demon's Breath crew and she was no closer to figuring out how to get any information out of them. What did they know about Renat and how had they learned it? How could she root out the problem before they lost any more cargo?
At least she'd made sure there would be no more killing. Her crew might wonder at the sudden leniency of the Demon's Breath, but the loss of the goods would probably be the greater mystery.
If she could just figure out where their base was, she could turn invisible and listen to their secrets. But she had to give Loviva credit, she ran a tight ship and the crew had been hard to tail, even invisible.
"Mark," said the Demon scout. Moon and the others shifted, all bringing their attention to bear on the street below. Two of the crew slipped off, sent as backup to those already in position below. Moon flipped into invisibility. She couldn't look away, even as the Demon's Breath crew smashed into her people. They were outnumbered three to one, since she'd told Loviva what the numbers would be, and her crew didn't have a chance. They were knocked out and trussed up, and a new price and arrangement was made with the contact who had been working with Arrowheads, and who had cowered off to the side while her bodyguards kept the gangs from touching her. They knew a turf war when they saw one, and so they'd partnered up with Demon's Breath once the winner emerged. Since this was the third successful night of this, a runner was sent to the usual Arrowhead tavern, to tell Renat Demon's Breath owned everything east of Garland Way now.
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