Glen Cook Garrett 07 Deadly Quiksilver Lies (v2)

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the way to the West End. For the heck of it, we set a couple of ambushes along
the way. Our tail evaded both through sheer dumb luck. Morley did a lot of
smirking.
I told him, I m about to come around to your way of thinking.
You say this Wixon and White place has a flimsy back door?
A bad joke. Unless it s a trap. There are spiders that specialize in
catching other spiders.
Show me. We ll treat your friends to chills and thrills.
Right. Morley was along just for the fun.
Wixon and White were open for trade. We lurked, watched a few customers come
and go. We d better get on with it, I said. Their local watch is a little
too serious for my taste.
Morley grunted. I introduced him to the alley door. He scoped it out,
suggested, Give me ten minutes.
Ten? You going to take it out frame and all?
No, I was considering doing it quietly. You wanted fast you should have
brought Saucerhead Tharpe. Finesse, Garrett. Surprise. I don t do Thon-Gore
the Learning Disabled.
Right. I left the artist to his easel.
My old pal was hustling a personal agenda again. I had a good suspicion, too.
And I didn t care. I just wanted to get on with my job the way I had defined
it.
I wondered if I had an employer anymore. I hadn t heard.
I waited in the breezeway while Morley did whatever. He did keep the racket
down. I never heard a thing. No butternut thugs showed up to inconvenience us,
either. I tried to psych myself into a role.
Time. I walked to the shop door and invited myself inside.
42
Howdy. I grinned. Wasn t nobody there but them and me. I locked the door. I
put theCLOSED sign in the window.
One bold corsair demanded, Whatare you doing? He wanted to sound tough, but
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his voice scrambled right up into a high squeak.
The other one didn t say anything. After ten seconds frozen like those
mythical birds that stare down snakes, he bolted for the back room. A moment
later, he squealed like Morley was whipping him with a naked woman.
I trotted out my cheerful charlie voice. If you do that right, it s really
sinister. Howdy, Robin. It had taken me a moment to sort them out. We just
dropped in to get the real skinny on Emerald Jenn. I pasted on my salesman s
smile. Robin squeaked again and decided to catch up with Penny.
Both those fierce buccaneers were taller than Morley. They looked pretty
silly being held by their collars from behind, facing me, when I entered their
lumber room. They were shaking.
I closed the door. I barred it. I leaned back against it. I asked, Well?
Want to pick a spokesman? The room was an extreme mess. I m sure it was a
wreck to start but now had the air of a place hastily tossed, perhaps by a
dedicated bibliophile in quest of a rare first edition. Come on, fellows.
Heads shook.
Let s don t be silly.
Morley forced them to kneel. He hauled out a knife way too long to be legal.
He made its blade sing on his whetstone.
Guys, I want Emerald Jenn. Also known as Justina Jenn. You re going to tell
me what you know about her. You ll feel better for it. Start by telling me how
you met her.
Wixon and White whimpered and whined and tried to exchange impassioned
farewells. Boy, I was good. Oh, the drama. Morley did his bit by testing his
edge on Penny s mustache. A big hunk of lip hair tumbled to the floor. Morley
went back to work with his whetstone.
Don t nobodyneed to get killed, I said. I thought I d just skin one of
you. I toed that glob of hair.
Immigrants, Morley observed.
Probably. Karentines don t rattle easily, having survived the Cantard. They
would have made us work. Talk to me, outlanders.
Robin cracked. It was almost a year ago.
Penny glared.
What was almost a year ago?
The first time the girl came to the shop. Looking lost. Looking for any
handle.
Just wandered in? Wanting to borrow a cup of frog fur?
No. She was just looking. In more ways than one.
Uhm?
She was a lost soul, drowning in despair, looking for straws to grasp. There
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was a young man with her. Kewfer, I believe she called him. He was blond and
beautiful and young and that was the only time he came around.
Sorry he broke your heart. Don t go misty on me.
Penny didn t like Robin s wistful tone, either, but he just kept the glare
cooking.
Kewfer? I stressed it just as he had.
Thoughtfully, Morley suggested, Quince Quefour?
Quince. Left me thoughtful, too. Quincy Quentin Q. Quintillas was pretty
enough to launch a thousand ships filled with fierce pirates. He was a
small-time conman of the smallest time, too damned dumb to amount to anything.
He was part elvish. Made him look younger than his real years and got him out
of army time. A faked spook thing would be right up Quefour s alley.
I barely knew him, didn t want to know him better. I described him.
Robin nodded vigorously, eager to please. I wondered if he was just telling
me what he thought I wanted to hear.
Thank you, Robin. You see? We can get along fine. What was Quefour up to?
Baffled look. He wasn t up to anything. He was just with the girl. Wasn t
much special about her, either.
Of course not. You were lusting in your heart. Please explain.
She wanted an easy answer. She was looking for easy answers.
I thought she was desperate.
Desperate after the fashion of her age. Kids want results without work. They
believe theydeserve magical answers. They don t want to hear that real magic
is hard work. Your stormwardens and firelords spend twenty years studying and
practicing. These kids think you just wiggle your fingers . . .
Morley s magic fingers darted, slapped Robin s hand. Robin had started
wiggling fingers as if by way of demonstration. He might have suckered us had
we not been in the back of a shop that supplied witches and warlocks.
Stick to Emerald Jenn. I develop a taste for social commentary, I ll head
for the front steps of the Chancery. The most marvelous lunatics hold forth
there. Emerald, Robin. Quefour didn t come back but she did. Talk to me.
You don t need to be brutal. Emmy was a runaway. Came from upcountry. We
knew that but not much more till a few weeks ago.
A runaway, I repeated, trying to put an evil twist on everything I said.
Morley rolled his eyes. On her own here for a year. Scary idea. A girl can
live a lifetime in a year on the streets of TunFaire. What did she run from?
Her mother.
Who had been worried because her baby had been missing six days. Go on.
She didn t go into detail, but it was obvious the woman was a horror.
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Emerald spend a lot of time here?
She helped out. Sometimes she stayed back here. Gesture toward a ratty
pallet. I didn t apologize for what I had thought about that. She was a
wounded bird. We gave her a place to feel safe. Hint of defiance.
I could see a girl feeling safer with Penny and Robin than on the street.
Trouble was, I had trouble accepting them as philanthropists. Too cynical am
I.
Robin was a real chatterbox when he loosened up. I spent a lot of energy
guiding him back to the main path.
Seen her lately?
No. She heard her mother had come to town.
That would make her stay away?
She thought her mother would look for her. And she is looking, right? You re
here. She doesn t want to be found. People who don t know where she is can t
give her away.
Morley and I exchanged glances. What s she scared of?
Robin and Penny got into the look-trading business. A growth industry. Only
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