A Magic Broken Read Free Page B

his arrival in the city, so he assumed his worries were little more than habit. He sat down, fished in his coin purse for the brass slug, and placed it on the table before Jervais. “As you can see, I’m in official standing with the merc’s guild here. I assume I’m hired as your bodyguard?”
    “My what? Oh, ah, yes, of course!”
    “Be sure to spread the word around. I’ll need to be seen out in public with you for two weeks or so before I make my move. How many days have you been coming here?”
    “This is the fourth. The mademoiselle told me to start coming here six Starsdays after the autumn equinox, but I missed two days last week.”
    “Never mind that. I just arrived yesterday. And the girl? Have you found her?”
    “Not yet, but I’ve narrowed the possibilities down to three locations. The first brothel, you can have a look for yourself. The other two… There is a problem. They’re not open for business, at least not to the public. They’re more like private clubs. You have to be an invited member to enter. You can’t simply walk into them.”
    “So, buy yourself a membership. Or get a member to invite you.”
    “It’s not that easy. I don’t do business with the sort of men who belong to these clubs. I don’t even have any real contact with them. I’m not rich enough. It’s a very small group. Mostly old money. Only the great houses and a few of the more powerful nobles belong. A few poets and bards make their way in from time to time, I suppose, and some charioteers, of course. Perhaps a gladiator or two.”
    Nicolas sighed. They should have sent an athlete or a songbird here, not him. If he could win a few races or sing a few songs, they were so desperate for entertainment here in this godforsaken mountain wilderness that he’d be given the run of the damn place within a month. As usual, the fools in the royal intelligence corps had arranged to put the wrong man in the wrong place at the right time, but Nicolas knew very well that the shadowy men who served the king’s interests with ruthless devotion were not interested in excuses. They expected results. A thought struck him.
    “Why haven’t you visited the first brothel you mentioned? If it happens she’s there, then we needn’t bother with the other two.”
    Jervais blushed. “I couldn’t. My wife, you see. If she heard? No, I wouldn’t dare!”
    Nicolas stared at the merchant in disbelief. There were more than three hundred thousand men living in Malkan and this soft little pudding was the man that damned du Moulin had chosen for such an extraordinarily delicate operation? He reminded himself to arrange some appropriately choice words for the king’s chancellor upon his return to Lutèce.
     
    • • •
     
    Lodi didn’t think much of the man sitting across the table from him. But then, he didn’t think much of anyone who happened to be situated in this building that now proclaimed itself an inn, although its low ceiling was only one of the many indications of the animal barn it had once been. No doubt the mules and pigs that previously inhabited the structure had been in better condition than some of the sad specimens of Man now hunched over the crudely constructed tables, sitting upon narrow benches that wobbled loosely as if they had been broken apart and ineptly reassembled with some degree of regularity.
    The inn’s ale wasn’t anything close to what a self-respecting dwarf would consider drinkable, but it wasn’t all that much worse than the equally thin, equally yellow, beer-flavored water that more prosperous breeds of men called ale and drank in loftier establishments. The ale served its purpose, at any rate, in lubricating a situation that could all too easily become difficult, if not downright violent.
    “Your health,” Lodi grunted, lifting his flagon and gesturing half-heartedly toward his companion.
    “Health,” muttered the man, noisily gulping down a mouthful of the hopswill. “They never said nothing