Best Left in the Shadows Read Free

belt, and that dagger in your
boot you think no one notices, what other weapons do you have on you?”
    Dax glanced down toward his right boot with a grimace. “That’s
all I’m carrying.”
    Alys clucked her tongue. “Much too light a load for night
work down Lowside, but maybe that’s for the best right now,” she said. “Keep
your hands on the pole and keep the pole in the water. Make no moves toward any
of your weapons. No matter what.”
    Gesturing with his chin toward the large scythe strapped to
her back, he smirked. “Do you think that they will even be looking at me with
that horror you got back there?”
    “Me and Aunty,” she said, reaching back to pat the scythe, “are
known quantities here. You, on the other hand, are a Royal Magistrate coming
armed to a boss’s den. Do not forget that.”
    As they drew toward the light, Dax tried to keep his eyes
opened wide to force them to adjust more quickly. They drifted past the final
arch and into a huge space featuring wooden scaffolds in varying stages of rot,
laid over the brickwork of the walls.
    The canal continued straight through the large room, but
small walkways spanned the canal. On each, rough-looking men and women
watched them. All had a crossbow close at hand.
    “The fact that they aren’t leveled at us already is a very
auspicious sign for this meeting,” Alys whispered from the corner of her mouth,
her lips not fully moving.
    At the far end of the space, the brick foundations jutted
out over the canal, and the water passed through a colossal grate. Upon that
brick platform, seated upon a towering throne constructed from wooden crates
and netting, was the Blacktide himself.
    His dark hair was slicked back and looked wet, like living
amid the water of the Prion had changed him. Gotten into his blood. It gleamed
an oily black, as did the thick mustache he affected. His eyes were cold blue
amidst the weathered and wrinkled face, and they watched the skiff approach
without blinking.
    “Hello, Uncle Harry,” Alys said, with her brightest smile.
She extended her hands to her sides and curtsied delicately.
    “You were never short of sand, girl. I figured you would be
drifting in, with everything else washing up on my shores tonight.” His eyes
shifted past her to Dax, then his attention focused back to Alys. “Didn’t know
you two were sharing company again.”
    “Just business, Uncle Harry,” she said. “He’s come down to
Prionside for a case. Fortunately, he was not required to bring any friends
with him. For now,” she said. “A single tourist is one thing, but a crowd of
them, well, that would be another thing entirely.”
    The Blacktide settled back onto the wooden throne, pouring
himself a drink. “Your thoughts and mine, as was often the case, do seem to
move along a similar course,” he said before knocking back the drink.
    “It’s a bad situation Uncle Harry,” she said. “High profile
trouble on the docks, and any answers you find will be deemed a bit too
convenient, would they not?”
    “They would indeed. They would indeed,” the Blacktide said.
“Which is why I figured you’d be coming. You always smelled opportunity like it
was blood in the water.”
    “I learned from the best.”
    In response, the Blacktide raised his glass in salute and
drank once more. “A girl left on my docks, just a few feet from the water that
would have erased all trace of the body.” He settled back in his throne. “No
simple murder.”
    “She was a message then.”
    “I assume as much. But it wasn’t meant for me.”
    At that, Dax spoke up, “For whom, then?”
    Blacktide Harry fixed him with an unblinking stare. “That
is none of my concern. Whoever it was, I am sure they have received it loud and
clear, and they will take the appropriate actions. Meanwhile, Magistrate
Inspector, you and your boys have cleaned up my docks. And so life moves ever
forward.”
    “Not yet, it doesn’t,” Dax said. “I mean to find justice
for