Best Left in the Shadows Read Free Page B

before
sundown. I swear it!”
    Alys gave him a gentle smile. “I thank you, Master
Hookworm.” She gave a deep bow to the Blacktide, then turned to Dax. “Get us
moving.”
    Dax moved to the other side of the skiff and began to pole
them away, back down the canal and out of the Sumpworks.
    “Lot of brass in there, Dax. Bartering with the Blacktide.”
    “It worked,” Dax said.
    “It did,” Alys replied. “It also could have gotten us both
killed. Next time, you let me do the talking. That’s why you’re paying me.”
    He nodded and gave her a small smile. “Master Hookworm
looked quite surprised.”
    Alys’s expression softened and she grinned back. “He most
certainly did.”
    Poling the skiff through the dark tunnel, the two were
quiet for a moment. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what happened with
him and the bucket of fish?” Dax said.
    Alys settled back onto the floor of the skiff. “Sure,” she
said with a smile. “But not for free.”

Act 3
    The Lady or the Tiger
    The mist had grown heavier, like a drizzle that did
not fall so much as lie upon the very air itself. Alys walked down the street,
her boot heels making a sharp rhythm in the muffled air. As she walked, she
methodically cracked each knuckle on her first hand, and then the other before
starting over again.
    The Tigress , she thought. The thrice-damned
Tigress .
    “That thing is almost as big as you are.”
    Alys was so caught up in her own thoughts that she barely
heard Dax when he spoke. “What?” she asked.
    He gestured with a finger toward the large scythe across
her back. “That monstrosity. You didn’t have it back when we…” he paused. “The last
time I saw you.”
    “Oh,” Alys said. “My Aunty. Well, you see, Inspector, in a
fight, it’s the blade you don’t see that is the one that’ll be your gasper. So
while everyone is so focused on what Aunty is up to…” She gestured down to the
twin daggers hanging from her belt. “They don’t see these.”
    As Dax’s eyes tracked down, she let the weighted end of the
garrote drop from her sleeve and in a blur, it was up and wrapped around the
Inspector’s throat. “And they surely don’t see this,” she said drawing him closer
till her face was mere inches away from his.
    “Cute,” Dax said, slowly sliding a finger up between the
thin wire and the exposed flesh of his collar.
    “Aren’t I though?” she said, releasing the tension and
allowing the garrote to slip free.
    She moved ahead of him, not quite willing to allow herself
to walk at his side. Her hand trailed over the stones of the buildings as she
walked, feeling the contours of the carved images under her fingertips.
Highside might have the beautiful marble statues of the First Ascended, but the
simple relief carvings on every Lowside building always felt more right to her.
    “So are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Dax
asked. “It’s making me nervous.”
    His tone was light, but there was enough underneath to show
he was not totally unaware of her shift in mood. She bristled at having her
discomfort called out so easily, but she wasn’t surprised. He had always been
better at reading people than she gave him credit for.
    Especially her.
    Of course, that went both ways. Since she had seen him on
the docks, it had been apparent there was something Dax was withholding.
    “I’m not crazy about going to brothels,” she said with a
shrug.
    “A what? A brothel? What would Lydia be doing in a
Prionside brothel?”
    “Why do most people go to brothels?”
    He wrinkled his lip. “You don’t believe Lydia Ashdown was
paying for… ahem… well, you know, any more than I do.”
    “You said she was seeing someone her parents didn’t approve
of. And I didn’t say she was paying for it.”
    That seemed to give him pause. He had his thinking frown
on, she noticed. “Do you think it was love?” he asked. “That perhaps she fell
in love with someone from the Tigress?”
    Oh,