Hope and Red Read Free Page A

what happens when she comes of age and begins to blossom? She will become too great a distraction for my brothers, particularly the younger ones.”
    “So keep her till then. At least you’ll have sheltered her a few years. Kept her alive long enough for her to make her own way.”
    Hurlo closed his eyes. “It will not be an easy life for her here.”
    “Don’t think she’d know what to do with an easy life if you gave her one anyway.”
    Hurlo looked at Toa. And to Toa’s surprise, he suddenly smiled, his old eyes sparkling. “We will take in this broken child you have found. A bit of chaos in the order brings change. Perhaps for the better.”
    Toa shrugged. He’d never fully understood Hurlo or the Vinchen order. “If you say so, Grandteacher.”
    “What is the child’s name?” asked Hurlo.
    “She won’t say for some reason. I half think she doesn’t remember.”
    “What shall we call her, then, this child born of nightmare? As her unlikely guardians, I suppose it is now up to us to name her.”
    Captain Sin Toa thought about it a moment, tugging at his beard. “Maybe after the village she survived. Keep something of it in memory, at least. Call her Bleak Hope.”

2
    S adie was drunk that night. Far too drunk to make it back to her bed. But she couldn’t stay where she was either.
    “Closing down the bar, Sadie,” said Bracers Madge.
    Sadie looked up at Madge, struggling to keep the double vision at bay. Bracers Madge was the bouncer and order-keeper of the Drowned Rat Tavern. She was over six feet tall and got the nickname Bracers because she was so large, she had to wear suspenders to keep her skirts up. Madge was one of the most feared and respected persons in the slums of New Laven. It was known throughout Paradise Circle, Silverback, and Hammer Point that she kept order in her tavern. Anyone foolish or reckless enough to cause trouble would have their ear torn off and would be barred from the tavern and marked with shame for the rest of their life. Madge kept her collection of ears in little pickling jars behind the bar.
    “Sadie,” said Madge. “Time to go.”
    Sadie nodded and lurched to her feet.
    “You got a place to stay?” asked Madge.
    Sadie waved her hand as she dragged her feet across the sawdust floor. “I can take care of myself.”
    Madge shrugged and started putting chairs up on tables.
    Sadie stumbled out of the Drowned Rat. She scanned the block for anyone she knew who might put her up for the night, squinting in the dim light of the flickering street lamps. But the street was practically empty, which meant the police had either just come through or were just about to.
    “Piss’ell,” she cursed, scratching at her dirty, matted hair.
    She shuffled down the street a ways until she caught sight of the plain wooden sign for an inn called the Sailor’s Mother. It was a notorious crimp house. But she was Sadie the Goat, known in Paradise Circle, Silverback, and Hammer Point as one of the most accomplished thieves, mercenaries, and artists of mayhem currently breathing. She had a rep. Nobody was stupid enough to southend her.
    She wove her way unsteadily into the inn, where she ordered a room for the night. The innkeeper, a thin, pouchy gaf named Backus, eyed her speculatively.
    “And no funny business,” she said, poking her finger on his forehead hard enough to leave a mark.
    “Naturally not.” Backus smiled a thin, pouchy smile. “I’ll take care of you myself. Wouldn’t want no…misunderstandings, right?”
    “Sunny,” said Sadie. “Lead on, then, innkeeper.”
    Backus took her up broken wooden stairs and down a dingy hallway that echoed with laughter, sobs, and some bastard playing his fiddle at this ungodly hour. Backus unlocked the last door on the left, and Sadie shoved past him toward the filthy mattress that lay on the ground.
    “Want I should get you a nightcap?” asked Backus.
    “That’d be real sunny, Backus,” said Sadie. “Maybe I had you figured