The Devil's Garden Read Free Page A

prayers and obeisance.”
    Cree flashed him a grin. “No problem at all. In fact, a small group of nonbelievers will be coming up this evening. We share a mutual distrust of the Meeric system. The meeting was to be at the pub, but temple priests were seen in the area, and we didn’t want to take any chances.” Cree stood and raised the lamp in the window. “Could you hold this here a moment? Just cover the brazier a second, then open it again before the flame dies completely. It’s the signal for the others to come up.”
    Cree opened a cabinet and pulled out a half dozen glasses while Cillian signaled. “My friend Jin has a fine flask of pelia for us. Tonight we toast the evening like templars.”
    Cillian set down the lamp with a grimace as Cree brought the glasses to the table. “I don’t have much of a head for pelia. I think I’ll pass.”
    When the bell announced Cree’s guests, Cillian jumped up and folded the quilt.
    “We don’t stand on ceremony.” Cree went to the door. “All men are created equal.”
    Cillian laughed, to Cree’s bemusement.
    A hearty round of hellos and quick-flowing pelia followed the introductions. Jin, a light-skinned man like Cree, had his arm around a young woman named Zea who wore neither a veil nor a matron’s head covering. They were obviously a couple, but there was a certain intimacy in the way the other two men stood together that suggested they might be, as well. Sylus’s warm smile when he lingered on shaking Cillian’s hand, and Dehr’s unfriendly one when he noticed the pause, made Cillian sure of it. The notion surprised him. Outside of bartered encounters, such liaisons were unheard-of, and even bartered sex between two men was punishable by whipping in the public square. Only in the sacrament of a courtesan’s offering was gender immaterial.
    “This is the boy I told you about.” Cree brought him forward as Cillian flinched involuntarily. “Cill’s a day laborer at the docks. He assures me he’s just as fond of the temple as we are.”
    “Did you hear what happened there today?” Zea sat cross-legged on the floor and held out her glass. “Someone’s murdered a templar.”
    Careful not to look at her, Cillian held his breath, certain his pounding heart must be visible through his tunic.
    “Murdered?” Cree repeated.
    “Not one of us.” Zea laughed as Jin filled her glass. “Though the damned Meerist won’t be missed. He patronized the girls who work the pubs downriver of the Garden, and they say he had a mean streak.”
    So Ume wasn’t the first Zedei had been rough with. And pub girls, who undoubtedly had the parts he’d expected. It was small comfort.
    Cree took a healthy shot of pelia. “Do they know who killed him?”
    Sylus shrugged. “One of the girls probably.”
    Inhaling sharply, Cillian choked on his own spittle and was seized by a coughing fit. Cree slapped him on the back and offered his glass of pelia, and to avoid drawing more attention to himself, Cillian took it. By that point the burn of the liqueur in his throat was welcome.
    “This isn’t our usual meeting,” Cree said as Cillian’s fit passed. “Generally it’s a bit more businesslike, but then, we’re generally a larger number, as well.”
    “No offense intended,” said Dehr, “but perhaps we should keep business for another time. We don’t really know Master Cillian.”
    Cree laughed. “What, you think he’s a spy?”
    “I just think we should leave business talk for later.”
    “I think it’s time for a bit of a smoke, myself.” Sylus took a pouch from his pocket.
    “Excellent idea.” Cree leaped up to rummage through his cabinet and pulled out a slender glass pipe.
    Though Ume’s patrons smoked spirit leaf on occasion, she preferred to remain in control during her engagements. When it was passed to Cillian, however, he took the pipe with a certain grim resignation. Things were already well beyond his control; a little spirit leaf couldn’t hurt.
    He