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I take on a careless tone. “I like to make sure I’m missed. But every now and then I get a craving for an amber spritz that no one makes like this place.”
He thumps his tankard onto the counter next to where the bartender has just slid my own glass. I curl my fingers around the cool surface, planning on keeping my hand and at least part of my gaze on it at all times while Mr. Can’t Take A Hint is hanging around.
“I miss you every day I don’t see that pretty face,” Milo says, with so much grease to the words you could slip and break your arm on them. My magic bristles in my chest before I rein it in.
He’s never actually hurt me… but I’d rather not give him the opportunity.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve found plenty of other things to keep you busy.” I take a sip of my drink, enjoying the tartly sweet flavor. Brew & Dagger really does make the best cocktails. “I heard there was a bit of a commotion in Slaughterwell… a couple of days back? Something about a noble getting stabbed? That’s your main haunt, isn’t it?”
Milo’s eyes twitch to the side, which tells me he knows exactly what I’m talking about, despite the noncommittal answer he gives me. “Another day, another body. There was a woman found yesterday—pretty stripped down, so what she’d had on before must have been nice, I guess.”
In my head, Julita lets out a sputter of indignation. I ignore her and give another casual nudge. “Anyone bragging about doing the deed?”
“Not that I’ve heard. The whispers about it have been more confused than anything. Whoever offed her, they slunk away fast.”
He shakes his head in grim approval. I don’t see any reason to distrust his answer.
No one around here knows who killed my ghostly passenger. I guess that’s not totally surprising, given that it was probably one of her own, not an outer-warder.
It can’t hurt to see if I can stir up any more information, though.
I bring my glass back to my lips. “Mustn’t be good for business, having the bigwigs from the hill poking around investigating the crime.”
“Oh,ourbigwigs got things cleaned up quick so that wouldn’t happen.” Milo tips his head toward the door—toward the building that’s both temple to Kosmel and gambling hall in the center of Crow’s Close, where the most powerful crooks rule the roost. “They got to her before any official alert went out, disappeared the body, all’s well.”
He raises his eyebrows at me. “Having the Crown’s Watch poking around wouldn’t be good foryourbusiness either, huh?”
Milo has always been put out that I won’t share the secrets of what I do when I’m not in this place. I can only imagine how he’d exploit the revelation that I’m the one people call the Hand of Kosmel.
If he thinks I’m bringing up the dead woman out of concern for my own criminal activities, that’s fine with me. It keeps him off the scent.
I let out a light chuckle, but my thoughts are whirling. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Florian’s underworld would cover up Julita’s murder.
Tensions have risen in the past few years. The Crown’s Watch started cracking down more violently on all sorts of crimes—at least, those that affect the citizens they care about—after King Konrad officially inherited the throne from his father.
I suppose it’s not surprising that the powers here would rather remove any additional excuse for royal law enforcement to come nosing around.
What does he mean, disappeared the body?Julita demands.They couldn’t have just dumped me in a random hole and called that it.
Oh, they could have. I swish a little more alcohol around in my mouth, unable to answer her here and not sure what I’d say anyway.
All trace of her murder will have been wiped away. Other than whatever bits of clothing or jewelry she had on her that desperate scavengers stole, there’ll be no sign she was ever in Slaughterwell.
It isn’t just that her friends at the college haven’t found out she was murderedyet. If I don’t say anything… they’ll never find out at all.
They’ll never know just how serious the situation is. Just how far the prospective scourge sorcerers have gone to stop their own crimes from being discovered.
The men might assume she got scared and simply ran. They won’t even know to mourn her.
The full reality is obviously sinking in for Julita too. Her voice roughens with a mixture of outrage and dismay.
They can’t just— I was slaughtered right here in the city! The Watchshouldbe looking into it. And the fringe scum threw me away like a soiled rag? How am I… How is anyone… It isn’tright.
I shift restlessly on my stool and take a larger gulp of my drink.
Milo leans closer. His beer-sour breath gusts over my face. “If you’ve got a mind to stick around for a bit…”
“Sorry,” I say, not at all apologetically. “I could only drop in for long enough to grab a quick drink. Good to see you’re doing well.”
