Chapter 8 #6
“Good. It’s a date,” she teased, though her twinkling eyes suggested it was anything but, as she lifted the flute to her lips once more. “Go on, meditate. I’ll play the same lullaby my daughter favors.”
Alex felt his cheeks flush, but he nodded, allowing his thoughts to drift with the gentle melody… relaxing more than he should, of course, when he jolted with a frisson of connection.
There!
“Nili, Nili! Be reasonable. Of course our duty as loyal JiangHu representatives is to put the city’s welfare above all else.
But sometimes it is corruption and incompetence, not to mention piss-poor handling of a certain cultivation academy, that leads to a city’s downfall.
Not any grand plots or intrigue of any sort.
The rumors of armed men are just that. Rumors!
You know as well as anyone how good our ears and eyes are, throughout the city.
Believe me, if anything untoward were happening, I would be the first to know.
Now, let’s quit chasing rumors and instead focus on the good we can actually do for the city.
Word on the street is that you and a certain free spirit of the royal family actually managed to find an ancient water cistern that refills from an underground network of streams?
This is wonderful news. Absolutely wonderful!
This alone will put us in excellent standing with the entire council and the royal family.
But allow me to present it, and you’ll have done our community a service beyond compare.
We will be in your debt, and I assure you, dear Nili, everyone will know to give you full credit for the discovery. ”
Alex sighed. It sounded like a certain JiangHu head, or the public face, at least, was far more interested in chasing Nili’s bait than actually providing them with useful information.
And should Alex be surprised? Within cities that were only a tiny fraction of the population of one of the Sacred Cities, Silvers were as rare here as diamonds.
With Dongfang Hong having a score of Silver-tier infiltrators and assassins hidden just outside the city, it was no wonder that these people hadn’t seen anything untoward at all.
Yet before Alex permitted his awareness to drift back into the waking dream that allowed the wind’s secrets to flow so naturally to his ears, he was jolted out of his half-daze by the sudden pressure of a pair of Bronze rapidly making their way down the corridor.
Customers eager to taste sweetest passion? Perhaps.
But just in case…
A sudden hard knock jolted Lilly from her entrancing lullaby, the air ringing with a discordant note.
She turned to face the door. “This room is in service!”
“Open it, Lilly. Now.”
Cold, hard words that brooked no insubordination. Lilly paled, eyes wide with genuine fear.
“Yes, sir. Give me but a—”
The door latch broke with a crack as brooding men with powerful shoulders and cold, hungry eyes let themselves in.
Lilly wrapped her arms about herself and trembled.
“Get in the corner, Lilly. There’s a good girl.
Now how about you play us something nice,” ordered a hard-eyed man with a short but powerful build, radiating superhuman quickness.
A sharp contrast to his scarred compatriot, sausage fingers tapping the short steel truncheon secured at his hip, who was six feet if he was an inch, radiating pure brute Strength.
Alex knew it was out of character, but he couldn’t quite wipe the smirk from his lips when Snake, as he had mentally nicknamed the shorter, wiry man, flashed pearl-white teeth, fingered the blackened steel dagger at his hip, and deliberately got in a seated Alex’s space.
“So, you’re the hired help that our old boss brought along, hey?”
Snake asked the question that was no question at all as he snagged Lilly’s wine carafe and drank deep. The former hauntingly beautiful notes from Lilly’s flute had become strained and brittle, her fear almost palpably radiating from her trembling body to the notes of her instrument.
And the way Snake smiled… he knew. He knew, and he liked sensing Lilly’s fear.
Scar was no different, sneering at Lilly before giving her a lewd wink. “You’d better keep practicing, girl. You’ll be playing mine, soon enough.”
Both men laughed at the crude, mocking jest. Making it clear just what they thought of the girl huddled in the corner.
Lilly’s cheeks flushed with shame.
Alex’s jaw clenched underneath his smile.
“Thank you,” he said.
Snake gave him a condescending snort. “Why are you thanking me, outsider? You haven’t even heard our offer.”
“Nope, but you’ve definitely made a morally gray area a lot easier to paint an absolutely delicious shade of red. But enough about me. Let’s talk about you! Such as why you saw fit to break my hostess’s door? Are you truly that eager to speak with me?”
Snake forced a chuckle. “Yeah, sure. We’re that eager.
” His smile became a contemptuous smirk as he loomed over Alex.
“Now, word has it that you just might know the whereabouts of a giant underground cistern that could do our poor beleaguered city a lot of good. Now your boss—former boss?—might be holding out, but Master Chaoxiang has a good feeling about you. One look was all it took for him to know that you’re our kind of people.
So, let’s cut to the chase. How’d you like to be a hero and luck into an absolute fortune in silver?
Think about it, kid. Why settle for scraps when you can come to the table as a fully made member of the JiangHu sect?
You’ll be doing Master Chaoxiang a big favor, and you’d better believe he’ll make it worth your while. ”
He turned to gesture at the now trembling Lilly.
“You like the mixed-blood mongrel? You can have her all you want, for as long as you like! But why settle for the leftovers your old mistress gave you? You can have your pick of the finest ladies here. Pure-bloods, worthy of a man of your stature!” He stepped back as if appraising him.
“I think he sees the light, don’t you, Ku?”
Scar crossed his arms, giving a begrudging nod.
Snake actually smiled. “But wait, I know what you’re thinking.
What if your old boss finds out and cuts your throat?
Well, no worries there, friend! We’re not going to say a word.
Why would we? You and the kitsune will leave with the master’s blessings, and if negotiations don’t pan out between them, how’s that your fault, am I right?
Best of all, your new master, a generous soul, will leave you a thousand silvers’ credit down at the bar that you can make use of, whenever you come to our little slice of purple pavilion paradise.
And as soon as your advice pans out, you’ll get another two thousand in hard coin and an offer you won’t want to refuse. ”
Snake stepped back, no longer looming over Alex, with a big, confident grin. “So, what do you say, kid? Ready to play with the big boys and take your pleasure whenever you desire?”
Alex’s heart was hammering, sensing his worst fears inevitably coming true.
“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you earlier.
I know how deeply most city folk revere Ruidians and what they do for the cities whose delves they frequent, the good that the cores they retrieve do for everyone, in terms of enriching crops, facilitating the manufacture of various potions in the hands of apothecaries and alchemists, and creating magical treasures at the hands of cultivating artificers.
And of course, the grandest prize of all.
Fresh cores of Water or Ice. The greatest of all prizes in a city with only a single rift producing water, am I right?
So, I can’t quite wrap my head around why you would call Lilly, a second-generation Ruidian, probably the daughter of a delving jewel master herself, a mongrel.
As if she were trash, utterly unworthy of your respect. ”
He kept a hard eye on both Snake’s and Scar’s scowls, looking for the slightest shred of doubt or remorse.
Scar sneered. “Because that’s exactly what she is. A half-blood harlot, like her mother before her.”
Alex tuned out Lilly’s choked sob, knowing that calling attention to her was the absolute worst thing he could do, right then. “Still, it’s curious. Very curious. When I say Ruidian, I don’t see your features lighten with hope. I see your lips curl in disdain.”
A distinctly displeased Snake no longer bothered with false bonhomie.
Instead he drew his dagger, smirking as it flashed and darted through the air in a series of moulinets that would have been impressive…
if viewed by a mortal. “Last chance to make the smart move, kid. Now, if it were up to me? Me and Ku would have fun getting what we want from you, the old-fashioned way. But like I said, Master Chaoxiang saw something in you he liked. So, if you want to make the smart move, be up a thousand silver and on your way to a hell of a lot more, quit stalling and show us what we want to see.”
He turned to Scar, who grunted, immediately pulling out a surprisingly detailed map.
Alex’s eyes widened as he took a moment to truly appreciate the intricate details of what he just knew was a topographically accurate depiction of Wanshi City. And in the distance, somehow distinct and clearly visible, despite what should be hundreds of miles of distance, was Liushi City as well.
Alex’s heart began to pound with wonder as well as growing dismay. Because for these men to be showing off such an incredible prize…
He already knew his worst fears to be true.
Yet the moment he sat transfixed by the map was all Snake needed to feel like he’d finally convinced him, all smiles once more as he brought forth a quill that shimmered with Spirit Qi.
Snake even had the gall to wink. “And hey, no hard feelings, kid. You like the girl? Lilly’s yours. Ku won’t even have her one last time to say goodbye. Will you, Ku?”
The larger man solemnly shook his head. “Not if our buddy here is smart.”