Chapter 4
Jessamine hadn’t thought travel to the Pleasure District would be so easy.
They had a few run-ins with the infected, but less than expected.
Perhaps that was because there were so many guards on the road.
All of the men wore Leon’s dark navy colors with hard expressions and orders to make sure that nothing happened.
She wasn’t certain why. Sybil thought they were a sign that Leon was on the move.
No one wanted the king to run into the infected on the streets.
Elric thought the same. Regardless of the reason, every time they mentioned his name, Jessamine felt like she was going to come out of her own skin.
She couldn’t think about her murderer’s plan.
Not yet. Fortuna still stood between her and him.
There was still time for her to build up the bravery to face him.
The closer they got to the Pleasure District, the more guards they saw.
Jessamine kept her hood pulled close around her, making certain that her face wasn’t easily seen.
Nyx rode upon her shoulder underneath her cloak, giving her the look of a hunchback.
Few people would recognize her, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a risk.
Some former palace servant might have survived Leon’s coup, and notice that her face looked an awful lot like the princess’s.
It took them two days of walking. They’d taken the longer path, avoiding the Factory District entirely. They were too easily recognized there after their battle with Callum. Which meant they had to walk along the coast with all the other folks denied easy passage through any of the districts.
At first, she assumed the others that continued to gather with them were travelers who would wander off eventually. But they quickly created a caravan. Groups of people were safer from the infected, others mused. Together, they would stay safe.
Jessamine felt anything but with so many strangers surrounding them.
She’d slept with one eye open and Nyx keeping watch on top of her. No one wished to anger the yellow-eyed demon who crouched over her heart.
The first night was when she heard rumblings of a god having returned. She had set her bedroll down beside Elric’s and Sybil’s; the latter began preparing dinner over the fire Elric started.
“Did you hear what that farmer was claiming?” a passerby mentioned, their voice carrying over the fires. “The gods are coming back.”
“That’s a myth. The gods are all dead and you know it.” His companion had a bristly silver beard, and he scratched at it as though it had bugs.
“Not according to him! He said the god looked right at him, some black beast with strings of viscera hanging off his form. He looked right into the man’s soul and told him, ‘The Deathless One has returned.’ ”
Everyone was quiet, listening in on the conversation without even attempting to hide their eavesdropping.
Clearly, the storyteller liked the attention, though.
He kept going, adding embellishments that simply couldn’t be true.
The Deathless One had fangs like a bat, and wings like a raven.
He’d eaten the cow in two bites. First the head, and then the rest of it.
Jessamine sat down in the sand across from Elric, plopped Nyx into her lap so her familiar could also give him a judgmental stare, and raised her brow.
He mirrored her expression with a raised brow of his own. The god was quite pleased with himself.
“You said you visited the sacrifice and that was it. What did you do?” she murmured, making sure not to be overheard. But no one was paying attention to their odd trio, not when the man was now talking about how the god had summoned the crows to attack the farmer.
“I accepted the sacrifice.” Elric shrugged. “I can’t control if someone was there while I did it.”
“You could have looked around!” she scolded.
“Next time, perhaps I will heed your advice.” He took the bowl Sybil offered him and grinned.
His smug expression didn’t budge for the rest of the night or the next day. He was still grinning even as the Pleasure District came into view. The damned man was far too pleased with himself.
The caravan they traveled with was far more subdued after the conversation about the gods. Perhaps they were all wondering if they should start sacrificing and worshipping again. They would have rioted if they knew they were traveling with one of those very gods.
The golden buildings and gleaming towers overtook the horizon, however, and Jessamine forgot all about the previous evening. This area of her kingdom was blindingly beautiful, a stark contrast to the corners where Jessamine had been dwelling these past months.
They’d once called it the Pleasure District because it was home to those who sold their bodies for pleasure.
But over many years of flourishing business, it had grown into so much more.
Now it was a feast for the senses, a destination for those who wished to dine on fine foods, or who sought the finest clothing or the rarest of jewels.
Every building gleamed, dripping with gold and silver and gemstones that sparkled in the sunlight.
Even from afar, she could see how the district gates were made of plated gold. There were figures sculpted into it. Men and women, nude and in repose, beckoning all those who sought to indulge their senses. All were welcome here—if they could afford it.
There were blue-coated guards at the front gate as well, asking people for paperwork to enter. The buttons on their jackets were made of gold, and their clothing was so perfectly pressed she swore she could smell the starch. But it was the swords at their sides that made her far more uncomfortable.
“Papers?” she muttered, looking to Elric and Sybil for direction. “No one’s ever needed papers to get into the Pleasure District.”
“Papers proving we’ve been invited, I’d guess,” Sybil muttered, lingering at the back of the crowd.
“Considering all of the king’s men surrounding the place, I’d guess this means the Pleasure District has rather important visitors.
They don’t want just anyone walking in. We’ll have to try again later. ”
“No, we won’t,” Elric muttered.
The last thing she wanted was for a god to get involved and cause a scene. Everyone was already talking about him, and he’d made it very clear that he couldn’t handle himself in public.
“Elric!” she hissed, grabbing his arm and trying to yank him back to her side. “Don’t you dare.”
The glare he cast upon her would have made anyone else freeze in their place. But Jessamine knew he wouldn’t hurt her, no matter how much he wanted to in the moment.
“Do you want to get inside or not?” he snarled. “We have a witch to find, and I was under the impression you wanted to get your throne back sooner rather than later.”
“What’s another few days when I’ve already been waiting for months?” Jessamine tried to stop him again. She clung to the fabric of his shirt, but he would not let her stop him.
Elric shook her off like she was a gnat. He stalked through the crowd, pausing to speak to one of the guards. She’d never been very talented at lipreading, but she could see the guard’s face go bright red.
She tugged her hood a little further over her face, making sure no one could see what was beneath the shadows. “What do you think he’s doing?” she asked Sybil.
“Getting us in trouble.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Those guards don’t look very forgiving.”
“They aren’t.” Sybil looked through the crowd, likely trying to find them an exit for when the guards attacked. “If we go through the back alley there, it should loop around to the beach. I don’t think they’ll try to chase us much farther than that.”
“I’ll follow you.”
But then she saw Elric grinning and waving them over like a lunatic. She didn’t want to go to him, but everyone was staring. By the time she and Sybil had made it to the front of the crowd, the guard was chuckling at something Elric said.
The intimidating man then looked her up and down before asking, “You the ladies he’s traveling with?”
“Yes, sir.” She tried to keep her head down, but he was peering right into the shadows as though he had to see her face.
“That’s good. He seems a right good man. You keep track of him in this district, you hear me? It’s easy for a man to get taken for a fool in this place. Keep an eye on his wallet.”
What in the fuckery was going on here?
She nodded, sharing a glance with Sybil that confirmed the witch also thought the guard had lost his mind before they were waved into the district beyond. They got a mere two steps out of hearing range before she slapped Elric’s shoulder three times and then shook him hard.
“What was that?” she hissed. “You could have gotten us caught! Do you know what those men would do if they recognized me? Those are Leon’s guards, you absolute bumbling buffoon!”
“I twisted his mind, Jessamine, calm down. He thought I was a good friend from when he was a lad. His mind was easy to break, and his memories were so simplistic it was child’s play to get him to let us in.
” Elric cracked his knuckles, and that stupid grin was right back on his face.
“Now, do you think the Pleasure District has changed much in two hundred years? I’m curious to find out. ”
She was going to hit him. She was going to clock him right in that chiseled jaw. All the risks he had taken were going to end her life, she was certain of it.
Sybil’s hand pressed against her lower back, steering her away from the god she wanted to murder and instead forcing her to look at the dark witch. “We’re fine,” she said. “Jessamine, everything worked out in the right way. We’re in the district.”
“No thanks to him.”
“All thanks to him,” Sybil corrected. “You are a gravesinger, my dear, but you are not a god. Do not test the man who gives us power.”