Chapter 6 #2
“You asked what I want from you,” he said softly, but there was no plea in his words, only the usual quiet force that told me he’d get what he needed from me, no matter what.
“I did,” I confirmed carefully, my heart beating faster in my chest.
Having learned the truth about him, I understood Timur was a man with his back to the wall, facing the world that had not been kind to him. If he had a plan, there was nothing that could get in his way because he had nothing to lose.
“I spent years living off the mercy of others while rapidly losing friends, dignity, and honor,” he said grimly. “What I want now is gold.”
“Do you think money will buy back everything you’ve lost?”
He scoffed bitterly. “Not even close, my sweet little thing. But enough gold will allow me to get the fuck out of this gods-forsaken place. It will buy me a comfortable place to live, enough food and water, and…” he winced, his voice breaking off, but he stilled himself with a firm breath, “and servants to do things for me I likely won’t be able to do on my own very soon. ”
The dragon poison didn’t kill him at once as it should’ve.
Instead it’d been killing him slowly ever since that bite.
Sooner or later, it would finish him by claiming the rest of his body.
Timur was deteriorating, and he knew it.
Coming to Ashgate and buying me had been his last desperate bet on a chance to die with dignity.
“What I want from you,” he continued, “is to keep enjoying every meeting I arrange with the people who will pay for your joy, so that I can repay what I’ve borrowed, then save enough money to last me for whatever time I still have left in this world.”
I stared at him, speechless. Grotesque and misshapen as he was, I found it hard to look away.
His shimmering skin blended with the night while the bones glimmered starkly, keeping my gaze on them.
He’d covered his legs, but his arm, shoulder, and face remained exposed, with his red eye glowing in the dark like smoldering coal.
Now I knew what he was. He was many things—a soldier who fought for his queen, who must’ve abandoned him once he was no longer useful; a man trying to get back on his feet, even as his legs no longer held him; a pleasure trader who bought me at an auction.
He was a criminal I should hate. But instead, compassion squeezed my heart.
Except that Timur didn’t ask for my compassion. He didn’t need me to feel sorry for him. What he asked for was my cooperation. By the laws of this world, I was his property, with no rights and no power. But maybe, I could use this fucked-up situation to get something out of it too.
“How much money do you need?” I asked. “Do you have a certain number in mind?”
He lifted the bag we got paid tonight. “Well, this is a good start. If it continues this way, I’d say we can retire in a few months.”
A few months didn’t sound too bad.
“I’ll tell you what…” I moved closer to him, mindful not to bump his feet.
“You got more than you asked for tonight, didn’t you?
I can do it every night for you. In fact, I can do it even better.
I can tell you what foods I enjoy the most. I’ll write down the recipes for your clients’ cooks.
I’ll tell you how I love my coffee and what desserts are my favorite.
I’ll tell you many other ways to please me.
Like…” I raised my arm and sniffed my armpit.
“Like I could really, really use a bath, for example. A skull massage would do wonders, too, especially now that I hadn’t properly brushed my hair in days.
I’ll make sure to savor and enjoy every moment of every night so that your clients will melt from my pleasure.
Trust me, I can make you so much gold, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. ”
The longer I spoke, the faster my mind was spinning with ideas and opportunities.
I wasn’t powerless, or helpless, or weak.
Far from it. I held the key to the most expensive commodity in this world—joy.
And if it had so much value for everyone out there, then what was stopping me from capitalizing on it for my own gain?
“I don’t want a master or an owner, Timur,” I said firmly, staring straight into his red, menacing eye.
“I need a partner. Let’s make a deal. You’ll find the right people, rich and trustworthy, who would not betray us to the queen.
And I’ll make sure they leave this place so full of joy, they’ll talk about us to all their friends who then also will want to come here and buy my joy.
Whatever gold we make, we’ll split evenly until we both have enough to do what we want. ”
He tilted his head, squinting his blue eye at me. The red one remained unchanged, shining like a red light of warning in the night.
“How much gold do you need, Sweet One? And what do you want to do with it?”
“I need enough to buy back all the humans in Ashgate and to pay for our safe passage to Teneris.”
“You want to buy Joy Vessels?” he repeated, dumbfounded. “What for?”
“To free them, of course.”
“Well, that would be a huge waste of gold,” he scoffed.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s not how I see it. To me, it’s the best use for gold ever, considering the situation. I can’t leave any humans behind, knowing they’d be forced and abused—” I cut myself short.
If Timur didn’t know anything about the golden hyacinth, I couldn’t tell him about it.
Thankfully, he was still mulling over what I’d said before and didn’t seem to notice my near slip-up.
“Why Teneris?” he asked.
“Because that’s the only place in Alveari where I think we can be safe.” My voice held more uncertainty than I wished to display.
He arched his only eyebrow. “Do you want to return to Prince Rha’s sarai? But didn’t you just say you didn’t want a master?”
I hated him calling me out on that. But he was right, wasn’t he? I talked about freedom, but my plan was just to trade one master for another, a more powerful one, who I hoped would be able to protect us all better.
“I lost my friends,” I said. “I need to find out what happened to them, and I believe that Teneris would be the best place to start searching for them. Also…” I wasn’t sure how much value it was going to hold for Timur, but it seemed very important to me.
“Prince Rha is the only shadow fae I know who learned to view a human as more than simply a Joy Vessel. For what it’s worth, he cared for my friend.
I believe he wouldn’t let anyone hurt or abuse us.
I also hope that he’d help me find her or at least find out what happened to all of them. ”
Timur didn’t look convinced. “What if he locks you up in his sarai?”
As limited as a human’s options were in Alveari, a life in Prince Rha’s sarai wasn’t the worst future to have, but something soured inside me at that prospect.
The sarai in Teneris was a great temporary solution that guaranteed food and safety.
But even if Prince Rha greeted me with open arms and no hard feelings over our escape, did I want to spend my entire life as one of his Joy Vessels?
I frowned. “What other options do I have?”
Timur smirked, shaking his head at my cluelessness. “With enough gold, you can buy anything, even freedom. And I mean the real kind of freedom, not the one that comes from a kind master’s leniency.”
“Do you honestly believe a human like me can be truly free in the Alveari Kingdom? How?” I asked, skeptically.
He nodded. “I’ll tell you how. Earn enough gold to buy your own house, either in Teneris, or Kalmena, or in any other fine city of the kingdom.
Hire your own guards to protect you, so that no one could ever steal or sell you again.
You’ll have to keep your true identity a secret for the rest of your life, of course, but with enough gold, you can protect your secret.
You won’t need a master. Be your own mistress, Sweet One. ”
“That’s an odd suggestion coming from someone who’d just bought me like a sack of grain.”
“I bought you because I had to,” he retorted. “But pleasure trade isn’t really my calling. My real goal is independence. Earn me enough gold for that, and I’ll set you free.”
I stilled my breath, afraid to believe my ears.
Did he really mean it? Would he make that deal with me?
“How do I know you’re not lying?” I asked quickly.
He shrugged. “I’ll give you a formal promise if you want.”
“You will? Really?”
Fae didn’t give promises like that lightly. If they broke them, they faced deadly consequences, possibly even worse than dying from a dragon’s bite.
“I don’t have much choice, do I?” he pointed out pragmatically. “I have everything to lose if you resist my efforts to sell your joy and everything to gain if you cooperate. Independence is expensive, my sweet. But you have the means to buy it for both of us.”
“So, it’s a deal then?”
“It’s a deal, Sweet One.” He offered me his left hand.
It was a strong, beautiful hand with long, elegant fingers that could only belong to a handsome man. It’d be a pleasure to shake it. But I moved my gaze to his right hand, now partially hidden under his cloak draped over his right armrest.
“Isn’t it the right hand that gets shaken when a deal is made?” I stretched my right hand toward him.
He gave me a long look, as if expecting me to change my mind, but I kept my right hand outstretched, waiting patiently until he finally freed his right arm and stretched it out to me too.
It appeared that moving his skeletal hand didn’t cause him any pain, or at least it didn’t make him scream.
He wouldn’t take my hand, however, allowing me to make that final step.
I bit my lip, bracing myself against the trepidation that slithered around my heart at the sight of the bare bones of his fingers and the sharp claws on their tips.
But if we indeed were to work together as partners, I couldn’t be afraid of him.
I couldn’t be intimidated by any part of him. And he needed to know that.
I exhaled a breath and took his hand in mine. The bones felt warm, like rocks left in the sun. His fingers closed around my hand lightly, the hard phalanges pressing into my skin. I wondered how much he could feel with it, if anything at all.
Keeping my hand in his, he focused his gaze on me. He was close enough for me to clearly see his face in the starlight. But I couldn’t exactly read his expression, only that he kept our eyes linked long enough for our eye contact to become meaningful somehow.
A shiver ran down my spine, and I wasn’t sure whether it came from unease or…something else entirely.
“My name is Elaine, by the way” I blurted out, suddenly needing him to know my name, for him to distinguish me from any other human in this world.
“Elaine?” He rolled the syllables on his tongue as if giving each a lick to taste it.
Inexplicably, it made me wonder what his tongue looked like and if it had been also touched by the dragon bones taking over his body.
“Yes.” I cleared my throat, trying to direct my thoughts into less bizarre territory than his tongue.
“I figured ‘Sweet One’ may work for someone you own, but since we’re business partners now, you should know my proper name.
Elaine means ‘light’ or ‘sun ray,’ in one of the many languages of the world where I come from,” I added for no particular reason.
I just remembered how Dawn and I had first discovered the meaning of our names.
Her mother had told us that she named her daughters Melanie and Dawn, meaning “darkness and daybreak” or “night and day.” We then looked up what my name meant and were delighted to discover that it was also a “daylight name.” As kids, Dawn and I then decided that it must mean we were destined to be best friends forever.
My heart ached at the thought that I might never see Dawn again. If she’d crossed through the portal back into our world, she was lost to me forever.
“You are far less disturbing to look at than a sun ray,” Timur declared suddenly.
And I laughed. “Coming from a shadow fae, that has to be a complement.”
A corner of his mouth twitched on reflex to mimic my expression. Not taking his eyes off me, he closed his cloak over his chest, then swept his hand over his lap. “Time to go home, Elaine. Please take your seat.”
Home?
The shack on the beach would never feel like my home. But now, I had hope that I might actually have my very own home one day.