putting up a fight.’
Grudgingly the women agreed.
‘Then what will we do?’ ^
‘Conduct your affairs as always. They’ll come to the Aphrodisia first to collect
the taxes, just as they came here first to announce it. Keep the back doors open
and I’ll send word. If they can’t collect from me, they won’t bother you.’
There was mumbled disagreement, but no one dared to look straight at Myrtis and
argue the point of her power on the Street. Seated in her high-backed chair,
Myrtis smiled contentedly. She had yet to determine the precise solution, but
the house madams of the Street of Red Lanterns controlled much of the gold
within Sanctuary, and she had just confirmed her control of them.
They left her parlour quickly after the decision was rendered. If the Street was
to function as usual, they all had work to do. She had work to do. The Hell
Hounds would not return for three days. In that time, the Aphrodisia House would
earn far more than those three hundred gold pieces the empire wanted, and would
spend only slightly less than that amount to maintain itself. Myrtis opened the
ledger, making new notations in a clear, educated hand. The household sensed
that order had been restored at least temporarily, and one by one they filed
into the parlour to report their earnings or debts.
It was well into afternoon and Ambutta had not returned from placing her message
behind a loose stone in the wall behind the altar at the temple of Ils, For a
moment, Myrtis worried about the girl. The streets of Sanctuary were never truly