‘Steal something for me?’ Tempus whispered, leaning down. The boy had black
hair, black eyes, and blacker prospects in this desperadoes’ demesne.
‘I’m listening.’
‘ Two diamond rods from the lady who came out of the sea tonight.’
‘Why?’
‘I won’t ask you how, and you won’t ask me why, or we’ll forget it.’ He sat up
straight in his saddle.
‘Forget it, then,’ toughed Shadowspawn, deciding he wanted nothing to do with
this Hell Hound.
‘Call it a prank, a jest at the expense of an old girlfriend.’
The thief edged around where Tempus could not see him, into a dapple of deepest
dark. He named a price.
The Hell Hound did not argue. Rather, he paid half in advance.
‘I’ve heard you don’t really work for Kitty. I’ve heard your dues to the
mercenaries’ guild are right up to date, and that Kitty knows better than to
give you any orders. If you are not arguing about my price, it must be too low.’
Silence.
‘Is it true that you roughed up that whore who died tonight? That Amoli is so
afraid of you that you do whatever you want in her place and never pay?’
Tempus chuckled, a sound like the cracking of dry ice. ‘I will take you there,
when you deliver, and you can see for yourself what I do.’
There was no answer from the shadows, just a skittering of stones.
Yes, I will take you there, young one. And yes, you are right. About everything.
You should have asked for more.
3
Tempus lingered there still, eating a boxed lunch from the Unicorn’s kitchen,
when a voice from above his head said, ‘The deal is off. That girl is a
sorceress, if a pretty one. I’ll not chance ensorcel-ment to lift baubles I