Dragon Traders (2 page)

"You've said that," Eddie said. Her voice had gone quiet, matching his. "You want to tell me what's wrong?"

Ashe glanced over at her, meeting her green gaze with his brown. "I don't think he likes me." It was depressing to just say it out loud like that. Everyone liked him. Except, well, Katsu, who had never seemed to like anyone. But then they'd hunted that dragon down (okay, it had hunted
them
down), and they'd had fabulous sex, and nowadays Katsu invited him out to get herbs or go on trips into whatever towns they passed for salves and medicines. It was just...

Eddie watched him closely, as if she could read every thought off his face.

Ashe sighed and tucked his braids back behind his shoulder. "He doesn't talk much."

"That's because he's Katsu."

"Even if I ask him questions. He just... distracts me."

Eddie nodded as if she knew exactly what he meant.

"But he never really touches me otherwise, and he's not really... well, he's just not what I'm used to." He looked up at Eddie, almost beseeching her to tell him he was wrong. "Is it a human thing?"

Eddie glanced at Katsu, then back at Ashe. "Honey, I'm sorry," she said finally. "I thought maybe he was sweeter to you when there weren't people around."

Which meant that, even for humans, Katsu was keeping Ashe at arm's length. Ashe nodded and looked at the road, as if his horse couldn't pay attention on its own. "If he didn't like me, he wouldn't keep having sex with me." Even to his own ears, it sounded weak. Katsu was just the type to keep someone around for a useful skill, and if there was one thing Ashe was good at, it was sex.

"Yeah, sure," Eddie agreed.

"That was pathetic," Ashe muttered.

Eddie laughed, apparently shaking off her sympathetic melancholy. "It was. Just find a willing someone in town, and maybe you'll feel better. Maybe you just like Katsu because he's exotic. Or because he's your new conquest."

"Yeah," Ashe said, forcing himself to cheer up. "Maybe that's it." But he knew it wasn't. There was something different about Katsu. Something special.

He wished there weren't; Katsu didn't seem to feel the same way.

***

The road into the city was plenty wide enough for three horses abreast, while the packhorse, carrying the eggs for their buyer to look over, trailed behind them. Ashe maneuvered them subtly, putting Katsu in the middle as they walked by the guards stationed on the outskirts. Two guards glanced them over. One did a double take, elbowing his compatriot and pointing. His long finger was aimed accusingly at Katsu.

Katsu bestowed his glower on everyone without bias, expression getting blacker as the crowd thickened inside the city walls. For a moment Ashe wasn't sure that Katsu even realized he was being singled out. Then Katsu's horse broke into a trot, and Katsu yanked it back roughly. Normally a graceful rider, that told Ashe more than anything that Katsu was feeling the tension, too.

Ashe took a deep breath and blew it out purposefully, releasing magic into his blood in case he might need it. He glanced across Katsu to catch Eddie's gaze, and saw her sitting her mount loosely, with a fighter's fluid readiness. One hand rested on her sword hilt. She was better with a bow, but it wouldn't do her much good in this confined space.

Buildings rose on either side of them, the streets turning from dirt to cobblestones. Carriages clattered by, fighting for space with small bands of riders. A group of wild-eyed dwarves hung on to their stocky ponies while bellowing for an ostler at a nearby stable.

The crowds moved and shifted, blocking their path before opening up. People stared at Katsu, breaking the normal flow of traffic for moments at a time, sending a ripple effect through everything else. One carriage nearly hit a man on foot.

Shadows spread over the ground. The sun -- still rising -- was blocked partially by the clutter of buildings. As Ashe's group rode through the fringes and deeper into the city, the buildings grew, reaching two and three stories high. It made Ashe feel claustrophobic, though he knew this wasn't uncommon in the larger cities. This, supposedly, wasn't a large city, but it could have fooled him. Large enough to have its own guard, and farther toward the interior of the country than Ashe commonly traveled. Mercenaries weren't usually needed where the lords had enough money to protect their towns and cities on their own; the crew tended to keep up north, nearer the fringes of the country, and Ashe himself was from the mountain range that bordered the northern edge. He'd been in cities, of course, but never felt comfortable in them.

A child leaned out one upper window, spotted them, and ran back inside. A moment later, three children were jostling for space, watching them.

"What," Eddie said just loud enough for them to hear over the bustle of the city, "is going on?"

Katsu's response was terse, and for a moment Ashe thought he heard Katsu's rare accent coloring the words. "Me. I'm going on."

Ashe glanced over, but still saw only Katsu, his lips a thin line and his eyes staring hard ahead. "
I
don't even get this much of a reaction," Ashe said with exasperation.

Eddie lifted one shoulder in a shrug. The arrows across her back rose and fell in their capped case, drawing attention in a silent warning. "There're a lot more elves around here than there are people who look like Katsu."

They fell silent then, their pace slowing with traffic as they fought their way deeper into the city. Crowds forced them into single file once more, Katsu cursing as he nearly lost the pack horse.

"There has to be at least a thousand people living here," Eddie said.

"I'd guess three or four thousand," Ashe murmured. More people were looking at Katsu, nodding toward him from small groups. Even the crowd couldn't hide him, not as tall as he was on horseback. "Where is your merchant?" Ashe asked, yelling over the sound of a fight spilling out of a brothel.

"Two blocks. A left and then right at the Red Horse Inn," Katsu answered. He didn't bother yelling, but he didn't need to; Ashe's sensitive hearing picked it up.

Two blocks, everyone staring at them the whole way, to a merchant who dealt in the rare and expensive and occasionally illegal. Even Nate, mercenary that he was, said Byron wasn't trustworthy. Ashe couldn't imagine that someone like that would appreciate having attention drawn to him by possible sellers. "Dismount," Ashe called, stopping his horse. He swung up and over, landing lightly as Katsu dropped out of sight as well. Katsu was short; at least being on foot would keep him out of the public's notice.

They led their horses forward, Ashe taking point with Eddie bringing up the rear.

"We're supposed to meet at the Gentleman's Corner," Katsu said.

Ashe forced his way through the crowd. "Better idea," he called back. "Let's go to the Griffon and Dragon." He could see the sign up ahead and windows in the second story; rooms for let above a tavern, he'd guess. A stable was just a few buildings down.

Katsu's mutter would have been too quiet for human ears: "Now that's a name just asking to be attacked..." Louder, he added, "We'll end up late. I'd rather not spend more time in this city than we have to."

Ashe ignored Katsu, walking up to the stable and handing his horse off to the ostler. Greasy-haired and spotted, the boy didn't inspire confidence. "Leave them tacked up," Ashe told him, tying an ill-luck charm around the pommel of his saddle to ensure it wasn't tampered with. Eddie had another, but Katsu only looked askance at the strips of symbol-covered cloth. With a grimace, Ashe pulled out his coin purse, dropping three coppers into the boy's hand, then holding a fourth and fifth up between thumb and forefinger. "Two more, if my companion's horses remain untouched."

The boy nodded, big eyes riveted on Ashe's coins. "We keep 'em safe, sir."

"I bet you do," Ashe muttered. He wouldn't be surprised if half the equine occupants here went home without their shoes.

"What are you doing?" Katsu growled as they turned, Ashe leading them toward the tavern.

"We need to talk strategy," Ashe murmured back. Eddie's gaze was as quick and keen as his own, tracking the crowd, marking who paid attention to their little group and who didn't care. She was the one to find the quickest way to the tavern, elbowing one man aside before they reached the door.

Inside was far quieter than outside. They paused in the doorway, Katsu glowering, Eddie and Ashe both scanning the room. A fireplace on one end, the kitchens on the other. Girls bustled in and out the doors, wearing dresses or trousers covered with heavy aprons. Only one of them seemed to be serving the tavern; the others whisked away up a set of stairs or carried buckets of steaming water toward a back door.

The tables and benches were about a third full. Eddie pointed to a corner with a rickety table and two chairs, and Ashe gripped Katsu's elbow to steer him through. It said something, Ashe thought, that Katsu didn't protest the manhandling. Katsu was stiff beside Ashe, tendons standing out in his neck.

Even Ashe felt eyes lingering on his four-fingered hands, unusual height, and pointed ears. Only Eddie didn't seem to draw any looks. Plenty of women in trousers, but not many elves seen in these parts, Ashe suspected. They'd probably
never
seen someone with skin as golden-brown as Katsu's.

Katsu sat properly in a chair. Ashe whipped his around to straddle it, and Eddie grabbed another from a nearby table.

"I'd rather not stay for lunch," Katsu muttered, hard eyes leaping from one point in the room to the next as if he couldn't quite decide where danger might come from.

"I agree, but I think we need to reconsider our strategy," Ashe countered. "I don't know about the rest of you, but something doesn't feel right to me."

Katsu said nothing, but Eddie murmured an agreement. "This merchant you're meeting," she began. "Nate said he wasn't to be trusted. In a town like this, where they seem to think you're something unusual--"

"You can't go to meet him," Ashe finished for her, likely more bluntly than she would have.

Eddie looked pained, but nodded.

Slowly, Katsu sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his lean chest. "And what do you think we should do instead? Exactly what do you think will happen to me if I'm there? Right now, my biggest concern is not getting paid." One eyebrow twitched upward. "Which is looking more and more likely."

Ashe leaned forward, elbows on the table, and spoke quietly to make his point. "My biggest concern is the very active slave trade in this province, the fact that this merchant deals in rarities -- and that everyone is staring at you."

Katsu shifted uncomfortably, glancing at Eddie. Still, he said nothing.

"I can deal for you," Ashe said. "Tell me what the eggs are worth, I'll collect the money and meet you two back here in an hour or so."

Katsu glanced at him, then away, at Eddie. "You agree with him? Am I really in
that
much danger?"

Eddie hesitated, then nodded. "I think Ashe probably has the best idea."

Katsu looked upward, words pouring from in him an undertone. Words Ashe didn't understand at all, and Ashe knew a fair number of languages. "Have you ever negotiated for a sale?" Katsu asked, pinning Ashe with fathomless black eyes.

Ashe considered lying just so Katsu wouldn't argue, then finally shook his head. "But if you tell me--"

"Nine hells. Someone order some lunch, and send a messenger to Byron so he knows we've been delayed. We need to discuss what, exactly, to expect and what, exactly, to say."

Ashe relaxed. It might not have been gracious, but it was agreement. He hadn't expected it to be that easy; maybe Katsu was more tense than he seemed.

A moment later the tavern girl arrived. While Ashe listened to Katsu's terse preparations, Eddie ordered food and asked for a courier.

***

Ashe dismounted outside the Gentleman's Corner, an even bigger building than the semi-respectable tavern where he'd left Katsu and Eddie. The Gentleman's Corner didn't look like a tavern, or at least, not any tavern Ashe had ever seen. The building was too grand, with doormen standing outside and liveried footmen retrieving carriages. Nate had briefed them before they'd separated from the other mercenaries, warning them that the building rich merchants did business in was practically a fortification in itself. They didn't want to be bothered with things like interruptions or robbery of their expensive wares.

Ashe gestured for the liveried man who took his reins to wait before taking his horse away, then untied the cushioned bag of eggs he'd gotten off the packhorse and opened it one last time to look inside.

They all sat piled on top of each other with straw between. He'd had to repack them to fit into one set of saddlebags, which meant much less cushioning. Still, they seemed to have survived the trip. All except the one Katsu had given him as payment, that was, which was safe with the other mercenaries and a few belongings he wouldn't risk being stolen in a city.

Finally certain that the eggs had come to no harm, he stepped up to the door, guarded by a man in black and red. "Ashe. Here for Byron Tackalle." The name was unfamiliar on his tongue, with hints of another language. He hoped he'd said it right.

The man bowed once and opened the door for him, holding it and whispering in the ear of yet another servant inside. That man bowed and headed down the opulently decorated hall.

"You may wait here," the doorman said and stepped back outside.

Ashe didn't have long to stand waiting in the entryway. The servant who had left returned, beckoned, and led him around a corner and down a door-lined hall. He could catch snatches of conversations here and there below the level of human hearing, once a growl that sounded distinctly animal-like, several cries of passion. Apparently gentlemen were willing to pay good money to be undisturbed. His mind whirled, imagining all the illicit liaisons that were probably happening.

Finally, after wending through several corridors, the servant opened a door and bowed again.

Ashe stepped through, feeling dusty and grungy in his riding gear. He hadn't had a chance to bathe in the last few days, and he'd only repaired some of his braids. Though even his braids made him feel wild; the populace here all seemed to sport closely cropped hair.