Aching God by Mike Shel

Author:Mike Shel [Shel, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-08T22:00:00+00:00

Before turning in, Auric approached Pennyman about Eubrin Massey.

“Oh, he’s dependable enough, I suppose,” was the woman’s grumpy answer. “He’s too chatty, too jolly for my tastes.”

“Everyone’s too jolly for your tastes, Pennyman,” said Auric.

“Not you, Auric Manteo,” she responded. “You’re just the right amount of jolly for me. And you don’t open your yap more than necessary.”

From Pennyman, this was high praise. “You flatter me,” chided Auric.

“Mound didn’t like him the first time—Massey, I mean. Growled at him when he walked in. That was three years ago.”

“And how did the man respond to Mound’s gut assessment?”

“He brought him a sausage the next time.”

“A wise fellow, it would seem.”

“Auric, where are you headed to?” asked Pennyman, abrupt.

Auric was taken aback. Pennyman rarely evinced interest in the plans of any agents at her establishment. “To a Djao temple beneath a priory, in the hills about thirty miles north and east of Serekirk. St. Besh. We’re returning a relic, found there three decades and more ago.”

“Returning it?” This earned another open-eyed look from beneath the brim of her unseasonable hat.

“Yes. The thing has caused nothing short of calamity at the Citadel. The queen herself ordered it returned.”

“Long may she reign,” intoned Pennyman, always reverent where the queen was concerned. Auric echoed her without enthusiasm, seeing an image of Countess Ilanda kissing the queen’s desiccated hand, Geneviva’s skin thinner than parchment, a worm-like tangle of blue veins showing through.

“Auric,” said Pennyman after a few moments of silence.

“Aye?”

“Have a care.”

“Aye.”

“Truly, Auric Manteo. Exercise caution. Mound would be unhappy if anything happened to you.”

“How could you tell?” he retorted with a smile.

Auric walked back to his room after receiving a tail wag from Mound, purchased with a single scratch behind the ear. As he lay down in his bed for the night, he thought back to the many times he had spoken with Pennyman, sought out her opinion on this man or that woman, asked her advice about navigating some odd bureaucratic roadblock in the city. He tried to think of another time when she had warned him as she had just now, but was asleep before he could recall a single instance.

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