Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Author:Katherine Addison [Addison, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

This time, the brown velvet waiting room was not empty.

Two part-goblin women and an elven man were waiting; the man and one of the women in the chairs, the second woman kneeling with her skirts spread around her like a dropped flower. The man had a Procurers’ Guild ring prominent on his hand, which made it not hard to guess that the two women were prostitutes.

“Good evening,” Pel-Thenhior said cheerfully.

The man nodded. The two women smiled.

Pel-Thenhior and I stood by the gas sconce and waited. No one said anything.

The waiting seemed endless, especially as I was beginning to feel the lack of sleep in my bones, but eventually Mer Nathomar emerged from his back room, escorting a lovely part-goblin woman. “There you are,” he said. “Give me a week and you can come get the prints.”

“That’s fair,” said the pimp as he and the first two women stood up. They left, the three women chattering brightly, and Mer Nathomar turned to us. “Well,” he said, “good evening, friends! Othala Celehar, this is getting to be a habit. What can I do for you?”

“We have something we would like your opinion on,” I said. “But maybe not out here?”

Mer Nathomar’s eyebrows shot up. “Again?”

“Again?” said Pel-Thenhior.

“Othala Celehar was here last night with a question.”

“Unrelated to this,” I said.

“In any event,” said Mer Nathomar, “come back into my studio.”

The studio was still a chaos like the back room of a secondhand shop. Mer Nathomar said, “I can find chairs if you want to sit.”

“I don’t think this will take long,” said Pel-Thenhior. “What we need your opinion on is some pornography we found in an unexpected place.”

Mer Nathomar’s ears went down at the word “pornography.” “I am not a pornographer.”

“I didn’t say you were,” said Pel-Thenhior.

“We’re not really interested in pornographers,” I said. “There’s been a murder.”

“Another one?” he said.

“Nothing to do with the marquise,” I said.

“That hardly makes it better,” said Mer Nathomar. “But all right. What does a murder have to do with pornography, of all things?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Pel-Thenhior said. “What’s the penalty for making pornography?”

“You know as well as I do,” Mer Nathomar said. “Six months hard labor in the quarries, which—between the accidents and the iärditha—is this close to being an outright death sentence.”

“Would you murder to avoid it?”

“Me personally?”

“No, hypothetically. If pornography were a thing a person was doing, might they commit murder to avoid that sentence?”

“And keep a profitable scheme going,” I said.

“A person might,” Mer Nathomar said carefully.

“Do you know of anyone who would?”

“Hypothetically?” said Mer Nathomar.

“Hypothetically,” agreed Pel-Thenhior.

“Yes, several,” said Mer Nathomar.

“Oh good,” said Pel-Thenhior.

A thought struck me, and I asked, “Do the models suffer the same penalty as the photographer?”

“I don’t think anyone’s ever brought a Witness against a model,” said Mer Nathomar. “But, yes, I suppose they would.”

“It explains why they don’t want to go to a judicial Witness,” I said to Pel-Thenhior’s puzzled look.

“But they’re children,” Pel-Thenhior said.

“They may not know that that protects them,” I said.

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