Mélusine by Katherine Addison

Author:Katherine Addison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2023-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mildmay

It was well past the septad-night when me and Bernard and Ricko got the last pissed-off drunk shoved out the door and we could go to bed. Ricko’d cleaned out a space in one of the storerooms, and Jeanne-Phalene had chipped in blankets and stuff. She got some kind of kickback from Ricko, but I ain’t exactly sure what their deal was.

Mr. von Heber’d done okay. I think people are crazy, myself, but since the cards weren’t magic, they were falling over themselves to find out what they said. If we’d said they were magic, or been dumb enough to admit Mr. von Heber was a hocus, the best we could’ve hoped for was to get run out of town on a rail.

Mr. von Heber looked up from counting his take when me and Bernard came in, and said, “We’ve got to do something about your hair.”

I was getting punchy with lack of sleep, and it took me a minute even to understand what he’d said. I said, “What?”

“It’s looking very … peculiar.”

Bernard gave me this look and said, “I can think of some other words.”

“I think you should strip the dye out of it,” Mr. von Heber said before I could get my act together to tell Bernard what he could do with his words.

“You’re nuts,” I said.

“Whatever it is that you use, it’s not going to be easy to come by outside of Mélusine.”

“How long you planning on being gone?”

“Who says we’re coming back?”

I looked at him for a while, thinking things through. “You gonna start paying me?”

“I thought you admitted yourself to be in my debt.”

“You just upped the stakes—and don’t try and act like you don’t know it.”

“What does it matter to you? You have nothing holding you in Mélusine.”

That hurt because it was true. “It’s still my home. I mean, I wasn’t ever thinking …” But I couldn’t find no good way to say what I meant.

“I will reward you for your service,” Mr. von Heber said.

“Them’s weasel words.” That sort of thing sounds great in stories, but when somebody trots it out in real life, you’d better watch ’em close, because they’re fixing to pull a fast one.

“I can’t offer you a salary,” he said, sharp enough that I knew I’d called him on something he’d thought he could get away with.

“You want me to leave Mélusine, you’d better offer me something more than ‘The cards say you’re important.’”

“Can’t this wait?” Bernard said. “I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m tired. Fight it out tomorrow.”

“Whatever,” I said.

“I am crushed by the rebuke of your common sense,” Mr. von Heber said to Bernard, which I thought was snarkier than it needed to be, but at least it meant we could get some sleep.

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