On Discord Isle by Jonathon Burgess

Author:Jonathon Burgess [Burgess, Jonathon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Science Fiction, Steampunk
Amazon: B00DNLWV1E
Publisher: Brass Horse Books
Published: 2013-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m not so sure about this anymore.”

Lina smiled hungrily at the punter and gave Runt a caress. The scryn purred, winding over her shoulders and around her upraised arm. “Come now, sir,” she replied. “Let us take you somewhere...unimaginable.”

The man stared at her. He was of average height and weight, with a neat brown beard, a bowler, and now an expression of utter revulsion. “No,” he said after a long moment. “I can imagine it quite clearly. I think I had better just go home.”

Lina watched him walk away down the street. When he turned a corner, she shoved Runt back into place across her shoulders. Then she gave a sigh of relief and fell against the brick wall of the alley mouth.

Breachtown seen from the ground was incongruous. The original Perinese colonists had done their best to bring the Kingdom with them, resulting in a city mixed out of tedious tradition and practical compromise. Dull buildings of grey brick clustered tightly, their sharp rooftops falling down into narrow alleys, while thin windows peeked out onto small yards bounded by ornate wrought-iron fences. Yet those yards sprouted lush palms and blooming vines completely at odds with their surroundings. Tropical birds flocked to the tiny baths built at regular intervals to coax them down from navigating the turbulent rigors of the Stormwall Breach.

Lina rested in an alley between a haberdashery and a cigar shop. Across the street loomed the wide brick facade of the Breachtown Colonial Counting House, a three-story building topped with a small glass dome where all fines were paid within the colony and a portion of all the vast wealth flowing out of the Yulan was taxed. Numerous windows along the second and third floors peered down at harried locals passing by in the street below. The building was framed by an apothecary to one side and a jeweler at the other.

She’d thought the alley a great place to gather information for tonight’s raid. Unfortunately, even with the city under occupation by the Perinese Royal Navy, most of the men she saw went out of their way to approach her in her disguise as a local prostitute.

I’m going to kill him for that. Lina rested against the alley mouth, and vowed vengeance upon Lucian Thorne for the hundredth time today. Climbing down from the Dawnhawk and slipping into town just before dawn had been easy enough. She’d been so focused on that task that she hadn’t unpacked Lucian’s ‘disguise’ until she’d found the counting house, and her alley. Only then had she discovered that the committee-member had provided her with a revealing dress, high-heeled shoes, and fishnet stockings. He’d even included rouge and a bottle of overly strong perfume.

It was insulting, irritating, and a dozen other things besides, but in the end Lina didn’t have anything better at hand. At least she knew she could play the part. So, swallowing her curses and taking a nap, she’d risen around midmorning to put everything on and stash her things among some old crates at the back of the alley.

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