The Sword Saint by C. F. Iggulden

Author:C. F. Iggulden
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780718186838
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2019-08-07T16:00:00+00:00

14

Killer

Lady Win Sallet pushed the shop door and listened to the chiming bell it disturbed. She wore a dress of dark green over white, complete with wide-brimmed hat and long green gloves that reached to her elbows. A Sallet coach waited outside, resplendent in green and black, with footmen in her house livery, staring silently ahead. The road wound through one of those parts of the city less used to the comings and goings of the Twelve Families. A crowd of gawkers and tradesmen had already begun to gather. It was one reason Win Sallet did not bring her Greens with her when she moved around the city. It was not only that they were most feared when no one knew how they worked, when sightings had the quality of ancient legends. It would also have created a crowd of the curious so deep they would have blocked the road and interrupted the humming trade of that district for the rest of the day. She could hardly describe her presence as discreet, given the family crests on either side of her coach and the dominant colour. Yet it was as quiet as she could manage.

The shop she entered was empty of customers and full of just about everything else. Whatever the original window display had been, a thousand other pieces had been packed into every slot and tiny opening. Further back, the same impression was only emphasised. On each side, right to the tall ceilings, objects had been shoved in wherever there was space. It was oddly fascinating, Lady Sallet realised. Wherever her gaze landed was something completely different – brass toys on one spot, a writing desk on another, beautifully figured in green copper. A basket of walking sticks sat askew on a crate of old planes and chisels, all resting against what looked like ornate stained-glass windows, removed from some house that had been demolished. Win Sallet wondered if she should send one of her staff to look through the collection. There would surely be treasures there. She had noticed no sign of anything magical, however. There were other shops and indeed an entire street for that sort of thing. Lady Sallet imagined the owners of those establishments would not take too kindly to a competitor. It would have been safer for the owner to sell items of strictly non-magical interest and beauty.

The ringing bell had not gone unnoticed, of course. Lady Sallet only wondered that the owner had so few customers that she could leave the place untended. Yet footsteps sounded, wending their way down from above, with each step creaking. Lady Sallet adjusted the angle of her hat and stood before the glass counter-top, waiting for the young woman who owned ‘Beautiful Things’.

When the owner appeared, she was looking into an accounts book, held open in her hands. She was in her twenties, with her hair tied back and bound. She wore a neat dress that ended below the level of the desk, over a white blouse.

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