Welcome to Bordertown by Ellen Kushner

Author:Ellen Kushner [Kushner, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Published: 2011-05-17T21:00:00+00:00

The beer was cold and about as good as beer ever was—that is, not very. I drank it anyway. I wasn’t about to miss my first drink in Bordertown just because I didn’t like the taste, and besides, my throat was parched. We’d run out of water long before the Mad River flooded the washes, even the small salty bottle of holy water I’d taken with me from church.

A couple walked in and plopped down at the table next to us—the singers from outside. They didn’t look like they hated each other now, not with the way their fingers were entwined. True love, or just hooking up? It should have been easier to tell in Bordertown than in the World—no. I wanted it to be easier, that was all.

“A pound of coffee beans and a copy of the Stick Figure steampunk special.” Scarf Girl set a drawstring bag triumphantly down on the table; she was wearing her hat now. “I owned this round.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Leather Boy put his half-full cap beside the bag. “I’m still ahead of you thanks to scoring that locket made by Lillet’s great-niece last summer.”

“It was a fake! You know it was!”

He pulled a comb from his back pocket and ran it through his hair, just like in the eighties. “A fake that bought us three months’ groceries.” The Guide had told me about this, how Bordertown worked by trading things, not just money.

Our waiter slid two burritos onto our table, and Analise and I both turned to eating them. Melted cheese slid down my throat, along with the burn of—cayenne? Seriously? Might as well just sprinkle on some black pepper and be done with it if you’re going to ruin them anyway.

At least the cheese was good. I reached into my wet pack and pulled out my sketchbook. Water had swollen the pages, blurring my colored-pencil sketches of wolves and vampires—okay, mostly of wolves, though I’d tried a few vampires for Analise’s sake. It didn’t matter; they were all ruined, and I’d have to start over. Maybe this time I’d figure out how to make werewolf fur look as soft as I hoped it would feel, when I held a real wolf in my arms at last. Analise helped smooth the pages as our waiter brought two more beers for Scarf Girl and Leather Boy.

Analise caught Leather Boy’s eye. “So,” she asked, “know where we might find a guy named Lankin?”

The boy choked on his drink. “You’re looking for Lankin?”

The girl drew a fuchsia scarf closer around her, as if she were cold. “You’re new, aren’t you? You don’t want to mess with that shit. Trust me.”

Analise kept her gaze on them both, looking as determined as the time she’d decided to fight the school when they wanted to ban black clothes, claiming it was a new gang color. She’d told me once that people always tried to warn you away from the vampire, not only in her favorite book but in others, too. That was just part of the story.

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