Crossroads #02 - Shadow Gate by Kate Elliott

Author:Kate Elliott [Elliott, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Epic, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780765349316
Google: BuwivnA54pYC
Amazon: 0765349310
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2009-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

27

'It's so ugly,' said Girish with his habitual giggle as he hauled her into the smoky interior of the narrow house and shoved her toward a stained couch hidden behind a screen. 'I don't know what you see in it, Ramda.' His hands were shaking with excitement as his voice rose in a petulant whine. 'What do you have for me today? You promised me something new.'

Ramda was a thin, nervous man who never looked directly at her. I te flicked a hand toward the curtained entrance to the back rooms, not watching as Girish pushed past the curtain and vanished.

'Here.' Ramda handed her a lit smoke.

She brought it to her lips and sucked. Warmth spread from tingling lips down into her throat. She sighed, taking another suck as the warmth spread throughout her body. When Ramda limped over and dropped his trousers, she took another suck and let him press her back onto the couch with its lumps and damp spots. After a while he finished. Other customers came and went in the main room, and sometimes after coin changed hands a man might step behind the screen and lie down on top of her, breath hot against her face. The ceiling of the hall was half obscured by threads of smoke that traced patterns along the wood. She followed their slow dance with her eyes, the way smoke crawled up the slope of the eaves or pooled beside brackets and beams. Coin jingled. Men laughed. Dice rolled. A child's thin scream penetrated the smoke, and for a moment all fell quiet.

Then they started up again, gaming, drinking, smoking, talking. She drowsed in the warmth.

An argument erupted in the main room. The warmth was beginning to wear off as the smoke lost its hold. Ramda never gave her more than one for herself, and every time the ache of its leaving prodded her like a fresh wound. She fumbled with the ties of her long jacket, closing it over her naked body. Shoved from the other side, the screen clattered down on top of her. She fell off the couch, found herself sitting on the loose trousers slaves wore, her thighs sticky.

'Come! Come!' Girish shouted at her as he wiped blood from his hands with a cloth. She struggled clumsily to get the trousers on, unable to remember having taken them off.

Ramda shuffled in behind him. 'Get out!' His hair was mussed as if he had combed it with his hands. 'That's the second one this month you damaged. I don't want you to come back.'

'You cheating dog! You said it was a new one, but I saw the same one last week over at Nonku's chop. I wanted a fresh one. One that will really be scared.' He grabbed her by the braids and tugged her. She tripped over the trousers, which she hadn't gotten up over her knees. The long jacket bunched and tangled around her hips. He slapped her once, twice, a third time. 'I hate you! I hate you!' He spat at her.

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