Page 39 of The King's Man 3

He repeats his question.

Fine, I’ll play along. “Relationships.”

“Friends, colleagues, or romantic interests?”

“I can only choose one?”

“As many as you please. A copper coin for each.”

Unbelievable. “Friends.”

He pauses, and I clear my throat, cheeks flushing. I blurt, “What’s next?”

“What would you like to know?”

“I’d like to know what a certain one is thinking!”

He picks up the dice and sets them into my hand. “Roll.”

I pinch them between my fingers as I shake my head, and drop them. Quin peers at the markings, humming. “I see.”

I almost laugh. “I bet you do.”

“A six, positioned north.” I scoff, and he continues, “Your friend is surrounded in golden aura.”

“Yes, yes he is. He’s just bathing in it. Though it’s less gold than... the colour of bile.”

He coughs. “He means to help with your current predicament.”

I unwrap the silver ribbon from my wrist and dangle it before him. “Yet he doesn’t want customers to come to me.”

“He doesn’t wantanyoneto come to you.”

“What about money?”

“What about your safety?”

Through a teeth-gritting smile, I ask, “Any advice on making him less overbearing?”

“He does like a good massage.”

“I’ll get my hands on him, all right.”

Quin coughs again; I wave at the line to back up a bit, and lean over the table, whispering, “What are you doing?”

“Using my vast cultural awareness and knowledge of history to our advantage. The folk along the river Chrysos are deeply superstitious. I borrowed a ginger cat, strategically let it run past some folk... and suddenly there’s high demand for fortune reading.”

“You’rescammingyour people?”

“For each query, I give good, practical advice.”

“Return their money.”

“Then we’ll have nothing.”

“We’ll have our conscience.”

Quin grumbles, but he stoically obliges me and returns to the townsfolk their hard-earned copper coins. “The means by which I engaged your business is, I admit, creative—” at my look, he amends. “Questionable. However, the advice I gave each of you is honest and helpful.”

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