Page 55 of The Dagger and the Flame
The tavern was deserted. There wasn’t a speck of light flickering at its windows, which had been shattered in the chaos.
‘Not such a lucky shell after all,’ remarked Lark as they wandered towards it. ‘Even the rats have deserted it.’
They stood still a moment, peering up at the sorry façade, as if the tavern might tell them a secret. Wordlessly, they brought out their vials of Shade, downing them at the same time. Monster-hunting was dangerous enough as it was, but to do so without Shade was a fool’s errand.
Ransom had learned that the hard way.
Lark shivered as the magic flooded him, his green eyes flickering to silver. Nadia’s brown eyes changed a moment later, a shadow wreathing her neck as she flashed her teeth. Ransom blinked, and the night lit up. The darkness fell away, revealing the modest row of empty stalls and crooked taverns cowering along the edge of the sea.
Lark cracked his knuckles. ‘Who wants to do the honours?’
Nadia kicked the door in. ‘No time like the present,’ she said, stalking inside.
‘That was… incredibly attractive,’ said Lark, trailing after her.
She tossed her silky black braid. ‘I know.’
The inside of the Lucky Shell was an even sorrier mess than the outside. The beams were broken, the tables had been tipped over and the floor was soaked in spirits. There were shattered bottles everywhere, the bar stained with spilled wine.
‘What the hell was it even doing in here?’ said Lark, picking up a stool to sit on.
Nadia shrugged as she rounded the bar. ‘Maybe it needed something to take the edge off.’
Lark clucked his tongue. ‘Nadia Raine. How can you possibly joke at a time like this?’
‘It’s how I cope with crippling uncertainty,’ she said, flinging a coaster at him.
He caught it with one hand, then fired it at Ransom. It clocked him in the side of the head. ‘Why have you gone quiet?’
‘I’m thinking.’ Ransom used a shadow to yank the stool out from under him. Lark fell with a clatter. ‘Give it a try sometime.’
‘Nah,’ said Nadia, leaning across the bar like she was going to offer him a drink. ‘You’ve got that faraway look in your eyes.’
Lark leaped back to his feet, unruffled. ‘That’s because he’s thinking of his farmgirl.’
Ransom bristled. ‘She’s a mark.’
And that was the enduring truth of the matter. Dufort didn’t give a rat’s ass about Mercure’s truce. At least not where it concerned the girl. He had dragged Ransom into his chambers not long after their meeting at the Aurore to tell him so.
Get it done and hide the corpse.
No body, no proof.
Nadia and Lark exchanged an amused glance. ‘I’m curious,’ said Lark. ‘Have you ever spent this much time with a mark before?’
‘You know…alive,’ added Nadia. ‘Because mine tend to die right after they see me.’
‘One last glance at paradise before they plummet straight to hell,’ said Lark.
She turned to examine a tap, hiding the blush creeping into her cheeks.
Ransom picked up a bottle of wine and set it on the bar. The label was black like all the others here, with an emblem of a golden five-leafed clover. Underneath, the looping script readNectar of the Saints.
Lark frowned at it. ‘Huh. I’ve never seen a bottle like this one before. They serveKing’s Supup on Merchant’s Way.’
‘I preferQueen’s Kiss,’ said Nadia, turning to look at the label. ‘It’s cheap and tangy. But you only get it in the Hollows.’
Ransom hated wine but he had spent so much time in taverns, he could vaguely picture both labels.King’s SupandQueen’s Kisscame from the royal vineyards of Valterre, which meant they bore the same royal insignia: two swords crossed beneath a rose in bloom. Not this strange five-leafed clover.
