Page 20 of Tell No Tales
"You have shapely feet," Klaus said. "The house caretaker would have sent you upstairs to the high rollers."
Vadim narrowed his gaze at Klaus. "Are you saying I could be a prostitute?"
Klaus laughed. "Not just any prostitute. You would have been sought after by all the rich men."
"Believe it or not, I was propositioned by a caretaker. She changed her mind when Hesse told her I'm a death weaver." He grinned. "She said pleasure workers weren't allowed to kill their clients, even when the client tried to kill them first."
Klaus nodded. Suddenly, there wasn't enough air in the crate, and his throat was extremely dry.
"Hey." Vadim grabbed Klaus's hand, the one holding the pen light, and brought it to his lips for a kiss. "You're safe now."
Klaus snorted. "I'll never be safe until Coryn is dead, the navy is dismissed, and weavers and seekers alike are free to their own pursuits."
"Would you go back to the pleasure houses?"
Klaus couldn't keep the bitterness from his voice. "I'm too old for that now. I'm nearing thirty."
"You're twenty-seven." Vadim brought Klaus's knuckles to his lips again and then let him go. "You are not old. Your life has barely begun."
"By pleasure house standards, I'm ancient. I should be running my own house by now."
"Is that what you want?"
"No." That was the last thing Klaus wanted. House caretakers had to keep the clients happy, and Klaus didn't want that responsibility. "I'd rather run an orphanage, but I don't have the money for it. So many children grow up without parents these days." Orphanage managers were responsible for the children, at least, the best ones were. The one who had sold Niall to Master Othelio had only been looking to make a profit. Fortunately, Klaus had aged out before he became another dollar amount.
Vadim frowned. "I've never paid that much attention. Where do they all come from? What's happened to their parents?"
"You really don't know?" At first, Klaus was outraged that Vadim was as naïve as the ruling class, but then he realized the truth of it. Vadim had grown up on Aquarion, moved to Hearthstone to the academy for four years, and then had gotten on a boat with the imperial navy. When the navy eradicated weavers, he'd joined Efren's crew, and then he'd become head of the imperial guard when Empress Delilah died.
"You don't know," Klaus said. "You might see an orphan on the street, but you don't know what it's like for them."
"Milton and Niall gave me an idea," Vadim said. "I'm more interested in you, though. What was it like for you?"
"Why not?" Klaus sighed. He never shared this level of personal baggage with anyone, but some of his memories had slipped through when they'd been linked. "You already know some of it. I don't know who my real dad is. He left for Hearthstone before I was born. My mom traveled with my uncle, a merchant mariner, before she became ill. That must be how I ended up on Aquarion. Then, when my mom died in Landale, my uncle left me there so he could work. He never came back for me. I was bullied by the older boys until they finally aged out, and then one tried to kill me."
Vadim's arm was back around Klaus's shoulder. He pulled Klaus tight against his chest. It was an awkward angle from where he was sitting, but he ignored it, reveling in the warmth radiating from Vadim. That was new. He used to be cold as ice to touch.
"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."
"I know yours," Klaus said. "I was still linked to you when your trial began. Why do you think I couldn't get out of bed that morning? You had nightmares about Martiz all night."
Vadim kissed the top of his head, and Klaus's whole body warmed. Did Vadim know what he did to him with each tiny gesture of kindness, from the arm over his shoulder to the gentle kisses on his hair?
"I'm sorry." Vadim shook his shoulders, jostling Klaus against his side. "Returning home brought back all those memories. Martiz stayed on Horseshoe Island most of the time. When I was part of Efren's crew, I rarely saw him. Sitting at that table with him, and then practicing with Niall, brought it all back."
Now that Klaus couldn't hear Vadim's thoughts, he wasn't close enough. He wormed his way into Vadim's lap, sitting with his back to the perpendicular wall, since Vadim had squeezed himself into the corner. He was putting a lot of his weight on Vadim's thigh, but the death weaver didn't seem to mind.
"It was his birthday," Klaus started. "He'd aged out. He said he had a boarding house lined up, and they would let him have visitors. That wasn't true. The woman wouldn't let me in the door. When he saw me walking away, he blamed me. Came after me with a knife. I killed him in the alleyway. The woman saw the whole thing and told the city guards the truth." The memory of that night tried to sneak up on him, but he stopped it by recalling the woman's kind face. He still remembered her fondly. "She didn't have rooms to let when I aged out. She put in a good word with the caretaker at The Opal, my first pleasure house. The man wasn't kind, but he was fair. I earned enough to pay for a stall at The Blue Rose."
Vadim rubbed circles over Klaus's shoulders. His skin tingled beneath his shirt in a way that was as alarming as it was soothing. It felt a lot like healing, but a glance over his shoulder confirmed Vadim was still wearing his enchanted gloves.
"The Blue Rose has healers," Vadim said. "How many times did they heal you after you could see weavers?"
Klaus had a feeling Vadim wanted to ask a different question. He, like everyone else, wanted to know when Klaus had first started seeing auras.
He'd never been particularly healthy, not even before he'd been abandoned in Landale. He didn't remember Aquarion or meeting Martiz, but he must have if the sweet clothing shop owner remembered him.
By the time he could remember the healing, he could already see weavers' auras. A healer had come to the orphanage his first winter, and every winter after that, to heal whatever sickness was going around. Klaus was always one of the worst off and first to be seen.
