Page 63 of A Skirl of Sorcery
‘Yes. Very good news.’
Thane held up the parchment. ‘The next two hundred years at Green Humbleton are guaranteed as long as you maintain rental payments, which will return to their previous rates. Your rent can only be increased every five years and only in line with inflation. And it is clearly stated in magically binding ink that rent negotiations with future generations beyond the two hundred year mark are to be favourable and fair.’
Several of the younger trows couldn’t contain themselves and gasped aloud, clutching at each other. One of them shouted, ‘How? How did you get that wanker to agree to that?’
Tanavantia gazed at me then nodded slowly. ‘It is better to avoid questions to which one does not wish to hear the answer.’
A dozen cheering trows crowded around Thane and I stepped backwards, out of their way.
‘I never thought a wolf would be our saviour!’
‘Thank you, sir! Thank you so much!’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ Thane protested. ‘It was all…’ I glared at him and his shoulders dropped. ‘It was all in a day’s work,’ he finished lamely. I smiled and the trows’ rousing cheers grew louder.
‘Thank you,’ Tanavantia murmured. She’d sidled up and was now standing beside me, watching the celebrations.
There was no point in pretending Thane had done all the heavy lifting so I accepted her words. ‘You’re welcome.’
‘We owe you far more than information.’ She drew in a deep breath and I had the appalling notion that she was about to present me with her first-born. There was only one thing I wanted and I was determined to walk away with nothing else.
‘It’s only information that I need,’ I said before she could speak again. ‘We had a bargain and I expect you to stick to it.’
Something flitted across her eyes but she nodded and gestured to Bin, who was ignoring the ongoing celebrationsaround Thane and standing close by. ‘Binhamatin,’ she intoned. ‘You must speak freely now.’
The trow shuffled forward. If anything, he was more scared of me now than he had been the first time we met and I felt a flicker of irritation. I wasn’t trying to be scary, not here; I was trying to be their friend. But maybe you could take the cat lady out of the assassin but you could never completely take the assassin out of the cat lady. Perhaps Bin was right to be afraid; perhaps I had to learn that I would never be viewed as harmless even by those to whom I meant no harm.
‘I took the bone box from a house in Danksville,’ he mumbled. ‘I don’t know the address – I don’t understand your system of numbering.’ He sniffed. ‘City folk do things in a daft fashion. All those buildings, all tightly packed together. It makes no fucking sense and…’
‘Binhamatin,’ Tanavantia cautioned him, gently.
He stopped his complaint in mid-sentence and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, then lifted his head and met my eyes. ‘I’ll have to show you where it is.’
That worked for me. ‘Great,’ I said, smiling at him. Unfortunately he only flinched. ‘There’s no time like the present.’
It took far longerthan I liked to extract Thane from his adoring fans, and it also took far longer than I’d anticipated to travel back to the heart of Danksville. Bin was more terrified of the tram than he was of me, and after nearly ten minutes of trying to persuade him that it was the fastest and safest way into the city, I gave up. Sometimes you had to know when you were beaten.
‘Fine, we’ll do things your way,’ I said. If we walked it would be dawn before we got close. There was no chance that Bin had walked into Danksville on his previous visits; he had to have another mode of transport.
He grunted and scurried off, leaving Thane and me to follow.
‘Is this a good idea?’ Thane asked in a low voice. ‘Maybe we should meet him there. We can take the tram and he can travel in a way that suits him.’
‘We don’t know where we’re going,’ I pointed out. ‘And Bin doesn’t understand our system of addresses. Sticking close to him will be easiest.’
Thane nodded. ‘Uh-huh. Especially now that he’s just disappeared.’
I blinked and looked around. Shit: a moment ago Bin had been in front of us and now there was no sign of him.
Thane frowned. ‘He wouldn’t run off. This is part of our agreement.’
‘He’s scared of me,’ I muttered. ‘Maybe…’
There was a shrill voice to our left. ‘I have not run off! I am right here!’
Thane and I exchanged looks and turned. Neither of us had spotted the concealed trow hole only a few metres away from which Bin’s head was poking out. And he was furious. ‘Of course I’m scared!’ His high-pitched voice bounced around in the darkness. ‘I know what you are! I know what you’re capable of! If I wasn’t scared, I’d be fucking stupid!’
‘He has a point,’ Thane murmured.
