A Dangerous Game (H 1.6)

It has been a long time since a man touched me quite so gently. I stare up at Regal, frozen, a frisson of something that is not quite fear and not quite fervor flashing through me. My lips part gently, a soft breath escaping and not returning, stolen.

"We sure do, Tus," I finally say softly, using the nickname I called him when we were Ivies. I wonder how long it's been since he heard that name, or how long it's been since he thought of it himself. Years? Months? Minutes? Do we ever move on from the things we leave behind?

I look down, my face moving away from his gentle touch with the motion, and when I look back up, I am resolved to push forward, not be trapped by romantic reminiscing and dangerous dreams. "I need to go see the Vaulters. I want to take Nuport too, but I don't trust her enough to ride with her. Would you take us?"

I really hope that this is worth spending the debt I hold over him. "I just need to change and talk to Nuport, but it should be soon. I want to be back before the Merrimack returns." I take half a step to head back inside. "We can meet you down at the docks soon?" I wait for him to confirm before I head off to change clothes. I'll pick up Nuport on my way down.

Regal agrees to meet you at the docks soon and you head off to look for Nuport. You don't see her in any of the apartments which stand open during the workday, so you head to the bathroom where you saw her chained up. That's where you find her. Her body is covered with fresh bruises and scrapes. Her right pinky is gone, leaving a burned-over scar.

I can't help momentary horror from crossing my face when I see her state. "What happened to you?"

She says Karo, but I hear "you." I'm not even sure if it's the Whispers or my own guilty conscience this time. I study her bruises and cuts, the nothing where her finger should be. It makes me sick to think that, if Karo had his way, all those wounds would have been mine. Is this what the Sipps expected Lucky to do to me?

I swallow down the bile climbing into my throat.

"Where's the key to those chains?"

My molars clench at her question. Karo is an egotistical cretin and the more I know of him, the more I want to watch worms gorge themselves on his wasted brain.

"I'll go find a glass," I tell her, and I turn to go knowing that I plan to return with a glass, and a key. As much as I'd like to take a knife to Karo's back and take his, I look instead for Pall Mall. I can't murder a Sipp and stay only a slave here, so when I kill Karo, it can't be obvious and I can't be here.

Even knowing what the room will smell like doesn't prepare me for the curtain of odor that washes over me when I step inside. I blink back the water in my eyes, walking toward Pall Mall but trying to keep my shoes out of the muck.

"I need Nuport's key," I tell her as if this is an expectation and not a request.

She mentions a fillet knife and my stomach flips. Did she notice I stole the knife after we finished in here yesterday? Or did she just so happen to mention the very tool I walked away with? I'm silent waiting for her to clarify, but then she just asks about Nuport and I let out a quiet breath.

"I'm running an errand for Lucky, and I have to take her along." I give her the answer I practiced in my head like there's no other way about it. This is the task, so I'm doing it, just like her cleaning the squid.

I don't react at first as she fixes her gaze on me, the truth humming in the air between us while I blink slowly once, then again. By the third blink, my gaze is on the sordid floor.

"I'll go get it," I tell her softly. I lift my gaze as I add, "I'm not a newbie. That implies I'm sticking around."

While I retrieve the knife, I take the opportunity to change into something that I hope will make the Vaulters think twice before they shoot me in the back like they did Hard Strike. Beauty is the best armor I can wear.


With the key in hand, I head back to Nuport's prison, increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that it seems - once again - that the Whispers were right. Nuport called me the key, and here I am, showing up key in hand at the Whispers' prodding. With that driving me to simply move past it, I don't waste time heading down to the docks. The longer we linger, the more likely some Sipp will try to stop us. It's best we go quickly.