‘Are you Jay?’
Jay looked at the kid that was peeking into the alley she had made her home. He was just a bit younger than her, maybe twelve? He was scrawny but clean and he wore the uniform of the City Messengers. Jay looked at him suspiciously.
‘Who wants to know? she said sharply. She always felt jealous of the ‘running kids’. They were clean and held a job that brought in real money, even though most of the time it was just tips from the customers. She had tried to become one herself at one point, but the rules stated that you needed permission from your parents and a writ from your local Temple that you were of good character. Jay, having no parents, could not present permission. And the closest Temple would not let her in. Most people in the Drowns wouldn’t be let into a real Temple and had to be content with a corner chapel if they felt religious.
‘I’ve come with a message’, said the kid, eyeing both Jay and her ‘house’. ‘From Mister Green to Jay. I asked at The Magic Lamp and they said that a Jay lives here…’
Jay felt the muscles in her back relax. She hadn’t noticed she was tensing them to begin with. Ever since she had come back to her place, she had felt a knot of anxiety twisting her stomach. She had stuffed the bags in an unused vent a few alleys from her own that was normally always covered with a pile of refuse. If anyone wanted to get to it, they would have to come to terms with digging through a pile of rotting turnips, a medley of discarded packing straw and wood shavings and a nest containing a pack of very irritable mice. She herself had spent the rest of the night buried in her pile of cloth and leaves but unable to sleep. The events of the night played in her mind over and over again. The alley, the alchemist shop, the patrolling guard, and the magic bottles… Then the encounter with a guarded bridge. And Lethe. She just couldn’t stop wondering if he gotten away cleanly. ‘Of course he did!’ she tried to convince herself. ’He knows what he’s doing. He’s been doing this for a very long time, I’m sure.’ Successfully too, she knew, because you only hear about the thieves that were caught and never the ones that stole without anyone knowing. Yet still she had spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon worrying, not even leaving her place.
‘I’m Jay’ she said, now, a bit milder since the kid had actually brought news she was waiting for. ‘Mister Green? That sounds like somebody I know. Let me hear it.’
The kid seemed relieved. He stood straight and started reciting: ‘The message is as follows: Kid, deliver the eggs to a guarded storage on the corner of Fleet Lane and Armistice Street. Ask for Mister Munoz. He will know what to do. End of the message.’
Jay nodded. If she had had any reservations before, she had none now. The message was from Lethe. He had gotten away cleanly.
The kid waited. Jay looked at him quizzically. Then it dawned on her. She flushed and quickly turned around, not wanting the kid to see her embarrassed.
‘Thanks’ she said and waited, hoping that he would get the hint by himself. She didn’t want to admit that she had nothing to give to him, even though he had earned a tip. She heard the kid sigh and then he was gone.
Jay stood there for a moment stewing in her embarrassment. Then she realized that she has a job to do.
She dug out the bags from their hiding places and grimaced. Since the evening, the mice had decided that the bags were the perfect place to set up their new latrines and the bags were covered in droppings. Jay brushed them off before slinging the bags onto her back and moving towards the corner of Fleet and Armistice.
The place was outside the Drowns, but not too far off, so she wasn’t afraid that somebody would take umbrage to her being there. She had no problems locating the guarded storage since the shop proudly displayed a key and a chest over its sign. Jay had never been inside one, since she had never had anything valuable enough to be put under a lock and key, but she was under impression that those were that places that you’d store something you wanted to keep safe. Or a place to drop off something for somebody else to pick up. And if you paid enough, then no one would actually start asking questions like, ‘What is that you want to keep safe’ or ‘Who are the people you leave those for’.
Jay watched the place for a moment, gathering the courage to go in. This wasn’t a bank- a place of marble floors and golden chandeliers, surely they would at least listen to what she wanted before throwing her out? She felt the heaviness of the bags over her shoulders, suddenly conscious that she carried something that no one should know she had. She stepped through the threshold.
It was quite warm inside. A brass-and-iron fireplace radiated heat from the fire in its belly. Two guards stood on each side of the entrance, their leather jackets shining in the light of an oil lamp hung above the ceiling. The only things that shone brighter were the swords at their sides. Deeper into the room there was a tall counter and a woman was tending it. Behind her, there was a room separator made of thick, carved wood, hiding the rest of the room from whomever came in through the door. The woman wore a simple dress with a thick shawl wrapped around her shoulders. Her hair was gathered in a bun so tight that Jay wondered if it was affixed to her head permanently. The woman looked at Jay from behind the counter, her gaze barely visible from behind the thick, copper-wired crystal spectacles on her nose.
‘And what would you want?’
Jay stepped from one leg to another.
‘I’m looking for Mister Munoz’ she said. She was now sure that this woman would definitely not make things easy for her. She was not wrong.
‘Mister Munoz?’ she said. ‘No, that won’t do. You better tell me what you want.’
Jay skewed her face.
‘I was specifically told to ask for Mister Munoz himself’ she said.
‘Well Mister Munoz is a busy man, girl. He would not have time to spare for…’ the woman gave her another glance. This time Jay could feel the pointiness of it despite woman’s thick glasses. ‘…you.’
Jay said nothing. She had been told to ask for Mister Munoz and that’s what she had done. She was not about to talk to the woman instead of him.
‘You better leave.’
‘I was told to talk to Mister Munoz’ repeated Jay, louder this time.
The woman was not impressed.
‘You listen now you tramp’ her voice rose a few octaves and glanced toward the shop’s guards. ‘You leave now or the boys will throw you out!’
If it had been any other place or time, Jay would have hung her head down and left. But this was different. The absurdity of the situation was not lost on her. She was standing there with a load of bottles full of magic on her back and arguing with a woman that could land her in a lockup any time she wanted. Yet, she was not about to leave with a load of stolen goods to wander the streets until an ironhat took an interest in her bags.
‘Mister Munoz! I need to speak to him!’
The woman inhaled deeply and opened her mouth to summon ‘the boys’, but was suddenly interrupted.
‘I heard my name called a few times, yet no one invited me to the conversation.’
Both Jay and the woman looked to the side, where a man emerged from behind the carved room separator. He was tall and thin, with a face that suggested that he was not too fond of eating. He wore a long black leather coat that was laced up from top to bottom. The man was leaning to one side, supporting himself with a polished wooden stick ending in a brass knob. His nose was crowned with a pair of spectacles, almost identical to the ones the woman wore, making them look as if they were related.
Both Jay and the woman stood there with their mouths open, surprised by the appearance of the man. It was obvious to Jay that this was Mister Munoz himself, yet she found that she couldn’t speak under his gaze. The woman behind the counter recovered first.
‘This little…she was insisting, no, demanding to speak to you and I tried to tell her how busy you are-‘
‘No need’ interrupted Mister Munoz. ‘You make so much noise that it is impossible for me to be busy. Now, what do you want with me, girl?’
Jay now had her voice back.
‘Mister Green sent me.’
Mister Munoz looked at her over the rim of his glasses.
‘Do you have a name with which I can address you?’’
‘I’m Jay’ she said, stepping from one leg to other. The politeness in his voice was a bit unnerving to her.
‘Then I must request that you follow me, Miss Jay’ he said finally. Jay followed him in silence, feeling a bit strange after being called a ‘Miss’. No one had ever called her that.
He led Jay behind the room separator and into a space brightly lit with oil lamps. A large table stood there surrounded with wooden chairs and bearing books, inkwells and quills alongside with other writing and counting implements. A heavy iron chest reigned over the clutter, the lock in its side shining faintly with a protective rune. Two doors lead somewhere further on, but those were steel-clad doors that seemed to be too heavy to open, even if Jay wished to. There was also a curious hatch in the wall, also barred by a cover of steel. But Jay didn’t pay any attention to those. She was mesmerised by a sight of an object in the corner. It was a brute of a figure, completely formed out of shining metal and thick rivets. In the dark, one could almost mistake it for a set of armour made for a giant of a man, but in full light of lamps Jay recognized it as an Alloy Man, an automaton powered by magic. Possessing great strength and being nigh invulnerable; those were perfect guardians to all that had money to pay for them as well as money that were in a danger of being stolen. She never saw one up close and was sure that it could crush all her bones with a single grip of those steel gauntlets it had for hands.
Mister Munoz noticed her staring.
‘Oh don’t be concerned about him. He’s harmless’ he stepped up to the giant and poked it in the shining chest with his cane. The Alloy Man didn’t move, only the eyes shone brighter with the magic that gave him life of sorts. ’He will only react if you try to tamper with the things that have been stored here. Or if you try to harm me.’
Jay slowly turned her eyes away from the automaton still feeling uneasy as the burning eyes followed her every move.
‘Now let us proceed with the business at hand.’
‘Um, Mister Green told me to give you those’ she took off both bags and placed them carefully on the table.
Mister Munoz motioned Jay to sit down and pulled a chair for himself. Jay took a chair and waited patiently as the man worked, writing something on a paper label. When he finished, he attached a label to each of the bags, then carried them to the steel hatch. He rapped at it and the hatch opened. He placed both bags inside then the hatch closed by itself. But just a moment later it opened again, spitting a small envelope.
‘I see’ said Mister Munoz. ‘It seems that Mister Green had left this for you.’
He handed the envelope to Jay who turned it in her fingers, unsure that she is supposed to do with it now. She was too embarrassed to admit that she couldn’t read it.
Mister Munoz sat down at the table, watching Jay carefully.
‘Would you prefer me to read it aloud?’ he asked after a moment of silence.
Jay nodded.
He took the envelope back and opened it. He adjusted his glasses and started reading.
‘Kid, you did what I asked, that’s good. I’ve been working with Munoz for some time and I know he can be trusted. As far as a greedy bastard can be trusted that is. Tell him to give you some of that money I put in his care a while back. But if he gives you less than ten copper bits, kick him in the shin and demand more. I’ll wait for you at the usual place and time, three days from now, that is on St Eagle day. Signed- L.’
Having finished reading, Miser Munoz forded the note, put it back into the envelope and handed it to Jay.
‘I better give you the money then, ten coppers? I would rather not be kicked in the shin’ he said with clear amusement in his voice. He pulled the chest on the table closer to himself. The magical lock popped up under his fingers without any key. He reached inside and counted out the coin, then handed then to Jay.
‘Before you leave though, would you mind indulging the curiosity of an old man?’
‘I wouldn’t mind’ said Jay carefully. ‘I think.’
‘I’m curious to know, are you one of Mister Green’s work associates?’
Jay fidgeted in her seat.
‘I’m more of…an apprentice, I’d say.’
Mister Munoz’s eyebrows rose up on his forehead.
‘That is interesting’ he said when he finally convinced them to come back down. ‘Mister Green is not known to take apprentices.’
‘You know him well then?’ Jay suddenly wondered if this man could tell her more about Lethe. At least she could see no harm in asking.
‘He signed his letter to you ‘L’. I might be wrong but that implies to me that you actually know his first name, or at least the name he prefers to use privately. It might be that you already know more about him than I. However I can tell you one thing.’
‘What’s that?’
Before answering, he took off his glasses and was now looking at Jay with unshielded eyes that were as droopy as the eyes of a very tired dog.
‘Mister Green, or L, is a man who is very successful in his trade. Especially considering his…unusual persuasion. Hoverer, he lacks certain political acumen if you know what I mean.’
Jay didn’t know.
‘Well, it might not be of any importance to you. Or at least not at this moment. But it might be something worth remembering perhaps?’
Jay shrugged. Clearly the man would be of no help in learning about why Lethe was the way he was. Although for a moment she wondered why would she care? Lethe was helping her and so far made sure she had her stomach filled. That’s all that should really matter to her.
‘Yes well’ said Mister Munoz, rising from his chair. ‘I won’t keep you any longer. It’s been very interesting to meet you Miss Jay.‘
He escorted her out into the front of the shop and even offered her a shallow farewell bow to complete mortification of the woman behind the counter. But Jay wasn’t paying any attention. She left as the coins she held tightly in her palm seemed to radiate warmth on their own.
She opened her palm slowly, looking at them. The ten copper bits looked back at her. She squeezed her hand shut and sprinted forwards, towards the Drowns. But before she returned home, there was another place she had to be.
The used clothes shop at the edge of the Drowns was less of a shop and more of a hole that was filled with every article that was made to wear. The shopkeeper herself, an old woman with a messy hair was almost invisible, sitting between the towers of breeches, skirts and shirts.
But Jay wasn’t here to dig through the piles. She knew exactly what she wanted. She picked the thickest and the least damaged blanket from the shelf, thrust the money into the surprised shopkeeper’s hand and ran back out, wrapping herself tightly with her new purchase.
Warmth! Warmth! The warmth lingered on her shoulders and spread across her back. She pushed her face behind the scratchy, woollen fabric and breathed the smell of mothballs and dried lavender. She would be warm. Warm in the long winter nights that were yet still to come.
