Jay had her face down to the cobblestones. The frost and mud covering the hard stone tasted foul and bits of gravel were pushing against her skin. The foot pressing down on her neck kept her from raising her head. Each time she tried to move, her shoulder, twisted behind her back was screaming in agony. The fingers wrapped around her wrist held like a vice.
‘See now?’ said Lethe. ‘That’s how it’s done.’
‘Mh-hm’ mumbled Jay, trying not to get any more dirt or gravel into her mouth. It was a lie of course. She still had no idea how in an instant she went from trying to attack Lethe to being on the ground and unable to move.
‘It’s a dirty trick, but works every time’ said Lethe, letting go of her wrist and stepping off her neck. ’It would be good if you learned it.’
‘Not every time’ grimaced Jay. She rubbed her shoulder, trying to make it feel less like it was just barely attached to her body. Last time she tried to use that technique on Lethe she only made her elbow hurt.
‘Just needs some more practice’ Lethe smiled, baring his teeth.
‘But how-‘
‘How do I make it work?’ he shrugged. ‘It’s just that almost all the bastards coming at me are taller and heavier than me. And so would be the ones coming at you. You just need to make it work for you. Get used to the thought of hurting somebody seriously.’
‘Easily said’ grumbled Jay.
‘Enough of that bellyaching. Show me how you handle your dagger.’
Lethe pulled closer the lantern that was standing on a wooden crate. The alley was really dark tonight, and the yellow flame contained within was bathing them both in amber light.
Jay took her blade out of the sheath and ran a few routines, swinging the blade in the air. She was feeling more and more comfortable with it, being able to change hands without stopping.
‘Right. Now, come closer. I want to show you something.’
Jay stopped and lowered the blade, looking at Lethe a bit dumbfounded. In the meantime, he removed his cowl and jerkin. Then starting to pull down the linen shirt he wore underneath.
Jay stared. Under his clothes, the skin on his chest was a shade of deep green, a bit darker than on his face and almost perfectly smooth, save for faded scars left by cuts long-healed. It was stretched tight on his frame, revealing muscles underneath and shallow-running veins. It was a shape of someone who has to drive their body hard almost all the time. On the right side of his chest he had a scar that was brighter than the rest, a small white cross of a cut that ran deeper than the others. Jay wondered what would make such a mark. It was as if something had been removed from under his skin. Or as if somebody had marked him deliberately.
‘W…What are you doing?’ she said, feeling her cheeks turning pink. She knew that she shouldn’t stare. But she couldn’t look away either.
‘I take no pleasure in this’ grumbled Lethe ‘I’d rather had somebody to show it on, believe me. It is bloody cold so pay attention.’
‘Here’ he cocked his head and ran his finger down one then the other side of his neck. ‘There are two arteries- here and here. Slash them and any poor sod will bleed out in minutes.’
He shifted his finger to the front of his throat, the black fingernail moving like a pointer.
‘Cut the windpipe and they’ll suffocate. Lots of noise though, gurgling and flapping- very unpleasant.’
‘The heart is on the left ‘he continued, pointing to his chest. ’ But you need to get through the ribcage, so it needs to be a mighty push. And then there is this little place, right under the rib-cage and straight in the middle. Hit that and you’ll make a man breathless.’
He chuckled, but then shuddered. The cold air current made his skin break out in goosebumps.
‘Gut wounds are often good if you want someone suffer before they die’ his finger continued downwards. ‘The same spot on the back and you have kidneys- good and nice large target. And then…’
His finger stopped just below his belly button.
‘Well, stab a man in the balls and he’ll regret everything that he ever did in his life right up to this moment. And all of the above goes for Nyrah, Adanish, Abrecari, Kou, even the Irichi despite all the extra muscle-meat they carry on their shoulders. But I guess you won’t be seeing those anytime soon.’
He picked up the edge of his shirt and pulled it back over his shoulders. Jay blinked, finally able to look away.
‘And why do you think I’m telling you all that?’
‘Uhm…’
Lethe scoffed.
‘There is little point to slash and stab blindly. Each strike must be made with intention. And that intention is to kill. Get it?’
‘I get it’ she said, swallowing. The life in the Drowns was always what it was. But up until now it was more about running, lashing with her little shiv, drawing blood and getting away. Or swinging her pipe if the need be. But now he was telling her about killing, not as an accident or a last resort. He was talking about plunging her dagger into someone’s flesh, deliberately and coldly, leaving a body under her feet. She remembered what he said in Brigfen’s workshop, that he wouldn’t balk from staining his hands.
‘Right’ he said, picking up the lantern. ‘Enough for today. There are whole lot of boozing and whoring I need to do. The money won’t spend themselves, hehe. Do you want the light?’
‘No’ said Jay. She knew those streets enough to walk with her eyes closed; they were just a few streets away from The Magic Lamp.
Lethe raised the lantern to his face and blew out the flame.
‘Lethe wait, what are-‘ started Jay but she felt sudden emptiness where Lethe was standing. She was going to ask him about the Irichi, a word that she never heard before. Were they a strange tribe of people perhaps? Were they hailing from behind the mountains or the sea?
Jay shrugged. There sure wasn’t any here, so what’s the point of wondering?
Jay rubbed her face with a sleeve, hoping that she took off all of the mud that she gathered lying on the cobblestones. Her stomach reminded her that it was time for a late supper.
The Magic Lamp was as full as usual and Jay welcomed its smoky warmth and the drone of the crowds. It was comforting, an island of life after the dark emptiness of the streets, with the magical light of the lamp painting everything orange.
Jay pushed herself to the bar and waited in the corner until she could grab a stool for herself. Perched in the seat, she flagged one of Abzeda’s boys that tended the bar, ordered and paid for a bowl of whatever was boiling in the cauldron right now and a piece of dark bread. It turned to be a bargeman’s stew- bits of fish floated in it alongside rubbery bodies of oysters, covered with what turned out to be cabbage leaves. Jay got herself a tankard of porter too and sipped it, enjoying the pleasant weight of a full stomach.
‘Times seem kind to you recently, little dove.’
‘Evening Abzeda’ said Jay. Abzeda looked at her as if she expected a comment on her statement. But since she got none, she came closer cleaned over the bar and looked intently at Jay. Her large eyes seemed to be scrutinizing Jay’s entire person.
‘I mean it. I mean –look at you. A few short months and you seem like someone different.’
Jay said nothing, knowing that the old Nyrah woman is right. She could see the change in herself. Her gaunt face filled-in and rounded. Her eyes no longer seemed sunken. Even her hair, while still unruly like an overgrown forest, seemed to acquire a more defined shade of pale brown. Her body seemed stronger too and more…alive. Sometimes she would wake up to her heart racing for no reason at all, but to chase the pleasures of a dream that barely had time to evaporate. Her blood quickened, just like that time when she had noticed her body changing from a child’s to that of a woman’s.
Abzeda leaned over the bar to be closer to Jay.
‘Listen, little dove’ she said with a tone that she would use with one of her sons when she thought that they were up to no good. ‘You know that I would never judge, or at least not harshly. And you could say it is none of my business and you’d be right. But would you listen to an old Nyrah?’
‘What do you mean?’ Jay shifted in her seat. Wasn’t she careful enough trying to hide where her money came from? She tried as much as possible to conceal the influx of coin. Although she had to make alterations to her wardrobe on account of the weather truly turned towards winter now, so Jay didn’t have to suffer as it was always so during the cold months. She still wore her old ‘hem-less’ dress, but underneath she had a woollen shirt, nearly as long as the dress itself and a pair of used, but very well mended woollen stockings. Her shoes were re-soled and no longer letting the cold to bite at her toes. The only truly new addition, apart from the blanket she still wore as an outer garment, was a knitted hat with a wooden button at the top and a pair of fingerless hand warmers. The only thing that didn’t belong with her outfit was the small magically-enhanced diamond that she got the first night she went roof-running with Lethe. She wore it on her neck, hidden under all of the layers of clothes, for luck or maybe as a last resort bribe if she was ever caught. Jay was sure that only the most discerning eye would notice the change in her looks. After all, she was just Jay- the ‘loon’un’ that lived in the alley. Who would care to notice what she wore as long as it wasn’t silks and furs?
But Abzeda noticed.
‘My advice is- always insist to see the money first’ she said. ‘Never let yourself be led somewhere you don’t know. And carry a knife. The men, bastards the lot of them, but none so tough if you stab them in the unmentionables.’
Jay choked on her porter. It was less because Abzeda seemed to think that Jay finally turned to whoring to earn her daily bread but more so that it was the second time today she would be advised to stab a problematic man in the crotch. And that in turn made her mind skip back to Lethe trying to detail to her the best places to strike, his finger travelling down his smooth, green skin…
Jay mumbled something non-committal and stared down into her tankard like there was something really interesting at the bottom, not wanting Abzeda to see her flush.
‘You should visit an alchemist regularity too’ continued Abzeda. ‘A doctor maybe even, if any of those high and mighty would lower themselves to see you. Never think that you have to- What? Shoo!’
Jay lifted her gaze from the tankard, just to notice one of Abzeda’s Kou standing next to her. She met the gaze of the yellow eyes, the eyes that looked almost identical to Lethe’s.
‘Shoo ! said! Off with you Joshul!’
‘Wait Abzeda!’ called Jay. ‘It’s alright. He isn’t doing anything wrong!’
‘Off, off with you I say!’ growled the woman, not paying any attention to what Jay was saying. ‘I won’t have you bothering my customers!’
She sprang from behind the bar, clouted Joshul in the ear. The Kou slumped his shoulders, but never let his eyes off Jay, his face as expressionless as ever.
‘Abzeda!’ called Jay again, but it was to the back of the woman, who was now too bust herding her Kou back towards the hearth. The Kou followed her without a sound of protest.
Suddenly Jay felt that she lost interest in her porter or in continuing the conversation with Abzeda, at least for tonight. She slipped of the stool and parted the crowd of tavern’s patrons, heading to the door. It would be an early night after all.
