I resisted the urge to curse. Not only would it not do anything, but the assortment of thugs before me and Tolman might think it referred to them.

  It did, but provoking them wouldn’t do any good.

  Five people stood outside the entrance, maybe a doze away. Most of them wouldn’t look out of p the street, dressed like vagrants, bearing the staieeth of those addicted to one substance or another. Of course, most vagrants didn’t stand in a loose liside the entrance of this pce. Most vagrants didn’t possess the very well-kept khis group was using to do such muasks as pig their nails.

  Most also didn’t have a trio of street rats behind them, one of whom was busy making obse haures at me while shrieking insults about my parentage.

  There were no Bck Fme tattoos in sight, which was not a shock. Part of the reasotoo existed was for members of the gang to deliberately not have it. Badges of honor and sisterhood were useful for morale, but they were also useful for making the Watch think you had to have oo be a member.

  “I think we’ve been followed,” I fided in Tolman quietly.

  “Amazingly, I must agree. Raises the question, why do you think the kid tried to put tracers on us then? It’s not like you renting out of here is a secret.”

  “Maybe they didn’t expect us to e here,” I replied before tinuing from the frorao the street below.

  I didn’t reize any of the Bck Fme, although the leader seemed a little familiar. I reized the three orphans in the back, the lead one being the ickpocket. He had given up on parental-based insults. Now a grin on his face that threateo bisect his head with how broad it was, eyes taunting.

  Ah, the follies of youth. I pulled a pistol from within my coat, not all the way. Just enough for the flintlock hammer to clear the coat. His eyes widened immediately, the smile vanishing. He and his two friends scampered off into the distance.

  The lead Bck Fme leader looked at their fleeing forms and then turned her attention bae. “Was that really called for?” She chided me. “He already got a chewing out for fug up the job on you. Poor kid’s also going to get a shing from Syn, he’s got enough problems for today.”

  I folded my arms, not reag for my rept saber quite yet. Lashings? Huh, just when I thought Versalicci couldn’t get any worse in managing his little criminal empire. Syn being alive wasn’t too much of a shock. Rats khe best ways to escape death.

  “sidering that he put tracers on my person knowing how this would probably turn out, I don’t see putting a fright into him as some grand sin. Why are you here?”

  The leader held her hands up pgly. “Mr. Versalicci wants to have a chat with you is all. About your mutual dead friend Mr. Golvar.”

  “Calling Golvar a friend is stretg it,” I replied. “But if he wants to ask how Golvar died, the answer is simple and doesn’t need me. Got stabbed to death by Pure-Bloods, as part of a delivery. He probably knows more than me about that.”

  I khis one from somewhere, now that I was focused more ohan the ur. The unsymmetrical cheekbones, for ohing, one lower and forced inward pared to the other. It probably had been broken sometime in the past and never healed properly. The tail end of my time in the gang? Probably.

  “Mr. Versalicci doesn’t doubt you didn’t kill him. But he does have some…questions he wants answered in person. As well as some missing property he thinks you possess.”

  Tolman moved o me, expression calm, but I could read the tension behind that. So could the leader of the group, who now had a hand firmly inside her coat. Pistols? A risk of the Watch, which would normally not be a factor except they’d been here yesterday.

  I wish I could tell him to back away. We couldn’t unicate with each other, at least not with the hand signals. I really should have set up some kind of alternate form of unication for us that didn’t have its ins ihe Bck Fme.

  “You tell Mr. Versalicci that I will meet with him on the subject at a ter date, but I do not possess his property,” I said.

  One of the thugs chuckled as the smile on the leader’s face grew a mite less warm.

  “How about you tell him yourself?” she asked.

  “I unfortunately have a very busy day, nor do I particurly want to see Mr. Versalicci. I made that very clear st time we met I did not want to see him again, no amount of gifts would ge my mind, nor any other overtures he might make. If you want to take a message back, how about this? I’ve made it clear I’m through with him, and if he insists on tinuing his pursuit of me, I will reveal things he does not want made public.”

  The leader’s face went bnk, and some of the others were muttering amongst themselves. While I didn’t make out much, a few words were loud enough to hear. ‘Think she’s the dy in red?’

  What, no, the Lady in Red was dead. Laurata had breathed her st, not being paid ba the slightest for being Versalicci’s….

  My mind bnked as they ected the dots of what this group of Bck Fme was clearly thinking.

  The leader cleared her throat. “I was told this was a delicate case, didn’t realize it was that delicate. Miss Laurata, it’s been a while since we st met, but I assure you this isn’t reted to the retionship you had with the boss.”

  Tolman started r with ughter, making it for a full sed before I elbowed him in the ribs.

  This o be crified. Immediately. “You misuand me, I am not Lau -”

  One of the Bck Fme go the side and then immediately turned, knives clearing their coat. My oulled out my flintlock, head turning.

  Four humans were heading our way, es in hand, the one in front bearing a top hat. More Pure-bloods? Why would they be here?

  Don’t question it Malvia, I told myself.

  The Bck Fme leader had spotted them as well. She gestured to the other members of the gang, who turheir attention away.

  By the time they turned back to the entrance, me and Tolman were halfway to the alleyway.

  I resisted the urge to look back as a gun fired behind us. It didn’t impaywhere near us. The best thing to do was leave and leave the two gangs to beat and kill each other instead.

  Munshots sounded as we skidded into the alley. I spared a moment to look behind us. The Bck Fme members were seemingly torn but most had turned on the Pure-Bloods.

  I slipped my pistol bato my coat as I ran. o present a threat. Time for the opposite, actually.

  Tolman gave me a look of fake sdalization as we hurried through the alleyway, a grin threatening to break through the surface. “So did you mean to imply you and Versalicci were slee-”

  “Finish that sentence, and I’ll remove the repairs on your horns,” I said.

  I spared a look behind us. No one had even bothered chasing after us. Both groups probably knew where I lived, they weren’t too fussed about wasting their m chasing us. I was almost insulted by how little effort they were putting into this.

  Then again, they were likely too busy killing each other.

  “We stop. And no, I did not io give that impression.” Even sidering the thought made my stomach rebel worse than the diabolism had.

  “He’ll probably be just as horrified as you if he hears about it. That or he thinks he got things very wrong and thinks you’re really Laurata in disguise. Which well, sidering what your disguise as Fara looks like, I see why.”

  I sidered the shade of my skin and the adjustments I’d made i few days and came to a horrific realization. “Oh gods, I do look a little like Laurata. No wohey suspected I might be her. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Tolman chuckled. “I thought you were aiming for that kind of look?”

  Unsciously maybe. When I was fourteen, Laurata seemed to be the most elegant and refined person ience. Had I gone for a look simir to hers because of that?

  I sighed. This disguise would o be ged regardless. “Okay. Enough on that. Did yhe leader of that little band?”

  Tolman looked back down the alley towards where the fight must be raging on. “Not by name. She was a new recruit right before everythi straight to hell. Guess she’s advanced far up the ranks sihen.”

  “She wouldn’t have a lot of petition,” I replied. “Well, it seems from the ck of whistles the Watch is not as on the ball as they were yesterday. We should probably use that to our advantage a as far away as we .”

  “I’m surprised you want to run. I imagine whoever’s left will try and break into your b?”

  “They will,” I agreed. “I’d say they’d have to make it past the defenses first, but sidering st night….write it off as a loss.”

  We finally slowed down to a walk. Whistles were beginning to blow, but nowhere near us. I turned back to face where my b had been. Gods damn it, I’d just built that pce up, and most of Lady Karsin’s payment had goo that. Paihrough my palms.

  “Malvia, your hands,” Tolman warned me.

  My nails had started cutting into my palms. Cursing, I pulled them out, watg as drops of blood started falling. It took half a sed to get some cloth out of a pocket and it over the bleeding wounds.

  Tolman looked at me cautiously. “robably take the survivors of that little skir-”

  “Don’t,” I cut him off. “I appreciate the thought, but I doubt it’s the st group that will be sent, and we just don’t have time to move anything. I got the cures fel’s Sorrow out st night. It’s not ideal, but we rebuild, and you are not risking your life over this.”

  “Alright. What’s our move then?”

  “You’re move is heading home before Arses more reason to kill me,” I muttered. “For me, is meeting with Halmon and then dealing with Kasyp’s ts.”

  “With how worried you’ve been, I’m surprised you don’t think Kasyp’s offer is a trap,” Tolman said.

  “The thought did y mind,” I fessed. “But if they knew where my apartment is, there’s no real e for me to head to his b.”

  “Wanting to abduct you in a more quiet, isoted spot?”

  “His b is underground and right o the Delver’s Guild headquarters,” I said. “Trying to abduct me would be right o people who might actually intervene if they see someone being abducted.”

  Tolman whistled. Getting real estate in one of the old dwarf quarters was an achievement.“How did he get such a prime piece of real estate?”

  “Old deals with the guild masters,” I answered. “He used to be something of an adventurer a tury or two back.”

  “You’re joking. He doesn’t look it even a little. And he’s extended his life?”

  “Apparently, they don’t mind too much if it’s doh enemies of the state. Whicludes anyone who happens to be in a duhe Empire wants to be cleared.” We’d reached the street by now, and after a sed Tolman was heading dowreet.

  I headed the other way, still cheg my hands. The cuts weren’t too deep, so healing them could wait. I could take the main tunnels down, but I didn’t want to run the risk of being ambushed by anroup of Pure-bloods or Bck Fme.

  Time for the smaller tunnels. There were dozens of them, and not well-patrolled. This close to the surface, there shouldn’t be any creatures there. But given my luck today, there probably would be something down there.

  I checked the flintlock. I’d been holding out on buying a revolver, the neon costing easily twenty times a trusty old flintlock. That was ging the first ce I got. But for now, it would have to suffiderground.