Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) - Jay Kristoff Page 0,200

enough to be this Remus prick’s daughter shrugged apologetically, and Daniio had the door slammed right in his face.

And so, he’d become a fucking charity master. Fingers worked to the bone. His common room and every bedchamber packed with grumbling, farting, ungrateful Luminatii bastards. They ate like inkfiends on a bender. Drank like starving fish. Stank like an outhouse in truelight. And poor Daniio was getting paid for none of it.

Now, it was three turns since the dogs had arrived in Last Hope. Trelene’s Beau was still four nevernights away, winds being kind, and the way Daniio’s luck was running, he’d not have been surprised to learn Wolfeater and the whole crew had got shipwrecked on the mythical Isle of Wine and Whores and decided to stay a spell.

The Imperial’s larder was gutted from feeding all those soldiers three squares for four turns straight, and Daniio had been reduced to serving mostly soups and stews. Chow this eve was a broth made from the bones of the deeptuna he’d served the turn before, and he’d left it boiling on the burner while he went out into the common room to serve another round of drinks. Every soldier staying in the pub was clustered into booths or crammed eight apiece to his tables. No amount of talk about the “safety and security of the Itreyan Republic” could convince Dona Amile and the dancers at the Seven Flavors to give free ones, so the bastards had nothing to do all turn except drink, mooch about, and intimidate Daniio’s regulars.

After serving drinks, Daniio walked into the kitchen and kicked the back door shut with a snarl. Shuffling over to his stovetop, he gave the broth a good whiff. It smelled a little odd; maybe he’d left the bits out too long. But fuck it all, these dogs were eating free, and if any felt like complaining, he’d had just about enough to spit it right back in their faces.

He served dinner, answered shouts for more wine. After being run off his feet for a half-hour, he managed to get a few minutes to duck out the back alley for a smoke.

“Bastards,” he muttered. “God-bothering bastards and beggars, all.”

Daniio leaned against the alley wall, cursing. He got his smokes from Wolfeater, imported right from the ’Grave. Proper fancy they were, sugar-paper and all. Propping a cigarillo on his lips, he cupped his flintbox with his palm and sparked the flame.

“You’re supposed to be at the garrison tower, Daniio,” a voice said.

“Aa’s cock,” he cursed.

The flintbox fell from his hands, clattered on the alley floor. A girl dressed all in black stepped from the shadows, soft as whispers. Storm winds blew in off the bay, blowing a long fringe around dark, hard eyes. Leaning down slowly, she picked up the flintbox. Tossed it into the air and caught it in one dirty fist.

“’Byss and blood, you near took me out of my skin, girl,” the publican swore. “What the blue fuck ya doin’ creepin’ ’round…”

He blinked at her, his left eye traveling up her body a little slower than his right.

“’Ere, do I know you? You look … familiarish.”

The girl leaned forward with a smile and plucked the cigarillo right from his lips. Placing it on her own, she leaned against the wall opposite and sighed, drawing on the smoke as if her life depended on it. She looked more than a little grubby, truth be told, hair crusted and skin filthy. But her curves were a rare treat, and her lips the kind you’d sell your mother to get a taste of.

“You’re supposed to be at the garrison tower, Daniio,” she repeated.

“… What for?”

“You serve evemeals there, if I recall.”

Daniio frowned the girl up and down. She was just a slip of thing. Half his age. But there was something in the look of her. In the eyes mebbe. Something that made him more than a little nervous without quite knowing why …

“Don’t serve ’em no more,” he said. “Garibaldi threw a fit after he and his boys got a taste of the roaring shits. Same nevernight as his horse got nicked. They cook their own grub over there now. Centurion’s orders.”

The girl sighed gray.

“Serves me right, I suppose. But that leaves us with a problem.”

Daniio looked up and down the alley, acutely aware he was alone with this girl. That she was armed heavier than most anyone outside a gladiatorii arena had a right to be. That she was watching him the way