cold, dank, and rotten. She swore she could hear the skittering of rats in the shadows, too.
Maybe Wolf had a good point about her not going in here alone.
She kept her hand carefully away from the long daggers at her waist and tried not to look unnerved. Somewhere…somewhere in here there had to be signs of life. She kept her eyes peeled for it, scrutinizing everything. Where did this group normally hang about? Oh? Up ahead a small fire burned in a brazier that had seen better days. No one was in sight, but they’d have bolted for the nearest cover upon seeing her and Wolf. The brazier gave her a good stopping point. Not to mention some much-needed light.
She stopped in front of it, kicked an upturned crate onto its side, and used it as a table of sorts to spread her bounty of food on. She made sure that the thick loaves of bread, cured meat, wheels of cheese, and the last haul of apples for the season could be plainly seen from every angle. Then she sat back on her heels and called out in a strong, loud voice, “My name is Siobhan Maley. I need information. Is there anyone that is willing to eat and speak with me?”
Taut moments passed. Finally, a tenor voice called out from the shadows, “’o’s he?”
“Ah, this is Wolf,” she introduced pleasantly, as if this was an everyday introduction. “He’s my friend. He was kind enough to help me bring enough food for everyone.”
Very, very slowly, a thin body stepped out of the shadows. The boy couldn’t have been more than fourteen, and while he looked scrawny, he had a full set of clothes on, so he had to be fairly successful at some sort of livelihood. He came forward with a steady but slow pace, his eyes looking them over intently with the air of a cornered animal. Siobhan pegged him as the leader of the group as no one else dared to make even a peep.
She met his eyes levelly and stayed very still, letting him come in at his own pace. He stopped a good five feet away, not daring to get any closer. He kept darting looks at Wolf, expression blank but body language uneasy.
“Wolf,” she muttered from the side of her mouth, “Will you stop looming and kneel? You’re scaring the kid.”
“I’m not doing anything!” he protested softly.
“You’re breathing. That’s enough.”
With a put-upon sigh, he sank to one knee beside her, hands carefully in view.
“Come eat something,” Siobhan invited with a charming smile, beckoning the boy closer. “Among my people, we eat when we talk business.”
With Wolf’s silent intimidation somewhat weakened, and under the charm of all that food laying out in the open, the boy ventured in closer although he clearly wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not.
“Ya…ya don’t look like slavers.”
Siobhan blinked. Is that what he was afraid of?
“No, we’re an escorting guild. We’re actually here to find some missing friends of ours.” Seeing him eye the food hungrily, she broke off a piece of bread and popped it into her mouth, proving to him silently that she hadn’t drugged it in any way. As soon as she did so, he grabbed the loaf and starting stuffing whole chunks into his mouth.
Someone, at some point in time, had tried to trick these kids. It made Siobhan boiling mad to think of it. What, their lives weren’t difficult enough? They had to worry about being caught and sold as slaves, too? Without a word, she picked off a small piece of everything and ate it, proving it all safe. When she did so, more children started coming out of the buildings, although they didn’t come to where she sat. She counted fifteen, but who knew how many there actually were.
When the whole loaf was consumed, the boy sat back and offered, “I’m Lenney. So what’s yar business, guildie?”
Now she was getting somewhere. “Like I said, we’re looking for missing friends. We don’t know if they made it through this city or not. I can prove they came through Island Pass, but I want to know if they made it to Quigg. I also want to know if they left and where they were going.”
His dark eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “How many we talkin’ ‘bout?”
“It was a group of sixteen from Blackstone Guild.”
“How long back?”
“Hmmm…I’d say over a week. They’re five days overdue in Sateren.”
He shrugged his ignorance. “Don’t know ‘bout ‘em.”