Siobhan-ajie,” Fei protested, also sticking his head over the edge of the roof to look down at her.
Siobhan put the swords down so that she could turn and look at them squarely. Just who was corrupting who? “How did it go?”
“Well,” Fei assured her. He flipped off the roof in a quick, heels-over-head movement, landing lithely on the ground. “Rune-gui found a karl to speak with almost before we were through the gates.”
Rune hopped off the roof as well—minus the extra acrobatics—and explained to her, “That was a bit of good luck, that. Ya don’t normally find a karl that quick.”
“But he agreed to meet tomorrow, early in the afternoon,” Fei continued. “For a fee, he’ll tell you what you want to know.”
For a fee, eh? Well, she hadn’t expected anyone from a dark guild to do something from the goodness of their heart. “Fine. Then early in the morning, we leave for Sateren. Rune, you didn’t have any trouble in the city?”
He shook his head. “Not a bit. One thing, though…” he openly hesitated.
“Yes?” she encouraged.
His hand covered the tattoo on his other arm. “This…needs ta be taken off. Ya could see people wonderi’n what I was doing with a good guild.”
Fei nodded in grim agreement. “I thought a few people would actually step in, ask what he was doing with me. Ajie, before we go into Iron Dragain, it has to be removed. It was clear to me today that he won’t be accepted everywhere, not even if we say he’s with us, as long as that mark is on his arm.”
Yes, she had been wondering about that. Turning her head, she called into the house, “Conli!”
She heard someone stand up and the heavy tread against the floorboards, but waited until Conli actually appeared in the doorway before speaking. “Rune needs his tattoo removed. Can you do it?”
“Sylvie mentioned this to me,” Conli responded, stopping on the edge of the porch to avoid getting his shoeless feet dirty. “I won’t know until I look at it. Rune, come closer.”
Rune obediently came forward three steps, turning so that Conli had a clear view of the tattoo.
Conli bent and peered at it for a moment. “You said it’s been here about ten years?”
“Yes,” Rune answered.
“Hmmm, looks that way. It’s a simple enough design, not heavy on the ink, so I think a deep scrub will suffice.”
Sometimes—most of the time, actually—Conli would say things that wouldn’t make an ounce of sense to Siobhan. She sighed in exasperation and requested patiently, “Explain that.”
“Tattoos stay on the skin because the ink goes through the first layer and down deep, toward the muscle.” Conli lifted both hands and tried to illustrate in the air. “In most cases, like this one, it’s a matter of lifting off all the layers of skin and simply scrubbing the ink out of the tissue. This is better than cutting the tattoo free, as it doesn’t do as much damage or leave scarring in its wake.”
Turning back to Rune, he added, “It also won’t take as long to heal. I warn you, the scrubbing will leave you sore and aching for a good week at least. It’s not a pain free experience, it’s just relatively painless.”
Rune shrugged, the amount of pain not fazing him. “It’s fine. I just want ya ta take it off.”
“We can do that tonight. It won’t take more than an hour or so, I think.” Pointing at the porch, Conli directed, “Sit here. I’ll fetch what I need.”
“Do you need more light?” Siobhan asked his retreating back.
In a slightly muffled voice, he responded, “Please!”
It didn’t take more than a few minutes for the preparations to be complete. Siobhan fetched three lanterns, one of which hung from the porch’s roof, the other two elevated by some chairs so that Conli had plenty of light to work by. Rune sat on a bench, Conli side-straddling the bench right next to him with an array of tools on another empty chair brought out for that purpose.
Siobhan, having been treated for a skin disease before with a method that sounded suspiciously similar to what Conli planned now, knew how this would feel. In sympathy, she sat on Rune’s other side, one of her hands holding his.
Rune kept stealing glances at her, obviously unsure what she was doing.
“Conli will apply this salve to deaden the pain around your arm,” she explained to him, knowing what would happen next because of past experience. “But it still feels odd. Uncomfortable, almost. It’s