for the night.”
“Not a laugh,” I started. “The Rough Boys—“
“Not interested in excuses,” He said, suddenly leaning forward. “Don’t give a toss what your reasons were. If he’d decided to close us down for the many laws we’ve been breaking, we’d dance our last dance at the deadly nevergreen.”
A chill rushed over my skin. Just like some cultures had dozens of words for snow, Albians had dozens of terms for hanging. Climbing the tree, ladder to hell, twitching over the abyss, the last dance, and the deadly nevergreen. We were a cheerful sort that way.
“But he’s not shutting us down,” I pointed out. His phrasing had told me that much.
Ernald cocked his head. “Look, at the end of the day, it’s my job to make money, isn’t it? And Count Saklas has made me a very good offer. Very good indeed.” He steepled his fingers, the hint of a smile now forming on his lips. “Not just me, Lila. He’s made you a good offer.”
I stared at him. “Offer for what?”
“He wants you to be his …” He cleared his throat, then looked down at the paper before him. “His amanuensis.”
I looked between Finn and Zahra, wondering if anyone was going to fill me in on what the fuck an amanuensis was, but they looked as perplexed as I was.
“Okay. What’s that?” I asked.
“Courtesan, I should imagine,” said Ernald. “Not sure why he wanted you, but maybe he likes being punched. Not my place to judge.”
I stared at him. “Sorry, what?”
Ernald shrugged. “Some men like a bit of fight. Makes it more exciting.”
I drummed my fingers on the armrests. “But he didn’t seem interested in me in that way. I mean, he left without anything happening. Also, at the risk of sounding like a downer, he’s somewhat of a murderer. There are bodies hanging outside his palace.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Ernald shrugged. “World is full of bad people.”
“He’s not people,” I countered. “That feather Zahra uses, you know it’s a real angel feather, right? There’s people out there convincing themselves these things are bird feathers. But we know better.”
“Course we do,” said Finn.
“He’s an angel of death,” I said. “I could feel it on him. He glows with a terrible power. He’s got fire in his eyes, and this sort of divine wrath thing. It’s really off.”
Ernald blew out a smoke ring. “Sure, and I understand your divine wrath concerns. But he has offered us a considerable amount of money. Very considerable indeed.”
Well, now he had my attention. I needed money. And moreover—maybe this was my chance to find out what happened to Alice. “Us? Both of us?”
“Twelve thousand crowns to me, and two thousand to you. Per year.”
Two-thousand crowns nearly solved my mum’s debt problem. But not entirely.
Zahra snatched the paper out of Ernald’s hands. “All due respect Ernald, but that’s not what it says. It says twelve thousand crowns to Zahra Dace. That’s me. And two thousand to you. Per year.”
Ernald grabbed it back, his eyes narrowed in a warning. “Well you won’t be getting any, will you? You’re nothing to do with this, apart from your name being on the contract.”
“I’m not asking for any money.” Zahra nodded at me. “But that means twelve thousand should go to Lila, who is pretending to be me. If Lila is taking the risk, she should get the money. What have you got to lose, Ernald? You’ll be behind a desk.”
I stared Ernald down, arms crossed. “I’m not risking my life for the beggar’s portion.”
Despite my negotiations, I knew I wanted to do it. Even apart from the money, I wanted a chance to see inside the castle. Was Alice still in there? Maybe I could actually see her again.
And if I was going to do it, I might as well get as much money as I could out of the situation. “If I take this job,” I added, “I will be consorting with an enemy of Albia. If I ever make it out of there alive, I’ll be an outcast. A traitor to the Albian kingdom. I’ll need all the money I can get.”
“A traitor to your kingdom?” Ernald didn’t like my bargaining. In fact, he looked like he was considering leaping over the table and smashing my head into it. “First of all, there is no Albian kingdom. Not anymore. Can’t have a kingdom without a king, can ya? Second of all, things weren’t exactly better when we had a king. He was a prick.