“Fine.” I dug out the coins and returned the depressingly empty purse to my pocket.
The hand was sucked back inside the dark hole, and the slow cranking of a lever began. The gate opened just enough to allow us through, then snapped shut. I dismounted and tried to take a step toward the gate person, but my thighs locked, fire sparking up my back. I grabbed onto the reins and stared at my useless legs.
“Long ride?” The woman who operated the gates came forward and offered me a hand. With difficulty, I straightened. Every muscle in my body screamed hellfire, even my skin pulsed in irritation. “The chafing’s the worst, lass.”
I grunted.
“Usually, I advise travelers to avoid bathing for a few days but in your case, you may want to grit your teeth and brave it.” She wrinkled her nose.
I grunted again.
“Stables are a mile to the east alongside the wall. There is no riding within the city, mind. Taverns are everywhere so take your pick and the market will be setting up shortly.”
I took a shaky step, the feeling returning to my extremities like knife blades. “Did I already pay you for all this information?”
She laughed. “We set the toll depending on whether we like the look of the traveler or nae.”
She pointed down the central street which shot straight as an arrow toward a large castle in the distance. Houses were crammed down either side like the parting of hair on a head, leaning toward each other over the road. Wooden signs flapped in the breeze and lines of dripping washing hung suspended between them.
There was an unsettling familiarity about it. The street was the same, the shape of the houses, the faint freshness of the moors in the air, but since the prince had claimed this land and barricaded the inhabitants inside with his wall, the town I once knew had mutated. I felt it in the quiet lingering in the vacant side streets and in the moss infiltrating the seams of the houses.
“Castle is down there. Prince already has a new lady of the court mind, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“How often does he get new ones?”
She shrugged. “There is some kind of curse on them poor women. A few have disappeared, some supposedly returned to their towns in the dead of night never to be heard from again.” She lowered her voice. “The last one was found in such a state, the body couldn’t be identified except for the tiara of rubies and diamonds impaled in her skull.”
I grimaced. “A gift from the prince?”
“Aye. The Goddess has her reasons.”
Excellent. If he had faults after all, and the image spread throughout the rest of the kingdom about his generosity was fictitious, this would be a breeze. If he was being targeted for something he’d done by having his ladies of the court murdered, and the people were blaming the Goddess instead of him, there would be scope for blackmail. I could lure him out. How could he not be directly involved in something like that?
“But you need to keep your eyes open, lass,” she continued. “There’s been other disappearances, all young women, rumored to harbor magic.”
“What kind of magic?”
She raised her brows, her hat jumping up her forehead. “Does it matter? All’s illegal up here. The prince is more lenient than most, although don’t let gossip like that travel down South to the queens.”
“Are they linked? The prince’s murdered fiancées and the local women?”
She shrugged. “If I knew that, lass, I’d have a pretty penny by now and be living out my life on the coast somewhere, not freezing out here manning the gate.”
I gathered the reins under the horse’s chin and turned her toward the narrow path that ran alongside the stone wall, my mind brimming with information.
“Before I go, did you set the high toll because you liked the look of me? Thought I was rich enough to pay?” I gave her my best smile, which unfortunately involved my cracked lips bleeding.
She chuckled. “Aye, lassie. I thought you’d be able to pay, but I doubt it’s your own hard-earned money you're touting.” She eyed my old cloak and scuffed boots, raising her eyebrows again at the pristine flaxen pullover underneath. “That cashmere?”
It was a little flashy, but if I was about to spend the winter in the North, I’d be damned if I had to wear only sheep’s wool.
My smile widened. “Whore or criminal?”
She patted me on the shoulder. “I have no preference. Both’ll find plenty of work up here.” She returned to a small three-legged stool by the gate and resumed her vigil of the moorland beyond.
Good. I could play both roles easily.
Siobhan, the horse, seemed quite content with her new lodgings as I passed over the reins—and the rest of my coin purse—to the groom before winding my way to the castle. I stuck to the main street knowing I’d get lost in the random crisscross of alleyways that made up the perimeter.
