I’d never heard Zayr raise his voice. I’d seen him get angry, but his anger ran cold, which didn’t make it any less deadly. Three days ago, I witnessed Zayr killing someone who couldn’t pay back the gold he owed to Ray. Zayr had slit the poor debtor’s throat with the long, curved knife he carried strapped to his hip,then severed the man’s head calmly like slicing a loaf of bread for midnight meal.
The man whom Zayr caught tonight shook in his grip. The poor man’s shape wavered as he tried to dissolve into shadows to escape.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Zayr slashed with his massive iron knife, chopping the debtor’s arm off.
The man screamed in pain and horror, but with two tendrils now missing, he could no longer turn into shadows.
Zayr kicked his severed arm aside.
“No running,” he growled into the man’s face. “Now, how about that talk?”
The tavern was nearly empty now. Most of the patrons had fled, but I didn’t move from my place at the table by the wall. It’d taken me time and effort to find someone who’d lend me money when I arrived to Ashgate. Now that I was officially on the list of Ray’s debtors, I could rest assured his collectors would find me sooner or later, but I preferred to deal with Zayr. He treated me with respect when all others had run away in horror or disgust.
The collectors grabbed a few more customers of Ray’s who had the misfortune of defaulting on their payments, then took them outside. Zayr left too, dragging the now one-armed debtor out of the cavern with him. I waited until Zayr returned a few minutes later and headed my way.
Not waiting for an invitation, he took a seat at my table.
“How are things, General?”
I winced at the word he used to address me. I’d only told Zayr about my past to make him trust me and help me get the loan I needed, but he’d been using my old rank ever since, even after I had firmly asked him to stop and call me by my name only. Maybe it made him feel more important to know he was dealing with a former general of the royal army rather than just a crippled freak.
There was no point in correcting him again. I just placed on the table the heavy purse with gold that Lady Saedi had paid for Elaine’s pleasure earlier tonight.
“My first payment,” I said. “The rest is coming as agreed.”
His eyebrows flinched. He pulled the purse across the table to him and loosened the strings to peek in.
“You got all this in one night? From just one Joy Vessel?” His mouth fell open, and he didn’t try to hide his surprise.
I took a gold coin out of the purse and flicked it his way. “Keep this one and add it to the sum I still owe Ray.”
He caught the coin, smirked, and slipped it into the pocket of his skirt, giving me a nod. My deal was with Ray. Zayr was just a middleman, managing my debt and collecting payments. But by paying him directly, I hoped to ignite in Zayr a personal interest in ensuring that my business thrived unimpeded.
Zayr tied the strings of the purse, then lifted it, weighing it in his hand.
“What did you make her do to earn this much gold in one night?”
That was my business, mine and Elaine’s. No one else needed to know what we did or how we did it. But if I refused to tell him, Zayr had other ways to find out everything, and I didn’t want him snooping around too close to Elaine.
“Eat,” I said.
Even that one word felt like too much sharing already.
Zayr stared at me incredulously. “Just eat? Nothing more?”
“What more do other Joy Vessels do in Ashgate?” I turned the questions back at him.
“Well, humans derive the most intense pleasure from sex.”
“Sex?” I winced with a shudder, remembering the torturous, mind-blinding, bone-crushing lust of the mating fever I experienced ten years ago. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Beats me, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They clearly enjoy it. Ray has been with his two Joy Vessels since the auction. He hasn’t left his bedroom even once yet.”
“Is he not selling their pleasure then?”
“He says we will. Soon. But he’s keeping them both to himself for now.”
“And…are his Joy Vessels fucking all this time?”
