She was not that Elloven anymore. Her mother’s words were a reminder, but she’d known before she got there. She didn’t know what she’d find at the Golden Spiral, but she knew what she was bringing with her.
Elloven stepped inside. It was much busier than the Ivory Virtue, but the clientele seemed more comfortable and seasoned. Body language near the card tables and at the two bars suggested most were regulars and knew each other well. The women offering their trade looked nothing like the fancifully plumed or scantily clad ladies walking up and down the Row. They were dressed like any other woman there, identifiable only by their matching gold-colored fans.
One of them smiled at a man she’d been talking to at the bar and moseyed over to Elloven. “Your pleasure, madame?” the pretty blonde asked with a sweeping gesture at the many offerings.
“Oh, not tonight,” Elloven said genially. “I’m looking for someone. Your proprietor.”
The woman’s brows frowned. “Jessie?”
Elloven bit back a frown. “Yes. Jessie.”
“Family? Friend? Lover?”
“None,” Elloven answered truthfully.
The woman tossed a look over her shoulder at the bar. “Rufus, is the boss here tonight, or out with the redhead again?”
Elloven’s stomach sank. They weren’t talking about her.
“Neither,” Rufus yelled over the din, waving a hand through a waft of smoke. “He’s out back.”
“Out back?”
“Yeah, out back. You know.”
“Ah.” The woman returned her attention to Elloven. “Out back.”
“Out back?”
She pointed toward a hall separating the two bars. “Door is through there. Mind the trash piles. You’ll see a fence, then a field behind it. Head toward the trees but not into the forest. You’ll find him on the edge in his little... tent. Tent? No, it’s more of a gazebo. Or is it a trellis? I should ask.”
Elloven gave her a strange look. “Are you taking the piss?”
The woman scoffed. “You asked for Jessie. I told you how to find him. If you prefer to argue, we can discuss my hourly rate.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Elloven said quickly. “Thank you.” She went to lift her skirt unconsciously, then remembered she’d dressed like a man. It explained the looks she received as she made her way toward the back hall.
She found the door easily enough and had to step over the aforementioned trash piles. It was a few yards to the fence, which she easily climbed over, but the field seemed endless in the dark and snow. She could just make out the haze of the forest’s edge to the west and headed that way.
Elloven spotted the structure the woman had described. It did seem to be tent, gazebo, and trellis all in one, built against a tree with a broad trunk. And within the enclosure, on a bench, sat Jesstin, bent over his spread knees, with his hands joined in the middle.
Her boots crunching in the snow announced her arrival. Jesstin looked up. Sat up. Bewildered dread molded his expression. “Elloven? What are you... What are you doing here?”
“I’m not here to kill you,” she said lightly. “Can I?”
“Can you what?”
“Sit?”
“Ah, I don’t?—”
“Please?”
Jesstin nodded vaguely and moved over to make room for her. “That answers a question, I guess.”
Even being so near him again sent her heart into a fit. Him standing over Castien’s nearly decapitated body had stirred many, many emotions within her, but desire was not one she’d expected.
She looked down, unsure where to begin, but at their feet was a stone placard with dozens of names engraved—including Gennady’s. “What is this?”
