Elloven snapped her focus to him. “You know them?”
“Not by choice,” he said tersely. “You two get around, don’t you?”
“Can you explain?” asked the shorter one. Though they looked nothing alike, Elloven couldn’t shake the distinct sense they were twins.
“You were just at the other market.”
The “twins” exchanged a theatrical look. “Oh, but there is only one Forum Obscura, man of mirrors,” said the taller one.
“Or you used the especular to travel here and fuck with me. Anyway, not so nice to meet your acquaintance again. I’m looking for a map.”
“Oh, a map,” the women said in perfect, exaggerated sync. Their faces lit up like they were talking about the lost kingdom of Ilynglass. “The standard markets sell plenty of maps, you know.”
“And you fucking know I’m not here for a standard map or a standard market, so show me to whatever devious bastard can help me and get on with it.”
Elloven might not admit it to him, and it was certainly a commentary on her pattern with men, but there was something indescribably erotic about the attitude that arose when Jesstin’s patience was exhausted.
But there was another emotion at play, and she hoped the strange women hadn’t sniffed it out: Jesstin was using insolence to cover his fear.
The twins batted their lashes and smiled in perfect simpatico. They pivoted on their heels and marched down the third path to the right.
Elloven nudged Jesstin to fall behind. “We need the map, but we also need to find another one of those mirrors, so we can get you back to the other market.”
“Yeah,” he said, but he was somewhere else.
They passed the most unusual stalls on their long walk. Potions masters, mind readers, fortune tellers, and more, though the longest line belonged to a woman peddling communication with the living through necromancers.
“You have to be taking the piss,” Jesstin hissed and pulled to a hard stop. “No. Not this bitch.”
Jesstin’s irritation was directed at a woman dressed in a patterned suit that made Elloven’s eyes cross. She wore a top hat, which had gone out of fashion before Elloven was even born, and her cane was even more distracting than the brash suit. It gave the illusion it was swirling, endlessly, and Elloven had to make herself stop staring at it.
“I feel compelled to say I am glad to see you found what you were looking for,” said the woman, looking directly at Elloven with a chilling glower. “I expected you might be back, but so soon?”
“Jesstin, who is this?” Elloven asked.
“Has he not told you?” The woman approached, growing taller as she did. She removed her unwieldy hat and bowed low. “Elloven Hawthorne, I’m the Conductor, and we are well met. Are you here to make a deal?”
“You’ll speak to me,” Jesstin said. He released Elloven’s hand and stepped between them. “She doesn’t exist, not to you.”
“But she does. I can see her plain as day.” The Conductor winked and grinned at the murky sky. “Or night.”
The Conductor snapped her fingers, and the twins scampered off, grumbling about overdue commissions. Elloven almost missed them when left alone with the most unsettling creature she’d ever made acquaintance with. She had no trouble believing this “conductor” collected pieces of souls, and she wouldn’t be shocked to learn she devoured them at breakfast either.
“I don’t need a mirror—or your nonsense,” Jesstin said. His tone was full of venom, most of which he was obviously holding back. “Your demented twins sent me to the wrong vendor. I’ll find the maps on my own.” He reached for Elloven and tugged her away.
“But you have found the maps, traveler!” The Conductor tapped her cane, and the swirls changed from black and white to red and purple. “There are no other maps here, and here you will find the maps.”
There was something more to the Conductor. Sinister, yes, but that only scratched the surface of what Elloven felt in the trader’s presence.
She’s hungry. No... starving.
The woman wasn’t merely trying to run a business. She was siphoning humanity, one transaction at a time.
“You think your gibberish is mysterious. It’s asinine.” He reared back and spat inches from her pointed boots. “We’ll find another sepulchral market. Elloven, come on.”
Elloven was more than ready to oblige, but then the Conductor... flashed, which was all she could think of to describe the way she had been standing on one side of them and then appeared on the other.
“There is only one Forum Obscura, and Forum Obscura is the singular sepulchral market,” the woman said.
