Page 5 of Veil of Web and Ruin

Still, Rula will only believe in the value of something if it’s hard-won, so I give the protest she’s expecting.

‘I don’t know if I can do that,’ I say to her. ‘Not that quickly. Not without preparation.’

‘You can, or Kay doesn’t get that job.’

I continue my protestations. ‘It would mean stealing from Etta, the Goddess of Life.’

Rula shrugs. ‘Exactly. She doesn’t need it. Hemlock is a herb for Mortidem.’ She cackles a little, amused by her own joke.

What Rula doesn’t know is that my mother was raised by one of the priestesses of Etta. Dinah is practically a grandmother to us, and there have been several times since my father died that I don’t think we’d have survived without her perfectly timed visits, which always included a basket of food.

I consider – just for a moment – asking Dinah outright for the plant but immediately dismiss the notion. She’d say no. I know she would.

Dinah would have no part in giving me a poison that kills quickly without a trace.

‘Who do you want to use it on?’ I ask, because even with Kay at the heart of my thoughts, it matters. It matters who Rula will kill.

‘Some people have wronged me. Badly,’ she says finally. ‘I have enemies. People who think that my falling down would allow them to rise. But the hemlock isn’t for my competitors.’ She offers me a humourless smile that fades almost immediately. ‘There were three girls, not much older than Kay; they lost their lives to this bastard.’

‘Which three girls?’ I ask, a churning sense of dread filling me.

‘Three of my best: Stella, Bryony, and Talia.’

A lump fills my throat. Talia. Kay’s only got a handful of friends in the slums, and Talia was one of them. To lose a friend – and to lose them like that – it’ll break her. My resolve steels. The last thing she needs is to find out the grim truth behind Talia’s death. I’ll have to think of something else to tell her.

‘Why not go to the guards?’ I ask, though I know the answer before the words have finished leaving my lips.

‘He’s a powerful man. The guards will do nothing, and I want him dead,’ she says fiercely, eyes cold as a steel dagger. ‘Dead atmyhands.’

She’s right; the guards will do nothing. They give even less of a shit about us than the king does, if that’s possible. The only time they ever seem to remember that the slums exist is when they come out here with some new order or rules we have to follow.

Or when we try to move our way through to the inner rings. Then they notice us.

Which, I realise, is another issue.

Etta’s temple is in Wrohelm’s third ring, meaning I would have to make my way through three checkpoints. Maybe I could get into the fifth and fourth rings easily enough, but the third … that would require planning. And Rula isn’t giving me any time.

‘Why tonight?’ I ask. ‘I need time to prepare, to plan.’

‘He’s from Galreck, and he travels back tomorrow. It is now or never. And it must not be never, Rose, or I’ll see your sister on her back,’ she threatens, only for her expression to soften, just a little, just around the eyes. ‘My girls did nothing wrong,’ Rula says. ‘He killed them merely because he could. Plucked them from the slums because they were expendable and snuffed them out like they were nothing. Well, they’re not nothing, not to me. They were my girls, and they were under my protection. I failed them, and I’ll see the life leave his eyes for it. Personally.’

Her gaze has drifted away from me, and when it meets mine again, she grimaces. ‘I can’t fight him. He’s too big. And he’s got good magic.’

‘What kind?’

‘Fire wielder. Not as good as your fancy folk up in the High Hold, but strong enough to have me burning before I can get a knife into him. But he can never resist a drink. So a drink with a hint of hemlock … well, that would do the trick nicely.’

A murderer. Can I be partly responsible for the death of such a man? If it will save the lives of more innocent girls, then I know my answer. Still, I need the agreement to be ironclad. ‘If I do this – if I get you the hemlock or some other poison – Kay gets the job?’

She nods. ‘It’s as good as done.’

‘Deal,’ I reply, handing her the tonics.

‘I’ll give you double payment for these vials,’ she says. ‘Just so I know we’re good.’

So I get the poison for her, more like, but I take the money.

‘Remember, it has to be tonight.’