Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (35 page)

“So Mingles have been disappearing and nobody cares?” I was horrified.

Jeetz shrugged. “Pretty much. Now I’m not sure if there’s any link between these disappearances and the troubles your Aӣấ has been having but—”

“What troubles?” Charlie was instantly alert. “She hasn’t told me anything!”

“Hmm, well it’s a bad business she’s in. Very bad indeed.” He shook his head in disapproval. “My sources indicate that there is some sort of… rival organisation, more than willing to take on the contracts she refuses. It appears that this organisation has even less in the way of morality and respect for life than Aӣấ. But that’s Humans for you, they’ll do anything for money. No offense, Jaseth.”

“Er, none taken.”

“So is Aӣấ in danger?” Charlie asked desperately.

Jeetz gave him a wry smile. “I thought we were here to talk about this Odette girl? Ah well, no, I’m sure she’s not in any personal danger, she’s more than capable of looking after herself, but…”

“Yes?” Charlie almost yelled at him.

“Well, those whose contracts have been refused by our friend Lya Myn tend not to be overly pleased about it. And the families of the contracts that the other organisation freely accepts are even less so. Do you understand? Perhaps with the Queen’s imminent arrival the increased presence of the city guards will deter some of this activity, but you know how useless the guards are.” He gave a mirthless laugh. “Or perhaps it will go the other way and the presence of the Royal Party will act as some sort of catalyst, but for what I have no idea.” Jeetz toyed with his wine glass and sat back in his chair.

“Now like I said, I’m not sure yet whether this has anything to do with your missing Journeyman. If Mingles are in fact being abducted, rather than just taking off, then this Odette could well be fine. They, if there even is a “they”, seem to have no interest in full-blooded Nea’thi.”

“So… What can we do?” asked Charlie bleakly.

Jeetz sighed. “I’m afraid, my dear boy, that at this point there is probably nothing you, or anyone else, could possibly do.”

Charlie was very quiet on the gondola ride down the hill and for days after our visit to Jeetz. Everyone in the Hall was on edge, the other two Journeymen especially, who refused to leave the Hall at all. Any excitement we had felt about the arrival of the Queen was
dampened by worry. Sallagh tried to cheer me up, hypothesising that Odette had just gone travelling, as Journeymen were wont to do, but I knew – I just
knew
– that something terrible had happened to her.

Three days before Yule, as curiously brownish skies promised the first of the winter snows, a crowd of fishermen pulled Odette’s body from the lake.

thought Charlie would go to pieces, but he was curiously calm. He insisted on helping Myn Eve, who was wracked with terrible guilt about the fate of one of her charges, organise a memorial service at the Temple before a carriage was ordered to take Odette’s remains back to Жanờ.

It was a solemn group that met at the Shivering Thistle after the service. Anna had dismissed any business she had for the afternoon and invited us all up to the private lounge for a sort of wake. Snow had indeed begun to fall outside and as we hurried from the Temple, my arm around Sallagh, the tears almost froze on her face. O’Malley sent up pitchers of warm mulled wine, and Fiona had blended up a special mixture of White, Red and Blue moss to help us relax and grieve for the pretty Journeyman who we had barely got the chance to know.

Yule was a festive occasion. Traditionally, people stayed up until midnight the night before, eating and drinking and celebrating, but this Yule’s eve had nothing festive about it at all. My friends from the Hall began drifting home in groups late that
night, but Charlie seemed unwilling to go, and I was unwilling to leave without him.

He had been so awfully strong. While the women had spent the past two days weeping, and the men had been coping in silence, it had been Charlie who had dealt with the Temple and organised the carriage for Odette’s body and helped Myn Eve compose the letter to her family.

I must have fallen asleep by the fire, for when I opened my eyes everyone had gone, and the sounds from the bar were the muted noises of the end of the night.

I heard quiet weeping and turned my head to see Charlie, curled up beside Anna, his face buried in her shoulder as she cradled his head and stroked his hair gently. Before I could pretend to be still asleep, Anna noticed me and sat up slightly. Charlie sniffed, wiped his eyes on his sleeve and looked over.

“Oh, hey Jas, you fell asleep and we didn’t want to wake you.”

Ugh, I felt groggy and sat up with a struggle. “What’s the time?”

“Late. Past three I guess. Come on, let’s get you two to bed.” Anna rose and helped Charlie off the couch. He clung to her hand as she led us downstairs, nodding at O’Malley, propped up on the bar.

“It’s too late for you to go back to the Hall, come stay at my place.”

I could think of no argument as we left the tavern and walked the short distance to her apartment, her guards following at a discreet distance. There were still muted sounds of revelry drifting down from other apartments in the Quarter, curiously alien, but the frozen streets were empty, the glowbes sending ghostly tendrils of light through the snow.

Beside the entrance to Fiona’s shop she stared at a door, which unlocked with a click. She pushed her way in, barely glancing at the guard seated just inside. Leading us up the stairs to the top floor she used Hầұeӣ to unlock the door that led to her apartment.

At any other time I would have been impressed by the gorgeous, panoramic view of the city and lake, swirling and dusted with snow like icing sugar, but now it just made me feel lonely.
Charlie had not let go of Anna’s hand the entire time and now I wished more than anything that I had Sallagh with me.

Anna pulled the heavy curtains and quickly lit the fire, settling Charlie and me in front of it and tucking blankets around us. She ducked out to another room and returned with glasses and brandy that she poured for the three of us. She had a small pouch of Fiona’s special blend, and filled an elegant hookah on a low table. She sparked the moss and replaced the lid, handing us a hose each.

The cold outside had woken me up like a slap to the face, but here, snuggled in a blanket, with the fire and brandy warming my body and the moss stilling my mind, I was very quickly sleepy again. We sat in silence for some time. Charlie finished his brandy and Anna poured him another.

“How did she die?”

I glanced with surprise at Charlie. He was the one who had organised with the Temple morgue for the transportation of Odette’s body, I assumed he would have been told if Odette had died any other way than drowning.

“Her throat was slit,” Anna said flatly. A horrible sensation crawled up my spine. Charlie just nodded and stared into his drink. We were quiet again for a few minutes until Charlie finished his second brandy.

“So they’re taking Mingles.” It was more a statement than a question, and Anna hesitated for a moment.

“Yes.”

“Not Nea’thi.”

“No.”

“Not Nea’thi-Bloods.”

“No.”

“Just Mingles.”

“Yes.”

“
Why
?” Charlie whispered, his voice hoarse and ragged.

“I don’t know.”

He sobbed once, quietly. Oh sweet Lilbecz, poor,
poor
Charlie.

Anna rose. “Come on Jaseth, I’ll show you to your bed, yes?”

“Mm, yes please.” I stood and followed her, a bit wobbly, into a small side room with a single bed, generously covered in fur rugs.

“There you go. Sleep well, Jaseth.”

“Anna?”

“Yes?”

“You will look after him, won’t you?”

She flashed me a ghost of a smile. “Of course, dear. Don’t worry about him.”

I
was
worried, but when I pulled off my robe and crawled into bed, I had barely laid my head on the pillow before I was asleep.

The next day it was almost mid-afternoon before I woke. I could hear the sounds of Charlie and Anna talking quietly in Nea’thi outside my room. Heaving myself out of bed, I pulled on my robes and straightened the blankets before going out to find them. They turned out to be in the kitchen, cooking up bacon and eggs for our breakfast.

“Ah, here he is! Sleep well, Jas?”

“Yeah, thanks Charlie. How are you?”

“Oh, you know. As well as can be expected, I suppose.”

After we had eaten, Charlie and I left Anna’s and made our way back to the Hall. The skies had cleared, and the remnants of snow glittered on the stonework of the Quarter. As we were leaving, Anna had kissed Charlie on the cheek, and grasped my hand in hers.

“If there’s anything you need, Jaseth, anything at all, please come to me.” I had promised and we departed.

The streets were busy with Yuletide revellers, hurrying to or back from the Temple. This normal activity seemed to me to belong to a different world, a world where Mingles weren’t being abducted, and pretty young Journeymen didn’t have their throats slit before being dumped in the lake.

Street vendors had set up stalls on intersections selling roasted meats, mulled wine, and slices of Yule Log, a chocolate confection of rolled sponge. These we passed as if in a bubble. I thought about the goodbye kiss Anna had given Charlie. Maybe something good had come of the day before. I needed there to have been something good, so I asked him.

“Did you and Anna, you know…?”

“Hmm?” He was miles away. “Oh, what? No, no, nothing happened, really. We just, um, snuggled.”

Snuggled. Well, I suppose that was good.

We arrived at the Hall the same time the others were coming back from the Temple. Sallagh, hollow-eyed and a bit weepy gave a little gasp when she saw me.

“Sweet Lilbecz, Jaseth!” She ran to me and threw her arms around my neck. “I thought something had happened to you!” she cried as I stroked her hair.

“We stayed at Anna’s last night.”

“Anna’s?” She pulled back, instantly suspicious. I stiffened, a bit annoyed. Why shouldn’t I have stayed at Anna’s?

“It’s alright. Charlie stayed with her. She put me to bed in her spare room.”

“Oh,” she relaxed. “Oh! Did they…?”

I looked around to see if anyone was listening, but all the others had already gone upstairs.

“Nah, they just cuddled apparently.”

“Oh well, that would have been nice. I didn’t get much sleep last night, I could do with a cuddle.”

I looked at her, surprised. “But we can’t… We’re not allowed to do anything.” She gave me a little smile.

“Oh Jaseth, I meant actually just a cuddle. I think I need to take a nap. Would you…” She hesitated for a second. “Would you stay with me?”

I kissed her on the forehead. “Of course. Come on, let’s go up.”

In her bedroom I pulled off my robe and, still wearing my long johns, crawled into the bed beside her. She lay facing away from me, and I slung one arm over her and pulled her close. Even though her hair tickled my nose it was warm and comfortable, pressed up against her.

“Jaseth?” she asked sleepily.

“Mm?”

“I think I love you.”

Oh hell. What do I say to that? Thank you? Oh hell no. Could I pretend I hadn’t heard her? Nope. Oh shit. Shit!

“I think I love you too.”

She sighed happily and snuggled back into me, pulling my arm around her tighter. Before long her breathing deepened and evened and I could tell she was asleep. I extricated my arm from her grasp and gently eased myself out of her bed. I grabbed my robe off the floor and tiptoed to the door, gently closing it quietly behind me.

Emma had just entered their living room and I raised one finger to my lips and pointed towards Sallagh’s closed door. She eyed me pointedly and I belatedly realised I was still only in my underwear.

“Shit, sorry, hang on,” I muttered quietly and pulled my robe over my head.

“You weren’t…?”

“No of course not! We were just cuddling.”

“Good. I hope you’re looking after her, Jaseth.”

Oh gawd, what had I gotten myself into? “Um, yeah. I’m trying.”