Kushiel's Scion - Jacqueline Carey [191]
"Who does?" I asked; but before she could reply, the door opened to admit Erytheia and her apprentice, along with Claudia's manservant, who had been loitering patiently on the stoop while his mistress took her pleasure. Although I was fully dressed save for my boots, I felt caught out and exposed.
By contrast, Claudia was the picture of composure. She thanked Erytheia and gave her a purse with the initial payment for the commission. "I added extra for the soiled linens," she added calmly, and I felt myself flush to the roots of my hair.
Erytheia merely nodded and turned to address me. "Come tomorrow," she said. "Not so early." Fishing in the purse Claudia had given her, she drew out a silver denarius and handed it to me. "Silvio will show you home."
The coin burned in my hand, and I wished I hadn't taken it. Blowing me a kiss, Claudia departed. Silvio watched with an ironic glint in his eye as I put on my boots and buckled on my sword-belt. I supposed I deserved it, having asked him with such contempt if he was a procurer. It didn't feel as though I was being paid for modeling.
It felt, very much, as though I'd sold my services to Claudia Fulvia.
"I don't need an escort," I said to Silvio. "'Tis nowhere near sundown."
"The lady's orders, young sir." He grinned, showing a set of rotting teeth. "She pays well for what she wants."
And so I suffered myself to be escorted, reminding myself that it was all part of the game that I was caught up in whether I liked it or not; and at any rate, Gilot would be pleased. Silvio trotted along at my side, taking three paces to every two of mine, his head bobbing at my shoulder. I asked him why he apprenticed with Erytheia, and he shot me a look of unutterable disdain.
"You saw her paintings, D'Angeline. Her colors…" His face softened and he kissed his fingertips. "Good enough to eat."
"What about Lady Claudia?" I asked.
His eyes went wide and mocking. "You're asking me! She's rich, sir. She does what she likes." He shrugged. "Right now, that's you. She pays for silence. I don't mind. My mistress doesn't mind."
"I'd think she might," I said. "She's pride in her work."
"Why?" His gaze turned curious. "You're a good subject. You sat well for her. A face like that…" He shook his head. "It's wasted on the likes of you."
"My thanks," I said wryly.
"No offense, young sir." Silvio sucked his teeth. "Beauty ought to lift people up, don't you think? Only it doesn't, all too often. At least not in the flesh. Captured in paint, rendered in marble… Ah, that's another matter, isn't it?"
"Is it?" I mused.
"Well, I think so!" Silvio stated.
Outside the insula gate, I tried to give him Claudia's coin, but he refused it, saying he was already compensated. If he was play-acting at being naught more than a proud painter's apprentice, I thought, he was a champion of dissembling. I lingered in the street and watched him trot away, sucking his rotting teeth, his head filled with color and beauty.
"Canis!" I rapped on the lid of his barrel.
There was a scrambling sound within, and then his head poked out. His matted brown hair was sticking every which way and his eyes were sleepy. "Yes, Imriel?"
I hunkered down in front of the barrel, holding out the coin. "For you."
He took it, blinking at me. "But I didn't even ask."
"I know." I hesitated. "Canis, why are you here?"
"Why am I here?" He knuckled his eyes. "Why are you here? Why are any of us here? I will tell you why, I think. Because the gods were lonely. Or perhaps only bored."
"No," I said patiently, tapping the cobblestones. "Here."
Canis inhaled a long breath through his nose. "Do you smell that? Master Ambrosius is grinding sandalwood today." He smiled sweetly at me. "I stink, do I not? So it should be, for I am a man, and I stink like a man. That