Masquerades - Kate Novak [70]
"Yes. That would be good," Victor agreed, oblivious to her sarcasm. "The Shore is full of transients who don't like to get involved with the watch. The watch doesn't even patrol there regularly, so the Night Masks strike at the inhabitants with the most impunity."
Alias smiled at the innocent way Victor had taken her suggestion.
"That's settled then," the merchant lord said. "Now, about the party on the ship tonight. You will still come, won't you?"
Alias grimaced. "Perhaps I'd better not. The other merchant houses might object to the presence of a common little sell-sword who's arrested one of their own."
"You know I don't feel that way. You've performed your duties with honor, and I think you deserve respect. I want to set an example by hosting the hero of Westgate on our cruise."
"Thank you, Lord Victor. I'd be honored to accept."
"It will be my honor to show off the most intriguing, lovely woman in all of Westgate."
Alias laughed at the flattery. "I've been looking forward to showing off my new earrings, so I may as well come."
Victor leaned closer, examining the earrings. "Three stars. They're very becoming on you," he whispered with his mouth so near her ear that she could feel his breath move the tiny stars. "Might I hope you choose them in honor of the Dhostar trading badge?"
"I choose them in honor of you," Alias whispered.
Someone nearby coughed politely.
Alias and Victor moved away from one another and looked up. Sergeant Rodney and the watch guard Rizzi stood at the top of the stairs; the porter stood behind them.
"His Reverence sent us to serve as escorts, Your Lordship," Sergeant Rodney said to Victor.
"Just a moment, please," Victor told the guards. Turning back to Alias, he said, "I must be on the pier to greet all our guests, but I'll send my carriage to your hotel a little before sunset."
"I'll meet you at the pier," Alias agreed. The porter came up and hefted her box of gold on his shoulder. Alias gave Victor's hand one last squeeze before she followed her gold and her escorts down the stairs.
Eleven
Stalking From the Outside In
Back in her room at Blais House, with the money she'd just been paid, Alias planned what to do next. She wanted to work in the afternoon to make up for the time she'd lose tonight at the party. In the daylight she'd have to rely on a disguise, which would be easier if she went without Dragonbait. She returned to the market, where, once she'd purchased a new tunic to wear to the party, she started picking through second- and thirdhand rags. She found a stained, long-sleeved tunic to cover her tattoo, a pair of badly patched, baggy trousers to hide her scabbard, and a scarf to cover her red hair. With the addition of some mud and a layer of dust, she would pass for a drover. Back at Blais House, she lay the outfit for the party-a blue silk tunic trimmed with silver embroidery-on the bed with her new earrings and changed into her newly purchased rags. Then she headed for the Shore via the Water Gate.
The city wall made more or less a half-circle around Westgate, but owing to a steep cliff in the northwest, it turned inward sharply, running along the top of the cliff until the cliff reached the shoreline. The Water Gate opened over this cliff onto a steep staircase and a path leading down to the Shore. While the Outside, the district of Westgate surrounding the city wall, was predominantly open grassland for grazing herd animals, with the stockyards of the leading merchants pressed against the city wall, the neighborhood of the Shore, wedged between the cliff wall and the sea, was a slum. It was, as Victor had said, populated mostly by transients,
unable to afford the silver for board and lodging within the city walls: drovers, day workers, and down-on-their-luck adventurers. The Shore offered flophouses for a few coppers a night, and food stalls in the neighborhood sold stale bread and bruised fruits and vegetables for less. Many of the inhabitants relied on the sea for added nourishment. As Alias made her way down the