The Wyvern's Spur - Kate Novak [15]
Olive nodded. "It's true. She did."
"Lucky you've got me to look out for you, now," Jade said in mock earnestness, waving a slender finger.
"And who's going to look out for you?" Olive teased.
"I don't need looking out for. I never get into trouble."
"Vou will if one of Sudacar's men sees you with Giogioni Wyvernspur's purse hanging from your belt," Olive warned, an impish smile barely contained on her face.
"I don't have-" Jade swung her hand down to her hip. Knotted around her belt were the strings of a yellow velvet bag embroidered with a green "W" and bulging with coins. Olive grinned. "Don't you think you'd better tuck that out of sight? I'll collect my cut later."
Giving a low whistle of appreciation for the halfling's dexterity and sneakiness, Jade teased the knot out of the purse strings. From her belt she drew a second, smaller pouch. She opened the smaller one and dropped Giogi's larger, unopened purse into it. The money-laden purse disappeared into the pouch without making a bulge.
It was Olive's turn to whistle. "How'd you do that?" she gasped.
"Isn't it great?" Jade said as she knotted the smaller pouch's strings and tucked it back into her belt. "It's a miniature magical bag. You can really stuff it. Want to know the best part? It was a gift."
"Well, well, well. Who gives you such magical gifts, and when are vou going to introduce us, girl?" Olive asked.
"Later, Olive. That's what I've been up to for the past few days. He said not to say anything until it was all over, but a girl can't be expected to keep tills kind of thing from her best friend, now can she?"
"Of course not," Olive agreed. "What kind of thing?"
"Well, it all started that night you caught cold and went back to your boarding house to rest your voice. After you left, I plucked this servant- Hello, what's this?" Jade interrupted her story to turn her attention to a cloaked figure coming down the street.
It was hard to identify the figure as man or woman, since the cloak fell in voluminous folds about the body and the cloak's hood shadowed the face. From the figure's size and heavy, measured stride, Olive guessed it was a man. An unpleasant man. Jade leaned forward, a feral glint in her eye. Olive tugged her back by the hem of her tunic. "Not this one, girl."
"Olive, what's gotten into you?"
"I don't know. He feels… dangerous somehow." A new feeling of familiarity tickled at her brain, but this one was mixed with an inexplicable fear.
Jade's nose twitched with annoyance. "He feels rich to me." She tugged the hem of her tunic out of the halfling's hand. Still, Olive's words had shaken her confidence. She slid the magic pouch out of her belt. "Hold onto this for me, then I'll have nothing to lose if he's ticklish and calls out the watch."
"Nothing but your freedom," Olive sniffed. "Lord Sudacar hand-picked those guards himself. You don't want to take them on, believe me."
Jade grinned. "As long as they don't find that purse on me I can talk my way around them, and if not, my new friend can handle Lord Sudacar."
"So certain, are you?" Olive asked as she slid the pouch inside her vest pocket.
"Got a name for myself in this town now," Jade whispered. Before Olive could make the woman explain what she meant by that, Jade padded off after the new pigeon.
Left in the shadows, Olive sighed. It was hard to get angry with her protegee's exuberance. With all her wealth, Olive might have retired from the business and just stuck with music, but she couldn't bear to see Jade's talent wasted. The woman really needed someone to advise her. She's just going to have to learn the hard way, though, if she won't take my advice, Olive thought.
Silently the halfling critiqued her partner's performance. Jade had a nice natural style of walking after her pigeon, which didn't betray her intent to anyone who might be watching the street. She also had the quietest tread of any woman Olive had ever known, and marks never heard her coming. She had one trait, though, that could betray her.
Jade was tall, even for a human