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Right up till I saw the blond girl, I had one of the greatest nights of h I hadn’t had a drop of bloodwine, I still felt half-drunk and free and easy, and I was leaning on Louis’s shoulder and giggling over a gendarht as la a cloak, and I knew instantly that it was Cherie
"Excuse led reen,into the soil "Cherie!"
She didn’t turn, and I didn’t stop running All around me, female heads shot up--of course, because chérie was the most common name men in Franchia used to address woh the crowd,I could catch her before she disappeared I didn’t knohy she would run fro to find out
Her heels clicked onto the cobbles as she ducked down an alley A human or a daimon would have stopped, but not me Bludrats scattered with Franchian disdain as she stopped at a narrow door, knocking frantically But I was faster than whoever was inside, and with talons dug into her shoulder, I spun her around She lurched back, banging her head against the door
"Cherie?"
She was already sobbing "Please, o"
It wasn’t Cherie; I knew that the second I saw her face But she was the closest thing I’d seen to my friend, and the disappointirl was a human, and a sickly one at that I could ser, as if there wasn’t enough of a o of her shoulders and took a step back The door opened, revealing an indigo-skinned daihtly Behind her, colorful ribbons hung froes and strips of ic was just as heavy on the air as the copper tang of bloody meat
"Zis is not ze place for you," she said with a heavy Franchian accent, ushering in the huirl The door sla was, if perhaps it was a beggar’s house or a soup kitchen or a hospital, some place that took in pitiful, fleshless wretches There was no sign, no daimon code like at the inn I walked around to the front and found only a butcher shop, with lank pinkatThe Parisians seemed to favor fanciful door knockers; this one was a cow’s behind, the clapper a long, curled tail Perhaps the girl was a servant here, a pig girl or some such In any case, she wasn’t et back to Louis and feed races, if need be His pockets were surely full of secrets
I hurried back toward the laughter and music of the Tuileries, which reminded ht drew you forward and each new act within seeical and colorful than the last Perhaps the daiodfather In any case, I felt at hoon
As I entered the crowd, hand after hand landed on my arm Whether they kneho I was or were siirl without a ed the them with a fake s, ordown fro I’d finally found Cherie By the time I found Louis, deep in his cups by the donkeys, all I wanted was to drag him back to the pachyderh
"You’re the first woman who’s run fro
"I wasn’t running froht I saw an old friend and wanted to introduce you" I sat in the chair by his side, draping an aro struck his name from my mental spreadsheet of suspects There wasn’t an evil bone in his body
"Shall we head back to the pachyderirls do it, putting on such an energetic show and then entertaining the lads until dawn"
I nodded, finally understanding completely why the halls were always euess I’d already known--had been told repeatedly but hadn’t really internalized--that the girls sold their bodies to the clients of Paradis I hadn’t fully explored the entire cabaret, but there had to be other apartments somewhere, places far more sumptuous than the tiny, threadbare rooms where they slept Mel and Bea and the restthey were prostitutes
It didn’t sit right with land that women were in every way less free than they were on Earth, but I hated to think that the beautiful, talented, kind girls I knew here had turned to bartering their bodies for their livelihood
Louis stood, wobbling, and held out a hand Ared hi stairs and onto the plushy couch, where he collapsed in a lanky, boneless heap, wrapped in his wool coat like a very wealthy and elegant burrito
"I’ve heard you don’t dowhat the other girls do" He blinked at er eyelashes
"Well, monsieur--" I pursedthat’s why I chose you I haveother tastes But I’ve neverto pique my interest Is it true you drink from your paramours?"