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Soel cairls cahter ran more freely I may have been the only man there still er whenever possible, and relaxed or not, this brotherhood we’d fallen in with sweated danger froic hadn’t reached all corners of the roo across the back of my neck I snatched up the ale set beforeto deaden the sensation

Relief caainststared at, hennaed curls flooded over es of a whale-boned corset pressed the length of my back

“Where’s your s her goods for display Pale hands ran down across my chest, over the flatness of my stomach I’ll admit that weeks of unwanted exercise and privation had stripped ers slid lower Years of experience in such situations kept my attention divided between the twin distractions of breasts served up on the bodice and the location of my own valuables She leaned in and husked into ood”

“My thanks, but no” I surprised ood looks she’d been born with Those had yet to be stripped by the bitter wind of experience that blows through the backstreets of such places But I’m not at my best in a cold sweat, and every coward’s instinct I had told rows softer

“Truly?” She leaned in, breasts swaying, breathing the word into my ear

“I’ve no money,” I said, and in an instant the war ht her attention, of course, but he edged into his corner and attacking a slab of beef on the bone with such ferocity that Sally perhaps doubted she would be able to coone Nervous or not, I still turned to watch her retreat and found rey heads, but lean and tough like old leather, the same dispassionate speculation in their eyes that I’d seen when Cutter John tookappetite Someone had called those two Brothers Liar and Row I had no desire to find out how they cahter froh I did flinch when he slammed his axe down on the table

“No That’s an axe What you’ve got is more by way of a hatchet”

As Snorri held forth about longboats, axe design, and the price of salt-fish, I glanced around with as much surreptitiousness as can be achieved over the rie, fat, and deadly behind me, one other table see of barrels In an alcove across the room, two men debated over a table The few pieces of ar the Brothers had Both were tall, both with long dark hair, one straight, one curled, the elder iven to its current sohteen, but dangerous If the rest of the Brothers set offthes He cast me a look the moment I found focus on him A thousand-yard stare that told me to turn away

Ale continued to flow and gradually ood huh he’ll find them the next day, sodden and wrapped around his ankles, with a couple of new ones thrown into therocks, but in the moment ale is a fine substitute for bravery, wit, and content with the taciturn Brother Ee, truth be told, but I do warue’s been loosened, as do ood health

By the time the next whore approached I was ready with a quite different answer to the one I’d given Sally Mary had pared the corset-and-gown ense dark hair, mischievous eyes, and the aetting to iant—the Brothers called him Rike—was inbound, his face heaped up over raw bones into a fearsome scowl I sat immediately and suddenly found the botto