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“The prizes, as agreed upon,” I say flatly The night’s exhausted a hands over the prizes to two thorns, who lay them down on the table The Duke pulls the hoods off the children’s faces and coos to himself
“My, o He’s pure quality Syndicate o here did not think you wer
e up to the task He thought you would run Fly to Earth, Mars, but no, I said A man’s reputation is his life’s work It is all he has And you have lived up to yours That gravWell…” He shudders “Patent Ephraim ti Horn”
He looks down at the children, focusing on Pax
“Hello, little prince” He bends to inspect the boy more closely “You may call me doa twitches A red welt forain “Weep” Pax stares on at hi to be brave “Weep” The Duke’s voice loses the affected polish bit by bit, till it sounds like an ani to escape “Weep Weep Weep”
The sight of it disgusts idly still, afraid
“My Duke…” Gorgo says The Duke looks up at hio stares back evenly but says nothing ain and tears finally leak out of the boy’s eyes The Duke shudders with pleasure and tucks back the pink locks of hair that have fallen over his eyes He takes a teardrop on the tip of his finger and licks it off with his eyes closed “Tastes like justice”
His irl looks like she’s going to lurch forward and strangle the man I shake my head at her, but her eyes are fixed on the Duke
The man’s voice softens to a coo as he bends to stroke Pax’s face “There, there, little prince Do not weep Shhh Consideryou to the real world The rest of us have been here for some time But do not worry You’ll soon learn the rules” He turns to his thorns “Put thee the Queen’s merchandise She has quite a plan for thea’s eyes follow them till they disappear into the ship
“Apologies,” he says, the polish back “At the root, I am a creature of severe passion”
“I expect the rest ofthe thorns behind me They’ve crept closer My voice sounds dead even to my ears
“Yes Yes” He esture to a thorn My datapad vibrates as the funds transfer
“Thank you,” I say, checking the nu business”
“That’s it?” the Duke asks, raising his plucked eyebrows “Aht our fraternity ran deeper I even saved you a bottle of La Daether”
“Now?”