She looked up, one last glance to make sure all was well-except that it wasn't. The Baron d'Orreille remained fast asleep, but his companion had sat halfway up in bed, clutching the sheets to her naked breast, staring in terror at what, to her eyes, must have been little more than an inky blot moving through the darkened room.
Widdershins was around the bed in a silent flash, one gloved hand covering the courtesan's mouth. The woman fell back with a terrifying squeak, but otherwise made no sound at all.
Still in absolute silence, Widdershins leaned in until her lips were practically on the woman's cheek. She felt the contours of a bony face-clearly, even with clients as wealthy as the baron, the job didn't pay all that well.
“I'm not going to hurt you,” Widdershins breathed in a voice that even a whisper would have been hard-pressed to hear. “But I need you to keep quiet.” She smiled, knowing that the other couldn't possibly see the expression, hoping maybe she'd feel it. “Fifty gold marks. All yours, for keeping your mouth shut.” She couldn't just give her the coins-doubtless she'd be searched, thoroughly, when the theft was discovered. But…“The peeing cherub statue. Look in the water right under his-uh…” The thief was grateful that the darkness hid her sudden blush. “Well, you know.”
The woman clearly had no good cause to believe what Widdershins said. But fifty marks was more than she'd make in months, and so far, the thief hadn't hurt her. Widdershins hoped that would be enough to convince her.
The courtesan nodded, her face barely moving beneath Widdershins's hand. Widdershins breathed a silent gasp of relief and vanished from the bedside.
Moving with far less speed and far more care-it is simply impossible, however eloquent one might be, to convince a sack of gold to be silent, and Olgun could only muffle the sounds so much-the black-clad intruder crept back up the hall, returning to the relative safety of the study. Widdershins glanced at the window, but found herself unwilling to leave just yet. Doumerge's tawdry display of excess had really rubbed her the wrong way, and she felt an overwhelming need to express her displeasure.
If she was also, perhaps, angry at the reminder of what her life could have become, well, neither she nor her divine companion chose to acknowledge the possibility.
With Olgun impatiently tapping a nonexistent foot, Widdershins resumed her examination of the ledgers and parchments on the desk. No need for a candle now, for the sky was light enough that she could see clearly. She was pushing this too far, leaving it too close, but by the gods (well, by one god, anyway), she wouldn't leave until she was well and truly done. And despite his impatience, she knew Olgun would have it no other way.
Snatching up a nearby quill and dipping it deeply into the inkwell on the desk, Widdershins very carefully blotted out several dozen figures and totals throughout the ledger. It would take the greedy bastard days, if not weeks, to recalculate it all. Then, flipping several days ahead in the accounting ledger, she scrawled her message across the page in a neat but hasty hand:
Thanks for the gold, my lord. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more than you would. But look on the bright side. Now you won't be tempted to go out and spend it all, having fun, when you should be at home balancing your books.
Sincerely, someone a lot richer than they used to be.
A smirk crawling its way across her face, Widdershins closed the ledger and arranged the scattered chaos atop the desk, nearly as she was able, as it had appeared when she found it. Let the baron discover her little thank-you in his own good time.
“Now,” she told Olgun, stepping to the window and glancing outward, “the only issue is getting away from here, yes?” She scowled at the rising sun. “I don't suppose you could whip up some clouds, or maybe even a nice morning mist, could you?” she inquired doubtfully. Olgun scoffed.
“All right. Can you at least take a little of the weight off me?” She glanced meaningfully down at the sack full of gold marks.
The bag grew slightly but noticeably lighter.
“That's just fine. It won't need to be long.” She opened the pane, stretched down as far as she could, and allowed her bag to fall the remaining few feet to the grass. She followed quickly after, scuttling down the side of the house. Glancing around warily to ensure that nobody was up early and working in the garden, she hefted the sack over her shoulder and then did the only thing she could.
It was one of the primary rules of thievery. When hiding, sneaking, and trickery are all out, the correct answer is “run like hell.”
Whether some god other than Olgun watched over her that morning or whether she simply ran through a free-floating pocket of good luck, she made it across the Doumerge Estates without being spotted. (She even managed to make a quick detour and complete her promised delivery to the cherub fountain, despite Olgun's objections.) Then she was at the outer wall, leaped without slowing-again boosted by unseen hands-and vanished into the nearby alleys.
Birds, squirrels, and other disgustingly pastoral creatures sang and chirped their greetings to the rising sun. The streets of Davillon's marketplace filled rapidly: merchants setting up shop, patrons looking for a good deal while the market remained uncrowded and the proprietors remained in a good mood. The trickles of humanity grew, first into streams, then veritable rivers. Flowing through the streets that were the veins and arteries of the town, these were the lifeblood of Davillon.
Above the growing throng at the market's edge, one woman rolled over in bed to face the window, blinking blearily against the sunlight. She'd taken to her bed only a few hours before, and had no intention of rising with the dawn. With a muffled curse, she slammed the shutters and drifted back to sleep, carried into dreams by the low tones of the bustling market.
She woke again around noon, gave some brief thought to staying in bed a while longer-she never opened the tavern more than four hours before sunset, anyway-but decided, reluctantly, that the place needed a good cleaning after last night. Grumbling under her breath, she rose to her feet, shivering as her flimsy shift failed utterly to keep the chill autumn air at bay.
Some hours later, washed, dressed, and breakfasted, she emerged into the sweeping tides of market-goers and allowed them to carry her a few doors down the street to her destination.
To the casual observer, Genevieve Marguilles was stunning. Luxuriant blonde tresses, the sort that most noblewomen tried (in vain) to achieve with expensive wigs, cascaded down her shoulders. Her eyes were a gleaming brown, golden in the right light; her features soft; her figure the envy of women ten years her junior. She wore today a long, burgundy skirt beneath a smoke-gray tunic and a snug bodice that emphasized attributes that, on her, didn't really require additional emphasis.
Yes, Genevieve was beautiful. And had that been the end of it, she'd already be twelve or fourteen years married to some aristocratic fop chosen for his political connections by her father.
But that wasn't the end of it. Her gait was uneven, leaning heavily leftward as she walked. From birth, her left leg had twisted slightly inward, bending awkwardly at the knee, and though the details of her deformity were hidden by the long, flowing skirts she favored, she could not hide its effect on her stride. It was something to which she'd long since grown accustomed, but for Gurrerre Marguilles, patriarch of the House Marguilles-and, not incidentally, her father-it was the touch of death for any political marriage. To offer an “imperfect” child to the scion of a noble house would have been an insult.