He was vehement in the expression of his feelings; no, he didn’t feel like telling me anything. The others wouldn’t either; it was a waste of time to ask them, so I cleaned my blade on his cloak, patted his shoulder, and walked away.
“Who, Boss?”
“I’m wondering that myself.”
I checked my clothing as well as I could; it had come out of it more or less intact, but I stopped at the fountain near Boiden Square Market and splashed some water on my face. I wasn’t shaking too bad, and after standing in the market for half an hour or so the shaking was gone completely.
“Any idea how to figure it out, Boss?”
“Not yet.”
I went back to the office and nodded to Melestav, who nodded back. I guess there were no visible signs of what I’d just been through or he’d have raised his eyebrow or something. I sat behind my desk, told myself I was fine, and spent a few hours dealing with business and trying not to worry too much about how Omlo was doing with Feorae or who had just wanted to inflict harm on me, and why. I did spend some time thinking about how I was going to play it with Foxy after it went down, but I couldn’t come to any hard conclusions; some things you just can’t plan until you get there. And there were still too many things I didn’t know.
Omlo returned early in the evening. He came sauntering into my office like a Dzurlord into a parlor. He had the dark complexion, narrow eyes, and wore the black clothing of a Hawklord. He looked good. “Ah, Lord Taltos,” he said, before I could open my mouth. “I suppose you’d like to hear the results of my little venture.” He pulled a chair up close to my desk, sat in it, and put his feet up. It would have annoyed me if it weren’t so funny, especially when he yawned.
I kept my face straight and said, “If you’d be good enough to tell me, m’lord.”
He blushed and dropped character and said, “He went for it, my lord. It went almost perfectly.”
“Almost?”
“He met my price too easily; I should have asked for more money.”
I chuckled. “Good work. Take a moment to relax, and we’ll go over your next part—it’s the tricky one.”
“Yes, m’lord.”
I stuck my head out of the office and had Melestav send word to Ironstone Manor for the rest of the crew to be here in the morning; then I returned to Omlo and said, “So, how was it?”
He smiled bashfully. “I may change careers, m’lord.”
I grinned. “You like being a confidence artist?”
“An actor.”
“Ah. A bit of a drop in money and prestige, but I suspect you’ll do well. I can probably give you some help with that, in fact.”
“My lord? Are you serious?”
“Are you?”
He hesitated, then nodded.
“Then so am I,” I told him.
“My lord,” he said, “I’d be very grateful.”
“It’s nothing. No trouble for me. Meantime, let’s work up the next part. We have a day to get ready, so let’s be at it. The timing is tricky, but it shouldn’t be too tricky.”
He nodded. “I’m ready, m’lord.”
“All right, we’ll start with the transfer. Here’s how it’s going to work.…”
In an hour he had it. In two, he was good at it. So we kept at it for about six, with a break for some food. During the break, Omlo said hesitantly, “My lord?”
“Hmm?”
“Did you mean it? About helping me?”
“With an acting career? Sure. There are two companies that operate in this area, and they both like the idea of me being well disposed toward them.”
He made grateful sounding mutters for a while.
I said, “But you know, the theater isn’t the same as just putting on a role like you did today, or like you’ve been doing. Having a big audience is different.”
“I know, my lord. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, though. Ever since my paener used to take me to the Marketday Players on Settler.”
I nodded. “What House are you, Omlo? I mean, when you aren’t pretending?”
“Chreotha, my lord.”
“I’m surprised.”
“My lord?”
“You said that before, in front of the civilians. I just assumed you were lying.”
“My lord? Why?”
I shrugged. “So, what do your people do?”
“My father does ceramics, my mother works with pewter.”
“And you ended up in one of my brothels.”
“My lord?”
“It’s just a curious thing, that’s all. What do you think our friends are up to?”
“My lord?”
“Blue-boy and Ibronka. What do you think their game is?” He looked blank, so I said, “Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to know; I’m mostly thinking aloud. Wondering what they really want.”
“You think they lied to you, m’lord?”
“I know they lied about some things, so that makes me think they’re lying about more.”
“My lord, what did they lie to you about?”
I started to answer, but stopped before the words were out of my mouth. “What did he lie to you about?”
“My lord?”
“You didn’t ask what he lied about, you asked what he lied to me about. I want to know what he lied to you about.”
“Oh. He said he didn’t know anything about the life, my lord.”
“He was lying? You’ve seen him?”
“The two of them, in the house, the Couches.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
The question seemed to surprise him. “My lord, we never publicly recognize a num unless the num invites us to. That’s just, that’s how it works.”
“Hmm. All right. But you did see them?”
“A few times in passing. I never entertained them.”
“When were they there?”
He squinted. “The first time, maybe half a year ago. Then two or three times after that. The last time was last month. Not since then.”
“Who entertained them?”
“Neritha. She was good with threesomes.”
“What can you tell me about her?”
“I think she’s a Tsalmoth. She started there three years ago, just after I did.”
“What’s she like?”
He rubbed his chin. “Nice enough, but kind of hard. Not the kind who was making a career of it, but more like she wanted to get a score together and go somewhere.”
“She’s still there?”
“No, my lord. I haven’t seen her in, I think, about three months. She was just gone one day. I heard she was caught stealing from nums.”
“I’ll bet H’noc loved that. Any word on what he might have done to her?”
“No, my lord.”
“She have a pimp?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Addicted to anything?”
He shook his head.
I nodded. “So, that answers some questions. And asks some more. I’ll total them up later and see which is higher. Just a minute.”
I left him there while I found Kragar, to whom I said, “I don’t think you have enough to do.”
He rolled his eyes. “Vlad, you’ve already got me—”
“This one is easy. Get the story of a tag named Neritha, at the Couches, who was probably caught stealing from nums. That’s all.”
“Any reason I can’t just ask H’noc?”