The Phoenix Thief

Chapter 14

Between the inn's poor lighting and twisting passageways, it took him a while to find the rooms Erstas had taken. He found Cren's first, and almost pushed the door right into her as she lay snoozing in her chair.

She was on her feet in an instant, her knife already in her hand. She didn't lower it once she recognised him.

"What do you want, thief?" She growled.

Joakim raised his arms in surrender. "I was looking for my room."

For a moment she looked fixed to stab him, but then she shrugged. "It's over there." She nodded at the door across the hall. "Try not to wake up the old man."

She shut the door in his face, and Joakim had just turned to go into his room when she cried out.

A second later he was pressed face first against the door to the old man's room, with Cren's knife at his throat.

"Where is she, you bastard?"

"Where's who?" There was so much force on his neck, it was hard to get the words out.

Cren released him briefly, spinning him around until he faced her.

"Hoi-Yan, you piece of piss. Where is she?"

Joakim glanced into the room behind her. Two beds, one made, the chair Cren had been sleeping in, and no sign of the little girl.

"I didn't take her," he insisted, trying to force Cren's hands off him. "Why would I?"

"You tell me! She was there not two hours ago."

"Maybe she went out to the privy?"

"The privy? Really? That's the best you can come up with? There's a pisspot under the bed." She thumped the wall above his head in disgust and spat on the grubby floor.

"Hey, keep it down, would yah?" A man's voice came from down the hall. "Some of us are trying to screw." There was muffled, feminine laughter.

Cren's face, which had been bleak before, turned absolutely furious. She raised her hand and pointed her knife-blade at Joakim's eye.

"I'm going to count to ten. If you don't tell me where she is right now, I'll cut the throat of every person in here."

"But I don't know where she is, I don't know..." He trailed off. Tak's face floated in his mind's eye. He'd had a friend with him, right before he'd come to play cards, a friend who'd vanished from Joakim's thoughts. They'd been arguing. How to acquire Hoi-Yan, perhaps? Tak arguing for money and the other one opting for force.

Cren was right in front of him. She saw the understanding flick across his face.

"You know, don't you," she said. "You know where she is." The knife came closer still, until Joakim could see nothing else.

"I don't know where she is," he said. "But I might know who took her."

"You knew and you didn't stop them?" Cren said. "I should run you through regardless."

"I didn't know they would take her. Just that someone was interested in buying her."

"And you didn't think slavers were important enough to mention?"

"I just got here! I was going to tell the old man, but I couldn't find his room."

Cren frowned, and the knife in front of Joakim's eye wavered. "Fine. Let's tell the old man. But I've got my eye on you." She reached around and grasped the handle of the door behind Joakim, pushing him forward until he fell arse-first into the room.