Serpent's Quest

Chapter Six: Hell's Widow

CHAPTER SIX

HELL'S WIDOW

Heat stole over the streets of Hell's Widow. Spring equinox was still two weeks away, and yet the unseasonable heat remained locked in place across both the meadows and hills of Waejontor. Nestled in a spur of the Eiralyskali Range, the mountain breezes cooled the region off in the evenings. Heironim pulled at the edges of his coarse russet shirt and light wool tunic. He abhorred the crude cloth of the lower classes, but he dealt with it. A pair of the long slender dirks carried by the Waejontori commoners rode at his hips, not as broad and heavy as those worn by the lycans; stabbing weapons rather than the slash and thrust preferred by the wolfwere yeomonry.

Heironim walked along Main Street, avoiding eye contact with everyone he passed. Clothing choices and body language contributed to keeping his true nature hidden. Sidera Tyrins had schooled him well. The art of concealment was second nature to Heironim and the young sa'necari he had brought to Hell's Widow with him. He had been only five years old when the Sharani crossed the borders and tore his life apart. Heironim could not remember a time when he had not needed to hide what he was whenever he left the Tyrins estate. His myn had grown up in the occupied zone, living from birth in terror of discovery by the Sharani. They were a different breed of sa'necari from those who had managed to escape into the mountain fastnesses where the Sharani dared not go.

The Sharani guardsmyn, strolling Main Street in pairs, paid him no heed. One of the first things he had done on reaching Hell's Widow was to learn their patterns. They patrolled heavily in certain sections and rarely in others; staying away from the lycan ghetto on the southwest unless summoned, and the Red Lantern district that adjoined it. The human shopkeepers and the upper classes enjoyed more protection than the poor.

The odor of burnt flesh lingered in the Town Square, and he fought his stomach for a moment. A week ago, the Sharani had caught a young sa'necari, his wife, and three children trying for the borders to escape the violence in the northwest. Their grisly remains were still chained to the posts in the Square where the Sharani had burned them all alive.

Heironim turned south on Corbie Way and breathed a sigh of relief that he had gotten past the square without attracting attention. He disliked traveling at midday when the patrols were heaviest. However, the patrols rarely ventured down Corbie Way. Taverns, brothels, and gambling houses overshadowed the homes and shops along the muddy street. There were certain colors and devices best not worn here, especially the crimson and emerald of Danae, the neighboring Sharani province that owned this section of Waejontor; and the claret and chocolate of the Red Wolf guardsmyn. When myn of either group ventured here, they did so in civilian garb.

Heironim had been in Hell's Widow for six weeks, quietly buying up various businesses as fronts for his operations, under the shelter of a proxy trading company set up by Malthus' mother, Sidera Tyrins.

Their targets were lycan; and the largest of the two brothels the lycans favored was the Crimson Lady, which had thirty whores in residence. A mon had to go as far north as Skeleton Creek or west as far as Dragonton and Torment Lake to find a larger whorehouse. Although most people cautiously avoided discussing it, the Crimson Lady was the largest employer in Hell's Widow. Madam Silkie Faggini, who ran the Crimson Lady, employed her own guards, and was rumored to have put the Sharani patrols and inspectors on a secret payroll to leave her establishment alone.

All of that made the Crimson Lady the first order of business that day. The elegant old mansion on Corbie Way, with its fluted columns and wide portico, had been built by the sa'necari family that established the town ten centuries ago to trade with and keep an eye upon the eastern lycan clans, such as Red Wolf and Silverpaw. The Sharani had wiped out the family twenty years ago, at which point the manor had been abandoned until Silkie bought it a decade ago.