Night Shade

Introduction

This story is set in a world that rotates around its sun a little faster so the ages of the caracters are not the same as they would be here on Earth. And with that in mind, some of the language might be odd, it is intended that way.

Intro

             My jailor said he wanted to know everything… but he only gave me enough parchment for a small portion of what I know. So I will try to stick to the events that landed me in this establishment and keep my tangents relative and short.

I shall begin with the job.

I was minding my own, at the Staggered Horn, with some mutton stew and my third tankard of ale when I was approached. I knew it was different from a general kind of approach. Sometimes when you are sitting alone and a person walks up to you to offer to buy you a drink or to tell you that they are fascinated by you or that they can’t stop themselves from coming over to you, you can almost feel their attraction or lust or whatever it is that drew them to you in the first place. But when you are being approached for a job, especially for the kind of job that I do, there is an altogether different feel to it.

His nervousness was all too clear. There was a bead of sweat on his brow and his left hand opened and closed a couple of times and he swallowed in that way that raises the head and visibly moves the throat ball.

At the moment he reached my small table I pushed the chair out, opposite me, with my foot, under the table. He flinched and I suppressed a smile. “Have a seat.” I told him flatly. I did not make it sound like a question. He sat hesitantly and he did not move the chair as he sat, as if afraid to touch it.

I did a quick appraisal of him. He wore a loose fitting shirt under a short coat, which was in high fashion at the moment, black trousers and soft shoes. The only weapon he carried was his utility knife. He was handsome if you didn’t look for too long.

I leaned forward, trying to put him at ease a little by placing both of my arms on the table in front of me to show that I did not have any weapons. It did not seem to work and he stammered as he spoke. “I was told I could find someone here that could help me. I was told it would be a woman, sitting by herself, probably dressed in black with long black hair?” Despite it being a question, I almost didn’t answer because it wasn’t asked properly. I waited a few seconds before I responded.

“Then I presume that you want someone killed?”