Sly

Chapter Three

Sly

"I can't believe you back there," Davery grumbled as we struggled to carry the unconscious young man between us.

"Well what did you want me to do, let him get beaten to death?" I hissed back.

Davery scowled at me, but he didn't argue.

Still wearing our black hoods, we stopped on the doorstep to a small building just inside the Green district. The building was clay and sandstone, much like the rest of Unays, but this one was painted with a faded pink rose above the door which marked it as holy ground for the goddess Bliss. 

I reached out and knocked on the door twice quickly, then once more. While we waited and caught our breath, I looked down at the boy we had rescued. Very light hair and covered in freckles. His skin was pale. Clearly he hadn't spent days in the Unayan sun like me or Davery. His clothes were simple and shared traits with most common clothes across the continent, but the fabric was of a soft flax usually found in the north. 

"Where do you think he comes from?" I asked.

"Lindmead, I'd wager," Davery said grimly. "Though what he's doing all the way down here is anyone's guess."

A shuffling behind the door caused Davery and I to stiffen. A reflex for most of us in the Black Daggers, I suppose.

"Welcome." A small dark-haired woman with a sandstone complexion purred through the decorative iron gate over the door. She wore a sinful red dress that clung to her in the midlands humidity, and her lips were painted to match. Her dark eyes shifted from our dark hoods down to the beaten boy at our feet. She gasped, eyes widening just a hair before she pulled open the door. 

"Get inside," she whispered. "Quickly." 

Davery slid through the doorway first, hauling our knocked-out stranger by the arms while I came in behind with his feet. 

"Thanks, River," Davery said.

"Shh!" she hissed. "Thank me as long as Panther doesn't have my head for this."

"Before Panther asks, we're here to hire Orchid," Davery said.

River eyed us sharply, then looked down at the boy between us. "At least you know the rules. Bliss's charity can only go so far."

"We'll pay for the time," I said.

River nodded. "She's free right now. Come, this way."

Through the entry hall, River went ahead of us and quietly shut doors that may contain prying eyes. The house was a maze of rooms for all kinds of purposes. Rooms for music, rooms for art, rooms for dance, and rooms filled with pillows and bedding for comfort. Lounging and other, more heated, activities.

A door at the end of a wide hallway filled with sunlight and ivy was closed. River hurried to it, knocking twice and swinging the door open. 

"Go, I'll bring some water," she said before she disappeared.

The moment the door finished swinging open, Davery and I made it to the doorway and set down our burden. 

"Who-" Brown eyes met mine, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Sly?"

A tall beauty with sunset orange hair in another of those deep red dresses stood in the doorway. I was out of breath and exhausted from the fight I just had, but I jerked my head to the unconscious lump in the hallway.

"Get his feet," Davery said, and I went back to help my brother haul the boy inside the room. Orchid began tossing the cushions that lined her room all in one place on the floor, and we set the boy down on them as gently as we could.