Elaine Corvidae - A Treasure In and of Itself

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2024-11-24 0 0 30.57KB 9 页 5.9玖币

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Cover Art by Linnea Sinclair

A Treasure in and of

Itself

by Elaine Corvidae

author of Winter's Orphans

Sunlight streamed down on the marketplace, the hot, wet, sticky sunlight of high summer in Segg.

Mosquitoes whined and buzzed by the thousands, accompanied by battalions of stinging, biting flies. The

air was utterly still, allowing smells to collect into a stifling miasma: rotting garbage, blood from butchered

carcasses, dung, and human sweat.

This is why I hate summer, Yozerf thought dourly as he made his way through the crowd of humans, all

of whom seemed to be shouting at one another, whether they were vendors selling their wares or

customers demanding bargains. His blood red hair clung in sticky strands to the pale skin of his face and

the back of his neck. The headcloth that all Aclytese men were required to wear in the city at least kept

the sweat out of his eyes.

A man reeking of alcohol stumbled into him, swore furiously, and aimed a blow at his head. Biting his lip

in anger, Yozerf ducked out of the way and kept going, head down and eyes averted. Pride died fast in a

city like Segg, where most people seemed to think that being poor and inhuman was enough of a crime to

warrant being dragged off by the city watch at a moment's notice.

What by Hel am I doing here? he asked himself wearily. Normally, he would be sleeping away the day

in the tenement room he shared with twelve other Aclytes, all as young and desperate as himself. Hiding

from the heat and the sun, waiting until dusk came and Segg's streets awakened with the illicit businesses

that were its true lifeblood.

The answer to his question strolled a few paces in front of him, pausing every now and then to inspect a

pile of fruit or a display of baskets. Her ebony skin gleamed faintly with sweat, and she had tied her long,

black hair back with a colorful ribbon to keep it off her face and neck. Sweet Gin had appeared at his

door hours ago, just when he was getting ready to sleep after a night of trying?without much success?to

scrounge up enough money for rent. He could have refused to come with her, could have argued that he

had been up since sunset and needed to rest. But when Ginny said go, he went without comment.

It had been that way since he had met her at age eight, when her pimp had added Yozerf to his stable.

Ginny was two years older than him, and at that point had been in the business for a long time. Her

tutelage had allowed him to survive, if not exactly to prosper. She was human, but he had forgiven her for

it, and had eventually come to see her as the sister he'd never had. Ten years later, following her lead had

become a habit with him.

Now, Ginny paused for a moment, forcing the shifting mass of the crowds to swirl around her.

Impatience gleamed in her dark eyes as she waited for Yozerf to catch up. "I'm hot. Let's find someplace

in the shade where we can get something to drink."

Thank the gods. Yozerf glanced around as he followed her. "Are there always so many people in the

market this time of day?" he asked, knowing that her employer at The Wyvern would have sent her here

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