Read Online Blood Politics (Blood Destiny 4) by Helen Harper - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Helen Harper
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Otherworld bugs. Before too long Balud returned, tray of gleaming weaponry in hand. At least he showed more respect to his wares than he did to his surroundings.
I picked up a couple of daggers and tested them. They were perfectly balanced and sharpened to lethal points. I hefted one then another in my hands, feeling immense satisfaction at having some decent protection again at last within my reach. Yes, I didn’t necessarily need weapons to be able to fight; Thomas’ tutelage had shown me just how possible it was to fight bare-fisted successfully and, yes, I had my green fire which could prove equally lethal. If push came to shove I could also transform into a dragon again, although as I’d already pointed out several times to myself, that wasn’t a route I particularly ever wanted to have to go down again. Despite all these things, the familiar feeling of safety that holding daggers again gave me was heartening. Sometimes the old ways were the best. The fact that they were silver, and therefore even more potentially lethal to shifters, was equally satisfying. I imagined myself hurling one through the air at Corrigan. Given my current mood, it was a rather nice idea.
“How much are these?”
Balud fixed me with a baleful glance then named his price. I choked, then laid them back down carefully in the tray. Damnit. Didn’t he know there was a recession on?
“Do you have anything, er, cheaper?”
“These are the cheapest.” He swept his eyes over me from head to eye with a disdainful glance.
I smarted. Okay, I wasn’t wearing Armani and didn’t reek of money like maybe Solus had, but I was still a customer. A customer who couldn’t afford to pay for anything, but still…
I tried to not to let the stench of desperation emanate from me too obviously. “Do you maybe have a payment plan?”
The answering look of disgust in the troll’s face was enough. I sighed heavily. So much for my grandiose ideas. I figured I could maybe drop by a kitchen shop and pick up some more utilitarian knives there. They would hardly be ideal, but they’d have to do.
I opened my mouth to thank Balud for his time, but he interrupted me. “You want daggers and you have no money. I want help. Do me one favour and I will let you have these.” He gestured down at the two weapons that I’d favoured.
I looked at him suspiciously. Agreeing to do a favour for someone in the Otherworld was never ever a smart move. And while I might not always be its most intelligent inhabitant, I wasn’t completely without my wits.
“What kind of favour?”
He barked out a laugh. “Nothing too onerous, little girl. I’m a troll, not a Fae. I have a competitor on the other side of the city. Her name is Wold and she is undercutting all my prices and driving away some of my best customers.”
I felt a flicker of guilty hope inside me. Maybe I could find out where this Wold was and get some decent daggers from her instead. If the little troll was going to continue to call me ‘little girl’ then I had little compunction about going to his competitors.
Balud continued. “I don’t trust her. Particularly because, as far as I can tell, she is just a front. There is no way that a Batibat runs a successful business.”
“A what?”
He looked annoyed at being interrupted. I put my hands up in placation. “Okay, sorry, I’ll look up Batibat on my own.”
“I’ll give you these and you will find out who is behind Wold’s shop. This will be our payment plan.”
“And what if I take them and then don’t manage to find out who Wold’s backer is?”
The troll looked amused. “Then I will take my knives back. With interest.”
I didn’t really want to find out what interest the little shopkeeper would be after. I had no doubt that he had many tools at his disposal to make good on such a threat. He wouldn’t be running a successful Otherworld
I picked up a couple of daggers and tested them. They were perfectly balanced and sharpened to lethal points. I hefted one then another in my hands, feeling immense satisfaction at having some decent protection again at last within my reach. Yes, I didn’t necessarily need weapons to be able to fight; Thomas’ tutelage had shown me just how possible it was to fight bare-fisted successfully and, yes, I had my green fire which could prove equally lethal. If push came to shove I could also transform into a dragon again, although as I’d already pointed out several times to myself, that wasn’t a route I particularly ever wanted to have to go down again. Despite all these things, the familiar feeling of safety that holding daggers again gave me was heartening. Sometimes the old ways were the best. The fact that they were silver, and therefore even more potentially lethal to shifters, was equally satisfying. I imagined myself hurling one through the air at Corrigan. Given my current mood, it was a rather nice idea.
“How much are these?”
Balud fixed me with a baleful glance then named his price. I choked, then laid them back down carefully in the tray. Damnit. Didn’t he know there was a recession on?
“Do you have anything, er, cheaper?”
“These are the cheapest.” He swept his eyes over me from head to eye with a disdainful glance.
I smarted. Okay, I wasn’t wearing Armani and didn’t reek of money like maybe Solus had, but I was still a customer. A customer who couldn’t afford to pay for anything, but still…
I tried to not to let the stench of desperation emanate from me too obviously. “Do you maybe have a payment plan?”
The answering look of disgust in the troll’s face was enough. I sighed heavily. So much for my grandiose ideas. I figured I could maybe drop by a kitchen shop and pick up some more utilitarian knives there. They would hardly be ideal, but they’d have to do.
I opened my mouth to thank Balud for his time, but he interrupted me. “You want daggers and you have no money. I want help. Do me one favour and I will let you have these.” He gestured down at the two weapons that I’d favoured.
I looked at him suspiciously. Agreeing to do a favour for someone in the Otherworld was never ever a smart move. And while I might not always be its most intelligent inhabitant, I wasn’t completely without my wits.
“What kind of favour?”
He barked out a laugh. “Nothing too onerous, little girl. I’m a troll, not a Fae. I have a competitor on the other side of the city. Her name is Wold and she is undercutting all my prices and driving away some of my best customers.”
I felt a flicker of guilty hope inside me. Maybe I could find out where this Wold was and get some decent daggers from her instead. If the little troll was going to continue to call me ‘little girl’ then I had little compunction about going to his competitors.
Balud continued. “I don’t trust her. Particularly because, as far as I can tell, she is just a front. There is no way that a Batibat runs a successful business.”
“A what?”
He looked annoyed at being interrupted. I put my hands up in placation. “Okay, sorry, I’ll look up Batibat on my own.”
“I’ll give you these and you will find out who is behind Wold’s shop. This will be our payment plan.”
“And what if I take them and then don’t manage to find out who Wold’s backer is?”
The troll looked amused. “Then I will take my knives back. With interest.”
I didn’t really want to find out what interest the little shopkeeper would be after. I had no doubt that he had many tools at his disposal to make good on such a threat. He wouldn’t be running a successful Otherworld
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