Revolution (Chronicles of Charanthe #2)

  *

  The young man was already standing at the corner of the fountain, glancing nervously around the square, when Eleanor arrived across the rooftops. She didn’t recognise him, but from the descriptions Ade had given, she was fairly sure it was the same youth who’d paid her fifty dollar demand. She watched as he paced and shivered until she satisfied herself that he wasn’t making contact with any hidden allies, and then she dropped into a side street and walked slowly across the square.

  “Cold night, isn’t it?” she said. “I hope you’re not kept waiting much longer.”

  He turned and studied her. “For a moment there, I thought you’d taken the money and run,” he said. “It all seemed a bit too good to be true.”

  “Well, thanks for coming.”

  “After paying that much for the privilege of meeting you? I think my friends would be very unhappy if I didn’t follow this through.”

  “And who are your friends?” she asked.

  “What’s it to you?”

  “I need to know who I’m dealing with.”

  “They didn’t want to show themselves,” he said. “So I don’t think they’d like me to give you any more details.”

  “Tell me who you talked to and where you met them. You’re not the customer I expected, so I need you to convince me this is real. Otherwise I’ll have to go back and wait for the next buyer to contact me. I’m not interested in dealing with middle-men.”

  “I spend a lot of time in Almont’s rebel taverns, and your story’s been going around. One lad was very interested, but he didn’t want to risk showing his face to your people.”

  She thought for a moment, and took a guess. “A young, dark-haired lad, skinny build, and a little taller than me?”

  “I don’t think I should tell you,” the youth said, but his eyes gave him away. And Mikhail had always known Almont well; he was the obvious choice for someone to stay behind in the city.

  “Did he give you authority to agree a price?”

  “He gave me a limit.”

  “Which was...?”

  The youth shook his head. “I’m not that stupid. I’ll tell you if you hit it, not before.”

  “Okay. First, my seller has a few rules. You’ll make your purchase on the night of the new moon. Whoever comes for the key has to come alone. He’ll meet me in the old market square and I’ll give him the location for the trade. Payment in gemstones, which the seller will check before handing over the key.”

  “And the seller will also be alone?”

  “Of course,” she lied.

  Again she wished she could send a clearer message to her Association colleagues, but she couldn’t risk trusting this unknown. If Mikhail had only come in person, she might have dared to speak a few words... but naturally, Mikhail wasn’t stupid enough to expose himself.

  She finished the meeting off quickly, and with precious little interest in the numbers that she fired back and forth with the Association’s young agent. She’d started stupidly high, but since the number was purely academic, she couldn’t force herself to care. It just had to be high enough to make sure they took her seriously.