Skulduggery 5: Building a Criminal Empire (Skuduggery) Read online

  Chapter 1

  There were more dwarven patrols than usual in the Entertainment District, and every time our cart rumbled past one, I grimaced and held my breath until we left them well behind us. It wasn’t a surprise that there were an increased number of patrols or that they had started the moment our wagon rolled out of the forest and into the Entertainment District, but since we had a barrel of whiskey in the back of the wagon, it didn’t exactly make for a ride in the park.

  I put my head down and urged the horse forward down an empty street. In the back of the wagon, Selius breathed so heavily that it sounded like he had just run the entire length of Falrion Forest. Skam kept trying to reassure the halfling kid and also kept trying to keep him quiet, since the last thing we needed was for some dwarven guard to hear Selius in the back of the wagon and then stop us to search our wagon.

  “Take a left here,” Dar said from beside me. “We should be able to slip down this street and come up at the back, so we can still avoid the main street.”

  I nodded and steered the horse and wagon to the left.

  “You act like you’re nervous that Lobrem isn’t going to keep up his end of the bargain,” Skam chuckled from the back.

  “It’s nothing personal against dwarves,” I said, “but I’m just not entirely sure how much I trust Lobrem.”

  “He’d be a fool to break our bargain,” Dar said. “Ya are the only one with the goods he needs to make the money he wants.”

  “He wouldn’t be the first fool we’ve dealt with,” I growled. “Hebal was a fool, too.”

  “Yeah, but look where he is now,” Dar said. “Dead and gone, and with not a single person to mourn him either.”

  “Fair enough,” I laughed, “but Hebal didn’t have the whole dwarven guard in his pocket.”

  “Just the whole dwarven mafia,” Skam said.

  The clop of our horse’s hooves rang out against the cobbled streets like a trumpet that announced our presences with every step forward, but I knew the noise of our horse and cart was only in my head. After all, it was almost evening in the Entertainment District, and that meant the streets were packed with people who were looking for some kind of a fix.

  And we were there to help them get it.

  After all, there was no better fix than whiskey, and since the Entertainment District was known for its women as much as for its shows, there was nothing that went better with women and song than a bit of the moonshine.

  I had been lucky to find an empty street at all, but as I urged our horse forward down the busy back road, I found that even the shortcuts through this district were packed with people. We passed enough other carts on their own delivery routes that ours shouldn’t have stood out at all, but I knew that both the elven and the dwarven patrols had been on high alert recently, and any covered wagon was likely to seem highly suspicious.

  Of course, if I was in charge of the city, I would have been on high alert too after the murder of an elven labor broker in the halfling district and before that, the murder of the drunken halfling, an elven guard, and a handful of assassins. But while the halfling district was filled with elven patrols, we did at least have the advantage of only really worrying about dwarven guards in the Entertainment District. Most elves thought the amusements of the Entertainment District were beneath them, or at least that’s what they liked other elves to think, but I had seen more than a few elves sneaking in and out of brothels and back alleys.

  I just hoped there weren’t any in the brothel we were heading to right now.

  When I saw the dingy red sign over the back door of the brothel up ahead, I almost breathed a sigh of relief that we had made it all the way from Adi’s cottage without being stopped, but at the same time that we rumbled toward the brothel’s back door, a troop of four dwarven guards came around the other corner and headed straight toward us.

  “So much for staying undetected,” I muttered. “I guess there’s no time like the present to find out if Lobrem really did pay the dwarven guard to look the other way.”

  “It’ll be his head if he didn’t,” Skam said.

  “Just as long as we don’t lose ours’ in the process,” Dar said.

  I kept my eyes straight ahead and didn’t steer the horse to the right or to the left. If the dwarven guards were going to stop us, I couldn’t do anything about it, but I could damn sure ride down the street like I belonged there, not with my tail tucked between my legs.

  The four guards continued to march straight toward us, and I kept our course steady and continued straight toward them. Another cart veered to the left to avoid the guards, but the dwarves didn’t even spare them a second glance. They just kept coming right at us.

  “Uh, Wade?” Dar swallowed. “We might want to start thinking about, you know, maybe steering the horses a little out of the way?”

  “Aye, you’ll run them right over at this rate,” Skam added from the back.

  “They’ll move,” I growled. “They’d better move, anyway.”

  We were two dozen paces away from the dwarven guard troop now, and I almost flicked the reins to pull our horse and cart up against the wall, but for one thing, it would have fucked up our axles, and for another thing, I really wanted to test out my deal with Lobrem. If the guards stopped us or gave us any shit, then we’d have a fight on our hands, and we’d also have to go to war with Lobrem. But if they stepped aside and let us pass without any questions, then we were all good.

  I felt the familiar weight of my dagger inside my cloak, and I knew that Dar and Selius were similarly armed. The halfling kid hadn’t had much opportunity to use his blade before, but he’d been practicing with Penny whenever the redheaded pixie had a spare minute, and I guessed that he wanted a chance to fight almost as badly as he wanted to stay safe.

  Skam didn’t usually carry any weapons on him since that would have been a violation of his release from the elven labor camps, but the burly dwarf’s fists were enough of a weapon to make anybody think twice about attacking him. Besides, I had seen the tattooed dwarf make a weapon out of just about anything that he could get his hands on, so I wasn’t worried about his ability to fight if we got into a scrap.

  We were less than ten paces away from the dwarven guards now, and their silver armor reflected the late afternoon sun until I had to squint to see my way forward. There were more innocent people on the street than I would have liked if a fight did break out, but this was the Entertainment District, so people were used to brawls, and that meant they were also used to getting the fuck out of the way.

  The keys hummed inside my pocket, but they didn’t say anything so I figured their hum was mostly for reassurance as the dwarves drew close enough that I could see their narrowed gazes above the grim set of their mouths.

  “Everybody braced?” I hissed.

  “Yep,” Selius managed from the back of the wagon.

  Dar and Skam both grunted their responses, and I shifted the reins into one hand in case I needed a free hand to grab my dagger. I could take the one on the front left of the group of four, and Dar could tackle the one on the right. That should give Skam and Selius enough time to get out of the wagon and attack the remaining two guards before they tipped the advantage against Dar and me. The dwarven armor would pose a bit of a problem, but we’d just have to aim our blows at the exposed parts of their skin.

  “Come on, Lobrem,” I growled as if the head of the Miners’ Union could hear me.

  When they were only five paces away, the dwarven guards stopped marching, their leader raised his fist, and I gently pulled back on the reins to slow my horse. Our wagon rattled to a stop as the gua
rd leader opened his mouth to speak, but instead of saying anything, he just had a curious look come over his face as he seemed to recognize me.

  “Carry on,” the dwarven guard leader said then.

  I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded as the four guards stepped out of the way, and our wagon rolled forward again toward the dingy sign over the back door of the brothel.

  “What was that all about?” Dar asked.

  “I think,” Skam chuckled, “that means Lobrem’s description of our fearless leader was right on the mark.”

  “It did seem like they recognized me from something,” I agreed, “and the last time I checked, I don’t have any ‘Most Wanted’ posters of myself plastered all over the city, so I guess that means Lobrem is holding up on his end of the bargain.”

  “At least for now,” Dar grumbled.

  “You’re always so suspicious,” I laughed.

  “It’s in my nature as a thief,” the halfling said. “But don’t get me wrong-- I’d much rather save my strength to deal with brothels instead of brawling.”

  “Don’t forget that we’re here on business,” I reminded Dar as I pulled the wagon to a stop again. “And that goes for you, too, Selius.”

  “No stern warning for me?” Skam grinned.

  “I trust you can look after yourself,” I said with a smile, “and look after the lad, too, will you?”

  “We won’t be gone long, apparently,” Dar sighed. “Here strictly on business. Although Wade, you know technically this is a place of business, so--”

  “I meant that we’re here on our own business,” I said as I rolled my eyes, “and you know it.”

  “I know, I know,” my halfling friend groaned. “We’ve got goods to sell and a madame to haggle with, so no funny business until we get it all squared away.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “You ready to do some bargaining, my friend?”

  Dar jumped down from the wagon after me and puffed out his chest, and I couldn’t tell if it was in answer to my question or if it was to impress a group of girls as they giggled their way through the back door of the brothel.

  “I was born ready,” Dar said finally after the girls had disappeared inside the whorehouse.

  “Alright,” I said. “Skam and Selius, you two just stay put. We’ll come back out when we’ve got the deal all set up and we’re ready for the goods.”

  “You got it, boss,” the tattooed dwarf replied.

  After one last glance at the wagon, I strode toward the back entrance of the brothel shoulder-to-shoulder with Dar. The dwarven patrols shouldn’t give them any trouble while we were inside thanks to Lobrem, but this was still the Entertainment District, so I wasn’t about to leave our barrel of whiskey unguarded while Dar and I set up the details of our arrangement with the madame inside.

  I reached the top of the stairs and found myself staring at the throat of some huge fucking orc who must be getting paid to keep any trouble out of the whorehouse.

  “Evening, friend,” Dar said quickly. “We’ve got a meeting with her ladyship, Mistress Davies, so if you don’t mind--”

  “Name?” the big orc grunted.

  “The name’s Dar,” my friend began, “and this here is--”

  “Dar, okay,” the orc cut him off. “Friend, too.”

  “Thanks very much,” Dar responded, “so we’ll just--”

  “But no trouble,” the big orc warned as he poked his scaly finger in our faces.

  I suppressed the urge to break off his sausage of a finger and wave it back in his own face, and then the big fucker stepped aside to let us both into the brothel.

  “Mistress Davies must be doing quite well for herself,” I said as we let our eyes adjust to the dimness inside the whorehouse.

  “Why do you say that?” Dar asked.

  “How else would she be able to afford an orc as her bouncer?” I muttered.

  “Fair enough,” Dar chuckled. “Let’s just make sure we keep him away from the whiskey.”

  We moved down the dimly lit corridor as the sounds of sweaty laughter surrounded us on every side. The dark red rug beneath our feet made our steps silent as we strode out of the dark hallway and into a candlelit lobby. Behind a large desk along the central lobby wall, a halfling woman looked up at us and smiled.

  “And what can I interest you two fine gentlemen in?” she asked. “Are we just looking for a good time, or do you have anything a little more… specific… in mind? Mistress Davies always aims to please.”

  “We’re here to meet with the mistress,” I said and cleared my throat. “She’s expecting us.”

  “Oh, I see,” the halfling woman said and glanced us both up and down again. “Your faces aren’t familiar to me, and believe me, I’d remember such handsome faces as the two of you have, but if your meeting is with the mistress, you must be very special clients indeed.”

  “We’re not--” I protested.

  “Indeed,” Dar said with a grin. “Indeed we are, so could you pass along the word that Dar and Wade are here to see her? I’m sure she’ll be eager to see us.”

  “Of course she will,” the halfling woman said as she smiled again. “Wait here, please.”

  She skimmed her fingers along both our chests before she disappeared down a different dimly lit hallway.

  “We might as well play along,” Dar said and shrugged. “Didn’t you see how happy that made her to think that her mistress was about to get some from two handsome rogues?”

  “Speaking of aiming to please.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You can’t fault me for trying,” my halfling friend chuckled.

  I glanced around the lobby and wondered how many rooms were hidden inside this particular brothel. Mistress Davies had one of the larger establishments on the main road through the Entertainment District, and that meant if we could get her on board to sell our whiskey inside her whorehouse, all the other brothels would have to follow suit if they wanted to keep up with their competition.

  Earlier that week, we had already negotiated a deal with a smaller brothel on one of the less busy roads in the district, but that deal had been more of a practice run than anything else. One of the dancers at the theatre had vouched for the madame of that house, and since Cimarra had vouched for the dancer, we decided to do a test run of our whiskey proposal.

  And as it turned out, the madame there had just about lost her skirt when we told her about our proposal, and she couldn’t sign on the dotted line fast enough. She ran a smaller house, after all, so she was happy for anything she could do to stand out from the other brothels. I had warned her about the consequences if she was caught selling whiskey, but she said that she’d made it this far without an elf up her knickers, so she’d be damned if she let the fear of elves interfere with her business now.

  The smaller whorehouse had been all well and good, but the brothel of Mistress Davies-- this was the real test. I wanted to sell our whiskey in every brothel in the Entertainment District, and if Mistress Davies came on board, then we’d be damn near golden.

  “My mistress will see you now,” the halfling woman said as she reappeared from the dark hallway. “She’s down this way and through the last door on the right.”

  “You’re not going to escort us there yourself?” Dar grinned. “It’s such a shame since we’ve just met and all.”

  “And we can meet again,” the halfling woman laughed, “if you pay first, of course.”

  My friend just chuckled and followed me into the dark hallway. A red-faced dwarf came out of one of the rooms with a wide grin at the whore who hung on his arm. They pushed past us back toward the lobby, and we continued on quiet feet down the hallway.

  The sounds of laughter were louder on either side of us now, and I was glad that Penny or Cimarra weren’t with us now. They would have held their own just fine, but I wouldn’t have wanted them to feel uncomfortable, and I definitely wouldn’t have wanted any of the brothel’s sweaty patrons to make the mistake of thinking they work
ed there. If anyone had so much as laid a hand on them, I would have put them six feet in the ground, and then we would have had to start our deal with Mistress Davies all over again.

  And Ava? The beautiful assassin wasn’t one of my women, as much as I found myself thinking about her more and more lately, but even if she’d been here, I had a feeling that Ava would have just disappeared into the shadows of the brothel and then reappeared like a ghost whenever she was needed.

  We reached the last door on the right, and I knocked even though the halfling woman had told us that the mistress expected us. When a woman’s voice called for us to come in, I took a deep breath, nodded at Dar, and opened the door into the office of Mistress Davies.

  I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, but the well-endowed halfling woman sprawled across the reclining couch inside was not exactly it. She was probably the same age as Dar, maybe a little older, but it was always hard to tell with halflings. She pulled herself into a sitting position with her surprisingly muscular arms, and as soon as we came in, she grabbed a shawl from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around her bare shoulders.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this,” Mistress Davies said with a grin.

  We seated ourselves in the plush chairs that she indicated, and she leaned back on the sofa with her legs crossed.

  “I’ve heard of you two,” she said.

  “All good things, I hope?” Dar smiled.

  “Good or bad is irrelevant in my line of work,” Mistress Davies replied. “But what I have heard is that you two have more or less taken over Count Kieran’s theatre, and that theatre is now doing more business than it has any right to.”

  “And have you heard why?” I challenged.

  “I’ve heard… rumors,” the halfling woman said.

  “What kind of rumors?” Dar asked.

  “Well, they weren’t easy rumors to come by,” she admitted. “A little hint there, a small whisper here. I didn’t really come to a hypothesis until you asked to meet with me.”

  “And what is your hypothesis?” I wanted her to be the first one to say it. She was clearly well-informed, but since she was the madame of one of the largest whorehouses in the district, I had known she would be. Still, if I could get the halfling madame to mention the whiskey first, then I would know exactly how much she knew-- and exactly how much she wanted it.