But you can’t help loving them, whatever they do.” The coachmen explained, “That’s my daughter. In return the soldiers were entirely cursory in their inspection. A small donative did, however, change hands. There was no cause for the guards at the Jade Gate to disrupt his departure. The coachman was remarkable in having shown the daring he had. What fool would invade the capital of the Domination, especially when the dread lord of the empire was in residence? No one living owned that much audacity.

It was unlikely that anyone would check why a coach had been standing beside the waste canal, despite it being about the time when the Dominator’s henchmen disposed of the used-up virgin of the night.ĭusk’s gates never closed. He kept the coach moving sedately while departing the area. This was the first time he had been noticed. He had gone through this in dry runs a half dozen times. The coachman’s heart, thumping already, now hammered although he knew no one could get down from there in time to identify or stop him. That demand came down from eighty feet above. She looked like she was sick or drunk or asleep when he finished. He wrapped her in blankets and propped her in a corner. The coachman had no trouble getting her into his vehicle. Any abuse she had suffered was not obvious. The rain had freshened the water, so her brief immersion did not gift her with the sewer perfume she might have acquired on another night. He pulled the girl from the canal carefully. Momentum brought it to the surface where the coachman waited. He now held that tool like it was a pole arm.Ī corpse made a small plop as it hit the water. He assumed a stiff parade rest at the canal’s edge, but after a brief wait he turned, opened the coach door, and retrieved a boat hook. A waste chute debouched into the canal just yards upstream from the coach. The black coach stopped, its right side wheels a yard from an unguarded drop-off into a moatlike canal that existed to carry off wastes rather than to present a defensive barrier.

It was not yet late enough in the season for many insects. A hint of corrupting flesh tainted the air of imperial Dusk. The air was still and nearly chill now that the rain had gone away. No light shone anywhere from that fortress. A sliver of moon winked at the world from behind straggler wisps of cloud, silhouetting the grim spires of Grendirft. The night was silent but for the clop of hooves on wet cobblestones.

Port of shadows black company