The Sweetbriar Slayer

Chapter Fifteen: One Step Forward, One Step Back

She hesitates just a second too long before answering, caught off guard by the change of topic, by the sudden shift from self-loathing to curiosity.

"The Mercs," she replies, and the boy nudges her.

"Who are we really hiding from?" he asks again, more insistently this time. His face is still downcast, he is still nervously picking at a scab on his elbow, but there is more life in his voice now than there has been all day.

Aurelia doesn't pause in her stride, but his question does stop her train of thought. She turns it over in her mind, wonders if it is worth the gamble of letting him in on some of her secrets.

She licks her lips, then decides to fill him in on just enough to satiate his curiosity and give him the reason behind the blisters that are no doubt forming on his calloused feet.

"Someone's trying to kill me. I need to keep him from finding out where I'm staying," she says, finally, and the boy's gaze is sharp and calculating when it turns back on her.

"It's illegal to take a hit out on an assassin," he says, by rote, although he must have some inkling by now that she is not who she says she is.

"It's not strictly legal," she replies, and then lets out a breath. "More goes on in the guilds than they ever let on," she adds a moment later.

The boy pauses, mulls it over, his brow furrowed. "Like turf wars between the bullet gangs?" he clarifies, and Aurelia resists the urge to wince.

"Yeah, just like that," she replies. Except it isn't like that at all.

He purses his lips, and then nods, accepting that at face value.

"That's why I never joined up with one of the grown gangs, even though it would've meant food and protection," he says. The comparison effectively ends the child's line of questioning.  In so doing, it also happens to bring up a question of her own.

He is not an innocent thing. Chances are he hasn't killed anyone- not yet- he's too inexperienced, too young, would have been caught far too quickly. But he is old enough to know that what is legal and what is necessary are often at odds. Old enough to understand the importance of keeping his mouth shut.

"Would you be interested in a job?"

His gaze is pinned on her again, eyes wide with surprise. Then they narrow, as he looks her up and down. He knows well enough that her gifts do not come without a price. But she's fed his children and saved him from losing a hand.

"What would I have to do?" he asks, the suspicion clear in his tone.

Aurelia smiles- a small, half of a thing, meant to reassure him. It also serves to mask a wince of pain as she steps wrong on her ankle, as her blisters grate against the leather soles of her sandals.

"Run errands for me. I'm going to be holed up, for a while. The man looking for me is... very talented. I need to lay low, but I also need to gather information. I can't do both on my own." Here she pauses, looks at the boy again.

"I need someone who is invisible... and the bullet brats are as close as you can get to being invisible in Glascoast," she adds, a moment later.

The boy nods, a quick bob of the head.

"Depends. What would you pay me?" he asks.

They both know he will take the job, that he is only stalling to try and drive up the price.

"Thirty alums a week," she offers, firmly. She does not inform him that the job may only last for the next three days.

She decides to arrange for Cam to take him on as a servant if she doesn't survive.