Serpentine Love (9 page)

Aria put the box inside her satchel.
The powdered drug worked fast, but its effect would wear off before
dawn. Before that, she intended to be far away from him.

With nimble fingers she unhooked his
belt and took off his coin-filled pouches. One was filled with
silver coins and the other with gold. Taking out three gold coins,
she set them on the table. The tavern keeper would be paid and her
mark would have enough coin to go back home.

She searched the rest of his luggage
and found nothing of importance, save for personal belongings and a
few pieces of fine ladies' cloth which he had probably bought for
his wife. Those she left in the room. She donned her cloak, tying
it under her neck to make sure that her gown did not show, and
slipped out of the room.

Stealthily, she walked down the stairs
of the tavern, the stolen bounty hidden in her satchel. No one was
in the bar and the main door was closed. Aria slipped the chain off
the hook and hurried out before the tavern keeper came to
investigate.

It was late. The half moon hung
luminous in the sky, surrounded by twinkling stars. The streets of
Kalaba were deserted. Close by a dog barked and was answered by
another one. Thieves and drunkards roamed the cobbled lanes,
looking for easy marks and harlots. It was not safe for a young
woman to be out alone.

The city was set in a haphazard manner;
houses sat next to taverns and shops nestled alongside random
dwellings. Narrow lanes crisscrossed each other, all leading
towards the main square of the city. Overfilled drains spewed muck
on the lanes and doorsteps of the houses.

Aria set off in the opposite direction,
making for the far edge of the city. She knew every turn of the
lanes and was soon near her destination. As the first rays of dawn
broke through the cover of the night, she slipped her key into a
keyhole and entered a small foyer. Quietly, she swung the satchel
off her shoulder and walked through the darkened hallway into the
kitchen. After groping in the dark, her agile fingers found the
short white candle and the matches that lay next to it. She lit the
candle and stood back as it cast the room in an eerie yellow
light.

"Where've you been?"

Aria jumped. "Shayla!" A petite woman
with an exasperated look on her face stood in the doorway watching
her. "You scared me half to death."

Shayla entered and pulled back one of
the rickety chairs beside the table in the center of the room.
"Serves you right. I was up half the night worrying about you. Sit.
I saved some soup for you."

"You shouldn't have." Aria took off her
cloak and hung it on a hook. With a quick swipe, she removed the
headband that covered her black curly hair and tossed it on the
table, along with the satchel. She was hungry, not to mention
bone-weary from the day's work. Yawning, she sat down on the chair.
"Where's David?"

David was Shayla's five-year old son.
Her husband had died two years ago, leaving her alone to raise the
boy. She did a good job keeping a roof over their head by running a
fruit and vegetable stand in the local market. It was not a
luxurious existence but it was an honest one, she liked to say--a
fact over which she always clashed with Aria.

"David's still sleeping." Shayla lit a
fire under the soup pot that was already on the stove. It was a
bare kitchen, with few well-used pots and pans. "Where have you
been? I thought you were at the fair and would be back by
midnight?" There was resignation in her voice. She did not approve
of Aria's choice of profession.

Aria was not a woman of loose morals.
She was a thief and a con-artist. Her victims, over the years, had
been old and young, handsome and ugly, short and tall, mostly male
but not always. The only element in common being that they were all
rich. She'd been running a scam at the fair for the past week,
pretending to read people's palms and telling them their future. "I
was leaving and then I saw this fat man ogling women. He was such
an easy mark."

"I wish you would stop doing that."
Shayla frowned. "It makes me uneasy to think of you doing such
dangerous business alone, without anyone to help you. If only
Marcus was here..." Picking up a simple wooden bowl from a shelf
above the stove, she ladled a generous portion of soup in it. She
placed it in front of Aria, along with a big slab of homemade
bread.

Aria sighed and answered the unspoken
question. "I didn't find him." Marcus was her older brother. He had
been missing for the past three weeks. Ordinarily Aria would not
have run the harlot scam without him being there as her backup but
she needed to earn a living. Since he had not come home for so
long, she had been forced to work without him.

"Did you ask everyone at the market?
They all know him well. Perhaps, someone saw him?" Hope simmered in
Shayla's tired eyes. It was clear she had not slept
well.

Aria shook her head. "No sign of him
anywhere. I don't know where to look next. This has never happened
before."

"Marcus has disappeared for days
before," Shayla said. "You've told me so yourself." A desperate
edge of fear sharpened her voice. "Maybe he went out of town and
can't find his way back?"

"Marcus isn't stupid." Aria snapped out
the words, and instantly regretted causing the hurt in Shayla's
eyes. Shayla was as worried about Marcus as she was.

Her brother was a simpleton, a child
inside a man's body. He had been like that since childhood. His
vulnerability made Aria all the more protective towards him,
despite the fact that she was younger.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."
Aria shook her head. "It's just that I know that if he'd gone out
of town, he would've come back by now. He would never leave us
alone for so many days, knowing that David, you and I would be
worried about him. Are you sure you didn't have a lovers' tiff that
made him want to take off?"

A warm blush covered Shayla's cheeks.
"I would never fight with Marcus. Never!"

Pressing her fingers to her eyelids,
Aria took a deep breath. Shayla and Marcus had been lovers for the
past eight months. The fact that Shayla was five years' older than
Marcus had caused Aria some misgivings initially. She had been
distrustful of the older woman at first, but Shayla's open and
honest love for Marcus soon won her over.

"There is no alternative," she
muttered, almost to herself. "I'll have to check the guards' list
for the prisoners."

Shayla gasped. "You don't
think..."

"It's the only thing left to do," Aria
whispered. Every few months, the Queen's guards rounded up young
and able-bodied men from the streets of various cities and villages
and sent them off to the capital, Akba, for an oath-taking ceremony
before the Queen. Once the men took their oaths of loyalty, they
were sent to the border for training. Many of them returned as city
guards and some remained at the border as border patrol. Over the
last few months, there had been rumors that such round-ups had
increased in number and that the Queen was enlisting more men for a
war with the neighboring country, Bagdesh.

Usually, Aria paid little attention to
the activities of the crown. Her survival and that of her brother's
was paramount.

All that had changed since her
brother's disappearance over three weeks ago. For the initial few
days, she had not worried. Despite his childlike behavior, Marcus
was capable of taking care of himself. It was possible he had
followed a potential mark out of the city.

Now, so many days later, Aria knew he
was in trouble. He would never have left them for so long. Fear for
her brother's safety was a thick cold fist around her
heart.

"But the prisoners? Most of them never
come back." Shayla sat down.

Sunlight streamed in through the
windows and cast thin silvery streams on the rough table. Aria
reached forward to pinch the wick of the candle between her thumb
and finger. For a long moment, neither woman spoke. Aria dipped her
spoon into the soup and stirred, unmindful of the delicious aroma
that filled the room.

"Marcus will come back," she said
finally, and spooned the hot soup into her mouth, not even wincing
when the hot liquid burnt its way down her throat.

She would make sure he did, for he was
all she had and losing him to the Queen was not an
option.

"How would you get the list of those
taken?" Shayla placed her hands on the table. "It must be in the
Guardhouse. No one would let you in."

"I'll have to sneak in and steal
it."

"Steal the list?" Shayla gaped in
shock. "The Guardhouse has more than fifty guards. It will be
impossible! And if you get caught..."

"I'll be hanged for treason." Aria said
with fake nonchalance. "But don't worry. I won't get caught. I'm
good at what I do."

Shayla gulped but did not say a word.
But the worry etched in her eyes conveyed a million
thoughts.

"I'll find Marcus," Aria vowed. He was
her only family. There was nothing she would not do to ensure his
safety, even if it meant risking her very life to do so.