Book 07 - Deadly Quicksilver Lies Read Online Free PDF

armistice.
    No doubt it would survive no longer than Karenta’s
armistice with Venageta, which had lasted a whole six and a half
hours.
    “Sometimes we cannot relinquish our pasts, sir.”
    “Maggie Jenn used to be a mammoth hunter?”
    The peace was over. Just like that. He hunked along sullenly. I
think that was because I’d admitted I didn’t have the
faintest idea what Maggie Jenn used to be.
    How come everyone thought I should know who she was? Including
me? My famous memory was doing famously today.
    Zeke ushered me into the worst room yet. “Madame will join
you here.” I looked around, shading my eyes, began to wonder
if Madame didn’t used to be a madam. The place was for sure
done up in whorehouse modern, probably by the same nancy boys who
did the high-fly joints down in the Tenderloin.
    I turned to ask a question.
    Ichabod had abandoned me.
    I almost squeaked for him to come back. “Oh, Zeke! Bring
me a blindfold.” I didn’t think I could stand the
sensory assault otherwise.
     
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8
    It got to me. I stood around like I’d just made eye
contact with a medusa. I’d never seen so much red. Everything
was a red of the reddest reds, overwhelmingly red. Ubiquitous gold
leaf highlights only heightened the impact.
    “Garrett.”
    Maggie Jenn. I didn’t have the strength to turn. I was
scared she’d be wearing scarlet and lip rouge of a shade that
would make her look like a vampire at snack time.
    “You alive?”
    “Just stunned.” I waved a hand. “This is a bit
overpowering.”
    “Kind of sucks, don’t it? But Teddy loved it, the
gods know why. This place was Teddy’s gift, so I keep this
part the way he liked it.”
    I did turn then. No, she hadn’t worn red. She wore a
peasanty sort of thing that was mostly light brown and white lace
and a silly white dairymaid’s hat that set off her hair. She
also wore a heavyweight smile that said she was amusing herself at
my expense but I was free to join in the fun. I told her,
“I’m missing something. I don’t get the
joke.”
    Her smile faded. “What do you know about me?”
    “Not much. Your name. That you’re the sexiest woman
I’ve run into in an age. Various self-evident
characteristics. That you live in a classy neighborhood. And
that’s about it.”
    She shook her head. Red curls flew around. “Notoriety
isn’t worth much anymore. Come on. We don’t stay here.
You’d go blind.”
    Nice to have somebody crack wise for me. Saved me the trouble of
thinking them up and pissing her off.
    She led me through several memorable rooms which weren’t
important enough to note. Then we roared out into the real world,
bam! A dining room set for two. “Like a night in Elf
Hill,” I muttered.
    She hadn’t lost her hearing. “I used to feel that
way. Those rooms can be intimidating. Go ahead. Plant
it.”
    I took a chair opposite her at the end of a table long enough to
seat two dozen people. “This is a love nest?”
    “Smallest dining room I’ve got.” Hint of a
smile.
    “You and Teddy?”
    “Sigh. How fleeting infamy. Nobody remembers except the
family. That’s all right, though. They’re bitter enough
for everybody. Teddy was Teodoric, Prince of Kamark. He became
Teodoric IV and lasted a whole year.”
    “The king?” Bells began to ring. Finally.
“It’s starting to come.”
    “Good. I won’t have to put myself through a bunch of
explanations.”
    “I don’t know a lot. That all happened when I was in
the Marines. In the Cantard, we didn’t pay much attention to
royal scandals.”
    “Didn’t know who was king and didn’t care.
I’ve heard that one.” Maggie Jenn smiled her best
smile. “I bet you still don’t follow royal
scandals.”
    “They don’t affect my life much.”
    “It wouldn’t affect your work for me, either, you
knowing or not knowing all the dirt.”
    A woman came in. Like Zeke, she was as old as original sin. She
was tiny, the size of a child about to lunge into adolescence. She
wore