Alley

The Drunken Mercenary was far busier than it had been in years. Every table was full, the bar so packed that Merrin had to shoulder his way through just to get a drink. Moving through the crowd itself was a task that was only easy because of his height. People had a tendency to move out of the way when a man who had to duck to get through the doorway wanted to go somewhere. A blessing and a curse, Merrin supposed.

But a drink wasn’t the only reason he had found himself in Mercy’s amid the chaos of the winter festival. Dantae Rowe had the unfortunate job of helping his mother deal with anything and everything, from serving drinks to kicking out patrons once they got too rowdy. It wasn’t like he could say no, either, not when his other choice was sitting in his basement room until Merrin finished work.

Luckily for him, Merrin’s appearance was enough to give him much needed respite, and as soon as Madame Nilveru saw him, she yelled through the doorway to the kitchen.

‘Dantae!’ She turned back to Merrin with a smile and slid him a short glass of amber liquor. ‘Here you are, darling.’

‘Thanks,’ Merrin said before draining the glass in one easy swig.

The sweet undertone gave way to the burn before he could truly savour it, and he grimaced as he placed the glass back on the bar. He could see the smirk on Madam Nilveru’s face as she turned to serve another customer, but Merrin wasn’t one to complain about free booze.

Dantae appeared from the back with a large bottle of whiskey, slotting it beneath the bar as he finally set eyes on Merrin. Whatever his mother was paying him for this evening clearly wasn’t enough, and Merrin wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d collapsed right then and there. He couldn’t even bring himself to smile at Merrin’s presence, but scanned his body to check for the outline of his cigarette pack in his pocket. Once he saw it, he nodded his head towards the back door and walked away without checking to see if Merrin was trailing behind.

Of course Merrin was following, though with giving Dantae a head-start considering Merrin had to fight his way to the end of the bar just so he could slip behind it. The height difference between them meant that he could close the gap without much effort, and he got to the back door just as Dantae slipped out.

Merrin shut the door behind them, the noise of the crowd suddenly muffled enough that he could finally hear himself think.

‘Did she make you try that liquor?’ Dantae asked as he slipped down the alley and towards the gate just a couple metres from Mercy’s back gate.

It would give them the much needed space from the overwhelming smell of too many bodies and too much liquor. Even here the ale hung heavy in the air, almost intoxicating to even breathe let alone drink.

‘That amber stuff?’ Merrin asked and leant against the wall opposite from the other man who nodded in response. He dug his hand into his pocket to pull out his cigarette box and matches, pulling one of each out for himself before tossing it over to Dantae. ‘It was fucking rank.’

‘It’s from some place called Vier in the Beneath,’ Dantae said and lit his smoke to take a drag. ‘Some tiny fucking shit hole where water their makes whatever they brew practically lethal. Something to do with the plants tainting it or whatever. I have no idea but Ma’s supplier thought she could sell it.’

‘I’ve had more fun drinking paint thinner,’ Merrin said, striking his match against the side of his boot to light the cigarette. ‘Who the hell would even buy that shit?’

‘Not a clue, she made me try a glass at eight in the fucking morning.’ Dantae sunk down to the floor, groaning the whole way down but still not willing to fully commit to sitting. ‘Thought she was trying to kill me.’

‘Who else had tried it?’

Dantae made a dismissive wave of his hand as his brows furrowed. ‘Uh, Drax, Clovara, Celeana. I think she managed to get Orlia to try it too.’

‘Not Matty?’ Merrin asked, exhaling the smoke from his lungs.

‘Not yet. He hasn’t come in today. Know anything about that?’

‘You know that girl with the split pupils?’

‘Deer face?’ Dantae asked in disbelief. ‘What’s he doing with her?’

‘Apparently she has some good links to Fairhollow and Valenveil, some route that goes under the mountains and crops up in the forests,’ Merrin explained, trying to remember the exact half-baked excuses Matthias had fed him earlier. ‘Biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard him say.’

‘Oh yeah, ‘cause he definitely didn’t spend all of last week staring at her from across the bar,’ Dantae said and looked up at Merrin. ‘Know her name?’

‘Beatrix,’ Merrin said, feeling the way it sounded on his tongue. ‘Orlia said she’s not a smuggler, but she knows too much about trade-routes to be clean. She’s posing as an inventor of sorts, Zane mentioned that she came into the apothecary for some oils. Think she’s from Valenveil.’

‘Does that herbalist fellow know her?’ Dantae asked, and Merrin could see him thinking over all the names in his head to figure it out. ‘That one Zane hangs about.’

‘Talathion?’ Merrin guessed.

‘That’s the one.’

‘I’ve not asked him, fact I haven’t seen him for a few days,’ Merrin said. ‘Something about harvest or whatever.’

‘How I envy a man who just has to worry about plants.’

Merrin chuckled and leant his head back against the wall, looking up through the gap between the buildings to watch the sky. Even from here the noise of Mercy’s was too much to deal with for long. He’d dealt with enough yelling and clashing of metal today to deal with such a busy environment. It wasn’t as if it was even the height of the winter festival yet, they had another week of celebration before the main thing. But people always enjoyed having a reason to drink.

‘Wanna sleep at mine tonight?’ Merrin asked and held his cig between his lips.

‘Please,’ Dantae said, and Merrin could hear the relief in his voice.