Dinadan Noir XV: Easy Come...

Tiny bells tinkled.

Damini’s new shop was smaller than her old one. Everything in Borales was smaller. It was posh, though. Cushioned chairs for clients to try on their purchases. Real crystal in the lamps. Magic to dampen the smell of tanning chemicals. Incongruously, a mural of Welstar’s sky decorated the ceiling. Real nice place. I hoped she appreciated what I’d gone through to make it happen.

She’d swapped linen for silk, a deep red that pushed her already-lily skin into competition with fresh-fallen snow. Her black hair was bound up simply with a matching ribbon. That fey, angular face looked as lovely as ever.

“Life seems to be treating you well, Damini.”

Her smile was crooked, but it was a smile. “Yeah. Done alright. Seems some favors fell into my lap.”

“I’m glad. I mean that.”

She sighed and ducked into the back room, emerging with a suspiciously familiar bottle and two stone cups.

“So now you’re going to serve me my own firewine?”

She shrugged and poured, handed me a cup.

“It never would have worked out, you know. You Gifted, you ain’t got the right attention span for the rest of us.”

“Maybe.” I thought about Avren, gone in a flash of teeth, about other women who’d climbed my ladder once, twice, a dozen times. They were gone, too…at least for me. I could wish all I wanted for settling down, but it wasn’t going to happen. There’d always be an elf-queen with a mutinous niece, a homarid hooker, a mysterious artifact…or a Gifted friend with a problem he couldn’t solve alone. We could hide from the world, but if we walked out the door, we walked into trouble. One way or another. I sipped the firewine. It was good. “But it would’ve been fun while it lasted.”

“Prob’ly, yeah. You got good taste in liquor, at least. An’ yer prob’ly good in bed.”

“So I’ve been told.”

She laughed, and my maudlin lifted a bit.

“We could give it a try…”

“No. You were right, it wouldn’t work out. And I don’t think I could manage to get your shop replaced again. Not without moving you offworld.”

“How -did- you manage all this, anyway?”

“Perhaps I’m not as bad a detective as you thought.”

She snorted. “How many lies’d you have t’tell?”

“Surprisingly few. And most of those were in the Sentinel paperwork.”

“You make a habit of messing up food chains?”

I thought about that for a moment, too. “Seems like it, yeah. But at least I got Borales settled without a war. Z’brzzt is at least more subtle than Toth and McKay would’ve been.”

“I still can’t believe you got the argus to bankroll my shop.”

“He didn’t. Not exactly.” I looked away. “Took care of the property rights, which was the hard part.”

“Oh Dinadan, really? For me? After a kiss on the cheek and puking on yer feet?” She sounded mildly horrified.

I mumbled something.

“What?”

“I said ‘I felt guilty.’ And it wasn’t that much gold, really. Not for me.”

“Goat, you are a sucker for a pretty face.”

“Been called worse, Damini. And I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“Thanks. Got some tips from Lisl…over at the ‘Phile. Tips and plenty of orders. Can’t remember the last time I had so many silk slippers and thigh-highs to make. An’, for some reason, hob-nailed boots.”

“Probably better you don’t ask. They’ve got some strange customers.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That was you too, wasn’t it. See? This is why it’d never work. You’re such a,” she looked for the right word, “a meddler! What gave you the right?”

“Look, they were getting in all their shoes from Wysoom.” I raised my hands defensively. “I just let them know that there was a perfectly fine cobbler here on Crypt, and that she’d be setting up shop in Borales soon.”

Maybe it was the firewine, and maybe it was the anger, but Damini’s cheeks were pleasantly flushed. She made a point of busying herself with the drinks for a bit…but all in my sight this time. At length, she asked, “So what’s next?”

“Igneous.”

“You can’t mean t’take on Gero? Yer mad, but not that addled.” Damini said. “Are you?”

I grinned. Mysteriously. “Not exactly. I might be an idiot samaritan, but I’m not that stupid. Unless there’s a pretty face, and you seem well set here.”

“Then how--know what? Don’t tell me.”

“You, Damini, are getting wise in your old age.”

She punched me in the shoulder. Hard. “Don’t make me take you over my knee!”

“Oh? We’re back to taking each other? I thought we agreed that wouldn’t work out.”

She hit me again, but not as hard. “Get out of here before I get drunk enough fer bad ideas t’start looking good.”

I stood, kissed her on the cheek before she could get out of the way, and made for the door. “Like I said, you’re wising up.”

She threw a shoe at me. Good thing it was just a slipper, because the firewine hadn’t much affected her aim. “Dinadan!” I paused on the threshhold. “Thanks. For everything.”
“You’re welcome, Damini.”

Tiny bells tinkled.

I tried to cheat my sigh by making it melodramatic, but it didn’t help. There was time
to drown it later. I had one more stop to make to wrap this thing up.