“You Get What You Pay For” or “Something’s Rotten in Mylesia”
by TB Schmid
By the dead and rotting gods, her hood stank. Or maybe she had it backwards: the sack covering her head smelled like dead, rotting gods, rubbish, cats - take your pick.
Maybe I should add a nose hole, or at least cut the mouth a little bigger.
She knew as soon as the thought crossed her mind it was a bad idea, but then bad ideas were something of a specialty of hers. Under the hood, she allowed herself a sly smile. Maybe a new name is in the offing.
“You hear they found Zara’s body?”
Her ears perked up and she slowed near the fishmonger’s stall. The speaker was a thickset man with heavy gloves shoved into the back of his leather apron. Tor, the blacksmith.
“Aye, that’s all anybody’s been talkin’ about this mornin,” answered the fishmonger. “Poor girl. Bled dry and dumped in The Sludge. Riigha and his boy found her caught up in their nets.”
The Sludge was a foul, boggy delta where The Viper bled into the eastern end of Niht’s Haven. Since Mylesia squatted on the river’s banks, The Viper tended to receive the bulk of its waste. It stunk worse than the girl’s hood, but it was a good place to get rid of a body. Usually.
