Kameron Hurley - God's War

“I need to have Taite hack Raine’s com,” Nyx said. “I want to see how far the old man’s gotten on this one.”

“Do you want me to find out who the other mercenaries are on this note? I’m sure there’s a record at the Cage.”

“Call up Taite once we’re outside the filter and have him send Anneke and Khos to do that. I want that information in a file when we get back to Punjai.”

“You think Khos will stay on?”

“I can’t afford to spend time looking for another shifter.”

Nyx heard the burst siren dying off. She felt her body start to unwind. Fucking siren.

Then she heard someone snicker.

It was a very familiar snicker.

Nyx had kept an eye on the front door, but the two women had come in the back.

Rasheeda was older—not as beautiful as Nyx remembered, though that wasn’t because of her age. Warm, crinkle-eyed, matronly women were some of the most sought-after bed partners in Nasheen. But Rasheeda lacked the warmth.

Rasheeda was still shrugging her shoulders, shivering, as if she had just finished shifting. Luce stood next to her, head just reaching Rasheeda’s shoulder. She had a grim little face.

Nyx leaned back in her chair. She saw Rhys’s hands twitch toward his pistols. It was illegal to kill a bel dame, but using whatever force necessary short of killing to subdue them in self-defense was all right. Bel dames were tough to kill.

Nyx knew.

Rasheeda kicked one of the chairs around and sat backward on it, folding her arms over the headrest. Luce slouched in the chair next to her and let her burnous fall back to reveal the ivory hilts of her pistols. Rasheeda didn’t usually wear weapons—it made shifting easier, and she didn’t have to worry about losing anything when she made a quick escape. Not that Rasheeda being unarmed was any comfort. Nyx had watched her claw out women’s eyes and eat them.

Rasheeda snickered again.

“Small town,” Nyx said. “You two had your fill of the local boys?”

Luce hadn’t bedded a boy in her life. They made her nauseous, as Nyx recalled. Rasheeda usually just ate them.

“You had business with the queen,” Luce said.

“I did. And that business is none of yours.”

“Funny woman,” Rasheeda said. “You know we know all business.”

“The council asked us to tell you that working on this bounty isn’t in your best interest,” Luce said.

“Well, then, let me hang up my guns,” Nyx said. “You know what high regard I have for the council.” And some fucked-stupid queen who couldn’t keep bel dame bugs out of her palace. If the council had bugs in the palace, it meant the animosity between the queen and the council was a lot deeper than Nyx realized.

Not your problem, Nyx reminded herself. But staring into her sisters’ faces, she had a hard time figuring out why it wasn’t her problem if what she didn’t know ended up getting her killed.

“Drop the commission and Dahab won’t drop you,” Rasheeda said.

“Sister, where’s your sense of subtlety?” Nyx asked. “How about you fuck off? I’m working a queen’s bounty. You try to pin some silly shit on me and I’ll have your heads.”

The matron brought Rhys’s tea.

“Can I get a little green drink?” Rasheeda asked.

“What kind?” the matron asked.

“A Green Beetle,” Rasheeda said.

“That’s not their best drink,” Nyx said. “I recommend the Holiday Beetle. I’m sure you know it.”

Rhys sipped his tea. His other hand stayed near one of his pistols.

“Just drop the fucking bounty, Nyx,” Luce said. “The last time you pissed the council off, you lost everything, and you have a lot more to lose this time.”

Nyx took a pull of her beer. “I don’t drop notes.”

“It’s not a note,” Luce said. “You aren’t a bel dame. It’s a bounty. There’s no honor in bounties.”

“I know what I am. Does the council have you working actual notes, or are you just here to bully like a couple of border toughs?”

“We’re always working on notes,” Rasheeda said. She snapped her teeth at Rhys. “I ate a Chenjan just yesterday.”

“I hope you choked,” Rhys said.

“Keep your mouth locked, black man,” Rasheeda said. “My business isn’t with dumb bags or baby stealers.”

“Try to close it,” Rhys said.

Nyx grinned at that. She wanted to see Rhys shoot an organic target. He was a good shot.

“I heard you were fucking Chenjans,” Luce said, “but I didn’t believe it.”

“You women paying for lunch?” Nyx asked. “Or is that all?” Rhys might have an aversion for hurting living people, but she didn’t.

Luce said, “You think the council’s joking?”

“No,” Nyx said. “I think everything you honey pots could think of to do to me has been done. You stripped me of my bel dame license and sent me to prison. What, you want to set me on fire? Cut off bits and pieces and sell them to collectors? Send me to the front? It’s all been done. Fuck off.”

“We have other ways to hurt you, Nyx,” Luce said quietly.

“No, you don’t. My mother and brothers are dead. The only blood sister I have thinks I’m headed straight for hell. God left me in a trench outside Bahreha. You’re all the sisters I have, and you’re the ones who sent me to prison. Have a nice night.”

Luce kicked Rasheeda. “Up,” she said.

Rasheeda said, “I haven’t gotten my little green drink.”

“Get it at the bar,” Luce said.

The bel dames stood.

Nyx watched them walk to the bar.

The bar matron arrived with their food. There was soup for Rhys, and a steaming heap of meat for Nyx that made her even more nauseous than the opium smoke. She drew her dagger and stabbed at the hunk.

“Why haven’t they killed you yet?” Rhys asked.

“Nobody likes to kill bel dames,” Nyx said. And she was a lot more valuable to them alive. “I’ve been inoculated against every known contagion, and I can pass through any filter in the country. I can power down a city with one good burst slapped together with bug juice and scattergun acid.” Nobody killed a bel dame. At worst, you were thrown out. Or permanently imprisoned and cocooned.

“So there’s someone on that council who wants you alive to use for later.”

“Yeah. It’s why I went to prison and not back to the front.”

“Who is she?”

“I don’t know. Some old lady, probably.”

“But they don’t like the queen. Do you think some of them would kill you anyway?”

“And piss off the old ladies? Luce won’t. Fatima would arrange an accident. Dahab and Rasheeda might. Others, no. They’d stick to clean notes.”

Nyx stared at the hunk of meat on her plate. It had taken four bel dames to bring her down last time. She had been on her own then, without a com tech, a shape shifter, a magician, or any kind of hired gun.

“So what do you think this alien knows that makes the queen and the bel dames want her so badly?” Rhys asked.

“What it is isn’t as important as what it can do ,” Nyx said. “If it could end the war, it could end it in favor of either side. Think of her like a weapon we need to get back.” She considered. “I need to go to the coast and talk to my sister. She was passing information with New Kinaan at about the time Nikodem was last here. She might know something that’ll help.” Kine could also tell her a lot more about the aliens—and maybe their real motives—than they’d tell her themselves.

“I can go to the archives,” Rhys said.

“Too conspicuous.”

“I mean, the archives in the Chenjan district. I won’t be conspicuous there.”

“Hold off until I get back.” Nyx poked at her food.