"I don't think I should come any further, Rabb," Mala said, sticking close to the streetlamp at the corner of Riverwalk and Canal. "There's all kinds of things can happen to a young lady out in these places of an evening."
It wasn't like Mala to be afraid of most anything, and Rabb said so. "It's just a block or two more down by the water. Besides, you've got ol' Rabb with you, right?" he said, flexing his arms for emphasis.
"Thanks, but no," Mala said, looking around nervously. "I've heard too many of the stories to feel safe even with the Duke's guard chaperoning me."
"Well, if that's how you really feel, you head on back to that inn we passed. What was it, the...the Stag's Antlers? I'll meet back up with you there when I've got what I've come for." He gave her a smile and tousled her hair. "And don't worry about me, yeah? I'll be fine."
"If you say so, Rabb," she said, looking up at him. With a sigh she turned on her heel and hurried, head low, back up the road that brought them here.
"Well, then," Rabb said, looking around. If this was Canal and Riverwalk, he just needed to head west until he hit the water, then he'd be practically on top of the place. Or so he hoped. He double-checked the hastily scribbled note Devana had given him. One side had her home address, the other the one of the stevedore that had checked out the book. He stuffed it back in his front pocket and headed down the street, oblivious to anything that didn't have to do with getting ahold of that damn magic book.
This wasn't the part of town where you stopped to smile at a passing stranger. This was the part of town where if you stopped long enough a stranger might carve a new smile for you. It was hard times at the dock since the blockade had started during The War with the neighbouring dukedom, and most people steered clear of it without any pressing business moving them there. As it was now, it was filled with the desperate and needy. There were the usual refugees, alright in Rabb's book, because who doesn't want a safe place for them and theirs? But it was the unsavoury sort, not the desperately poor, because they mostly kept to their squalor, but the pickpockets and thieves that had sprung up to prey on the chaos: that's what you had to be careful of anymore these days.
Rabb was himself about to fall victim to a mugger's blackjack when he stopped short, realizing he'd made it to his destination while wandering lost in thought. The mugger tripped up and missed his swing, which Rabb only noticed as a swift breeze passing just behind his head. When he had presence of mind to turn around, the man had already scarpered off down an adjacent alley, not one for a face-to-face confrontation. Shrugging, Rabb turned back to the apartment block arrayed before him and stepped up and into the shady alcove that served as the entryway.
It was dark in here, but Rabb could still make out the brass door numbers, when they were still attached to the doors. Making his way down the narrow hall he eventually came up 10A and stopped, gathering himself. He hoped very much the man inside was the bargaining sort, or at least soft-hearted enough to listen to the pleas of a young fellow like Rabb, so desperately in love. With a sharp intake of breath to steady himself, he knocked. Almost immediately the door swung wide open, lamplight spilling out from the doorframe and casting the person standing just inside in shadow.
They were a towering figure, broad and tall and everything that would make for a body good at hauling merchandise from the ships. It was only when they spoke that Rabb realized how clenched tight every muscle in his body had been. It was a woman's voice, probably a girlfriend, or a wife.
"What's washed up at my doorstep, then?" she asked, leaning forward. Her golden hair draped across her face, covering one eye. The other shone a bright green, like an emerald. Her red lips were all smiles as she saw Rabb try to speak. "Come on in out of the night, won't you?" And Rabb was taken by the shoulder and pulled bodily into the apartment, the door closing behind him with the click of a lockbolt sliding into place. "Let me get a look at you," she said, and she turned Rabb around by the shoulders, inspecting his back longer than his front.
"I'm sorry to bother you," Rabb tried speaking up, but was hushed by a long, slender finger pressing against his lips.
"No bother, doll, no bother at all," she said, stepping back to admire him more. "You aren't what I expected in the slightest, but I'm not going to complain."
"Expected? Me?" Rabb stammered, completely lost at sea.
"You are from the agency, aren't you? I ordered a young man be delivered tonight for a little fun I was planning." All at once she looked wholly unsure of herself. She brushed the hair from her eyes, tucking the stray strands behind her ear. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"Name's Rabb," Rabb said, extending a hand more out of habit than anything.
"Rabb, is it?" she said, shaking his hand in return. It was a very firm grip. "You can call me Sparrow."
"Sparrow? Like the bird?"
"Like the bird."
"Easy enough to remember, I guess. Better than 'Canary' anyhow," Rabb rambled, slowly coming back to himself. "I'm sorry, you said you ordered someone from an agency?"
"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that," she said, turning and walking through the entryway into the adjoining kitchen. "Do you take tea?"
"I'd rather take ale," Rabb replied automatically.
There was a deep, hearty laugh from the kitchen, and Sparrow returned with two corked bottles. "A man after my own heart. Here, take one," she said, offering one of the bottles to him. There was a stamp on the body of the bottle in white and green: Barter and Son's Ale it read.
"Well, I'm not going to turn down a Barter's," Rabb admitted, uncorking his bottle. He stopped with it half-raised to his lips and looked down the bottle and up at Sparrow. Her eyes were gorgeous, and they matched the green of the dress that clung to her body, accentuating every curve, every muscular bulge. "What am I doing? I've lost all sense of what I came here for."
"I have that effect on people," Sparrow said, grinning.
