The Devil Incarnate (The Devil of Ponong series #2) (6 page)

“I should have foreseen this.”

“I had hoped to
discuss it with you as soon as I heard the rumors, but you were still in
hiding. I took the liberty of making inquiries and found the werewolves’ suppliers.
They’re anxious to move their merchandise. Some are talking about going
directly to the customers.”

“I have to fix this.
Tonight.”

“If I may be so bold, it seems that your area lieutenants
would be happy to add that business to the rice and other contraband. They
always grumbled about the werewolves having it to themselves.”

Until recently, she’d only used LiHoun as a source of
information. He’d proved himself resourceful by meeting with the black lotus
dealers. Perhaps he should be trusted with more duties, for which she’d pay him
generously. “You may always be so bold, favored uncle, and your thoughts mirror
mine. What was the werewolves’ mark-up on the black lotus?”

“Thirty percent.”

“Tell my lieutenants to increase that to thirty-five
percent.”

“Won’t that give the smugglers more reason to go directly to
the customers?

“Our customers have already imagined a higher price due to
the sudden scarcity of black lotus. They’ll be grateful we aren’t greedy enough
to demand more. And five percent isn’t enough to tempt the smugglers. Not for
the work it would take to find customers and keep someone here to run the
day-to-day business.”

“Or to risk angering the Devil,” he said.

“You might want to remind them of that when you negotiate an
actual purchase, if you are so inclined as to take on that responsibility.” If
he refused, her long night would drag on until well after the sun rose. It was
still early in the evening, but the hour already felt late. She hated the sense
of urgency. Mistakes happened when she rushed.

LiHoun pressed his palms together and bowed low. “I am
honored, grandmother.”

He’d always been willing to help her. It wasn’t just the
coin she spent freely for his information; they’d always worked well together
because, unlike most Ponongese and Thampurians, she didn’t care about LiHoun’s
ancestry. He had her respect and she let him know it.

“Before you agree, you must know what I require of you. The
Dragon Pearl needs a delivery tonight. Lizzriat was helpful to me, and a
gesture is called for.”

The prospect of going out in the rain to find one of the
smugglers didn’t seem to bother him. “I’ll arrange it.”

QuiTai tossed a purse of coins to him. He tucked it under
his shirt so swiftly it might have never existed. She liked that he didn’t
count the payment in front of her.

“Lizzriat was
helpful? That is interesting gossip. Perhaps her opinion of you has risen. Word
has it that the Ingosolians working the Red Happiness are satisfied with your
handling of Jezereet’s funeral arrangements. And of her murderer.”

“One wonders how
they would know.”

“They’re discreet.”

“Not discreet enough if Lizzriat knows.”

QuiTai raised her hand to stop him from replying when she
heard footsteps outside the door.

The door flung open. QuiTai shoved the window screen open
and swung her legs over the sill. PhaJut slunk into the room and she relaxed a
bit. He hadn’t changed much in the years since she’d left his employ. His hair
was thinner and grayer, and his stomach had turned into a tight little bowl of
fat on his otherwise thin frame.

“What are you doing
here?” PhaJut asked QuiTai.

“Visiting an old
friend.”

“In my office? You
get above yourself, little sister.” PhaJut turned to LiHoun. “Who do you work
for, anyway?”

LiHoun barely bowed.
“Your girls and boys. You don’t pay me to run errands for them.”

“She isn’t one of my
girls.” PhaJut pointed at QuiTai.

“Not anymore, but I made a small fortune for you when I was.
We parted on good terms. Has your opinion of me changed so much?” QuiTai asked.

“You’re the Devil’s concubine. I’d be a fool to trust you.”

“Oh! I am hurt, uncle. Simply devastated that you would say
such a thing.”

“Tell the Devil I’ll not sell this place to him.”

QuiTai solemnly
nodded, even though it made her head spin. At least he’d done her the favor of
making his fears known. Prodding someone to get to the point was always more
work than it should be. “I will tell him, and I will plead with him to leave
you alone, for old time’s sake, dear uncle PhaJut.” LiHoun shot her a glance,
but his expression didn’t change. Maybe her sarcasm had been too noticeable. “But
please, don’t be angry with LiHoun. He had no idea I’d be stopping by.”

“I remember how you
two used to sit together on the alley stairs and whisper. Thick as rice
porridge. And from what I hear, you still are.”

PhaJut had never trusted her friendship with LiHoun, even
though it was LiHoun’s advice that had made her the highest earning worker in
PhaJut’s brothel.

It had been a slow
night and all the customers had already gone upstairs. Lazing in the dim,
sparely furnished front room held no appeal, so QuiTai had rolled a kur before
going to find LiHoun. As usual, he’d been on the short flight of steps out the
back door. She’d squatted next to him on the rotting wood and lit the kur.

They chatted about the
weather, his family, and the new tax on fish. Once they’d exhausted all the
usual topics of gossip, he watched her, unblinking, before saying what was on
his mind. “Forgive me for telling a poor story, little sister, but perhaps this
work isn’t for you.”

The stars were fading as the sky lightened before dawn. Still, she
looked to them, picking out her favorites, as she thought about the wisdom of
his words.

“Oh, the sex is all right, if only they would shut up! Before I started
working here, I thought men came in for only one thing, but no. They want to
talk. Talk, talk, talk, and they’re always so boring.”

She handed the kur to LiHoun.

He inhaled and then
let the smoke seep out his mouth like a dragon’s
t
ongue. “They pay as much for your understanding ear as for the rest of
your body.”

“My ears grow deaf as
they stuff them with their noise.”

LiHoun laughed as he
patted her hand. “As much as I enjoy our chats, as I said, perhaps you should
find other work.”

She made a face. “I
worked on a plantation for two months. That was enough to know I’d go mad if I
stayed. Then I tried working on a fishing boat. I only lasted a week.”

“There’s always
service.”

“‘Oh yes, Ma’am,
Thampurian lady, me so humble. Me bow many times.’ Fuck that. At least here I
won’t lose my position for being smarter than my employer.”

“But you will be put
out on the street if you don’t start earning more for PhaJut.”

She knew he was right.
Discouraged, she shook her head slowly. “My family needs the money. And it’s
not as if a Ponongese girl has many options. Not legal ones. I just have to
find a way to be more alluring to the customers. I suppose I could giggle
behind my hand more. And gaze up at them longingly.” She batted her eyelashes
furiously. “Oh, you big stud. My joy was complete the moment I saw you.” She
snorted. “I can mimic anyone, but I’m not sure I can act like that for very
long before my stomach spews its contents.”

LiHoun gazed at her
for a long while. Then he chuckled. “Maybe, if you can’t be like the other
girls, you should be very different from them. On my home island, I heard of a
woman who made a fine living in a brothel. When the other girls laughed, she
scowled, and when they bowed their heads, she would look directly into the
customer’s eyes until he dropped his gaze.”

“Scandalous!” But she
liked the idea of this woman. “This story is meat and rice, uncle. Please tell
me more.”

His hands moved
through the air as if painting a picture of her. LiHoun always did that when he
admired a woman. “The other girls swore and got drunk, but she was always a
lady. Proper language and posh manners. Aloof. She even rejected customers!”

“PhaJut wouldn’t like
that.”

LiHoun snorted. “What the customer likes is
all that matters. And from what I heard, her customers liked her so much that
they begged her to take heavy purses.” He handed her the small nub of the kur.
“Can you treat your customers like rotted fish guts?”

 
“I wouldn’t have to fake that.” She mulled it over as she
slowly exhaled the kur smoke. She could picture such a woman. In her imagination,
the woman changed into her. That was a role she could play, she thought. She’d
have to watch her language and refine her manners, but that was simple enough.
The trick would be to make such a character seductive. But customers came into
a brothel with sex in mind already, so they’d interpret almost anything she did
as flirting. Men were like that. “That story was a good one, uncle LiHoun. An
elegant plan.”

“See? You don’t even
talk like the other girls, little sister. Elegant! I like the way that word
sounds. What does it mean?”

He’d been right. PhaJut never liked that she went days
between customers when the other workers had three or five a night, but by the
time she left for the continent, she had made far more for him than anyone else
under his roof. Oh, and how those customers had cried and pleaded with her when
she told them that she was leaving Levapur. Some begged her to become their
mistress. Chief Justice Cuulon had even offered to marry her.

She turned her
attention to PhaJut, who fumed at her prolonged silence. “I only came here to
visit LiHoun. I’m on my way out, as you can see.” QuiTai gestured to the open
window. Her feet were getting wet again. There was no hope of saving her
sandals now.

PhaJut’s eyes
glinted with greed. “What business could you possibly have with the cat man,
QuiTai? I’m sure the Devil has minions to run your errands now. Unless you’re
hiding something from him?”

She was too influenced by the conduit’s second pipe of black
lotus to finesse her way around PhaJut’s clumsy attempt at cunning, so she
decided to call his bluff. “Go ahead and tell the Devil I was here.”

“Ah! But why are you here? Hmm? You always were up to
something.”

Did PhaJut really think she’d hand him information to
blackmail her with? Sometimes, people tried her patience a bit too much.

LiHoun shuffled his feet. “Little sister QuiTai needs some
herbs to bring down her fever. She was asking me –”

“She has fever?” PhaJut raised his arm to cover his mouth
and nose as he backed across the room. “You brought sickness into my place?”

“It’s nothing
contagious, you old fool,” QuiTai snapped. “A cut on my ankle is infected.”

“And she knows my women have medicine for it. Secret
medicine from my home island. Very powerful. I sell it to all the workers
here,” LiHoun said.

“Then take her to your women! Get her out of here.”

QuiTai’s temper was almost to its breaking point. She was so
miserable that if she’d been alone, she might have allowed herself a few
self-pity tears. Her leg ached. Even her eyeballs were dry and gummy. And even
though she felt as if her skin could ignite at any moment, she was also
beginning to shiver. None of that mattered now that her mean streak had been
provoked.

She swung her legs back over the sill and moved into
PhaJut’s office chair, a move that made him squeak with outrage. She steepled
her fingers together as she leaned back. “So, tell me, dear uncle –”

PhaJut glowered at the edge in her voice.

“What sort of profit
are you turning here nowadays? The Devil always likes numbers. Is it about the
same as when I worked here? Let me see. If I remember correctly, you had
seventeen workers, averaging four tricks a night, with the house cut being
–”

PhaJut turned to
LiHoun. “Both of you, out!” He glared at QuiTai. “You always were an evil
bitch. The Devil should kill you while he still has a chance, because one day,
you’ll betray him just like you have anyone else who has ever taken you in.”

“I’ll share your
advice with him. I’m sure he’ll find it... amusing.”

She wasn’t sure if
it was her words or the quiet voice in which she delivered them that made
PhaJut blanch and back out of the room – nor did she care.

~ ~ ~

QuiTai was furious
with herself for giving in to her temper. PhaJut wasn’t a bad man. He hadn’t
tried to cheat her more than was customary. While he shouted a lot, he’d never
raised a hand to her or any of his workers. She had no reason to antagonize
him.

She rested her burning brow in her hand. “Favored uncle, I’m
sorry to have cost you your job.”

“There will be another. I get most of my information from gossip
with the runners from the other brothels and gambling dens, not from this
place.”

“It was still careless of me.” Threats, she’d learned, was
best used sparingly, and only when all other options had failed.

LiHoun helped her out of the chair. She hated showing such
weakness, but she honestly couldn’t have walked on her own. That damned vapor
addict hadn’t been useful enough to cause her this much trouble.

“I’m going to take you somewhere to rest and have that ankle
tended to. Then I’ll arrange a meeting between your lieutenant for this area
and the smugglers. The black lotus will be delivered to the Dragon Pearl
tonight,” he said.

“Thank you.” She shook her head though. “As I said, I won’t
endanger your family. Where are you taking me?” There wasn’t anyone she could
think of who would risk helping her.