Steal the Sky by Megan E. O'Keefe Read Free Book Online

winds at every rumbling of your gullet, old friend, we’d still be in shanty towns picking sand from our teeth.”
    â€œAs you say,” he muttered.
    The line for the ferry to the Salt Baths was long, but not so long they couldn’t all be crammed onto the floating conveyance. Detan, tugging Tibs along beside him, sidled up to the end of the line and freed his friend’s arm. He worried Tibs would go wandering off at the merest sniff of scallion, but Detan was too busy working at blending in with the uppercrust to keep an eye on him. When you’re with the high-tossers, it’s all hands-in-pockets and slouching like a loose grain slide. He couldn’t be seen caring about anything, that would give the game away.
    And these were definitely the uppercrust. Seemed no one wanted to arrive at Thratia’s with sand in their hair or dust on their trousers. All the better for him – he liked a variety of marks to choose from.
    As he tipped the brim of his hat down over his eyes to add that roguish mystique the upcrust ladies were all aflutter over, Detan reflected that all the posturing in the world wouldn’t make up for the holes in the knees of his britches. Which left the gentleman’s last resort – good, hard grains.
    It didn’t help matters much that Tibs was trying to blend in the same way. Detan leaned over to hiss a whisper at the man, which was a funny thing to do when you were both slouching like your spines were made of rotwood.
    â€œYou’re supposed to be my manservant, remember? Don’t look so blasted confident.”
    Tibs rolled his eyes. “Why can’t you play the manservant for once?”
    â€œBecause I actually know the plan. And besides–” he waved an arm down his torso, “–no one would believe it.”
    â€œYou’re right, you’d make a terrible manservant.”
    â€œYou dustswallower! I’d be a marvelous–”
    â€œExcuse me, sirs.” The ticket seller reached their spot in line, his little pad of yellowed passes ruffling in the breeze. “It’s two silver grains each to the baths.”
    Detan wasn’t much surprised to see Tibs’s jaw drop open at the price. Tibs wasn’t a man to go about wasting his grains, and during normal circumstances Detan was right glad for his persnickety friend’s tight-pocket affectations. Now, however, required a different sort of dealing. The kind of dealing that got filthy men past top-button gatekeepers. In Detan’s experience, such a thing required the liberal and unfettered lubrication of gold. It was just a crying shame he didn’t have any.
    â€œOnly two? By sel! Such a bargain. Certainly fair enough to leave a little left over for yourself, eh my good chap?” Detan leaned in as he spoke, plunking the requisite grains into the official looking pouch as he plunked another silver in the man’s personal pocket. While the ticket seller had been looking at them like something unpleasant scraped off his shoe, he now seemed inclined to their favor. Or, at least, he wasn’t scowling.
    The ticket seller tapped his pocket with the edge of his hand, feeling the weight, and shrugged. He took their names on a slip of paper, his brow raising slightly at Detan’s, but the silver weighed enough to stifle any comments.
    â€œEnjoy the baths,” was all he said.
    After he shuffled off, Tibs hissed in Detan’s ear. “Moonturn’s worth of rent, that was.”
    â€œAnd a lifetime’s worth of goodwill!”
    â€œIf by a lifetime you mean until we find ourselves in this line again.”
    â€œDo you ever plan on seeing the baths again?”
    â€œWell, no…”
    Detan beamed and threw his arm around Tibs’s shoulder. “What did I tell you? A lifetime’s worth of goodwill!”

Chapter 5
    P elkaia sat before her vanity mirror and squinted at the unfamiliar face staring back at her. Somewhere