This was drafted for Chapter Eight, before we decided to take a different approach to our protagonists finding out where Koszar was being kept (and Sedge proposing his plan). The version that wound up in the book is more exciting, we think, but we offer this up for the Sedge/Varuni fans!
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Kindness comes around, Tess was fond of saying. And maybe she weren’t completely wrong.
“You got word?” Sedge said after he’d drawn Stoček into a back room. Varuni waited there, leaning against the wall, which was apparently her best stab at not intimidating the old man. Judging by the sidelong look Stoček gave her, it wasn’t working very well.
“Not about those men your boss is looking for,” Stoček said, killing what passed for Sedge’s hope like a pig in a slaughterhouse. “But maybe something else he might want. You remember the Cut Ears?”
All too well, Sedge thought with a flinch he couldn’t quite repress. They’d been one of the main rivals of the Fingers in Lacewater, older and meaner, and not too fond of children stepping on their turf. Catching sight of one of those notched ear-tips still gave Sedge a shiver. “Yeah, Vargo gathered in what was left of ‘em. They got some kind of problem?”
Stoček’s gaze kept flicking nervously to Varuni. “Naw, not them. But somebody moved into their old base a while ago, when all the landlords around here was tossing people out. I think they’re some of them radicals your boss has been tangling with — and more recently, they got a prisoner. King of the gutter cats.”
Varuni was off the wall before Sedge could even shoot her a glance. “I’ll send for Vargo.”
“No.” Sedge said, noting the way Stoček curled into himself like a startled snail the moment the boss’s name was mentioned. “He comes here and it’ll be a big to-do. I think we can keep this looking like old Lacewater business if we approach it smart. Have Nikory send the old Cut Ears here, then take him to Eastbridge. He’ll understand why Vargo needs to steer clear. Let him explain it.”
Something like amusement glimmered in Varuni’s dark eyes. “You the one giving orders now?”
Sedge shrugged, shoulder flexing under the imbued brace Tess made for him to keep it in-socket. “Only cause I got a plan.”
After Varuni left, Sedge sent one of the house runners with a message for Ren. Luckily, it wouldn’t be that odd for a card parlour to send a pouch to Alta Renata at Traementis Manor with her recent winnings — and a note wrapped around the string of forri inside.
An hour later, the Black Rose slipped in the secret back entrance to the room where Sedge was losing steadily to Stocek in a game of nytsa. Good thing they were only playing for mills.