Kingdom of Cages(56)

“I’ve got a letter for you.” Chena thrust the paper at her. She wanted out of here as badly as the blistered woman.

“Do you?” Nan Elle took the unfamiliar object and squinted at it for a moment before she opened it up. “I’d heard about your little business, station girl. A pretty thing it is too.” She scanned Farin’s note. Chena itched to know what was in it, but she kept her gaze on the bookshelves.

“Well, well, a pretty scheme indeed.” Nan Elle thrust the letter into one of her apron’s many pockets. “I’ll give you an answer if you’ll wait there.”

Chena opened her mouth and closed it again. She had promised Mom not to have anything to do with Nan Elle, but really Mom had meant not to accept any medicine from her. This was different. Right? This was legitimate business.

She bit her lip. Just this once, she told herself. Get it over with. “Sure.”

Nan Elle got out ink, a wooden dipping pen, and thick mottled paper. She scratched and scribbled, muttering to herself the whole time.

As she stood there watching, a question formed inside Chena. What harm could it do to ask? “How do you know Farin?”

Nan Elle did not look up from her laborious writing. “Didn’t he tell you?” She cocked one gleaming eye at Chena. “No, he didn’t. I suppose he thought you wouldn’t trust him if he did.”

“Tell me what?” Chena tried to sound more defiant than nervous.

“He’s my grandson.”

Shock stole Chena’s voice. Farin? With the green eyes and auburn hair and beautiful smile? He was Nan Elle’s grandson? He was so… so… perfect. How could he be…

Aware that she was being stupid, Chena still couldn’t think of anything to say. So she just stood there and watched the old woman write. If Nan Elle noticed, she didn’t say anything. She just kept working until she’d filled two separate sheets.

“Now, that’ll be a minute to dry.” Nan Elle straightened up and thrust her pen back into the ink bottle. She tuned her gaze back to Chena, who still stood silently, trying to get past what she had just learned. “You know you could make even better money selling people’s secrets.”

“What?” The words jerked Chena’s attention fully back to the old woman.

Nan Elle grinned, showing all the gaps between her teeth. “If you read the letters you carried and then blackmailed people, you’d make a great deal more for your troubles.”

Chena snorted and waved off the idea. “Yeah, right, and lose all my customers. No, thanks.”

To her surprise, Nan Elle nodded approvingly. “You’re not a fool, station girl. Very good.”

“Is your ink dry yet?” asked Chena. “I’ve got other people to take care of.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

“As have I.” Nan Elle blew gently on the two sheets and folded them each up separately. “There’s your answer for young Farin.” She handed Chena the first sheet. “And here’s for Drapada Shi. I will pay for an answer.”

Chena stared at the second sheet, her hand frozen halfway in the act of taking it. “You want me to take a letter for you?”

“And, in all likelihood, packages. This is an excellent idea of yours, Chena. I expect to have much business for you.”

“But…” Chena swallowed. But Mom told me not to....I don’t want to.

Nan Elle’s dark eyes glittered brightly in the lamplight. “Come, now, are you going to turn me down? Didn’t Farin recommend my name to you?” She shuffled closer. “Aren’t you doing this because you need all the money you can get? Planning on leaving, are you? How soon do you want to get away?”

Chena bit her lip. Nan Elle nodded silently and folded her hand around the letter. “Come back, station girl. I will have work for you.”

And she did. Chena delivered bundles and parcels and blobby packages that squished and smelled. She really didn’t want to know what she carried. Nan Elle swore it was all legal, but Chena decided from the beginning not to ask. She really wanted to be able to say she didn’t know, just in case. Sometimes she left the packages with Farin, sometimes she left them with vendors at the market and picked up leaves and mushrooms and dried flowers in return.

Always, she carried Constable Regan’s letter of approval with her, also just in case.

The summer deepened. The leaves on the trees turned from spring green to dark emerald and the tips of the grasses burned brown in the sun. The flowers in the forest swelled into heavy pods that smelled thick and sweet and would occasionally pop open and rain black seeds all over the catwalks. Mom helped Chena create a sling that could be hung between the bike’s outrigger struts so she could carry even more packages. Teal helped her encrypt her client list in her comptroller and offered opinions on which customers were spies and which were working for the Authority.