Asher Converse's Arc

Chapter 19 of 30

The next night ran busy again. Asher had drawn a clean line with Tucker at the bar, but a line only holds if both men keep to it. Asher kept to his half. His own half was another matter. When Tucker leaned close to name a price for a cask, Asher let him linger. When Tucker's chain caught the lamplight, Asher looked. He told himself he was watching a good manager work. He liked the looking. He gave Tucker room to do it back. "You're smiling," Tucker said, low, sliding a mug across. "You said you never smile." "I said the servers smile." Asher took the mug. "You're a server." "I'm your partner." Tucker braced both hands on the bar and grinned. "And you're enjoying this." Asher did not deny it. He teased the game along one more turn, because it cost him nothing and warmed the long night. That was the mistake. He forgot who else was in the room. Rowan Fisk worked the far tables. Dryads had raised him, not people, and it showed in how he moved: quiet, watching, blending into a wall until a man forgot he stood there. Asher had hired him to watch patrons. Rowan watched everything. He came to the bar with an empty tray and set it down without a sound. He waited until Tucker went to pull another round. Then he spoke, flat and plain. "Two men by the door. They came for the mirror, not the drink. One asked the other if the owner still slept above the shop." Rowan turned a mug on the tray. "Then he said their man wants the trapdoor found before the moon dies." Asher's grin dropped. The cask, the chain, the game, all of it fell away. "The trapdoor," he said. "They named it." "Those words." Rowan met his eyes. "They don't know where it is. They know it's here." Asher looked past him. The two men sat easy near the door, nursing full mugs, watching the mirror the way hunters watch a game trail. He had built the hidden room to keep the cellar unseen. Now an enemy knew a door existed and meant to find it before the new moon. Tucker came back with the round and read Asher's face at once. "You've stopped enjoying yourself," he said. "Rowan heard the door men." Asher kept his voice under the noise. "They're the adversary's. They're hunting the trapdoor." Tucker's easy look went hard. He set the mugs down. "Then the flirting's finished for tonight." "For tonight," Asher agreed. He wiped the smile off for good and turned to face the room. The game with Tucker had ended, and Rowan's ear had ended it. Asher had a base built to hide the cellar. The next move was his.