Somyellia was one, though she had to be dismally low in that House to join me as a flesh peddler. Others were said to dwell in the woods outside Nilghorde and as far as the border that Rehleia shares with the desert wasteland known as Azad. Sailors from Quinnari have told of a city of towers, across the sea and tucked away by a guardian forest. Allegedly, that is where the notorious clan had spewed forth.
But despite all the legends, someone claiming to have merely met an Ordrid was rather common. Hell, I had lived next door to one and robbed graves with her stud.
“Werlyle, are you saying Morlia had an affair with an Ordrid?”
“That’s exactly what I’m sayin’, what Morlia was sayin’. Rinlot must’ve listened for a bit; he told me more. She never said where she met him, but Rinlot and I knew she still had her connections in the Bustle. I still pick out the occasional dinner guest that’s prolly a sneak thief. Don’t smile; I’m serious.”
I knew what to look for, and the only person in the home with a penchant for that work, other than me, was Morlia herself. “Sorry, sir.”
“So she meets this fellow and he throws a good fuck in her now and then. Don’t know when, but how the hell could I? Poor Rinlot was at the dungeon most days, and he wasn’t the assumin’ type anyhow. So, she gets pregnant. Of course she tells Rinlot it’s his, and of course he believes her.”
“Wait, she said all this at a party, tucked in a corner passing around pipes?”
“You don’t believe me, aye?”
I was foolish for letting go of my subservient front. His conviction was without doubt; he certainly believed himself. I really cared little one way or the other. I just wanted him to tire out so I could excuse myself.
Shrugs were all I could muster.
He sighed. “I don’t know why I am tellin’ you all this. Maybe it’s just been bottled up fer too long.”
“It’s all right, sir,” regaining my humility, “it’s just a lot to take in.”
“Well, Snier, I will at least finish it since I started, and you be the judge.
“When Rinmor was born, Rinlot was runnin’ all over singin’ his praises, right? All the while Morlia was still sneakin’ off. But somethin’ happened to that Ordrid, ’cause the sly charmer ceased to see Morlia outright. Bitter, she starts to mock Rinlot. I tell you, Snier, there isn’t a member at these little get-togethers that don’t know what I am tellin’ you now. She laughed behind his back and made fun of ’im, swingin’ the boy around.”
His tone had digressed to growls. Amid the slurred curses I heard something behind me. I leaned over the balcony. The sycamore stared back and I heard a groan, or what had to have been a groan, from the graveyard. Completely deaf to Werlyle’s words, I glared, the graves and sarcophagi glared back like the impeccant sycamore. What close-to-death creature had wandered in and now let out these ghasts? I needed to grab a torch, spear, and two slaves to carry them.