I glanced at the beady eyed man by my feet. I had remembered his name.
"Marty, get yur ass up. I know you's fakin' it so's ya don' have to deal further w' Essmay but let me tell ya' it won't work well enough 'er you unless ya' comply." I found sliding back into my Lowland accent frustrated local gang bangers more than most anything. Marty growled and slowly stood up, wings limp and eyebrows scowling.
"Be a good boi now. Give this nice lady her coin back that yeah stole from 'er and extra for causing me to waste my fuckin' time." Marty's scowl deepened, but he put his weathered hands into his pocket and flung a silver coin on the table. I was aghast. A SILVER coin as payment.
It was my turn to scowl.
"You robbed an old lady of a silver coin? As safety payment? You're lucky its payday Marty or I'd throw you into the Coop." Marty nodded his bald head, an odd contrast to his prolific facial hair. Essmay rapped her baton on the table in warning and Marty took off.
"Thank you," murmured the elderly woman, tucking away the coin as if it would be snatched away any second. It wasn't an entirely inaccurate assessment given the area.
"I'm Loosy by the way. Come by if you ever want some fruit okay?" She gave us a genuine smile, though I could see the fear remained in her eyes.
"And if you need anything. You let us know," I said, grabbing up one of the apples and tossing her a copper. As we walked back toward our mounts, I bit into it greedily, supple tart juice making its way down my chin.
"Wow." Essmay regarded me with slight judgment.
"You do know that it's an apple right Skyee?"
I licked the item in question seductively.
"Is this what you do with Kayden?" I asked, receiving a well-deserved punch in the shoulder. Despite her casual attitude, I could see the tiniest of blushes blossoming on my best friend's cheeks.
"Soooo more tongue I'm guessing?" This time Essmay tackled me.
Gold's abode looked far more like a family home than Black's Keep. I knew from experience that the inside was much different. As we entered I heard music in the background and could faintly see a lyre player in the corner of the huge room. All the walls had been taken out and it had left a huge space for the Gold clansman to congregate. The air was thick with the smell of incense and it made me want to gag. It was some awful lilly of the valley smell that always reminded one of your grandmother's house. Essmay crinkled her nose and gave the here-we-go-again look I was used to reading.
The walls of the house had been covered in red velvet, while the floor had once been a shade of gold but now resembled a sort of dirty yellow. The house was filled neutral garbed clansman with golden facial piercings. There were so many there that I had to get off Luna and start leading her through the crowd. Mrs. and Mr. Gold wore gold tunics and sat amongst a few dozen silk pillows. They were on a raised, what looked like bed, but that took up too much room to have been a singlular one. Mr. Gold was stroking his wife's blonde hair, which cascaded down and off their elevated day bed. He was busy talking to one of Mr. Gray's men who I recognized by his top hat and briefcase. Mrs. Gold, meanwhile, was laying along her husbands lap, rubbing the very large bump that was her stomache. I think she was on her sixth child. She was a beautiful woman, in that light skinned heavy makeup sort of way. Her nose was a bit too long and her eyes a bit too sharp, but pretty nonetheless. Her long parrot wings were a deep yellow tinged in orange, a contrast to her husbands green ones. Mr. Gold had black hair, though it was thinning ever so slightly, and an eyepatch which I always thought was more for aesthetic apeal than functionality.