Chapter 14 · Rust and Relic - Chapter 14: Graycrow Doesn't Do Favors

"You want to walk into Graycrow's tent smelling like fresh kill?" Liv's hand locked around my wrist before I got three steps toward the merchant quarter.

"We need information," I said. "She's the only one who moves between—"

"She's the only one who sells to all sides." Liv yanked me back hard enough that the shard pulsed hot against my ribs. "Which means she'll sell us too."

"Then we make a deal she can't flip."

"There's no such thing." But Liv didn't let go. Her thumb pressed into the inside of my wrist, right over the pulse. "Graycrow doesn't do favors. She does profit."

"Good." I pulled free and kept walking. "Then we give her one."

The merchant quarter wasn't a quarter. It was six tents and a fire pit in a clearing that smelled like wet fur and fermented something. Greta Graycrow's tent sat in the center, dyed gray canvas patched with leather and stitched-on clan marks from every tribe on the continent. A reputation you could read from fifty feet.

Two guards flanked the entrance. One had a spear.