Starside novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Bone Market

Neither of us spoke of the kiss.

We walked out of the hollow and up a long ridge of pale stone.

He kept the cord stretched to its full twenty paces, and I kept my eyes on the ground.

My mouth still felt used.

I hated that more than anything.

At the top of the ridge, the stone turned out to be bone.

Enormous ribs rose out of the hillside in curved white rows, and between them someone had strung canvas and lanterns.

A market had grown in the shelter of the ribs.

Challengers and Starside traders stood in knots, trading water for gold and bread for knives, and the smell of cooking meat drifted over everything.

"The Bone Market," Dain said. "Neutral ground. No duels, no blood."

"Who says?"

"She does. It's the only rule she keeps."

I hadn't eaten in a day and a half.

I put one of my two silver coins on a trader's board, and she gave me a heel of bread and a skin of water.

I was breaking the bread in half when a hand closed around my arm.

"There she is," said a voice by my ear.

I turned.

Three challengers stood behind me, big men from the docks with Marek's cheap leather coats.

The one who had hold of me smiled with a missing tooth.

"Marek says you owe him a sword," he said. "He says we're to collect."

"Let go."

"Or what? There's no blood at the Bone Market, love."

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