The Gentleman Bastard Series 3-Book Bundle: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch Page A

while we were working;
     they wouldn’t mess with our jobs, but they would watch us, you know? And Veslin would
     say things.” Locke’s thin-lipped scowl would have been comical on a less dirty, less
     emaciated, less hollow-eyed boy; as it was, he looked like a slender wall-gargoyle,
     working himself up for a pounce. “Say things when we came back. About how we were
     clumsy, or lazy, and not taking enough. And he would push us more, and hit us more,
     and cheat us more. I thought and I thought and I
thought
about what to do.”
    “And the idea,” said Chains, “the fateful idea. It was all yours?”
    “Yes.” The boy nodded vigorously. “All mine. I was alone when I hadthe idea. I saw some yellowjackets on patrol, and I thought … I thought about their
     sticks, and their swords. And I thought, what if
they
beat up Veslin? What if
they
had some reason not to like him?”
    Locke paused for breath. “And I thought more, but I couldn’t work it. I didn’t know
     how. But then I thought, what if they weren’t angry with Veslin? What if I used them
     as an excuse to make the
master
angry with Veslin?”
    Chains nodded sagely. “And where did you get the white iron coin?”
    Locke sighed. “Streets. All of us who didn’t like Veslin stole extra. We watched and
     we clutched and we worked hard. It took weeks. It took
forever
! I wanted white iron. I finally got one from a fat man dressed all in black wool.
     Funny coats and ties.”
    “A Vadran.” Chains seemed bemused. “Probably a merchant come down to do some business.
     Too proud to dress for the weather at first, and sometimes too cheap to see a tailor
     in town. So, you got a white iron coin. A full crown.”
    “Everyone wanted to see it. Everyone wanted to touch it. I let them; then I made them
     be quiet. I made them promise not to talk about it. I told them it was how we were
     going to get Veslin.”
    “So what did you do with your coin?”
    “Put it in a purse, a little leather purse. The kind we clutched all the time. And
     hid it out in the city so it wouldn’t get taken from us. A place we knew about, where
     nobody big could get to. And I made sure that Veslin and his friends were out of the
     hill, and I got the coin, and I went back in early one day. I gave up coppers and
     bread to the older girls on the door, but the coin was in my shoe.” Here Locke paused
     and fiddled with his little lamp, making the red glow waver on his face.
    “I put it in Veslin’s room. The one where he and Gregor slept—one of the nice dry
     tombs. Center of the hill. I found a loose stone and hid the purse there, and when
     I was sure nobody had seen me, I asked to see the master. I said that some of us had
     seen Veslin at one of the yellowjacket stations. That he’d taken money from them.
     That he’d shown it to us, and said that if we told on him he’d sell us to the yellowjackets.”
    “Amazing.” Chains scratched his beard. “You know you don’t mumble and stutter quite
     so much when you’re explaining how you fucked someone over?”
    Locke blinked, then turned his chin up and stared hard at Chains. The older man laughed.
     “Wasn’t a criticism, son, and I didn’t mean to dam the flow. Keep the story coming.
     How did you know your old master wouldtake offense at this? Did the yellowjackets ever offer you or your friends money?”
    “No,” Locke said. “No, but I knew the master gave
them
money. For favors; for information. We saw him putting coins in purses, sometimes.
     So I figured, maybe I could work it the other way.”
    “Ah.” Chains reached within the folds of his robe and withdrew a flat leather wallet,
     the color of baked bricks in the light of Locke’s lamp. From this he withdrew a scrap
     of paper, onto which he shook a dark powder from another corner of the wallet. This
     object he rapidly folded end over end until it was a tight cylinder, and with courtly
     grace he lit one end by holding it in the lamp’s flame.