Free Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn

of liked it.”
    “Over there,” Josetta said. “Someone selling jewelry.”
    They tossed through piles of cheap rings and bracelets, then moved on to a booth where a vendor fresh from the western provinces was selling polished wooden boxes with hidden compartments. “A nice gift for a hunti man,” Josetta observed, though neither of them made a purchase. But at a neighboring stall she was won over by a coin-sized metal disk stamped with the image of a towering, flowering tree. Another hunti symbol. She bought it for her mother to add to Seterre’s collection of charms.
    Corene wandered away while Josetta was paying the vendor, but when Josetta caught up to her, she wasn’t picking through scarves or fabrics at another booth. She was standing quite still, staring thoughtfully at the large raised dais where the blind sisters sat, listening to secrets.
    Josetta glanced between Corene and the seers, three large, soft women who operated here in the Plaza every day, trading in knowledge. They knew everything about everybody; you could buy information with a coin or with information of your own, depending on which was more valuable.
    Josetta had never had occasion to visit them herself, though she knew Zoe had. And probably half the residents of Chialto. If you wanted to find out if a man was honest, if you wanted to find out if a lover was faithful, you came to the blind sisters. If you wanted to spread the word that a merchant had cheated you or a banker had lied to you or your long-lost son had been recovered—
    “Corene?” Josetta said uncertainly.
    Corene was wearing a small smile of satisfaction. “I think I’m going to make a visit to the blind sisters,” she said. “Would you like to come hear what I tell them?”
    “Did you tell Darien you were going to do this?”
    “It just now occurred to me.”
    “Maybe you should wait. Maybe you should see if he would prefer to handle this matter another way.”
    Corene’s smile had grown to a wicked dazzle. “I don’t feel like waiting,” she said, limping straight toward the raised platform that held the sisters, her cane making a staccato sound against the hard ground. Josetta trailed helplessly behind.
    It was less than five minutes before one of the blind women was free, and Corene climbed carefully up the stairs, then plopped herself down in front of the seer. Josetta followed more slowly and knelt behind Corene, a little to one side. Corene and the blind sister both sat cross-legged on the warm wood of the planking, Corene staring fiercely at the sister and the large woman staring sightlessly back.
    “I have a story to tell you,” Corene said. “Do I just say it while you listen?”
    “What do you want to buy with your story?” the woman answered in a deep, peaceful voice. “Is there something you want to know in return?”
    “I don’t think so,” Corene said. “I just want you to spread this story to anyone who asks.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “There’s a man named Dominic Wollimer,” Corene said, her voice confident and precise. “He’s married to a woman named Alys, and I used to live with them. Whenever he caught me alone in the house, he would back me into a wall and put his hands all over me. Twice he came into my room at night and climbed into bed with me, but he was so drunk that I could run out of the door before he came after me. After that I had one of the maids sleep in my room. A few days ago he tried to kidnap me. I don’t know what he would have done with me then. He’s bad. Everyone should know just how bad.”
    Josetta was staring at her, dumb with horror, but the blind sister just nodded, her face still serene. Josetta imagined the old woman had heard worse atrocities over the decades. In fact, Josetta had, too, during the quintiles that she had worked in the slums, but she hadn’t heard anything so bad that had happened to Corene . Well, since that time five years ago when Vernon had tried to marry her off to the