The Triad

Chapter Two

‘Do you think he saw me?’ Anna asked for the third time. All three women had seen the prince look up at the window just as Anna shifted to signal one of their agents down in the street. The

‘You were only in view for a second, even if he had seen you he wouldn’t have known or cared who you are.’ Corrine sighs for the third time. ‘Now stop worrying and get moving, we have a meeting to attend.’

Quietly, the women stalled in the shadows by the door onto the street, waiting for a decent sized crowd of people to walk past before slipping out and joining the throng. Merging seamlessly into the chaos they separated, each taking a different side street, working their way around the city to make sure they weren’t followed. The streets of the Lower City were extremely crowded, as people filed in and out of taverns and shops in preparation for the midday meal, while those that had been watching the princess’ arrival gossiped loudly about the nobles. As the three women made their separate ways down through the winding, claustrophobic streets they kept an eye out anyone taking advantage of the distracted crowd, knowing that their various employees would be doing the same.

Finally, they reach their destination. In the city centre a small complex of buildings clustered together that housed the Siren. Acting as the most popular tavern and brothel in the Lower City is was visited by all members of the kingdom and took up the bottom two floors in the centre of this complex. What most of the people that visited the Siren didn’t know was that the two upper floors housed the headquarters of the Triad, a vast rabbit warren of rooms that spanned all of the buildings in the complex, while underneath was a series of secret entrances and escape tunnels. The three women had entered through these tunnels and made their way up through the Siren, greeting their trusted seconds also making their way upstairs.

Sitting down at the head of a large table, with the other girls on either side, Corinne greeted the two seconds in command, her own and Vanessa’s. Once everyone was in place, she opened the ledger, glancing at the other people sat around the table.

‘Who wants to go first?’ she said, raising her quill.

‘I will’ said Piper. Corinne’s second in command and liaison had been working her way through the different brothels and taverns, gathering reports on any valuable information let slip by drunks and clients trying to impress the girls. She still sported a dark bruise on her cheek from her encounter with the slavers a week prior.

‘It’s a short one, since most important visitors, like council members, have been up near the palace in preparation for the wedding or at the docks trying to snare the younger prince.’ Piper continued, handing a stack of papers down the table. ‘However, I have several reports from a few drunken guards that there is a new Lord making waves on the council. Seems to have quite a lot of influence.’

‘Do we have a name?’ Corinne asked, quickly leafing through the papers.

‘No, they weren’t that drunk’ Piper chuckled.

‘Anything about this in the report from Jonah?’ Corinne asked, smiling across the table at the young boy kicking his feet on a tall stool.

Brynn, Vanessa’s protégé had been charged with sneaking through the crowd to collect the latest report from Jonah, their agent in the royal guard and Anna’s second. Snapping to attention he pulled the document from his pocket, squinting at it for a moment before giving up and passing it to Vanessa next to him.

‘Jonah says the nobles are restless, there are several who don’t like us shutting down their access to free labour. A few lost business partners in the raid last week and they are kicking up a fuss, seemingly egged on by this newly arrived Lord…’ She scanned the letter searching for a name. ‘Lord Grantway. Do we know him?’

Anna and Piper both shook their heads, while Corinne scribbled down the details.

‘I don’t remember him, but I’ll check my records and see what I can find. Anything else to report?’ she answered, tapping the feathered end of her quill on her chin.

‘He says that these nobles are calling for action against us, but for now the King is reluctant to dirty his hands with Lower City business until it affects them more. And that Prince James is considering the gracing us with his presence in the Lower City for the bachelor party. Jonah is hinting to the younger prince that the Siren is the place to be, and he’ll let us know if that works’ Vanessa finished, folding the note and passing it over.

‘Perfect. Then I propose we keep a low profile for the moment. No unnecessary missions, nothing that might increase the noble’s irritation. They’ll forget about it as soon as the wedding gets into full swing. Until then, I’ll see what I can find out about this Lord Grantway’ Corrine suggested, and a general murmur of ‘sounds good’ rippled around the table.

‘I’ll head out on patrol tonight Corri, make sure that we’re prepared for the prince coming into town.’ Anna added almost as an afterthought. ‘Last thing we need is someone getting robbed or kidn*pped on our turf that they'll blame on us, especially while the council thinks we’re the bad guys.’

With that, the meeting broke up and each person wound there way through the maze of corridors to their ‘day jobs’. Piper and Corrine in the Siren chatting light heartedly to guests and filing away every scrap of information they might be able to use later, Anna in her apothecary shop next door where she sold everything from healing remedies, poisons and the assassination services of the Harpy, and Vanessa sneaking off to her room with a plan in mind