It's been a while, I know, and this chapter isn't much, but it's all I have at the moment. Feedback, as always, is appreciated. And if you haven't read what's gone before, you can read everything but the latest chapter in the Barrenhollow saga here...
“Barrenhollow Blues”
A serial novel in progress (Week 6 of ???)
By Cliff Hicks
It’s amazing how the powerful can carry such an air of knowledge until you call their bluff and ask to see their cards and they come up short. The Fist hadn’t known anything. River hadn’t said anything, if he’d even known anything, which I’m not so sure that he did. It seemed like Barrenhollow’s most influential criminals were losing touch with the word on the street. Or maybe there is no word on the street and that’s the problem.
Ah, hell. Maybe it would be wiser to go somewhere higher up. Someone towards more of the top. Someone higher up in the circles of Barrenhollow instead of the thugs and streetcorner vendors. But that would mean I’d have to deal with Dahlia. And I don’t particularly want to deal with Dahlia. But I’m not sure I have much of a choice at this point. I was honestly running out of options and didn’t like the fact that it felt like my information had dried up like the desert. Information was the greatest currency in the city. To be without it was be worse than poor. If you weren’t in the know in Barrenhollow, you weren’t worth knowing.
“Barrett?” Cordy’s voice snapped me out of my idle thinking. “Are you alright?”
Outside of The Fist’s mansion, I was still standing with Cordy at my side. I’d been lost in the thought of the moment, running over the last few days in my head, trying to work out what it all meant. And unfortunately, I wasn’t making any headway. It kept going around in circles over and over again, from the stones to why people wanted them to the hitmen that had come bursting through my door. We were being pressed between two countries without a good reason why. And I was starting to get caught up in the mental chicanery again when Cordy’s voice broke the silence yet again. “Barrett, what are you thinking about?”
“I’m just trying to think what our next move should be, Cordy. I’m trying to think of who could tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“Oh.” She seemed upset by that, nervous at the fact that I didn’t have all the answers. “Who are we going to talk to next?”
“Not we, Cordy. Me. I’m going to talk to a few people on my own, so that I can see if I can get some information.”
“Barrett, you’re the one who told me I should come with you.”
“That was for dealing with the Fist. I liked having you there to distract him a little bit. It let me watch him and figure out what he was thinking without worrying about revealing too much. But these people, the ones I’m going to have to go talk to now? They’re not the kind of people who’ll be distracted by you. In fact, they’d probably be cross if I didn’t come alone.”
Cordelia sighed slowly, looking down at her feet before looking back up at me once more. “If you think it’s best, Barrett…”
“I do, Cordy. I wish I could bring you along, but it wouldn’t help things any. It’d only make things worse. Sorry.”
“Ashe will probably be glad to have me home anyway,” Cordy said, rejectedly. It was hard to leave her while I continued to go out and work, but this was, in truth, going to be difficult enough without her presence. “You’ll come get me as soon as you’re done talking to them, right, Barrett?”
“As soon as I can, Cordy, I promise,” I told her. She nodded and mounted her horse, blowing me a kiss before she rode off. It wasn’t something I was fond of doing, but … well, she and Dahlia had not gotten along famously and it would only make things more difficult in the long run. Besides, after Dahlia, I had been considering talking to Faltone, and Faltone didn’t like anyone, especially women. When Cordy rode off, though, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness, almost as if sending her away would only complicate things between her and I.
As if they weren’t too complicated already.
Slowly, I climbed atop my horse and pulled my cloak around me. It was starting to move into evening, which meant I had to hurry to find Dahlia. She certainly was no night creature, so if I didn’t find her before the sun set today, I would have to wait until it arose tomorrow. But I certainly wasn’t eager to see her again, no matter how much I needed her help.
Ex-lovers are like corpses – you should bury them unless you have no other choice.
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Like I said, not much, but all I've got right now.
“Barrenhollow Blues”
A serial novel in progress (Week 6 of ???)
By Cliff Hicks
It’s amazing how the powerful can carry such an air of knowledge until you call their bluff and ask to see their cards and they come up short. The Fist hadn’t known anything. River hadn’t said anything, if he’d even known anything, which I’m not so sure that he did. It seemed like Barrenhollow’s most influential criminals were losing touch with the word on the street. Or maybe there is no word on the street and that’s the problem.
Ah, hell. Maybe it would be wiser to go somewhere higher up. Someone towards more of the top. Someone higher up in the circles of Barrenhollow instead of the thugs and streetcorner vendors. But that would mean I’d have to deal with Dahlia. And I don’t particularly want to deal with Dahlia. But I’m not sure I have much of a choice at this point. I was honestly running out of options and didn’t like the fact that it felt like my information had dried up like the desert. Information was the greatest currency in the city. To be without it was be worse than poor. If you weren’t in the know in Barrenhollow, you weren’t worth knowing.
“Barrett?” Cordy’s voice snapped me out of my idle thinking. “Are you alright?”
Outside of The Fist’s mansion, I was still standing with Cordy at my side. I’d been lost in the thought of the moment, running over the last few days in my head, trying to work out what it all meant. And unfortunately, I wasn’t making any headway. It kept going around in circles over and over again, from the stones to why people wanted them to the hitmen that had come bursting through my door. We were being pressed between two countries without a good reason why. And I was starting to get caught up in the mental chicanery again when Cordy’s voice broke the silence yet again. “Barrett, what are you thinking about?”
“I’m just trying to think what our next move should be, Cordy. I’m trying to think of who could tell me what the hell is going on here.”
“Oh.” She seemed upset by that, nervous at the fact that I didn’t have all the answers. “Who are we going to talk to next?”
“Not we, Cordy. Me. I’m going to talk to a few people on my own, so that I can see if I can get some information.”
“Barrett, you’re the one who told me I should come with you.”
“That was for dealing with the Fist. I liked having you there to distract him a little bit. It let me watch him and figure out what he was thinking without worrying about revealing too much. But these people, the ones I’m going to have to go talk to now? They’re not the kind of people who’ll be distracted by you. In fact, they’d probably be cross if I didn’t come alone.”
Cordelia sighed slowly, looking down at her feet before looking back up at me once more. “If you think it’s best, Barrett…”
“I do, Cordy. I wish I could bring you along, but it wouldn’t help things any. It’d only make things worse. Sorry.”
“Ashe will probably be glad to have me home anyway,” Cordy said, rejectedly. It was hard to leave her while I continued to go out and work, but this was, in truth, going to be difficult enough without her presence. “You’ll come get me as soon as you’re done talking to them, right, Barrett?”
“As soon as I can, Cordy, I promise,” I told her. She nodded and mounted her horse, blowing me a kiss before she rode off. It wasn’t something I was fond of doing, but … well, she and Dahlia had not gotten along famously and it would only make things more difficult in the long run. Besides, after Dahlia, I had been considering talking to Faltone, and Faltone didn’t like anyone, especially women. When Cordy rode off, though, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness, almost as if sending her away would only complicate things between her and I.
As if they weren’t too complicated already.
Slowly, I climbed atop my horse and pulled my cloak around me. It was starting to move into evening, which meant I had to hurry to find Dahlia. She certainly was no night creature, so if I didn’t find her before the sun set today, I would have to wait until it arose tomorrow. But I certainly wasn’t eager to see her again, no matter how much I needed her help.
Ex-lovers are like corpses – you should bury them unless you have no other choice.
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Like I said, not much, but all I've got right now.
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