And another WIP...
"Legendary." He laughed, hollow and tired. "For what?"
"For being a clever, brutal bastard who runs a string of sharp and dangerous boys." There. If he knew Mother Vajpai, he knew we were Blades. Some flattery from our quarter might go a ways to improving his mood.
"We are shaking down peasants and harass peddlers. Are you demoting yourself to small-time crime?"
"No, the biggest crime of all. I want to steal my way into Kalimpura, then steal the city from those who would claim it for their own."
Another long silence. Then: "You do not dream in small doses. But then you never did." He paused for one, two, three deep breaths. "Mother Vajpai, did you know I cast this one out for being too brutal?
Too brutal, among my boys, is a mark of some distinction."
"The Blades found her brutal as well, but biddable."
Now there was a lie, but I held my tongue. No one had ever styled me biddable, not and kept their face straight in the process.