Bloodhound

by Tamora Pierce

  "You know we had to do it," I reminded her. "If Pearl goes for us because we Dogged child stealers, she'd best watch her own people," I said, crossing my fingers that I was right. "Rats that serve the Rogue like to think they're too good for such trade, you told me so when I was a Pup." I remembered Pearl's spy. What had happened to her?

  Goodwin saw me look around us. "She kept back for a while – stayed with me while you and Achoo were on your hunt. She's good, but there weren't too many places she could hide and still watch that square. When you came back, she disappeared."

  We headed east on Moneychangers'. We were almost to the turning for Serenity's when Haden caught up to us. "If yez were lookin' for Pearl's spy, she took off when ye brung the little 'un to her ma. I've not seen her since. Strange, innit?" He flipped a peach into the air. I doubted the fruit was paid for, and peaches are expensive.

  "Why didn't you follow her, upstart?" Goodwin asked.

  Haden grinned and offered her the peach with a bow. "Supposed t' be watchin' you, ain't I?"

  Goodwin took the peach and bit it. Haden winked at her and fit himself in among those who were walking along, until we lost sight of him.

  I giggled. "I think he likes you," I told Goodwin as we turned down Coates Lane.

  "Cooper, you alarm me," she said, but she smiled. "I have furnishings that are older than Master Haden. Oh, while I think of it – buy yourself another whistle. It's folly to go about without one."

  When we reached Serenity's, it needed but one look from the priestess, and two raised brows, to remind me that I must be filthy. I took a bath and combed the dirt out of Achoo's coat, then went shopping for a good supper for her. She had earned it today. Once I'd returned, I settled at my desk to write my reports. That is done. I have given my copies to Goodwin, and I have written up this day for my journal. Now I believe it is time for a nap. Tonight we go to supper again with Hanse, Steen, Flory, Dale, and any of the others who might care to come along. Poor Achoo. It's the yard again for her. At least I'm giving her an excellent supper and a meaty bone this time, for an apology.

  Pox and murrain. I never got to ask Okha how to use the face paint.

  Well, I'll just try the lash darkener and leave the rest for another time.

  Those we met the night of September 15 and such information as I learned of them, then and in succeeding days:

  Lowenna Boller, orange girl, friend of Fair Flory

  Kevern Pye, works for Hanse in caravans

  Austell Goff, works for Hanse in caravans

  Erben Worts, works for Hanse in caravans

  Alisoun Nails, courier at Goldsmith's Bank, knows Dale Wat Eavesbrook, works for Hanse in caravans

  Viel Sperling, friend of Fair Flory

  Bermond Tapener, master clerk at Goldsmith's Bank, knows

  Dale

  Jaco Quilty, journeyman smith, friend of Hanse

  Amda Threadgill, works for Hanse in caravans

  Monday, September 17, 247

  At six-thirty of the morning.

  concerning the night of September 16, 247

  Goddess bless me, his hands. They are limber and warm, lighting every part of me he touches. He hasn't even touched the soft and secret parts. Not that I could stop thinking of him touching me everywhere once I'd gone to bed last night. Achoo finally climbed to the floor in disgust because I tossed and turned so. She is yet sleeping there.

  And his kisses!

  They came for us here at six of the clock last night, Dale and Hanse and the rest. We walked, the eating house being six scant blocks along the side of the ridge from Serenity's. They'd brought three more of Hanse's caravan guards with their companions. Everyone was full of good cheer. Some noble was having a birthday, and there was to be a fireworks display in the Ridge Gardens. The eating house looked out over Ridge Gardens where the fireworks were to be held, and Hanse and Dale, having planned this party weeks ago, had snagged a corner of it. We would even have a balcony where we might watch everything in comfort.

  So caught up in Dale's joking was I that I didn't notice we had moved to the outside of the group. Suddenly Dale hooked me around the waist.

  I reacted without thinking, bringing my bent arm up under the arm around my waist and slamming my free hand into the base of his neck. At the last moment I knew what I did and pulled my blow, but Dale still ended against the side of a building in the small alley beside us. For a moment we stood there, breathing a little hard, staring at each other.

  Then I hung my head. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "You shouldn't surprise a Dog."

  "Beka, I'm going to hold your hand now," he said, only half joking. He reached out and drew me into the alley with him. "I'm sorry. I've never taken a Dog around before. It never occurred to me there might be... hazards. But surely you have been courted this way before?"

  I shook my head. I still couldn't bring myself to look at him.

  He slowly put one hand under my chin and raised my face until our eyes met.

  "What?" I asked him, my heart thumping. "I'll tell you right now, I've had a hard day, I'm bruised all over, and I am hungry."

  In the torchlight from the street I saw his frown. "Bruised?"

  "I'm a Dog, remember? I fight with Rats and they fight back. I bruise."

  Dale picked up my hand and kissed the tips of my fingers. "Bruised here?"

  I tried to yank my hand away. "Stop that. You're a flirt."

  He looked at me, his eyes twinkling most wickedly. He kissed the back of my hand. "Bruised here?"

  I tugged my hand again. "And a tease."

  He turned my hand over and kissed my palm softly, his beard tickling my skin, roughened by my long grip on my baton. "Here?"

  The peaks on my peaches went so tight I thought they might pop clean off. I pushed at Dale's forehead. "I'm not one of your toys." I tried not to sound breathless.

  "I just found that out." He rubbed the base of his throat. "Never sneak up on the Dog. Very important, I think." He reached out to stroke my arm and felt my sleeve daggers. "Ouch! Not just fists – I've found your teeth! I'll check one more place – are you bruised here, Beka?"

  He kissed the inside of my wrist. My knees were going weak before he licked it, just one little flick of his tongue. I turned to jelly, no more a sharp-toothed Dog.

  Cool metal slipped around my wrist and he let me go.

  "What?" I said, trying to catch my breath. I stepped out into the street, where I could see better. He'd slipped a silver bracelet onto me, the torc style that doesn't clasp. I turned to him. "What is this?"

  "You won't take a coin, so I got you a gift. You were my luck last night," he told me, his eyes steady. "If we don't show our appreciation, the Trickster gets angry." He tapped my nose. "Besides, you don't have many pretty things, I'll wager. You'd never buy them for yourself. That's why you need me."

  I scowled at him. "Oh, I need you now, is it?"

  We heard a bellow from near two blocks away. "I'm STARVING!"

  "I think Hanse's father was a bull," Dale said. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "We'll BE there!" He grabbed my hand, twining his fingers with mine. "Yes, you need me," he said as we trotted down the street. "You need me to make you laugh. You need me to tickle your – " He chuckled evilly. My skin rippled with goose bumps. "Fancy," he said at last. "You need me to remind you that you're a woman and not just a Dog."

  I yanked him to a halt and tugged his hand until he was looking at me. "You can't separate the two, Dale," I warned him. "A Dog's all I've ever wanted to be, and sometimes I can't help being one."

  He put his free hand around the back of my neck, warming it, and me, all over. "I don't want to separate them. I think the combination is exciting."

  He picked me up by the waist and swung me around, landing me in a doorway with my back to the door.

  And then he did kiss me.

  Oh, I came all undone. He wrapped me about in his arms. I got one arm about his waist and one about his shoulders and hung on. He wasn't a hard kisse
r, or a quick, fast pecker, or one that thinks he must suck your face off, like the other coves that have kissed me. He fit his lips to mine and went very quiet and gentle, breathing my breath, settling his hold on me until we matched, twined about like vines.

  No more. I go all loose just thinking about it.

  We kissed twice more, I think, slow. Taking our sweet time. Finally he said, "Hanse'll kill us if we're any later."

  "Goodwin will think we got robbed," I managed to reply.

  I was glad to hear some roughness in his voice. I don't think he'd sound so if he was just playing with me to keep his flirting skills good.

  So we left that doorway and walked down the street, hand in hand again. We'd gone a block when he asked, "How many blades are you wearing?"

  I began to laugh. He'd have felt the ones at my back, for certain, and mayhap the leg ones, too. "I'm used to Dogging in the worst part of Corus," I said. "And I don't know Port Caynn at all. A girl should be prepared."

  "Well, this walking out with a Dog is proving educational," Dale told me. "You'll protect me, won't you? You'll have to if you keep bringing me luck. I'll have heaps of gold coin, and you'll be forced to stay with me to protect my skinny gambling body."

  I couldn't help it. I giggled. He was so lighthearted, and so funny. I'd never known anyone like him. "You're not skinny, and I've seen you fight," I said. He looked at me and grinned, the torchlight dancing in his eyes. "Where did you learn that kicking style?"

  "Some Shang friends who were better fighters than they were dice players taught me," he said. "Listen, did I hurt those bruises? And how did you get them?"

  I hadn't thought of the bruises since he'd kissed my hand. I shrugged and told him, "We went about, around the gem sellers' street. And there were three child stealers. We disputed, and I won."

  Dale stopped and turned to face me in the street. "You... 'disputed' with three Rats."

  I put a hand on my hip – right atop one of my bruises, sadly. "I wasn't about to offer them cakes and wish them a fine day."

  "And how many children did my fine, brave Dog save from whatever those Rats had planned for them?" Dale asked me quietly.

  I looked away, grateful for the dark that hid my blushes. He sounded so proud of me. It made my heart flip over. "A handful and a half. It wasn't even half a day's work. I'd've given them over for return to their families and gone back on the street, were I at home. Do we go to supper or not?"

  He kissed me again, ignoring all the folk walking around us, the coves with their whistles and words of advice, the mots with their laughter and calls of "Lucky girl!" I grabbed his wrists as he held my face, blushing like fire at all the folk looking at us. I tugged, but Dale wasn't inclined to stop. I told myself no one could see my face, but it was dreadful, all those strangers staring.

  Other hands tugged at us. Hanse and Goodwin had come. "The night is young and we are about to bay at the moon, so come and tell us what you want," Goodwin said, towing me along. I pulled my veil over my face.

  Hanse looked over at me. "Beka with eyes like moonstones, I hear you were up to Dog work again today, you and Clary," he said, his own eyes dead serious. "Weren't you warned?"

  "Don't tell me your Rogue winks at child stealers," Goodwin replied boldly. She poked Hanse in the ribs – not gently, either. "That's what Cooper and her scent hound were after, my buck. A fine job she did, too."

  "She's not my Rogue," Hanse protested, rubbing his ribs as we entered the eating house. This was a more elegant place than the Merman's Cave, though in truth I noticed little of the furnishings. Dale had taken my free hand again and was tickling my palm with a finger. I snatched my hand away, looking to see if anyone had noticed. I had never let a cove be so bold with me in public. For all he was Rogue, even Rosto had learned that.

  Burly house slave guards, so much alike they could have been bought as a pair, halted us. "Swords," they told the coves. "Give 'em to her." They pointed to a mot who stood before a room where the weapons lay on shelves. Then the guards looked Goodwin and me over with knowing eyes. "What manner of trouble will we get here, good mistresses?" the one on my left asked. "We know you've got bits and pieces tucked away under those nice dresses."

  So the house guards were better than at the Merman's Cave or the Waterlily.

  "They're Dogs, lads," Dale called as he checked his sword.

  "I'll vouch for them," I heard a familiar voice say. Nestor came in behind us with Okha – well, Amber – on his arm. Nestor was out of uniform, but these guards seemed to know him. They bowed their heads and let him and Amber-Okha sweep by. Nestor smiled at me and tucked a coin into one guard's hand.

  "Nestor, Amber, join us," Hanse shouted after them. "We're upstairs in the east corner!"

  Amber-Okha put a hand on Nestor's shoulder. He smiled and nodded. Okha waved his fingers at us as they took the stairs.

  "Sarge Haryse's word is good enough fer us, Guards-women," the guard who'd noticed we carried blades said to Goodwin and me. "You can go on in."

  "I didn't know you were friends with the sergeant," Goodwin said to Hanse as he came back to us.

  Hanse shrugged. "Oh, everybody knows everybody when they dance between the Court of the Rogue and the gamblin' houses," he replied. "I met Nestor because I bring Amber makeup and perfume from our Barzun trips. He's a decent cove, for all he's the law. Not bought law, neither. Straight law. A cove knows where he stands with Nestor, and it isn't on the good side of a coin."

  "My feelings are hurt," Dale said with a pout as he joined us. "The guards don't trust Hanse and me, and we're such trustworthy lads."

  Goodwin gave him a gentle push. "I wouldn't trust you farther than I can throw you, and you a bony bit of a cove," she said. "Look at you, toying with my poor, earnest Beka. I've been hearing about your reputation, Master Rowan! One foot in and one foot out of the Court of the Rogue, you and Hanse!"

  "Lies, all of it, lies," Dale said, lifting my hand to his lips and kissing it. "Well, mostly lies."

  "Caravaners got to be on terms with the Rogues," Hanse said. "Elsewise we lose too much cargo to them on the road. Better to be friendly and pay a little tax monthly, like."

  "Now, what's this?" Sharp-eyed Goodwin had spotted the bracelet. When she took my hand to examine it, I got a better look than I had on the street. The front was set with three small, clear oval stones. They'd been invisible outside, but here, in the lamp- and torchlight, they sparked in different colors. Two held darts and chips of blue and light purple fire. The middle one, the whitest, held dots and sparks of pink, orange, and yellow light deep inside it.

  I turned to Dale and started to yank the bracelet off. "I can't take this. It's too expensive."

  He stopped my hand with both of his and gave me his I'm-very-serious wide-eyed look. "It's bad luck to return a gift, Beka."

  "It is," agreed Goodwin.

  "He's right," added Hanse.

  Goodwin slapped me on the shoulder. "Besides, Cooper, most of your jewelry is scummer," she said cheerfully. "It won't kill you to have some nice things." She touched her moonstone necklace, which is lovely. "What are the stones on the bracelet, anyway?"

  "Sirajit opals," Dale said cheerfully. "Usually you see the brown stones and the peach-colored ones. Now and then I get lucky and find something with the clear gems."

  "Very lovely," Goodwin said. "Maybe some nice lad will buy me a present like that." We looked at each other, thinking of the opal seller who was determined to leave Corus. Then Goodwin took Hanse's arm. They began to climb the stairs to the second floor of the eating house. The first floor was already packed with diners.

  "You have to be careful with opals, though," Dale said, taking my arm. "They're the Trickster's gems. Some last for ages. Others crack and go to pieces in months. If you get them just out of the ground, you want to hang on to them for a year at least before you try cutting them." He smiled at me. "I'm a bit mad for opals. I suppose it's because I am a Trickster's follower at heart."

  Someth
ing in his eyes, as if he hoped I'd share his love of the stones, made me do something I rarely do. "I've an opal of my own," I told him, and fetched mine out.

  Dale halted in the middle of the stair, drawing me to the side, next to a hanging circle of candles. Carefully he turned my stone in his graceful fingers, his eyes finding the cherry sparks, the green flares, the yellow lights, the orange ones, and the way a pink bit set in the surrounding pink stone might suddenly turn emerald green. "A raw fire opal," he said. "Not enough solid gemstone to make it worth cutting – "

  I snatched it back. "I don't want it cut," I said. "I love it like it is."

  Goodwin came back and grabbed us. "Goddess save me, you two are like children. Must we tie you to a rope and tow you to keep you with the rest of us?" She stared at my hand. "She showed you her fire opal? She must like you. Now come along and talk while we eat!"

  She and Hanse weren't joking about the others' mood. They roared curses as we approached. The maids had placed us at tables set in a U so they might more easily wait on us. Better, we were in a sort of open room set off one corner of the building, so we could hear each other.

  As luck had it, I got to sit beside Nestor, with Dale on my right. Goodwin and Hanse were across from us, on the opposite side of the U, with Steen and Flory. Dale and I were saved more curses as maids arrived with trays of small pasties stuffed with all manner of things. Okha, on Nestor's other side, had asked them for cider twilsey for me, while Steen had remembered Dale's wine, so we were well set up.

  Dale asked me for my fire opal again. I handed it over to him, easier now that I knew he loved opals, for all he might joke about cutting mine. When he stood to eye it beside a lamp near the entry, Nestor leaned closer to me.

  "I heard an unnamed Dog and her scent hound went on a hunt today," he whispered in my ear. "Later I get word from Deep Harbor that some cityfolk managed to seize three child stealers at their work at the same time."