Terrier

by Tamora Pierce

  There was no sound in the kennel, not a one. Everyone there looked at her. She stood, swaying. Suddenly she stumbled against the Sergeant’s desk. A Dog standing nearby grabbed her by the arm.

  She began to scream. “What’ve I done, what’ve I done?” she cried. “It’s a lie, all lies! I was magicked! I was magicked for the lie!”

  Fulk came out of his room when she began to scream. He walked over to her, a crystal held in his fingers, and held it before her eyes. “Did you kill your child?” he asked. The crystal gleamed.

  “No!” she screamed.

  The crystal shone out red.

  “Liar,” Fulk said. He smiled. “You did kill him. Were you magicked to tell us this?”

  “Yes, yes!” She tried to yank free of the Dog who still held on to her. “I was magicked to lie.”

  The crystal shone out green. “You were magicked to tell the truth,” Fulk said. “Who cast the spell?”

  The mot stared at him, her eyes huge. She opened her mouth several times. At last she said, “I do not remember.”

  The crystal shone out green. “Pity,” Fulk said. “Magicking someone to speak against her will is as great a crime as that of murder. The mage would have died beside you, had you been able to remember his name.” He shrugged and walked back into his room. The mot began to scream again until the Dog who held her slapped her silent.

  When I came in from duty tonight, I rapped on Kora’s door. As it happened, she was home.

  I told her about the mot and her confession as she made us tea. “I’d hate to think you had cast truth spells or compelling spells,” I said. “Any Dog who knew you did such things would have to bring you in.”

  Kora gave me a cup of mint tea with the sweetest of smiles. “I would never work such naughty magic,” she said, giving Pounce a scratch. “Not even on a mot who killed her child to please a man.”

  “That’s the trouble with you northerners,” I said. I couldn’t even pretend to be angry. With a choice between Kora and that foul woman, I knew who was the Rat. “At least Corus Rogues fake proper regret.”

  “I’ll try harder,” Kora said as she picked up her cup. “Truly, I will.”

  Monday, April 20, 246

  Night time.

  I hate missing breakfast. It isn’t even that I want the food, because I always bring sommat to eat at home the night before the Magistrate’s Court. I just miss the gathering of our flock or covey or whatever we are. I miss having the surprise of whoever new comes that day, be it from the Rogue’s side or from the Dogs’ side. I miss Aniki telling jokes. Mayhap, too, I miss the chance that I’ll hear the right name that will connect me to the Shadow Snake. Yesterday Phelan brought Achoo to play with Pounce. That was a morning’s worth of laugh in itself, with Achoo bouncing around the room, flirting with my cat, and Pounce jumping over Achoo just to make the dog addled. It distracted me from my gloom over no word on the diggers.

  But there’s no breakfast gathering on court days. The others are still abed when I leave for a day on my bum. I did have the finished maps, which I gave to my Dogs as soon as I got there, as well as copies of the lists of the Snake’s crimes and victims through yesterday. Tunstall and Goodwin looked them over through the morning and told me at last I’d done well.

  “You should’ve seen her workin’ on ‘em all week,” Verene whispered to Tunstall. She was too far off for me to kick her. “She wasn’t satisfied till they was just so. She’s picky, Beka is.”

  Tunstall smiled back at her. “She also has good friends.”

  Verene actually blushed. I didn’t know she could do that.

  Today again I had no need to talk. We had hobbled killers, robbers, brawlers, illegal slave sellers, thieves, and burglars aplenty all week, but Tunstall and Goodwin had been in view the whole time.

  When Sir Tullus took a break from his chair about noon, I got up and looked at the crowd behind the bars. Tansy and Annis were there. I asked my Dogs for permission to have a quick word with them.

  “Don’t you look all official, on the Dogs’ side!” Tansy teased when I came to them. “Do you report to the Lord High Magistrate today?”

  I shivered. “What brings you here?” I asked her.

  “Day Watch caught some rushers who robbed one of Father’s shops,” Annis said. She nodded to the other side of the room. Crookshank stood there, burly rushers at his back, talking with the Provost’s Advocate. “He’s here for justice. We’re here to get out of the house. It still reeks of smoke, for all the airing we’ve done.”

  I looked back over my shoulder. Sir Tullus had yet to return. “Tansy, if ever you’re up and about come eight of the morning and you’d like a change, some of us gather for breakfast at Mistress Trout’s lodgings on Nipcopper Close,” I told her. “You’re welcome there any day but Monday. It’s me, some of my Puppy and Dog friends, and others we know.”

  “Father Ammon keeps me on a tight leash,” Tansy said. She smoothed a hand over the bulge of her belly. “I’m carrying another Lofts, after all. And he sends me out with that mage, Vrinday Kayu. You saw her, pretending to be my maid.”

  “Hush,” Annis whispered. “This crowd has ears.” She put her arm around Tansy’s shoulders. Tansy looks too thin for a mot that’s carrying a babe under her heart. “It would do you good to get out with some young folk, not that I’m promising.” She nodded to me. “You’re a good soul, Beka.”

  “What of the birds?” Tansy asked. “Do you still hear the ghosts of little ones in the birds?”

  Sir Tullus was returning. “You know I do,” I said. “Some go on to the Peaceful Realms, but the others are taken unawares.” I started to go.

  “Beka!” Tansy grabbed my arm through the bars. “Herun gave me another,” she whispered so even Annis couldn’t hear. “Do something with it – give it to a temple or something.” She shoved a lump into my hand and freed me.

  I rushed back to my bench. At least I’d finally made my invite to Tansy.

  Settled next to Tunstall, I looked around for Crookshank. He stood where I’d seen him last, lean face pressed to the bars. He watched the Provost’s Advocate walk back to his desk. What kind of “justice” had he bought for the poor scuts as had tried to rob someone who worked for him?

  I put my hand between my knees and opened it. She’d given me a knotted handkerchief. Carefully I untied the knot and peeked inside. An orange fire opal bedded in pink stone blazed there, glinting with lilac, green, and red lights. This one was clear all the way through at the center.

  Pox take the mot! I thought. Doesn’t she understand how noisy these curst rocks are? I can’t sell it. The whole town will know I have one. Folk will think I stole it, or I know where there’s more.

  And curse Herun for not telling her what it is he’s giving her.

  “Pretty,” Tunstall whispered in my ear. “What will you do with it?”

  I tied it back up in the handkerchief and gave it to him. That’s what a Senior Dog is for, right? To make the choices I’m too green to make?

  Let it be his headache.

  He showed it to Goodwin at the end of the day. Goodwin only sighed. “Doesn’t the girl understand the value of the things?”

  “Herun told her they’d make their fortune,” I said. “She believes Rolond’s life was worth more. She thinks they’re connected, and she’s right, after all.”

  “Too bad Crookshank didn’t care they were connected,” Tunstall muttered. He looked up and his face lit. Lady Sabine lingered by the gate to the court. Goodwin rolled her eyes.

  I left to meet Kora and Aniki at the Nightmarket. We bought ribbons so I could trim a bodice for Aniki, then had a cheap supper on the riverfront. A nasty storm sent us home early, but it was still fun.

  If only I could get better news of the Shadow Snake or of where the diggers were buried, I would be well pleased with my life. Twice this week Goodwin, Tunstall, and me checked Crookshank’s houses in the Cesspool but found no sign of mining. And we have names of missing folk but no way
to tell if they are alive or dead, in a pit under one of Crookshank’s places, downstream in the river, buried somewhere else by someone else, or living happily in another town entirely.

  I’m surprised more Dogs don’t crack down the middle.

  Tuesday, April 21, 246

  Five of the afternoon.

  Granny Fern gave me four more names.

  FOUR.

  Six silver nobles. A gold ring left by a cousin. A charm guaranteed to cause a wife to birth sons. Three magical curses done up as pendants and ready for use. That is the value the Snake places on the little ones.

  Two children came home alive. Two came home dead.

  Affter midnight.

  Rosto, Aniki, and Kora awaited me wehn I came home and took me to teh Fog Lanterun. I fere I broke my rule and dranke more wine thann I shuld.

  Wednesday, April 22, 246

  Noon.

  This morning when I let the pigeons in, I found two I had not seen before. One of them, mixed brown, white, and gray, lunged for the bread I’d put out, whilst the other, blue-gray and white, slapped him, knocking him from the sill. As he began to eat, the brown, white, and gray bird flew in to land on top of him.

  “Slap me, will you!” his ghost cried. “When ‘twas your idea to jump Rosto in the first place!”

  The blue-gray and white bird spun on the sill, trying to get the other off him. “My idea?” his ghost said. “Ulsa’s idea!”

  “Right.” The brown, white, and gray bird jumped to the sill and smacked the other with a wing. “‘Here, brother,’ says you, ‘we can make us a bit of coin. Teach that upstart Scanran pretty boy a lesson.’”

  “Who do you think gave me the coin, cracknob?” the blue-gray pigeon asked.

  “And Rosto killed us! Did you think he might be quicker than us, you sarden looby?” his brother’s ghost asked.

  I smacked them both off my sill. Did Rosto know Ulsa had paid to have him attacked?

  When he came to breakfast, he sported a long scar down one cheek.

  “Don’t look at me,” Kora said when she saw me notice the cut. “He went to somebody who’s better at healing than I am. Two brothers jumped him last night in Prettybone. Rosto won, of course.” She nudged him with her foot as we sat around our cloth. Outside, the rain poured down. None of us can wait for real spring to come so we might eat outside.

  I watched Rosto through my bangs as I sewed. Should I tell him about Ulsa? Chances are, he’s already guessed or even knows Ulsa was behind the attack, I figured. By passing on this news, I’d be putting my Puppy paw in a foggy area. What is good Dog work? What is helping a Rat?

  Yet if I do give a useful tidbit to Rosto, he’ll owe me, I thought. If my instinct is right and Rosto is going to rise in the Court of the Rogue, that would be worth something.

  I finished the seam I stitched, anchored the thread, and cut it off. “What do you think, Pounce?” I asked it as if I wanted Pounce’s opinion of my sewing, though I meant, What should I say to Rosto?

  Pounce knocked my spool over and rolled it to Rosto, who smiled and threw it lightly back to me. I caught the spool and put it away before my cat could try anything else inventive. I still decided to buy Pounce fish for supper for answering my question.

  “Only you’d ask a cat what he thinks of sewin’,” Verene said.

  “I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Pounce act like a cat,” Ersken told us as Rosto lifted Pounce into the crook of his arm and scratched my animal’s chin.

  “If he is a cat,” Kora said. “Did you know mages have named certain constellations ‘wanderers,’ because they appear and disappear for decades at a time? One of those is the Cat. At present, the Cat is missing from the night sky.”

  “Star pictures go missin’ all the time, season by season,” Verene said, and laughed.

  “You’re telling us a tale, Kora!” Phelan said.

  Kora had a lady’s shrug, one that made her dress ripple. She would never argue. And she had not said the constellations named by the mages vanished for seasons. She had said they vanished for decades.

  I looked at my cat. He’d rolled over on his back and was batting at Rosto’s fingers.

  Folk began to leave soon after. Ersken offered to help Kora take her washing to her favored place. Verene and Phelan went next, hands linked. Aniki took her mended shirts to her room and closed the door.

  “Rosto?” I called before he reached the stair.

  There was a loud thud from Aniki’s room. She had begun her sword exercises. Rosto turned back to face me, his face hard.

  “Look, Beka, I don’t want a lecture. For one thing, you’re too young to be lecturing me. For another, it was a clean fight, understand?” He was angry, but not at me. At the men who’d attacked him, I guessed. “I’ve witnesses who saw the whole thing,” he went on, “two of them the Dogs that did up the report. They’re going to tell the Magistrate I was challenged by these spintries and I defended myself.”

  With the noise that came from Aniki’s room as she stamped and yelled her way through her practice, I knew no one else could hear me. “Ulsa paid them to do it,” I told him when he took a breath.

  For a moment he said nothing. Finally he asked, “How did you come by that bit of news?”

  I jammed my hands into my pockets. “Birdies told me.” My hands were sweaty fists. He couldn’t see that, with my big loose shirt and breeches to cover them. I didn’t want him knowing that I was nervous to talk so bold as I looked into his black eyes.

  “But your information is sure?”

  I thought of the two dead brothers, smacking each other on my windowsill. “It doesn’t get any surer.”

  Rosto grimaced. “Ulsa. Normally I wouldn’t be so trusting, you understand, but added to other things that have come to my ears, well…You are so positive about your source. I don’t suppose you’d give up the name for a gold noble?” He made one appear in his fingers. It wasn’t magic, but a quick-hands trick I’d seen him show Verene.

  I think I surprised him when I grinned. That’s when he blinked. “Ask me naught, I’ll cheat you not,” I said, and grabbed my door. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to visit some friends.” With that I closed it in his face. I couldn’t be certain, but I believe he was smiling. And I was off to feed my other pigeons, in case they had anything new for me.

  I was leaving the house for my watch when I heard a loud whistle. Rosto loped up to me like a Scanran greyhound.

  “I’ll walk with you,” he said. “Training, right? You let that stumpy little Ahuda kick the feathers out of you, and then you go on watch. I’m amazed any of you live out the night.”

  Pounce chattered at him as we turned onto Jane Street. “Shows what you know,” I replied. “It’s because of Ahuda we’re alive.”

  “Ow. Lovey’s got a bite.” He was holding a red gillyflower behind his back. He offered it to me with a bow.

  I faced him. “I’m not your ‘lovey.’ I’m not your doxie. You’re six years older than me, Rosto. There’s mots your age more than willing to be your flirts! And you’ve Aniki and Kora besides. You’ve white hair, you great looby!” I turned and walked off, keeping my head down so he wouldn’t see my grin. I knew what he would say.

  “I’m blond!” he shouted. “My hair isn’t white, it’s blond! Corn silk! Sun-colored! Gold! That Ahuda’s knocked you on the head too many times!”

  Rosto is vain. If he starts that nonsense with me again, I know a way to distract him now. I’ve no patience for that kind of flirting game. For one thing, Kora and Aniki are my friends.

  Mayhap they’re used to sharing a man, but I’m not. And he’s a rusher. I’ll never go with a rusher. Not even one so handsome as Rosto. As well end up like Mama that day when I was eight, both eyes blacked and mouth bleeding.

  “I was trying to thank you!” Rosto yelled.

  Pounce, trotting beside me, said, “Mah, mah, mah.” To me it sounded like he said, Bad, bad, bad, in the most approving way.

  “Tha
nks,” I told my cat. “We’ll teach him not to treat me like one of his gixie toys.”

  After watch.

  We heard more tonight at the Mantel and Pullet. Ulsa denied any plotting against Rosto, who was popular for all he was new. Since the word had somehow leaked out all over the city, she knew she had to do something. She had to make it right with Rosto and with the rest of her people, who’d worry which one of them she might want to have doused next. She made Rosto one of her gang chiefs. In Prettybone the Happy Bags were filled by small thievings, doxies and spintries who hired out to the nobles, and most of all by gambling. Ulsa gave Rosto the command of a gang that controlled a fat chunk of gambling to show him she would never pay anyone off to kill him.

  “Will it work, Cooper?” one of Verene’s Dogs, Otelia, asked me. “Will that satisfy him? Verene says you know him best. He lives in the same lodging house as you.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t like so many Dogs looking at me as they did when they heard that. I didn’t like them thinking I might be sliding to the crooked side of the fence.

  “She can’t stop folk from living where they like.” I also wished Ersken didn’t feel he had to stand up for me. I had to find the courage to do it for myself. How could I manage if Ersken didn’t even wait for me to try?

  “Otelia wasn’t saying that,” Tunstall said. “Were you?” He looked at her.

  She swallowed hard. “Never, Tunstall. But she runs into him, doesn’t she?”

  “Me too,” said Verene from her seat next to Otelia. “So does Ersken. But Beka does know ‘im and his mots best.”

  “Rosto will do what pleases him,” I said loudly to our table.

  “If you’re so curious, put yourselves in the way of meeting him,” Goodwin told the rest who were listening. “Rely on your own gut. That’s the best way to be sure.” When Otelia, Verene, and their male partner, Rollo, left, Goodwin muttered, “Bugnob. Otelia wants a Puppy to do a Dog’s work.”