She looked us over. “Is there, now?”
“Some off-duty soldiers raided the Court tonight,” Goodwin said. “They were hunting for Herun Lofts. They’re still searching the place.”
I saw Gemma make the sign against evil on her chest. I could hardly blame her.
“Searching the Court. Kayfer’s own palace,” Mistress Noll repeated, as if she couldn’t be sure of her own hearing. She wrapped her fingers around her Goddess charm. “Has the world run mad?” She looked at Gemma. “Start packing. No. I’ll pack up. Find the lads. They’ll be at the Sticky Fingers. Run!”
Gemma ran.
Mistress Noll began to place food on the counter. It was a signal to shoppers that a vendor was about to close and had reduced prices. “Two patties or a turnover each to the three of you for the warning, no cost,” she said briskly, her hands swift at their work. “With what cause was this search made?”
“The Rogue will be upset, Mother,” Tunstall told Mistress Noll. “That’s enough of an explanation for now. Tell Yates we want a word, if you see him.”
“I’ll tell him,” the old woman said. “The gods’ blessings to you for the warning. I pray this passes soon, and you find poor Herun Lofts.”
It depends on whether Crookshank pays those stones to the Shadow Snake, I thought as I followed my Dogs out of the Nightmarket. He won’t find his grandson at the Court of the Rogue. Kayfer Deerborn is no more the Snake than I am the Queen. The Snake kept his sights low….
The Snake kept his sights low until Crookshank found a fortune in the Lower City, I realized. I halted.
“Cooper, wake up,” Goodwin said. “Now’s not the time to be napping. Remember your friend Verene.”
“I was thinking,” I said.
“Then share your thoughts,” Tunstall told me.
“Until now the Shadow Snake kept to the shadows,” I said. They moved closer to me. Pounce settled on my feet. I kept thinking out loud. “Then Crookshank found fire opals. Mostly he kept it a secret, and that’s where he let the Snake in. Because the Snake lives on secrets. He feeds on them. That’s how he’s made his little thievings over the years and gotten away with it. Everyone fears to tell, so only a few know. Them as tell the Dogs, or the Rogue, are brushed aside. So Crookshank never heard the Snake was there. He didn’t believe in the Snake. He can’t hurt the Snake.”
Tunstall rubbed his beard. “So when Crookshank gets hurt by a kidnapper, he goes to the home of the kidnappers, the Court of the Rogue. He knows Kayfer has heard of his sudden good fortune. He thinks it’s the king of kidnappers who’s taken his great-grandson, and now his grandson. And that he’s just signed the name of a children’s bogey.”
“Crookshank never gives way to greedy business partners.” That was Goodwin’s voice in the dark. “He’s famous for it. He didn’t pay the Snake for Rolond. He thinks that now the Snake knows he won’t pay what he asked, the Snake will demand a lower price for Herun. Crookshank doesn’t understand that the Snake is mad – that the Snake will keep killing until he gets what he wants.”
“We could tell him,” I suggested. “Show him the map, explain the Snake never backs down.”
“Do you believe he’ll listen?” Tunstall asked me.
I had to tell the truth. “I just suggested it because anyone who isn’t cracked would believe us.”
“Crookshank is more than cracked,” Goodwin said. “He’s smashed all to pieces.”
“He’s got to pay this time,” Tunstall said. “He’s running out of heirs. Herun’s all that’s left, unless Tansy has a boy. So let’s pray the old man comes to his senses.”
“And Kayfer doesn’t cut his throat,” Goodwin added. “No, Kayfer won’t do that. He does too much business with Crookshank. But gods help those folk who are searching the Court.”
As we walked on, Pounce jumped up to my shoulders and rode. “He’s hiring a third crew, or he’s hired them,” I said to my Dogs.
“The one good thing about a shake-up like tonight, Cooper,” Tunstall said. “Plenty of people are going to be upset. Upset people are talkative people.”
“And maybe we’ll get lucky, and there’ll be a change in the Court of the Rogue,” Goodwin said. “There are always opportunities in times like this, for everyone. Your friends Rosto and Aniki could find themselves on the rise. And we could hobble Crookshank and the Snake.”
I would like that. It’s hard to feel sorry for a cove who orders the murder of folk in lots of nine and eight. And the Shadow Snake never should have stepped out of scary stories to become real.
Friday, May 8, 246
Midafternoon.
This morning Pounce woke me. He was washing my fingers, then nuzzling between them. I clung to something. He meant to have it. He’d get his teeth on it and pull until his teeth slipped. Feeling muzzy, I brought my hand to my face and opened it. I held my fire opal. I’d stared at it until I fell asleep. Seemingly I’d hung on to it all night.
In my dreams, I had played by Mistress Noll’s house with my childhood friends. Mistress Noll chased Tansy with a broom as Tansy mocked her. It had happened often when I lived in Mutt Piddle Lane.
“Rocks aren’t food, you coal-colored mumper,” I told my cat, looking at the stone. A ray of sun poked through the shutters and touched it. The glassy bits shone cherry, green, and yellow.
Now Pounce rubbed against my face, purring like thunder and getting hair in my nostrils and on my lips. When he leaned on my nose, I pulled him down, hugging his silly person in both arms.
You are not respectful! he complained.
“If you want that, get yourself a noble,” I said. He smelled like clean cat, just a little musky and sweet. “Someone who’ll give you a collar with gems and let you ride on her horse, above all us gutter runners.” I kissed his head. “But you have me and a job with the Provost’s Dogs. So very sad.”
The shutter gave a thump that brought me bolt upright.
Pounce said, They want in.
“They can’t come in,” I said, putting him down. “I can’t face them.” I went to the crack. “I can’t handle seventeen ghosts!” I said. “Today will be bad enough without me thinking I could’ve saved eight more of you!” I put the stone on the inside ledge and skinned out of my nightshirt. “Don’t you go a-lettin’ them in, Pounce!” I warned him. “They’ll catch me outside anyway!”
I dressed and braided my hair. I was just finishing when Aniki and Kora rapped on my door.
Aniki smiled. “It’s too warm to stay up here. Let’s sit in the sun!”
The pigeons will love that, I thought, but after so much rain, I was sick of eating on my floor, too. As I packed up my share of our settings, I asked her and Kora, “Did anyone find Herun?”
Kora shook her head. “Crookshank’s raiders found plenty of the Rogue’s other little treasures, but no Herun. Is he as handsome as they say?”
“He’s married to my friend,” I said, frowning at her. “He’s well enough in looks. Not that clever.”
Aniki swooped on Pounce and swung him into the air. “Who needs handsome idiots when we can have kitties!” she cried, spinning around with him. Pounce glared at me as if to say, Stop her!
I shrugged at him. Figuring I’d buy the birds off with food, I grabbed my bag of pigeon feed, then swiped a fresh cherry from Kora’s basket. Aniki freed Pounce and collected a pot she had left by her door. My belly growled. I’d had only stale biscuits when I came home last night. Aniki had Tyran custard in that pot.
I stared at her. “Tyran custard’s costly.”
“It’s not so costly. And I think we deserve a treat, with all that’s gone on.” She lifted the pot to her nose and inhaled. “Of a certainty we deserve a treat. Pox take Crookshank and Deerborn, that’s what I say.”
“As Mithros wills,” I whispered.
“As Mithros wills,” they repeated.
We had almost reached the ground floor when Ersken came to the front door. “Where were you?” he asked Kora. “I went to the
Mermaid like you asked yesterday morning. You never came. I waited until they closed. Then I went to the Court of the Rogue. They wouldn’t let me in. I even checked the kennel in case they’d caged you.” I heard him gulp. “I would have bought you out of the cages,” he said. “Then I thought maybe you’d gone off with Rosto…and then I came here. I brought a ham.” He held up a small string bag.
Kora ran to him and flung her arms around his neck. “My dearest! I had no supper at all. Fulk and another mage boxed us Rogue mages in a spell-proof room. I thought Kayfer at least would put out word…. They kept us until dawn!” She kissed him. “You sweet, adorable laddie, searching all night!” Then she kissed him again for a goodly time. I grabbed the ham, as it seemed they would be occupied for a while.
In the patch of rear yard by the garden, Aniki set her pot on the bench and scooped Pounce up. “I like bad lads with black hearts,” she proclaimed. Pounce struggled madly.
This is undignified! he said. I am not a toy!
I watched the pigeons that settled on the wall around the yard. All seventeen carried the ghosts of the murdered diggers. None of them flew to us as we set out breakfast, not even when I put down food for them. When other pigeons approached, the diggers’ ghosts uttered a storm of the hard coos that were their angry cries. The other birds flew off, frightened.
Aniki looked at the pigeons. “What’s the matter with them?”
“I wouldn’t let them in this morning,” I told her as I sliced the ham. “Eight more diggers are dead. That’s why I wasn’t about yesterday – I was trying to learn more about it.”
“But I didn’t hear a word of hiring!” Aniki stared at me, holding a spoon over the jam jar. “None of us did! Someone would have told me – Fiddlelad, or Reed Katie, or Lady Mae, or Bold Brian.” Those were her best friends among Dawull’s rushers.
“Whoever hires them for Crookshank does it without word leaking out.” I cut ham into slivers and looked for Pounce, but he was gone. Silly cat, I thought. He’d never fled Aniki’s or Kora’s play before, just sat where they couldn’t reach him. I poked the ham and said, “Gods curse Crookshank. I’d say it serves him right to lose Herun, except Tansy is cracking with grief. And Herun’s a decent cove. At least he’ll be home safe and sound before much longer. We know the Snake delivers once he’s paid.”
“You think he’ll get paid?” Aniki asked.
A chill crept up my back. “Crookshank knows what happens if he don’t. The Snake killed Rolond. He must pay.” I wasn’t believing it, even though I said it.
“Crookshank’s had seventeen people killed to keep the secret already, remember?” Aniki’s blue eyes were steady. “Seventeen you know of. And the stories I hear of the man? Goddess’s tears, Beka, even for the Lower City he’s a monster.”
Kora and Ersken wandered up hand in hand. They sat and leaned against each other with idiotic smiles. “Let’s eat,” Kora said.
“With the Lower City run mad, it’s good this is the same.” Rosto had come. He still wore last night’s clothes. Phelan walked behind him, carrying a basket of hot breads. Kora and Aniki made room for Rosto, though I think Kora did it as much to snuggle against Ersken. Phelan waited until I nodded to him, then sat next to me. What was I going to do, tell him no, after so many mornings over this same cloth? So he’s a rusher now, when he was a Dog. I don’t have so many friends that I can afford to turn my back on any of them.
I offered the bottle of twilsey to Rosto. “Here, old man.”
“I’m not old,” he said instantly, though he wasn’t as vigorous about it as usual. “And I’ve mint tea, thanks, you pert gixie. Chilled, no less.”
“You’re only coming in just now?” Aniki asked them, one eyebrow raised. “I hope you two spent the night in good company.”
“Ulsa wanted guards in the taverns,” Phelan said. “I’m the new lad, so I got to stay with her.” He yawned.
“I was in the cages,” Rosto said, grabbing a turnover. “A cove tried to punch me.” Aniki raised both eyebrows at him. “I suggested that the Rogue’s lost all respect in this city, for Crookshank’s raid to happen,” Rosto explained. “He punched me, and I punched back. Sadly, some Dogs were eating supper where he landed. They took offense.” He brushed at his sleeves. “I thought about telling them I was friends with our Beka, but then I remembered she’d as soon tell them to lock me away until the Stormwings return.”
“Pretty bold, to talk that way about the Rogue,” said Ersken with a glance at me. I wasn’t going to say it. I was comfortable with Rosto, but not that comfortable. “He’ll be angry when he hears.”
“Someone’s got to say sommat.” Rosto answered Ersken, but he watched me. I have no idea why. “Someone’s got to tell folk that Kayfer Deerborn is a joke and his chiefs are a joke for letting him rule. I don’t care if old Crookshank’s as mad as a midden hen. He’d never have raided the Court if Kayfer was feared as a Rogue ought to be feared. Am I right or no?”
None of us answered. He was dead right.
“Now Kayfer’s giving orders to have all the raiders killed,” Phelan said with disgust. He passed me a hot sausage roll. “Not Crookshank, mind. Just the poor cuddies as did his work. Gods help anyone who gets in the way.”
Ersken shook his head. “That’ll make our jobs so much more interesting.”
“Just remember to duck,” Kora said. “And I’m making safety charms for you and Beka alike.”
We both stared at her.
Kora turned red. “I’m bad at healing, but I do know my way around a basic safety charm!”
“Kora?” Three young men stood in the gate to the yard. One was the flirty cove who’d had Kora reading his fortune last night. “We heard you had breakfast with friends here sometimes.” He held up a string bag. “We brought strawberries and cherries.” He looked at Rosto. “Just friends, like.”
“Kora?” Rosto asked, watching the newcomers. He wanted her to say if they were all right or not.
“They’re good lads,” she murmured. “Beka? Ersken?”
“Your word is good enough for me,” Ersken told her with a smile. He squeezed her hand. I shrugged.
The cove whose fortune-telling got interrupted looked down. “Is it movin’ day?” he asked.
For a moment we were confused. Then we saw what was coming into the yard.
“Mithros, Ruler of All,” Ersken whispered.
Pounce trotted past the newcomers, carrying a black kitten with a white bib and mittens in his mouth. The small creature hung in Pounce’s grip, ears flat, hindquarters and tail curled up. It seemed as dejected as a body could be at my cat’s handling.
The young rushers followed Pounce and took seats, watching him with awe. My cat dropped his captive in Aniki’s lap. He then lectured her in meows, saying, I cannot let you maul me about. Do it to him.
“Look at this!” Aniki said. She lifted the kitten and checked between his legs. “Oh, poor little man! I suppose Pounce carried you off from a happy home!” She looked him over. “Though your fur is tatty, and you’re thin. Is he a street kitten?” she asked Pounce.
Pounce nodded. Aniki gulped, then cuddled the kitten.
Kora grabbed Pounce. “Why her?” she asked, holding Pounce up. “I’m a mage. By rights I should have a cat. You like Aniki more than you like me!”
Pounce wrestled himself free and raced away. Kora watched him go. “Beka, you have a very strange cat, there.”
“So I’ve been told,” I said.
“He has purple eyes,” one of the new coves said. He looked a bit spooked. “Purple eyes. Is he magic?”
“Aren’t all cats?” Ersken asked.
As Rosto talked with our guests, Aniki offered her little man some ham. He shrank from it, then sniffed. She shook the piece. He licked it, then bit. With Aniki offering him meat a piece at a time, he settled down to a meal. We began to eat ours.
Once he was done, the kitten wandered over to eye a bug near Rosto’s knee. Rosto offered his fingers for the creature to s
niff. The kitten blinked, then swiped at him with his claws. “Ow!”
“That’s my laddybuck!” Aniki said. She laughed. “There’s his name, Laddybuck. You’re a ladies’ man, aren’t you?” She snatched Laddybuck up before Rosto could take vengeance on the kitten. Though Rosto was sucking blood off the tiny scratch, I didn’t believe he would hurt the creature. He seemed to reserve that sort of thing for human beings.
“He’s mincemeat if he draws my blood again,” Rosto threatened. “I’ve had a long night. Those cages of yours aren’t very safe,” he told Ersken and me. “One poor mumper got doused in there. Throat cut.”
My gut went tight. “Did they give a name?”
“Gunnar,” Kora’s former customer said. “My ma’s cousin – they brung the word around dawn.”
“Our sorrow for your sorrows,” Ersken said. He was that sort.
The cove shook his head. “No sorrow. He was a stupid scut, no more brains than you can blow out your nose. Allus sayin’ his friend Yates would make ‘im a big man in the city.” He laughed.
“Pox and murrain,” I whispered. No one could question Gunnar now. How had this happened?
Ersken said, “I think Pounce is in a giving mood today.”
Here came my cat with a second kitten. This one was a light and dark brown ball with thin black stripes and spots. Pounce dropped it in front of Kora.
All of us were silent. Kora slowly reached down and picked up the ball of fuzz. After a moment of her stroking, it unrolled. It had four paws, two ears, and very green eyes.
Ersken quickly chopped some ham. Kora put the cat down in front of the meat, whispering to it. The ball wobbled and fell on its bottom, then attacked the food. Within moments it had eaten three times what Laddybuck had. Kora’s polite check under its tail told us that this, too, was a boy. Once he was done, her kitten, his belly now much bigger, hooked his way up onto her lap and stared about him with those startling eyes. When Kora petted him again, he produced a very big purr.
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