“I’d like to get my hobbles on Norwood as bad as Crookshank,” Goodwin said. “The two of them have beggared more families…” We heard steps in the alley as the gate closed behind Norwood. Goodwin was up with her baton out. It was just Aniki. From somewhere my friend had gotten a round, pointed straw hat like the farmers wore. It shed the rain like a little roof.
“Hope you don’t mind the company,” she said cheerfully. “They’re moving child slaves in through our gate. I can’t abide the sight. There was three of us watching that one already, and the other two are used to slaves.” She sank to her heels.
“Are there so few child slaves in Scanra?” Goodwin asked.
“Few slaves at all. We can’t feed ‘em. We can barely feed ourselves – that’s why Rosto said we should give Tortall a try.” Aniki bounced on her heels, hugging her knees. “If I live to be old, not that I’m counting on it, I’ll never get used to child slaves and child-sized shackles. Cooper hates it, too.” They both looked back at me.
“I didn’t say anything,” I said. On watch here, I couldn’t get away from the business. Before my lord had taken us in, any one of my family could have ended up inside these stinking walls. So could the Ashmillers. And look at all the trouble the slave sellers make for my Dogs and me, sneaking about, trying to dodge taxes on their trade. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.
Aniki went on, “Listen, Goodwin, I know if we talk loose about this, if Crookshank panics, we might get killed the diggers Crookshank has right now. But if these diggers turn up riding pigeons, too, we need to shout the news from the rooftops. Let folk know the work comes with strings attached.”
“There will still be folk stupid enough, or desperate enough, to hire on and tell no one,” Goodwin warned her.
“But not as many,” I said.
“Not as many.” Goodwin nodded. “You’re right, Aniki. You’re wasted as a rusher, girl. Come be a Dog.”
Aniki’s teeth flashed in a grin. “For the splendid wage and respect that you Dogs get? I think not, Guardswoman Goodwin. I want to rise higher.”
“To the Rogue’s dais,” Goodwin said.
“Only if there’s a proper Rogue to stand beside,” Aniki told her. “Here comes someone.”
Norwood and her guard were leaving the market. Goodwin looked at Aniki. “Can you manage the streets on your own?”
Aniki smiled and patted her sword hilt. “As well as anyone who serves the Crooked God,” she said, mentioning the thieves’ god, who went without a proper name.
“Then Dog Norwood until you’re weary or attacked. Report to Cooper,” Goodwin ordered. “Go!”
Aniki left our nook like a shadow. I could never work it out how a good-sized mot like her could go unnoticed when she wished.
I couldn’t help what I said then. “You never let me watch alone.”
“You’re my responsibility, and you’re not a swordswoman,” Goodwin said. “And I’m teaching you things I’d not want her to know, not so long as she’s crooked.” Goodwin shook her head. “What a waste!”
Pounce had found himself a dry spot and been forgot by us. Now he “manhed” his agreement, making Goodwin and me jump.
We ate bread and cheese in the cold rain. Finally it was time to go back to the kennel for muster. Then Goodwin, Tunstall, and my lady half dragged me to the Mantel and Pullet for hot food, mulled wine, and soup to thaw me out. I didn’t object to the wine, I was that miserable. Afterward Pounce and I slapped home through the mud.
I left my clothes hanging over the banisters, my boots and armor on the landing, and entered my rooms in breastband and loincloth. Tansy slept on the pallet, her arm around the little boy, the younger girl beside her. The older girl watched me unblinking from her bedroll as I did up all the bolts on my door.
No one stirred whilst I put on a nightgown and took my underclothes off, then undid my hair. Pounce, the cuddy, shook himself off on me. Then he climbed onto the older girl’s blankets. Growling to myself, I went to bed and right to sleep.
It was another dream. I had little Nilo in a sling on my back. Will was tied to my wrist by a cord. My other friends were skipping rope. I watched. I wanted to play, but I wasn’t yet to the point of untying Will to join in. I already knew that if I did set him loose, he’d be off after any passing horse in a lightning flash.
“Come back, you little trollop!”
We all turned. Here came Tansy, curls bouncing. She held her skirt up to make a basket for a bunch of small, fresh-baked cakes. Mistress Noll chased her with a broom raised high.
I sat up, my heart beating. Why was I scared? Tansy escaped that day. We’d stopped Mistress Noll without meaning to, scrambling for the cakes that fell from Tansy’s skirt. We took the broom blows meant for Tansy. I got two extra when I put myself between the angered Mistress Noll and my brothers. It was a small thing on Mutt Piddle Lane, naught to wake up over.
Tansy was awake, too. I heard her by the shuttered window and smelled the rose-scented soap she used. She sniffed, then blew her nose.
“Tansy?” I whispered. “You’re crying?”
“I cry over everything, Beka, remember?” She sat on the bed and felt around until she grabbed my hand. “Promise me you’ll do all you can to find Herun.”
“I can’t do much,” I said, keeping quiet. “I’m bound to my Dogs and the digger search.”
“Just promise to try. That’s enough for me. I can care for these little ones if I know you’re seeking my man.” Her grip tightened.
“Tansy…”
“Everyone knows you’re looking hard, Beka. No one else is even looking, let alone hard. You think I wouldn’t hear it? How you had folk out asking? No one expects you to do anything – you, a Puppy! And yet you went seeking. Talking to them the Dogs and the Rogue turned away, you and your friends. You’ll find Herun.”
I heard one of the children stir. “Papa,” she whispered in her sleep. It was the older girl.
“Promise me,” Tansy whispered.
“Go back to bed,” I told her. “Before they wake.” I lay there, listening as her wakeful breaths turned to sleeping ones. Then I got up to write in this journal on the landing of my stairs. Writing helps me think things through. Writing down the dream just now made me see what about it sat so ill.
Mistress Noll told my Dogs and me that Tansy was sweet. She spoke highly of her, said she always liked her. Mayhap she wished only to speak well of a grieving mother. The truth of it was, Mistress Noll hated Tansy back on Mutt Piddle Lane. I could not count the times she tried to beat Tansy black and blue. Tansy always stole her best baking, the kind that customers ordered special. The kind that cost Mistress Noll her own money to do a second time.
It could be a polite lie, but why, then, had Mistress Noll lied so hard? To protect Yates? Mayhap he saw a way to get revenge for his mother and to make one last, big haul. Mayhap his mother knows it.
Sunday, May 10, 246
Writ about ten in the morning, on the stairs.
I woke to the little boy’s wail. It was near dawn. He was screeching, his face scarlet. Tansy and his older sister bent over him. Tansy changed his napkin as his sister wriggled a toy before his nose. The middle girl curled in a corner, her hands over her ears. Pounce was nowhere to be seen.
The floor shook as someone stomped up the stairs. “Beka!” Rosto yelled outside. “Beka, what’ve you got in there, a sarden nursery?”
The oldest girl dipped her finger in the honey jar as I pulled on my breeches. Whilst I undid the bolts, she stuck her dripping finger in her brother’s mouth. He quieted at once.
I yanked my door open. “Rosto, you savage, we’re shutting him up,” I said. Rosto wore only breeches, showing off his lean chest. “What’re you whining for? It’s almost time to get up anyway.”
But now the younger girl began to cry. She shrieked that she wanted to go home. Rosto stalked into my room and picked her up. “If you could go home, you wouldn’t be here, would you?” he asked, giving her a sha
ke. “Shut your gob. It’s too early for such noise.”
She went silent and stared at him as she hung in his hands. I glared at her. She never shut up for me, though to be sure, I wasn’t the sight that a half-naked Rosto was. No, she was too young to appreciate him. It wasn’t that.
Tansy propped her fists on her hips. “Well, aren’t you the man, bullyin’ a child as was beggin’ on the streets yesterday.” She cuffed Rosto on the head. “Put her down, you scut.”
Slowly Rosto set the girl down. He ran his eyes over Tansy, who wore naught but a thin nightgown. “Aren’t you pretty, even with a pert tongue in your head and a little one in your belly. Who’s your friend, Beka?”
“Married, and none of your business,” Tansy snapped. “Out! Out!”
I looked at Rosto. “You heard her.” I towed him outside. “She’s Herun Lofts’ wife Tansy, a friend of mine,” I said. “The little ones are Jack Ashmiller’s. I hobbled his wife, Orva. Now he’s vanished – got hired for a job and hasn’t been home since.”
Rosto was always fast to catch on. He raised his fair eyebrows. “And your ghosts? The diggers?”
“No new ones yet. We’re on watch. But, Rosto, I need a favor.” I swallowed. Asking favors of rushers was a chancy business. If I wasn’t desperate (if Herun’s life wasn’t shorter by another day) I never would have done it. “And don’t ask me for murder to pay you back.”
If I’d ever needed to be sure that my dealings with him in future would be serious matters, I knew it now. The irritation left his face and sober attention filled it. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s the favor, then? Short of murder as repayment?”
“I need to find Yates Noll, fast,” I said. “My Dogs are wrapped up on the streets. Me and Goodwin and Tunstall are sitting on our best bet to find the diggers. You’re in a better way to find him than us right now.” I smiled at him. I did have a possible bribe to offer. “If we find Herun Lofts, I bet he’ll be grateful. And it’s his family that has the fire opals.”
“True enough,” Rosto said. He yawned and smoothed back his hair. “All right. I – “
Feet slammed up the stairs. It was Aniki. She looked like she hadn’t slept a wink. She thrust a bag of hot turnovers at Rosto. To me she said, “I got friendly with one of Norwood’s rushers after she turned in for the night. That basket she had on her arm? She was dropping off Crookshank’s pay bags. The folk Poundridge has to pay start to come around at the beginning of his shift. This afternoon.” Aniki stood there for a moment, panting. She seemed more awake than I’d ever seen her. “Well?” she asked.
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll see what Goodwin makes of it. Wake Ersken.” I dashed into my room. If Aniki was right, Jens and the other rushers who guarded the diggers would come for their pay – come, mayhap, and be gone by the time we mustered tonight. I wanted to give Goodwin plenty of warning. If she and Tunstall had any miracles in their pockets, miracles that would get more than the three of us to raid the diggers’ prison and free them tonight, they’d need as much time as I could give them to put their miracles together.
I scrambled into my clothes and barely blessed my teeth with a cleaning. I handed the turnovers to Tansy and the children, grabbed my pack, and raced downstairs with Pounce at my heels.
The floor outside Kora’s door was scorched. Rosto leaned on the frame. He stepped aside to let me in. Aniki was slumped in a chair with a grin. “Lucky our Aniki knows what happens when you wake Kora from a sound sleep,” Rosto said, pointing at the charred wood. “She stood out of the way. Kora is good at fire spells.”
“Thanks,” I told Aniki.
She waved off my gratitude. “It’s fun. Kora needed a new door anyway. The old one was coming apart.”
Ersken was trying to dress under the bedclothes. Kora’s kitten, Fuzzball, pounced on him as he moved under the covers, which slowed him down some. Kora had pulled her sheets over her head.
Rosto finally took pity on Ersken and picked up Fuzzball. “Come here, ferocious hunter,” he said. “Leave the lad some dignity.”
Ersken popped out of cover to glare at Rosto. “I can see these two tormenting Kora, but why wake me?” he asked. “Breakfast isn’t for another hour.”
“I need you to fetch Tunstall,” I said. “Tell him that Jens gets paid at four. Aniki followed their paymaster last night and found it out. Let Tunstall know I’ve gone to Goodwin’s with the same news.”
Ersken repeated what I’d said and finished dressing. “D’you think this is it, Beka?” he asked. “You’ll be able to follow Jens to Ashmiller and the other diggers?”
“Please, Mithros and the Goddess.” I made sure my clothes were tucked in. “I’m off.”
Rosto put a hand on my arm as I passed him. “I’ll find Yates,” he said. “Things will change in the Lower City, Beka Cooper. Between us five and our friends” – he looked at the girls and Ersken – “leeches like Crookshank and the Snake will get burned.”
I met his black eyes. I believe him. If he succeeds, the thieves will be harder to catch – but the common folk will have someone to turn to. That has to be better.
I didn’t run to Goodwin’s. I did make good time, cutting through the alleys. Even main streets like Palace Way and Eversoul Road in Flash District weren’t too crowded so early in the day. It was quiet yet, quiet enough that I heard the clap of wings overhead. Most of the city’s birds were just beginning their songs. I finally stopped and looked up.
They stopped, too, roosting on whatever perch was nearest: Slapper, Ashes, White Spice, Pinky. Seventeen in all. I saw no other pigeons anywhere, just these. Just the ones who carried the ghosts of them Crookshank had murdered to keep the secret of the fire opals. They knew something was going on.
The sight of her house on Dun Lane drew me up short. I did not expect Clary Goodwin to live in a pretty stone place with a well-thatched roof and orderly garden. Chickens already pecked through the rows of vegetables, seeking insects. Sleepy goats eyed me over a wood fence to the back. The charms over the door and the welcome wreath were fresh made. When did Goodwin find time to do it? I felt slovenly, knowing there was mending undone in my basket at home.
I rapped hard on her door, then harder.
“Enough!” someone finally cried hoarsely. “Will you rouse the district? If this is not dire…” Goodwin yanked the door open. Her hair was tousled. She clutched a long robe about herself.
Goodwin took my attention from her feet by saying, “Cooper. And Master Pounce. I should have known you’d be close behind. Get in here – it’s chilly out.” She closed the door behind us.
There was but one story to the cottage and half of a loft overhead. A man stuck his head over its edge. His hair was gray on the sides and brown for the rest. He looked like the cheerful, steady-working coves from the country farms. I’d heard it somewhere that Goodwin’s husband was a master carpenter, as easygoing as she was not. “Clary?”
“Duty, love,” she called, poking up the hearth fire. “Go back to bed.”
“So that’s Cooper.” He could ignore her and live. I was impressed, and unnerved that he knew who I was. “And that’s the god cat? I’ve never seen a god before.” He winked at me and vanished back into the loft. “I’ll dress meself and cook up breakfast.”
Goodwin stumbled to a table and ladled water into a basin. She splashed it on her face. “Report, Cooper.”
I told her what Aniki had told me, then waited for her to speak. There was a towel folded over the back of a chair near her. She ignored it. She just stood there and stared into the distance, her face dripping. At last I summoned my courage and handed her the towel. She rubbed her face, but not like she knew that’s what she was doing.
“Four this afternoon,” she said at last, thinking aloud. “I’ve got to shake that paper out of Ahuda, convince her we’re going to move tonight.” She rubbed her mouth. “Tunstall and I can do it. My lord will give permission if we can Dog this Rat to his burrow soon. Ahuda will be fine if my lord approve
s. Thank the gods Poundridge goes on duty same time as we do. Cooper, you think your friend Kora might help?”
“I’m certain of it,” I said.
“Get her, too. I want her in this. We’ll have Berryman, but two mages are better. And I trust her price will be right?”
I thought of the Ashmiller children screaming and thumping over Kora’s head. “I think I can bargain with her,” I said.
“Good. Do you know where Nyler Jewel lives?”
I’d carried plenty of messages to him from Lord Gershom. “Yes, Goodwin.”
“Fetch him here. Ahuda?” I nodded. “Tell her my man’s cooking. And then your friend Kora. Go. We’ll have breakfast when you return.”
I looked at her. “You should be Watch Sergeant,” I said. Mayhap it was seeing her bare feet that emboldened me, I don’t know. “After Ahuda, anyway.”
“Scat, Cooper,” Goodwin ordered. Pounce and I scatted.
Outside, Pounce halted me with a pat on the ankle. He told me, I will bring Kora. You get the others.
“Is this it?” I asked him, wanting it to be true. “Do we have them?”
Scat, Pounce told me. He raced down Eversoul Road.
Cats must always be cats, even when they are gods, or constellations.
I got Ahuda first. She was up and dressed. I feared she’d bite my head off when I asked her to Goodwin’s for breakfast or, almost as bad, question me. She only grimaced. “I knew it would come to this. All right. I’m on my way.”
I didn’t wait for her to think better of it. I ran to Nyler Jewel’s house. As ever, I had to wade through the grandchildren that lived on the first two floors. Sometimes I wondered how he slept. Then I had to do it again, because Mistress Jewel told me he was in the garden, weeding.
On the way to Goodwin’s he made me tell him all that took place the night before. Then he asked sharp questions about Aniki, Kora, and Rosto. I was relieved to see Goodwin’s house. Being questioned by Jewel was like being questioned by my lord, Ahuda, Goodwin, and Tunstall at the same time. No detail was too small to slide past the old Dog, including the fact that Rosto flirted with me all the time.
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