Beka Cooper 1 - Terrier

by Tamora Pierce

  Achoo, knowing Goodwin liked her, wagged her tail and barked.

  The two remaining Dogs arrived at the trot, looking winded. "Delivering Rats to the collector," Evermore said, panting. Springbrook shared her flask with him. "Sorry." He gulped from the flask, spilling water over his chin.

  "Come on, Achoo," Phelan said. He let out the lead so the scent dog could put her nose to the ground. "What have you got? She'll scent the worst thing," he said, looking at me. "If your Birdie was right and someone tracked blood through here, she'll – ah!"

  Achoo sneezed over and over, then growled. She had something she didn't like. Off she went, straight into an alley. She took us up through the very gates of the Court of the Rogue. Goodwin and Tunstall didn't hesitate, even though the tradition was that Dogs shouldn't hobble Rats inside the Court. They just followed Achoo and Phelan through the gate. The rest of us went in after them, our batons ready.

  The guards stood aside. They would not interfere with Dogs on a hunt, even here. They would not risk blood with us.

  We followed Achoo straight into Kayfer's throne room. There he sat with his chiefs and his foot kissers. A cove knelt before Kayfer, sobbing. Achoo raced straight up to him and barked furiously.

  Tunstall hauled the weeping cove to his feet. We all could see the blood on his tunic. "I didn't mean to kill Esseny," the killer cried, his nose running. "I didn't mean it!"

  "Esseny the Lily?" Goodwin asked. "That's who you murdered?"

  "You know her, then. You know how beautiful she is." The cove fumbled at Goodwin's shoulders. "But she didn't love me anymore," he said. "She told me she would love me forever, but – she didn't."

  "She was fifteen, you scummer," Goodwin told him, grabbing one of his wrists. She twisted it up behind him, using the leverage to force him to his knees. "Forever is eight months long when you're fifteen."

  Tunstall looked at Kayfer on his barrel and crate throne. "Will you interfere?" he asked the Rogue. The other four Dogs and I formed a half circle facing the court, our batons at the ready. Goodwin had the killer in one hand, her baton in the other. "Is this mumper worth a fight?"

  With my back to the throne, I couldn't see the Rogue. I heard the chill in his voice when he spoke at last. "He's not one of my sworn people. An eighth off this week's Happy Bag and I'll even have my rushers help you cart him out."

  The killer wailed.

  "We'll cart him," I heard Tunstall reply. "You've got your eighth off, but we'll do the calculations. Your people can watch."

  I heard steps and the spitting that meant they'd struck the bargain. Then there were more steps and the scraping sound of boots on the floor. While I listened to that, I kept my eyes on Dawull's table.

  Dawull spun a dagger on his fingertip. He didn't seem to care that the Rogue had just turned a cove over to the Dogs. I saw other folk of the Rogue stir, but no one would speak against Kayfer, not for someone who didn't belong to the Court.

  Just so had Kayfer ignored the pleas of the folk who'd lost children to the Shadow Snake when they came to him for help. Aniki glanced at me. Then she turned to whisper to the cove who'd drawn his sword on us at the Fog Lantern the week before. That fellow sat with his fists clenched on the table, a look of plain disgust on his face. Because we were there? Or because Kayfer had surrendered a man who'd asked his help and Dawull had said nothing?

  I spat on the floor on the way out. It didn't take the bad taste from my mouth. I'm glad we took the murdering scut without a fight, but did Kayfer care about nothing but coin? The Rogue is supposed to look after the folk of his Court at the very least.

  You're counting the price of a free meal, I keep telling myself. Be sensible!

  Off we all went, back to the Lower City. The other Dogs took our killer in to a collection cage, and we went on to the Nightmarket.

  Now that I am home, I have swollen feet and a sore back from chasing after minnows and forcing them to hand over their thievings. Tomorrow I must start work on copies of the maps for Goodwin and Tunstall.

  Friday, April 17, 246

  Maps are harder than they look. I wasted three pieces of paper before I figured out I should try first on a slate. That is what I have done yesterday and today, apart from my watches. My fingers cramp when I so much as grasp a pen.

  Sunday, April 19, 246

  After my watch.

  Now I have the trick of drawing so I can get the whole map in the right amount of space. It took a lot of chalk and erasing. I am still working on the maps. It is why I have not written in my journal. I believe tomorrow I can risk working on paper again. I have spent more coin on colored inks.

  This afternoon a mot came into the kennel as we arrived for training. I lagged behind because I'd seen her yesterday morning. She'd talked to Kora on Glassman Square over the laundry tubs. I might never have noticed them, except I passed them on my way to visit my Cesspool dust spinners. She and Kora had been sitting there, heads together like sisters.

  Mayhap I was jealous. Me and Kora have been going out a lot of late, talking to folk that have been bit by the Shadow Snake. So I remembered this mot. Her walking into the kennel, her eyes glassy, was a shock.

  She went straight up to the Day Watch Sergeant's desk. "I done it," she said, her voice loud. "I had a man in my eye, a new fellow, fine and handsome, only he never wanted no children, and I had me a little lad. I tried to get my man to move in, sent the lad out to play when he'd visit me, but he wouldn't allow for it. Said he wasn't meant to live with little ones. So one night I took the blanket and I put it over my boy's face until he stopped breathin'. Then I snuck 'im to the river in a basket and slid 'im in for the god Olorun to take to the sea for the Wave Walker's mercy. I told the neighbors the Shadow Snake had 'im. I wept and wept and wept because I knowed I done a terrible thing, but my man is livin' with me now."

  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.