Valdemar 07 - Take a Thief

by Mercedes Lackey

  The man finished his darning and, with a gusty sigh, tossed the stocking in with the rest of the laundry in the wash boiler. Only then did he look up. His eyes, a startling black, seemed to bore right into Skif’s brain.

  “Where ye get this’un?” he asked Deek, turning his gaze on Skif’s companion.

  If Deek had possessed such a thing as a cap, he’d probably have snatched it off and held it diffidently in front of him in both hands. As it was, he ducked his head. “‘E caught me, Bazie,” Deek told the man. “’E wuz in th’ wash-house loft, an’ ‘e caught me cummin’ in.” Then, having gotten the difficult bit over with—admitting that he’d been caught by a mere child, he continued with more enthusiasm, describing Skif’s own “lay” and his wish to be taught. The other two boys pretended not to listen, but Skif caught them watching him surreptitiously.

  “Figgered ‘e cud take Larap’s place, mebbe, if’n ’e makes it past sixmun,” Deek concluded, looking hopefully at his mentor.

  Now Bazie transferred his unwavering gaze to Skif. “Ye livin’ rough?” he asked, and Skif knew that he’d better tell the truth.

  “At Hollybush,” he replied shortly. “Kalchan’s m’cuz, Londer ’s m’nuncle.”

  Evidently Bazie knew the Hollybush, since he didn’t ask where or what it was. His gaze became even more piercing. “Bonded?”

  With relief Skif shook his head. “Nuh-uh!” he denied vigorously. “Ma didn’ bond me ‘fore she croaked. Londer ’s pretty het ’bout it, but ain’t nothin’ ‘e kin do now. An’ ’e niver cud put me out, ‘cuz ’e took me in, on th’ rolls an all, reckonin’ t’ get me bonded.”

  A bonded child was just short of property; required to serve in whatever capacity his “guardian” chose until he was sixteen, for the privilege of being sheltered and fed. Skif’s mother had neglected (perhaps on purpose) to bond her toddler to her brother when her man left her and she fell ill—she worsened and died before Londer could get the bond signed and sworn to. It was too late now; no notary would swear to a faked bond. Well—no notary would swear to a faked bond for the pittance of a bribe that was all that Londer would offer.

  By the point when Skif’s mother died, Londer was already on record with the same Temple Beel served at as the responsible party for his sister and nephew (hoping to get Skif’s bond). As such, he was technically required by law to care for Skif until the age of twelve without any benefit. At twelve, which was no more than a couple of years away, he could turn Skif out, but he probably wouldn’t. Skif was still supplying free labor at no real cost to him, and as long as that was going on, Londer would let sleeping dogs lie.

  Now, the fact was that although Skif was under no obligation to serve at the Hollybush for his keep, the only thing he could coerce out of Kalchan and Londer was a place to sleep. The food they offered him—the leavings from customers’ meals—a pig wouldn’t touch. If he wanted to eat, he had to either find alternate ways of getting meals (as he had) or do even more work than he already was. And as long as he wanted to sleep at the Hollybush, which though wretched, was infinitely better and safer than trying to find a place on the street, he had to obey Kalchan’s orders whenever he was around the tavern. There were a lot of things that could happen to a child on the street—“living rough”—and most of them were far worse than being beaten now and again by Kalchan, who had no taste for little boys or girls.

  ‘Course, if ’e thunk ‘e cud get away wit’ it, ’e’d hev no prollem sellin’ me. Kalchan would sell his own mother’s services if he thought he wouldn’t get caught. As it was, on the rare occasions when Skif got dragooned into “helping,” he often had to endure the surreptitious caresses and whispered enticements of some of the customers who had wider ideas of pleasure than Kalchan did. As long as Kalchan didn’t actually accept money in advance for the use of Skif’s body, there was nothing that Skif could report to Temple or Guard.

  And as long as Kalchan didn’t take money in advance, the customers could only try to entice a boy; they wouldn’t dare try to force him in public. The likelihood of one of them cornering Skif somewhere private was nonexistent. There wasn’t a wall built he couldn’t climb, and he knew every dirty-fighting trick there was for getting away from an adult.

  After some time, during which Skif felt very uncomfortable, Bazie nodded. Now, at last, he showed a faint sign of satisfaction. “‘E might cud do,” he said to Deek. “Give ’im a try.”

  Deek grinned, and elbowed him.

  “Wouldn’ mind puttin one i’ th’eye uv that bastid Londer,” Bazie continued, a gleam in his own black eyes. “Yew work out in one moon, yer in.”

  Deek sucked in his breath; he had told Skif it would be six moons, not one, before he’d be accepted into the gang. Skif was amazed himself, and tried hard not to grin, but failed.

  Bazie raised an eyebrow. “Don’ get cocky,” he cautioned. “‘Tis as much t’ put one i’ the eye uv Londer.”

  Skif ducked his head. “Yessir,” he said earnestly. “I unnerstan’ sir.” But he couldn’t help feeling excited. “Ye’ll be teachin’ me, then?”

  “Ye kin start now, at boiler,” Bazie grunted, gesturing to the boy at the cauldron. “Ye take Lyle’s stick.”

  Skif was not at all loath. For the second time today—the first had been when he was asleep in the wash-house loft—he was warm. Stirring a cauldron full of laundry was nowhere near as much work as toting rubbish for the rag-and-bone men.

  Lyle was happy enough to give over the stick to Skif, who industriously stirred away at the simmering pot. Every so often, at Bazie’s imperious gesture, he’d lift out a kerchief or some other piece of fabric on the stick. If Bazie approved, the second boy took it and hung it up to dry; if not, it went back in the pot.

  Meanwhile Deek sorted his loot by color into baskets along the wall; Bazie, darning yet another silk stocking, noted Skif’s incredulous stare as he did so, and snorted. “Ye think ’m gonna ruin goods w’ dye runnin’? Think agin! We gets twice fer th’ wipes ‘cause they’s clean an’ mended, boy—thas a fair piece fer damn liddle work wi’ no risk!”

  Well, put that way—

  Skif kept stirring.

  Lyle began taking down kerchiefs that were dry; Bazie continued to mend, and Deek picked through one of the baskets, looking for more things that needed fixing. The third boy finished peeling the hard-boiled eggs, and stood up.

  “’M off, Bazie,” he said. He was clearly the oldest, and Bazie looked up from his mending to level a measuring gaze at him.

  “Ye mind, now,” the man said, carefully. “Ye mind whut I said, Raf. Ye slip one, an’ move on. No workin’ a crowd on yer lone.”

  The boy Raf nodded impatiently with one hand on the doorknob. As soon as Bazie finished speaking, he was already out the door. Bazie shook his head.

  “He don’ lissen,” the man said with gloom.

  “Ah, he lissens,” Deek assured their mentor. “‘E’s jest inna hurry. They’s a street fair a-goin’ by Weavers, an’ ’e wants t’ get to’t afore they pockets is empty.”

  Bazie didn’t seem convinced, but said nothing to Deek. “Lemme see yer hands,” he said to Skif instead, but shook his head sadly over the stubby paws that Skif presented for his inspection. “Ye’ll not suit th’ liftin’ much,” he decreed. “‘Least, ye’ll nivver be a master. Ye got t’hev long finners fer the liftin’. Kin ye climb?”

  Deek answered for him. “Like a squirrel, I seen ‘im,” the boy chimed in cheerfully. “An’ look at ’is nose an’ feet—’e ain’t gonna get big for a good bit yet, maybe not fer years.”

  Bazie examined him carefully from top to toes. “I thin’ yer right,” he said after a moment. “Aye. Reckon ye got a matey, Deek.”

  “That’ll do,” Deek replied, with a grin, and turned to Skif. “We’ll be learnin’ ye th’ roof walkin’, then, wi’ me. In an’ out—winders, mostly.”

  “An’ ye live t’ see summer, ye’ll be doin’ the night walks,” Bazie said with a little more cheer. “W
on’t be wipes yer bringin’ ‘ome then, nossir.”

  Deek snorted, and Skif felt his heart pounding with excitement. “Not likely!” Deek said with scorn. “Wipes? More like glimmers!”

  “Ye bring ‘ome the glimmers, and we’ll be findin’ new digs, me lads,” Bazie promised, his eyes gleaming with avid greed. “Aye that, ’tis us’ll be eatin’ beef an’ beer when we like, an’ from cookshop!”

  Lyle, however, looked worried, though he said nothing. Skif wondered why. It was clear from the wealth of kerchiefs—"wipes"—and other things here that Bazie was a good teacher. Skif saw no reason why that expertise shouldn’t extend to second-story work and the theft of jewelry.

  He’d never actually seen any jewelry that wasn’t fake, all foiled glass and tin, but he could imagine it. He could imagine being able to eat all he liked of the kinds of food he served to Lord Orthallen’s guests, too, and possessing fine clothing that wasn’t all patches and tears—

  “‘Nuff moon-calfin’,” Bazie said sharply, recalling them all to the present. “Boy—Skif—be any more i’ the pot?”

  “Jes’ this,” Skif said, fishing out the last of the garments on the end of the stick. Bazie examined it, and grunted.

  “That’ll do,” he decreed, and Lyle took it to hang it up. “Deek, next lot.”

  Deek brought over the next batch of wash, which was of mingled saffrons, tawnys and bright yellows, and dumped it in the cauldron. Lyle got up and took the stick from Skif without being prompted and began energetically thrusting the floating fabric under the water.

  “Ye kin hev two eggs, boy, an’ then Deek’ll get ye ‘thin sight uv Hollybush,” Bazie declared. “Eat ’em on th’ way.”

  “Yessir!” Skif said, overjoyed, mouth watering at the idea of having two whole boiled eggs for himself. He picked a pair out of the bowl, tucking them in a pocket, and followed Deek out the door and up the rickety staircase.

  Once down on the street he and Deek strolled along together like a pair of old friends, Deek putting in a laconic comment now and again, while Skif nibbled at his eggs, making them last. He’d had boiled eggs before this—they were a regular item at Lord Orthallen’s table—but not so often that he didn’t savor every tiny bite. Once Deek darted over to a vendor’s wagon and came back with a pair of buns, paying for them (somewhat to Skif’s surprise) and handing one to his new “mate.”

  “Why didn’ ye nobble ’em?” he asked in a whisper.

  Deek frowned. “Ye don’ mess yer nest,” he admonished. “Tha’s Bazie’s first rule. Ye don’ take nuthin’ from neighbors. Tha’ way, they don’ know what we does, an’ ’f hue-an’-cry goes up, they ain’t gonna he’p wi’ lookin’ fer us.”

  Well, that made sense. It had never occurred to Skif that if your neighbors knew you were a thief, you’d be the first one they looked for if something went missing. He ate his bun thoughtfully, as Deek pointed out landmarks he could use to find his way back tomorrow.

  “I got lessons,” Skif pointed out reluctantly, and Deek laughed.

  “No worries,” the boy replied. “Bazie won’ be ‘wake ’till midday. Ye cum then. Look—ye know this street?”

  Skif looked closer at the street they had just turned onto, and realized that he did—he had just never come at it from this direction before. “Aye,” he told Deek. “Hollybush be down there—” and pointed.

  “G’wan—” Deek gave him a little push. “See ye midday.”

  The other boy turned on his heel and trotted back through the gloom of dusk along the way they’d come, and in a moment Skif couldn’t make him out anymore.

  With a sigh and a bowed head, he trudged toward his uncle’s tavern and the cold welcome that awaited him. But, at least, tonight he had something to look forward to on the morrow.

  3

  KALCHAN never asked him where he’d been, so long as he came back before dark. He just welcomed Skif back with a cuff to the ear, and shoved him into the kitchen. By now, the kitchen was full of smoke, and the cook coughed and wheezed while she worked. It wasn’t just the fault of the chimney, which certainly could have used a cleaning—the cook routinely burned the bottom crust of the bread, burned what was on the bottom of the pot, dripped grease on the hearth, which burned and smoked.

  Skif didn’t have to be told what to do, since his duties were exactly the same thing every day. Poor half-witted Maisie, on the other hand, had to be told carefully how to go about her business even though it was all chores she’d done every day for the last however-many years. That was why, if Skif wasn’t back by dark and the time when the big influx of customers came, he’d get more than a cuff on the ear. If you gave Maisie one thing to do, then interrupted her with something else, she became hysterical and botched everything.

  First, the water barrel had to be filled again—not because anyone had used much of it in cleaning, but because like everything else in the Hollybush, it was old, used, and barely functional. It had a slow leak, and it cost nothing to have Skif refill it. To have it mended would have meant paying someone.

  So back and forth Skif went, doing his best not to slosh the icy water on himself, particularly not down his boots. When the barrel was full, the next chore was to take the bundle of twigs on a stick that passed for a broom and sweep the water and whatever else was on the floor out into the courtyard, where the water promptly froze (in winter) or turned into mud (in summer). Since Skif was the one who went into and out of the courtyard most often, it behooved him to at least sweep it all to one side if he could.

  Next was to bring wood in from the woodpile in the courtyard and mend the fire in the common room, which was also full of smoke, but not as bad as the kitchen. Then he collected the wooden plates left on tables, carried them to the kitchen and thriftily scraped the leavings back into the stew pot over the fire. It didn’t matter what went in there, since it all blended into the anonymous, lumpy brown muck, well flavored with burned crud from the bottom, that was already there. A quick wipe with a rag, and the plates were “clean” and ready for the next customer.

  Mugs were next; he’d figured that it was better to take plates in stacked and not try to mix mugs and plates, for if he tried, he’d drop something and get beaten for breaking it. These were crude clay mugs with thick bottoms to make the customer think he was getting more beer than he was. Those didn’t even get a wipe with the rag, unless they’d been left in a plate and had greasy gravy all over them; they were just upended and stacked beside the plates. There was no tableware to bother collecting; Londer wouldn’t have anything that could be so readily stolen. In this, however, he was exactly like every other tavern keeper around this area. Customers ate with their own wooden spoons, usually hung on the belts beside their money pouches. Some ate with their personal belt knives, although these useful implements were used less often. The food in cheap taverns was generally soup or stew, and didn’t need to be cut up—nor was there often anything in the bowl or on the plate large enough to be speared on the point of a knife. Those who had no spoon shoveled the food into their mouths with improvised implements of heavy black bread. Black bread was all that was ever served at the Hollybush; made of flour that was mostly made of rye, buckwheat, and wheat chaff, like everything else associated with Uncle Londer, it was the cheapest possible bread to make. The strong taste covered a multitude of culinary sins, and since it was already black, it had the advantage of not showing how badly it was burned on the bottom.

  When mugs and plates were collected, it was time to add to the stew in the cauldron. The cook put Skif to work “chopping vegetables” while she cut the meat scraps. The stew kept going day and night over the fire had been depleted by lunch and early dinner, and now had to be replenished. Londer’s picks at the market were like everything else; more of what better inns and kitchens threw out. With a knife that had been sharpened so many times that it was now a most peculiar shape and as flexible as a whip, Skif chopped the tops and tails of turnips, carrots, whiteroots, and beets and flung them into the
cauldron, along with the leftover crusts of burned bread too hard to serve even their customers. The cook added her meat scraps, and began stirring, directing him to deal with the bread she had removed from the bake oven built into the side of the chimney. There were only three rather lumpy loaves, but they wouldn’t need more than that. The bread was used mostly as an implement, and secondarily to soak up the liquid part of the stew so that every drop paid for could be eaten.

  Skif sawed at the bread—better bread would not have held up under the treatment he gave Kalchan’s loaves, but this stuff was as heavy and dense as bricks and just about as edible. Every slice was thriftily measured out to the minimum that the customers would stand by means of two grooves cut in the tabletop, and once cut, was “buttered” with a smear of fat and stacked up waiting to be slapped onto a plate. No one ever complained that it was stale; Skif was not certain it would be possible to tell a stale slice from one freshly cut off of these loaves.

  When the bread was done, it was time to go get plates again; business was picking up.

  Skif could not imagine what brought all these customers to the Hollybush, unless it was that Kalchan’s prices were cheaper than anyone else’s. It certainly wasn’t the food, which would have poisoned a maggot, or the drink, which would have gagged a goat. And Maisie was no draw, either; plain as a post, with her dirty hair straggling down her back and over her face, she skulked among the tables like a scared, skinny little starling, delivering full plates and empty mugs while Kalchan followed in her wake, collecting pennybits and filling the mugs from his pitcher. Only Kalchan dispensed drink; the one time that Skif had dared to do so in Kalchan’s momentary absence, his cousin had left stripes on his back with his leather belt. No one actually ordered anything—there wasn’t anything to order by way of choice. You sat down at a table and got beer, bread, and stew—or beer alone, by waving off Maisie’s proffered plate or sitting at the fireside bench with the steady drinkers. When customers were done, Skif came around and collected their plates and mugs. If one wanted more, he waited until Maisie came around again and took another laden plate from her; if not, he took himself off. This way Kalchan never had to worry about a customer complaining he hadn’t been served when he’d paid, or about a customer sneaking off without paying. The only exceptions to this rule were the folk occupying the two benches in front of the fireplace. They got beer, period, and signified they wanted refills by holding up their mugs to Kalchan. When they were done, they left their mugs on the floor—which were usually claimed by another bench warmer before Skif could collect them.