Bloodhound (21 page)

Up by Goodwin's dice game, one of the players stood and stretched, then fumbled in his belt purse. "You've the better of me, mistress," he told Goodwin, handing her some coins. "A poor farm lad like me had best watch himself!"

Someone came up behind me on the deck. I could sense him there, though he'd made no sound. Now the cove leaned against the crate just behind my shoulder. Achoo stirred. I put my hand on her to keep her calm.

"Your companion had best watch out," a boyish voice said close to my ear. "That noisy fellow is no farm lad."

I looked around, shielding my eyes from the sun, to no avail. The new cove's face was in shadow. He wore a gold hoop earring and he had good shoulders, though they weren't heavy.

"Sorry," he told me, and jumped to the deck so he could face me proper. Now I could see him clear. It was Dale Rowan, the light-haired cove who'd helped us in the Bread Riot. I noticed now that his eyes were gray and large, with a deal of humor in them. He had brown hair streaked with blond, a small brown beard in the shape of a crescent, and brown lashes longer than mine. His clothes were good, yet simple enough for a river voyage on a crude boat – a tunic of autumn brown with hem embroideries of pears and grapevines, yellow leggings, and leather shoes that laced up over his ankles.

He frowned. "Don't I know you, Mistress – ?"

"Depends on what you mean by 'know,'" I said. "Where's your friend Hanse? Or Steen, for that matter?"

He looked harder at me. "They went back to Port Caynn yesterday, and how would a nice young maid like you know – Goddess tears and Crooked God's teeth, you're Cooper, the Dog." He put out his hand, grinning at me. "If it hadn't been for those ghost eyes of yours, I might still be guessing. Hello, hello! I was going to call on you at Jane Street when I came back the next time! I see you're none the worse for wear. How's Guardsman Tunstall?"

"Laid up," I said. "Off duty for at least another couple of weeks, and grumpy with it."

Dale was nodding. "That's the problem with old Dogs – the good ones, anyway. You can only get so many healings before it's just not as complete as the first. What about Guards-woman Goodwin?"

I smiled at him. "You were looking at her."

His brows shot into sharp peaks over his eyes. "Wait – that's
Goodwin?"

"She looks different in cityfolk garb, doesn't she?" I asked slyly.

Dale turned back to me. "So do you. Pretty, but different."

I waved the compliment off. "What makes you say that cove she's gaming with is no poor farm lad?"

"Him? He gambles all up and down the river and rooks all the sheeplings that drop into his fambles." Dale shook his head, contempt on his face.

"What?" I asked. I knew
rook
was "cheat," but I didn't spend much time in the gambling dens. I usually track tougher game.

"Cheating all the cityfolk and countryfolk who drop into his hands," Dale said, looking at the gamblers. He smiled at me. "What are you and Goodwin doing on the river?" He found a seat beside Achoo. "And who is this?"

"Achoo is a scent hound. I'm her handler." Slapper, dozing in the sun atop my trunk, stirred and fluffed his wings. "And that over there is Slapper." The cross-grained creature went back to sleep. I think if I hadn't claimed him, he would have flown at me again. "Me and Goodwin are assigned to Port Caynn for a while, to study their Dogs' methods, since Tunstall's laid up." I wondered if I should say my lord wanted to get me out of the way of enemies, and decided that was the sort of thing he ought to hear from others.

Dale grinned. "Are you, then? There's a bit of luck! Where do you mean to stay?"

I shrugged.

"We've no word yet. They'll let us know. It's good to see you, Master – ?" Goodwin had returned, her belt purse bulging.

"Dale Rowan," he said, offering her his hand. "It's good to see you again, Goodwin. I was asking Guardswoman Cooper how your partner Tunstall was doing."

"Master Rowan," Goodwin said. "Will you take lunch with us? My man packed enough for an army. Cooper, open up that basket."

"Call me Dale, Guardswoman," he suggested, smiling at her.

As I spread the cloth that protected the basket, Goodwin nudged Achoo aside and folded herself into a tailor's seat on a crate. "Then you'd best call her Beka and me Clary, off duty, at least. It'll be good for Cooper to know someone in Port Caynn. I've friends in town, but she's only been there twice. I doubt she'll get on with the older folk I know."

"I'd be happy to take Beka around, if she doesn't object," Dale said. "I confess, I had hopes in that direction."

I stopped in the midst of setting out pasties, about to protest, then remembered I would have to go about the town to obey my orders. The fact that Dale was glad to take me about made me ashamed, because I couldn't go with him honestly. I'd be there looking for colesmiths and those passing coles, of which he might even be one. I would have been glad to see him again for his own sake, with no secrets between us.

I glanced up. He was smiling at me with those lovely gray eyes all alight. I gulped and opened some wrapped sausages with fingers that trembled a little.

"I'm shocked you walked away from Arval with a full purse," Dale told Goodwin when the silence went too long. "He doesn't usually let folk leave the game before they've lost all they've won back to him."

Goodwin smiled cruelly. "I pleaded an errand of nature and gave him the slip. Mayhap he's used to countryfolk who don't recognize those dicer's calluses on his fingers."

Dale held up his hands for her to inspect. He has very nice hands with long, elegant fingers. I do like a cove with fine hands. "I have a gaming cove's calluses, too, Clary."

She looked him in the eye. "Do you cheat, then?" she asked bluntly.

Dale laughed. He
laughed
, at Goodwin when she was being her toughest! "I don't have to," he said. "The odds are in my favor if I play the games right. The bones fall so many ways every so often. If they're honest, and I keep my wits about me, I've a good idea what my odds are."

He talked dice games with Goodwin as we made a good meal on what Tomlan had packed. Then the boat's captain took Dale away for a backgammon game.

Goodwin watched me as I packed up. "He's got a lot of charm. He might also be one of the Rats we seek."

I looked at her. "Do you believe I'm a fool, Goodwin?" I asked her. I confess, I was hurt she might think it.

She sighed. "No. Your life might be easier if you were. A fool for love is happier than a Dog with a heart that's all leather." She stretched. "Take a walk around the deck, Cooper."

I did as ordered, Achoo bearing me company off of her leash. When I found a nook along the rail between two stacks of barrels, I stopped for a moment to look at the river and the trees. To think that people live all their lives out here, far from the people and business of Corus! I think I could go mad, staying more than a short walk from the markets, without the Common to dance on, or the temples and the festivals to ease my eyes when I tire of the everyday sights.

A hound's yip and a mot's angry screech brought me back to the moment. I'd thought she was used to me enough to stay close. I had thought wrong.

Away from my nook between the barrels, near the bow, Achoo had spotted a dragonfly. Just as I spotted her, she leaped for it, rising a good four feet in the air. I was impressed. The mot nearby was not. She shrank against the rail as Achoo flopped onto the stack of hides in front of her.

"Whose animal is this?" she cried. "It's going to attack! Save me!"

"Achoo!" I cried, running toward my hound. "Achoo,
kemari
!"

Achoo scrambled to her feet on the stacked leather and gave me a sheepish look. The woman inched further down the rail toward a well-muscled fellow passenger. "Save me!" she cried.

"Don' be a fool, woman!" he advised. "Her tail's waggin', or it was until this mot came." The other passengers who looked on laughed.

I wanted to kiss him, but I had to deal with Achoo. I pointed to the deck before me.
"Kemari
, right sarden now," I ordered.

Achoo snapped at the dragonfly that buzzed by her face. It was a halfhearted snap, meant more to show me that she was her own mistress than an attempt to grab the dragonfly.

"Achoo, either you sarden
kemari
or it's oatmeal for you for a week," I promised her.

I don't know if she understood my words or my tone, but she jumped from the stack of hides and slunk over to me, head down, tail between her legs. She knew she had been bad. I put the leash on her. She wagged her tail the tiniest bit, but I shook my head. "You know that you are supposed to come at my first order, never mind that you weren't supposed to leave me in the first place. Don't even try to cozen me."

"That creature is savage!" cried the mot. "I will report you to the captain for letting it loose on the boat!"

"Report us, then," I said. "But I doubt he'll be impressed by her viciousness in hunting dragonflies." I gave the leash a small tug. "Achoo,
tumit."
We left the woman, who was scolding the onlookers while they laughed at what I'd said. I doubted she would say aught to the captain, not when there seemed to be no one nearby who would support her.

When I went back to our things, I was shocked to find Goodwin busy over needlework. Of all the things I could imagine her doing to keep her hands busy, it had never occurred to me to think of her with needle in hand. Even more startling, she was at fine embroidery, the kind of elegant stitchery that was sewn onto sleeve and tunic hems and collars. I stood for a moment, watching her needle dart as she stitched a pattern of blood-red silk keys between two gold borders. This was expert work, not the kind of craft a woman might do for her own family.

I leaned in closer. Goodwin wore thin white silk gloves as she stitched. Of course she did. Her work-rough hands would catch at the fine threads if she left them uncovered.

"Cooper, if you're going to stand and stare, the least you could do is get in the way of the sun and provide me some shade," she told me without looking up. "Otherwise, sit down."

"I'd no notion," I said without thinking.

"It's not something I talk of, overmuch. It kept my mother happy, all right?" She said nothing more as I took my seat. Finally, as Achoo stretched out on the deck, Goodwin muttered, "As long as I could do this kind of work, Ma thought I might give over the nonsense of being a Dog and be a proper wife, selling needlework to make a bit of meat money on the side, as she did. After she passed on, I kept it up. It wasn't the coin so much, by then. More like the remembrance of her, and pride in the craft."

I watched Goodwin's needle dart fish-like, making the red keys rise from the black cloth of the strip she worked. "My sisters do fancy work," I said after a time. "Mostly for my lady Teodorie, though Lorine wants to make elegant clothes for the nobles."

"My lord mentioned once your sisters are fine seamstresses. And I've seen your clothes are always well turned out," Goodwin added, eyeing a line of stitches. "You do your own sewing?"

I nodded. "I do mending for all of us at Mistress Trout's," I said. "Kora does the laundering – well, she has gixies help with it, these days. Aniki sees that the cutlery and blades are sharp for her, Kora, Ersken, Rosto, and me. And she makes sure we've wood for our fires. It evens out."

"A good arrangement. Will you keep it up when they move into the Dancing Dove?" Goodwin snipped a thread and chose another for her needle. "Or will you move there with them?" She gave me a sharp look.

Achoo leaned against my side. "Oh, you're a good girl now?" I asked, and scratched her ears. To Goodwin I said, quiet-like, "I don't know, but I don't believe so. That inn's to be the new Court of the Rogue. It wouldn't be right, me living there. I'll stick to Mistress Trout's." I sighed. "'Twill be lonely, though."

Goodwin set her stitch. "Maybe some more Dogs will move in there. It's not like living across from the old Court of the Rogue, in the middle of the Cesspool. The Dancing Dove is part of the Lower City. You might have better company than you think."

I shrugged. I would worry about it when my friends moved.

We'd been silent for a time when she said, "You've been practicing the tale we will tell?" I nodded. I'd thought about it often when I couldn't sleep. "Good," Goodwin replied. "Keep doing that. I've been thinking about our work. There's another thing we should sniff for." I waited as she tied off a knot. Goodwin snipped off her thread, then set the needle down and flexed her hands before she went on. "Where do they get their silver? The brass is easy enough to come by. It's cheap. They can buy a few baskets of brassware in the markets, the stuff that's so battered none will use it, and they have what they need. But silver's another matter."

"It's only sold by the Silversmith's Bank," I said, remembering our lessons in colesmithing. "The melted silver is molded into ingots. Those are stamped by the Crown. It's illegal to have block silver without the stamp. Anyone who buys more than three ingots has to give their information to the bank."

Goodwin nodded. "It's the silversmiths the crown's Ferrets will be on first."

I nodded. The silver- and goldsmiths were always at the top of the list of suspects when the hunt was on for counterfeiters. One time in four a colesmith
was
a silver- or goldsmith, sad to say. "It may be a silversmith this time," I said.

"Oh, of a certainty." Goodwin was threading a fresh needle. "That's the quickest question answered. We'll know that within a week. But if it's not – where do the colesmiths get their silver? The mines are all controlled by the Crown. Keep your eyes and nose open, Cooper. If we find that source, we're close to breaking the whole ring. It's good odds we're after a ring, not a lone colesmith."

I agreed. "No one cove or mot could turn out this many coles alone."

"Exactly. We're looking for a gang. Don't worry, though, Cooper. The entire hunt doesn't rest on us, remember that. I've heard naught but good of Nestor Haryse. He'll have solid Dogs to help in Port Caynn, and we know who will be working on this thing in Corus. Once my lord convinces the Crown, we'll have the Ferrets on it, too." She looked at me and I nodded. I didn't say I wanted
us
to be the ones that brought down the game for our hunt. I'm sure she thought so just as much as me. She always says it's a wonder two such eager Dogs get on so well in one partnership.