Authors: Tamora Pierce
Bloodhound (56 page)
Lord Gershom crossed his arms over his chest. "Can one woman do what's needed just now? These Rats will require an iron hand to knock them into line if we bring down a sitting Rogue."
Nestor coughed into his fist. "My lord, Flory has her own gang. She may not be a muscle-bound rusher, but Pearl isn't, either, and she took the throne. Flory's got more wits in her head than Pearl ever did."
Lord Gershom sighed. "Spread the word," he told us. "Fair Flory and her cohorts are to be allowed to escape, unless they kill Dogs. I can't allow that," he said, looking each of us in the eye. "My people come first. Those who are choosing the parties to strike the Riverside court, be certain you choose Dogs who can identify this Fair Flory."
"Yes, my lord," they said, and we all bowed.
"My lord, how do you propose to get us in position unseen?" a mage called across the room. We all looked at him. "Even if I place a spell of invisibility over us, folk will know a large group of something shoves them aside."
"Sergeant Haryse knows a secret way," my lord replied.
My gut lurched when Nestor grinned at everyone. I knew what he would say afore he said it. "We don't go on the streets, Master Mage," he said cheerfully. "We go under them."
There was an entrance to the sewers in the cellar of the countinghouse. Quickly we were sorted out and given our positions. The company charged with the attack on Pearl descended the broad staircase that led down below the streets. Achoo, walking at my side, whuffed softly when she smelled the chilly breath of the sewer.
"You have to expect everyone on Riverside has a finger or two in smuggling," Nestor told Goodwin and me as we reached the sewer's stone ledges. "That's why they make it so easy to come down here. Even if they don't handle smuggled goods, they turn a blind eye to whatever passes through."
"What happens when the tide comes in?" Goodwin asked.
Ahead and behind us, folk cursed. Someone called for Goodwin to shut her gob. Nestor told them to quiet down, then answered Goodwin. "The Rats of Port Caynn know the tides from the cradle. Anyone as gets caught?" He shrugged, our torches making his shoulders seem even broader. "They had no business down here, then, did they?"
"Tides?" I asked.
"The sewers flood for blocks when the tide is high," a mot said.
"Seems curst risky to use the stinking things at all," I grumbled.
"You're not a waterfront mot," Nestor said with a quiet laugh. "The sewers are the city's veins. Ask Dale, he'll tell you."
"She best keep her mind on Dog work, not canoodling," another Port Caynn Dog muttered.
Nestor started to answer, but I shook my head at him. Truth be told, the thought of Dale warmed me all over in this curst cold place.
Soon we left the sewer to climb out into the cellar of a burned-out wooden building. To my surprise, a cart drawn by a sailor waited for us on the street level. As we climbed up beside it, Nestor pointed out four pairs of Dogs and sent them to the cart. They lifted the canvas that lay over the contents of its bed and picked up four sturdy wooden rams.
Ersken came to stand beside me. "Didn't Ahuda teach us to never take a Rogue on his own ground?" he asked softly as the Dogs set the rams on end. The devices were made of heavy wood, wrapped in iron with iron grips at the back and at midpoint. The iron rams' faces stared blankly at the sky as the Dogs who held them waited for orders.
"She also says there's a first time for everything," I reminded Ersken. "Jewel?" I called. The old cove looked at me. "Why do we need rams?" I asked. "Unless they've word we're coming, the doors won't be locked."
He grinned a Dog's grin that showed all of his teeth. "Nothin' spooks 'em worse than a ram comin' through their doors, Cooper," he explained. "They feel all safe and cuddle-some with they doors shut. The Rats panic when we make the big noise and smash up the doors."
I nodded and stepped back. That was when Slapper found me. He lit on my shoulder and nearly slid down the front of my tunic before I caught him with one hand. Achoo leaned against my legs.
"What's this nonsense?" I heard Hanse growl. "Why are you standin' here with a crew of strange Dogs? My murderess walks the city alive!"
"These Dogs are delivering the bill to your murderess," I snapped, keeping my voice low. "The accounting for Steen, and Amda, and all your folk."
Ersken looked at me sidelong. "Still talking to the dead, Beka?" he asked.
"It's not something that goes away when I leave Jane Street," I told him. "How's Kora?"
"Missing you. So's Aniki. Rosto's heard you made a good, um, friend here. He's as mad as a bear with a thorn in his... paw." Ersken changed the part of the bear he meant to name, seeing that the fighter closest to us was one of the Goddess warriors. "Not that he's
pining
. He's gone through mots like ducks through water. But he's not happy."
"There's naught between us, even if I hadn't made a... a friend here," I replied. Was that what Dale was to me?
Friend
seemed like such a wrong word.
Slapper pecked my ear. "Will you stop talking of sweethearts!" Hanse bellowed. "I want
revenge
!"
"He'll still be glad to see you alive," Ersken said.
It took me a moment to remember we'd been speaking about Rosto. "I'm glad of it myself, so far," I replied. As Jewel waved us out, I told Ersken, "Lately it's been like living on the knife's edge, never knowing which side I'll fall off on."
Ersken clapped me on the shoulder as we stepped into the street. "Cheer up, Beka. Maybe you were going to fall off that razor's edge before, but not today," he said, as good-humored as always. "Today we're going to jump."
Nestor and Jewel formed us into columns with two rams each, our numbers mixed from Port and Corus alike. I ended up with Jewel and Goodwin, Ersken with Nestor. Watching Goodwin as she walked down our line, setting the column in order, I felt a weight come off my chest. This was where I needed to be, at last. The world was solid under my feet, not sand running out with the waves.
Jewel raised his baton and led us at a Dog trot down a side street. Slapper and Hanse took off, Hanse cursing as they flew away. Achoo ran alongside me, tongue happily lolling, tail a-wag.
I eyed windows and rooftops as I ran, but this part of the city was given over to the countinghouses and warehouses that served both river traffic and sea shipping. All of the shutters were closed, the day bidding fair for rain. Our street was too narrow for carts or wagons. Few persons were here to see us on the move.
Jewel and Goodwin halted us at a corner. As we waited, they called up one of the Goddess warriors and two of Nestor's friends. Jewel signaled the rest of us to wait. Then the five of them walked into the next street, as casual as if they were going to market.
Some Dogs trotted up to the corner and peeked around. One of them looked back at the rest of us and said in a quiet, carrying voice, "Four rushers on guard, dicing, the claybrains." She looked around the corner again and winced.
We heard a small crash, some grunts, and the clank of metal striking stone. The mot who'd spoken to us waved us on. We rounded the corner to find Jewel, Goodwin, and the others hobbling and gagging four Rats. Ersken gathered the dice, put them in the cup they had used for play, and tucked it inside one bound Rat's shirt.
"Let that be a lesson to you not to gamble," he told the Rat soberly. "The Trickster asks you to pay for any luck you may have, one way or another."
"Bless the boy, he's a priest with it," one of the Goddess warriors said with a grin. "After this, laddie, what's say I take you home and rub some of that off yez?"
Ersken actually winked at her! "Forgive me, gracious warrior, but my woman would turn me into something unnatural if I took you up on your kind offer," he replied, as if he truly regretted it. "She's a mage, and I'd best stay devoted."
All this was said no louder than a whisper, of course, as the Rats were towed into a nearby doorway. Up came our fellow Dogs who carried the rams. We drew our batons and got ready, me with Achoo at my side. Achoo was quivering, she was so eager. Jewel silently counted off on his fingers, one, two, three.
Together the Dogs with the rams swung them hard at the doors. Jewel counted off again, and again they smacked the doors with those weights of wood and iron. A third time they struck. The wooden doors burst open, swinging wide. A mage I hadn't even noticed threw a huge puff of fog at the gap. Under its cover we entered the court and spread out.
I am weary now. I must rest.
Guards House
A little past six of the clock.
being a chronicle of the events of Thursday the 20th
,
beginning around noon of that day
This court was a large, single room, almost a barn. It didn't boast the upstairs galleries or the side halls of Pearl's other two courts. There were plenty of Rats, though. They attacked, some armed with clubs and swords, others seizing tankards, stools, or whatever they could grab. Achoo and I joined up with Goodwin, who had helped to lead the charge inside. A pair of Rats came at us, screeching curses.
I did not wait for them, but stepped out to get the one in front of me. He carried a length of firewood gripped in both hands. It would crush my shoulder if it struck, so I darted under his swing and, one-handed, smacked both of his kneecaps with my baton. When he stiffened, his grip on his weapon going loose, I jammed the end of my baton between his thighs and yanked it up. Now he dropped the log and bent double. I smashed him on the back of the neck with my sap. Down he went, fouling the legs of the one who fought Goodwin. She knocked her cove back over my fellow with a smash to the jaw.
I turned and walked right into a blow to the belly from a club. I forced myself not to collapse, though my mind was white with pain. As I hung on, I heard Achoo snarl. Through the lights that covered my vision, I saw her clamp her jaws on the wrist of the cove who'd hit me. She had him by the club hand and she would not let go. While she hung on, I jammed myself sidelong into his belly, blocking his free arm to shield her, and grabbed myself a big fistful of him. Not of his gems – he was wearing a leather cod. Instead I grabbed a chunk of the inside of his thigh near to his cod and pinched hard with all four fingers and my thumb. He struck my back with his free hand, yelping. A glance showed me there was blood around Achoo's mouth, she was biting his club wrist so deep. The second time the cove brought his fist down, he plunged his arm onto the knife I'd yanked free. He wailed and grabbed my braid with that same hand. He screeched yet again. This time he'd jammed his palm onto the band of spikes in my braid. I stomped one of his feet with my boot heel and felt bones break.
"Achoo,
biarlah,"
I said. She released the Rat so he could hobble away from us. I looked her over quickly. She seemed to be fine.
Forward I went, keeping to Goodwin's side. Achoo was expert at ripping a striking arm or a kicking foot. She had a good eye for my own attacks and never got in my way. She saved me from more than one knife. I promised myself, if I lived, that I would get her the meatiest bone I could find, climbing prices or no.
I'd stopped for a breath when I saw Flory and her mots trapped in a corner, knives out. A few of our folk kept the women there, but I could see by the way they held their bodies that they knew who Flory was and that they were not to hobble her. I waited until Goodwin had put down her Rat of the moment and let her know.
"Get my lord," she yelled. She began to move toward Flory, smashing any Rats that got in her way.
Lord Gershom was busy. A rusher with a longsword had decided today was his lucky day, seemingly. He was young and strong, faced with an old man with long gray hair. My lord must have ordered his guards to stay back. Now he smoothed his heavy mustache, a sign he was ready to do as he must.
"My lord, when you're finished, might I have a word?" I asked.
"Certainly, Cooper," he replied, his voice as casual as if we'd met in the market.
"Don't yez pay attention t' her!" bellowed the rusher. "Pay attention t'
me!"
"If you insist," my lord replied. He came in with that hard, fast overhand swing of his. He does it one-handed, keeping a small, round buckler on his other forearm. The rusher barely parried the strike and tried an ox-handed thrust of his own. My lord knocked that aside with the buckler.
I glanced around. There was a dais, of course. Pearl's bodyguards were up there, holding off Nestor, other Port Caynn Dogs, and some of the Goddess warriors. I did not see Pearl herself. Was she at the heart of the ring of guards, hidden by them and their attackers? I took a step toward the dais, but there was a scream behind me. I turned back to Lord Gershom's fight. The rusher was dead already. My lord set his buckler aside. His guards closed in, making a safe zone around us. A mage gave him a cloth so he might wipe his sword. My lord couldn't do that on his clothes or the dead cove's. Both were well marked with blood.
"These clothes will have to be burned," he remarked. "My lady will not approve if she sees them."
If my lord was lucky, Port Caynn was far enough away that Lady Teodorie would never know he'd been fighting again.
"Cooper?" Lord Gershom asked.
I pointed to the far corner. "It's Fair Flory, my lord," I said. "The one we spoke to you about."
My lord sheathed his sword. "Very well. I'll talk with her." He and his guards crossed the room.
I looked at the overall fight. We had caught them by surprise, that was plain. The area near the tap and kitchen doors was empty of Dogs and Rats. I suspect many had escaped that way. Doubtless my lord had planned it so, given that Okha's maps showed there were exits in that part of the court as well as those we had used. It would have been a fair mess to take every Rat here before a magistrate.
Achoo scratched her ear and yawned. "Come on," I said, picking up my lord's buckler. "I don't like that mess up on the dais." Once I'd settled the buckler on my arm, I holstered my baton, keeping my sap in my free hand.