Bloodhound (63 page)
Authors: Tamora Pierce
I will not
, Pounce said.
I have interfered in enough other lives of late, Beka
.
"Those stars you were seeing to," I said.
Those very stars
.
"But now you'll stay home?" I asked, trying not to sound as if I begged. "We'll go back to normal, all of us in our places?"
"Not exactly," Goodwin said, crouching down beside me. She spoke quietly. "I want you to know first of all, you and Tunstall. When I was home last, Ahuda said they want her for Evening Watch in Flash District. She won't do it unless she has a replacement. I'm going to take it."
I sat up, about to yelp, but she put her hand over my mouth.
"Cooper,
listen to me
. I'm getting tired. I've done street duty and hunts a long time. Wading through sewers after first-rank Rats doesn't get me excited like it did. I need to slow down. Desk Sergeant is perfect for me." Goodwin clapped me on the shoulder. "And you'll be a perfect partner for Tunstall. He'll look out for you, and you'll keep him out of trouble."
She left me with that – just went off and left me with the worst and best news of my life. The great Clary Goodwin was going to be a desk sergeant, and I was going to have a real partner. How am I supposed to feel about that? How am I supposed to feel about anything, anymore?
At the dock, my lord had carts waiting for Goodwin and me. They took us home. Ersken carried my things up to my room. I argued that I felt fine, but Ersken just ignored me. Pounce and Achoo immediately settled on the bed. I stretched out with them, only because my head ached a little, and woke to twilight and a knock on the door. Ersken was there, dressed in cityfolk clothes.
"I'm ordered to take you to the Dove for supper," he told me. "The easy way or the hard way, but you're to come with me." He grinned. "I love to say things like that. Don't I sound like a hard Dog?"
"You look as scary as a buttered muffin," I grumbled.
"Don't be that way. Have supper. You'll still be surly, but you'll be a more cheerful sort of surly," Ersken told me. "I'll take Achoo out, and you can change clothes."
I did as I was told. I was in my own room, with my own bed, where Pounce was curled. I sprinkled cracked corn on my window ledge, a funerary offering, mayhap, for Slapper. I put on a blue wool tunic and gray breeches, and my opal bracelet and necklace. It made me a little sad to look at them and think of Dale, but they were too beautiful to leave in my jewel box. By the time Ersken and Achoo returned, I'd even straightened my braid and had a sip of the medicine the healers had given me to drink twice a day for two weeks. It was to fight the lingering poisons in my body, they said. Goodwin had some just like it. I wonder if Pearl does?
Achoo and Pounce walked beside us as we crossed the street to the Dancing Dove. It was brightly lit within and without. The taproom was busy with folk who'd come with business for the Rogue or folk who simply wanted to please him. For a moment I halted on the threshold, seeing Pearl's courts.
"Beka?" Ersken asked, one hand under my elbow.
I shook my head. "Nothing. It's nothing." Pearl was going to be tried. I had won. I walked into the common room behind Ersken. As he led the way to the stair, I heard the crowd quiet a little. Pounce leaped onto my shoulder.
A cove spoke out. "That's the one I was tellin' yez about. The Bloodhound."
I turned and looked for the one that said it. He was a sailor, mayhap one of the oarsmen from my lord's ship. "Don't talk," I said, shaken. "Not until you know what you say." Achoo barked, as if she agreed.
Ersken and I trotted upstairs. The door to the dining room we had always used for breakfast was closed. I thought it was to keep out the noise from downstairs, and opened it wide.
"Welcome home!" them inside called. It was our breakfast company – Rosto, Aniki, Kora, Phelan, Tansy – but it was also Lady Sabine and Tunstall, Tunstall being on a reclining chair. It was my brothers and the sister who still spoke to me, Aunt Mya and her husband from Provost's House, and my Granny Fern. Goodwin and Tomlan were there, as were Jewel, Yoav, Birch, Elmwood, and the rest of the Dogs who had been in Port Caynn.
I might have dove under the table, overwhelmed by the notice, until I saw that many were here for Goodwin as much as me. That made it easier to take. Achoo was glad for the attention, which came in the form of food.
I was halfway through my soup when Lady Sabine tapped my shoulder. "He's tired," she whispered. "He shouldn't have come, but try to keep him away. I think it did him good."
So Achoo, Pounce, and I went over to Tunstall. He had red patches high on his cheekbones. Pounce leaped onto his lap. "So, when are you on your feet again?" I asked. He looked wrung out.
"My lord sends a Crown mage to me tomorrow," he replied, stroking Pounce. "After that, they say another week. It seems Crown mages can heal a little better than the ones available to common Dogs."
Well, we
all
knew that.
Tunstall beckoned me to lean closer. "Goodwin gave you her news?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Are you fine with it? Maybe you want a partner who's not an old man who goes flat for stupid broken legs?" Tunstall asked. Achoo stood between him and me, wagging her tail so hard she beat us with it.
Stop that
, Pounce ordered him.
It's undignified
. Lady Sabine hid a smile.
I agreed with Pounce. I glared at Tunstall. "Did you break your nob, too?" I asked.
"I've felt curst useless, knowing you two might be in trouble there," he explained.
"There's plenty more trouble to get into," I said, hiding my trembling hands in my pockets. Did he mean it? Did he really mean it? "I'm going to get into it without Goodwin. Don't make me get into it without you, too."
Tunstall sighed. "Oh, very well. But only because you disgraced yourself begging and pleading this way."
I looked him over. "You're lucky you're a feeble old man laid up in bed, or I'd kick your bum up between your ears."
You're both so adorable I feel a hair ball coming up
, Pounce told us.
"Vexing cat. You're lucky I'm laid up yet, Cooper, after you went for a queen Rat without your partner," Tunstall replied. "Oh, yes, Mistress Know-It-All, I've heard about your latest fit of idiocy. I'll have none of that when
I'm
your partner. Agreed?"
"Agreed," I said. Achoo barked. She, too, agreed.
Tunstall tapped his fist on top of mine, then I tapped mine on top of his. We'd made a Dog's bargain of it.
Founded:
127 H.E. by His Royal Majesty King Baird III of Tortall
First Lord Provost:
Padraig of haMinch (127-143)
Use of the terms
Dog, Puppy, Growl, seek, kennel
, and related terms in the Guard became popular about fifty years after the founding of the Guard.
FOUR WATCHES
Day Watch:
nine in the morning until five in the afternoon
Evening Watch:
five in the afternoon until one in the morning
Night Watch:
one in the morning until nine in the morning
Fourth Watch:
covers each of the other three watches on their Court Days and off days
In most districts, the best of the guards are put on Day and Evening Watch, when there is the most activity on the streets. The slackers are given Night Watch, when the least amount of activity is going on. The only area that is different is the Lower City, where the Day Watch is less active as well. Evening Watch is busy there. So is Night Watch, but while no one will say so, the truth is that the criminals own the streets during Night Watch. The very worst guards have duty then. They are the ones who just don't care about the work, the ones who are regarded as expendable. Everyone knows it.
DISTRICTS
Corus's watch districts, interestingly, often (but not always) correspond to the way the Rogues divide the city for their own organization:
Highfields District
Prettybone District
Unicorn District
Palace District
Flash District
Upmarket District
Patten District
Temple District
The Lower City: Conditions are very different in the Lower City overall. Since it is the poorest area, the bribes are the lowest and so is the prestige. The casualty rate is the highest because it is the most violent part of the city. Most of the guards assigned there are regarded as not being bright or promising enough to make a good impression elsewhere. Even so, the elite guards of the Lower City are the most respected. They are also the toughest and the smartest.
CHAIN OF COMMAND
Lord Provost: governs the realm's districts
Deputy Provost: assists Lord Provost (one per region in Tortall)
Captain (District Commander)
Per District
Watch Commander
Watch Sergeant
Corporals (varies by district)
Senior Guards (varies by district)
Guards
Trainees
TRAINING
Formal training in 246:
One year in school. There is no screening or testing to enter the training program. Trainees are simply required to pass the classes.
All guards are required to attend combat practice for their first four years of service.
WEAPONS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
Primary weapon:
Two-foot-long hardwood baton with lead core
Guards don't use swords:
A sword is a killing weapon. The majority of reasons a guard uses a baton don't demand an intent to kill. Wielded properly, the baton can stop most swords. Also, swords require years of training for proper use, they are expensive and require extensive maintenance, and they can break just when they're most needed.
The law and bribery:
Law enforcement is a loose affair, something that is still being created. A law-keeping force under the control of the national government is highly unusual. Most law-enforcement groups are formed and run by neighborhood associations, guilds, or individual cities, or they are part of the military. The members of the Provost's Guard, like such groups, have a great deal of discretion in whom they arrest, whether they take bribes, and whether they do the thing they have been bribed to do. Bribery is the standard way to ensure that the underpaid people who protect merchants remember individuals and, at times, overlook their behavior. (Too much of a history of taking bribes and not following through on them does get a guard killed. It is wise for a guard to do what he's bribed to do most of the time.)
Guards memorize the laws and rules they are taught in training. They learn the rest of their skills on the streets and from each other. Some guards are smarter than others. Some guards are more motivated than others. And they all make up police work as they go.
Rebakah Cooper (Beka)
– first-year Provost's Guard (Dog), protégée of Lord Gershom of Haryse (the Lord Provost)
Pounce
– normally a constellation called the Cat, Beka's advisor and friend for the last five years
Achoo Curlypaws
– scent hound assigned to the Lower City Provost's Guard
AT PROVOST'S HOUSE
Gershom of Haryse
– Lord Provost of Tortall, Beka's patron
Teodorie of Haryse
– Gershom's lady, patroness of Beka's brothers and sisters
Diona, Lorine, Nilo, Willes
– Beka's younger sisters and brothers, all training for work in noble houses
Mya Fane
– Beka's foster aunt, cook at Provost's House
PROVOST'S DOGS AND ASSOCIATES IN CORUS
Sergeant Kebibi Ahuda
– Desk Sergeant, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel, the Lower City Guard District
Corporal Finian Karel
– Desk Corporal, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel, the Lower City Guard District
Sir Acton of Fenrigh
– Watch Commander, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel, the Lower City Guard District
Sir Vannic haMinch
– District Commander, the Lower City Guard District
Sir Tullus of Kings Reach
– Magistrate, the Lower City Guard District
Master Sholto
– Sir Tullus's personal healer and mage
Senior Corporal Nyler
– most senior street Dog, the Lower
Jewel
– City Evening Watch, Yoav's partner
Senior Guardswoman Osgyth Yoav
– street Dog, Jewel's partner
Senior Guardsman Wulfric Birch
– street Dog, Westover's partner
Ersken Westover
– street Dog, first year, Beka's friend, Kora's lover
Corporal Guardswoman Clara Goodwin
– Beka's partner and former training partner
Senior Guardsman Matthias Tunstall
– Beka's partner and former training partner
Corporal Greengage
– street Dog, Nightmarket duty, the Lower City
Guardsman Marks
– street Dog, Nightmarket duty, the Lower City
Guardsman Tillyard
– street Dog, Nightmarket duty, the Lower City
Senior Guardsman Elmwood
– scent-hound handler, the Lower City
Guardsman Sillsbee
– Beka's partner at start of
Bloodhound
, the Lower City
Guardsman Ercole Hempstead
– scent-hound handler, the Lower City
THE COURT OF THE ROGUE, CORUS
Rosto, called the Piper
– Rogue of Corus
Aniki Forfrysning
– swordswoman, rusher, chieftain in the Court of the Rogue
Koramin Ingensra
– mage, serves the Rogue, Ersken Westover's lover
Phelan Rapp
– former Guardsman and scent-hound handler, now working for the Rogue
RESIDENTS OF CORUS
Tansy Lofts
– Beka's oldest friend from their slum days, now a respectable wife, mother, and businesswoman
Herun Lofts
– Tansy's husband