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That made me smile, at least. We finished our breakfast as the two kittens napped.
I excused myself after a time and went back to my rooms. I could not get my dreams out of my head. Not them, not the sight of the lily pendant against Mistress Noll’s sweaty throat. I wanted another look at the map.
It was hot and close under the roof. I had a choice. I could light my lamps and suffocate, or I could open my shutters. In the end it was no choice. I couldn’t help but feel I owed the diggers’ ghosts and their birds an apology for my rudeness. I opened my shutters wide. Since I faced the morning sun, I had more than enough light by which to see the map and all its markings. When the birds came, at first I didn’t even notice. I was too busy studying that map with a new eye. I’d finally remembered why Mistress Noll’s necklace seemed familiar.
Back when, a neighbor to one of the Snake’s victims had drawn his prize for me: a lily pendant. She’d described it, enamel on gold, but it was her rough sketch in the dirt of her yard that’d stuck in my nob. Graceful that pendant was, the kind of thing any mot would like to have, even me. Even Mistress Noll.
I think Yates Noll gave the lily pendant to his mother. I looked at the map afresh because I was thinking Yates Noll is connected to the Shadow Snake somehow. He works for him or is him. If Yates is the Snake, it would explain why his friends are afeared of him. Could it be, as Mistress Noll’s business grew from Mutt Piddle Lane to the Daymarket, Yates was able to spread out and hunt? On his errands for her, working in her stalls, he’d hear who had aught worth taking. From being in the cages and the court and Outwalls Prison he’d know other hard coves, including some as wouldn’t balk at kidnapping a little one for coppers.
“Beka? Are you well?”
I’d left my door open for the air. Kora had come in. She wore a cloth sling fashioned from a scarf around her chest. Her kitten peered out of it, his green eyes fixed on the pigeons on my sill.
“Remember the mot who told us of the lily pendant?” I asked her.
I saw a muscle jump in Kora’s cheek. “I remember them all,” she said, coming over to me.
“I think I saw the pendant last night, on Mistress Noll’s neck. You’ve met her son Yates?” Kora shook her head. “He’s a hard cove. Not clever enough for the Rogue’s Court, I’d thought,” I said. “But mayhap he’s learned sommat in his life, enough to pick off the minnows. Enough mayhap to come by a pretty now and then to give his mama for all the times she’s paid his fees and given him work.”
“So why stare at the map?” Kora asked. Her kitten was struggling to climb out of the sling.
“I’m trying to see if there’s a pattern,” I said. “If the folk whose children were stole lived near Mistress Noll’s home or near her shops. He lives and works with her, see. She moved from Mutt Piddle Lane two years back, and she sold goods there, on the Common, in the Nightmarket, and in the Daymarket.”
“So he’s been everywhere for her,” Kora said, putting her kitten on the floor.
“Everywhere,” I said, feeling downhearted. “Him, his friends, anyone who came to her and gossiped with her or Gemma. I could as well be singing to the moon for all the good this does.”
“We’ll go out and talk to some more folk,” Kora told me. “Today might be the day you learn the golden bit of news, Beka. So put on your dress and we’ll go. We’ve those five folk we wanted to try out toward Charry Orchard, remember.”
I remembered her kissing Ersken downstairs. “I, um, thought you and Ersken…,” I began, and stopped myself. I didn’t want to come right out and say I thought they were going to go straight to her room and stay there till it was time for Ersken to leave for training, but that’s what I thought.
Kora had that wicked smile on her face. “There is time for that. He knows how important this is to us both. And I’ve promised him a treat for later.”
I was grateful to her. So many good mots lose sight of the other things in life when they get caught up with a new cove. I think I startled us both when I hugged her as once I’d hugged my sisters and kissed her cheek. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m feeling that useless about the Snake.”
Kora stared at me. “But you have that map, and the Birdies. You’re putting it all together, Beka!” She kissed my cheek. “You really are a terrier.”
Far in the distance, thunder rolled. The kitten mewed. We looked and saw him under the window, staring at the pigeons. They stared back at him. I heard the ghost on one of the new birds say, “She looked like a queen in silk.”
“A queen in that bad place,” a new cove’s ghost said.
“She give a flask t’ them guards,” a mot’s ghost whined. “He put it in soup. I saw ‘im.”
“The soup were good that night.” That ghost’s voice was cracked and rasping, like he’d breathed smoke, mayhap, or had the lung rot. “It were the best we had.”
“It were th’ last we had!” one of the new mots’ ghosts snapped. “Poisoned, it were! An’ that mot brung it in her flask!”
“Black tears on her face.” The raspy-voiced cove sounded weary. “She had black tears on her face.”
My heart banged against my ribs. Crookshank’s houseguest, Vrinday Kayu, the mage who’d acted as Tansy’s maid in the Nightmarket – she had tattoos of black teardrops on her face.
I could be wrong. Others used black drop tattoos, often to show they had taken a life. But I would tell my Dogs of this tonight. I would bet a month’s wage that Kayu was the poisoner.
The kitten leaped. The pigeons took off. I looked at the small fuzzball and sighed. He was too tiny even to jump as high as my windowsill. Still, the birds had fled and were not returning.
Before I go to bed.
We came back from our talks about two, as a true summer storm crashed overhead. In the oven of my rooms I changed into my Dog’s gear. At least it would be cooler by the time I came off watch. Meanwhile, I had time yet before training. I wanted to see how Tansy did.
Outside, lightning flashed, Mithros wielding his sword against the monsters of Chaos. Thunder roared as they screamed their pain over their wounds. Rain came down in buckets, racketing on my wide straw hat. Pounce kept to the side of the buildings, staying dry under the eaves. The streets were empty. Everyone was taking shelter until the downpour slacked.
I went to the kitchen entrance at Crookshank’s, not wishing to be turned away at the front door. The maid gawped for a moment, then turned and said, “Mistress Annis, it’s Beka Cooper!” She nearabout dragged me into the house by the arm. “We never had a chance to thank yez fer savin’ us last night, me’n Zada’n Cook’n Otto – “
“Enough.” Annis herself was in the kitchen, which smoothed my way. “We’re all in debt to Beka and her partners.” She tried to smile, but her mouth was shaky.
“Mistress Annis, I hope the Goddess brings Herun home safe,” I told her. “And soon.” By the light of day I could see the old smoke streaks on the ceiling, leading from the front of the house.
“My thanks, Beka,” Annis said. “D’you want to see Tansy? I’ll need to sneak you up the back stair. Father Ammon isna…well.” I think she meant he was cracked, plain and true.
“He seemed upset at the Court of the Rogue last night,” I told her, as meek as a priest’s mouse. Behind me I heard the cook choke.
“This way,” Annis said. She led to the servants’ stair and up. “Will you tell Goodwin and Tunstall I’m grateful for what they done, and you, yester e’en? I’m not even askin’ how the three of you came to be here.”
I was glad her back was to me, since I think I flinched. I’d wondered if anyone in this house had noticed and questioned what had brought us there so conveniently. To distract her I said, “A Birdie tells me Gunnar Espeksra is dead.”
She looked at me. I’d shocked her. The confusion was plain on her face in the lamplight. “Dead? Was he in a fight?”
“No, mistress,” I said. “He was killed in the cages.”
She walked onto the third floor landing and waited for me.
“In the cages? Goddess’s tears. Oh – oh, you think I paid to have it done.” Annis shook her head. “Beka, I was too milled about to buy the murder of anybody.” Her lips trembled. “I just want my boy home and safe.”
“The Goddess willing, Mistress Annis,” I said. The dreadful idea that Crookshank won’t pay for Herun clung to my mind. I was curst if I’d say it to her, though.
Mistress Annis led me to Tansy’s room and opened the door. “Tansy, Beka’s here, to see how you do.” She let me go in, then closed the door, leaving Tansy and me to ourselves.
Tansy stood by the window. The shutters were wide, giving her a view of the garden and the rain. Three pigeons pecked at corn on the broad sill. I heard the ghosts whisper, but softly: old ghosts, almost faded clean away.
“Ever since that night,” Tansy said, “it don’t seem right to watch them without so much as a greeting and a bit of food. They might carry some other child.”
I put my hat on the floor to drip and came over to listen to the ghosts. “No. This one?” I pointed to one that was mostly gray. “This mumper here carries a mot as was killed by her man for cheating on him.” The black pigeon had but one toe to each foot.
“Poor thing,” said Tansy, tears filling her eyes. “Beka, how can you bear it?” Tansy asked. “Knowing their stories?”
“I’ve been hearing them awhile,” I said. “I’m accustomed.”
Tansy laughed a little. “So matter of fact. You’ve always been that way.”
“You need me to balance you,” I reminded her. “If you break your heart over each one of them, you’ll go all cracknobbed.”
Tansy smiled. “Never mind me, Beka. I cry over wilted flowers, more than I ever did when we was small. My son is dead, Herun’s gone. Father Ammon thinks the Rogue took him, you know. I believe I will turn into tears. I thought I would be safe.” She rubbed her arms. “I told myself there’d be no danger when I was free of Mutt Piddle Lane.”
Only Tansy would think sommat so silly. Even as little gixies we’d heard of robberies and murders in districts as fine as Highfields and Unicorn, let alone here. “There’s danger everywhere,” I replied. I wished I knew what I could do for her. Telling her Gunnar was dead wouldn’t help. It would only let her know the Dogs couldn’t keep their captives safe.
“I’m just not good company now, Beka,” whispered Tansy.
I hugged her. “I only came to see how you did after last night. I no more expected to see you dancing than I expected to fly.” Another pigeon came in, one with no rider. “Don’t work yourself up over this one, girl. He carries no ghost at all.” I was always glad when that happened. I thought the birds deserved rest. Unless they didn’t see it as rest, as I did on my day off, but boredom, with naught to occupy them. “Don’t forget the little one that’s coming,” I told her. “I pray the gods for Herun’s safe return.”
I let myself out. I did it on the quiet, not wanting to break the silence in that tomb of a house.
Crookshank and the woman he spoke to in the hall did not hear me. I stopped cold when I saw them. She was Vrinday Kayu, the Carthaki who was with Tansy the night she talked to Rolond’s ghost. Then, she’d dressed like a maidservant. Now she wore a yellow cotton tunic over white cotton, the cloth finer than Annis’s or Tansy’s dresses. Kayu’s head veil was silk. She wore perfume that smelled of something foreign, like temple incense. Her eyes, when they flicked to me, were lined in black paint.
And there were those black teardrops tattooed at the outside corner of each eye, and one at the center of her chin. I was sure of it. Kayu had brought the poison for the diggers.
Cold sweat covered my skin. I wanted to put the hobbles on her then and there. Writing this, my hand shakes. She is a murderer. Only I cannot prove it. I have but the word of ghosts. A mage might get the truth, if she did not spell herself to die first. A mage might get the truth from Crookshank. But he has noble friends who will not let us arrest him without good cause.
She is a poisoner. I will see her in a cage. I will see her on Execution Hill if I can.
Crookshank turned. “You – Dog.” His voice was hoarse. I suppose it was from all the screaming he did at the Court of the Rogue. “What are you doing in my house?”
I tucked my hat under my arm and stood with my feet braced. “I’m Tansy’s friend.”
“My granddaughter-in-law doesn’t have Dogs for friends.” He waved off Kayu. She scuttled down the stairs.
Crookshank advanced on me. He still had not shaved, though he had changed his clothes from last night. “What good are you, eh?” He trembled from head to toe. “The Rogue steals Herun from under your stupid noses! When I am forced to bribe amateurs to seek him out, the Rogue laughs up his sleeve and smuggles him away. Again, under your very noses! What good are you cuddies? Why are we taxed to pay for you? Why are we taxed again for your poxy Happy Bags?”
Heat built up behind my eyes. How dare this murdering old scut speak so of Dogs? Of them that chase the Rats from his storerooms so he can get fat on his gains? Though he is skeleton thin now. When I chanced a look at his face, I saw the skin hanging in folds on the sides – he used to have more flesh under it.
His voice got soft. “Unless you are working for Kayfer. I could afford you, I suppose. What is the gold I’ve paid already compared to the fortune I will have? You Dogs are always sniffing after coin. It need not even be much. I could have you for coppers.”
Our trainers taught us to hit Rats only when there is aught to be gained from it. Over and over they had said it, shouted it, yelled it. That order was the one thing that kept me from slapping Crookshank. I clenched my hand on my hat so tight I crushed the straw brim.
“Are you in this with Kayfer?” Crookshank reached for me. “Where is Herun? I will pay you well. More gold than you could dream of. I will buy you a new life in, in Tusaine, or Maren, or Barzun.”
I have a temper. It is not my friends’ temper, exploding in flames. Mine is ice that numbs me all over. I know it is bad when I cannot feel my face. I am told my eyes look like death at such times. Crookshank gulped.
“I wouldn’t take every fire opal you’ve ripped from the earth of this city, you bloody handed scut,” I told him. He flinched when I said “fire opal.” He thought a nothing like me would never know his precious secret. “Any gift from your hand is bought with death. I will see you tried for your crimes.”
He blinked fast, his mouth a-tremble. Then he said, “I will have you killed.”
That did it. He threatened me, with no regard for my uniform. I told him, “Then me and the seventeen diggers you’ve slaughtered will haunt you. You’ll see us in every bit of shiny wood and glass, every puddle, every mirror, understand? They’re here, followin’ me about the city. I’ll make curst sure we follow you. And when you dance at the rope’s end, we’ll be waitin’ at the gates of the Peaceful Realms. There’ll be no peace for a murderin’ pig like you.” I shoved him. “Kill me. You’ll never sleep a night through again!”
He went to backhand me across the face. I grabbed his wrist and twisted. I might have broken it, but a door behind us opened.
“Grandfather?” I heard Tansy ask.
I dropped Crookshank’s arm.
“Go to your room!” Crookshank ordered.
“You’re fighting with Beka.”
“Go to your room!”
“Shall I tell her?” I asked, keeping my voice low. I tried to talk educated again, though I was still in a fury. “About you rippin’ – ripping seventeen people from their loved ones to make your fat purse fatter?”
He slapped me. I didn’t try to stop him this time. I wasn’t sure I would not break his arm. I had to be better than him.
“No! She’s my friend!” Tansy ran up to us.
I smiled at him. From the way he looked at me, I’d not made him feel better. I didn’t mean him to. “I let you have that blow. I won’t give you another,” I said.
Crookshank cursed me and strode down the hall.
I look
ed at Tansy. “I’m off. I’ll see you another time.” I knew she was scared, but I had no time to ease her mind. I needed to catch up with the old bastard. I had one more thing to say, for Tansy’s sake and Herun’s. I caught up to him on the stairs near the second floor.
“Crookshank.”
He glared up at me. “You take the servants’ stair, and you never call me by that name!”
I will never take the servants’ stair in that house again. “I could hobble you now for striking me. You know it, and I know it, you worthless pustule. I’ll let it go. Others will put you in the cages for bigger things.”
“You doxie.” He put his hand on his belt knife.
He’d let me get too close. I gripped him so he could not draw the knife. “Stop it, afore I use my baton to make you listen,” I said. How did he get so rich if he was so stupid? “For Tansy’s sake, hear me. For your grandchild’s sake. Your greed killed Rolond. It’ll kill Herun if you don’t mind me.”
His eyes bulged. “I’ll see you raped and your body left in a midden, your throat cut in two.”
I struggled to move my mouth. I’d gone numb with rage again. Never have I been spoken to in so filthy a way. The worst of Mama’s men had just knocked me aside. I’ll never forget his words, never, but I could not let him stop me from speaking. I had to remember Tansy, Tansy and her unborn child.
“Pay the poxy ransom. Kayfer isn’t the Shadow Snake. There’s a real Shadow Snake. He’s been working the Lower City for three years. He killed Rolond because you were too sarden mean to pay. He’ll kill Herun. He’s mad. You can’t play with madmen.”
Crookshank fought my grip on his hand. “The Shadow Snake is a children’s tale. Kayfer uses him to frighten jinglenobs like you.”
“He’s real. Ask anyone in the street.”
Crookshank didn’t mean to pay. He thought Kayfer would make a deal before he’d risk a second raid like last night’s. Herun had six days to live if the Snake followed his schedule. If his grandfather thought he could bluff a second time.
I saw naught but hate in Crookshank’s eyes. I could’ve argued more, but what could I say? I let him go. He ran down the stairs and into a ground floor room.
