Authors: Tamora Pierce
There was also Achoo, who had jumped onto the foot of the bed. She was scrabbling at the blanket over my feet, whining frantically, staring at me with eyes that looked like they might weep at any moment.
"Achoo," I croaked. "I'm all right. Easy – umm – " For a moment I searched my brain and found every memory sliding away from me. What had happened? I rubbed my head.
"Achoo, be still or I will tie you up in the courtyard again." Goodwin said it in that way she has, the one that is very convincing. Achoo gave Goodwin a guilty look and only pawed me twice, silently.
I saw the paper on which Achoo's commands were written in my mind's eye. I felt better instantly. "Achoo,
mudah
," I said.
"Mudah
, girl,
mudah
."
"And what does that mean?" asked the stranger with the blue Gift.
I looked up into the healer's face. "I'm telling her to be easy, Master Healer. As you have made me easier."
He smiled at me. "It's a joy to work with someone so young. Your bones heal up right away, without the resistance of the older Dogs. That knock on the head would have been serious for someone like your partner, here."
I put my hand on my head and felt the bandage. "Did you cut my hair?"
"No, Guardswoman Cooper. But you had a bloody wound to bandage once we'd put ointments on it." He smiled at me, the smile crinkling his whole face.
"Cooper, this is Master Sholto," Goodwin said. "Sir Tullus sent him to tend you. We're in the infirmary at Jane Street."
"Sir Tullus's healer!" I grabbed Goodwin's arm and pulled her close. At least, I tried to. She leaned toward me, because I didn't really have the strength to tug on her. "Goodwin, I can't afford a healer who tends knights!" I whispered, very soft. My heart was beating fast in panic, and I knew I blushed with shame.
Master Sholto rested a hand on my shoulder. Calm settled over me like a veil. "Sir Tullus pays my fee in these cases, young Cooper," he told me.
"He does it whenever something happens to a Dog on their way to his court," Goodwin said. "That's why nobody ever dares claim they got sick and couldn't attend. They'd best really
be
sick when Master Sholto arrives."
I looked around. I'd been tucked into the corner of the infirmary, but I knew enough from my visits to recognize the place. "How did I come here?" I asked. "Why don't I remember?"
"You had a very nasty blow to the head, Cooper," Master Sholto said kindly. "You may come to remember what happened, or you may not. Blows to the head have that effect."
"And I say you took sick with stupidity," Goodwin snapped.
"Guardswoman, a little kindness is in order," Master Sholto told her.
"With respect, sir, not in this instance," Goodwin replied.
Master Sholto threw up his hands and went to the far side of the room, where a handful of other patients waited for him.
Goodwin looked at me. "Cooper, how many exits does your lodging house have?"
I rubbed my eyes, that itched me some. "Three. Four, if I go through Aniki's rooms and onto the neighbors' roof."
"And what is a Dog supposed to do when she leaves her home?" Goodwin demanded.
I was beginning to have a bad feeling I knew what had happened. If I was right, then so was Pounce, and I
am
a fool. "Choose different ways to come and go. Listen first and go carefully, in case enemies lay in wait," I muttered.
"And why do Dogs act so?" Goodwin asked.
"Dogs make enemies," I said, quiet-like.
"Which is why two coves were waiting for you when you danced out your door yesterday morning." Goodwin said it cold. I could nearabout see clouds form around her words, though the air was not
that
chill. "Did you even stop to peek out through those spy holes Rosto had put in?"
"I don't remember." Now I was grateful for my loss of memory.
Achoo says she did not
, Pounce told us.
Achoo apologizes. She says the wind was against her. That is why she didn't smell them
.
"Achoo's excuse, at least, is a good one," Goodwin said, rubbing Achoo's ears. "Cooper has nothing to excuse her. She made a habit out of leaving her lodgings every day through her front door. Plainly these men, just as any Dog's enemies, learned it, and they nearly killed her yesterday."
Master Sholto had returned. He frowned at Goodwin. "You've scolded enough, Guardswoman. You're upsetting my patient. She must be calm, or my spells will not take."
"She needs to remember her Dog work," Goodwin told him while looking at me. "I lost one partner for a time, two nights ago. Yesterday morning I almost lost the other for good. I would like her not to be such a looby again!"
She got to her feet and left, her back stiff with anger. Master Sholto watched her go, shaking his head.
"I am sorry, Cooper," he said.
I wanted him to go away because I was going to cry and I didn't want him to see it. "She is right. They teach us, don't develop habits, because they'll get you killed. I thought I was safe because I have powerful friends." I meant Rosto and Pounce, but I wasn't going to say so. I was too tired to explain. "I was wrong and I got a cracked head for it."
Master Sholto nodded and walked away. I covered my eyes with my arm, though it made my ribs ache, so I could be private with my tears. I hated myself for crying over a scolding I deserved.
I was done when Master Sholto returned with some herbal drink. I downed all of that.
"You will be able to return home in the morning," he said as he helped me to lay back on the pillows. "And you will feel very much better. I would give the Trickster, the Goddess, and great Mithros some offerings, if I were you."
I nodded. "Thank you, Master Sholto," I whispered as he tucked my blankets around me. This time, when he left, he took the lamp. There was yet enough light that I could see Achoo inch her way up along my side so she might stretch out. I didn't think she was allowed, but I was too weary to stop her. And it was nice to have her there, all warm at my side.
Pounce still sat by my feet. His purple eyes were fixed on me.
You have gotten too dependent on me
, he said.
You must never believe that I protect you. Always look after yourself, just as if I were an ordinary cat. My own tasks have taken me elsewhere of late, and they may take me again. Will you be so careless again?
"No, Pounce," I whispered.
What does Ahuda say you must rely on?
"Dog eyes. Dog ears. Dog instinct." I think I spoke it out loud. My eyelids were shut. I tried to say it again – Dog eyes. Dog ears. Dog instinct. I don't know if I did.
I woke in the middle of the night. My pack was at my bedside, with my journal in it. I wrote the above until I felt sleepy, then slept until I was roused by the muster of Day Watch in the main room of the kennel nearby. Looking at my journal, I am shocked at the awkwardness of my writing during the night. I remember shaping the letters poorly, but I didn't know until now how clumsy I truly was. It is a little better today, around noon.
This morning Kora, Tansy, Ersken, and Tansy's husband, Herun, brought me home in a wagon that Herun and Tansy use for their business. I told them that I could walk, but nobody listened to me. They too were scolding me about my folly in becoming predictable. They were so busy nattering that it wasn't until we came to Mistress Trout's lodgings that I could ask if there was any word of them that jumped me.
Herun just shook his head and drove off for home. It was Kora, Ersken, and Tansy that traded looks as they helped me into my rooms, trying not to stumble over Achoo. My bed was all made up fresh, with clean sheets and a light blanket for the cooler air that came through my open window. There were gillyflowers, red and white, in pitchers and bowls all around the room, a new table with wooden chairs, and two new, brightly colored rugs on my floor. Aniki sat at the table, where a solid meal was laid out. I knew that if I questioned my friends or asked who had paid for anything like furniture, blankets, rugs, or food, they would pretend not to hear.
I let them ease me onto one of my new wooden chairs and demanded, "Who jumped me? It's plain you know. Is he in the cages?"
Ersken sighed and grabbed a hot onion tartlet. As he juggled it, waiting for it to cool, he said, "It's a 'they,' and we've yet to catch them. Jewel and Yoav had a Birdie who told them Madon and Geraint Pell were in their cups and bragging how they taught an upstart bitch the price of hobbling their brother Kevan."
I swore. I'd hobbled Kevan Pell two weeks ago for a buffer. A week ago Monday he'd been sentenced to the northern road crews. It was hard for him to cry innocent when he'd been leading a string of five cows to the city gates when I hobbled him. He'd told me I'd weep for doing it, but I ignored him. Every Rat says the same.
"If the brothers are as fog-brained as Kevan, they'll be found quick enough," I said.
We were near done eating when Rosto arrived. He looked like the cat who'd been at the cream. If he felt tender over my bumps and bruises, he hid it well. "Are you well enough to walk to the bathhouse today, or shall I help?" he asked, his eyes twinkling very wickedly. "I'm told I'm a fair hand at washing hair. And backs. And – "
"I'm not one of your doxies, Rosto," I said crossly. I hate it when he flirts with me like he does with any other mot. "I'm well able to bathe myself. Will you join us, or will you strut?"
Rosto winced. "Ouch!" he said. "Nothing wrong with your bite, I see. Actually, I came to take Master Pounce to task, for letting you walk into a trap."
"I told you, I can
look after myself"
I said just as Pounce replied,
I am not her nursemaid, Rosto the Piper
.
The others began to clear the table as Rosto and Pounce glared at each other. Achoo only shrank close to my ankles and stayed quiet.
Finally Rosto said, "I've killed men who were that good at looking after themselves." He took a pear from the table.
"Have you seen the Pells yet, Rosto?" Ersken asked. Aniki froze where she stood. Kora gave him a little shake of the head. Ersken ignored her, watching Rosto with his calm blue eyes. "Any tips on where they might be found?" He is so good about Kora's allegiances that sometimes they forget he is a Dog, and he will ask the questions they do not want him to ask.
Rosto, halfway into his bite of pear, stopped and took it from his mouth. "The Pells live on Spindle Lane, I know that much," he said, his voice chilly. "I imagine they're playing the ghost game now that they've muddled with a Dog. You might try the Sheepmire drinking dens."
I looked at him. He was being too helpful. The red gillyflowers all about my room were starting to look like splashes of blood. I got to my feet, slowly. "I'm off to the bathhouse," I said.
Of course Aniki and Kora wouldn't let me go alone. They went for their things, and Ersken went with Kora. That left me with Rosto.
He put his finger on my lips. "Before either of us says anything foolish, think of a king's position, love," he whispered, his eyes holding mine. "Say our little prince was beaten half to death outside his nursery door by a band of rushers. The King
has
to do something, doesn't he? His borders have been breached, his area of safety. The rushers came to his house and attacked one of his people. What would we say of a king who doesn't deal with that? Of course, this is His Majesty, King Roger, we're talking about."
"Of course," I said.
"It doesn't have anything to do with who was beaten so bad. It could have been Her Majesty, the Lord High Magistrate, any member of the King's household," Rosto said. "The important thing is, an example has to be made."
He kissed me so very gently on the forehead. He knows I might have punched him in the gut if he'd tried to kiss me on the mouth, him with blood on his hands. Even the blood of two men who'd done their best to spread my brains on the street.
After the bathhouse, I talked Kora and Aniki into letting me stay in my rooms with Achoo, Pounce, and the pigeons for company for a while. The first thing I did was take up my journal. My handwriting is not of the best, so I print slow and plain and larger than usual as the shakes work their way out of my arms and my fingers come to feel less like sausages. But it helps my mind, too, writing these things down.
And I can feel the magic working through me, mending all the soft parts that Master Sholto said would take longer to get strong. The bones he could knit right off, but they won't be quite as hardy as the unbroken ones for another day or so. But each time I wake from dozing, I am better. I do owe the Trickster something. After all, I will be back on duty soon. With the kennel healers, I might have been out of work for a month, and that would bite into my savings. I can't afford that, not with a hungry winter coming and another mouth to feed.
And this mouth! She eats ten times what Pounce does! Even with the allowance I am paid for her food, it is not enough.
I hope that once Achoo makes up for lost meals, she will slow down.
Despite the bath, I feel dirty because deep in the heart of me, I am glad that Rosto will kill the Pell brothers, if he hasn't done so already. I would nab Rosto fast if I got evidence that he did it, though it might mean my life and the lives of all I love to nab a Rogue. They're too important to the city, though no one says as much. They keep the slums and the Rats from overwhelming the cityfolk and the Provost's Guards. Rogues
have
been taken in the past, but never for sommat as small as the murder of a commoner. And Rosto is far too clever to do it so he might be caught. He knows that even though we are friends, if I caught him in wrongdoing, I would hobble him.
I hope I would.
Midnight.
Goodwin came by after watch. She was out colemonger hunting with Birch and Ersken and didn't stay long. She only came to pass one piece of news to me, along with Tunstall's greetings from his sickbed, and his promise of a lecture about carelessness.
Her news made my gut sink. "Jewel and Yoav found the Pell brothers in King Gareth's Fountain," Goodwin said. "We had bets on where they would end up, but no one wagered on that. No one expected someone to have the sack to put them at the center of the Nightmarket, not with the army crawling all over the place."