Bloodhound (48 page)

I ordered more fritters from the serving girl. Achoo gobbled her share and much of mine, but that was all right. I was too nervous to eat. There was still that tale to tell, before as many people as sat below.

Achoo was begging for the last fritter when I heard Pearl's raised voice. "Cooper, you may be Dale Rowan's newest bed-mate, but that doesn't make you
my
friend."

I wiped my sticky fingers on the inside of my tunic and hoisted my pack on my shoulders.
"Kemari,"
I told Achoo. Together we walked to the dais, me remembering to let my hips swing.

I gave Pearl a bow, though it wrung my tripes to do it, and offered her the pink pearl string, warm from my pocket. I had a tale to tell, and bowing to that rank maggot pie went with it, just as the pearls did.

Jurji reached out to me with his sheathed sword and poked the pearls heaped in my hand. I hung the string over the weapon, hating him for showing me so much disrespect.

He let them slide down the length of the sword until they rolled onto his wrist, where he inspected them. Only when he'd run them through his fingers did he stick the sheathed blade in his sash and hand the string to Pearl. She passed them through
her
fingers, not as he did, feeling for sharp edges or seams, anything that might show there was a trick in them, but in a savoring way.

"Very nice," she said at last. "A little out of range of a Dog's wage."

I kept my eyes on the floor. Let her think it was respect. "We had funds for this trip," I said. "I borrowed some."

Pearl set the string in her lap instead of handing them off to someone else. "Aright, then, Cooper. You've earned some speech wiv me. The gift is well done. What've you got to say, then?"

Now I could meet her eyes like I was innocent and my story was true. I was another kind of Dog now, and these folk were all people who might help me. That was the tale I'd spun. "Forgive me, Majesty, but I'm in a fix. I couldn't think where else to go that I might be safe," I explained. "And I couldn't leave Achoo behind. It's taken this long to get Achoo to trust me after her last handler beat on her. I didn't want her in harm's way."

To my surprise, Pearl's face darkened. "It's the lowest kind of scummer that will beat a creature who can't speak of it," she muttered. "Will she say hello?" She offered her hand, palm up, leaning down in her chair.

I hesitated. It would look strange if I didn't permit Achoo to greet the Rogue. "Achoo,
pengantar"

Of course Achoo went to smell Pearl's fingers, wagging her tail. The silly hound loves everyone.

Pearl actually looked at me for permission to pet my hound. I nodded. Inside I was shocked. I never thought Pearl would ask anyone for anything.

It wasn't long until Achoo was on her back, paws in the air, tail thrashing, whilst Pearl gave her a good belly scratch. It was plain to everyone that the Rogue was glad to play with my hound. It was just as plain to me that she understood them.

I hate to know good things of an enemy. It makes my life harder.

"Aye, I can feel a scar here, and another here," she said, her hands gently touching spots on Achoo's belly and ribs. "If her last handler was in this room, I'd mark him as he did her, see how he liked it." She looked to the nearest servant. "How about some chopped meat for my friend, here? Good stuff, mind, not street scrapings."

I smiled. I had to. "Thank you, Majesty," I said.

Pearl sat up. Achoo sat up with her so Pearl could rub her ears as the Rogue spoke to me. "Start talking."

"It's a bit of a tale," I replied, sinking deep into the other self I'd made. "See, Goodwin has these silversmith friends here, the Finers. She was good friends with one of their men ten years back. The old cove who's head of the family likes her yet. We visited them, the first day we were here."

Pearl glanced at me, an odd expression in her eyes. Was she the one who put the Dogs on the Finers?

"I heard today the family got taken up for colesmithing," I went on. "The problem is, Goodwin went off to Corus yesterday morning to visit her man. I figured she'd be grateful to me if I tried to help the Finers. If you knew the grandfather, you'd see he'd never go near colesmithing. He's one of those stern, right-thinking sorts. We report to Nestor Haryse, I s'pose you know that, but the Sarge is no good for sommat like this. He's not high up enough. For charges as serious as coles, I had to talk with someone
powerful
. I have some luck with powerful men." Someone behind me snickered. I ignored it. "So I dipped into Goodwin's cash box and went up to Guards House."

Around me I could hear Pearl's Rats chuckle. I turned and glared at them. "I didn't think it was a fool idea." I showed them my pout. My mask had worked. I'd wanted them to see a spoiled pet Dog, pretty and free enough with her favors that other Dogs cover for them. We didn't have any in the Lower City – they don't tend to last. But some of these Rats had seen me hanging on Dale often enough. I only needed to fool them, and Pearl.

"Forget my folk and tell
me
," Pearl said. "I'm the one as decides if you linger here or get your arse kicked into the street."

"Oh, aye," I replied hurried-like, facing her. "So I go to that lard gut Axman. I tell him I
need
to speak with someone higher up, preferring Sir Lionel, and I slip him a sweetener. He calls for Ives, that collects the entry fees, I suppose. Well, Ives takes me to Sir Lionel, once I've given Ives
his
sweetener. And I start telling Sir Lionel about Master Finer. Only Sir Lionel interrupts me and says where's Goodwin. I tell him, she's gone back to Corus. Then he asks me if she's got my report with her. I ask him, what report. And he tells me, Don't play me for a fool. I know why you're here. Everyone knows you're Gershom of Haryse's pet."

"See, that's interesting," Torcall Jupp said from his chair near Pearl's. "All I can find out is that your family was part of his household, and he sponsored you to the Dogs."

I gave him the sidelong smile that the trulls give a cove to bring them racing across a street. At least, I hope I got that right. "'Tis a very large house," I said, as sly as Kora working a new spell. "All manner of hidden passages." Forgive me, my lord, I thought. "Then my lady gets wind and
she
decides I need a trade that'll get my face broke in, only I like being a Dog. So I told Sir Lionel that my lord and my lady sponsor us to a trade once we're grown. Only Sir Lionel says I'm not to treat him like a coney. He says he
knows
my lord sent me and Goodwin here to spy on him, and make up lies about him so my lord Gershom can replace him or something worse." I let my voice climb, so more Rats might listen and laugh. "I told him no! But old Lionel kept asking what I would tell my lord. He wouldn't drop it and he wouldn't talk about Master Finer. I even put gold nobles before him. He dashed them to the floor! He said it were proof I was my lord's spy, when it were Goodwin's gambling money. I figured even a Deputy Provost wouldn't turn up his nose at gold! When he said he'd not touch Lord Gershom's money, I lost my head and told him he was stupid."

I stopped to catch my breath. I felt as I did on Court Days, when I talked fast to get my whole story out before I began to stammer. It wasn't easier than testifying, to fork over a huge lie. I still had to spit it out fast. But it was done. The whole Court of the Rogue was laughing their buttons off, Pearl included. I figured that any tale that made Sir Lionel out as a fool would amuse her.

"What next?" Torcall Jupp asked me as folk began to catch their breaths. "You still haven't said why you are here."

I let my shoulders droop. "Because Sir Lionel said I could bed down in the cages for my insolence. His man came for me, but I got a head start on him, running. They know my lodgings. Nestor, that we've been reporting to, will have word to grab me up, I'll wager. I hoped to hide out here till I think of sommat," I said, looking at the floor.

"And what if the Deputy Provost sends his people here to find you?" Torcall wanted to know. "If you bring trouble on us – "

I glared at him. "I've been here two hours, maybe, and no one's come. They'd not seek me
here
. All the city knows Her Majesty's cross with me for trying to grab one of your foists. I hardly made a fuss up there at Guards House, anyway. Maybe I hit a few Dogs on my way out. Could be I made some horses rear in the courtyard. So a couple of the horses was already hitched to wagons that weren't too sturdy. They've got worse things to handle than one junior Dog, to my way of thinking."

That set them all to laughing again, as I'd meant it to. I stayed as I was, wearing a sullen pout. Achoo leaned against my knees. I knelt beside her and hid my face in her ruff. Let the others think I was embarrassed at the uproar. I was on pins and needles, waiting to hear Pearl's ruling.

"Quiet down, you mudskippers!" she cried. They obeyed, though some were yet snorting. "You've given us a good laugh, Cooper, and you know how to treat a Rogue proper." She fingered the pearls I'd given her. "I guess Rosto taught you some-thin'. You can stay until you give me reason to throw you out. Mayhap Sir Lionel will look for you harder than most. More like he'll just whine to my Lord Provost about you. That's more like him. He's a whiner, not a doer. You and the hound may stay, for now." She waved us off.

Achoo and I walked through the Rats, who patted my back and joked about my tale. I pouted, or smiled, or handed out little light slaps, playing my part, and held my course for the privies. Here they were set outdoors, up on a platform so them that drove the scummer wagons could empty the barrels from the alley behind. There was a fence closing the courtyard off, so folk couldn't leave this way easy. Looking at the brown stains on the fences and wall around the privies, I shook my head and breathed through my mouth. Seemingly folk who were in too much of a hurry to wait for the three stalls to clear used those instead. I wouldn't like to try climbing those slippery lengths of wood, for certain.

I did my business and sat there a little while, waiting for my shakes to end. I'd pulled it off. I'd played the part and they had believed. Now I had time to think of something else.

Achoo and I went back inside, to the second-floor gallery, where tables and chairs were set. These were yet empty and gave me a good place to view the floor below. Achoo settled beside me as I watched folk come and go. I even dozed, mayhap for an hour, if I judged by the light that streamed through the few windows. When I woke, Achoo had climbed to the bench next to me. Her eyes were filled with starvation.

I looked at her. "You're a mumper, plain and simple. I'm surprised you don't roll instead of walking, the way you eat." Achoo leaned against me and sighed. I gave her a strip of dried meat as I looked down at Pearl's court. Rats sat, eating and talking. Pearl was having a meal of shellfish and rice, chewing with her mouth open. She could have done with Lady Teodorie's fan on the back of her head, I thought. I would back my lady against Pearl any day. A doxie was towing a grinning cove through a door that led, so my map told me, to a private room off the hall. And Dale Rowan stood in the middle of the floor, speaking with Jurji. The Bazhir pointed up to where I sat. Dale nodded, clapped him on the shoulder, and made for the stairs.

I fidgeted with my belt pouch. What was I to say after last night? Should I leave, avoid him entirely? I really didn't think he was part of the colemongering ring, but that could just be my heart talking. If he was innocent, I was bound for all manner of trouble. Shouldn't I keep him out of it?

Dale came up behind me then. I knew his step, though I had only known him for a few days. He cupped my chin in one hand. Tilting my head back, he gave me a kiss that set my whole body burning. Finally he freed my mouth, though not my chin. "What in the name of Mithros and the judges of the underworld are you
doing
here?" he asked me, his face upside down before my eyes. "Serenity said you left with no warning, never came back. Then the Deputy Provost's men came looking for you at her place
and
mine!" He kept his voice soft. "Now I find you here? What manner of cow flop have you stepped in?"

"You give me a headache, making me look at you this way," I said, buying myself time to think. "How hard do they search for me?"

Dale kissed me again, then sat next to me, putting his arm about my shoulders. "Achoo, you're supposed to look after her! Instead here you are, giving her your countenance and comfort!" Achoo wagged her tail and did her happy dance for him. Dale raised his brows. "Now I understand. You're just as bad as Beka is." To me he said, "Sir Lionel's Dogs are searching the markets. I didn't stop by Nestor's kennel to see if he'd heard. How did you manage to get up the Deputy Provost's nose, sweet?"

I looked at my lap. "I said he was stupid," I began.

Dale burst into laughter. Folk below turned to look up at us, grinning. No doubt they knew I was giving him the tale I'd given Pearl.

He heard my story out with snickers at all the right places, but at the end he took me by the shoulders and gave me a gentle shake. "Beka, you know better!" he scolded. "You don't go calling the nobility stupid, however stupid they may be! They're too prideful and they have long memories! Was anyone else there to hear you?"

I shook my head. I hated lying to him. He seemed honest and true when he was like this, but I couldn't trust my feelings entirely. He was a gambler. He was good at hiding what he truly thought.

"Gods be thanked for that. Without witnesses, there's a chance he'll lose interest," Dale told me. "With them, nobles always feel they have to make an example of you."

Dale picked up my hand and kissed the inside of my wrist slowly, as he liked to do. I'd thought that perhaps, now that we'd had a tumble, his touch wouldn't unravel my tripes as it had before. I was wrong. Now my every muscle went loose, knowing just what he could do with that warm mouth and those gentle, long fingers.

"Stop it," I whispered, trying to tug my arm away. "I'm in trouble and you're – "

Dale looked at me, his gray eyes bright and teasing. "You need to hide, I understand that. We have private rooms all around us, cozy little rooms with locks on the doors. You hide in one, and I'll keep you company. Much cozier than sitting up here." He kissed my cheek, then the side of my neck. "Hide, and tell me why you talked to the Deputy Provost like a looby, when I know you're no such thing," he murmured into my ear.