Bloodhound

by Tamora Pierce

  "Achoo, turun," I said, pointing to a place on the floor. "And tinggal. You're in a nobleman's house, remember."

  Achoo gave her very soft whuff, as if to say she knew very well what was expected of her. She curled up on the space I had pointed out, watching me as I turned my attention to the walls.

  Here Lord Gershom displayed his maps. Everywhere there were no shelves of books, my lord had maps that could be drawn down to full view of the eye. There were tables on which maps could be laid and studied as well. The precious documents were stored underneath. My lord required a good knowledge of Tortall's many cities and towns, and of the great distances between, to understand the reports that came to his desk.

  One wall map drew me. My lord would have been studying it with a keen eye since he'd had our information on the colemongers. It was the map of Port Caynn. Port Caynn is two cities divided by a ridge, half on the southeastern shore of the sea harbor, half on the northeastern shore of the Olorun River. The northern half is the better half, where the monied folk live and the harbor is deeper. The big cargo ships and naval vessels dock there in the shelter of a breakwater built near sixty year ago, by King Roger's grandfather. The southern shipping is the river traffic – cargo barges, small boats, fishing smacks, and the like.

  Two bridges spanned the river where it emptied into the sea. They marked the end of the river dodgers' run to the port, and posed a barrier for any as tried to raid inland by sailing up-river. They were low and solid, raised in the deep riverbed by magecraft in times long past. No seafaring vessel could sail through their low arches, but folk could travel back and forth between north and south Tortall with ease.

  The place was built on rising ground. My calves and bum always ached from clambering about after my visits there. I'll have to get used to that.

  The door opened. I turned. It was my lord, followed by a servant with a tray of food and drink. My lord pointed the lad to a table kept clean for the purpose, and thanked him when the boy had put everything down there. Once he was gone, my lord looked at me.

  "Stop bowing, please, Beka. I feel like I should bow to you" He made a face and shoved his long hair away from his eyes. He had not tied it back today. "I just had an interview with my lady. I understand she was informed you were in the house, and was not pleased."

  I looked at the floor. What could I say? I never talk to a man about his wife. That goes ten times for ever saying a bad word to my lord about my lady.

  "Time will mend this." My lord filled two cups and offered me one. "She will come to see that it is improper of her to interfere with your family, as it would be improper for you to interfere with hers."

  Well, he could think that, I suppose. The thought of me interfering with House Haryse would have been funny if I hadn't been so angered with my lady. I checked the cup I'd taken from his hand. It was filled with peach nectar, cold from the cellars. I sipped it. Didn't it serve me right, to be forbidden my family, after I'd worked to keep my time with them as scant as possible? Now I had none at all.

  "Is this Achoo, then?" Lord Gershom asked. "She won't come to me, will she?"

  "Not unless I bid her to, my lord. They're only supposed to answer their handlers. Achoo, kemari. Kawan."

  Achoo came dancing over to smell my lord's hands and leggings, wagging her tail. She circled him, showing that she was pleased to meet him.

  "This is a great honor," my lord said. "I've been hearing of your exploits, Achoo. But you're not looking as well as I expect for the finest scent hound in the Lower City." He looked up at me with a frown.

  "Her last handler was a brute," I said.

  My lord went to the door and looked outside. "A bowl of chopped meat and another of water for a scent hound," he ordered the messenger who always stood there when he was inside. My lord looked back at me. "Does she have any favorite meat?"

  I had to smile. My lord was famous for spoiling his hounds. "She will eat anything, my lord."

  "See to it," he ordered the messenger outside. He closed the door and took a chair across the small table from mine, then snatched a pear from the plate. I took up one of Aunt Mya's spice cakes. I can't resist them, not even if it means eating in front of my lord.

  "Tell me, how did poor old Tunstall get his legs broken?" he wanted to know. "I sent my own healer to him yesterday, and she says she can't do better than what's being done. I've been so busy reading the information on this colemongering that I haven't finished the Bread Riot reports."

  I heaved a sigh of relief. My lord's healer was very good, as good as Master Sholto. If anything more could be done for him, she would have taken care of it, and not counted the expense.

  We were yet talking about the Bread Riot when a footman brought Goodwin and the messenger came with Achoo's bowls of meat and water. Lord Gershom stood when Goodwin arrived. Achoo whuffed and wagged her tail, but did not get up. I was impressed. She clearly wanted to go to Goodwin, but she waited for me to give her permission.

  "Pengantar," I said. Achoo happily bounded over to Goodwin, to lick her hand and dance around her.

  "Hello, Achoo, hello." Goodwin bent to scratch Achoo's ears. She was actually pale, something I'd never seen, not even when her jaw was broken or the healer was stitching up a six-inch gash in her side. "My lord, is there no one else to send?" she asked. "Already my Tomlan speaks of the gatherings he will hold when I am gone from the house. He is threatening to have the plaster newly painted indoors before winter sets in. No, Achoo, I don't need kisses."

  "Achoo, kemari," I said. She returned to me, looking a bit sad. The sight of the bowl of meat and the bowl of water set by my chair cheered her up. Oddly, she did not fall on it, as she would have done at home. She stood there, looking at me. She waited for something, but what?

  "She wants the command to eat, Cooper," my lord said.

  I knew it, but why did she want it now? "She's never needed it before, my lord."

  "Have you fed her away from home before?" he asked. "The scent hounds are trained so that no one can poison them."

  Just the thought of someone trying to poison a sweet creature like Achoo makes me angry. I stroked her head and told her, "Makan, Achoo." She began to eat as if she was starved.

  My lord poured Goodwin a cup of the peach nectar. "As for your problem, Clary, no, I want you on this hunt. You know Port Caynn better than the other Dogs who did the original investigation into the matter of coles. You're the most senior Dog involved except for Nyler Jewel. You and Tunstall have more experience in hunts outside Corus than any other Dogs from that investigation, and Tunstall is laid up. I don't want to bring in anyone outside your original group, to keep word that we are concerned from spreading."

  Goodwin scowled at her cup. "With all due respect, my lord, I hate it when you make sense."

  Though Lord Gershom's face was sober, his eyes sparkled with a laugh. "If you are so worried that you will be distracted, I can have Master Goodwin locked up."

  "No, I thank you," Goodwin said, waving the offer aside. She took the chair my lord indicated. "He will only amuse the Rats with his wild tales, and hire them to work in his carpentry shop when he gets out. Too friendly by far, my Tomlan." She sighed. "Isn't Sergeant Haryse here?"

  My lord shook his head. "He's gone back to Port Caynn to set things up – a place for you to stay, a meeting with Sir Lionel, and so on. The bill for your lodgings will come straight to me, by the way. You won't have to worry about paying for it out of the hunt funds."

  Goodwin smiled. "Thank you, my lord. The less time I spend keeping the books, the better." She looked around, frowning. "Cooper, where's Pounce?"

  My lord raised his brows. "Yes – where is he? I haven't seen you without him nearby in years."

  So I had to tell them. I won't write it out here. I didn't cry then, but I would if I wrote it out, and I am tired of crying.

  My lord was shaking his head by the time I was done. "Whoever knew that stars need Pounce to make them behave," he remarked. "I'd have thought they just
did so, regardless. Well. We have arrangements to settle." He took a pouch from the desk and came to stand before us. We got to our feet. The pouch was all red silk and embroidered with magical signs in gold. He opened the mouth and offered it to Goodwin. "I had a pair of Dog tags made up for the two of you," he said. "Take them and hold them in your hands."

  Goodwin reached into the pouch and brought out something small enough that I could not see what she held. She put both hands together and closed her eyes.

  "You'll have heard of Dog tags, Cooper," my lord said.

  "Only that they are a magical device that is used by partners on a far-reaching hunt," I replied. Now I was curious, very curious.

  "When there's a chance partners may have to split up and the hunt's a high-stakes one, they're issued these," my lord said.

  Goodwin opened her hands and offered me two round pieces of glossy black stone, each on a silver clasp. "Take them both," she said. "Hold them like I did, and concentrate on me, whatever you think of me when we work."

  I put my hands together flat and closed my eyes like Goodwin did. What do I think of her when we work? She is tough. She cuts to the bone of a problem with a few words. When all is going to Chaos, she is right there beside me, planted as solid as stone.

  "That will do," my lord said. I opened my hands and eyes.

  Goodwin plucked one of the stone circles from my hands. "Look at the other side of the circle, Cooper," she told me. I did. There was a basic compass cross dug into the gleaming stone and painted white. "Now think of me and watch it." I did as I was told. A bright green dot appeared in the stone and moved around the heart of the compass cross as Goodwin walked a full circle around me. "It's simple, but it's very useful if you get separated from your partner in a strange city," she told me. "Keep it with you always, understand? And don't lose yours. They cost at least five years' pay for the likes of us."

  "The gods willing, you won't need to use it," Lord Gershom said as he took his seat behind the desk. "But I prefer that you have them and not need them to needing them and not having them."

  Goodwin and I took our seats again. I turned the tag over in my hand before I tucked it into my belt pouch. The green dot had vanished as soon as I'd turned my attention to my lord's talk. Now the tag was simply black stone, a bit cold in my hand. I suppose mages do have their uses.

  From a bottom drawer in his desk my lord took two leather cases, both with the kind of buckles that opened only with a magical password. "The word on these is Terrier," he said with a wink at me. "And the charm is on the whole case, so that only a high-level mage can open it. None of this cheap spelled-the-buckle-so-cut-the-leather nonsense." He put them beside each other on his desk. Next he put a box on his desk and opened it with a touch to the charmed lock.

  "A special courier took copies of the counterfeiter report on to Sir Lionel, the Deputy Provost, so he will be prepared for your visit," my lord told us. "Here is my letter to the Deputy Provost, in Goodwin's pouch." He took a sealed document and placed it on one of the leather cases. "Two copies each of your orders, that you are there to observe Port Caynn Dog work and write it up for me. You will show those to any Watch Commanders who may request them." A sheaf of papers went on top of each leather case. "A copy for each of you of the Port Caynn map." Two folded packets went onto the stacks. I had to stop myself from lunging for my copy of the precious map. "The books of accounts you'll keep for the journey, and your tickets of passage on the riverboat Green Mist to Port Caynn." He placed small, leather-bound volumes and two strips of thin wood on top of the papers. "And this." He held up one folded and sealed paper. His face was grim. "Should you need to question any Rats more deeply than you can manage on the street, this document orders any Watch Commander to give you immediate and full use of his question chamber and the services of those cage Dogs versed in torture. I want you to use it, Goodwin, if you find someone you feel won't give up the goods."

  "What about truth spells, my lord?" Goodwin asked. "Torture isn't dependable if you want the truth. Too often the Dogs who use it are clumsy. I'd feel better for letters that will get me the use of mages and truth spells."

  My lord shook his head. "The Watch Commander, Deputy Provost, and the Governor must sign off on the use of truth spells and a mage to wield them, Goodwin. I don't trust that many people in Port Caynn, nor should you."

  Goodwin frowned. "I never had to deal with three nobles to approve, my lord. When did this happen?"

  "They passed the law two years ago in the Privy Council, that's why you didn't hear." My lord glanced at me. I knew what this was. He had enemies in the Privy Council who were always trying to limit his power. Denying us the use of mages and forcing us to use the mauling of torture was one way to do it. Truth spells are a powerful weapon, and I cursed every lord and lady on the council for taking it from our hands.

  "Make certain you get the pouch with the warrant for questioning, Goodwin," Lord Gershom said. "Cooper's too junior to use it. Remember, employ that order at need," my lord instructed. "We are not having a festival dance. Now, most important, you will require funds." He placed two leather pouches that clinked on top of the cases and set his box on the floor. "This for immediate costs." He opened the lighter-colored bag and poured some of the contents into his hand. Out tumbled a mix of silver and copper coins. "The silver is good," my lord added dryly.

  I could see the deep cuts across the surfaces of the coins from where I sat.

  "Don't want us taken up for passing coles, my lord?" Goodwin asked.

  "It would be inconvenient," he replied. "This is for the long term." He opened the darker pouch and showed us its contents – gold coins. It was as plump as the other purse. I gasped. "We don't know how long you'll need to be there or what costs you'll meet," my lord explained. "I expect you to place this with the Goldsmith's Bank in the port and draw on it to meet your needs. If you need more – " He held up another folded and sealed document. "A letter of credit, to be given to the bank when you place the coins there. Cooper, let Goodwin handle the monies, but learn how she keeps the accounts. Every copper must be marked down, even the coin you win and lose at gambling, understood?"

  We nodded. I would have done so anyway, just because I keep track of every copper I spend or give in alms. I have to, if I am to be certain all my bills are paid on my salary. My lady insisted we learned to keep accounts as well as learned to read and write, and I am tolerably good at it.

  Lord Gershom still rested his hand on the cases, not ready yet to turn them over to us. There was a small frown on his face. "Sir Lionel," he said at last. "His wife is Prince Baird's oldest daughter. This may or may not make a difference to your hunt. In my opinion, which is not to be repeated, Prince Baird isn't interested in anything that doesn't involve a horse, a hound, or falconry. But still, watch where you step, in case his highness remembers he's a father."

  "You don't trust Sir Lionel?" Goodwin asked.

  "I don't know Sir Lionel," Lord Gershom replied. "He's had that post for five years, and I know no more about him than I did when His Majesty ordered me to place him in Port Caynn. I do know that his reports for the last few years have detailed remarkably peaceful times for a seafaring town, but they give me no good reason to conduct an inspection. I don't like to hang over my deputies unless I must. It creates ill will."

  "He may be keeping the peace very well," Goodwin suggested.

  My lord smoothed his mustache. "Which is a thing that can't be done in our other port cities," he said. "So why is it so easy in the largest of them? Never mind. My questions aren't yours. Let's send you two on your way."

  Goodwin had fetched her pack with her. She and my lord put the papers in the cases. Then she loaded cases and purses into her pack. "We will not betray your faith in us, Lord Gershom," she said, her face grim.

  I stood beside her. "You know we will not." Without my command, Achoo came to stand at attention beside me.

  "I never thought for a moment that you would," Lord Gershom told Goodw
in and me. "Once a week I'd like one of you to hand-carry a written report back to me personally, also by riverboat. I know it's a full day to go there and back, but I want to be absolutely sure that I'm getting all the news that you gather, and you may as well keep an eye on the river gambling as you come and go. Other Dogs will be hunting the river and gambling connection, but you may catch something they'll miss, going only once a week." He got to his feet. "Hunt well, my Dogs. Bring the enemies of the kingdom back to me in hobbles."

  We bowed and left him. Goodwin, Achoo, and I were on our way out through the side gate when I heard a whisper from the nearby shadows. "Beka!"

  My youngest brother Nilo rammed into me and nearly got himself thrown into a dung pile. I would have tossed him there if my sister Lorine hadn't warned me with her call. She and my brother Will came forward at a more dignified pace, watching over their shoulders in case any of the other servants had seen them. I dragged Nilo into the shadows so we weren't easily spotted.

  "You shouldn't be here," I told them, giving Nilo a hug in return. Lorine and Will had more years and more dignity. They kissed me on the cheek. "My lady wouldn't like it." I looked around, but Diona wasn't with them. It stood to reason, her being closest to Lady Teodorie.

  "What my lady doesn't know won't hurt her," Will said, but he kept his voice down. "Mya said you're going away."

  "To study the Dog work in Port Caynn. Here. Try to look like you're well brought up," I ordered them. "Senior Corporal Guardswoman Goodwin, this is my sister Lorine, my brother Willes, and my brother Nilo. You three, this is my partner, Guardswoman Clara Goodwin."

  Lorine gave a very proper curtsy, and the lads neat bows. Goodwin nodded to them. "Well done, to say goodbye to your sister," she said, approval in her voice.