"Amber, she's waiting" A man's voice, one I knew – the cove who'd knocked on Okha's door at the place where he worked. "You don't keep the Rogue waiting when she's summoned – "
The breeze whirled away from them and I nearly began to curse. Instead I held myself still and breathed, thinking about naught but the smells in the breezes, just as I have always done. There is always a chance sommat more will come.
" – way. She wants you singing for her court regular, once a week!" It was the cove again. "And she'll pay whatever you like!"
"All the more reason for me to treat her as I will any other paying customer." Okha's woman voice might sound calm to his servant, but to me, hearing as Hesserrr heard, there was a hum of tension under his smooth words. "You think none of them are dangerous, Zander?" Okha asked. "I've done this longer than you've been alive. Trust me."
"What if Nestor finds out?" From his voice, Master Zander didn't like that chance.
Okha's voice was grim when he answered. "He knows the realities of our world. We don't have a choice."
The rest vanished, but it did not matter. I listened to the rest of Hesserrr's burden and stepped out of his breezes, filled with awe. Never, in all my days, have I known a spinner who was able to keep so much of a conversation together. I fumbled in my pack and fetched out two other packets of dust from other parts of Corus, all of the new stuff that I had. I opened them with shaking fingers and poured them into Hesserrr's grip in thanks. How old could he be? Older than my Corus spinner, Hasfush, who has lived mayhap for three centuries? I bowed to Hesserrr, not caring if folk passing by saw me and pointed. If they had heard and felt what I did, they would bow, too.
When I went to Achoo, she wriggled and whined until I said, "Mudah, all right?" I knelt and scratched her back, telling her that she worried too much. "I've been doing it for years, never mind what happened back at the kennel. That was very unusual. This was unusual, too, but a good unusual. Don't fidget, please?"
I hadn't known that Okha sang regular for Pearl Skinner's court. Now that I did know, I wanted to see him. If Okha was brave enough to sing for the Rogue, mayhap he would tell me where to find Pearl when she is not here on Eagle Street.
I sought other dust spinners, thanking them with Corus dirt for their bits and pieces as the sun passed through the sky. Achoo fussed, but she eased off as she saw that I was right. I did know what I was doing, and there were no other twisted spinners liked Shhasow. I found little more that was useful to my present hunt and nothing that was as good as the knowledge that Okha visited the Rogue's courts. Not being placed near spots where the port's Rats talked in safety, those spinners mostly trapped words about everyday matters.
I did wonder how Haden and my poor spy managed and what they thought of it all. When I bought pasties for Achoo and me to keep up our strength, I set two on a window ledge where they could grab them as they went by, though I hoped that Haden might be kind and leave both for her.
We made our way up to the square where Vorna had found us only yesterday. There I fed the pigeons while Achoo flirted with a rakish-looking cur. I'd hoped to hear the ghost of the cove who worried that Pearl sent out too many coles, but for some reason he was missing from the flock. There was no way to tell why, either. He might simply have decided he was done with life, and made his way to the Peaceful Realms. I'd heard bits from countless pigeons that turned out just like that.
I went to a bathhouse for a wash after all those talks with dust spinners. Achoo took the order to wait for me in the cloakroom as if I'd sentenced her to death by sorrow. A slave beat the dust from my clothes as I scrubbed all over. While I cleaned up, I watched to see where the slaves came and went. Dressed, my wet hair in a braid again, I collected Achoo. We did not leave by the entrance we had used to enter the bathhouse. The Rogue's spy and Haden doubtless waited for us there. Instead we took the slaves' way out of the place. It opened onto a different street from the main entrance, on the far side of the building.
I paid a carter two coppers to hitch a wagon ride. He let us off just a block from Nestor's house. Through our bumpy ride I had not seen any watchers at all, save for an occasional glimpse of Slapper. I was as certain as anyone might be that no one had followed us.
Truda answered Nestor's door, shocked to find me there without Haden. "I'm visiting Okha, if he's in," I told her. "The barbarian watering your flowers is Achoo."
Truda giggled and ran off to tell Okha that he had a visitor. Quickly she returned to let us in. I gave Achoo permission to visit the kitchen with Truda, while I sat and waited for Okha to leave his rooms. When he did, he looked interesting. He wore brown breeches and an ivory linen shirt, like any ordinary cove. The rest was not so ordinary. He had makeup on his eyes, lips, and nails, and gold drops in his ears. He wore gold rings set with amber on two fingers of one hand, an emerald ring and two plain gold rings on the other. He was the very picture of what he was, someone on the border of man and woman.
"What, no Goodwin?" he asked in his man voice.
"She had to take reports to my lord Gershom," I told him. "She'll be back in a couple of days."
Okha smiled. "Poor Hanse will be unhappy. Last night he looked as if he hoped for good things from her, married as she is. Goodwin's just his kind of woman."
"He won't know she's gone," I replied. "Hanse and his crew took a job to Arenaver."
Okha looked at me, then away. "That's right. I'd forgotten. For a man who swore he'd never return home again, he's gone there often, these last six months."
That caught my attention. He'd said nothing of going home. "Hanse is from Arenaver?" I asked, as if it interested me only a little.
"No, from a little town on Barony Olau." Okha stood to take a tray with cakes and tea from Truda. "Thank you, dear. What was I saying, Beka?"
I watched Okha place the tray on a small table between more comfortable chairs than the ones at the dining table, the kind they'd keep for company. "You were telling me Hanse came from Barony Olau. Do you know why he left home?" My hand shook a little with excitement. There was my link between Pearl and the silver, between Olau and the silver, if Hanse could be made to talk.
Okha blew on his tea. "He ran off to join the army. It's sad. He did well for years, but... he struck an officer. He was lucky they only flogged him and kicked him out. And he landed on his feet soon enough, building his guard business with Steen and some other friends who left when he did. Why so interested?"
I shrugged. I trust Okha, but it is safer for everyone if I keep what I know to myself. "I like him. He saved Tunstall in the riot, you know. It's too bad Hanse doesn't have a chance with Goodwin, but she and Master Tomlan are like this." I showed Okha my crossed fingers.
Okha smiled. "I know. She flirts well, but she's a one-man woman. Now – what brings you here, Beka? How did you manage to come without Haden at your back? Truda says you're alone but for your hound."
I felt bad about that. I don't want to hurt Haden's pride. "I didn't lose Haden so much as the watcher the Rogue put on me. Haden was just part of it."
Okha lifted his brows. "Why must the Rogue not know you've come to visit me?"
"Because I'd like to know how the Rogue's courts are laid out. Nestor might not know that, but you do," I told him. "You sing for her every week."
Okha put down his teacup, frowning at me. "How in the name of the Crone Goddess did you find that out? Nestor doesn't even know it – I've managed to keep that secret so far."
I was startled to hear that, but on the other hand, what good would it do Nestor to know? Plainly Okha wasn't given a choice. He had to sing for Pearl Skinner. And Nestor would hate it.
"The only way you could handle that news without a fight is not to tell him?" I asked.
"And swear my friends to silence. He would be furious. My hope is that one day I will hear something that he can use to bring this Rogue down," Okha replied, his voice quiet. "That day has not come."
"Will you draw me rough maps?" I asked.
Okha looked at me, his eyes steady. "Beka, what are you up to? You're making me worry."
I shrugged. "I'm keeping myself busy till Goodwin comes back."
Okha's eyes were sharp. "Are you? Beka, the Corus Rogue is a delightful, sane fellow who understands the world. Our Rogue is mad with greed and power and she's stupid. She thinks that no one lives who can stop her."
"It's not my job to stop her," I said firmly. "I collect information, only that. Yes, Pearl will meet her match, but it won't be a junior Dog like me. It'll be the law, resting in the hands of a whole squad of hard, senior Dogs. Please, Okha? Tell me what I need to know."
Okha leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with his hand. I drank some tea. Finally he stood. "Wait here." He was only gone for a few minutes. He returned with some rolled-up papers. Once I moved the tea things, he flattened the papers on the table. These were not rough-sketched. They were well-done maps of buildings, each room and door labeled very neatly. The top map was titled Gauntlet Court, Basilisk Alley and Darcy Walk. Okha pulled half of the map away to show the label for the one below. That was Riverside Court, Cavall Street and Cecily Way.
I looked at Okha. "You thought Nestor could use these."
Okha shrugged. "It's even better if you and Goodwin do so, and keep Nestor's name out of it." He pulled that sheet back until I could see the third map was of the Eagle Street court.
I looked greedily at the Gauntlet court map, noting the streets that lay outside each exit. "How did you learn so much without Pearl catching you?" I asked.
"A woman needs the privy, and a private room to collect her thoughts before she can sing," Okha said in the voice he used as Amber Orchid. "She might want a room to meet with a friend, or a room in which to oversee a game of Gambler's Chance. I am considered to be the most expert in the game in the city, apart from Dale himself."
"How can you stand it?" I asked. "How can you bear to explore those places, knowing what happens to folk that Pearl doesn't like?"
Okha looked away from me. "I think of Nestor, and the things that happen to Pearl's enemies." He met my eyes again.
There was an ancient cold in his eyes. I wondered if a god's eyes were like that, miles distant while still being up close. I wondered if Okha's Trickster was in the room with me right now.
I clenched my hand into a fist. I don't want gods mucking about in my life.
Okha carefully folded the maps until they were of a size to fit in my pack. "Make good use of them, Beka. Be sensible."
"That's me," I replied as I tucked the maps away. "Rebakah Sensible Cooper." Thinking of being sensible reminded me of another important errand I had to run today. I asked Okha to recommend the manner of shop I needed, since I thought women's healers might very well be something Okha would know about. I was right. He knew a fine healer with a shop on Tradesmen's Street, not too far out of my way home.
It was nearly four of the clock when Achoo and I left Nestor's. Haden and the Rogue's spy had yet to catch up with me. We hurried to reach the healer's, where I ordered Achoo to sit inside by the door as I looked around. The place was clean and orderly, filled with the smell of drying herbs. The charms were kept pinned to cloth hung on a wall behind the long table where the shopkeeper saw to customers. A curtained door led to other rooms, for patients, I expected.
I found the sort of charms I wanted and looked them over, ignoring the sweat that rolled down my ribs. Aunt Mya had given me my old charm, so I'd never had to shop for one. And mayhap I was thinking too highly of myself, hoping I might have a need for it.
"Exciting night ahead?" the shopkeeper asked me in a voice too loud for my comfort. I believe I shrank a foot in height. "From the look of you, silver or gold is out of the question."
I shook my head and forced myself to lean closer to her. "No good playing with these things," I mumbled. "I'll have true silver, if you please."
The shopkeeper looked at me and smiled. "Fortunate, to be able to afford it, dearie. I just happen to have this for two copper nobles." Her voice was quieter. She lifted a silver wire charm from the cloth and placed it before me. "The closed womb, in the Mother's own silver. No woman's ever had a big belly because a charm of mine failed her."
I fetched out the coins. The money came from my own funds, not my lord Gershom's. I could hardly account to Sergeant Ahuda for a charm to keep me from getting myself a baby! When I gave the money to the shopkeeper, she wrapped the charm in a bit of cloth and gave it to me.
"Put it on a chain or a bit of ribbon and hang it about your neck, or stitch it to something you wear all the time," she told me. "And have fun!"
I smiled and ducked my head. "I hope to! Achoo, tumit!"
On the way home I bought cooked chopped beef and a bone for Achoo. She isn't gaining the weight she needs, and I blame our rambles over the city for that. I need to feed her even better. I begged the cook for some goat's milk. It worked for Kora's and Aniki's kittens, so I am in hopes it will fill Achoo out some, too. One of the housemaids found me in the kitchen. She carried a rose and a note from Dale.
He invites me to supper at eight of the clock. Unless he hears from me differently, he will call for me here.
I took a nap and washed my face, then tried the lip and eyelash paint. I have written up this day's findings and put Okha's maps in the same hidden pocket where I keep this journal. I have asked Serenity if I may leave my poor Achoo in the yard with her food, bone, and water once more. The cook has also said, with a very broad wink, that she will give Achoo a fine breakfast if I am not home by dawn.
Now I must get ready. I tremble everywhere. I never felt such a wanting even over Rosto, but mayhap that is because I never let myself imagine that I might lay down with him. I am free to do as I wish with Dale, and that freedom makes me giddy. I tell myself I can search his rooms for evidence that he is connected to the colemongering, but knowing him better, I doubt that he is. Dale is clever. He has a gentleman's delicacy of touch. The colemongers have the grace and light touch of pigs rooting in garbage. If Dale were in a scheme, we'd never see the signs of it. It is plain enough that he is good friends with Hanse and Steen, and plainer still that they are in this to their eyebrows.
Also, Dale likes money. He likes good money, to buy fine meals, jewelry, clothing. I will keep an open mind, but why would such a man work to ruin the value of the money he prizes? A few coles, when no one was looking for them, he might use, but he would never shower them all over the city like this. Such behavior might be the work of someone both greedy and stupid.
I will search Dale's rooms, as I should. That is how I shall think of tonight.
And if I were to say that to Goodwin, she would laugh until she popped something.
Tuesday, September 18, 247
Ladyshearth Lodgings
Noon.
Last night was the finest I have had in my life. Dale took me to a good supper, then a puppet show, and a walk along the breakwater to see the sea lions in torchlight. After that, we returned to his room.
Not that I will be writing the details of that. I've heard tell of folk who write little books that are nothing but what happens when folk canoodle. How can anyone bear to write such things where other folk might read them? What he did to me and I to him, things I have never taken part in afore, they were too good to set on paper in my clumsy words. It would take the magic right out of them.
I know now why Aniki and Kora are forever saying to me I'd never lain with anyone as knew, really knew, what they were about. I wish I were in that good cozy bed still. He made me laugh, during. I didn't even think you were supposed to laugh then.
I want us to be together as much as we can, as long as we can. Never mind what happens when the hunt is done. "Have it all now," Rosto is forever telling me, "in case you don't wake up tomorrow." He is right and I want that, but not with him.
We breakfasted late. Dale went out and came back with the food, and fed me just as he had at the Merman's Cave. Master Sure-of-Himself had even told the bank tha
t he had family business to see to and would not be available for work today! At last I remembered that I was supposed to be doing sommat to earn my fine lodging and all the coin Goodwin and I have been spending, so I bid Dale a rather long farewell. We promised to meet again tonight.
It was drawing on noon as I walked to Serenity's in a light rain. I stopped but once, at a pasty seller's cart. I bought six, and left four on stone benches near the places where I glimpsed Haden and the Rogue's watcher. It seemed to me I should make amends for losing them yesterday.
Before I entered my lodgings, I went around back for Achoo. I had tied her next to an open shed in case of rain, and now she huddled inside. Her water and food dishes were full yet. When she saw me, she leaped forward, barking with joy and trying to climb up the front of my gown.
I caught her paws. "What's this?" I asked her. "Why didn't you eat your breakfast?" She tried to lick my face as I held her off. "Achoo, easy!"
Nothing would calm Achoo until I allowed her to sniff me all over and lick my face and hands. She trembled as she did so, whimpering piteously. I began to feel like the biggest Rat in all the realm. The biggest wet Rat as the rain fell harder.
"Very well," I told Achoo, hauling her into the house before she got as soaked as I was. "All right, Achoo! I won't leave you overnight again, I promise! I promise!" I knelt and cuddled the poor creature's head. Who knew hounds are so much different from cats?
She shoved her wet nose in my eye.
"That's it, girl. I'll work sommat out with Dale, but I'll not leave you alone so long again. Easy, easy." She calmed down at last, to sag against my side, panting.
Dale will understand. Achoo loves and trusts me, gods know why. I won't betray her trust like those other bad handlers of hers. And I think I know Dale well enough that I can say he will welcome my silly hound. He has too warm a heart to turn her away.
We walked into the front of the house. Serenity was at the dining table, working on her accounts, as I came in. "Someone looks like the cat who spilled the cream," she announced with a raised eyebrow.
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