Terrier

by Tamora Pierce

  “If she puts him down, he heads straight for the nearest food,” Ersken said. “Uh-oh. He thinks Master Pounce will stand for that.”

  Pounce was eating cheese. He was particularly fond of it, though it did not improve his breath. Fuzzball grabbed a piece. Pounce smacked Fuzzball, sending the little one rolling into Laddybuck. Laddybuck reared back, mewed, and smacked Fuzzball himself.

  “Now there’s a king,” Rosto said of the fierce kitten as he joined us. The Ashmiller girls shrieked with joy. Rosto carried a honeycomb in a bowl as well as half a loaf of bread. He gave it over to them and picked up Laddybuck, looking him in the eyes. “Don’t let anyone show you disrespect, my lad, that’s right. From furball to rusher.” The cut he’d had on his cheek was nearly mended, only a long scar left of it. I frowned. He could have gotten a mage to heal it with no scar at all.

  Unless he wanted a scar. “Mother’s milk, you did it,” I said. “You killed him. You’re the Rogue.”

  Rosto cupped Laddybuck in one hand, grabbed me by the back of the neck, and kissed me on the mouth. I should have punched him, but his mouth was sweet and soft. I will punch him next time.

  “I promise, I won’t let my head get swollen,” he said after he let me go. “But things had to change, Beka. You knew it as well as we did.” He looked around. “This house makes a good headquarters. We could turn it into a tavern. The Court of the Rogue that we have, that building is all wrong. It gives people notions that they’re royalty. They forget they’re supposed to look after the Lower City first.”

  Aniki slapped him on the calf. “Wonderful plans. Now sit down and eat.”

  Around nine a runner came to tell Ersken and me that all Dogs were off duty for a few days. The King had proclaimed martial law in the city. Soldiers would keep the peace in the streets. Folk could shop, but no crowds of greater than ten would be allowed to form.

  Tansy, Herun, Mistress Annis, and the Lofts servants were the first to leave. They had money – Herun is his grandfather’s heir. They would stay in one of Crookshank’s Patten District houses. I watched them go, feeling relieved. Slapper landed on my shoulder. He had no ghost on him. He didn’t, always.

  Thursday, May 14, 246

  Jack and the children left yesterday. He said he’d come by some money. He didn’t say how. I didn’t ask, though I fingered my fire opal as they packed their things. The girls never warmed to me, but I did teach their brother the clapping games I’d taught my brothers.

  Yesterday afternoon a runner came for me. I was to report to the Magistrate’s Court, in uniform, today at nine. I would have to stand before Sir Tullus and tell those parts of the capture that were mine alone. He had chosen to hold what’s called an “eclipse session.” It is for the trial of Mistress Noll and the Shadow Snake gang. It is feared that if they are tried on our regular Court Day, there might be another riot, soldiers or no. Folk want revenge for three years of fear, and they’re angry that the Dogs did not catch her and her gang before this.

  I threw up so many times last night that naught was left to come up but water.

  I carried Pounce to court. When we approached the gate, he struggled up to my shoulders and scolded me fiercely. Calm down, will you? It will be over soon and then you can find a rock to hide under.

  The Dogs on the gate eyed us strangely but admitted us. There were no rules against cats, even in an eclipse session.

  I felt my stomach heave. Luckily there was naught in it. Anyone who saw me would think I had only belched. Common folk were barred from an eclipse session, but Dogs were not. With the army in the streets, they were off duty. Seemingly, plenty of them were bored.

  Surely they have sleep to catch up, washing to do, gardens to mind? I thought, looking at a river of black uniforms. There were so many they flowed into the onlookers’ section, behind the bars. In truth, the front benches of the Dogs’ section of the court were empty but for three people: Goodwin, Tunstall, and Ersken.

  Now I went to take my place with them. Goodwin patted the bench beside her. I sat. Pounce jumped down and went to greet them, like a captain reviewing soldiers.

  “Calm down, Cooper,” Goodwin told me. “After the last month, I’d think you’d be able to look Sir Tullus in the eye.”

  Just to try it, I glanced at his desk and flinched. In the places where the soldiers who represented the Crown were accustomed to stand, the court Dogs had placed two chairs with the royal emblem of the crown and sword carved in their backs. People would sit there today. Nobles. Nobles who represented the King.

  A hand gloved in kid patted me on the shoulder. “Keep this in your mouth.” Lady Sabine offered me a spicy yet pleasant-tasting lozenge. “A friend sends these to me from the Yamani Islands. Tunstall said you get very nervous. Just remember, nine people are alive because you are a Terrier among Dogs.” She clapped my shoulder again, smiled to my Dogs and Ersken, then went to the other side of the front half of the courtroom. As a knight, she could command a seat in front of the onlookers’ bars.

  “I wish people wouldn’t call me that,” I muttered, though my lady’s kindness warmed me as much as the lozenge warmed my mouth.

  “You gripped the digger case and the Snake case and wouldn’t let them go,” Tunstall whispered. “Get used to the name.”

  “The diggers’ guards dealt for mercy on execution and informed on the whole job,” Goodwin said. “They were terrified to come to public trial. Kayu had some potion – she killed herself in the mages’ prison. Good riddance. Norwood and Poundridge are singing like little birds, trying to buy their way out of the quarries – Up we go. Maiden’s tears.”

  She said that as we stood because Sir Tullus came out with the Lord High Magistrate himself, and my lord Gershom of Haryse. They took those two carved chairs. I sat before I fell.

  Though the Lord High Magistrate was present, Sir Tullus ran the trial. It might have been an ordinary court day, except for the handful of Rats, only four Dogs, and two great nobles seated to either side of Sir Tullus. One thing was the same. The morning took forever, because we had to place all of the Shadow Snake matter before the court. My Dogs told some. They showed the maps we had kept and told how I, and my Birdies, found information, and how I brought it to them. They mentioned Ersken helped me, and we both nodded. Rosto, Kora, Aniki, Mistress Painter, and many other folk became “informants of the Lower City,” according to custom. They told everything up to Yates’s cutting his own throat. Then I had to get up and tell the rest.

  I dug my nails into my palms and stood. Pounce leaned against my leg, purring so hard I trembled with it. I swallowed the last bit of lozenge and looked up, fixing my eyes on Sir Tullus’s chest.

  “My – my lord, I was to tell Mistress Noll Yates was dead,” I began. “But I remembered that Mistress Noll tried to, to hit Tansy with her broom.” I heard chuckles from the Dogs and gave way. They were listening. I had never seen so many Dogs gathered in one place in my life. They were all listening to me.

  “I wish to know how it is that these Guardsfolk came by so much information,” said the Lord High Magistrate. Startled, I looked at him. His eyes were pale as mine. If that was how I looked at people sometimes, so they felt frozen over, no wonder they didn’t like me staring at them. My throat went bone dry. “Goodwin and Tunstall report that this trainee Guardswoman, Cooper, enlisted folk of the city to talk to those who had suffered the crimes of this gang. What have you to say for yourself, girl? How did a trainee come to even think a childhood nightmare might be real?”

  I looked at the floor. He made it sound like I thought myself better than my Dogs. Like I thought myself better than anyone.

  Goodwin rose. “She did this because she has been well taught. We approved her doing so, because we were already hard-pressed, and she had unique connections, my lord,” she said. She sounded as calm as if she spoke to him each day over breakfast. “She went over everything with Tunstall and me. And she has magic. My Lord Provost will tell you, trainee Guardswoman Cooper hears the voices of
the dead. When she showed us her skill, we understood her information was valuable. It was the proof that we found tricky to get.”

  “Mages among Dogs have unusual ways to seek, my lord,” Tunstall said, getting to his feet. “We have all seen it. May I add, respectfully, that has made this a very good week for us.”

  The Lord High Magistrate blinked like a lizard. “Very well. Sit, both of you. I will still hear Cooper speak for herself.”

  Sir Tullus sighed. “Look at the floor, Cooper.” To the Lord High Magistrate he said, “She is shy in public speaking, my lord. She will do better if she does not have to look – “

  “No.”

  Lord Gershom’s voice brought my head up. I stared at him. He leaned forward in his chair, hands clasped between his knees. We might have been in his sitting room, just us two and Pounce. “Tell me, Beka. Tell me how this all came about. Just look at me, and tell it.”

  I stumbled a few times. When my lips stuck to my teeth, I accepted a flask of cool tea that Ersken passed to me. Eventually I told my lord all of it, from Rolond’s death, to the map, to the lily pendant, to the capture of Yates’s gang, to going to see Mistress Noll that last time. I was even able to glance at her toward the end. Mistress Noll stared directly ahead, more like a stone than a woman.

  “Very well, Guardswoman Cooper,” Sir Tullus said quietly when I had done. “You may be seated.”

  The rest went as it should. The Shadow Snake gang was sentenced to Execution Hill and smuggled from the court. Gemma was set free, though she was sent from the city for not reporting her mother and brother to the law. The officials left, but for my lord Gershom. He came down to us, smiling. “A very good week,” he said, shaking hands with my Dogs and Ersken. “And a new Rogue. There will be changes in the Lower City.” He looked at me. “Some people would like you to go to supper.” He pointed to the onlookers’ bars. I heard him tell my Dogs and Ersken, “You are invited. I believe Tunstall and Goodwin know the place.”

  I felt odd. My brothers and my sister Lorine stood in the onlookers’ section, Nilo jumping up and down like a looby, Will grinning, and Lorine wiping at her eyes with a handkerchief. Diona was not there, but this was miracle enough.

  “They miss you,” my lord said in my ear. Pounce ran over to them, sliding through the bars to get picked up and petted. “Give them another chance? I would like to see you now and then, too.”

  I nodded. I didn’t want to speak for fear of getting emotional. They were proud of me. I could see it on their faces – they were proud of me.

  We walked out, my lord in the lead, with Goodwin and Tunstall, Ersken, Lorine, and me just behind, and Will, Nilo, and Pounce behind us. We passed through that crowd of Dogs and into the outer courtyard. It was packed with folk who’d heard and gathered despite the army in the streets. That’s the Lower City for you. Folk can always find ways to break the rules.

  As I walked by, they kept reaching out to brush my arm with their fingers. I heard them whispering, “She’s a Terrier, that one. A Terrier.”

  The Provost’s Guard

  Founded: 127 H.E. by His Royal Majesty King Baird III of Tortall

  First Lord Provost: Padraig of haMinch (127–143)

  Use of the terms “Dog,” “Puppy,” “Growl,” “seek,” “kennel,” and related terms in the Guard became popular about fifty years after the founding of the Guard.

  FOUR WATCHES

  Day Watch: nine in the morning until five in the afternoon

  Evening Watch: five in the afternoon until one in the morning

  Night Watch: one in the morning until nine in the morning

  Fourth Watch: covers each of the other three watches on their Court Days and off days

  In most districts, the best of the Guards are put on Day and Evening Watch, when there is the most activity on the streets. The slackers are given Night Watch, when the least amount of activity is going on. The only area that is different is the Lower City, where the Day Watch is less active as well. Evening Watch is busy there. So is Night Watch, but while no one will say so, the truth is that the criminals own the streets during Night Watch. The very worst Guards have duty then. They are the ones who just don’t care about the work, the ones who are regarded as expendable. Everyone knows it.

  DISTRICTS

  Corus’s Watch Districts, interestingly, often (but not always) correspond to the way the Rogues divide the city for their own organization:

  Highfields District

  Prettybone District

  Unicorn District

  Palace District

  Flash District

  Upmarket District

  Patten District

  Temple District

  The Lower City: Conditions are very different in the Lower City overall. Since it is the poorest area, the bribes are the lowest and so is the prestige. The casualty rate is the highest because it is the most violent part of the city. Most of the Guards assigned there are Guards who are regarded as not being bright or promising enough to make a good impression elsewhere. Even so, the elite Guards of the Lower City are the most respected. They are also the toughest and the smartest.

  CHAIN OF COMMAND

  Lord Provost: governs the realm’s districts Vice Provost: assists Lord Provost (one per region in Tortall)

  Captain (District Commander)

  Per District:

  Watch Commander

  Watch Sergeant

  Corporals (varies by district)

  Senior Guards (varies by district)

  Guards

  Trainees

  TRAINING

  Formal training in 246: One year in school. There is no screening or testing to enter the training program. Trainees are simply required to pass the classes.

  All Guards are required to attend combat practice for their first four years of service.

  WEAPONS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

  Primary weapon: Two-foot-long hardwood baton with lead core

  Guards don’t use swords: A sword is a killing weapon. The majority of reasons a Guard uses a baton don’t demand an intent to kill. Wielded properly, the baton can stop most swords. Also, swords require years of training for proper use, they are expensive and require extensive maintenance, and they can break just when they’re most needed.

  The law and bribery: Law enforcement is a loose affair, something that is still being created. A law-keeping force under the control of the national government is highly unusual. Most law-enforcement groups are formed and run by neighborhood associations, guilds, or individual cities, or they are part of the military. The members of the Provost’s Guard, like such groups, have a great deal of discretion in whom they arrest, whether they take bribes, and whether they do the thing they have been bribed to do. Bribery is the standard way to ensure that the underpaid people who protect merchants remember individuals and, at times, overlook their behavior. (Too much of a history of taking bribes and not following through on them does get a Guard killed. It is wise for a Guard to do what he’s bribed to do most of the time.)

  Guards memorize the laws and rules they are taught in training. They learn the rest of their skills on the streets and from each other. Some Guards are smarter than others. Some Guards are more motivated than others. And they all make up police work as they go.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  ROYALS AND NOBLES

  Roger II – King of Tortall, House of Conté first Queen, Alysy, deceased; second Queen, Jessamine (married one year), has just presented him with a son.

  Jessamine – Roger II’s second Queen (not named in this book), mother of his heir

  Alysy – Roger II’s first Queen, deceased

  Sabine of Macayhill – lady knight

  Joreth – knight, friend of Lady Sabine’s

  Tullus of King’s Reach – knight, Magistrate of Lower City courts

  DOGS – (THE PROVOST’S GUARD)

  Acton of Fenrigh – Watch Commander, Evening Watch, Jane Street, nobleman

  Alacia – Puppy, assi
gned to Unicorn District

  Birch – Dog, Vinehall’s partner

  Cape – Dog, Otterkin’s partner

  Clara Goodwin – “Clary,” Corporal, Evening Watch at Jane Street kennel, seventeen-year veteran, Beka’s female partner, lower middle class of Corus

  Clarke – Puppy on Night Watch, Prettybone District

  Ersken Westover – Puppy, Beka’s good friend, fourth son of a middle-class family, Jane Street kennel

  Evermore – Dog, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel

  Fulk – mage for the Jane Street kennel Evening Watch

  Hilyard – Puppy in Beka and Ersken’s year, Jane Street kennel

  Jakorn – Dog, one of Lord Gershom’s private Guards, taught Beka when she was small

  Kebibi Ahuda – Sergeant on the Evening Watch at Jane Street kennel, combat training master of Dogs, thinks Beka will do well, very tough

  Matthias Tunstall – “Mattes,” Senior Dog, Beka’s male partner, Jane Street kennel, fifteen-year veteran, eastern hillman

  Nyler Jewel – Corporal, Yoav’s partner, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel

  Otelia – Verene’s training Dog, Jane Street kennel

  Otterkin – Dog, has magical Gift, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel, Cape’s partner

  Phelan – second-year Dog, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel

  Rebakah Cooper – “Beka,” Puppy, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel, training Dogs Goodwin and Tunstall, sixteen years old

  Springbrook – Dog, Evening Watch, Jane Street kennel