“Why do you have a moisture extractor?”
“I’m a doctor’s apprentice,” she lied.
“Really? I don’t remember a female apprentice registering.” He pulled a massive ledger from the desk. “What did you say your name was again?”
“I haven’t had a chance to register yet, I only just joined.”
“Hmm, then young lady, you should not, I repeat, should not be passing yourself off as a doctor’s apprentice. You are only part of this hallowed profession once you are inscribed within the pages of my ledger, yes, inscribed.”
“Sorry, sir.”
Rory glanced towards the door, anxious to leave now that she had what she’d come for. Howshinger blinked at her.
“You look awfully young for a doctor’s apprentice. How old are you? Which doctor are you apprenticing with?”
Rory backed towards the door. This was not going the way she wanted at all.
“Dr Howshinger, sir,” she said coldly, raising herself as tall as she could. “My uncle just died and he were the only family I got, right? This ain’t the time to be questioning me. Ain’t you got no manners?”
“Yes, yes, of course, you’re right. My apologies, miss. Ah, wait. Before you go, I need your signature… There.”
Rory took the proffered pen and scribbled something illegible.
“There,” she said. “Good day, I got to go perform the final ritual.”
She hurried out before Howshinger could think of something else to ask her. As soon as she was out of eyesight, she unscrewed the vial that now contained the poison sample, jammed in its little stopper, and screwed in the spare vial Longinus had given her. The vial of poison she squirrelled away in her vest, just in case Howshinger should try to give her any more trouble about the moisture extractor.
Longinus had explained that the poison would now be harmless, but she still felt a tremor of nerves at the thought of carrying it so close to her. She climbed the stairs as quick as she could without looking suspicious, sniffled a little as she got close to the exit, and murmured a pathetic little “thank you, sirs” as she walked past the guards at the gate, keeping her head down. She was about to walk towards Longinus when she froze. A little further on, Jake skulked at the mouth of a lane. When he saw her stop, he stepped out and walked towards her, his face grim.
Rory turned abruptly and gave Longinus a slight shake of her head, hoping he’d understand. She walked away as quickly as she could without arousing the guards’ suspicion, her mind racing. As soon as she was out of sight, she broke into a run. Almost at once she heard the rhythmic thud of Jake’s boots on the cobblestones as he gave chase.
She was fast, but so was Jake. She knew that to stop and climb a wall would slow her down enough that he’d be able to catch up with her and pull her down. Not only that, but he’d be expecting her to climb, so he’d likely have something on him to throw at her and knock her off. No, she had to stay at ground level. Her best bet would be to head for Twelve, which would be heaving at this time of day, and try to get lost amongst the traffic.
She glanced over her shoulder as she reached the end of a lane and saw that Jake was dangerously close. Before she could turn back to look ahead something crashed into her, throwing her against the lane wall. Her head smacked into the stone, dizzying her. She barely had time to register the moisture extractor being wrenched from her before an arm had her in a chokehold that threatened to crush her windpipe.
She gasped and spluttered, the pressure immediately building in her head. She desperately tried to scratch her attacker’s face, but he was tall, far too tall. The back of her head barely reached his chest and her hands scratched uselessly against his clothing. Her vision started to darken. A loud buzzing picked up in her ears.
She kicked and thrashed, scratching at the arm around her neck, but the man didn’t seem to notice. Her movements lost coordination and strength, her arms flailing uselessly.
Just as everything went dark, she heard a voice.
“What’s going on here?”
And then Rory was on the ground, coughing and wheezing.
“You alright, kid? What happened?”
Rory blinked, struggling to focus on the man behind the voice. She could just make out a guard’s uniform. She nodded, her breathing ragged.
“Fine,” she managed to rasp.
She got up on all fours and the guard pulled her up. She swayed a little on her feet, blinking to steady her vision. Once it had cleared and she felt a little steadier on her legs, she patted herself down to check that the vial and her dagger were still there. Luckily, she hadn’t fallen on top of the vial and it was intact. She had no desire to test Longinus’ assertion that the poison was now harmless.
The guard asked her a few more questions and then offered to escort her back home. For the first time in her life, Rory would have been grateful for the presence of a guard, but she shook her head. Even in her current situation, spending too much time with a guard was a bad idea.
He let her hobble away, and Rory soon found a house up which she could climb. She made her way back to Longinus’ house via the roofs, taking her time, her legs uneasy, checking nervously over her shoulder every few steps for any sign of Jake or a particularly tall man.
Chapter 20
Longinus rubbed his eyes. He was tired but satisfied. After a sleepless night of working on the sample Rory had brought back, he finally held some answers to his questions.
Dr Corian had undoubtedly replicated the poison from the sailor’s skin. While this was disturbing, Corian had been unable to replicate the chemical signature that Longinus included in all his poisons. That meant that his art was still uncompromised.
Unfortunately, those answers begged yet more questions, which he was no closer to resolving. How long had Dr Corian been replicating his poisons? Had he done this before? And with how much success? Who had hired him? Had this mysterious assassin executed other copycat kills?
A noise startled Longinus, and he turned away from his alchemy bench. There, in his blue velvet chair, was Rory. She was fast asleep.
Not for the first time, he noticed the red mark around her neck. Rory had been shaken when she finally returned with the vial, but refused to discuss what had happened. Longinus felt a little guilty for having been too consumed by his poison to really pay attention to her. No doubt about it, someone had tried to strangle her. That lad who had chased after her at the guard headquarter? It was the same lad they had seen outside the barber, and Longinus began to wonder if he wasn’t implicated in this unpleasant copycat mess.
Either way, the attack didn’t sit well with Longinus. Strangulation was a perfectly acceptable method of killing, of course — a little on the crude side perhaps (it wasn’t poison, after all) but acceptable. But strangulation on a young girl? There were rules, after all. No, that didn’t sit well with him at all.
He frowned. When he caught up with whoever that man was, he was going to give him a piece or two of his mind. For now, though, he would make something to help with Rory’s throat — it would no doubt be sore.
He had just finished when Rory stirred and awoke. She was on her feet at once.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked, voice still raspy.
“You’re assuming that I want to spend time with you,” he replied, turning back to his bench.
“Straight into the pleasantries, I see. You gonna tell me what the results showed?”
Longinus pretended to ignore the question, thrusting a beaker of golden liquid at her. “Drink that for your throat,” he muttered.
He had no intention of letting her know how eager he was to discuss his findings, and even less that he had been worried about her. After a long pause, he finally looked up.
“It’s as I thought,” he said. “Dr Corian copied my poison from that sailor I killed a few days ago. But,” Longinus raised a finger and smiled, “he missed my chemical signature, so although he got close, he hasn’t actually replicated my poison.”
“Not
sure that matters,” replied Rory. “To everyone else, it looks the same as yours. You’re the only one who can tell the difference.”
Longinus’ face fell. He hadn’t banked on the obtuse nature of the common man. Of course they would all be too simple to know the difference. A signature saying ‘Viper’ would be enough for them. Never mind that there was no calling card, that the kill lacked finesse (dumping a body in the water for it to grow ugly and bloated was a crass move), or that the chemical signature was missing.
“We should go to Dr Corian’s place if we can,” said Rory, interrupting his thoughts. “Try to see if there are any clues there.”
“No, first we must establish if this copycat assassin has killed anyone else under my name. Damsport is big, and the guards are forever trying to keep my kills secret — he could have been operating for a while and I wouldn’t know.”
“Well now, that’s something I can help you with.”
“How?”
“It’ll cost you a few copper bits, and maybe a couple of whole coppers.”
“Copper bits? I don’t keep currency that small.”
“You don’t? Then what d’you do when you get change?”
Longinus shrugged, annoyed that she was making him feel like he had been doing something wrong.
“You mean you throw them away? Stone the gulls, man! Well then, I guess we’ll have to find a smith to make change for us.”
They headed out and found a smith easily enough. Longinus watched, a little appalled as the smith cut the coins into eight segments, like the slices of a pie.
“What a waste,” he said, shaking his head.
“Ain’t a waste, it’s smart, is what it is.”
The coins taken care of, Rory took him to the Rookery. Longinus was annoyed that she hadn’t told him that was where they were going. He had dressed in a manner befitting the visit of a respectable (if only mildly talented) alchemist, and he was utterly out of place in the Rookery slum.
He had done a job at the Rookery a few years ago, and had seen no reason to ever return to that gods-forsaken place. It stank, its people were vile, it was… Well, just like Rory when he had first met her, really. Seeing her now against the backdrop of such filth, he realised with pride just what a change he had already worked on the girl. And in such a short time, too. She was clean, and she was clothed almost respectably, a far cry from the rugged urchin he had first come across. No one would be daft enough to call her pretty, but she was now almost pleasant to look at.
It was to be expected, really. His natural elegance couldn’t help but rub off on those around him.
They reached the boundary between the Rookery and Tinsbury Dock, and Rory led them to a narrow, reeking alley. It was so narrow the sunlight couldn’t squeeze between the buildings, leaving it dark and gloomy.
Rory ruined what faint illusion of respectability hung about her by sticking two fingers into her mouth, and letting out a shrill whistle.
“Give me one of your bigger coppers,” she asked.
He fished one out for her, and she displayed it at the empty lane.
“Anybody want to earn a good solid Kushanian copper?”
To Longinus’ surprise, there was movement in the gloom. Little dark faces appeared like black worms crawling out of the earth. They were filthy faces, caked with dirt, hard and hungry despite their juvenile features. Next to them, Rory with her open face and easy smile was positively radiant, bad hair or not.
The urchins eyed the coin hungrily, gathering around her. More appeared at the lane’s mouth, drawn to the coin like moths to a flame. Rory flipped the coin and caught it. The urchins followed its trajectory, never once taking their eyes off it.
“I gots a proper job for ya, so listen up,” she said, and Longinus was surprised by her thick dockside accent. It sounded perfectly natural, and he wondered which was her real accent — dockside, or the weird mix she normally spoke.
“You ’eard of a cove called the Viper, aye? Well, I’d be needin’ ya ter keep an eye out fer ’im, and an ear to the ground. I wants ter know who he’s killed recent-like. I already ’eard ’bout the cove they found in the baths, and the sailor on the docks, so you’ll ’ave to find something else to earn this.” She flashed the coin again.
“ ’ow do we know yer gonna come through and pay us?” asked one boy with quick eyes, near the front.
“Good question, Pip, although yer should know me better by now. I always does what I says I does. Everyone gets one copper bit now, in exchange for which yer keep yer eye out. You ’ear somethin’, you leave word at —”
“Susie’s coffeehouse,” interrupted Longinus.
Rory frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered.
“Susie will know how to handle them, and I trust her.” He handed her his purse, keeping a careful eye on her.
“You guys and gals ’eard that?” said Rory. “Susie’s coffeehouse. For now you get a copper bit. This,” she displayed the whole copper again, “I’m savin’ for the one of you that’ll be bringin’ me news I wants ter ’ear.”
“That’s got my name on it, you wait and see,” said Pip.
Rory began handing out the little copper pieces they had obtained at the smith, but a couple of the boys decided to get aggressive, pulling at her and trying to get the purse.
She pulled out her dagger at once, and the urchins fluttered away like startled sparrows, hanging back a couple of yards away.
“You try that again wi’ me and nobody ain’t gettin’ nuffin. Got it? I ain’t made of charity, and I sure as shit ain’t a mark. You’re gettin’ payment for a job. Do the job and you get a copper. You ain’t happy with that you can argue it out wi’ my blade.”
The two boys looked sheepish and, when they finally came forward for their bit, they took it without trying anything. Each urchin flitted off with their coin piece, clutching it close, hurrying to spend it before someone could try and steal it from them.
The last to hold out her hand was a girl who couldn’t have been more than six, and who looked like a breath of wind could knock her over.
“I ain’t seen you before,” said Rory. “What’s your name?”
“Alice.”
Rory dug a hand into her pocket and produced a small purse. She searched through it carefully.
“Right, Alice, you gonna do something for me,” she said, switching back to her normal accent. “You gonna take this half copper here, and you gonna go buy some stew from Big Wendy on Seam Street. You know the place?”
The girl nodded, her huge eyes and hollow face making her look like a little mouse.
“Good. Don’t steal from her, but eat whatever you buy in front of her. Someone tries to give you trouble, she’ll make a fuss and chase them off. You got that?”
The girl nodded.
“Just remember never to steal from her and she’ll look after you. If you gotta eat elsewhere, eat and run. Always eat and run, only way to ever put weight on, or someone will take your food from you. Got it?”
The girl nodded again and Rory gave her the half copper. Alice clutched it to her and scampered away. Longinus watched the whole scene with a vague sense of…what? Unease? Guilt? Or maybe it was indigestion.
“Is that something you used to do?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s tough to stay alive when you’re so little. You’re a target for everyone, even other kids.”
“Take a copper from my purse.”
“Why?”
“Well, to replace the half you gave the girl.”
Rory thrust his purse back at him, face hard. “Don’t mistake me for Alice, I don’t take charity.”
“That wasn’t —”
“I pay my own way and if I chose to give my money away that’s my problem, not yours. Now, we going to see Dr Corian’s laboratory?”
Longinus put the purse away, unsure if he felt annoyed or embarrassed.
“No, first I need to warn Susie to expect some subpar visitors over the ne
xt few days.”
“Alright, and then we should get food too, I ain’t eaten in a while.”
“That’s why we’re going to Susie’s.”
“Ain’t that a coffeehouse?”
“Correct.” Longinus brightened at the thought. As long as there was silk and coffee in the world, everything else would fall into place.
“We’re gonna need more than coffee,” she replied. “Me especially on account of being a growing lass and all.”
She kissed one of her medals and gave the sky a warning look. Longinus wondered how much hassle the heavens would be subjected to when the time came if she didn’t grow as she wanted.
“Coffeehouses,” he explained, “that is quality coffeehouses, serve some of the best food in Damsport. We’re going to have to get one thing straight, now. On the subject of food and drink, you know less than nothing. You know so little, you don’t even comprehend the gulf that is your ignorance. Therefore, I’d appreciate it if you kept all opinions to yourself.”
“What? I’m perfectly —”
“You know less than nothing. Whatever it is you’ve tasted in the past is possibly as close to coffee as frog spawn is to caviar. I think it’s safe to say you have the palate of a stray dog, and nobody asks a stray dog for her opinion on food or drink. Are we clear?”
Rory glared at him and Longinus smiled. That was better. He definitely felt more comfortable when she was being annoying and ignorant. It was, after all, the rightful way of things.
Chapter 21
“Now, when we get to Susie’s you must follow my lead,” Longinus said as they got near. “I won’t have you create a scene or offend anybody.”
“I won’t offend nobody, relax.”
“You offend everybody, Rory. Your mere presence offends my senses. It’s a wonder that I’ve managed to put up with you for as long as I have.”
She rolled her eyes. Truth be told, she was intrigued about Susie’s. It was known for being the best coffeehouse in Damsport, although she had no idea what could make the coffee there better than the stuff sold on the street stalls. Coffee was coffee, after all. Just water and coffee beans, no matter if it was made in a tin can over a fire or in some fancy coffeehouse.
The Viper and the Urchin: A Novel of Steampunk Adventure (Bloodless Assassin Mysteries Book 1) Page 12