"Who? Who took him where, Mama?"
"The Guard. They did another sweep and… he's in the dungeons, I think. That's all I know. I tried to find out. The Guard wouldn't let me see him, I only had copper bits, not silver. All he would say is that a one-armed man had been brought in with other suspected thieves and riff-raff."
"Oh, Mama. What are we going to do?" Megan choked as she realized. Her father, in the dungeon. Helpless tears welled up. It was hard to get people out or the Nest dungeons once they were in. What are we going to do?
Shen hugged them both together. "We'll help you as much as we can, Ness," she said. "I'm sure our friends at the Peach and perhaps your Gospozhyn will help, too. He's a jeweler and should help his apprentice." She nodded at Ness. "If he has any shred of decency in him. Hush, hush now, Ness. You'll find a way to get him out."
Megan's mother dried her tears on her shoulder and hugged Shen with the arm she didn't have around Megan. "Yes. I've been acting without thinking. I've got to find out how much it would cost. If only the courts were open. It used to be that they couldn't just drag you away without evidence of wrongdoing."
"Great Bear grant that Ranion brings justice when he rises." Shen rubbed her hands together. "Well, we'd best get started trying round up some Claws. I have one you can borrow."
Mama looked at her, then down at her hands, then at Megan, trying not to cry again. This was no time not to accept charity. "Thank you, Shenanya."
"Oh, go on with ya. I'd be a fine friend if I didn't help, now wouldn't I; like those white-nights friends who dumped you when you weren't Middle Quarter enough."
The old gang will help us, Megan thought. Her other friends at the Guild would help, too, and maybe Gospozhyn, but she didn't say any of this to her mother. She wouldn't like to know where some of the bits are from, even if they do get Papa out. Megan was fighting tears because that wouldn't help right now.
"I'll have to arrange an appointment with the Guard Commander," Mama said quietly. "Svaslasfyav isn't known to be a fair man."
"Pay him and he's fair enough," Shen said. "He's saving for his days of peace when he's old."
"Mama, should I come with you?" They looked at Megan.
"No, bylashka. No, you do what you can, borrowing."
"All right, Mama, I'll start at the River Guild. I've got friends there. And I'll come back tomorrow, okay?"
"That's my strong girl."
"Would Aunt help?' Shen coughed and Megan glared at her. Aunt's kin, even if she is a shit. "I could ask her, instead of you, for Papa." Megan remembered what Aunt said about Mama never to come crawling to her for help. I can, she thought. And I won't be crawling. She better help Papa, we've tried our best to help her. If she doesn't, well, III tell Rilla and well clean out her silver when she's drunk.
"My mam doesn't have any silver right now," Rilla said. "She spent it on fixing the still."
"Shit." They had to find some more money. Gospozhyn had looked solemn when she'd told him; said he'd see what he could do, but it was going to be hard to get. He was angry, too. He said, "Does he think your poor mother is made of money?"
A gold Claw is what file Guard Commander wanted, to let Lixand out. A gold Claw. He might as well have asked for a steel Claw, worth twice as much. Most of the River Quarter didn't see silver from one year to another, and he wanted gold. Mama looked upset but determined. She thought that he asked so much because she spoke like Middle Quarter. Shit on him.
The Other Guild had been better to the family than anyone else in the City, even more than their own kin. I wouldn't care if I owed them the bribe price for years and years.
"Thanks anyway, Rillan." She nodded and fingered through the stuff they had between them on Megan's kerchief. They were sitting in Megan's favorite summer hiding place, an old forgotten roof garden in a partly burned-out building. The two of them had often played here before; for a more serious purpose now. I don't have time for kid's things anymore.
The gang got together, and all of the hunting in the Market scraped together a copper Claw's worth of bits. Megan shivered, thinking of her papa in the Nest dungeons.
Koru, be with him, keep him safe. Don't let them hurt him. He never hurt anybody in his life, and if something happened to him it would be even more unfair than everything that has already happened. My papa's better n most people in this City and Mama loves him and I love him, so please keep him safe.
She felt empty, crazy. The Nest had swallowed up her Papa. She looked up the City to where she could barely see the point and the banner on the highest red dome of the Nest, and wanted to see it burn.
They managed to scrape it together, somehow, half a year's rent; with everyone's help, even Aunt Marte. She'd come, just yesterday, and given them three silver Fangs.
Lixand had paid his license fees to the Other Guild through the River Guild office, so they added in because he was one of theirs. Mama's Gospozhyn had given some and so did people in the Flats, except for Zazan and the landlord and his wife. Rilla and Megan sold their knives back to the cutler.
There would be a birthday celebration for Zingas Avritha tomorrow and the whole City was disrupted for a few days. Shen advised that they should wait and see if they would clear the dungeons as they had on Ranion's birthday, but Ness said that the Guard Commander wanted his money now and that every day she could spare Lixand the dark would be a blessing. Svaslasfyav would get half today, and the other half when he released Lixand.
Megan swept and tidied for when her mother would get back, thinking, she shouldn't have to worry about anything that I can help with. Blue came in and sat on Megan while she waited, and she talked to the cat, telling him everything she never told anyone else; not Tikhiy, not Serkai, not Ivar or even Rilla. Sometimes she almost thought he was answering, but Blue understood enough when she worried. Papa’ll be out tomorrow. Then everything will settle down again. The white-nights were here, and with the galleries and the roof opened the sun still shone though it was almost midnight. She could see the light under the door, but it was shut because they needed the privacy.
Megan set Blue down and he gave her the "I wanted you to do that" look. When Ness came in she was sweaty and looked disturbed. They hadn't had a gold Claw, not quite, so she had to tell him that was all he was going to get because they didn't have another copper Bake. Ness undid her hair and pulled off her clothes because they stank of the dungeon.
"He let me see your papa," she said. "He's in a cell with nine other men." They had water from the tap warming at the brazier and she washed herself all over, except her hair. I guess she wants to scrub the smell off, she's rubbing so hard. There were bruises on her legs, just coming up red. Megan, holding the towel, looked at them, then at her mother's face, not saying anything. "Thank you, Meg." She pulled on Lixand's old robe, rolled up the sleeves, and sat down with her daughter.
"I gave him a hug from you, and he sent one back." She folded up the collar of Lixand's robe and turned her face into it, rubbing her hands along her cheeks as if it were him touching her.
"We're to be at the Va Zalstva high gate tomorrow. When the celebrations are under way, we'll meet the Guard Commander and pay him and he'll let your papa go then, when no one is likely to notice."
Megan nodded, wanting her father now. She shivered and huddled under her mama's arm, hugging her. They held each other and Ness hummed "Mirror Eyes Lullaby" for her, though she was too old for that kind of thing.
The Va Zalstva was crowded, though not as full as when the wedding feasts were held; here and there were seats or whole sections empty. Megan pushed her face between the wooden bars of one of the high gates and looked down the bowl of seats to the sand. The rat pits, evenly spaced around the circle of the arena, were uncovered, grills pulled back against the wall. Sometimes you could see the rats jump for the edges; big black and brown ones.
The Dragon's box was on the mountain side of the circle, across and down from the gate they were at. It was hung with red satin, Zingas Avritha's fa
vorite color.
Ness fidgeted nervously, trying to hide it, leaning against one side of the gate, looking at the street where the Guard Commander would bring Lixand.
Trumpets and drums sounded and Megan looked back down into the ring as everybody cheered. Avritha was just taking her chair, with her hand on Ranion's arm. He looked thrilled while she just looked calm. There would be a circus after, but Megan didn't care because her papa wasn't there to share it.
Ness started away from the gate and Megan whirled around to face the street. "You have him? Where is he? You promised him to me, here, today."
Commander Svaslasfyav, a very thin man, with a half-smile on his face, said, "You're here for your man then, River-scum?" Ness pressed her lips together but didn't talk back, just nodding, holding on to what scraps of hope she had.
"You won't get another flake until I see my husband."
He snorted. "I couldn't do a thing about it."
"What?" Her voice rose. "You were to free him, where is he!"
He lost his pose of superiority, looking uncomfortable for a second, motioned with his chin over her shoulder. "Down there," he said.
Ness whirled around, looking down into the arena. Megan stared at the Commander in his plain black uniform, then turned to look too. She saw her father in the chain of ten under the Dragon's box. The four chains, each with ten people, stood on the sand, blinking at the light. That was how the freeings had been arranged last time, for Ranion's birthday. A herald in the Dragon's box held up his arms for quiet.
"I didn't have to pay you, then," Ness said. "Or bed you." In the background Megan could hear bits of the herald's speech. "… to suffer the fate of all those who would disturb the City's peace…" Svaslasfyav stepped closer, grabbed her arm, and yanked her back from the bars. She pulled her knife and Megan wished for hers.
"No. Of course this might not be what you think." He jerked his head at the arena. "The Zarizan and his Zingas decreed this. Think a mere Guard Commander would dare sully the Zingas's birthday?"
"… to show the swift justice in a ruling hand," the herald was saying. "As well as mercy." The guard were pulling the lines of chained people to their knees and unhooking them, cutting behind their heels and wrists and flinging them one by one into the pits.
Ness screamed, her hand reaching through the bars. Megan's face was pressed between the bars and they wouldn't yield, wouldn't let her through. Papa. Papa. They were going to kill her papa.
The guard took him by the neck ring and his arm and he stumbled. The yelling of the crowd faded to an insect buzz, muffled and far away. Papa. He looked up and around at all the people as if they were the most precious things in the world; then at the sky and the sand under his feet. They unlocked the collar and the knife flashed in the guard's hand, three times, and the sand soaked redder. Lixand folded back on his legs as if he could stop the cut that was already done, cradling his arm against his chest, and the red soaked into his grey shirt. He had squeezed his eyes shut as they cut, then he opened them again and looked up, around at the high gates. Megan reached, screaming, with both hands as he looked, not knowing if he saw.
They held him upright and Megan thought she could see tears on his face; they pushed and he fell sideways into the pits where the rats were squealing, loud enough to hear, high, high over the noise the crowd made, and blood sprang up, bright drops, just for a second. Papa. The rats. Papa, no. Please.
Megan had borrowed Gospozhyn's spare knife without telling him, and got Ivar and Aage to come with her. Svaslasfyav used her mama, and her papa was dead. Ivar and Aage hadn't wanted to come at first, but she'd told them she would do it with or without their help. She hadn't been in the Guildrooms at all the last few Hands, but they thought she'd been staying with her mama the whole time.
It was one of the few dim hours in the summer, when it never got dark, but wasn't daylight either. She lay on the roof of the house in the First Quarter, across from where Svaslasfyav had gone in. Ivar lay flat beside her, and Aage was on the roof across Bolduschchy Street. My papa's dead.
They hadn't even had Lixand's body to take up and give to the birds. Ness had cried his name to the wind and cut bits of their hair, but her mama hadn't said anything since then. She would sit and cry, or try to but didn't have any tears left. She would make a hurt sound in her throat, like a moan or a whimper and Shen would hold her hand and wouldn't leave her alone for a minute.
Megan had wanted to get Serkai to help, but he was in guard training and would have to report it and they would have gotten caught.
A light shone in the street as the door opened and Svaslasfyav came out. She'd been following him the last few days. He came here to visit his old father. His papa.
He walked down the middle of the street whistling, and the children kept up with him up on either side on the house tops. He'd have to turn down that narrow street to get back to the Nest.
He hit the trip cord and tucked and rolled and almost came up standing, except that Aage hit him in the head with a cobble as he came out of the roll. He staggered a step or two with his daggers already out, then fell on his face. The lantern boy was already running, squealing for the watch.
She didn't want to touch him but did want to hurt him. Ivar and Megan slid down, lashed Svaslasfyav's wrists together and Aage threw down a rope. She tied a loop under the commander's armpits while Ivar swarmed up the building and he and Aage hoisted him up. Megan snatched up the trip rope and climbed after. When the Watch came, the street was dark.
They used the ropes to carry him over several roofs and down to an alley in Middle Quarter. Sweat ran into their eyes by the time they got him to down to where no one would bother them, in the River Quarter.
I hate him. The back of his head was sticky where Aage hit him, his hair all clotted together. She pulled his mouth open and grabbed his tongue; cut most of it off, sawing. His tongue was sticky, and when she cut it, it was like dead meat; trying to slide out of her fingers. She turned his head and the blood drooled down his chin so he wouldn't drown.
He tried to scream when he woke, thrashing against the ropes they had him tied with. She gagged him anyway, to soak up the blood.
He pulled at the ropes tying his wrists and ankles, shaking his head, no, no. The pupils of his eyes were different sizes. He choked, coughing against the gag.
"You used my mother even though you couldn't get my father out of the dungeon." He shook his head again, shivering like a wet dog.
"Aage, hold his head still." He did as she told him, looking sick. She put the point of the knife against Svaslasfyav's left eye. He tried to wiggle away, whimpering, but Megan leaned her weight on him and Ivar held his legs. She pushed and his eye popped like a grape. He yanked loose, flopping around, almost biting through the gag, slamming his head into the wall as if that would make it stop hurting, slobbering blood until they caught him and held him still in the mud. He trembled harder, then went limp under their hands.
Her hands were sticky. She thought of the rats and her mother screaming and popped his other eye. Then they waited. It was so late there wasn't anyone out and no one heard the sounds he'd made. I want to wait until he wakes up. Ivar pulled in his breath to say something and Megan shook her head at him, glaring. She didn't want to say anything. He'd try to convince her it wasn't a good idea. My papa felt something like this and he died. His guard had killed Papa for Avritha and Ranion to watch. My papa who never hurt anybody. She had tears on her face, but her mouth tasted like blood where she'd bitten through the inside of her lip. It stank in the alley because of the garbage against the walls and the smell from the guard captain as he pissed himself.
Wake up, you, so you can feel more of what Papa felt, what Mama felt.
She cut his hamstrings and the strings on the backs of his thumbs so he'd never be able to hold anything again; Serkai said something about it once. Every time he woke up it was with a shake, as if he were fighting not to, whining. Aage threw up into the dirt. Svaslasfyav wouldn't die, bu
t someone would have to look after him the rest of his life. He was alive, which was more than her papa. It wasn't enough. It wouldn't bring Papa back. It wouldn't make Mama feel better. He isn't hurting enough. He can't. I can't make him hurt as much as we do. She looked down at him, tied and his face bloody, his hands clawed, his toes trying to curl up to his shins, bleeding strings of black in the dim alley, wanting to throw back her head and scream and stamp on him, but it still wouldn't be enough.
She whipped the knife into the dirt and pounded on the garbage with her fists, somehow on her knees …my teeth are going to break I cant make any noise Icantlcant-Icant…
Ivar and Aage held her, one on each side. "Your mama needs you," Aage said in her ear, his breath smelling of bile. She shivered, wanting to throw up, still wanting to make everybody whoever hurt them feel as much hurt. I'm not sorry. I'll never be sorry. She got up and the two boys let go of her. "Come on," she said. "Let's finish it." She smashed his balls with a brick.
They untied the Guard Commander, grey and cold with shock, and dragged him out to a road where someone would find him, then went down to the river to wash. They picked their way to the water from the dried mud on the edges. Megan looked down into the water under the bridge, listened to the cold gurgle, feeling watery inside, sweat pouring tracks down the blood on her face. She could feel it all over her, drying on her hands and cheeks, sticking her clothes to her body.
She pulled off her shirt and pants, shoved them in the water, feeling the blood yank on her hair and skin, watching the dark stain float out of the blue cloth, get whisked away by the current. The water was cool, raising goose-bumps even in the heat, the stones in the mud sharp. She lay flat, holding onto a rock; ducked under, hearing Ivar and Aage's voices cut off, the thumping gurgle of the water running over the rocks midstream just an arm's reach away, letting the water wash the blood and hate off her.
Shadow's Daughter Page 18