Wrede, Patricia C. - Magician Series 1 - Mairelon the Magician
Page 4
Kim nodded, and the hands released their hold She turned
and found herself confronting the drunk who had caused so
much trouble a few minutes before He no longer seemed
drunk in the least, though he still looked and smelled thor-
oughly unpleasant
K.im took a step backward The man raised a warning hand
and she stopped, peering at him He was the right height for
Mairelon, but he had no mustache and his face was half hid
den by a layer of greasy dirt Then he grinned, and Kirn's
doubts vanished Impossible as it seemed, this was Mairelon
She smiled back and he doffed his grimy cap and bowed
with a stage magician's flourish She opened her mouth to ask
what he was doing, and at once he held up a warning finger
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She stepped closer, wondering even more what was behind
his strange behavior-
The creak of the public house door swinging open filtered
into the alley. Mairelon flattened himself into a niche along
one wall and motioned to Kirn to do the same. She complied,
still puzzled. Then she heard the skinny toff's unmistakable
whine.
"—don't expect such treatment! You haven't heard the end
of this!"
"Mebbe," the gravelly voice of the publican said. "And
mebbe not. Evenin'."
Kirn heard the door shut, then the toff muttering curses
under his breath. A moment later came the incongruous
sound of a small silver bell, ringing-
A large shadow passed the mouth of the alley. There you
are, Stuggs!" the toff said pettishly "Did you catch the boy?"
"I ain't seen 'im," said a deep, slow voice-
"Not seen him? But he left just a few minutes ago."
"I ain't seen 'im," the second voice reiterated patiently -
"You foolt He must have gone the other way,"
"Couldn't ave. Street's blocked."
"Then he slipped by you in the dark. Idiot! Nothing has
gone right tonight, simply nothing) We've spent five days
tracing the wrong man, my clothes are ruined, and on top of
everything else you let the boy escape!"
"I never seen 'im If I'd seen 'im, I'd a catched 'im."
"Oh, well. Under the circumstances, it hardly matters. But
if it had been Merrill's wagon, we would have needed the
boy. You're lucky."
Something in the man's voice made Kim shrink back
against the wall of the building, trying to become one with
the bricks and half-timbering. Why were they so interested in
her? Surely five pounds wasn't worth such trouble to a swell!
28
"You want ! should look for 'im"'" Stuggs's deep voice said,
and Kim held her breath.
"Weren't you listening? There's no need; he didn't find any-
thing. And I'm not going to stand here smelling like a brew-
ery while you blunder about Come on "
Footsteps clicked against the cobblestones, passing the end
of the alley. Gradually they died away, but Kim did not move
until she heard the distant rattle of carriage wheels Then she
looked across at Mairelon
The magician motioned to her and started off, but instead
of heading back out to the lane, he went farther into the
alley. Kim followed with some trepidation. The cramped
maze of garbage-strewn alleys that twisted through the spaces
between the main streets was no place for anyone who didn't
know where he was going
Mairelon, however, chose his course without hesitation,
and in a few minutes they emerged on a side street two blocks
from the Dog and Bull- "You can talk now," he said
29
FOUR
'^w-^ 7' 1T" was silent for a moment, trying to de-
JB^^^ ^ cide what to ask first- "Why was that skinny
f r toff so wishful to get his dabbers on me?" she
said finally, starting with the question which was of the great-
est personal interest-
"I rather think he was afraid you might come and tell me
what he'd been doing," Mairelon replied-
Kim did a quick review of the conversation they'd over-
heard. "He thinks you're this Merrill cove?"
"Not any more," Mairelon said cheerfully. He tipped his
cap to a heavily rouged, overblown woman in an exceedingly
low-cut gown. She eyed his shabby raiment and wrinkled her
nose, then hurried past in search of more promising custom-
ers-
"So that's why you was so set on me gammoning the cull I'd
done what he wanted," Kirn said. She looked at Mairelon
thoughtfully. "Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Are you Merrill?"
30
'"What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other
name would smell as sweet'"
"Huh?" Kirn said, thoroughly confused
"Not literary, I take it? No, of course not, you wouldn't be.
We shall have to do something about that "
"About what?"
'Teaching you to read "
"Read''" Kirn's eyes widened, and she stopped short. "Me?"
"Why nof> It's bound to be useful. Come along; you don't
want to spend the night standing in the street, do you?"
Kim nodded and started walking again It was a moment
before the novelty of the idea wore off and she realized that
she had been very neatly distracted from her original ques-
tion She scowled and kicked a pebble. It skittered over the
cobblestones and disappeared into the damp and foggy dark-
ness in the middle of the street.
Mairelon looked across at her and raised an eyebrow. Kirn's
scowl deepened. "You knew all that was going to happen!" she
said accusingly,
"Hardly. 1 was suspicious, that's all "
"Then what were you doin' down at the Dog and Bull?"
"I was looking out for you," Mairelon said promptly
"i don't need no lookin' out for," Kim retorted- She was
suddenly tired of all these swells talking her into things with-
out telling her enough about them first. Of course, her own
curiosity was at least as much to blame as Mairelon, but that
only made her more irritable
"I'm inclined to agree," Mairelon said. He raised his hand
and touched his right eye gingerly. "I believe you blacked my
eye with that last swing."
"Too bad," Kim said callously "It wouldn't of happened if
you'd of told me you'd be there."
"If I'd told you I was planning to follow you, you would
31
have told me to be off about my own business," Mairelon
pointed out "Which, as things turned out, wouldn't have
been at all wise, now, would it?"
"Huh " Kim couldn't contradict him, but she wasn't willing
to admit it
"Besides, it wouldn't have been at alt the thing to have sent
you off into trouble without warning you and without sending
along anyone to help in case there was trouble "
"Then why didn't you warn me?"
"About what? I wasn't sure anything was going to happen
And would you have listened?"
"If you would of explained—" Kim started with some heat,
then stopped, her brain working rapidly Mairelon had
caught her rifling his wagon
; he would have had to be very
stupid to give her any explanations without learning more
about her first And however careless he might seem, he was
not stupid The thought crossed her mind that he had been
watching to see whether she would tell the skinny toff the
whole truth about what she had found in his wagon.
Curiously, the idea that he had been testing her drained
away most of her anger Caution was a thing she understood,
if she wanted Mairelon's trust, she would have to earn it. She
wasn't about to admit she knew it, though. "You shouldn't of
gone," she said grumpily
Mairelon gave her a quizzical look. "I couldn't let you go
alone, and there was no other choice I simply couldn't send
Hunch "
Kim stared at Mairelon Then her mind brought up a pic-
ture of Hunch, drooping over the skinny toff's shoulder and
chewing on his mustache while he tried to tip over a beer
mug It was too much for her sense of humor; she burst into
laughter "No, I guess you couldn't I bet he didn't want you
goin' off in them flash togs, neither "
"You're right about that," Mairelon replied cheerfully He
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raised his hand to touch his eye again, and winced "He's
going to be simply delighted about this, i'm sure "
"Not hardly he won't"
"He'll say it's what I deserve for going off without him He
may, just possibly, be right," the magician added thought-
fully
"You goin' to tell him how you got it?" Kim said
Mairelon looked at her and blinked, then he grinned "Oh,
1 see I hadn't thought of that " The grin widened, giving him
a strong resemblance to a mischievous small boy "Well, such
things happen quite frequently in taverns, particularly the less
respectable ones I don't think there'll be any need to go into
details, do you?"
Kim shrugged, sternly suppressing a flicker of relief "It
don't matter to me."
"Quite so," Mairelon said gravely They walked a block in
silence, watching the heavy, wide-wheeled drays clatter by
over the cobblestones Then they turned a corner and the
sights and sounds of the Hungerford market washed up to
greet them
To Kirn's surprise, Mairelon did not go directly to his
wagon Instead, he led Kim around the hinge of the market
to a cramped alley He paused in the shadows, watching the
lamplit shops Though the twists of the buildings hid them
from sight, Kim could hear the calls of the costermongers
clearly It was a good place to hide; Kim had used it herself a
couple of times She was surprised that Mairelon knew it
Kim heard a scratching sound behind her and tensed Mair-
elon smiled and turned, his shoulders brushing flakes of paint
off the building on his right A moment later, Hunch ap-
peared from an even skinnier opening near the back of the
alley
"Well timed, Hunch'" Mairelon said in a low voice "You
brought everything?"
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"Right ere," Hunch said, lifting a large canvas bag in one
hand and scowling as if he wished he could disassociate him-
self from such undignified proceedings
"Good!" Mairelon stripped off his cap and dropped it, then
pulled off his tattered Jacket He wiped his face and hands on
the shreds of lining, which seemed relatively clean, then
dropped the jacket on top of the cap and begin pulling off his
heavy workman's boots.
"Master Richard'" Hunch's voice was not loud, but it ex-
pressed volumes of scandalized disapproval-
Mairelon paused and looked up- "What is it?"
"You ain't never going to just—" Hunch stopped and
looked at Kirn. "Not with 'er standing there!"
"Oh, is that all that's bothering you^" Mairelon looked at
Kirn and grinned. "Turn your back, child, you're offending
Hunch's proprieties."
Kim flushed, as much from surprise as embarrassment, and
turned away. "I ain't no child," she muttered under her
breath.
"Under the circumstances, that's so much the worse," Mair-
elon replied cheerfully
Kim snorted- She could hear various scraping and rustling
noises behind her, and Hunch muttering through his mus-
tache. She frowned, certain that at least some of the mutter-
ings were derogatory comments directed at her. She couldn't
quite hear them, and after a moment she was glad- If she
knew what Hunch was saying, she would have had to answer
in kind, and she couldn't see arguing with someone while her
back was turned. It was too much of a disadvantage-
The rustlings stopped, and Mairelon said, "There, that's
better You can turn around now "
Kim did, and blinked. Mairelon stil! smelled faintly of
beer, but otherwise he was once more the well-dressed stage
34
magician she had first seen Top hat, cape, mustache—mus-
tache? "How'd you do that?" Kim demanded.
"The mustache"'" Mairelon said "Spirit gum and horsehair.
It isn't crooked, is it?"
"Not as I can see," Kim replied.
"Good! I was wondering; it's a bit tricky to do without a
mirror. Still, it only has to last until we get back to the
wagon."
"What about them things you was wearing?" Hunch de-
manded. "You 'adn't ought to be leaving them 'ere."
"No, I suppose not," Mairelon said, nudging the little pile
of dirty, beer-scented clothing he had been wearing. He
glanced at Hunch's face and turned to Kim- "Can you get rid
of them?"
"I could pitch them in the river," Kim offered, eyeing the
clothes almost as dubiously as Hunch
"No, no, sell them somewhere or give them away. Prefera-
bly not in this market."
"Huh You don't expect much," Kim muttered, but she
picked up the clothes and wadded them into a compact bun-
dle The boots were in fairly good shape; she might actually
be able to turn a few shillings on them-
"We'll see you at the wagon in an hour or so, then," Mair-
elon said. He smiled as he followed Hunch out the back of
the alley
Kim whistled softly through her teeth as she finished mak-
ing up the bundle The secondhand clothes dealers on Pet-
ticoat Lane ought to fit Mairelon's requirements. Tom Correy
would be the best; he was sure to take the clothes in order to
get the boots. He'd think Kim had stolen them, so he
wouldn't pay much, but he wouldn't ask questions, either. It
evened out-
She swung the bundle to her back and hesitated. Mairelon
35
had sounded casual enough, but he'd nonetheless been taking
fairly extreme precautions against being seen. Maybe she
should do the same She slipped easily through the crack at
the back of the alley and worked her way among the court-
yards to the street.
She was turning to head for Petticoat Lane when she re-
membered the money she'd collected in the Dog and Bull.
Tom was a good fellow, but some of his customers weren't.
She didn't wan
t to lose her five pounds before she'd even
gotten used to the idea of having them.
Changing direction, she circled the market until she came
to the hidey-hole where she spent most of her nights. It was
little more than a few rotting boards leaning against a tene-
ment, but it provided privacy and a minimum of shelter- K-im
wormed her way inside, then set about redistributing her
newfound wealth. She buried a few shillings in the corner of
the hidey-hole and slipped a few more into her shoes
After some consideration, she tore a strip of cloth from the
bottom of the shirt Mairelon had been wearing and bound
the rest of the coins tightly around her bare waist She pulled
her own shirt down over the resulting lumpy wrap and belted
her breeches She studied the effect, then smiled and patted
her belt with a sense of satisfaction. In the dark, and with her
jacket over the top of everything, even old Mother Tibb
would have been hard put to notice anything unusual.
She rebundled the clothes and set off Near Holborn Hill
she swung herself onto the rear end of a farmer's wagon that
was heading in the right direction She hunched down behind