“Not to worry,” said Pipper, and he scrambled up the ratline as if he had been a lookout all his life. Binkton followed Pipper at a careful and measured pace.
“Hoy, you can see for leagues up here,” Pipper called down to Binkton, only to discover his cousin nearly at his feet.
Binkton clambered up and into the nest, and then took a long look about. “You’re right, Pip. Leagues.”
“Let me know if you spot the river serpent,” Captain Veni called up. “We’d like to avoid him if we can.”
“Oh, lor, I had forgotten all about the river serpent,” said Pip, and he faced forward to peer downstream.
Binkton snorted. “River serpent. Pah!”
Much of the day the buccen spent in the crow’s nest. Pipper’s vigilance slowly waned, and soon he was slumped down and leaning forward against one of the rails, though he continued to chatter with Binkton about this and that.
That evening found the Warrows down on deck and playing tokko with members of the crew. One of the yeomen, Pick by name, was particularly good at the game, and he often captured the throne.
It was just after dawn of the third day on the river, when Pipper and Binkton, back in the crow’s nest, espied in the distance to the east in Pellar a number of King’s men in red and gold tabards galloping in pursuit of a band of riders, all the horses kicking up dust in their wake. Up and over rolling hills they rode and then down out of sight into the swales beyond, only to reappear topping the next crest to disappear in the following dip.
“Huh,” grunted Binkton. “I wonder what that’s all about.”
“Maybe they’re smugglers. Maybe bandits. Maybe they’ve captured the King’s children. Maybe they’re really Rucks and Hloks, now that the Ban is no more.”
“Nah,” said Binkton, “not Rucks and Hloks. They only do their misdeeds at night.”
“Yeah, but what if they got rousted out and had to run?”
“Well, they wouldn’t be on horses,” said Bink, “ ’cause Rucks and such eat horses.”
“Oh, right,” said Pipper. “Well, then, maybe they are jewel thieves, or Rovers of Kistan, or Chabbain or Hyrinian or even Fists of Rakka. Maybe they are. .”
Pipper kept babbling, naming possibility after possibility, Binkton now and again snorting at some of the wild conjectures his cousin put forth. And he burst out laughing at Pipper’s suggestion it could be that the King’s men were after wild, blue-eyed, fair-haired women of the north to capture them as brides.
As Pipper continued rattling on, of a sudden Binkton sat up straight and stared at the water just ahead. “I-I don’t believe it.”
“Don’t believe what?” asked Pipper.
Binkton pointed, and Pipper’s gaze followed Binkton’s outstretched arm.
Under the surface, it seemed, a long, dark, undulant shape slithered upstream, but perhaps it was no more than a rolling wave on the surface of the Argon reflecting light in an odd manner.
But Pipper had no doubt. “Captain Veni! Captain Veni!” he cried. “The river serpent! It’s the river serpent!”
“What?” Veni looked up at the crow’s nest.
Now Binkton, yet pointing, shouted, “The river serpent!”
“The river serpent?”
“Yes! Yes! That’s what I said!”
“Where away?”
“Ahead and to the right.”
“All hands starboard!” shouted the captain. “Gaffs and spears!”
The crew snatched up lances and long poles with iron hooks on the end. They rushed to the starboard rail, getting there just as a heave in the water coursed alongside, rolling the barque to port. And then it was gone, the shape diving deeper, or perhaps the strange rolling wave simply faded to nought. Neither buccan could be certain as to what it might have been, though Pipper maintained the rest of the day that it really was the river serpent, yet Binkton was not at all sure.
“I never heard of him being this far upstream,” said Captain Veni at dinner that eve. “His usual haunts be around the Upper Isles, and we won’t get there till nigh sunrise.”
With a look of triumph on his face, Pipper smiled at Binkton as if to say, See, I told you , but Binkton merely shrugged noncommittally.
In the marks of the following dawn they passed the Upper Isles without incident, the dozen or so sheer-sided stone upjuts lying in midstream, two of them more than three miles in length and covered in tall grass and trees.
And just before dawn the next morn they passed the Lower Isles, also without incident, this group smaller than the other, though one was a mile or so long.
When the sun was well into the sky, “This is the day we reach Rivers End,” said Binkton, “where we’ll find the rat eaters who took our chest and, as Brekka said, deal out swift and sure justice to these worse-than-Rucks foul folk.”
“Um, Bink, I don’t know how to tell you this, but your bow and arrows are in the chest, along with my sling and bullets.”
“Well, then, Pip, we’ll just have to get new ones in Rivers End, now, won’t we?”
“Right. But shouldn’t we find a town constable or the captain of the city watch or a King’s man or someone to enforce the law?”
Captain Veni had just come within earshot, and he laughed. “Law? In Rivers End? I’m not certain there is any. Or rather, what law there is, well, it’s in the pockets of those who run the city.”
Even as he said those words, a barque hove into view downstream, and Captain Veni stepped to port and waited. As the ship passed, he called out something in a language neither Warrow knew and was answered in kind. The ship sailed on upriver, while the Otter continued down.
The captain turned to the buccen. “It was my brother, captain of the Red Carp .”
“The Red Carp !” blurted Pipper. “That was the ship tending the barge bearing our stolen chest.”
“You had a chest that was stolen?”
“By rat-eating Rivermen,” growled Binkton.
“We were hoping to ask the captain of the Red Carp what happened to our case,” said Pipper.
Captain Veni sighed. “I’m sorry, wee ones. Had I but known, I could have asked. Yet perhaps someone at Barge Bottom will know.-Oh, and if I be you I be not disparaging Rivermen, for there be a lot of them in Rivers End. They run the city.”
Binkton looked at Pipper and said, “Then is it any wonder there’s no law in that town?”
The Argon spread wide and slowed, and the barque and its barge came into estuarial waters filled with reed-infested low isles. Cyprus and cat-tails lined the water, and mangroves grew in dense thickets along the tidal shores, for they were in the grasp of the river delta, drawing ever nearer to where the Argon flowed into the Avagon Sea.
Here the captain and crew were most busy, herding the barge through shallow, fenny waters, the maneuvering room restricted. But at last ahead and to the right a long strip of cleared land came into view, and farther downstream the Warrows could see the near edges of Rivers End, its buildings marching away beyond sight.
“Lor, Bink,” said Pipper, “I thought Argon Ferry Town was big, but this makes that look like a hamlet.”
The barque maneuvered to the port side of the barge and began nudging it toward the shore. Pipper and Binkton could see workers dismantling other scows, now empty of their cargoes, salvaging the wood for other uses, and so the buccen reasoned the cleared strip of land must be Barge Bottom.
At last the Otter managed to shove the scow into the shallows, where it ground to a halt against the shoals. Men laid boarding planks from shore to barge, and secured the craft by hawsers to pile-driven posts on land.
The Otter then docked at one of the downstream piers.
Captain Veni met with the pier master and asked about a chest painted with flames and two men named Tark and Queeker; had he seen or heard of it or them?
The pier master shook his head and sent a lad running to ask the work crews if they had seen or heard ought of the trunk, or of a burly man named Tark and a skinny one
named Queeker.
A half-candlemark later the lad returned and said as far as he could discover no one knew of the flame-painted chest or the men.
Sighing in disappointment, the Warrows then took up their duffle. They thanked Captain Veni and said their good-byes to the crew, and then they set foot ashore and began trekking the mile or so along the reed-bordered, log-paved riverbank road that led to the city of Rivers End.
31
Urchins
BURGLARS
LATE AUTUMN, 6E6,
TO EARLY SPRING, 6E7
As they trekked along Argon Way to the center of town, “Lor, lor,” said Binkton, “there are people everywhere. How does someone stand to live in such crowds?”
“On their two feet,” said Pipper, grinning.
“What?”
“You asked how someone could stand to live in such crowds, Bink, and I said-”
“Oh, Pip, you know what I mean. People all jam-packed together. No wonder this is a lawless city, what with folks all banging and bumping into one another.”
“I don’t see a lot of jostling,” said Pipper.
“Well, if there isn’t any, there should be,” snapped Binkton.
With their duffle bags over their shoulders, the two buccen sidled their way through the throng, and Pipper said, “I don’t see how we’re ever going to find Tark and Queeker in this mess.”
“I don’t know either,” gritted Binkton, “but find them we will.”
They wove their way a bit farther, and then Binkton burst out, “Aargh! I’ve got to get away from this horde.”
“Bink, it’s no different from any jammed common room where we’ve performed. I mean, we draw packed houses and-”
“That’s different,” growled Binkton. “I mean, in a crowded tavern or inn we could always go to the outside. But this is the outside, and it’s worse than any common room we’ve ever been in. Come on, let’s go down one of these side streets and get free of this mob of towering Humans. I mean, we’re like minnows swimming among trout, and I’m like to get swallowed up.”
Pipper sighed. “All right, but we’ll have to come back into the stream and swim with the fishes, if only to find a place to stay. I mean, I doubt if there are any inns whatsoever outside of this street.”
They turned and made their way onto one of the twisting lanes leading off to the right. The narrow street was laden with shops of various sorts-curios, books, clothes, boots, and other such.
The route became less congested the farther they went, and finally Binkton heaved a great sigh of relief, glad to be able to walk without stepping this way and that to avoid being run over.
“I don’t understand you, Bink,” said Pipper. “I mean, they shackle you in chains and lock you in fetters and shut you up in little boxes and tie you up in ropes, and you don’t seem to mind that a bit. But stick you in a crowd and it’s as if you can’t breathe. I would think it’d be the other way ’round.”
“Maybe if it were Warrows instead of Humans,” said Bink, “I wouldn’t mind it so much. But the Big Folk, the Humans, well, they are just a menace, I think. I mean, how can they live that way, all bumping elbows, so to speak?”
Pipper said, “I am put in mind of what Uncle Arley said when I asked him to name the gifts of the various folk.”
Binkton looked at Pipper, one eyebrow raised in an unspoken question.
Pipper smiled. “He said the gift of Elves is grace and ageless life, and that of Dwarves is never to lose their feet, for once they tread a path, it is with them forever. And he said the gift of Warrows is heart.”
“Heart?”
“Yes. It seems we have the courage and will to follow through, once we take up a cause.”
“What about Humans, then?”
“Uncle Arley said their gift is fecundity, and that’s why there are so many of them.” Pipper gestured back toward Argon Way. “So, you see, Bink, in this place we are witness to the Human flair.”
Binkton turned and looked back toward the center of the city, and though the twisting street they followed blocked his view, he said, “Well, if they continue to try to fill up the world like they did this city, I think there will be no room for the rest of us.”
“That’s what the Elves say, Bink, or so Uncle Arley told me.”
They strolled a bit farther, but finally Pipper said, “Bink, we’ve got to go back, ’cause we need a place to stay.”
“Go back, Pip? Never.”
“Well, are we just going to sleep on the streets like those urchins back in Argon Ferry Town?”
“No, Pip.” Binkton pointed. “We’re going to stay right there.”
Pipper’s gaze followed the direction of Binkton’s outstretched arm, and above a small shop proclaiming itself to be Lady Jane’s Millinery-Fine Hats for Fine Ladies-a sign in a second-storey window declared, “Room to Let.”
“Well, I never had any of your folk ever stay in one of my rooms before,” said the matronly woman, silver glints here and there in her hair.
“We won’t be any bother, Lady Jane,” said Binkton.
“Oh, it’s not that I think you would be,” she replied. “I mean, I am honored to have Waldana live here, heroes of the Dragonstone War and all. I mean, my Grady-that’s my boy. Wounded in the war, he was. Took an arrow in the leg, he did. Walks with a limp, he does. Kept on fighting, though. Made it all the way to the Red Hills for the final battle. Anyway, my Grady, he says that when the Dragons came, all the Host were like to bolt, but then the little golden-armored Waldan blew on her silver horn, and the men looked to see the entire company of Waldfolc standing fast, and the Host took heart and stood fast as well.”
“That was our cousin Triss who sounded the call,” said Pipper.
“Was it now? Well, then, I’m doubly proud to have Waldana taking my room. Wait’ll I tell-”
Pipper threw up a hand to stop her words. “Ma’am, I wish you wouldn’t let anyone know that Warrows are in residence here. You see, we are on a mission of sorts. One that we’d rather keep quiet.”
With a puzzled look, Binkton stared at Pipper, but Lady Jane peered about as if to spy eavesdroppers and, seeing none, she whispered, “Ooo, a mission. One for the High King, I suspect.”
“We’d rather not say,” Pipper replied.
“Well, then, mum’s the word,” said the woman. “Oh, and if I might, and to help keep your presence secret, I’ll make you hats-caps, really-to cover those pointed ears of yours.” Then she frowned. “But I don’t see how to disguise those jewel-like eyes of yours-sapphire blue, emerald green.-Oh, wait, I know: hats with tall crowns and brims. They’ll shadow your faces. I have some lovely fabric.”
Pipper snapped his fingers as if at a sudden thought and said, “We’d rather look like urchins.”
Binkton’s jaw dropped a fraction.
Lady Jane frowned. “Urchins? Oh, I see. The better to blend in, you being so small and all. Well, then, I’ll find something to make do.”
Lady Jane bustled off, and Binkton looked at Pipper and asked, “What in the name of Adon was that all about?”
“Look, Bink, we can’t let word leak to Tark and Queeker that we are in town. I mean, they might just hie out of here.”
Binkton frowned a moment but then brightened. “Ah, I see. They probably heard about us dealing out swift and sure justice to those brigands, eh?”
“No, Bink, I was thinking more along the lines of-”
“Here we are,” declared Lady Jane, rushing back into the room. She held a cloth tape measure in hand, and she wrapped it around Binkton’s head. “Hmm. . For one so small you have a considerable brow. All right. All right. Don’t wiggle so. There now.” She jotted a note on a pad from her pocket, and then turned to Pipper and made another set of measurements.
As she rushed out again, Pipper said, “Come on, let’s unpack and then get something to eat.”
“Without our urchin disguises?” Binkton snorted, and then added, “We have to blend in, you know.”
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“Oh, right,” said Pipper. “We’ll have to wait.”
With dark, wide-brimmed hats pulled down over their ears to keep the tips from showing, Pipper and Binkton stepped out from the side entrance of the millinery and headed for the small inn Lady Jane had recommended as being one frequented by people of limited means. “The food is good, and you’ll fit right in with other urchins who gather there. Just keep your hats on and don’t let them see your eyes, and don’t flash any silver or gold.”
On the street, Binkton paused a moment to examine Pipper, who peered out from under his jammed-down hat like a mouse peeking out from a hole, and said, “Gah, Pip, but we look like a couple of simpletons.”
“Simpletons or no, Bink, I think we need some seedier clothes. Right now we look too prosperous.-Oh, wait, all we have to do is smear a bit of dirt here and there and on our faces too; then we’ll fit right in.”
In distaste, Binkton stared at the gutter, running as it did with a thin layer of water over a grayish sludge. “Dirt?”
“No, Bink, not from the gutter. We’ll find a better grade of mud.”
A quarter candlemark later, a pair of street urchins entered the common room of the Yellow Lantern.
“Two bowls of your stew,” said Pipper as they passed the barkeep on the way to a table.
“I need to see the color of your coin, lads,” replied the man.
Pipper tossed two coppers onto the counter; then he and Binkton sat down and waited to be served.
“When are we going to get some weapons, Pip?” asked Binkton. “You a sling and some bullets, me a bow and some arrows.”
“Bink, I don’t think an urchin bearing a bow and a quiver full of arrows would blend in.”
“Barn rats! You’re right.”
“But we can both carry slings and bullets,” said Pipper.
Binkton sighed and said, “I’m not as good with a sling as you are, Pip, and not nearly as good as I am with a bow. But I suppose a sling’ll have to do.”
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