Authors: Tamora Pierce
Bloodhound (37 page)
Pox and murrain. I never got to ask Okha how to use the face paint.
Well, I'll just try the lash darkener and leave the rest for another time.
Those we met the night of September 15 and such information as I learned of them, then and in succeeding days:
Lowenna Boller, orange girl, friend of Fair Flory
Kevern Pye, works for Hanse in caravans
Austell Goff, works for Hanse in caravans
Erben Worts, works for Hanse in caravans
Alisoun Nails, courier at Goldsmith's Bank, knows Dale Wat Eavesbrook, works for Hanse in caravans
Viel Sperling, friend of Fair Flory
Bermond Tapener, master clerk at Goldsmith's Bank, knows
Dale
Jaco Quilty, journeyman smith, friend of Hanse
Amda Threadgill, works for Hanse in caravans
At six-thirty of the morning.
concerning the night of September 16, 247
Goddess bless me, his hands. They are limber and warm, lighting every part of me he touches. He hasn't even touched the soft and secret parts. Not that I could stop
thinking
of him touching me everywhere once I'd gone to bed last night. Achoo finally climbed to the floor in disgust because I tossed and turned so. She is yet sleeping there.
And his kisses!
They came for us here at six of the clock last night, Dale and Hanse and the rest. We walked, the eating house being six scant blocks along the side of the ridge from Serenity's. They'd brought three more of Hanse's caravan guards with their companions. Everyone was full of good cheer. Some noble was having a birthday, and there was to be a fireworks display in the Ridge Gardens. The eating house looked out over Ridge Gardens where the fireworks were to be held, and Hanse and Dale, having planned this party weeks ago, had snagged a corner of it. We would even have a balcony where we might watch everything in comfort.
So caught up in Dale's joking was I that I didn't notice we had moved to the outside of the group. Suddenly Dale hooked me around the waist.
I reacted without thinking, bringing my bent arm up under the arm around my waist and slamming my free hand into the base of his neck. At the last moment I knew what I did and pulled my blow, but Dale still ended against the side of a building in the small alley beside us. For a moment we stood there, breathing a little hard, staring at each other.
Then I hung my head. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "You shouldn't surprise a Dog."
"Beka, I'm going to hold your hand now," he said, only half joking. He reached out and drew me into the alley with him. "I'm sorry. I've never taken a Dog around before. It never occurred to me there might be... hazards. But surely you have been courted this way before?"
I shook my head. I still couldn't bring myself to look at him.
He slowly put one hand under my chin and raised my face until our eyes met.
"What?" I asked him, my heart thumping. "I'll tell you right now, I've had a hard day, I'm bruised all over, and I am
hungry
."
In the torchlight from the street I saw his frown. "Bruised?"
"I'm a Dog, remember? I fight with Rats and they fight back. I bruise."
Dale picked up my hand and kissed the tips of my fingers. "Bruised here?"
I tried to yank my hand away. "Stop that. You're a flirt."
He looked at me, his eyes twinkling most wickedly. He kissed the back of my hand. "Bruised here?"
I tugged my hand again. "And a tease."
He turned my hand over and kissed my palm softly, his beard tickling my skin, roughened by my long grip on my baton. "Here?"
The peaks on my peaches went so tight I thought they might pop clean off. I pushed at Dale's forehead. "I'm not one of your toys." I tried not to sound breathless.
"I just found that out." He rubbed the base of his throat. "Never sneak up on the Dog. Very important, I think." He reached out to stroke my arm and felt my sleeve daggers. "Ouch! Not just fists – I've found your teeth! I'll check one more place – are you bruised here, Beka?"
He kissed the inside of my wrist. My knees were going weak
before
he licked it, just one little flick of his tongue. I turned to jelly, no more a sharp-toothed Dog.
Cool metal slipped around my wrist and he let me go.
"What?" I said, trying to catch my breath. I stepped out into the street, where I could see better. He'd slipped a silver bracelet onto me, the torc style that doesn't clasp. I turned to him. "What is this?"
"You won't take a coin, so I got you a gift. You were my luck last night," he told me, his eyes steady. "If we don't show our appreciation, the Trickster gets angry." He tapped my nose. "Besides, you don't have many pretty things, I'll wager. You'd never buy them for yourself. That's why you need me."
I scowled at him. "Oh, I
need you
now, is it?"
We heard a bellow from near two blocks away. "I'm STARVING!"
"I think Hanse's father was a bull," Dale said. He cupped his hands around his mouth.
"We'll
BE
there!"
He grabbed my hand, twining his fingers with mine. "Yes, you need me," he said as we trotted down the street. "You need me to make you laugh. You need me to tickle your – " He chuckled evilly. My skin rippled with goose bumps. "Fancy," he said at last. "You need me to remind you that you're a woman and not just a Dog."
I yanked him to a halt and tugged his hand until he was looking at me. "You can't separate the two, Dale," I warned him. "A Dog's all I've ever wanted to be, and sometimes I can't help being one."
He put his free hand around the back of my neck, warming it, and me, all over. "I don't
want
to separate them. I think the combination is exciting."
He picked me up by the waist and swung me around, landing me in a doorway with my back to the door.
And then he
did
kiss me.
Oh, I came all undone. He wrapped me about in his arms. I got one arm about his waist and one about his shoulders and hung on. He wasn't a hard kisser, or a quick, fast pecker, or one that thinks he must suck your face off, like the other coves that have kissed me. He fit his lips to mine and went very quiet and gentle, breathing my breath, settling his hold on me until we matched, twined about like vines.
No more. I go all loose just thinking about it.
We kissed twice more, I think, slow. Taking our sweet time. Finally he said, "Hanse'll kill us if we're any later."
"Goodwin will think we got robbed," I managed to reply.
I was glad to hear some roughness in his voice. I don't think he'd sound so if he was just playing with me to keep his flirting skills good.
So we left that doorway and walked down the street, hand in hand again. We'd gone a block when he asked, "How many blades
are
you wearing?"
I began to laugh. He'd have felt the ones at my back, for certain, and mayhap the leg ones, too. "I'm used to Dogging in the worst part of Corus," I said. "And I don't know Port Caynn at all. A girl should be prepared."
"Well, this walking out with a Dog is proving educational," Dale told me. "You'll protect me, won't you? You'll have to if you keep bringing me luck. I'll have heaps of gold coin, and you'll be forced to stay with me to protect my skinny gambling body."
I couldn't help it. I giggled. He was so lighthearted, and so funny. I'd never known anyone like him. "You're not skinny, and I've seen you fight," I said. He looked at me and grinned, the torchlight dancing in his eyes. "Where did you learn that kicking style?"
"Some Shang friends who were better fighters than they were dice players taught me," he said. "Listen, did I hurt those bruises? And how did you get them?"
I hadn't thought of the bruises since he'd kissed my hand. I shrugged and told him, "We went about, around the gem sellers' street. And there were three child stealers. We disputed, and I won."
Dale stopped and turned to face me in the street. "You... 'disputed' with three Rats."
I put a hand on my hip – right atop one of my bruises, sadly. "I wasn't about to offer them cakes and wish them a fine day."
"And how many children did my fine, brave Dog save from whatever those Rats had planned for them?" Dale asked me quietly.
I looked away, grateful for the dark that hid my blushes. He sounded so proud of me. It made my heart flip over. "A handful and a half. It wasn't even half a day's work. I'd've given them over for return to their families and gone back on the street, were I at home. Do we go to supper or not?"
He kissed me again, ignoring all the folk walking around us, the coves with their whistles and words of advice, the mots with their laughter and calls of "Lucky girl!" I grabbed his wrists as he held my face, blushing like fire at all the folk looking at us. I tugged, but Dale wasn't inclined to stop. I told myself no one could see my face, but it was dreadful, all those strangers staring.
Other hands tugged at us. Hanse and Goodwin had come. "The night is young and we are about to bay at the moon, so come and tell us what you want," Goodwin said, towing me along. I pulled my veil over my face.
Hanse looked over at me. "Beka with eyes like moonstones, I hear you were up to Dog work again today, you and Clary," he said, his own eyes dead serious. "Weren't you warned?"
"Don't tell me your Rogue winks at child stealers," Goodwin replied boldly. She poked Hanse in the ribs – not gently, either. "That's what Cooper and her scent hound were after, my buck. A fine job she did, too."
"She's not
my
Rogue," Hanse protested, rubbing his ribs as we entered the eating house. This was a more elegant place than the Merman's Cave, though in truth I noticed little of the furnishings. Dale had taken my free hand again and was tickling my palm with a finger. I snatched my hand away, looking to see if anyone had noticed. I had never let a cove be so bold with me in public. For all he was Rogue, even Rosto had learned that.
Burly house slave guards, so much alike they could have been bought as a pair, halted us. "Swords," they told the coves. "Give 'em to her." They pointed to a mot who stood before a room where the weapons lay on shelves. Then the guards looked Goodwin and me over with knowing eyes. "What manner of trouble will we get here, good mistresses?" the one on my left asked. "We know you've got bits and pieces tucked away under those nice dresses."
So the house guards were better than at the Merman's Cave or the Waterlily.
"They're Dogs, lads," Dale called as he checked his sword.
"I'll vouch for them," I heard a familiar voice say. Nestor came in behind us with Okha – well, Amber – on his arm. Nestor was out of uniform, but these guards seemed to know him. They bowed their heads and let him and Amber-Okha sweep by. Nestor smiled at me and tucked a coin into one guard's hand.
"Nestor, Amber, join us," Hanse shouted after them. "We're upstairs in the east corner!"
Amber-Okha put a hand on Nestor's shoulder. He smiled and nodded. Okha waved his fingers at us as they took the stairs.
"Sarge Haryse's word is good enough fer us, Guards-women," the guard who'd noticed we carried blades said to Goodwin and me. "You can go on in."
"I didn't know you were friends with the sergeant," Goodwin said to Hanse as he came back to us.
Hanse shrugged. "Oh, everybody knows everybody when they dance between the Court of the Rogue and the gamblin' houses," he replied. "I met Nestor because I bring Amber makeup and perfume from our Barzun trips. He's a decent cove, for all he's the law. Not bought law, neither. Straight law. A cove knows where he stands with Nestor, and it isn't on the good side of a coin."
"My feelings are hurt," Dale said with a pout as he joined us. "The guards don't trust Hanse and me, and we're such trustworthy lads."
Goodwin gave him a gentle push. "I wouldn't trust you farther than I can throw you, and you a bony bit of a cove," she said. "Look at you, toying with my poor, earnest Beka. I've been hearing about
your
reputation, Master Rowan! One foot in and one foot out of the Court of the Rogue, you
and
Hanse!"
"Lies, all of it, lies," Dale said, lifting my hand to his lips and kissing it. "Well,
mostly
lies."
"Caravaners got to be on terms with the Rogues," Hanse said. "Elsewise we lose too much cargo to them on the road. Better to be friendly and pay a little tax monthly, like."
"Now, what's this?" Sharp-eyed Goodwin had spotted the bracelet. When she took my hand to examine it, I got a better look than I had on the street. The front was set with three small, clear oval stones. They'd been invisible outside, but here, in the lamp- and torchlight, they sparked in different colors. Two held darts and chips of blue and light purple fire. The middle one, the whitest, held dots and sparks of pink, orange, and yellow light deep inside it.
I turned to Dale and started to yank the bracelet off. "I can't take this. It's too expensive."
He stopped my hand with both of his and gave me his I'm-very-serious wide-eyed look. "It's bad luck to return a gift, Beka."
"It is," agreed Goodwin.
"He's right," added Hanse.
Goodwin slapped me on the shoulder. "Besides, Cooper, most of your jewelry is scummer," she said cheerfully. "It won't kill you to have some nice things." She touched her moonstone necklace, which
is
lovely. "What are the stones on the bracelet, anyway?"
"Sirajit opals," Dale said cheerfully. "Usually you see the brown stones and the peach-colored ones. Now and then I get lucky and find something with the clear gems."
"Very lovely," Goodwin said. "Maybe some nice lad will buy
me
a present like that." We looked at each other, thinking of the opal seller who was determined to leave Corus. Then Goodwin took Hanse's arm. They began to climb the stairs to the second floor of the eating house. The first floor was already packed with diners.
"You have to be careful with opals, though," Dale said, taking my arm. "They're the Trickster's gems. Some last for ages. Others crack and go to pieces in months. If you get them just out of the ground, you want to hang on to them for a year at least before you try cutting them." He smiled at me. "I'm a bit mad for opals. I suppose it's because I am a Trickster's follower at heart."