Bloodhound (38 page)

Something in his eyes, as if he hoped I'd share his love of the stones, made me do something I rarely do. "I've an opal of my own," I told him, and fetched mine out.

Dale halted in the middle of the stair, drawing me to the side, next to a hanging circle of candles. Carefully he turned my stone in his graceful fingers, his eyes finding the cherry sparks, the green flares, the yellow lights, the orange ones, and the way a pink bit set in the surrounding pink stone might suddenly turn emerald green. "A raw fire opal," he said. "Not enough solid gemstone to make it worth cutting – "

I snatched it back. "I don't want it cut," I said. "I love it like it is."

Goodwin came back and grabbed us. "Goddess save me, you two are like children. Must we tie you to a rope and tow you to keep you with the rest of us?" She stared at my hand. "She showed you her fire opal? She
must
like you. Now come along and talk while we
eat
!"

She and Hanse weren't joking about the others' mood. They roared curses as we approached. The maids had placed us at tables set in a U so they might more easily wait on us. Better, we were in a sort of open room set off one corner of the building, so we could hear each other.

As luck had it, I got to sit beside Nestor, with Dale on my right. Goodwin and Hanse were across from us, on the opposite side of the U, with Steen and Flory. Dale and I were saved more curses as maids arrived with trays of small pasties stuffed with all manner of things. Okha, on Nestor's other side, had asked them for cider twilsey for me, while Steen had remembered Dale's wine, so we were well set up.

Dale asked me for my fire opal again. I handed it over to him, easier now that I knew he loved opals, for all he might joke about cutting mine. When he stood to eye it beside a lamp near the entry, Nestor leaned closer to me.

"I heard an unnamed Dog and her scent hound went on a hunt today," he whispered in my ear. "Later I get word from Deep Harbor that some cityfolk managed to seize three child stealers at their work at the same time."

I tried to look innocent. "Why are you interested?"

"It's not
me
who should worry you, sweetheart. It's Pearl."

I watched Dale cross the room to answer a question of Flory's. "I am curst tired of Pearl," I said, keeping my voice low. "Surely even that daughter of a scummer trull won't wink at child stealers."

"You wager your life on that," Nestor said. "Now listen close. I've news for you and Goodwin." He put two of the little pasties into my trencher. "Sir Lionel won't go after the guild banks for hiding their knowledge of coles in the city. He says 'twill only start a panic."

I stared at him. When I spoke, I kept my own voice soft. "But they risk the safety of the realm!" I checked to be sure that Dale was not close enough to hear. Now he was joking with Hanse. "They
can't
hide that they know there's a big operation going on!"

"The banks and Sir Lionel alike are panicking," Nestor whispered. "We must get word to my lord Gershom as soon as may be. I was told this afternoon that I'm forbidden to use the Crown courier service to Corus anymore."

Okha leaned around Nestor's back. "The head of the Silversmith's Bank took ship for the Copper Isles this afternoon," he murmured, passing me a dish of small tarts. "His family and servants left with him."

Nestor looked at him. "When were you going to tell me this?" he asked.

Okha gave him a very pretty smile. "Right now."

Dale was coming my way. I pointed to the tarts with my knife. "Onion, or spinach and egg?" I asked.

"Both, please," Dale said, taking his seat. "You and Nestor look very serious, so I thought I'd delay my return." He set my fire opal beside my plate after I'd given him the tarts.

I handed the dish back to Nestor, who traded me for the dish of pasties. As I did so, the gems on my bracelet glittered at me. Now it was my turn to rise and go over to the stronger light. The dancing colors in the gems were as captivating as the ones in my fire opal. I have never gotten so wonderful a gift. Did he mean to try to buy me with it?

When I returned to him, he was talking with Nestor about his card game. "There are all manner of variations," Dale was saying. "In my favorite, the Trickster can be any card the player says it is. If the player has four Ladies and the Trickster, and his opponent has four Kings, the first player can just say he has five Ladies, and he wins." He looked up at me. "Do you like your present, sweet?"

"You know I do," I told him, sitting next to him. "It's still too costly."

Nestor picked up my wrist and inspected the bracelet. "Not as a thank-you for – several won games?" he asked Dale, who nodded. Nestor looked at me. "It's a fair gift."

Something tight in my chest loosened. I didn't have to feel obligated to Dale, then.

Okha pulled his seat back so he could see us better. "Dale's one of the cleverest coves you'll ever meet, Beka," he said. "He's worked out variations on chess, backgammon... He reworked part of the banking laws while he worked for the Goldsmith's Guild as a clerk – "

Dale chewed and swallowed a bite of onion tart. "Until I got cursed
bored
, among those dusty books and papers all day!" he said merrily. "Never going anywhere, never seeing anything, staggering into my rooms at midnight – and such rooms! My
mice
lived better than I did!" As Nestor grinned and Okha chuckled, Dale said earnestly, "In truth, they did! I looked into their hole one night, and they were supping on sausage, ale, and cheese, when I had bread and cider! I tried to invite myself in, but they said I had no right to charge them rent
and
food!" I was starting to grin by then.

Flory's voice rose. "Don't you tell me what I must and mustn't say, Hanse Remy! Seems to me if folk stopped tippytoein' about the subject of coles and came right out and
said
the word, we'd all fare better!"

She had everyone's attention. Hanse threw up his hands.
"Now
look what you've done, you forward wench! Why not screech it louder, so the whole place can hear you! All this natterin', when the world knows coles slide through this town like scummer in the street!"

"One true coin in
three
, you beef-witted shave pate?" she demanded. "My girls takin' in one true silver in
three?
I've not seen that afore!"

"Mayhap folk are givin' 'em to you an' yer mots a-purpose," jested Amda Threadgill. She was one of Hanse's caravan guards. She also sat a good distance from Flory "Fer bein' so vexin' with yer dead flowers an' rotten oranges, pretendin' to sell when ye're nobbut doxies. That's what ye get fer lookin' down yer noses at mots that earn wiv honest work and don't pretend t' be better'n what they are."

Flory rounded on Amda. "Leastways
my
mots ain't half guard, half robber," she said, her voice as silky as Pounce's. "At least
my
mots give fair value for business."

Hanse glared at Flory. "Them's
my
caravaners ye're talkin' about, woman."

Flory glared back. "I bring up a true worry to us here in the city and you let your fawnin' baggage foul-mouth
my
folk?"

Lucky for us the chickens in broth arrived, together with white herbs, and rice with lobster and shrimp. As the maidservants dished out the food, everyone calmed down. Like Goodwin, I'd gone sharp, listening, watching people's faces. A touch on my leg made me jerk. I was about to jump out of my chair when I realized that it was Dale's hand, warm above my knee.

He took it away. "I forgot," he whispered. "Forgive me. Are you always so jumpy?"

"I was a Puppy for a year. I've been a street Dog since April," I told him. "It sharpens you some."

"Your muscles were as hard as the table," he said, carving some chicken and placing it in my trencher. "Does your scent hound do that when she catches the scent? Does she go all tight and stiff?"

I smiled. "Actually, she sneezes."

Nestor and Dale both looked at me. "Sneezes?" Dale asked.

"It's why she's named Achoo," I said. "A
really
good scent, she sneezes more than once."

"But Beka's not here to pick up scents," Nestor told Dale. "That's what she promised Pearl."

"Goodwin
promised," I said, stabbing a bit of chicken with my knife. "I just nodded, to be neighborly. I can't promise what Achoo might get up to."

"I hope she is ready to take the blame for you, then," I heard Okha say. Warned by his tone, I looked to the door. So did everyone else. Two guards entered in advance of Pearl. With her came Jurji the Bazhir on her right, close to Goodwin's seat. Torcall Jupp, stern and dangerous-looking even without his longsword, stood on her left, close to Dale and me. I put my hands on my lap and stuck my right hand into my sleeve, touching the hilt of my closest knife. Dale slid his hand over mine and clasped my fingers, but gently. He squeezed them. I drew my hand away from my blade.

Why did I trust him? Still, it would be better to wait. Four more of Pearl's guards took positions outside our room, barring the exit.

Dale got to his feet and bowed. "Evening, Majesty," he said. "Have you come to join us?"

"Dale."
The low growl came from Nestor. "You
know
we don't get on."

Pearl actually threw back her head and laughed. It was a Player's move. Instantly we all saw why she'd done it. She'd had several more teeth turned into pearls since only yesterday. Was she
made
of gold, that she could afford such folly? It makes me sick to think of the waste.

"Dale Rowan, had some of my lads your sack, I'd rule this entire city." She looked straight at Nestor as she said it.

Hanse, Steen, Flory, and most of the folk who had to do business with the Rogue got to their feet then, to show their respect, I suppose. Flory was the last to do it. That left Goodwin, Nestor, and me seated yet. Dale lifted my hand and kissed it, then looked at Pearl and raised his brows.

This time Pearl gave out with a true laugh. "Oh, aye, sack enough for twelve men, doesn't he, Hanse?"

Hanse grinned. "I wouldn't know. I just let him travel with me from time to time." He raised his cup. "Will you have a cup with us, then, Majesty?" he asked. "You can drink to his sack. Even I will say it's considerable."

Pearl shook her head. "No, I'll not drink with you, Hanse. You know my rule. I only drink in my own court, from my own glass, and my own kegs. No, I'm here to pick bones with these two bi – " She started to say it as she pointed to Goodwin and me, enough that both of us stiffened. Then she smiled big, showing off those new teeth of hers, and went on, "Guards-women." She looked from Goodwin to me. "After my warning, you two went Doggin' today."

"We weren't Dogging," Goodwin said, looking relaxed. "We were searching for a lost child." Like me, her hands were in her lap, out of view. "The mother was half mad with fright. The district Dogs turned her off when she didn't have a silver noble for a bribe."

Pearl smirked. "A silver noble, was it? The price has gone high. Too high, mayhap."

"Too high for this poor mot," Goodwin said. Her face hadn't changed, but I knew she'd noted Pearl's taunt about silver nobles. "She was seeking any who would help, and she found Cooper and me. Cooper has a scent hound, you may remember. Mayhap you could have told that poor mother no, but me and Cooper, we're made of weaker stuff." She lifted a hand to drink from her tankard, then set the hand in her lap again. "Would you kill us for taking a child to her mother?"

"I run no child stealers," Pearl told us. "Them Rats was none of mine. Still, I'd've thought you'd be more cautious, after my warnin'."

"I lost my head," I said, not wanting Goodwin to draw all of Pearl's wrath, if any was to come. "I never had a hound afore. This was the first time I got to try her on a real scent."

Pearl looked at me. "Guards as don't think afore they act don't live long. Ain't that right, Nestor?" She looked over at him and had the gall to wink.

Nestor shifted on his seat. Okha slung an arm around his neck, weighing him down. I wrenched my hand from Dale's and grabbed one of Nestor's heavy wrists with both sets of fingers, digging into his flesh with my nails.

Pearl smiled. "You've got friends, Nestor. You want to keep them, don't you?" She ambled out of the room, her guards falling into step around her.

Okha let Nestor go. I waited a moment, to see what he might do. When he turned and buried his face in Okha's shoulder, I let him go.

"I wonder if the fireworks will be this exciting?" asked one of Hanse's people. The laugh that came was shaky, but it was a laugh. The servants arrived with a pitcher of spiced wine from the owners, with their compliments. Compliments for what, they never said, but I suspected it was for not starting any fights.

The meal continued with no more such excitement. More food was brought and carried away. At last the sweets course came. Servants began to shove parts of the wooden walls aside, revealing the balcony with its view of the park and ridge where the fireworks were to be held. We could walk straight outside to watch, or stay where we were.

I went to find the privies outside the eating house. They were hid from the view of customers by stands of flowering bushes and trees. And a place so grand as this didn't keep just one or two privies. The women alone had a stone building with seven stalls inside, each stall curtained off, with a place to wash up after.

Waiting in the line that wound through the trees, I thought I could as well have been among a flock of pigeons, so many scraps of gossip did I hear. I hadn't expected that, not ever being at a place like this, so crowded, in all my days. At festival season I keep well to the edges of the gathering so I might bolt for home when I get uncomfortable, as I often do. I never go to large eating houses. How was I to know that even women who are strangers chatter as they wait?

" – told her, prices are creeping higher, but does she listen?"

" – poor thing had twins – "

" – couldn't believe it! Silver coles! As false as the governor's smile. You take my word – "

" – can't be had for love nor money. The merchant told me the grape crop this year was the worst – "