Bloodhound

  Goodwin squared off to Falda. Once again Goodwin wore that strange new face, the one she'd had on last night. "You can waste time arguing our wheres and whyfores, while the babe stays missing," she told Falda, looking up into the bigger mot's face to do it. "But what I heard was that two Tradesmen's Dogs wouldn't do it without a silver noble, while Goddess knows what happens to that child. All you need know, mistress, is that Cooper and I are truly Dogs, and Cooper here has a scent hound." And she clapped her hand on the grip of her baton.

  Falda reconsidered as Vorna handed me a filthy child's nightgown. It had been pissed in and dried. It smelled to the rooftops. "Will this do?" she asked me.

  I stood, nodding, and took the gown. Phelan had said things with piss or scummer on them were the best. I don't know how poor Achoo can stand it. Mayhap the smells that made me like to puke were perfumes to her. Gods all know four-legged dogs will put their noses in places a human will run screeching from.

  I looked at Goodwin. I wasn't sure how this worked with my human partner. "Do we go together, or – ?"

  Goodwin shook her head. "I'll stay here, in case someone else brings in the little one. If that happens, I'll find you and the hound."

  I frowned, confused and worried. "How will you find me? Whistle? I lost mine in the riot, I think, and if we're too far off, I'll never hear."

  Goodwin patted me on the shoulder. "Cooper, here I was thinking you were healed from that clout to your head. Where's your Dog tag?"

  "I have it right here, like I was told to," I said, tugging it from my belt purse. The glowing dot that was Goodwin was at the center of the compass drawn on the obsidian. "Why would I – ?" Then I realized how she would find me if she had to. I was so embarrassed that I began to blush. "I'll just talk to Achoo from here on."

  Achoo pawed my knee and whuffed softly. She wanted to move out. I thrust my Dog tag into my pouch hurriedly and looked at Goodwin. "Would you move them back?" I whispered. "They might respect it a bit more at the moment, coming from you."

  Goodwin gave Falda a second look, just in case, then faced the cityfolk around us, her hands on her hips. "All of you, move back. If the hound comes at you, move from her path! And do what Cooper tells you, else we'll both know why!"

  She gave me the nod and that tiniest of winks.

  I knelt beside Achoo and offered the stinking nightgown to her. "Achoo, bau," I told her.

  "Use only her name and a command word when you work," Phelan had told me. "That's all she needs to hear from you."

  Achoo's nostrils flared. Then she leaned her head closer and sniffed. She sniffed again, then began to snuffle the nightgown, up and down, inside its folds, on front and back. She even stuck her head inside. When she pulled her head out, she began to sneeze.

  My attention was fixed on her now. I stuffed the nightgown into my belt and got to my feet. Already she was casting forward, her nose in the air. She found her way to Vorna's things, wet and dry alike, stirring them with her nose. She sneezed again, twice, then set forth. For a few moments all was frustration as she went around the fountain and back, over to the edge of the square and back, up to the nearest corner and back.

  I could hear Vorna tell Goodwin, "She's so restless, my little Aldis. She goes to play with the other children, to see a knight ride by – "

  To get stolen, I thought, but I had no more leisure for thinking. Achoo found a scent that took her off the square and down a narrow alley. I ran to keep her in sight as she went at a steady trot, not too slow and not too fast. She had to go at a regular pace, both to keep me with her and to keep a steady flow of the scent in her nose, so Phelan had told me. Behind us I heard Goodwin yell to the folk in the square, "Don't you dare follow! You'll only get in the way!"

  Achoo's narrow alley took us down two blocks. We turned into another small alley, then ran through a maze built of small outbuildings and sheds. Gods all above, how had the child known this was here? Then I saw where Achoo was bound and yelped. I covered my mouth with my free hand before I could do it again and distract her. Achoo had found a tunnel between two tumbledown buildings. Somehow the litter of years, including trellises of some kind, had fallen over the pathway between them. They'd left but a crawl space, a hideaway of adventure for children and a hound, and of misery for a full-grown mot. I dropped to my hands and knees in the muck, silently cursing. For this, I could just as well have stayed in the Cesspool in Corus, and raised my own muck-crawling toddlers to chase.

  We came into the light again, where the path met with a small street. Achoo stood, casting. I waited until I was certain she was confused, then drew the nightgown out with two fingers and offered it to her again. She sniffed. I stuck it in my belt once more, trying to get as little muck from my hands on it as I could.

  Achoo raised her head, sniffing the air. I waited, quietly, ignoring the few passersby who stared at us. Achoo had not started to look bewildered, as Phelan said she would if she'd lost a scent. She seemed purposeful, alert. I wondered if she was like me, at her best doing what she was meant to do, hunting rather than flirting and telling lies to strangers. Then she took up her hunting trot, still following Aldis's smell on the currents of air.

  Three blocks and two alleys later Achoo halted at the back of a small cart tucked into a narrow passageway between houses. The cart was a wooden box with a lock at the door. She stood up at the door, nudged the lock, and glanced at me. She'd been trained not to bark if her handler was in view. Her silence could mean her life and mine if there were Rats about.

  I listened first. I heard only traffic from the street in front of the houses. No one was in the alley where I stood. I ventured first a glance under the cart, to see if anyone stood near it. No sign of feet. I took my baton firmly in hand and gave Achoo the hand signal to guard. Then I went to check, carefully, if anyone sat on the driver's seat of the cart. No one. Back to the locked door I went, sliding my pack off my shoulders. From the side pocket I took the pouch of lock picks Rosto had given me this last summer.

  Aniki had taught me their use, though I barely needed training to open this lock. Once it was open, I put the picks away and stowed the lock in my pack. Only when the pack was on my shoulders again did I grip my baton and fling the door open, standing away in case there was a guard inside.

  There was no guard. Who would need one for a set of hobbled children?

  There were seven of them. Some were still weeping. Others had stony faces. They knew their fate. Poorer children, from their clothes. Ma or Da, someone had warned them that one day the child sellers would get them and they'd be slavers' bait if they didn't behave. It would do no good to cry, so most of them didn't. All of them stared at me, expecting their captors with another prisoner.

  "Aldis?" I asked. "Which of you is Aldis?"

  The one closest to the door, a beautiful little gixie with hair so blond it was near white, big brown eyes, and dimpled cheeks, flung herself at me, or tried to. The rawhide hobbles on her ankles yanked her down. I knelt and cut the ties, then let her hug me.

  "Don't cry," I whispered as her face crumpled. "Quiet, all of you. I'll get the Dogs to return you to your rightful homes." I slashed the hobbles on their feet, then jumped out of the cart. "You must wait here yet a bit. Achoo, kemari! Jaga!" I told her.

  Achoo leaped into the cart with the little ones and turned to face the door, her eyes sharp. I tried to decide what I should do next. How far would I get if I just stole the children away? Mayhap I ought to deal with the Rats who had taken them first.

  "Hey!" A cove had come around the cart. He made the mistake of staring at the open door first, when he should have looked at me. I rammed the end of my baton into the top of his soft belly, hard into the muscle that works the lungs. He turned white and went to his knees, fighting to breathe. With no air, he couldn't yell for his friends.

  Too bad for me they were nearby. They came running. I moved out into the alley, drawing them away from the cart and the little ones. One was a redhead, bearded, his tunic clean and
well embroidered. He'd be their money man, the one in charge of selling. He drew the short sword hanging at his side. The other was bigger, bald, with a scar on his left cheek.

  I waited for one of them to move, to see what I had to deal with. I was feeling better than I had in days. Fights are such clean affairs. There's no guessing what folk mean or what they're after. I know what they're after.

  The redheaded one came at me first, doubtless thinking the sword would scare me off. I let him reach a bit too far and slammed him on the wrist, breaking it. He screamed and let the sword drop. I stood on the weapon to keep the bald one from getting it. Why had he not jumped me? I risked a look around.

  Slapper attacked the bald cove from above, gouging his scalp with his one good set of claws and his beak. When the bald cove looked up, Slapper struck him in the face with those strong wings. He kept moving, darting in and out with that pigeon nimbleness. The bald cove wouldn't be attacking me while I was busy with the redheaded man. He was protecting his eyes.

  I looked back at the man I was fighting in time to see the redhead fumble a dagger from its sheath with his good hand. I shoved the sword away and darted over, slapping my baton down on the redhead's good wrist. It broke, too. Now both his hands hung limp and he was yelling curses.

  "Here, you – Dog! What be ye doin' wiv these coves?" a man called at my back. I glanced at the end of the alley. Some folk were gathering there.

  "King's business – keep back!" I cried.

  Now that I wasn't busy, Slapper dumped scummer on the bald cove's head and flew off. With his hands free, the cove yanked a cudgel from the back of his belt and swung it at me. As I dodged, he kicked out. I jumped back. Instantly the redhead hooked one of my legs with both of his and yanked, to send me sprawling in the dirt. I hit my head hard enough that I felt it ring, but I had no time to be ill. I smacked sideways at his knee with my baton, making him screech as it landed with a crack, and threw myself over him, dodging the bald cove again. He'd been swinging his cudgel overhead at my skull. Instead he struck the dirt a good hard blow that must have hurt him far more than it hurt the alley.

  He stepped back and watched me. I picked up the sword in my left hand and got to my feet. My poor head throbbed. I hoped Master Sholto's last healing was still good.

  "What've they done to warrant yer interference?" the same pox-rotted busybody was demanding from the crowd. "We've seen 'em about fer days, deliverin' goods – "

  "Stealing your littles, you cracknob bumwipes!" I yelled, out of patience and short of breath.

  They went quiet, or mayhap I listened no more. The bald cove was feeling frisky, from the look of him. He grinned at me, showing off teeth stained brown, and tossed his cudgel from his right hand to his left like he had a mind to juggle. I just tested the sword's weight, settling it in my grip. He still grinned, but he watched that blade.

  I've no notion of swordplay, but this blade was a short one. It wasn't much longer than a baton, and the weight nearabout the same as my lead-weighted baton. I could use it as I might a second baton, as a shield.

  And I did, lunging toward the bald cove with the sword up to guard my left side, my working baton out to my right. He nearly dropped the cudgel he was flipping back and forth, and backed up to give himself some room. I swung to his right side. I'd seen enough by now to know he was left-handed, weaker on his right. The looby kept his eyes on that flashy blade. He tried to batter it down and never noticed when I swung on his left side with my baton. He turned on me with a roar, raising the cudgel again, and I slammed his right side with the flat of the sword. He swung on me backhand. I reached up, baton and blade crossed, and captured his weapon. It stuck on the sword. I let sword and cudgel drop, ramming my knee into the cove's gems.

  That was when the cove I thought I'd left breathless rammed me in the back. Lucky for me, my pack got the worst of the blow. Still, I plowed into the bald cove headfirst, caught between the two of them. I took a blow to the shoulder from the one on my back afore someone yanked him off of me. I used my baton's grip to hammer the bald cove's jaw two good strokes, until his eyes rolled up in his head. Then I turned over, reaching into my boot for my rawhide hobbles. A cove and a mot, both wearing aprons that told me they were butchers, held on to the third Rat.

  "You said child stealers?" the cove asked me.

  I jerked my thumb at the cart. "See for yourselves. Only look careful. I've a hound guarding the little ones, and she won't like it if you get too close." I stayed seated on the bald cove until I'd bound his ankles and wrists. Only then did I get up and serve the redheaded cove the same, ignoring his whines about his poor wrists.

  The two butchers came back to me, still holding on to the third Rat. The little gixie Aldis followed them. I looked around for the other children. They had gotten out of the cart but were staying there, guarded by Achoo.

  I bound the third Rat at wrists and ankles, as I'd hobbled the other two. When I was finished, Aldis ran to me and clung to my leg. I picked her up and asked the butchers, "Are you satisfied they're child stealers?"

  "How did you know of this?" the cove asked me. "You ain't from our district."

  "Two of your district Dogs told the mother it was a silver noble for them to seek out her child," I replied. Then I spat on the ground to show them what I thought of such Dogs.

  "They're not supposed to ask bribes to hunt little ones," the woman muttered.

  "Lock it," snapped the cove.

  "The mother, Vorna, she came looking for help. She found my partner and me with our scent hound. Achoo, kemari" I called. Achoo trotted over to stand beside me. I settled Aldis more comfortably on my hip. "We weren't going to say no to a mother, were we?" I asked the butchers. "Lucky for us Vorna was doing the wash and had the child's nightgown."

  Aldis whispered in my ear, "I peed on it. I'm sorry."

  I smoothed the mite's curls away from her face. "'Twas well enough, this time," I told her. "It made the smell good and strong so's Achoo could follow you. That was a help."

  Aldis looked at me, her face but inches from mine. "Mostly I don't pee the bed. I'm a big girl."

  I frowned at her as I had at my little sisters, long ago. "I thought big girls listen to their mas. They don't stray where the child stealers might catch them."

  Aldis hung her head, her lower lip a-tremble. "I was bad." Tears rolled down her cheeks. "They tooked me."

  My heart pinched with sadness. I wiped her tears away with my hand. "Next time, will you wander away from your ma?"

  Aldis shook her head. I believed her. "Next time, my hound Achoo might not be here to sniff you out. It's her you should be thanking." I set her down so she could hug Achoo. When she did, my hound licked her face.

  I looked at the two butchers and at the small crowd that had moved into the alley behind them. "You're right, I'm not from this district," I said. "And I want to take Aldis back to her mother without more delay. I'd be grateful to you good cityfolk if you'd call for your local Dogs and tell them you caught these Rats in the act."

  "But the Rats will tell a different tale," someone from the crowd said.

  "Of course they'll want to say they was took by a Dog, even a lone small one," I told them with as much scorn as I could muster. "Elsewise they'll have to say they was grabbed by city-folk with no weapons at all, big fine Rats like them. Mayhap you should, like, persuade them to tell the truth. Before someone finds a pair of Dogs and brings them back here." I went to the cart, letting the crowd talk among themselves. The little ones stood there, seeming a bit less frightened.

  I knelt before the children so we were all nearabout the same height. "Tell the Dogs and these folk who your families are. Say no word of me," I said. The young ones nodded.

  Then I looked at the two butchers, who seemed to be leaders hereabouts. "Have we an arrangement?"

  The two butchers looked at the others, then at me. "Aye, though we think your nob is plain cracked," the cove told me. "Run along with this little one. Our own Dogs will come quic
k enough now that the Butcher's Guild has sent for 'em."

  Finally! I picked up Aldis. "We're off. Achoo, tumit." We went down the narrow passage, around that child stealer's cart.

  Behind us I heard the butcher mot say, "Now, ye scummer, what tale will ye be tellin' our Dogs?" I heard a meaty thump and a yell of pain.

  "They'll be sad by the time the local Dogs get there," I told Aldis as we came out onto the next street. "Funny how folk dislike child stealers."

  I made a few lucky guesses to avoid the route I'd followed to find Aldis. Soon we'd returned to the small square where we'd left her mother and Goodwin. Vorna was trying to do her wash as she cried. Goodwin was actually giving her a hand, something I never thought I'd see. Achoo barked a greeting, which made Goodwin look around. So too did Vorna. She screamed, seeing her child on my hip.

  All the other laundresses flocked to us as Vorna snatched Aldis from me, kissing and crying over her all at the same time. Then she began to spank Aldis, crying, "Don't you ever wander again!"

  The women were looking at us. With her spanking done, Vorna came forward. Aldis was sobbing on her shoulder. "I don't...," Vorna began.

  Goddess and Mithros, I hate the thank-yous. I thrust Achoo forward. "Achoo did all the work," I said. "She's the one you should thank." While they fussed over my hound, I slipped off the square into the street that would take us back the way we came. Goodwin and Achoo caught up before I'd gone a block.

  "Cooper, Trickster laugh at you, someday you will learn you have to let folk say how they're grateful for what you've done!" she said, catching her breath.

  "Not as long as I have partners," I mumbled.

  "You think so?" Goodwin asked, giving me a raised eyebrow. Then she pointed. "Look, there's a cart that sells grilled shrimp on a stick. Let's buy some, and you can tell me what happened when you got the child. Don't lie to me. Your hair is a mess and you have a bruise on your cheekbone."

  I told her the whole of it as we bought and ate the shrimp. She chuckled over the story the cityfolk were going to tell their Dogs, about how they had captured three child stealers. Then she turned more serious as we set out for home. "You know, Cooper, it may be we erred when I said you should take Achoo and find the child. The Dogs may be fooled by that story, but Pearl will get the truth."