Achoo greeted us with dancing and a wagging tail when we found her. We were in no hurry to leave the shelter of the cave once we reached it. Sitting on a rock, I watched my partner and rubbed Achoo’s wet fur, wondering what was going through Tunstall’s mind. I’d respected him from before my Puppy year—he was a legend in the Lower City, him and our former partner, Goodwin. Being his only partner over the last two years, I had learned there was plenty that went on in his fuzzy nob that most folk didn’t expect. He played the part of lolloping barbarian so well that it never occurred to many that he’d have died young if he was who he seemed to be.
“These Rats have deep pockets, Beka,” Tunstall said at last. “Deeper than my old mother’s loincloth.” He always swore his mother had birthed twelve children and had a bottom as big as a bridge. “Deep enough to throw away two ships, their crews, and nearabout thirty slaves—if they did drown all of the slaves. I think they did. The group we followed to the river was a small one.”
I nodded. That all matched what I was thinking. I was proud of myself for following Tunstall so far.
“Magic that big is never cheap. Whoever Hunts these Rats will need plenty of mages of their own, and who’s to say they can be trusted?” Tunstall rubbed the top of his skull. “Curse it, I hate handling mages, you know I do. But this Hunt is lousy with them already.” Tunstall looked at the ceiling of the cave and blew out a huge breath. “I’d like Goodwin on this, so I would. No insult to you. You’re the best new Dog I’ve ever worked with.”
I looked at the sandy floor, hoping he couldn’t see the color in my cheeks. I knew he liked me. We’re still partners, after all! But this was serious praise, coming from an old-timer like him!
“Still, we could use Goodwin,” he said. “Too bad she’s gotten to like going home with her skin in one piece.” He was very quiet for a long moment. At last he got to his feet. “It’s not getting drier out there.”
I nodded and stood. “We’ve faced rough Hunts before,” I reminded him. “It’s the royalty that itches me. I don’t want to fail Her Majesty.”
“We won’t, then,” Tunstall said. “We’ve got Achoo, right, girl? And Achoo hasn’t lost a lass or lad yet.”
She knew he was complimenting her. She bruffed and wagged her tail, ramming Tunstall in the side with her head.
He’d cheered me up, too, because he was right. Achoo had found every little one we’d been set to find. Surely a prince was just a little lad with better clothes than most.
“Goddess, thank you for our hound,” I said as I threaded my boots and stockings through my belt. Squinting, I plunged into the rain. Tunstall and Achoo ran out past me.
The flooded trail that had swept me down before was even deeper and faster after all of the morning’s extra rain. Achoo couldn’t even keep her footing. We backed off and checked the other paths, but they were no better. Tunstall slung Achoo over his shoulders and went first, barefooted still, gripping the slabs of rock on the right side of the path with hands and feet to make the climb. I clambered up a foot on the left side and did the same, though not so ably. I slipped and slid, bruising and scraping my poor bare feet.
And what does my cracked partner do, partway up that small river channeled by the rock walls? He halted, turned his head back, and shouted over the roar of rain and storm-stream, “Why did the looby go into that back room alone anyway?”
I stared at him. I couldn’t believe it. Then I could, because it was Tunstall. When he had a question, he’d ask it, and wait for the answer, no matter what. “What are you doing? Go!” I cried. “Before we drown!”
“Why did Holborn do it?” he demanded. He shifted himself so Achoo could sit better on his shoulders. She looked at me and whined.
“Goddess save me,” I whispered. “I want a partner who doesn’t need to be locked up and fed caudles!” I leaned my face against the rock for a moment, then looked at him again. “Holborn didn’t think!” I shouted. “He was always looking for a chance to bag more Rats and claim to be the best Dog. He didn’t think! His partner, Ahern? He said that’s why he was glad Jane Street and Flash District paired up for that raid.” My voice caught. I had to clear my throat. “Ahern said Holborn was always like that, charging on in, and he thought having me there would slow him down. But it didn’t, and the slavers had guards waiting for somebody to do just what Holborn did.” I wiped the water out of my face with my shoulder. It figured. Just when I cried a little, the stupid rain was easing.
It made me feel better to see that Tunstall was looking at the sky, not at me. “Letting up,” he said. “Stopping maybe.”
I heard a whipping sort of noise and cursed our positions. We were out in the open. The only way we could get to our weapons was by letting go of the rock. That meant dropping into the hard current of water in the path, which could well knock us off our feet and sweep us back down to the ocean.
Tunstall was braced with his feet as well as his arms. He was groping for his baton when we both saw what made the sound. A pair of climbing ropes dropped along the sides of the path. In another moment two coves of the King’s Own swung down on them, bouncing off the stone like dancers. With great leaps they soared over Tunstall and me, then halted just behind us.
“My lord Gershom’s calling all over for you two,” one of them said. “Mistress Orielle looked in her glass and found you for us. You’re lucky my cousin and I are climbers.”
“We could wait. The rain’s stopping.” Tunstall wasn’t the best of rope climbers. “The water will go down fast enough.”
The other was grinning. “Of course, Guardsman. We’ll go back and tell that to my lord Gershom, right off.”
I reached over and seized the rope. “I’m going,” I said. “I’ll take Achoo.”
Tunstall sighed. “No.” He got the rope behind himself and my hound so that he gripped it in each hand, leaning against it with his bum. I’d positioned my rope in the same way around me. Tunstall had learned to climb rocks in the eastern hills, while I had learned it only last year, chasing murderers with Achoo in the Royal Forest. It was amazing how useful I found the skill among the warehouses along the river.
We were two-thirds of the way up the cliff when the rain, which had looked good to stop completely, began to pour again.
A handful of ladies-in-waiting watched for us from the kitchen doorway. As soon as they got a look at us they started to grab drying cloths. I looked around for Master Farmer. He stood by the largest hearth, stirring a pot of something that smelled very good.
He looked at us. “You’re wet.”
Tunstall scratched at his whiskers. “With those powers of observation, I’ll wager the army and the City of the Gods were fighting over you,” he said.
“Naw,” Master Farmer replied with his three-cornered grin. “The army found out I don’t know my left foot from my right. It’s a problem. Would you like to be dry, then? I can do that much for you.”
“Five days staked in the blazing sun won’t dry us off, but you’re welcome to try,” said Tunstall.
Master Farmer looked at me. “Cooper? Have you objections? I can dry your hound off, too.”
I ground my teeth. I hate it when magic’s put on me, but we were summoned before Lord Gershom. It was bad enough that I wore a muddy uniform. It would be so much worse to have it wet into the bargain. I nodded, keeping my eyes on the floor. “Thank you, Master Farmer.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “You don’t seem eager. I won’t force you.” It was funny, that he truly seemed to want to know.
I nodded at the floor again. “I dislike being soaked a little worse than I dislike being magicked,” I explained. “But there’s no sense in being foolish about it when Achoo’s shivering and we have to attend upon Lord Gershom.”
For a moment everything around my legs and Achoo turned dark blue. Then they took on their normal colors. Achoo’s curls were even straight. My breeches hung without a wrinkle. So too did my tunic. Touching the boots and stockings I’d tucked into my
belt, I found they were dry as well. I sat on a bench to put them on as I inspected Tunstall. He looked as if maids had pressed his uniform and shined his boots.
One of the gentlemen who attended the king ran into the chamber. He halted when he saw us. “My lord Gershom wants to know where—” He stopped. I would have wagered a week’s pay that the words Lord Gershom had actually used were not those the gentleman said. “Where in the gods’ names have the three Hunters gotten to, Scanra? He requested their appearance some time ago.”
We looked at Master Farmer. He shrugged. “I wasn’t going to see him without you. It didn’t seem fitting.”
We followed the messenger. Achoo remained in the kitchen, curled up by a warm hearth. Since I felt she’d had enough excitement for the morning, I let her stay. I looked around for Pounce, but he was nowhere in sight. I suspected he was still cozy in bed.
The messenger led us to an open door, but he did not follow us into the room beyond. He closed the door behind us. My lord sat at a desk, his long hair falling forward into his face as he scribbled on a parchment. He’d secured a study for his work, one that was lined with maps like his study at home. There were five chairs besides the one that he used. There were books and scrolls in shelves along the walls. Master Farmer wandered over to look at them.
My lord finished what he was writing and scattered sand over it to dry the ink. “Where were you?” he demanded, glaring at us. “There’s work to be done!”
Growing up in my lord’s house, I was no match for that growl, which always meant some servant was in trouble. I wanted to run. Luckily, Master Farmer and Tunstall were made of sterner stuff. Master Farmer looked over his shoulder and said, “I was cooking breakfast with Tunstall’s help. You need servants, Gershom. The nobles can’t cook, they upset the hens, and they’re helpless with cows. Unless you want Tunstall, Cooper, and me to do all of the chores while everyone continues to eat cheese and raw vegetables. The bread’s getting stale, you know.”
My lord glared him into silence. Master Farmer took a chair, leaned back, and crossed his legs at the ankle. He looked prepared to lounge there all day.
Tunstall explained, “Me and Cooper did some nosing about after us lads finished cooking breakfast, my lord.” His owl eyes were perfectly calm. “We had us a look at the raiders’ ships, since they’re above water.”
“But it’s pouring outside!” my lord protested. “How did you even get down there?”
“We climbed it,” Tunstall replied. “It was a sarden holiday to manage, too.”
My lord leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Take a chair, you two,” he ordered. As we obeyed, he said to Tunstall, “Go on. What did you find?”
“Not as much as we hoped,” Tunstall replied. “Protection spells kept us from searching the cargo or the bodies. Most of the goods were washed out of the holes in the keels of the ships, along with anyone who was belowdecks. Those who were chained down in the Lash are still there, along with the deck crew.”
“The mage or mages used the ship to trap the ones on deck,” I said. “The sails were woven together. Then they wove themselves through the holes made for the oars, to make a flat cover over most of the deck. The wood—the oars, the wheel, the rail—grew up over the hands of those who touched it. They couldn’t have freed themselves.”
My lord and Master Farmer made the Sign.
Tunstall reported, “The Lash is a slave ship. I believe once the six bodies are taken from the bunks on the Lash, you’ll have six of the missing folk from this palace. The other ship is a cargo vessel built for speed. Most of the warriors would have come on that.”
“They disguised themselves as slave transports to get past Blue Harbor and Port Caynn, perhaps,” Master Farmer said.
“To pass unnoticed by nearly anyone,” my lord said. “Who would pay attention to slave traders moving up and down the coast at this time of year? Everyone’s taking cargoes north and south.”
“We’ll learn more if we can search the bodies and the cargoes,” Tunstall said. “Where they came from, if they are branded slaves—”
“That’s as may be, but you and Cooper won’t be the ones to do the search,” my lord replied, sitting up straight. “Master Farmer can do it. Are the protection spells yours?” he asked the mage.
Master Farmer shook his head. “Ironwood and Orielle took care of that, to keep what was on the ships from rotting faster. I can ask them to undo the spell work.”
“What’s his Dog experience?” Tunstall protested. “What does he know of searches?”
“I’ve done private Hunts for Lord Gershom in past years,” Master Farmer said, his eyes half lidded. “And I’ve served three years at the Kraken Street kennel in Blue Harbor. I’ve lost count of the searches I’ve done there. I don’t know what the Jane Street kennel has in the way of mages, but I work on handling of the victims of crimes, inspection of evidence, handling mages, and the detection of poisons and spells. That’s in addition to five country Hunts out of Blue Harbor as well as street Hunts. None as big as this, but have you done so great a Hunt yourselves?”
“Enough,” Lord Gershom snapped. “Tunstall, I’ve worked with Farmer off and on for four years and he’s a good man. I hope that is enough for you.”
My lord is a strict judge of coves and mots. If he says they are worthwhile, then it is so. When my lord glanced at me, to see if I would argue, I busied myself with picking Achoo fluff from my tunic.
“Tunstall and Cooper are to take the ship that is now at the palace dock on the Ware River,” my lord announced. “They are to carry a packet of messages that I have spent most of the night writing.” He shoved the packet, wrapped in oiled cloth over leather, at us. Tunstall carefully picked it up and handed it to me. “Here are your orders.” He gave us one document each. “Show that to any who question you. Cooper, is there any chance that Achoo can pick up the boy’s scent if you were to go up and down the river?”
I shook my head. “After this kind of rain all last night and all today? None, my lord. Had your ship come earlier this morning, mayhap, but …” I thought it over, remembering the powerful stream that had sent me thumping and bumping down to the foot of the cliffs. “No. It was too heavy even then, and it rains still.”
“Very well, then,” Lord Gershom said with a nod. “Tunstall, you and Cooper will take that packet to Sir Tullus at Port Caynn and hand it to him only, then wait in the city for his orders. Tell no one else what you have seen here. Part of his instructions will be to set you on the greater Hunt, so don’t worry about being cut out. Farmer will bring you whatever he learns from the ships. Cooper, one thing—write up the investigation so far, but do your best to keep Farmer’s name, Tunstall’s name, your name, and Achoo’s name out of it. I want all of the information, but in a pinch, I want no one to know which Dogs, and which hound, were on this Hunt, do you understand?”
I wanted to scratch my head like the men did when they were confused, but Lord Gershom’s lady had beaten the habit out of me when I was small. “I don’t know if I can do it, my lord, but I’ll try.”
“That’s good enough for me, Cooper,” he said. I felt my insides warm up, like they always did when he praised me. Until they did, I didn’t know how cold they were.
My lord looked at Tunstall. “Questions?”
“Which boat do we take to Port Caynn, my lord?” Tunstall asked.
“She’s called the Malia. She’s one of the few ships permitted to wait at the royal dock on the Ware River. All of the peregrine ships are in use, so it’s a slower trip than our last one. Anything else?” my lord asked, raising his brows.
I had a question—“why can’t we pick up the Hunt from here?”—but I also knew the signal of those raised brows. He might ask, but truth to tell, he wanted no more questions. Instead I pulled the brass medallion with its strange insignia from my pocket. “My lord, this goes with the evidence to be examined. I found it on the northern end of the beach last night, along with other things we left i
n a pile there. This was too small to leave.”
“I’ll take it,” Master Farmer said, holding out his hand. My lord gave me the nod. I passed the medallion over to the mage. He took out the lens he used for seeing magic. “There’s no magic in it,” Master Farmer said, turning the medallion over in his fingers. “And I don’t recognize the insignia.”
“We’ll have someone render it on paper and send it around,” Lord Gershom replied. Looking at Tunstall and me, he said, “Very well, then. Get your things and go. Master Farmer, stay with me.” He wet his pen with ink again and began to scribble. Tunstall and I left the room.
Pounce awaited me in my chamber, along with my pack. It was dry, gods be thanked. “You missed all the falling down and getting bruised and talking about it with my lord,” I told him as I stuffed everything into my pack.
No, I didn’t, Pounce replied, stretching out to his full length with a yawn. I heard everything.