"Great Father Ils!" Bezul sighed as he deciphered the Nighter"s revelations. "You don"t have Perrez.
You"re looking for him."
The youth hesitated, then nodded. "He swore. Come midnight, he"d be right here. I waited "til it weren"t midnight no more then I come to the changin" house. Perrez said, aught went wrong, the changer"d have the lucky." He stuck out his hand.
There"d be h.e.l.l to pay when Bezul caught up with his brother who, as Father Ils judged all men, had never intended to meet the Nighter but, first things first: "You"ve been-"
Before Bezul could finish his explanation, the youth lunged for his throat. It was a foolish move, not because Bezul was prepared- he most certainly wasn"t-but because the youth was more crippled than surly. His right leg betrayed him and he"d have tumbled on his face, if Bezul hadn"t caught him. The youth fought free, snarling threats and lashing out with his fists. Bezul countered with a forearm thrust that unbalanced the young man. He went down with a groan that owed nothing to Bezul"s strength.
"Whatever your dealings with Perrez," Bezul said sternly, "he didn"t share them with me. I don"t know what"s become of your "lucky." "
"No," the youth insisted, his chin tucked against his chest. From the way he shook, Bezul guessed there were tears dripping onto the mud. "I gotta get the lucky." He swiped his face with a leather sleeve. "Got to." Then the youth hugged himself tight. "s.h.i.te," he muttered and repeated the oath as he swayed from side to side.
Bezul had seen misery too many times in his life not to recognize it in a heartbeat. Knowing that his own brother was the cause didn"t make it easier to bear.
"Stand up," he urged the youth. "Tell me your name and tell me about this "lucky." What does it look like?" There was, after all, a chance that the changing house had an identical "lucky" or two stashed in its warrens.
"It"s red."
"Your name or the "lucky"?"
"Name"s Dace. Lucky"s red. Reddest red."
"And it belongs to someone else?"
Dace raised his head. "Not Perrez!" he snarled.
"No, not Perrez, and not you, either, by the look of things. But you gave it to Perrez-as earnest. Why?
What was Perrez planning to do with it before midnight?" And what had either to do with last week"s moon eclipse or perhaps the first-blood tournament? Frog all-he should have been paying more attention to his brother"s activities, should have known Perrez would find a way to get in trouble.
The Nighter shrugged, recapturing Bezul"s attention. "Said he"d find out if"n it was true lucky. Told him it was. We been usin" it for years."
"For what?""Baitin" crabs."
"I thought-" Bezul began, then returned to his first question: "What does your "lucky" look like, Dace?
Not just its color, but how big? Is it shiny-?"
Dace clambered to his feet. He framed his fingers around a nut-sized hole. "This big, drop-shaped, and shiny. And smooth. Hard-smooth and cool in your hand."
Gla.s.s, Bezul decided. Heated once for clarity, then cooled into a solid bulb and stored for a future use that never came. There weren"t many gla.s.sblowers left in Sanctuary and most of what they blew was milky yellow, but years ago it had been different. Years ago, master craftsmen had blown their gla.s.s clear as sunlight or colored like rainbows, gla.s.s brilliant enough to earn a goldsmith"s respect.
Perrez knew where they kept their father"s storage chest of jewel-colored bulbs, so why had he swindled a Nighter out of his precious "lucky"... ?
Bezul shook the question out of his thoughts. "Come along," he told Dace, "we"ll find you a "lucky," " and when that was settled, by all the G.o.ds, he"d have choice words with his brother.
Dace followed Bezul from the ferry. The Nighter threw himself into every stride, swaying precariously on his weak leg. Bezul wondered why the young man didn"t use a crutch-until he imagined a crutch sinking into a swamp"s endless mud. He offered to pay their way across the footbridge, but Dace wanted nothing of charity-or the narrow bridge. They took the long way, instead, shouldering their way through the crowds at the tournament, then hiking uphill, upstream through the bazaar. Dace was gasping when they reached the palace wall, but much too proud to call a halt, so Bezul called one for himself at the top of Stink Street.
"What do you get out this, Dace?" Bezul asked. "Why loan your "lucky" to a stranger?" He"d tried, and failed, to keep the critical tone out of his voice.
Dace stared long and hard at his grimy sabots before answering: "No stranger," he admitted between deep breaths. "I been workin" for him all winter. Showin" him places in the swamp, old places, like the one where my uncle found the lucky. I told him how the lucky"s the best bait ever. Ever"thing comes to it, even birds and snakes, but crabs is the best, even in winter-specially this winter when nothin"s froze.
Put the lucky in a crab-trap at sunset and it"s full-up with a mess o"crabs come morning. Eat "em or sell "em, nothing better than crabs. Perrez, he wanted to bait a trap over here. Said it was dangerous, but if the lucky caught what he was lookin" for, then him and me would be partners and I could live over here with him." The Nighter met Bezul"s eyes. "You being the changer, you"ve got to help me. Perrez said. If I go home without the lucky-" Dace drew a fingertip across his throat.
Bezul wasn"t a violent man, but words might not be enough when he came face-to-face with Perrez.
Dace was a Nighter: crippled, wild, and utterly unsuited for life anywhere but the swamp where he"d been born. Telling him otherwise-giving him hope-pa.s.sed beyond swindling greed to cruelty. And leaving Bezul to sort it out, that would be the last-the absolute last-in a long string of insults a younger brother had heaped on his elder. He started down Stink Street with Dace lurching along beside him.
Nighters with their furs and leathers, not to mention their swampy aroma, attracted attention at the best of times. A gimpy Nighter trailing after a respectably dressed merchant attracted extra attention. Someone, seeing them and recognizing Bezul, had run ahead to the changing house. Jopze had left his comfortable post inside the changing house and taken up position beneath the baker"s awning a few doors up Wriggle Way. A barrel stave leaned in easy reach against the wall.
Bezul caught Jopze"s eye and shook his head twice, a.s.suring the old soldier that, however strange itlooked, he wasn"t in need of protection. Jopze picked up the stave and followed them to the changing house where Ammen, their other guard, had remained with the family and customers.
"Any sign-?" Bezul began as he stepped across the threshold.
Before he could finish, Chersey ran from behind the heavy wooden counter. She was all smiles and clearly hadn"t noticed Dace.
"It was all for nothing," she told him. "Your brother showed up not long after you left-shirt and all. I told him what had happened-how frightened we were and how you"d gone after him. He laughed, like it was nothing at all, and said it had to be the laundress; he was missing a shirt..." Chersey"s voice trailed. She"d gotten an eyeful of Dace. "What-? Who-?"
"Meet my brother"s laundress," Bezul said bitterly and began his own version of the morning"s events.
He was cautious at first, expecting Gedozia or Perrez himself to challenge him from the shadows, but Chersey had said-when Bezul paused for breath-that Gedozia and the children hadn"t returned from the farmers" market-held this week, on account of the tournament, in the cemetery outside the walls-and Perrez had stayed at the changing house only long enough to "borrow" three shaboozh.
"He said he had work to do," Chersey explained. "Something big-isn"t it always? He was meeting a man. I couldn"t tell whether he was buying or selling-but it wasn"t anything to do with the tournament.
Your brother was beside himself, Bez. All bright-eyed and high-colored, as though he"d been drinking. I didn"t know what to make of him so I gave him one shaboozh and told him to come back later, when you"d gotten back, if he needed more."
One shaboozh was two more than Perrez deserved.
There was more that Chersey wasn"t saying. Bezul knew that by the way she fussed with her silver-gray moonstone ring. It was a magical ring-not particularly potent, but useful for a.s.sessing intentions, useful when you made your living buying and selling. He watched his wife take Dace"s measure with a casual gesture, lining the ring up with the Nighter"s face as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
They needed to talk and if Bezul had been thinking he would have helped Chersey clear their customers out of the shop before they talked further about Perrez"s indiscretions. Or perhaps not. Bezul had restrained himself far too long on his brother"s account, and his mother"s. Suddenly, he no longer cared.
Let the gossips spread the tale of how the changer"s brother had swindled a crippled Nighter out of a lump of red gla.s.s throughout the quarter, throughout Sanctuary. Let Perrez feel their eyes burning his neck and hang his head in shame for a change.
Words spilled out of Bezul, honest and acid, until his belly was empty and he asked, "I don"t suppose he left that d.a.m.ned red lucky here?"
Chersey shook her head. Mistress Glary-the greatest snoop in all Sanctuary-slipped out the door, careful not to let the hem of her dress brush against the slack-jawed Nighter. Her departure broke the spell of curiosity. The other customers clamored to complete their business. Bezul joined his wife behind the counter: twenty padpols exchanged for a pair of boots with patched soles, a copper-lined pot exchanged for four shaboozh, one of them a royal shaboozh minted in llsig, not Sanctuary; and a child"s fur-lined cloak swapped even for a larger one of boiled wool and a pair of woolen breeches.
Dace blinked often enough, but he didn"t move, didn"t say a word as the changing house conducted its business. As birds flew, the Prince"s gate on the east side of Sanctuary was farther from WriggleWay than the Swamp of Night Secrets, but Dace might just as well have fallen from the moon for all he seemed to grasp of ordinary trade.
"I"ll see him back where he belongs," Jopze volunteered. His hand fell heavily on the Nighter"s shoulder and spun him effortlessly toward the door.
"No, we owe him-" Bezul rubbed his brow. He"d acquired a headache between Stink Street and home.
"We owe him a "lucky." " He turned to Chersey. "That chest of my father"s. The one with the gla.s.s bulbs Ayse loves to play with, it"s-?"
"In the woodshed behind the annex, under the porphyry urn we"re holding for Lady Kuklos. The key"s in the flowerpot."
Bezul leaned forward to kiss his wife on the cheek.
She whispered, "I knew Perrez was lying about something, but I couldn"t get him to say what. That"s why I wouldn"t give him three shaboozh-I"d guessed he wanted it for wine. I never thought-"
"Who could?" Bezul replied in the same tone. "There"ll be a reckoning this time, I swear it. The children are getting old enough to notice."
"What about that one? The Nighter... the boy."
"We"ll give him a "lucky" and send him back to the swamp." Bezul sighed. "I don"t know which I find harder to believe: that my brother stole crab-trap bait or that he promised to take that poor, frog-eating b.a.s.t.a.r.d on as a partner."
Chersey put an arm"s length between herself and her husband. "Could you be wrong about the bait?"
"I could be wrong about everything, Chersey. Why?"
"It"s just-"
She twisted the moonstone ring and revealed an oval patch of reddened skin on her finger. Bezul gasped.
The ring had been in his family since their goldsmithing days. It had kept them safe-almost-from the Hand and even in the face of Retribution himself, Dyareela"s right hand in Sanctuary, the ring hadn"t harmed the slender finger that wore it.
"I was suspicious," Chersey confessed. "So I kenned him-Perrez. I didn"t see the aura-no malice-but, it hurt, Bez, and, afterward, all I could think about was the pouch hanging from his belt.
That"s how I knew... how I knew it wasn"t anything to do with the tournament."
She blushed and Bezul tried to rea.s.sure her while asking, "Did you see which way he headed?"
"Out, that"s all. We"ve been busy all morning. Maybe Jopze saw something. He was near the door, but I doubt it."
Bezul"s headache was getting worse by the heartbeat.
"I"ll go down to the tavern after we"re done with Dace-the Nigh-ter. I"ll talk to him, get to the bottom of this."
He left his wife smiling and went outside to the woodshed where the dusty air aggravated his headache and the big urn was at least twice as heavy as he remembered. Bezul had his arms full and his cheek pressed against the porphyry when he heard footfalls behind him."Give me a hand, here," he said, expecting that Chersey had sent Jopze or Ammen out to help, but the arms that slid around the polished stone were Gedozia"s.
His mother was a strong woman, despite her gray hair and missing teeth. Between them, they got the urn to the ground without crushing anyone"s toes. Bezul brushed his sleeves and waited for her to start the conversation because, sure as the sun rose in the east, Gedozia hadn"t shown up by accident or to help with manual labor.
"You won"t find your brother in any tavern around here."
Bezul raised his arm-in anger or sheer frustration, he couldn"t have said which. After a moment, it dropped to his side again. "You knew," he accused her. "This morning, I asked you where he"d gone and you said you didn"t know."
"And I didn"t!" Gedozia insisted. "Oh, Bezul, this has nothing to do with that Nighter stinking up the front room. Perrez found something-"
"A bulb of red gla.s.s!"
"Some gla.s.s bulb," Gedozia retorted, "if there"s an Ilsigi trader willing to pay seventy royals for it."
Bezul blanched at the sum, though, surely, if something were worth seventy golden royals in Sanctuary, it would be worth seven hundred in the king"s city.
"Perrez came by to tell me this morning. Seventy royals! He"s been working with this trader all winter.
Yesterday the trader finally got serious and offered some earnest money. Today Perrez said he was turning it over-the red gla.s.s-and getting the full seventy royals. Seventy! He was so excited. He swore me to secrecy because he wanted to tell you himself, Bezul, to show you what he"s made of. But you were already gone-chasing that Nighter-and he had to meet the Ilsigi at midday. Think of it: seventy royals! I told your father, "Bezulshash, it"s not enough, not what he deserves, but it"s a start." I went to market to buy food for a feast-tried to, the city"s up to here with people who think they"re going to win more than seventy royals tomorrow and are spending their winnings today!
"Your father came to me at the fishmonger"s: "Gedozia," he says. "Gedozia, he can"t be trusted!-" "
"Praise Ils! It"s about time-"
Gedozia seized Bezul sharply by the wrists. "Not your brother, the Ilsigi! The Ilsigi means to cheat Perrez out of the seventy royals! He"s too sweet-natured, my Perrez. He"ll never suspect a thing, until it"s too late. Find him, Bezul. He"s your brother. It"s up to you to do what his father would have done. Bezulshash would have beaten this Ilsigi with a stick."
Bezulshash would have done no such thing and Bezul would have dismissed everything his mother had said, if it hadn"t made a sour sort of sense when compared with the tale Dace had told.
Bezul broke free of Gedozia"s grasp. "Hard to cheat a thief, Mother. He tricked that gla.s.s from the Nighter. Good as stole it-"
"The Nighter"s a halfwit-and who"s to say where he got it, eh? If he got it. If it"s even what the Ilsigi trader wanted to buy. You"re the one talking about gla.s.s. I thought it was a ma.n.u.script."
"You-" Bezul caught himself. The sun rose and set on Perrez, always had, always would, and telling Gedozia anything else was a waste of time. Best to go back to the beginning, to what she wanted. "You said I wouldn"t find Perrez around here. Where will I find him?""Uptown... in the Maze. The Unicorn."
Just when Bezul had thought he"d heard the worst, Gedozia astonished him. But if she knew the Vulgar Unicorn"s reputation as a den of thieves and ne"er-do-wells, she kept it hidden. Bezul shook an iron key out of a painted flower pot, unlocked his father"s chest, and sorted through its contents until he"d found a bulb of blood-red gla.s.s as big as his fist.
"You can"t be serious," Gedozia complained. "That"s irreplaceable. It"s worth four shaboozh, three at least-"
Bezul locked the chest. He tucked the key inside his jacket and left the urn where it was. "Don"t say another word," he warned the woman who"d birthed him. "After I"ve settled with the Nighter, I"ll go uptown, looking for Perrez. Don"t convince me otherwise."
"You-" Gedozia began, but Bezul"s darkest stare convinced her not to finish.
He returned to the front room where Lesimar was sitting in Am-men"s lap and Chersey tended a desperate-looking woman trying to exchange an ap.r.o.n of windfall apples for three fishhooks. Had Bezul been the one behind the counter, he would have given the woman a single metal hook for the brown, wrinkled fruit that even the geese wouldn"t eat. Chersey parted with two and a length of light silken thread pulled invisibly from the hem of a lady"s dress left in the shop on consignment. Their eyes met as the woman departed.
"Has the Nighter gone?" Bezul asked, saying nothing-wisely- about his wife"s generosity.
"The kitchen," she replied, meaning that she"d decided to feed him.
Dace sat on the floor beside the hearth, ignoring the chairs and table. He cradled a smallish bread loaf and a bowl of whey in his lap. By the looks of the whey as he dipped a morsel of bread in it, Chersey had fortified the weak milk with an egg. Thanks to their flock of night-watchmen, the changing house always had extra eggs. Four-year-old Ayse sat cross-legged in one of the chairs, her wide eyes not missing a thing as the Nighter ate with his fingers-something she was no longer permitted to do.
The young man wiped his hands on his breeches before taking the gla.s.s bulb Bezul offered. He seemed pleased, though a bit overwhelmed. Bezul"s gift was bigger, he stammered, redder, and heavier-solid where the missing bulb had been hollow, but it was Ayse who got to the heart of matter: "Is it lucky, Poppa? It"s got to be lucky, doesn"t it?"
Bezul answered with hope, not honesty, and got out of the kitchen.
Despite Gedozia"s statements, Bezul didn"t strike out for the Vulgar Unicorn. He clung to the hope that Perrez wasn"t that foolish until he"d finished poking his head into every tavern and wine shop in the Shambles without meeting anyone who"d seen his brother recently. With his hope exhausted, and feeling quite foolish himself, Bezul plunged into Sanctuary"s most infamous quarter.
It had been a year, easily, since Bezul"s last encounter with the tangled, narrow alleys that pa.s.sed for streets in the Maze. He"d nearly convinced himself that he"d missed a critical turn and would have to start over (getting in and out of the Maze wasn"t nearly as difficult, by daylight, as finding a particular place) when he caught sight of the Unicorn"s signboard. The sign was to Bezul"s left, not his right, where he"d been expecting it, so he had missed a turn or two, or perhaps the gossips were correct and, in the Maze, all paths led to the Vulgar Unicorn.
The Unicorn"s shutters were open, not that it made a difference. The air in the commons was as thick andstale as the shadows. Bezul leaned against a wooden upright, looking for Perrez, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the haze. A woman hailed him by name- "Bezulshash! Bezul the Changer!"
The woman coming toward Bezul was taller than him by a hand-span, heavier by at least a stone. Her red hair fairly glowed in the twilight and her bodice was cut so snug and low that her b.r.e.a.s.t.s jounced above her corset like fresh fish on a trawl line. She came to the changing house every month or so to change a sackful of padpols into fewer, better coins. Bezul knew her name; he might even remember it, if he concentrated on her face.
"Frog all, Bezulshash, what"s brought you to the Unicorn?"
They were considerably less than an arm"s length apart. Bezul would have retreated, but he had a post at his back. Clearing his throat, he stammered, then said, "I"m looking for my brother, Per-rez."
That name meant nothing to her (and Bezul hadn"t remembered hers... It was Mimmi, Minzie, something like that), but his description of Perrez"s scrupulously clean clothes, neatly trimmed hair, and his love of someone else"s largesse rang a bell.