Never Knew Another (18 page)

“He would know after what he did to that valley.”

“He
would
know,” said Jona. “So, we want to know if anybody saw anything, maybe talk to them.”

“I have already learned everything. This matter was taken seriously.” She paused. “One of the older girls mentioned seeing something in her daily confession,” she said, grudgingly. “She had assumed it was a nightmare, but it must have been your demon.”

“What did she see?” Jona asked.

“A black form crawling over her, as if in a dream. The black form had a basket on its back. She described the basket in great detail. She had never seen its like before, nor could she have seen it. It is promising sign for an anchorite, to show signs of prophecy so young.”

Calipari pursed his lips. “This… black form had the basket, and she can describe it in great detail? Does she know anything about the person carrying it?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“May we speak with her?” said Jona.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Would you mind if we spoke with her in your presence?” said Calipari. The nun merely pursed her lips in response. Calipari tried again. “Or we could ask you the questions, and you could take them to her. We could hear her response from behind a curtain or something, or you could come back and tell us if she needed to be in another room?”

The nun turned away without explanation. She went back behind the altar, to the stairwell there.

Jona and Nicola looked at each other. Nicola cocked his head. “Was that a yes?”

Jona stood up to leave, stretching his arms over his head. “You really want to question the girl like that?”

“Of course not,” said Calipari, “How can we separate them if they show up? The girl’ll be back behind the rails.”

“You honestly think they’re coming back?” said Jona.

Calipari sighed. “No. Whatever we were supposed to do, I hope we did it.”

“Probably right,” said Jona. “Lady Ela Sabachthani won’t like it, but there’s only so much we can do, when we can’t go question anyone. I’m going to get something to eat. All this walking around the city makes me hungry.”

“Don’t think I’ll be eating anything for a while,” said Calipari. “Whole thing makes me sick.”

Jona knew exactly what he needed to do to get to Aggie before someone else got to her. Jona did not hesitate. He jumped the rails, and strode quickly past the altar to the stairwell that led up to the silent halls of the novitiates, perhaps the only man to walk that ground since the day the convent was built.

Sergeant Calipari’s head dropped into his hands. He tried not to laugh. Lady Ela Sabachthani had requested Jona, and she knew him well enough to know what that meant. Perhaps that would be enough to protect the king’s men from the complaints to come.

***

Jona climbed the stairs up to the second floor, then wound his way through the choir stands to reach the next stairwell up. Curiosity being what it was, he peered out the door to the third floor. It was all hallways, with closed doors. He wondered what the rooms might be. The Matron Mother might be breaking Aggie with a whip or even testing her body for signs of the demon stain, in her blood or in her sickness. On the fourth floor, where he knew Aggie’s cell sat, he saw the old nun in the hall, the girl standing abashed beside her. He swaggered up to them.

“What’s taking so long?” he said, eyeing Aggie. She glanced up at him quickly, then returned her gaze to the floor. She knew what a king’s man looked like.

The old nun reeled with shock and shouted and struck at Jona with every mean bone inside her body—he was a horror and a shame and the king would know of this blasphemy and Imam would frown upon it. She pushed at Jona. She was used to pushing girls, not king’s men. Jona’s body was hard as a stone wall. He walked forward unhindered.

He smiled at Aggie. “You want to get out of here?”

She said nothing, only stared down at her feet, pale, while the old nun kept shouting, pushing against Jona. Other girls emerged from the doorways to the cells, horrified to see a man standing in their holy hall. Jona gently pressed the old woman against the wall. The old nun was crying, now. He turned his head to Aggie. “You the one saw the basket?”

She nodded and took a step back. She was about to run.

Jona placed his free hand on her wrist like a vise. “I’m a king’s man, and I don’t answer to anyone but him, not Imam, not anybody. I tell you to do something, you do it. I want to go somewhere, I go. Now, you’re coming with me,” he said. “You’re coming or I’ll ring the bells down on this building, and all my boys will come through swinging bats after you, busting up the place and anyone who tries to stop them. You’re coming.” The hall around them was a riot of screams and tears and recriminations.

The old nun tried to grab at Aggie, but Jona had one hand on her, still, to push the old nun back. That’s exactly what he did. He shoved her, and she fell back into the hall.

When Jona got back to the bottom floor, Sergeant Calipari was praying again. He clearly didn’t want anything to do with whatever Jona was doing. When he saw Jona pushing through with a girl in front of him, he jumped up, looking around nervously. Novitiates crowded silently against the balcony like scared birds.

“What are you doing!?”

Jona said it before he could think about it. “She’s under arrest. You hear that, girl? You’re under arrest. Let’s get you out of here.”

Jona felt sick to his stomach. Jona had to protect Salvatore instead of the girl. He didn’t know how he was going to do it, yet. He was acting, not thinking. He was all steam and gritted teeth. He didn’t know what to do but keep doing something until Salvatore was safe. If he didn’t keep Salvatore safe, the Night King wouldn’t keep Jona safe.

CHAPTER XII

M
y husband pored over my notes. He was patient with me, even if what I had given him was an indulgence and could only help us find small pockets of stain. I had given him notes from Rachel’s wandering.
It’s nothing we can use,
I said.

We don’t know that, yet. Better to know too much.

We see too much; we know too much. I hate that about cities. Too many smells and small gestures screaming truths they’d never admit to Erin or Imam or anyone else.

I see you.

I see you. Jona’s memories wrap around a feeling and won’t shake loose, I have to pick at it. I have to pry.

Memories wrap around feelings. You share a feeling with him, and it hardens it. Write it out, if only to finish with it. It won’t hurt us to know too much. Salvatore has been alive a long time, and can live a little longer, still.

If we could have found them out sooner… If anyone had…!

“I know.”

That’s all he said of it. He returned to my notes, and Calipari’s maps, and letters written to temples about supplies and lingering stains. Salvatore eluded us, still, and Rachel seemed as if she had never existed outside of Jona’s mind.

I wrote it all down, even if it amounts to nothing but my own peace of mind.

***

Arresting Aggie got her away from the other nuns, out of the convent, and into a closed carriage. It didn’t open her mouth. She looked ill. Jona and Calipari sat across from her, ready to block the doors with their bodies. She faced the front, and looked from one man to the next. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her now. Nothing had ever prepared her for this. She watched, in daylight, from a carriage window, a street that she had seen from the convent’s windows in daylight. She said nothing.

Jona winked at Sergeant Calipari. “So, how long you been busting out of this convent?”

She said nothing.

Jona laughed. “I can tell you’ve been busting out at night. The nuns don’t see it. I do. You’ve been chewing redroots. Your lips and your teeth got the stain of it. Someone give them to you, or do you buy them by yourself?”

She got paler, if that was even possible. “I…” she took a deep breath, “I buy them.”

Sergeant Calipari raised his eyebrows. He cocked his head, and nodded at his partner. Jona never had a reputation as a clever fellow. He was a brute force kind of guy. For the few moments, Jona saw this sudden praise in his sergeant’s face, and he forgot what he was really doing. Then, he remembered what he was about to do, to protect Salvatore.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” said Jona. “If I was in there, I’d bust it down brick by brick. How do you leave?”

“Some of us stole keys,” she said. The convent girl facade melted away. She slouched, crossed her legs, and leaned against the door. “I’m stamped. Got any redroots, now?”

“They’re illegal,” said Calipari. “How many girls?”

“What?”

“How many sneak out?” Calipari pressed.

“Everybody does it sometimes,” she said. “Even the matron mother.”

Sergeant Calipari laughed. “You got a fellow?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Only one?” said Jona. “We’d love to meet any fellows you got running around with a convent girl. Maybe he’s buying your redroots, and you didn’t even know he’d be in trouble for it.”

She had to think about that. Her mask cracked a little before it came back. For a moment, she looked like a novice again, instead of some tough kid. “I got me a few fellows,” she said. She didn’t know what would happen to Salvatore if she said anything, so she was playing tough, saying nothing. Jona knew the name would eventually come out. Calipari could break her down if he had a chance at it. And then it was all over.

She looked Jona boot to face. “You like to dance?”

“I do,” said Jona. “Look, we had to arrest you, and I’m sorry about it. We needed to get you away a while, ask you some questions. No other way to do it. Want us to process you, too? Keeps you out of the convent a few nights.”

“I’ll pass.”

Jona and Calipari glanced at each other. Calipari was trying to hide a smirk. Jona nodded, slightly.

Calipari leaned forward. “You go out last week?”

She laughed. “No,” she said. “You?”

“When’d you last sneak out?”

“I don’t remember,” she said. “It’s been a while.”

Calipari snorted. “Funny, you admit breaking out but not the other night. Girls getting out are smarter. Know better. A fellow in your bedroom is a reason to scream for help. You just went back to sleep. That’s what you said to the matron mother, isn’t it? Help us make this whole stupid thing go away, or we keep riding this carriage to a station house.”

“Keep riding. Imam’s flock won’t abandon me.”

“Imam know of your redroots and sneaking?” said Calipari.

“I’ll get whipped,” she said. “That’s between me and them. Doesn’t involve the king.”

Calipari scratched his head. “Jona, this is a lot of trouble over a little thievery. We should just test her. Only thing matters to anyone is the demon blood.”

“How do you test for demon blood?” Jona knew exactly how. He had hoped Calipari was clueless, so Jona might have a chance to devise a plan before anyone could involve the girl.

“I know how,” said Calipari. “Of course we’ll have to get some blood from her.”

The girl curled her lips, and crossed her arms. “Now you’re just trying to scare me. You can’t hurt me like that. Imam’ll…”

“We don’t need anyone’s permission,” said Jona.“You’re in the hands of the king’s men. We could cut your throat and throw you from the cabin and no one would even find out you were dead.”Jona pretended to yawn. He smiled gently at her. She really didn’t understand the men who could invade her sanctuary, drag her away, who would hang her if she earned it, maybe even burn her alive. She seemed to believe they might cut her throat, the way she was looking at them. Of course neither Calipari nor the king would allow that. Calipari chimed in. “We could kill you now and say you were fighting us.”

Jona touched her nose with his outstretched finger. “We’ll take your blood, girl. We’ll take anything we want in the name of the king.”

She looked out the carriage. Her fingers clenched against her own skin. She was hugging herself, covering her body with her arms. “Can we just get this over with?”

Sergeant Calipari leaned back. He pushed his leg all the way across the cabin, as if in a slouch, to block the door on his side. Jona took his lead and angled over a little, to get better cover of the door on his side.

“Personally don’t like to rough up the pretty ones,” said Calipari. “My man Jona has no problem with anything like that. Just this morning he slammed a seneschal over one little remark. Old guy, too. Couldn’t fight back. Servant to a mighty lord and still nobody can do a thing about us once we set our mind on it, and the king likes us that way.”

The girl looked out the window. She said nothing at all. The carriage rolled down the road.

“Say something,” said Jona.

There was nothing.

“You’re protecting someone, and it’s going to get you hurt. Lord Sabachthani knows for a fact someone with a demon stain did it. Some demon child took his dog.”

Again, nothing.

Jona balled up his fingers. He leaned in close to show his fist to her. Before she had time to think about what it meant, he popped his knuckles into her nose. It broke. Blood spattered from it. “I’m doing this for your own good,” he said. “The sooner you talk, the sooner we can get whatever you’re protecting and do the same to him.”

She held her breath. She held her nose. Blood spilled over her white knuckles.

Sergeant Calipari frowned at his partner, and pulled out a dirty handkerchief. He pressed it into her nose. “Lean your head back,” he said. “Come on, lean your head back. It’ll help stop the bleeding.”

Her trembling hands clutched the handkerchief against her face. She breathed again, in little gulps like gasps. She was crying. She clutched at her nose and curled into the corner of the carriage. Calipari gently reached forward to tilt her head back. He held her nose a while. She cried.

Jona didn’t do anything. He put his boot up on the seat across from him to block the door with his leg. He wiped his fist off on his pants, then leaned back with folded arms.