The Thief Queen's Daughter (9 page)

“An’ how about black?” Char asked.

Coates laughed. “That means they determined you had nothing of value to steal.”

“See?” Char said, turning to Ven. “I
told
you nobody’d even want my clothes.”

“I thought someone might try to pickpocket one of us,” said Ven. “But I didn’t expect it would be this bad.”

Coates went back to the front of the counter, stepped over Munx, and came back a moment later with a handful of black circles.

“You’re in a market of
thieves,
” he said. “What
did
you expect?” He stuck one on Ven’s back, then turned Nicholas around and affixed one to his shirt. “Why
are
you here, young’uns? Beggin’ your pardon, but it doesn’t make sense that children who have little or no worldly goods are able to come up with the scratch to buy a token.” He patted the ribbon around Clemency’s neck as he put a black felt circle on her back.

Ven opened the jack-rule once more and took a look through the glass.

He tried not to be obvious, looking at the gauntlet one last time before casually lifting the lens and training it on Mr. Coates. He aimed it for his eyes, and when he looked through it, he thought he could see something deep within them, something simple and plain, without reflection or cloudiness hiding secrets. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the look in those eyes was very much like the expressions he saw in the eyes of his parents, or the captain, or Mrs. Snodgrass, or the king.

He wasn’t certain why, but it seemed enough.

Ven drew forth the king’s stone and handed it to Mr. Coates.

“Do you know anything about this?” he asked.

The weaponsmaker took the glowing oval and examined it for a long time. Finally he handed it back.

“Not really,” he said. “If I were a jeweler, or an alchemist, I would say it looks like an instrument used in an assay, to measure or weigh something of value. But to me the markings look like a map of some kind.” He went back to the window and looked out again.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Ven admitted.

“What do you see when you look at it through the jack-rule?” Coates asked.

Ven looked at Char, who shook his head. “I—er, haven’t tried,” he said. “Yet, that is.”

Coates nodded, still looking out into the street. “Well, you might want to.”

Quickly Ven extended the magnifying lens and held up the stone to the light. He examined the strange cracks within it.

For a moment they looked like nothing more than flaws in the stone. Then, just as he was about to put the jack-rule away, Ven blinked. In his mind he saw the image of dark tunnels, twisting and turning in many directions. It made his head hurt.

Then the picture faded.

“I saw tunnels,” he said. “Seemingly endless. Does that mean anything to you?”

Mr. Coates came back to the middle of his shop.

“No,” he said. “The only tunnels I know of in the Outer Market are the ones that lead out to the harbor.”

“You know about those?” Ven asked, amazed.

“Of course. Everyone does.”

“Well, then what’s the point of the wall around the city? If anyone can get in or out at will, why all the guards and the locks?”

Coates’s expression grew serious. “You’re leaping to a lot of conclusions, young’un. There are many layers within any prison; remember that. It all depends on who’s guarding what. Not just anyone can go at will out of the harbor tunnels, believe me. If they could, I—” He stopped, then coughed. “I’m sorry I can’t help you further, and I wouldn’t just be asking anyone about that stone if I were you, unless you don’t mind losing it. Perhaps you should go to Madame Sharra, if you can find her, and see if she tells you anything about it.”

The children looked at each other.

“Who’s Madame Sharra?” Ven asked.

“She’s a seer, a fortune-teller of sorts,” said Coates. “A Reader, I think she is actually called. You can’t always find her when you want to, though many try, believe me. Her deck is one of the most powerful means in the world of predicting the future, finding the past, or seeing your way clear in the present, or so I am told. She might see something about that stone if she does a reading for you.”

Ven exhaled. “So I can trust this Madame Sharra? I could ask her about the stone?”

Coates’s eyes grew blacker. “You can trust no one in this place, lad.
No one
. Remember that.”

“Not even you?” Clemency asked softly.

Coates looked suddenly tired.
“No one,”
he said to Clem. Then he turned back to Ven. “I would not
ask
Sharra anything, lad. A lot of people do, and I imagine she learns a great deal more than she needs to that way. I would see what she has to say to you first before you tell her too much.
If
you can find her. She’s found only when she wants to be. Her booth is across the square, by the fountain, between the toymaker and the dream seller.”

“Did you say
dream
seller?” Char asked. “How can you buy a dream?”

“You can buy anything in the Gated City, lad,” said Coates. “If you are willing to pay the price.” He glanced out the window one last time. “I think it’s probably all right for you to go. Those that mark the guests should be done by now. If you keep the black circles on your backs, the second team won’t pay any mind to you.”

“Thank you,” said Ven sincerely. “I appreciate all your help.”

Mr. Coates smiled. He picked up the gauntlet and looked at it for a moment, then held it out to Ven.

“Here,” he said. “Take this. I suspect you will find a use for it someday.”

“I couldn’t,” Ven said. “I can’t pay for—”

“It’s a gift,” Coates said. “For showing me the jack-rule. But don’t wear it—put it in your pack. It’s a tool, and a piece of protective garb. But it’s also a weapon. You don’t want to be carrying a weapon, visible or otherwise, in this place. Even the youngest infant who lives within these walls is better with any weapon than you would be. You should never look more ready for a fight than you are, young’uns. It’s the best way to get yourselves killed.”

He went behind the counter and came back a moment later with a piece of burlap and a length of string, with which he wrapped and tied up the gauntlet. Then he handed it to Ven.

“That’s good advice,” Ven said. “Thank you—and thank you for the gauntlet. We will try to use it well.”

“I have no doubt,” said Coates. “Good luck to all of you.” He walked over to the door and opened it.

Ven, Nick, Char, and Clem started through it; then Clem turned quickly around.

“Where’s Saeli?” she asked.

“Here,” came the rough voice that they almost never heard come out of the small Gwadd girl. The children looked into the back of the shop, from where it had come.

Saeli was sitting on the floor, one arm around Munx, rubbing Finlay’s stomach in much the same way Mrs. Snodgrass had rubbed Murphy’s the night before. Finlay had pulled the blue ribbon from her hair with his teeth and was playing with it, making the little Gwadd girl giggle.

“Seems my doorbell is broken,” said Mr. Coates. “All right, miss, off with you now. A few more pats and both of them will be of no use ever again.” He smiled as Saeli leapt up and hurried through the doorway, then called one last piece of advice as he closed the door behind the children.

“Stay together, and watch your backs.”

Ven lingered on the porch step long enough to hear the words the weaponsmaker muttered to himself once the door was closed.

“Everyone else in this place certainly is.”

W
HEN THEY STEPPED BACK OUTSIDE INTO THE MORNING SUN-
light, the Market was in full swing. The shops were busy, all the booths now fully open. Bright music filled the square, and the colored banners flapped merrily in the breeze. Over the laughter and chatter of excited voices came loud shouts.

“Pearls from the deepest depths of the ocean, perfectly round, perfectly white!”

“Ambergris, frankincense, sandalwood, myrrh, sweet perfumes to sweeten your dreams! Get ’em here!”

“Spidersilk! For anything you need to trap. Step up, now!”

“I think this place has an unfairly bad reputation,” said Clemency, looking around in wonder. “Look at all this amazing stuff! And the people aren’t anywhere near as bad as they’ve been made out to be.”

“You’re cracked, ya know that?” Char muttered, stopping to look at the booth of a candy seller in the middle of the square. Great billowing clouds of spun sugar were twirled on sticks next to lollipops that sparkled in colors they could almost taste. “One o’ the
first
lessons they teach you in Don’t Be An Idiot School is you can’t trust anybody in a
thieves’
market. Didn’t you hear Mr. Coates?”

“Well, if you can’t trust anybody, what about Mr. Coates?” demanded Clem. “He seemed very nice, and very honorable.”

“I thought so as well,” said Ven. He understood what Clem meant—there was an excitement in these colorful streets he had never experienced, a fascinating display of exotic things that seemed almost as if they had come from his dreams. And the people were beautiful, polite, and kind. His curiosity was burning like wildfire, making him want to investigate every booth, every shop, every alleyway. At the same time, he was listening in his head to all the warnings he had been given. “But Char is right. Even Mr. Coates told us to be on our guard.”

“Potions!” shouted the man in the booth next to them. “Tonics for all occasions and needs! You, young folk! What sort of elixirs can I interest you in?”

Saeli stopped in front of a long table that was just below her nose. The rest of them came to a stop as well.

From one end to the other was a tablecloth of sky-blue silk embroidered with gold thread ending in sparkling tassels. Set out on the table was a vast array of bottles, in all shapes and sizes, some clear glass, others solid. The clear bottles all seemed to contain different colors of liquid, some of them with tiny specks of silver or what looked like pearls floating in them.

“What do you have?” Clemency asked, looking like she wished she hadn’t.

The potion seller, a bald man with a thick black beard, opened his hands wide.

“Ah, now, miss, as you can see, we have just about anything you could imagine and your heart might desire. You want to be taller, thinner, more beautiful? You want to be stronger, sleep better at night, or go without sleep at all? You want to be able to speak to animals and have them understand? You want to grow a third hand, or an eye in the back of your head, or sprout wings on your feet? You want to make your enemy’s ears seal shut, his nose grow a foot long, or his mouth vanish? You want to find something that you lost long ago, have a wish come true, find true love?” His dark eyes sparkled. “Everyone wants that one. Can I interest you in a fine potion to make someone fall in love? It can work on anyone, no matter how reluctant.”

“Really?” asked Clem.

“Yes, indeed,” assured the man. “Would you like one?”

“Maybe for Char,” Clem said, poking him in the ribs. Char scowled at her.

“Char doesn’t need that,” said Ven merrily. “He’s already got Felitza.”

“Not for him,” Clemency said. “For her.”

“How much is the one that makes someone’s mouth vanish?” Char asked.

“Twenty gold crowns,” said the man. Char sighed, looked at Clem, then shook his head.

“Wouldn’t you like to be able to speak with animals, little girl?” the potion seller asked Saeli. “I can sell you a potion that would make it possible.”

Saeli just smiled, and the other children laughed.

“Come on, let’s keep looking around,” said Ven, walking away from the potion booth. “Let’s see if we can find the fortune-teller.”

They walked past kiosks where giant puppets shaped like butterflies and birds were being sold, past muffin sellers and men wandering the streets with large barrels of roasted turkey legs. Char clutched his stomach again.

“As soon as we find the fortune-teller, I’m gettin’ somethin’ to eat,” he muttered. “This is torture, bloody
torture
.”

“Whether we find her or not, we’ll have noon-meal after this,” Ven promised. “Even though you would still be serving breakfast if we were back at the inn.”

They passed a large booth above which colorful kites were fluttering in the air until they came to a huge fountain, splashing silvery water at its edges.

In the center of the fountain was a large display of what looked like dollhouse-sized cottages, stores, taverns, and houses. They formed a street scene very much like Kingston or Vaarn, with hundreds of little human figures positioned in the sorts of places they would be if it were a real city. Groups of toy women carrying baskets seemed to be talking together, toy men on rooftops appeared as if they were fixing the roofs, hammering with toy tools. Mechanical merchants showed their wares to toy shoppers. A tiny wooden goose girl drove a flock of even tinier wooden geese through the streets. All the figures were moving and making sound, apparently powered by the force of the fountain’s splashing water.

Many bright coins sparkled at the bottom of a deep channel filled with water around the outer ring of the fountain.

“Do you think this is the fountain Mr. Coates meant?” asked Nick, staring at it.

Clem glanced around. “I don’t see another one.”

Saeli pointed ahead of them.

“Dream seller,” she said in her low, scratchy voice.

The others followed her finger.

A booth formed of deep blue silk stood to one side of a round black tent, its drapes pulled back and tacked with filmy fabric that resembled clouds. Hints of fog swept out from beneath its drapes, and above the doorway a moon-shaped sign read
DREAMS.

“Well, there it is, if you’re still interested,” Clemency said to Char.

“I never said I was interested,” Char replied curtly. “I just don’t get how you buy a dream. I bet these people would sell a burp if they could get hold of it. And some fool would
buy
it.”

“And there’s the toymaker,” Nick said, pointing to the other side of the black tent. “So this here in the middle must be your fortune-teller, Ven.”

“If she’s there,” Ven agreed. “Mr. Coates says you can’t always find her.”

“Well, if you’re going to find out about the glowing stone, I don’t think we have much choice,” said Clemency. “Shall we go inside?”

Ven’s skin was itching with excitement. “Absolutely!” he said. “Come on.”

Unlike the booths to the left and right of it, the round black tent had no sign above it, nor any kind of banner out in front. Waving from the point in the middle of the top was a white flag with nothing more than what looked like a sketch of an eye. In the center of the iris was a star. A flap in the tent hung open in the front. Otherwise there appeared to be no door.

Ven pulled the heavy flap of the tent aside and stepped out of the way for the others to enter. Saeli looked at him nervously as Nick and Clem went into the darkness, then followed them as Char brought up the rear. Ven stepped in last, letting go of the tent flap.

As soon as he dropped the flap, all but the thinnest line of light at the bottom of the tent drapes disappeared, leaving them all in blackness.

“I can’t see a thing, Ven,” Clem called from the front of the line. “What do you want to do?”

“I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” said Nick nervously.

Ven reached into his pocket and took out the glowing stone. Its light looked a little bit like that of the moon on a misty evening.

“Is this better?” he asked, holding it up.

Once the light was out of Ven’s pocket, they could see that they were in the outer ring of the tent, with black walls forming a hallway that circled around. On the black fabric of the walls were black satin symbols, letters in an alphabet or language that Ven did not recognize. There was something familiar about the writing, but he could not place what it was. The symbols were visible only when the light hit them, disappearing into the darkness when it moved on.

“I feel like I’ve seen this writing before,” Ven said quietly. “Anybody else?”

“It doesn’t look familiar at all to me,” Clem said. Her voice sounded strained. “I don’t think I like this place, Ven. It makes me uncomfortable. Maybe we should leave.”

“If you want to leave you can, Clem. Anybody else who’s nervous should go as well,” Ven said. “But this seems to be my best way of finding out about the glowing stone, so I think I’ll stay, at least for a few minutes more.”

“Well, if you’re stayin’, I’m stayin’,” Char insisted. “Cap’n Snodgrass told me to look out for you, after all. Can’t really do that from outside.”

They continued around the curving dark corridor until they came to what they thought was the place they had come in. The flap they had come in through was not visible. Instead, there were unbroken walls of fabric, and more corridor ahead of them.

“Madame Sharra?” Ven called. His voice seemed to be swallowed in the heat of the heavy black cloth.

“There’s no one here, Ven,” Nick said. “I agree with Clem—this place is giving me the pricklies. Let’s go.”

As the words left his mouth, a golden glow appeared behind the wall of fabric to their left, followed by a rainbow flash, a quick burst of color Ven had seen several times before, once while looking over the wall into the Gated City for the first time.

And once inside the Rover’s box.

As quickly as it had come, the colorful burst of light was gone.

The tent wall in that place appeared to be thinner, of lighter fabric. Behind it appeared to be the shape of a very tall woman who, like the king’s stone, seemed to radiate her own soft light. The image was fuzzy through the cloth, but Ven could see that her eyes were enormous. She drew aside the drape of the fabric like opening a door.

“Madame—Sharra?” Ven stammered.

The woman’s eyes seemed to cast around at each of the children. Then she looked back at Ven.

She said nothing.

Ven’s skin, already tingling, stung with nervous energy. He tried to look into the dark area behind her, but saw nothing. In the glow that radiated from her he could see the black satin symbols on the tent walls to the left and right of the opening more clearly. The one on the right closest to the door seemed familiar. He concentrated, trying to remember where he had seen it. When he did, his eyes opened wide.

“I know where I’ve seen that symbol before,” he said to Char, who was standing beside him, trembling slightly. “That’s the same writing I saw on that thin stone in the Rover’s box.”

Before Char could answer, the woman’s long arm shot out from behind the drape. She seized Ven by the collar of his shirt in a grip stronger than his brother Luther’s.

And dragged him into the depths of the tent.

With a soft
whoosh,
all the flaps of the tent slammed shut, plunging the remaining children into darkness where they stood.