The Thief-Taker's Apprentice (32 page)

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Authors: Stephen Deas

BOOK: The Thief-Taker's Apprentice
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‘Sir . . .’ However much it hurt, he couldn’t give up. He couldn’t face Jerrin and his gang alone. Not if he hoped to win.
‘Now piss off!’ Kasmin roared, and he turned and strode back into his tavern to a chorus of raucous shouting. Berren made a series of angry gestures at the men staring at him through the windows and hurried away. A minute later he was back, though, this time in the yard behind the tavern, skulking in the shadows. Kasmin had to have a sword in there somewhere, he just had to, and one way or another, Berren needed it. He watched the door to the back of the tavern. He’d been this way already once.
The door opened. Kasmin rolled out an empty barrel into the yard. Then he looked straight at where Berren was hiding. He stood still, then let out a long breath. ‘Whoever you are, I can smell you. So who’s there?’
Other times Berren might have run, but not tonight. If it came to that then he was closer to the gate than Kasmin. He stepped out into the evening gloom.
‘Sir, I need a sword.’
Kasmin shook his head and laughed. ‘You’re one persistent stable-mucker, aren’t you? Khrozus!’ he shrugged. ‘I meant what I said. I don’t have a sword and I wouldn’t give it to you if I did. And no matter what Syannis and I used to be, if you come into my tavern again like that, I’ll do more than throw you out onto the street. You’re a thief-taker, boy. Whatever was once between your master and me, you’re not welcome here.’
‘I need . . .’
Kasmin rolled his eyes to the sky. ‘What bit of
no
don’t you understand?’
‘Then will you at least hold a message for me, for Master Sy?’
‘Fine. Make it quick.’
‘If I don’t come back, tell him I went looking for Lilissa. She’s a friend to Master Sy.’
‘Well her mother was at least,’ muttered Kasmin. ‘Heard that much.’
‘Tell him Jerrin One-Thumb took her and I went after him. Tell him . . .’ And then it all came out, about what he’d found when he’d gone looking for her, about One-Thumb and the Harbour Men and The Maze and the harbour-master’s snuffers. Kasmin just stood there. Didn’t move, didn’t blink. Just stood.
‘Bit long,’ he said, when Berren finally finished. ‘Don’t know if I’ll remember all that. But I suppose I got the bits that matter.’ He took a long look at Berren and sighed. ‘How many of these “Harbour Men” are there?’
Berren shrugged. ‘At least five. Probably seven or eight.’ Yeh. Might even be that, he mused to himself. Jerrin had had friends outside Master Hatchet’s gang.
‘Then a sword won’t help you, boy, not when you don’t know how to use it and I ain’t got one anyway. Go home. Wait for Syannis.’
‘I know Jerrin. He’ll . . .’ He couldn’t bring himself to say it. ‘He might hurt her.’
‘He might just hurt her anyway. After he’s done with killing you.’
Berren said nothing, just stuck out his jaw. He was going. Right now. No matter what. If Stealer and a crossbow with one bolt were all he had, then Stealer and a crossbow with one bolt would just have to do.
Kasmin tipped his head back and swore loudly at the sky. ‘Ah, for the love of . . .’ He sighed and threw up his hands in despair. ‘Look, boy. If I pass your message on to Syannis, he’s going to know you were here. And then he’s going to ask me why I didn’t stop you.’
Berren took a step towards the street. ‘Because you couldn’t catch me.’
‘Fine. Reckon that might even be true. Wait there.’ Without pausing for an answer, Kasmin turned and strode into his tavern. When he came out again, he was holding a long knife in a sheath. He tossed it at Berren’s feet. ‘Better for you than a sword. Anyone ever tell you anything about how to fight? At all?’
Master Sy’s words were there in his head, just as the thief-taker had spoken them. ‘Run. If you can’t run, stick them good and hard and watch it all the way.’
‘Good advice as any.’ The old man shook his head. ‘You know you’re fighting too many, don’t you? You know you’re going to get yourself killed, right?’
Berren shrugged. He hadn’t really given it much thought, truth be told. It was a thing that needed to be done and that was all there was.
‘Going to do it anyway, eh? Well you bring me my knife back, boy. My lucky blade, that is. Saved my life twice since I gave up soldiering and came to this godsforsaken hole of a city. Hold it close, boy. Pick them off one by one. Don’t play fair. Don’t let them see you coming. Kill ’em from a distance with that crossbow. Ach,’ he waved Berren away. ‘Why am I wasting my breath on you. You’ll be dumb and you’ll get yourself killed or else you’ll get lucky and learn something. That’s pretty much how it goes. I could feel that mail you’ve got on under your shirt. Make the most of it. Now piss off. I got customers.’ He turned and stamped back inside. Berren watched him go.
‘Thank you,’ he called. He tucked the knife and its sheath into his trousers. Picking up his crossbow and wrapping Master Sy’s coat around him, he set off once more for Trickle Street. Strange thing was, even though he knew Kasmin was probably right, he didn’t feel scared at all.
40
ONE-THUMB
B
erren reached Trickle Street as the sun was setting, sinking into the sea beyond the docks at the end of the street. Trickle Street didn’t go anywhere much, just crept down from The Maze to the sea-docks like a thief, hoping no one would notice. No one had much use for Trickle Street either, and now Berren found it empty. He took off Master Sy’s coat, folded it carefully and left it. Thing only got in the way. Then he went to the hole in the fence. One-Thumb was right. Whenever he’d had to run, he always came here, to the derelict arse-end of the sugar traders’ warehouse. This was
his
place, not One-Thumb’s. He knew it inside and out, better than anyone. One-Thumb had come here to make a point.
No, he told himself with grim determination. He’d come here to
try
and make a point. He was going to regret it.
He reached the hole in the fence and crouched down beside it, peering inside. Sure enough, there was Hair, sitting across the yard, picking his fingernails when he was supposed to be keeping watch, bored as anything. Jerrin would have Waddler round the other side. Waddler and Hair always got the shitty jobs.
Berren fingered his crossbow. It was a big and heavy and clumsy thing, but it was sure to put a scare on anyone on the other end of it. Jerrin would probably wet himself. Or else he could just shoot Hair and be rid of the thing. That would be easy. Hair wouldn’t even see it coming. He was just sitting there. Shoot Hair, and then creep up on Waddler round the other side with Stealer. Take his face off with Kasmin’s knife just like Master Sy had done to that Blacksword bloke. Then into the tumbled-down shacks where One-Thumb would have Lilissa. That’s what the old tavern-keeper would have told him to do. Probably Master Sy as well, judging by what he’d seen today . . .
He moved aside to where Hair couldn’t see him even if he bothered looking, and fingered the crossbow again. He’d known Hair for years. As far as it ever went with Hatchet’s boys, they’d almost been friends until Hair had fallen in with One-Thumb. Hair hadn’t ever done him any wrong, not even any mischief until now. He was probably only here because he couldn’t think of anything better and because One-Thumb wanted his gang to be as big as possible so he could feel strong.
No, he couldn’t shoot Hair. He’d probably miss anyway if the seagulls were anything to go by. Cut him up, like Master Sy had done to the mudlarks? No. Couldn’t do that either.
He put the crossbow down and went back to the hole in the fence. As quietly as he could, he started to slip through. He was almost out the other side before Hair happened to look up and see him.
‘Crap!’ He scrambled to his feet as Berren got up. ‘Mouse!’ He glanced over his shoulder, looking to where he was going to run. ‘Don’t . . .’ Berren grinned to himself. Hair was
scared
of him. Hair had never been scared of him. No one had ever been scared of him.
‘I’m waiting out here for One-Thumb. You tell me something, Hair. The lady he’s got with him. Did you touch her?’ He pulled Kasmin’s knife slowly out of its sheath. In the fiery light of the setting sun, the blade gleamed. It was beautiful. He leered at Hair. ‘Did you?’
Hair was still backing away, shaking his head. ‘Not me, Mouse.’ He couldn’t take his eyes off the knife. It was a long blade, a good foot of steel, lovingly sharp. A real butcher’s knife. Not something a tavern-keeper would have much use for, Berren thought.
‘Well that’s good, Hair, because that means you and I ain’t got nothing to quarrel about. Not unless you think different.’ Berren started to walk slowly towards Hair. Inside, he was shaking, even though he had the knife and Hair had nothing.
What if he doesn’t run? What then?
He steeled himself and kept his eyes locked onto Hair’s face, watching his every glance. When it came down to it, Hair wasn’t a fighter. Hair would shout and threaten, but in the end he always ran. ‘You could just go,’ he offered, circling away from the hole in the fence back to Trickle Street. ‘You never saw me, and I never saw you. Don’t have to be anything more.’ He nodded towards the hole. ‘You want to leave, I won’t stop you. Like I said, there’s no quarrel between us. Not yet, anyhow.’
Hair swore loudly and turned and ran back into the ramshackle huts at the back of the sugar-merchant’s stores. Berren watched him go. It was done, then. In a few seconds, he’d be telling One-Thumb that Berren was here and calling him out. One-Thumb would come out because he was the boss and that meant he didn’t have any choice. He’d come out in front of all his Harbour Men and he’d strut and taunt and jeer. That was what he did, what made him seem strong to people who didn’t know any better. And then, when it came down to it, he’d fight, because if he didn’t then everyone in his gang would know he was spineless. By the end of the next day the whole docks would know, and after that even Waddler would laugh in his face. Berren ran it all through his mind, playing it out as he waited. A good part of him still wanted to run. He could do that. Didn’t matter, did it, if Hair and the rest of Hatchet’s boys knew he was a coward? It wasn’t like he was ever coming back here. Master Sy would tell him that he’d done the wise thing. He’d make out like Berren had been brave
not
to stay. Lilissa, well, she’d probably say the same as Master Sy anyway. She’d probably think he was an idiot for coming at all.
He’d seen the real thief-taker today, though. Seen what it took to be feared the way he was, and there was one person he couldn’t run away from, one person who would always know and always be there to remind him of what he chose. There was Berren, the thief-taker’s apprentice, the boy who wanted to learn swords more than anything in the world. The boy who wanted to learn how to be deadly, a whirlwind of steel. A killer. And what was the use in all that learning if you were always too afraid to use it?
Berren gripped Kasmin’s knife. One-Thumb was a prick, anyway. He had it coming. He forced himself to see the mudlarks in Talsin’s Forest again, how ruthless Master Sy had been. He told himself Jerrin was the same. Whatever happened, he deserved it.
And by the time he’d thought all of that, it was too late anyway, because there was One-Thumb, leading his Harbour Men out of the back of the sugar-merchant’s warehouse. Sticks came behind him, and then Hair and three other boys. One was a stranger. The other two were more of Hatchet’s dung-cart gang. Weasel, who was a couple of years younger than Berren but had the makings of being a nastier piece of work than even One-Thumb. And Slipper, who wasn’t much of anything as far as Berren knew, but had a way of getting out of places. Last of all came the mudlark boy. He had Lilissa with him, and the sight of her made Berren’s blood burn. She looked ragged and broken. Her clothes were torn in places. When the mudlark boy pushed her out, she stumbled and almost fell. She didn’t bother trying to run; and then Berren saw why. The mudlark boy had a leash around her neck, as though she was some sort of dog.
‘I didn’t think you’d be this dim, Mouse,’ sneered Jerrin, taking up a stance in front of his gang. ‘What you going to do? Fight us all? All eight of us? All on your own?’
Berren didn’t move. His legs were shaking. He hoped, in the half-light, none of them could see. But he held his ground. He lifted up Kasmin’s knife and pointed it straight at Jerrin, forcing the rest of him to be still.
Never take your eyes off him.
‘Just you, One-Thumb. You and me.’ There, and now he bit his tongue hard enough to bring tears to his eyes. That was all. That’s what Master Sy would say. You and me, and then he’d stand and watch and wouldn’t say another word, while Jerrin’s mouth worked the rest of him into a stupor.
Jerrin’s lip curled. He started to pace up and down in front of his boys. ‘You and me, Mouse? You think I can be bothered with a flea like you?’ He walked stiffly, though, like he was still hurting from the thump in the back he’d taken from Lilissa. Berren said nothing. He tracked Jerrin with his eyes and the point of his knife and the rest of him didn’t move. With a jolt he remembered again that it was still the same day. They’d fought One-Thumb once already. Beaten him, too.
Jerrin stopped. His hand went to the back of his head. Did the other Harbour Men know what had happened that morning? The mudlark boy had been there and seen it all and he’d run away. Sticks had taken a kicking too. They probably all knew, then. Gods! Berren felt a surge of glee. He bit his tongue harder. It was hard not to crow about One-Thumb taking a beating from a girl. And it was clear enough that Jerrin was still hurting.

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