31
KNIFE WORK
At some point, Berren fell asleep. When he woke up,
he could hear Lilissa’s breathing, soft and rhythmic, beside him.
He could feel her warmth. For a long time he lay there, still,
savouring the moment. He wanted to reach over and touch her, and
found himself wondering what her skin would feel like against his
fingers. His head, mercifully, was clear.
Light was filtering
in through the cellar door. Silently, he rose and crept across to
it. Peering through the hole, he could see that there was light in
the alley too. Which meant the sun was up in the sky and some hours
had already passed since dawn.
‘Lilissa?’ he
whispered. He crouched beside her. In the womb of the cellar, even
a whisper sounded loud. ‘Lilissa! Wake up!’
She stirred, but
didn’t wake. In the little light that filtered through the cracks
of the door, he could just about make out her face. Very gently, he
reached out and touched her cheek.
‘Lilissa!’
When she stirred
again, his hand jumped away. This time she opened her eyes and sat
up.
‘I’m cold.’ She
yawned and stretched. Berren considered saying something about
warming her up and then thought better of it. As if in reward,
Lilissa wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. ‘Those
men who came after us had swords, didn’t they?’ She shivered. ‘They
were city men and they were after us and Master Syannis, weren’t
they? What are we going to do? Where can we go?’
Having Lilissa with
him, he’d made everything seem like a grand adventure, trying to
keep the truth of what had happened pushed to the back of his mind.
Now he stopped to think about what it really meant. Men with
swords. Not city watchmen or district militia, but snuffers. Even
Hatchet had had nothing good to say about snuffers. You keep away from men with swords, my boys. I ain’t got
no sway with those sort. You cross ’em and they snuff you out like
a candle, and all that’ll happen next is you’ll get swept up and
thrown away with the rest of the shit. So just leave ’em
be.
‘We need to find
Master Sy,’ he said. ‘He’ll know what to do. He’ll keep you
safe.’
‘What if he’s dead?’
Lilissa shivered again. ‘What then? What do we do
then?’
Berren shrugged. ‘He
won’t be dead. Master Sy’s probably the best swordsman in the whole
city. He can fight four men. I bet he could fight forty.’ He saw
the fight in the alley again, flashing in front of him. Three
against one, and the cut-throats hadn’t stood a chance. Remembering
made him feel powerful. ‘Come on. We can go back home
now.’
‘What if he’s not
there? Then what?’ Lilissa let go of him. Berren went to the doors.
He opened them. Daylight flooded in, bright enough to make him
flinch away.
‘I suppose he might
have gone out again. Getting the city soldiers down into the docks
to get that VenDormen fellow. Probably need that if he’s got
snuffers. District militia wouldn’t go against snuffers.’ He took a
deep breath and sighed. ‘All right. If he’s not there, we can go to
your house.’
Lilissa shook her
head. Berren offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet, then
gave her a leg-up out through the doors and into the alley. Her
beautiful dress was torn and dirty. Now he could see her in the
light again, she looked scared. But still lovely.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I
don’t want to go home. Not until I know it’s safe. Isn’t there
somewhere else?’
‘There’s the temple
on Moon Street.’ Berren hauled himself out through the doors and
carefully shut them behind him. ‘We can go there.’
‘Oh,’ said a new
voice from somewhere above them. ‘Berren, Berren. I don’t think
so.’
Berren jumped. He
looked up. Sitting on a first floor window ledge, straight above
them, was Hair. Berren backed away, keeping Lilissa behind him.
Hair? What was Hair doing here? It didn’t make any sense, but it
certainly wasn’t good.
‘I’m not on your
patch,’ growled Berren. ‘I got no trouble with you.’
‘Really?’ Hair
leered. His hand kept moving to something he had hidden inside his
shirt. ‘Not sure One-Thumb thinks the same.’
‘Yeh. Well I’m not on
his patch, am I. So he knows what he can do, right?’
‘This is The Maze,
thief-taker’s boy. Ain’t anyone’s patch. And besides, someone’s put
the word on you, you and your thief-taker master both. Watched you
run with your bit of skirt, we did. Been searching The Maze for you
all night, and you were right here all the time, eh? Getting some
while we was getting rained on. And now it’s morning and here you
are.’ He chuckled to himself. ‘Knew this was the right place to
keep a look out.’
Being called
boy by Hair, who was probably exactly
the same age and just happened to be a couple of inches taller,
made Berren clench his teeth.
‘All right then,
Hair. You want to carry on where we left off? Bring it
on.’
‘All right then, I
will.’ Before Berren could do anything else, Hair put two fingers
to his mouth and let out a piercing whistle.
‘Run!’ Berren
snatched Lilissa’s hand and bolted down the alley. Hair stayed
where he was, laughing like a mad-man.
‘Who was that?’
gasped Lilissa behind him. She wasn’t running fast enough, but when
he pulled on her hand, she almost fell over. ‘Hey! I can’t go any
faster!’
‘That was Hair.’ What
did she think he was going to do? Stop for five minutes and tell
her all about Master Hatchet and the dung-cart boys and everything
else?
‘How did he find
us?’
Berren skittered to a
halt. Running into the far end of the alley was One-Thumb. There
was another boy with him, one that Berren didn’t
recognise.
‘Shit!’ He pulled
Lilissa off again, this time down a different passageway, one so
narrow that the sun barely touched it between its tall
walls.
‘Get
him!’
‘He’s gone down
Wellbottom!’
‘Waddler!’
He heard another
whistle from Hair, two shrill notes. He could see the end of
Wellbottom, emptying into the daylight of Bottlemaker Street. A few
minutes either way from there and they’d be out of The Maze. He
tugged on Lilissa’s hand. ‘Come on!’
Fifty yards and they’d be out in the open. Forty yards. What passed
for open in The Maze, anyway. Thirty. At least there’d be
witnesses. There wouldn’t be any stabbings, not with witnesses.
Twenty yards . . .
A shape stepped into
the alley in front of them. Too much in the shadows to be more than
an outline, but an outline was enough. Waddler.
‘Stop him!’ One-Thumb
was gaining on them from behind. Waddler stood at the entrance,
hovering uncertainly, but still in the way. ‘Get him, you prozzy’s
hanker!’
Berren let go of
Lilissa. He ran at Waddler. ‘Out the way!’ Waddler was all right.
He’d never been one for this sort of trouble.
‘Grab
him!’
‘Move!’
Waddler stayed where
he was. He didn’t try to grab Berren, he simply didn’t move. Berren
ploughed into him, bowling him over, bundling them both into the
street. He staggered and lost his balance, rolling across the
cobbles. He saw Lilissa emerge from the alley and
stop.
‘Run!’ he shouted,
scrambling back to his feet, pointing off towards the market end.
‘That way! That way!’ Waddler snatched at his ankles. Berren kicked
him, turned and ran. One-Thumb was right behind them
now.
‘I’m going to cut
you, thief-taker boy. Gut you like a fish!’
He glanced over his
shoulder. Jerrin was only about ten yards behind him, but Berren
was faster and they both knew it. For a moment, Lilissa was on her
own, ahead of them both. ‘Catch me if you can,
leper-boy!’
A flash of motion
caught his eye and then something barrelled into him from the side,
sending him flying and knocking him halfway across the street. Then
they were on him, Jerrin, the boy Berren didn’t know and Sticks. It
could only be Sticks, blind-siding him like that.
‘Get the girl!
Quick!’ Sticks ran off. Jerrin and the other boy grabbed hold of
Berren. A few dozen yards down the street, an old pedlar watched
them. He didn’t move, though, and then Berren was being dragged
away into another alley. Somewhere quiet. Back behind him, he heard
a shriek that could only be Lilissa. He struggled as hard as he
could, but the other boys were both stronger. When he started
kicking, Jerrin punched him in the face.
‘What do you want?’
he choked. They were well into the shadows now. Jerrin didn’t say
anything. They just wrestled Berren to the ground and pinned his
arms.
‘Get him up,’ barked
Jerrin.
The new boy pulled
Berren to his feet, holding him fast. One-Thumb slipped a knife out
of his belt.
‘Thought you’d gotten
away from us, eh? Thought you were clever.’
‘Who’s your new
friend, One-Thumb? Is he your new arse or are you his? I can’t
tell.’
Jerrin spat in
Berren’s face. ‘We’re the Harbour Men. Told you that before. We got
new friends now. What did we do, Mouse? What did we do to make you
want to leave, eh?’
‘I’ve never seen him.
He’s not one of Master Hatchet’s is he?’ Berren spat back. ‘Hatchet
don’t know what you’re doing, does he? He’s going to tear your
bones out, One-Thumb. ’
He’d touched a nerve.
He saw that in Jerrin’s face, right before One-Thumb punched him
real hard in the gut. ‘Yeh, we all got our little surprises ain’t
we, eh? Who’d have thought, Mouse running about with a nice piece
of soft skin like that. Who is she, Mouse? She your
girl?’
‘Leave her out of
this!’
‘Can’t, Mouse. Old
Hatchet, he’s just a little fish. We’re a part of something else
now. Something big. Got to do her too. Don’t mean I can’t have a
bit of fun first though, eh? What’s she like, Mouse? She a
screamer?’ He stood back and looked at his knife. Berren tried to
lunge at him.
‘You touch her and
I’ll kill you! I’ll rip off your head and spit down the
hole!’
Jerrin shook his
head. ‘Really? Maybe she just needs someone a bit better than you
to look after her, eh? Mouse hides out in The Maze. You think I
don’t know where to look? The word’s out on you, Mouse, you and
your thief-taker. Every gang in the docks is out looking, but I
showed you that place, Mouse. Remember? I always know where you
go.’ He laughed. ‘What’d you do, you and your swanky shit-boots
master, eh? What’d you do to get the dockside snuffers after you
like this?’ He shrugged. ‘Not as I really care. Pay me for you in
silver, they will. Not pennies.’
The boy holding
Berren was getting restless. ‘Come on! Chop and grill him and be
done with it.’ He had an accent. Like the men they’d hidden from
the night before. Not from the city. Mudlarks again.
Jerrin shrugged his
shoulders. ‘I’d have done you for the fun of it, Mouse, but now I
get some nice shiny crowns for the pleasure. So thanks. Thanks for
the money. Thanks for the girl. And now I’m going to rip off
your head.’
The mudlark boy
behind him tensed. Jerrin drew back the knife.