Wellspring of Chaos

XXVI

In the twilight of early evening, Kharl leaned against the stones, trying to get comfortable in the narrow space between the two walls, one ancient brick and the other even more ancient stone, while attempting to ignore the greater stench from beyond the stone wall and the lesser from beyond the brick. Overhead was a roof of sorts, composed of odd pieces of timber and wood and covered with layers of discarded fabric and molded leather, but there was open space on each end of the makeshift roof. To the east the space ended in a wall of yellow brick. At the west end was a jury-rigged partition of woven branches and cloth. The ground had been scraped smooth and clean, but it was still hard.

“No one’s going to come here,” Jekat said.

“With the rendering yard on one side and the tanner on the other…and with no one knowing this space is here…I can see why,” observed Kharl.

“Even Werwal doesn’t know.” The towhead brushed back ragged-cut hair.

“You sure about that?” asked the cooper.

“Maybe…he does. But he wouldn’t say. Him and Sikal, they understand. Drenzel, he doesn’t know, never even comes back behind the dumping vats.” After a moment, the urchin looked at Kharl. “Suppose you don’t have many coppers?”

“I have a few,” Kharl replied. “I could only grab a handful or so before I got out of the cooperage. Didn’t have long.” For some reason, the deception bothered him, necessary as he felt it was.

“You give me a pair…I can get us a good chunk of fowl. Clean and hot. Tasty, too.”

“How will you manage that?”

“Enelya-she’s at the White Pony. Long as I got coin, they’ll get grub for me.” Jekat grinned. “Won’t do ale. She says Durol watches the barrels too close. See…what she does is put the fowl or whatever on the tab for someone. Slips it off to me then. Durol doesn’t care, so long as the coins match.” Jekat frowned in the dimness. “Mayhap, need three to get enough for us both.”

“You’re still a thief,” Kharl said, ruefully.

“Watch what you say. Without me and yer friends…”

“I know. I’d be dead or laid out in a gaol chamber, waiting to be hung.”

“If you were lucky. They took Quelyn and flogged him, then poured salt and tanning acid across his back-that was before-”

“Don’t think I need to know that, young fellow.”

“You should…Egen don’t like you. Never seen him put so many men after a fellow.”

“It’s enough to know he’ll do his worst if he catches me.”

“Real pissprick…girls at the Bardo say he doesn’t get excited ’less he thinks he’s hurtin’ ’em. Likes ’em young, too. Some of ’em cry real quick…real tears…They have to…”

Kharl winced. How could a lord accept that kind of man as his son? The more he learned about Captain Egen, the more despicable the image of him became in Kharl’s mind.

“You got those coppers?” questioned Jekat.

Kharl fumbled with his belt wallet and handed three to the boy.

“Good. There’s not a clipped one there.”

“You don’t think it’d be better for me to come with you?”

“Nah. Egen’s still got the Watch lookin’ for you, and you don’t know the alleys and the serviceways. Maybe we can find you some rags tonight.” Jekat eased along the uneven stone wall until he came to what seemed the dead end of yellow brick. There, after putting his foot up on a projection of stone, he climbed over the wall and vanished.

Kharl wondered if Jekat would ever return, but looking toward the cavelike area in the stone wall, where there were items like candle stubs, a rough pallet, and even a battered chamber pot, he had the feeling that the youth had nowhere else to go.

Like Kharl himself, the cooper reflected.

As the oblong of sky that Kharl could see to the west dimmed, he wondered how long before Jekat would return.

He looked from one wall to another, a space narrower than the gaol cell he’d been thrown into, if longer, and then back up at the patch of evening sky. He still had to ask how so many people accepted the evil around them. He shook his head. Most were like Charee. So long as things seemed orderly and life went on, they didn’t care about what didn’t affect them. After a moment, he laughed. He’d been no better.

The sky darkened into full night, and still Jekat had not returned.

Kharl frowned, more worried about the boy’s safety than about whether he would return.

Then there was the faintest of scraping sounds, a scuffing, and a muted thump, and the small figure in shapeless gray reappeared out of the darkness.

“It took Enelya a while tonight. White Pony was busy, but the bird’s good.” Jekat handed a bundle to Kharl, a goodly chunk of fowl wrapped in two huge slabs of bread.

“I take it back, Jekat,” Kharl mumbled after a large mouthful. “Couldn’t manage this…‘less you’re very good.”

“Wasn’t my doin’, not all the way, leastwise. Some sort of party. Had extras. Durol was probably happy to get the coppers. Or Enelya was.”

Even through the darkness, Kharl could make out a grin as the urchin raised a crockery mug without handles. “Have a swallow.”

“Ale?” asked Kharl as he carefully took the chipped and handleless mug.

“First time in a season, but a fellow won’t turn that down.”

Kharl took a sip to make sure it was ale, then a swallow. “Good stuff.” Was it good because he was so hungry? Probably.

“Durol told Enelya he’d look the other way if the serving girls wanted some. Some fellow paid for the whole keg.”

“I thank you and Enelya. Greatly. How did you work out this…arrangement with her?”

“She’s from Sagana. That’s where I come from. She was a friend of my sis. When Sis and Ma died, I came here, heard she’d found work at a tavern. Found her. She helps as she can. Sometimes I can help her. Got to find folks who will. That’s…the only way…” Jekat yawned.

Kharl handed back the mug.

“Mosta that’s for you. Drank half a mug there.” Jekat took a small swallow and handed the mug back, then chewed on something. “You know…won’t be this good most nights. You need to get outa Brysta.”

“I need to get out of Nordla,” Kharl said tiredly. “To Austra, if I can.”

“How you goin’ to do that?”

“Know a ship-master. Calls here every season, sometimes more often. Think he might take me.”

“How long afore he calls again?”

Kharl shrugged. “Don’t know. He was here, maybe half a season ago, maybe a bit longer. Said he’d be back late fall, early winter.”

“It’ll take some doing to stay away from the Watch for that long.”

“You have.”

“No one cares about a beggar boy. You pissed off Egen good. He still has people looking for you. What you going to do?”

“Wait…listen to you. Then…if the ship-master from Austra comes back, I’ll try and get aboard. Could be a while, though.”

“Better lie low till then. Egen’s mean.”

“Why are you helping me?” asked Kharl.

“Why not? You always treated me good as you could. Most don’t. Also, you stood up to Egen. Most don’t.” Jekat yawned. “’Sides, you’re strong. Might need that.”

Might need that? Kharl wondered as he took another swallow of the ale. With it and the fowl, he could almost ignore the stenches from the renderer and the tanner.

After they finished eating and drinking the last of the ale, Jekat took back the mug and crawled into his cubbyhole and curled up under a tattered and soiled cover that looked to have been a drapery or hanging many long years before, doubtless before the boy had even been born.

Kharl made himself as comfortable as he could under the makeshift roof between the two walls, using his pack for a pillow. He looked upward into the darkness. Eventually, he did drift into sleep, a sort of restless dozing.