We Leave Together, стр. 46

“I got no business with the king’s dogs!” said the midget, cowering on the ground. His tone of voice was not as brave as his words.

“I want a helmet,” said Jona, “just like the one you gave a fellow name of Salvatore Fidelio.”

“Don’t know about that.”

“Yeah?” Jona struck the midget over the head with the bell. It made a limp ringing sound, but the midget’s head muffled the ring enough, for now. “Listen, you tossing maggot. I’ll roll you into the river if you lie to me like that again. I know Salvatore Fidelio got his helmet from you. A particular kind of helmet that was, and a fellow could really go places with it on his head. All I want is the helmet. You give me that, and I’m gone like a ghost and nothing but the bruise to remember me by.”

The midget scowled. He pointed at the back door. “I had one, but I don’t have one anymore. I sold the only one to Salvatore, and he never came back.”

“Where’d you get it?”

A bouncer came around the corner. He wasn’t the biggest fellow in the Pens, but he was big enough. He had his hands up. “Hey, king’s man!” he shouted. “All you want is the helmet, and then you leave my man alone?”

“Right.”

The bouncer pulled one out from his cloak. “So, let my boy go.”

Jona put the bell back in his pocket. He held out his hands. “Toss it to me.”

The helmet shone like a mirror when the streetlight caught it, flying. Jona snatched it one-handed. He didn’t pause to bow. He popped it on his head, and left fast. He dropped into the same old sewer grate that Salvatore had shown him, straight to the Island, and Lady Sabachthani.

The huge guardians of demon bone and metal let him pass just as they let Aggie pass. He walked in the front door, and watched for dogs in the darkness. He kept to shadows and climbed an arbor to the roof.

He waited in the dark, staring at the horizon.

Every night was a long night. Every single one was longer than the last. This one was the longest, yet.

The rain came, and he got wet in the rain. It was a terrible rain, that made everything so slick. He clung to the slats and pressed himself into them and waited for daybreak. There was no sunrise with all the clouds. When the sun came, it pushed through clouds, and the fields around the estate were all covered in mud.

***

She had, in her hands, a single dog silent and still as a statue, though alive. She sat in a chair upon a balcony, away from the workers of the yard. She could look down and observe if she wanted to do so, but she did not. She sat far from the edge, holding a parasol up against the hot night air and threat of rain. The season of parties had passed, and all had been here, at her house. The rains returned to wash the streets clean and the grasses that had been danced to mud disintegrated in the damp into a swamp. Mosquitos and flies swarmed among the workers. None rose up to the high balcony, where lemony grasses and bits of rotting bone lined the edge. Jona knew the bones were from dogs. He recognized the skulls and paws. He had seen dead dogs enough before to know their bones.

“You can come down from the roof if you like,” she said. “I won’t kill you, yet. Killing me won’t save that whore’s maid. It won’t save your mother, either.”

Jona and Lady Sabachthani locked eyes. He climbed down to the balcony carefully, half-expecting to be stabbed on the way down.

“You’ve found the shipment of the demon weed from my lands. What matter is it to me? You will not be arresting me, or stopping me. You knew that already, though. Is your curiosity satisfied? What do you want? Tell me why you who are nothing but the scum of my boots when I walk in the Pens, why I should not kill you and your mother and everyone you love?”

“I’ve been thinking about things. You’re the Night King,” he said. “You want to be the day king, right? You want to be both.”

“I want to marry the king of the daylight. Imam’s stars and Erin’s moon are nothing to the sun that burns them all away. I am the sun, rising from the cool night. I am the fire of the hills burning the daylight clean. Together the king of the city and I will bring a peace to this city. Every criminal answers to the king, and every king’s man answers to the king. Every citizen pays taxes to the king, whether their income was legal or not. This is my vision of the future, Lord Joni. There will always be crime. When criminals answer to the king that terrifies them, their sins will be contained. They will be placed away from the good people of the street who choose not to see it much.”

“Does your father know?”

“He taught me everything I know.”

“Ever been up to the red valley? The place he opened up to Elishta where souls are trapped?”

“No. I don’t leave the city. I have too much to do to take a holiday.”

“Well, I’ve never been, but Calipari’s seen it. He says it’s awful.”

“It is. It is a terrible thing, and hopefully we will never need to do such a terrible summoning again.”

“Elishta is your sun. That’s your sun rising up, burning everything. Polluting dogs with it. Eating everything up, soul first.”

“Dogs have no souls. You’ve been making trouble, Lord Joni. Do I anger you so much? Have I hurt you so very much?”

“I don’t know what to say,” said Lord Joni. He looked up. He looked right at her. “I just wanted to know where it came from. You know nothing will come of it. I can write all the reports in the