We Leave Together, стр. 57
“Yes, Captain?”
“Close the door.”
“Aye, sir.”
“The courts were busy last week. They gave me more things than I can handle. I’m sending you out with a full load to restock the outposts. All these sharp things are no longer a threat in the alleys, and they got you a cart for once, so be grateful. Your boys rang some good bells, and lots of teeth showed up in the trash. Lord Joni’s got a knack for turning out trouble. When you reach the dead valley, open this envelope. Can you read, Sergeant? You aren’t one of the desk sergeants who foists all his work on the scriverners?”
“I can read, Captain. You know that. I’m the best desk sergeant you ever had.”
“Well, go out a ways, and then read this message. It came straight from Sabachthani. Lord Joni’s got quite a career sponsor. You hear that, Corporal?”
“Sir?” said Jona. ”I don’t know a thing about it.”
“Right. Don’t linger with your wife, Sergeant. You’ll be sick of her soon enough.”
“We ain’t married yet, Sir.”
“More reason not to linger on the king’s business. Get out there, gentlemen.”
“Sir,” the two Pens’ guards said, in unison.
“Wait,” said the captain. He eyed Jona up and down and curled his lip. He didn’t like what he saw. “I just wanted to get a good look at you before you go. Bloody Elishta, but I don’t see anything worth the trouble. You the one found our troublesome boy lying at a hookah in the night?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me, and Lady Sabachthani says you’re her friend. You’re alive, too. A lot of the boys in the Pens don’t last. Still, you don’t look like you’re worth much to me, Corporal. I don’t care who your friends are if you don’t work hard and keep your head clean. You hear me, Lord Joni?”
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I don’t have to put up with you going on like that, pushing me around. You don’t know a thing about walking where the Joni estates used to be all orange orchards, and now it’s all meat. You’ve never set foot in the Pens. You never jumped into a sewer line below the abattoir. You’ve never rang the bells for the hookah dens and the men that keep the pinks hot. I’ve never seen you at Lady Ela’s parties, either, invited or not. What do you know about the city, Captain? Paper. Nothing but paper. Can you read? Can you walk home at night without a beggar dying at your door? Let’s go Sergeant.”
The captain said nothing.
Outside, Sergeant Calipari whistled.
“What, Nic?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“It’s a nobility thing, Nic. I’m noble. He’s not.”
“He’s still the captain.”
“I obey the king.”
“So do I,” said Calipari.
“Also, I’m going to fire him soon. If I got friends, then I got friends, and I can do something good with them. The captain’s no better than a scrivener private.”
Calipari nodded. “He’s got friends, too, Jona. Everyone has friends. I hope you remember that.”
The captain of the guard had said nothing about this, to us. I assume it was because he was angry he couldn’t whip the corporal for it when Sabachthani had him in her fold.
(Sabachthani is gone now, and the captain remains.)
***
The donkey was tall and bumpy. The little spots of spine stuck out in his back. One look and both men knew no one was riding on top of the animal. The cart was full of steel weapons in piles beneath burlap. A few bits of armor hid inside of a smaller sack.
“Decent armor. We hardly ever get armor from the streets. Must have been a privateer in the shipyard getting rolled.”
Calipari reached inside, and wrapped his palm around a helmet. He pulled it out.
“This one’s still shiny. Looks brand new.” He popped it on his head. “How does it look?” He turned over to Jona.
“It looks like it’s going to be hot when the sun starts coming down. Another rainstorm is coming tonight. It looks like it’ll rust.”
Nicola laughed. “You’re a real happy fellow, you know that?” he said, “Franka likes it when I come in with all this shiny stuff on.”
“Guess it’s better than seeing your face,” said Jona, smirking.
“Keep it up, Corporal, and you’ll be walking next to the cart,” he said, “I’ll drive the donkey since I know the way. You watch the stuff.”
Jona stretched. “With both eyes open,” he said. He didn’t mean it. He hopped up into the cart. He sat down next to the bags of weaponry, and rested his elbows on his knees.
Calipari climbed up to the front of the cart. He grabbed the reigns. “When we turn west, on the way back, I’ll show you my parcel of land. I figure we rush through the mission, and swing west to check my land. I need to spend a little time on the roof. Raining like this, and I haven’t been over to put more slats down. I’ve gotten the left side of it, but the right is still a mess. Franka has some things for it at the tavern. Hammers and nails and stuff. Lucky you,” he said, laughing, “you won’t have to carry anything this time unless the donkey dies.”
***
They rode the cart to the wall. It took all day. Jona sat on one side of the cart, and he watched the sun fall down over the rooftops, into the slanting shadows of crowded alleys. He wondered when the alleys became more crowded than the streets. People needed places to live that weren’t alleys. Beggars needed work. When he became king, he’d try and get Ela to do something.
The guard at the gates told Nicola that Franka heard he was coming.
The night beyond the city walls was as dark as the sewers. It was darker, with no lamplight to drown out the stars and the moon. The clouds only made it darker. The humidity was terrible. It was still hot enough to melt conversation even an hour after sunset,