Chapter Four #8
“So,” she said. “Everyone works for their bread here. Can you do anything? Any special skills I should know about?”
“Um … I can sew.”
Mieka sighed. “I’m still holding out hope for a master jewel thief or lockpicker to show up on my doorstep, but no luck so far. Well, that will have to do.”
“If you want to keep her, it’s on your own head,” said Zlata. “I want nothing to do with it. I’m off to sleep awhile. Mieka, wake me up in an hour, would you? I have an appointment.”
Zlata yawned and pulled aside a length of hanging cloth to reveal a stepladder I hadn’t noticed before. I supposed that led to Mieka and Zlata’s chamber, separate from the rest of the women.
“Where does she go to so late?” I whispered as Mieka led me towards one of the curtains on the ground floor.
“The gambling hells are open all night, and no one who’s anyone shows up before midnight. She’ll nap for a time, then get in her fancy dress and go out to dance and play cards with the nobles until breakfast.”
“But why?” I said, bewildered.
“She has her own line of work that requires she do so.”
“What is it?”
“Something like mine, but … more sophisticated.” Mieka grinned. “It’s easy to get close enough to someone to pick their pocket when you look like she does. And she can rub shoulders with the gentry because she looks the part. I don’t.”
“Is she … ‘gentry’?” I tasted the unfamiliar word.
“No more than you or I. Although I’m not sure about you, Miss Fancy Boots. You’ve had sugarplums in your mouth from birth, I expect.”
“I have not.”
“Whatever you say. Come on.”
The “beds” were little more than shelves—two rows of them, each bunk a little wooden box with a curtain on rings that could be drawn across it.
It reminded me of the pigeons’ nesting boxes in the Tower.
To get to the upper row of beds, you had to clamber over the thin, straw-stuffed mattresses that hung over the edge on the bottom row.
“Here.” With a rattle of rings, Mieka drew back the curtain of one of the lower beds.
“No one’s slept here for a while. It’s farthest from the fire, but you’ll find the cloth keeps the heat in all right.
Keep the blanket over your head and you’ll be fine.
” She looked at the bare mattress. “Ah. I’ll get you a blanket. ”
“Thank you,” I said inadequately. I thought of the freezing rain outside and the doorway in which I might have had to huddle, and I shivered.
Mieka brought over a pillow barely half an inch thick and a quilt that smelled a bit like lamp oil.
She thumped the pillow and slapped down the blanket as if she was angry with them both, but I was coming to realize that she had an oddly maternal streak and was merely making the bed as comfortable as possible.
She fished out a pair of wool socks and a scraggly knitted fisherman’s hat from a basket of clothing that was apparently communal, and tugged the hat down over my ears while I pulled on the thick socks.
When the hat reached my ear lobes, the Hair started to writhe in protest. I grabbed at it, tamping it down and hoping that Mieka had not noticed.
No such luck.
Mieka reached out a hand and touched one of the strands with tentative fingers. It snaked out to curl around her finger, and she watched it, mesmerized.
“I knew I saw it. When you were by the fire.”
“It’s not …”
“I know what you are,” she said. “I saw it at once.” She climbed up onto the bed, sitting cross-legged opposite me.
“No! No, I …” I shook my head.
“Is that why you ran away? Were you married off? You can tell me. You wouldn’t be the only one here.”
“No, I wasn’t married off.”
“Sold, then?” She frowned. “I had you pegged as nobility. They’re more often married off than sold … not that there’s much difference, aside from one getting a fancier cage than the other.”
“No!” I drew up my knees and held them tightly. “Look, I didn’t run away. Not exactly. I’m … looking for someone.”
Her brows drew together. “If someone is after you, you need to tell me. You could be putting us all in danger.”
“I told you, the Temple …”
“The Temple isn’t a problem.”
I shook my head, not knowing what to say. “Someone attacked me,” I said. “At the Temple. But I don’t know why.”
“If you want to stay here,” said Mieka, “you have to tell me. Patrick’s token isn’t enough. I have all the girls to think of.”
My hair brushed comfortingly against the nape of my neck. It seemed to like Mieka well enough, and Baldbeak was hunched and snoozing on the rail above, seemingly comfortable here as well. I took a deep breath to calm myself and told Mieka my story as best I could.
“And you don’t remember what happened?” she asked when I was finished.
“I don’t remember anything between breakfast and waking up halfway out the window.”
“Strange,” said Mieka. She sat back on her haunches, thinking. “So you think they were after the spellbook.”
“They must have been. I knew it was special—that we had to keep it secret …”
“What was in it?”
I hesitated.
“You don’t know?”
“Mother didn’t like to talk about it,” I said.
“Well, did you never take a peek?” Mieka demanded. “I don’t believe that.”
I had taken a peek, more than once, but of course I had no idea what I was seeing.
“I can’t read,” I admitted. “I don’t know what the spells were for.”
Mieka blew out a long breath. “Well, that makes things a little more difficult. You can describe it, at least?”
“Oh yes. And I have these.” I rummaged in my pack and brought out the stack of letters, the ones with the Q scrawled on the outside. “I knew I had to come to Quell, and I think these are from people here …”
“May I?” Mieka extended her hand. I relinquished the letters and watched as she shuffled through them. “Some of these are from Quell, yes. All from the same person, it looks like.”
She opened one and read the signature. “The Book Man.”
“The Book Man?” I repeated. “No name?”
“Like I said, those of us in … less reputable lines of work keep our names close to the chest, usually. I’ve heard of him.”
“Wait … less reputable? What does he do?”
“He’s in the black market. Famous for it, in fact. Spellbooks.”
“There’s a black market for spellbooks?”
Mieka laughed at my expression. “Of course.”
“But I thought all spellbooks had to be examined and passed by the Temple. Except …” I paused.
“Except the illegal ones. Looks like your mother might be one of us, eh?”
I had never thought of Mother as dabbling in any sort of black market, but it made sense. She worked on her books safe from the Temple’s prying eyes. She corresponded with bookmakers, mages, and suppliers in secret, usually writing in code, she had told me.
“What does he say to her?”
“It’s just bills. Receipts. Lists. Looks like she was ordering supplies from him. He doesn’t even use her name.”
Still. This was the only lead I had.
“All right,” I said. “Where do I find this Book Man?”
“It’s not like you can just look up his address and walk right in,” said Mieka. “Dealing in illegal spellbooks is a dangerous business. But I think I know where we can find him, or at least find someone who knows where he is.”
“Where is it?” I started to get up.
“Settle down! We can’t go right now. I’ll take you tomorrow, all right? Look, for the time being, you can stay here. Your Hair may prove useful. We don’t have any mages here. Perhaps that is what Patrick was thinking when he …”
“You still don’t,” I said flatly. “I can’t use my magic, because I can’t read.”
“That’s not always necessary,” said Mieka.
“I don’t mean …” What was the word the young Follower had used? “Affinities. I mean real magic.”
Mieka gave me a quizzical look. “Well, if you feel that way about affinities, and you want to use your magic, we can teach you to read.”
“You don’t understand. I can’t read. It doesn’t matter what I try. I can’t even see the letters properly. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
She sighed. “Just my luck. Well, we’ll find something for you to do.”
“I can sew,” I ventured. “And embroider.”
“All right.” She sounded polite, but unimpressed.
“Look, I have some here.” I rummaged in my pack and pulled out one of my half-finished pieces—swans with necks entwined against a backdrop of bulrushes. Mieka took it from me and studied it, running her fingertips over its surface.
“Netta. This is wonderful. It’s a real skill. You have talent, and we can certainly use it.”
I flushed. “Thank you.”
“Now try to get some sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”