*
Radger and Laetha’s home looked like just about every other apothecary’s shop I’d ever seen. One wall was made up of dark wooden glass-fronted cabinets filled with scores of tiny pots and jars. Dried herbs and flowers were suspended from hooks all over the place. A long oak countertop served both for handling money and packaging and mixing formulas. In the back, behind the shop, was one large room with two smaller ones adjoining, and a thick oak door leading to what was most likely the cellar. Behind a curtain hanging in one of the two bedrooms was a hidden door.
‘If someone comes in through the front of the shop we can sneak her out the back here to the alley,’ Radger said, holding the hanging back.
‘They’ll be likely to have someone in the alley,’ I started, but he smiled and pushed open the door. There was a tall wall just to the right of it.
‘See that alley wall right there? It looks like a dead end from the street, but actually this segment behind the wall joins up with a notary’s office and Heb the carpenter’s workshop. They could stand all day in that alley waiting for us and not notice that we’d already left.’
I smiled. It was as good as she could hope for.
‘Where’s Mattea?’ Aline said.
It was clear to me that the old woman had been an important and positive force in the girl’s life, and the family were more like cousins than servants to her. That was good.
‘She’s still out looking for you,’ Laetha said. ‘Here, let’s get both of you something to eat. You look as though you haven’t had anything in ages.’
Laetha motioned for us to take a seat at the large table in the centre of the main room. The wooden chairs were hard, but it felt like sinking into a cloud for me. I was exhausted, but sleep was miles away yet. I had to make sure the girl was safe, then I would take that back alley route and make for the rooftops as fast as possible. I would go through the most crowded parts of the city on my way to the outer wall, and then … Well, then I’d just have to figure out how to haul my exhausted body up a twenty-foot stone surface. Maybe the trees … I’d noticed people had stopped trimming the trees near the outer wall. Foolish, that. Makes it easier for people to sneak in and out. If not, maybe one of the broken sections … maybe …
‘Falcio, food!’ Aline said, lifting me out of my somnolence.
‘How long …?’ I asked wearily.
‘Almost an hour. I thought it best to let you sleep. You looked comfortable, like you might not try to kill the next person that comes through the door. For a moment I didn’t recognise you.’
‘Funny.’
‘Enough talking, you two,’ Laetha said. ‘Eat.’
I’d expected to see simple fare in front of me but this was hardly Cheapside food. There were roasted potatoes and greens, fresh bread, and the dark-reddish butter they favoured in Rijou. There was gravy and salt for dipping. Finally, Laetha brought in an entire roast duck. I could smell the fat dripping from the bird and, tired though I was, I very nearly grabbed the whole thing with my hand.
‘Saints, man,’ Radger said with a laugh. ‘You look like you’re going to pass out in Laetha’s lovely roast dinner! Here, drink this.’ He picked up a glass from the sideboard and poured a clear but yellowish liquid into it.
I took the glass from him as he watched me expectantly. I hesitated.
Laetha noticed, and put down the knife she was using to carve the duck. ‘Oh, for the love of my ancestors!’ She picked up another glass from the sideboard and filled it from the same flask. She took a drink. ‘See? Not dead. It’s just lemon juice with zinroot – it helps you stay awake.’
I let my breath out and drank gratefully. ‘To your health, then,’ I said.
‘All right, enough foolishness now,’ Laetha said firmly. ‘Let’s eat.’
As she heaped food onto our plates I realised the zinroot was indeed waking me up. Saints, but my arms were stiff – in fact, all of me was stiff, really. I wasn’t relishing the thought of what the next few hours would bring once I left the apothecary’s home.
‘Will Mattea be back soon?’ Aline asked between mouthfuls.
‘Oh, I imagine she’ll be a few more hours,’ Laetha answered.
I barely paid attention to the conversation, so enamoured of the roast duck on my plate was I. ‘The food is wonderful,’ I said, and Aline nodded, grinning, bits of duck dribbling from her mouth. Hardly the portrait of a young noblewoman, I thought, and far away from the despairing creature who had been moments from taking her own life.
Saint Caveil, what value does my blade have if it brings so little good to the world?
‘Well, I’m just glad we found you,’ Laetha said. ‘We’d had no luck at all, and then poof, there you were, right on the—’
‘Laetha,’ Radger interrupted, ‘let’s not make them relive the experience. It was grand luck that brought us together, and with a little more we’ll be able to take good care of our Aline here.’
‘I’ve learned not to believe too much in luck,’ I said, and speared a potato, only to drop my fork on the table. ‘Sorry.’
The meal wasn’t making the stiffness in my joints go away. Not one bit. I looked over at Radger and his wife.
‘Where’s Mattea again?’
‘As we said, out looking for Aline with some of the others.’
Laetha started picking up the now empty plates. We had practically obliterated the bountiful meal, and in less time than you could butter a bread roll.
‘And yet you haven’t gone out to let any of your friends know that you’ve found us.’
‘Well, they’re – they’re all out. There’s no one to tell yet. No one expected to find you so soon.’
‘But find us you did,’ I said.
‘Grand luck, bountiful luck of the Saints,’ Radger said piously.
Aline was looking back and forth between us, not sure what this was all about.
‘This is certainly the finest meal I’ve had in an age,’ I said, placing both hands on the table. They wanted to shake, but they didn’t: they were stiff and achy and not responding much at all. Everyone else looked fine, including Laetha, who took her seat once again to the right of me. Aline was to my left and Radger sat across the table.
‘Well, I’m just glad you’re well fed,’ she said, smiling. Nervous. Still nervous.
She knows, but isn’t sure how far gone I am.
‘Well fed, ready for bed, soon to be dead,’ I sang with a laugh.
Aline giggled at the old children’s rhyme, but the others did not.
‘One problem, though,’ I said with a smile.
‘What—?’ Laetha began.
‘Now I need dessert!’
They laughed with me, but looked a bit confused. ‘We didn’t have time to prepare … I suppose I could toss some sugar cakes and jam together,’ Laetha said.
‘Falcio, don’t be rude.’
I shook my head. ‘No need, I always bring my own. Aline, dear, could you do a tired, old, worn-out and beat-up man a favour? Reach into my pocket and pass me one of my sweets, won’t you?’
She looked at me, clearly confused.
‘Come now, I’m all settled and comfortable here; I just want one of my candies. The hard one.’
She rose, and for a brief instant I saw Radger start to reach for her, but then he stopped, catching my eye. I smiled back at him. I could barely move, so I had to do my best to make him think I was still functional. I suppose this is as good a time as any to mention that my very worst night terrors involve being paralysed.
Aline reached awkwardly into the inside pocket of my coat and pulled out one of the tiny packages. ‘No dear, the hard candy. The soft candy tastes too much like strawberries and it won’t settle with the duck.’
She reached into the other pocket. Her hand was shaking now, but she was trying to mask it, either because she understood what was happening or because she thought I was losing my mind.
‘There now,’ I said. ‘That’s the one.’
Without further instruction she unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth and I tasted the harsh, almost metallic flavour of the hard candy. A sniff of the stuff will wake you up from a deep sleep. A small bite will let you go for two days and nights on the move without sleep. The amount I swallowed at that moment could prevent a paralytic from stopping my heart – if it didn’t make it burst. I made the sounds I imagined one might make when tasting the tits of Saint Laina-who-whores-for-Gods.
‘You certainly seem enamoured of your confectionary,’ Laetha said drily.
‘I am indeed, mistress. I am indeed. I would offer you some, but that was the very last piece. Perhaps you’d like to try some of the other candy I have with me? It’s soft, and tastes of summer strawberries.’
‘Thank you, no,’ she said. ‘As you say, strawberries go ill with duck.’
Aline sat in her chair, inching closer to me each time she fidgeted, looking back and forth between us all and clearly terrified. Radger looked at me from across the table with eyes that betrayed nothing, simply waiting.
Well, fine: I was waiting too. But I still couldn’t move my arms.
‘Where did you say the old woman was again?’ I asked.
‘We’ve told you three times now, she’s out with the others, searching for Aline.’ Laetha’s voice held only irritation, but her shoulders betrayed fear. Radger rose and headed to one of the cabinets in the corner.
‘Right, right – forgive me. And how did you find us again?’ I asked.
‘We told you, it was luck. Just luck.’
‘Of course. What’s wrong with me?’
‘Falcio …’ Aline said.