Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce

Author:Tamora Pierce [Pierce, Tamora]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Police Procedural, Law & Crime, Police, Mystery & Detective, Fantasy Fiction, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Counterfeits and Counterfeiting
ISBN: 9780375838170
Google: kWuYCv1jsmkC
Amazon: 0375838171
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2009-04-14T05:00:00+00:00

Sunday, September 16, 247

At five of the afternoon.

Slapper roused me at what I later found was sometime after nine of the clock this morning. He landed on my face, sticking his clubbed foot into one of my eyes while he smacked me with both wings.

At least this once he calculated wrong. Hit by something, I did what any street Dog might do. I twisted sideways, grabbing for the dagger under my pillow. The cracked bird went flying into the wall nearby.

Seeing what had truly happened, I yanked off my covers and went to pick him up. I need not have bothered. He fastened his beak in my hand, striking me again. As I lifted him, he launched into the air, trilling in outrage. At least the claybrained bird was unhurt.

"D' you want me to feed you or not?" At the last moment I remembered I was not in my normal lodgings and did not yell. At home I would not have woken anyone. Aniki, Rosto, Kora, and Ersken all sleep like the dead.

Slapper whirled toward the window and perched there on the sill. The open shutters let in the full morning sun.

I turned and glared at Achoo, who sat on my bed, tail a-wag. "Not a word," I told her.

I scattered corn on the sill. Four pigeons waited there with Slapper, while others stood on the eaves nearby. "Splendid," I said. "Mumpers at the feast." I leaned out. The sill continued along under the other windows, a solid wooden ledge of a foot in width around the corner of the house. Reaching out as far as I could on either side, I sprinkled corn so more birds could feed.

Then I set about washing my face and cleaning my teeth, listening to the birds as I did. Their ghosts spoke clearer now that I'd had a day and most of a night listening to all manner of Port voices.

" – told 'im I'd 'ave 'is goods in a week!" A cove, with defeat in his voice.

"I tol' Pa the babby broke it." This one was a gixie.

"Di'n't they warn me, yez don' cross Pearl – " A young cove, his voice trembling in fear.

I went to the window to see which bird that was, even though I knew I'd need more than a common murder to trouble the Rogue. Shutters slammed open nearby. The pigeons took off in a flurry, even Slapper, as a woman cried, "What are these curst filthy birds doin' here? Hey! You, what are you at over there?"

I stuck my head out. One of Serenity's maidservants, a mot I didn't know, glared at me from the room next door, on the side opposite Goodwin's. "What?" I called.

"You, is what! Feedin' these nasty things on th' ledge! You'll stop that, right now – I'm havin' a word with Serenity!" she cried. "They leave scummer everywhere, their feathers get into the house, they bring all manner of sickness – "

I couldn't just hide when I heard that. She was wrong about these birds that carry so much human misery.

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