Keeper of the City by Diane Duane

Author:Diane Duane [Duane, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2012-06-05T12:23:28+00:00

HE WAITED a couple of days. It wasn’t easy; but fortunately he had enough matters to keep him busy in reality and not just in seeming.

“Sir?” the runner said, poking his head into Reswen’s office on the second day. “Constable- Gellav says to tell you that the mrem you had put in the quiet cell a few days back is shouting for you. Says he has something to tell you.”

Reswen smiled and got up. “Tell him I’ll be right there.”

Outside the cell, nothing could be heard, but young Gellav was standing there in a state of great excitement. “I’ve been sitting over the listening-pipe for about a year, it seems like, sir,” he said. “When he started to shout, I was so surprised I almost strangled myself with my tail. What do you want to do with him?”

“You’re going to do it,” Reswen said. “He’s had a bad few days in there, and we don’t want to remind him of who put him there, not just now; it might make him sullen again. Take a lamp in with you, and a couple of stools, so he doesn’t have to sit on the floor while you talk. Get another constable to stand outside the door, and get a flask of wine. Don’t water it; if it goes to his head, no harm done, especially if it makes him talky. Give him some dried meat as well—that makes a hungry mrem even more talky than wine. And be kind about it all. You’re going to be the good constable, as opposed to the nasty wicked policemaster who threatened poor Nierod and put him through all this. If he reviles me, you help him at it, and never care who’s listening. You remember the questions I asked him?”

“Indeed yes, sir.”

“Well enough. I’ll listen to you, and if I want information about anything when you’re done, I’ll scratch on the other end of the listening pipe so that you can check with me and then finish. You know the sound I mean?”

“Oh yes, sir, we use it as a signal sometimes ourselves, to let each other know when another cell’s ready for someone being moved.”

“Fine. And when you’re done asking the questions, if he’s answered what we want to know, put him in one of the upstairs cells. Tell him if he remembers anything else, we might—might—find a way to let him out and let him work for us. But no guarantees. Can you hold that hope low enough to make him jump for it?”

“I think so, sir.”

“So do I. You manage it, my lad, and I’ll see about getting you something worth jumping for. Now off with you.

Then Reswen went upstairs one level, to the regular cell blocks, and positioned himself over the listening tube to Nierod’s cell. There was a sort of low moaning going on in there, a hollow noise, like a mourning ghost. Reswen nodded, satisfied.

Gellav gathered his props and went in, and for a little while Reswen heard nothing but frantic thank-yous, and the sounds of sloppy and hurried eating and drinking.

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