Thief in the Night (2)
“Oscoral?”Drul, the drudge, tugged gently on the night baker’s sleeve. She had to look up and up-the man was at least 6″6.
“Let me guess. He’s back.”
She nodded, dumbly.
“And he’s mad, right? Because you failed to nick a pie for him last night?”
Again, she nodded.
His smile turned wicked. This, he knew, was going to be fun. “Lindea, I know you’ve been working all day. I need you to hold down the fort for a while longer. Double shifts happen when we have such a large crowd. But it’s important. Our bread thief has returned.”
“Oh, do I have to stay here? I do so want to catch him.” Lindea’s fatigue evaporated.
“You are undoubtedly faster on your feet than I, my girl, but I doubt you are strong enough to wrestle him into submission.” He laughed,deeply.
“Yes, sir, but I do want to get my licks in, if I may.”
“Alright, Drul, here’s what I want you to do. Play your part exactly as I tell you, and we shall snag this little tunnel snake right out of his hole.” Oscoral said.
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He heard rather than saw Drul approaching. “What? No glow?”
“I dropped it back near the kitchen. I was in a hurry.”
“And where were you last night? I warned you what was going to happen to you if you disobeyed me.”
“No, please,” she begged, “I couldn’t help it. They kept their eyes on me all night. I couldn’t get away, not even for a minute.”
“Where are you? Why don’t you come out here?”
“If I go out there you’re going to throw me into the wher’s pen.”
“I just might.”
“I have to go back. I am already in trouble.”
“Did you bring a pie?”
“Yes.”
“So give it to me.”
“No, I told you, I don’t want you to grab me.”
“Have it your way, then. Drop the pie and go back. But don’t be so late tomorrow, you hear me? You’re going to make me hurt you.”
“Here.” She put the pie down and backed off, making a great amount of noise running back up the tunnel.
He strode into the mouth of the tunnel to where he could just barely see the pie.
A powerful force snatched him right off his feet. A deep voice said, “Ah, so you wanted one of my pies, is that it, my bullyboy?”
He fought for a handhold on the mighty arm that held him by the collar, but was helpless as a puppy dangling from its mother’s jaws.
“Lemme go, lemme go” he managed to get out of his constricted throat.
“Why, certainly, but only after we have a little chat on who you are and why you are terrorizing my people. Let’s never mind your pinching my baked goods. What’s your name, boy?”
The boy managed to wheeze “Uh, uh, K…K…Kandar.”
The voice, sounding as though it was issuing from the bowels of the mountain, said, “Drul, bring that glow back here, so we can get a good look at this wher in my grip.”
The girl came back with the glow.
“Kandar, eh? Is this your little beastie, girl?”
“That’s him, that’s him.”
Well, Kandar, let’s take you back up to where we can get a good look at you. Hariko will skin me for bringing filth into her kitchen, but I want to see what sort of vermin you be.”
“No, let me go, I won’t do it again, I promise.”
“Oh, there’s no doubt about THAT, Kandar my lad. No doubt in my mind, at all,” he chuckled. It was a sound like that made when a wher’s teeth cracks a bone.
Lindea saw the big man enter with Drul behind him (carrying the pie). Oscoral had a boy in his outstretched fist, the feet just barely touching the ground. One look and she shrieked.
“BOROST!!”
Oscoral dropped the punk. The boy scrabbled on the stone floor, coughing and wheezing as he tried to get his throat to unknot.
“Borost, is it? Lin, you know this piece of wherry dung? He said his name is Kandar.”
“NO! I mean yes! He’s not Kandar, he’s Borost. He’s a Candidate for the Hatching. “
Borost got to his hands and knees. One massive foot planted itself in the middle of his back and flattened him, a little harder than was necessary.
“So what shall we do with you, Borost?” he asked, nudging even harder with his boot.
Borost struggled but had no chance of escaping the giant on his back.
“Let me go, I won’t even stand for the Hatching, I’ll leave.”
“Aye, that’s certain, you surely won’t stand for the Hatching,” Oscoral said. “And, given that you’ve lied to me at least once tonight, slandered an innocent Kandar, extorted and terrorized my drudge, and have been stealing my baked goods for at least a week, I’m not inclined to allow you to stand at all. In fact, if I snap your legs in two, you’ll fit nicely into one of my ovens. I’d love to roast you over a low fire, but it’s late and I don’t want your screaming waking the entire weyr. Stop squirming, boy, while I cogitate on this matter.”
He looked up at the ceiling, scratching his chin theatrically.
“Where, where to put this pile of offal?”
“How ’bout the wherry pen?” Drul suggested, helpfully.
“Now then, Drul, while I grant that’s an excellent suggestion, remember, we eat those wherries, eventually. Will you poison them with this tainted meat? No. Let’s lock him in with the spit dogs, eh? It’s a dirty trick to pull on decent dogs, I agree, but we don’t have a cell and I’d rather not block up the latrine pit.”
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Hariko had just entered the dining hall when one of the day shift drudges came running to her.
“Ma’am, the spit dogs got out and they’re running loose.”
“SHARDS” she gasped, “You, you and you,” she pointed to three of them, “See how many you can catch. Take some fresh meat, that usually brings them back.”
Oscoral came out of the kitchen, smiling.
“Hariko, we caught the bread thief.”
“Where is he?”
“I locked him up in the spit canine kennels.”
“Well, he’s escaped, then, and released them. They’re running loose.”
He began to curse in words she’d never heard in her life.
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