Part 3: Dreaming in Metaphors
It was happening again. I woke up and that flute was playing. When I sat up, my body was still laying next to Lorena. Perhaps if I could reach the stone before I woke up, that would stop it from bothering me.
This time I didn't bother getting dressed. No one would see me and I felt none of the cold. I worked my way across the Thieves' Highway and made it to the clock tower, only to realize that the music wasn't coming from inside. It was still playing but the sound that drew me back to my hideout was now coming from a different direction. Somewhere to the south. I left the tower and continued to follow it. Someone else in the city must have had another witch's stone. Just my luck. I needed to pinpoint its location so I could collect it when I was awake.
I followed the sound past the South Quarter and all the way to the docks. It was coming from the old customs house bridge. The doors of the bridge had been barricaded since the days of the Gloom and no one seemed compelled to reopen it for business. I started to look for a way in but my attention was pulled in another direction by the sound of rapid footsteps.
A small crowd of glowing figures were rushing down the street towards the customs house. They stayed small despite how close they came to me and not one of them seemed to be taller than my hips. Of the thirteen I counted, eleven ran with bundles held tightly to their chests. This dream was getting more interesting by the second.
The figures ran past the highcollar who patrolled the docks. He was peering intently in all directions but didn't seem to see them or me. They crawled beneath the stone walkway that lead up to the customs house and disappeared. That was the entrance, then. I climbed down for a closer look and by the time my feet touched the docks, the flute-playing stopped. The air was suddenly very uncomfortable in its silence.
I moved away from the building and stood next to the patrolman. Something was wrong, I could feel it. Then a loud bang rang out across the docks as the doors shook behind their barricade. It had to have been part of my dream—the guard didn't even notice it. The doors shook again as if something inside was ramming against them.
And again.
And again.
The slamming continued and each time it did, I lost more and more interest in approaching the old building. My eagerness fled altogether when a guttural snarl accompanied the banging. Whatever was in that building wasn't human. The banging and growling built up to the point where I had to cover my ears to soften the effect. It felt like monster was knocking inside my head.
The figures I saw earlier rushed out from under the stone walkway and ran back the way they came. They were fewer in number than they were when they went in and no longer carried their bundles. Each one screamed in terror but I couldn't hear it over the sound of the banging. I watched them flee and wanted to flee with them, but I was stuck in place. Forced to hear the banging. The growling. It was starting to drive me insane!
"Garrett! Garrett, wake up!"
Lorena's voice introduced me to a cold wind that brought me back to my senses. I was laying on the floor, being pulled backwards. My feet were still outside her attic window but I drew them in quickly out of the frost. I was freezing. Lorena threw a blanket around me but it would take a while for the warmth to kick in.
"What the hell, Garrett? You were standing naked on the roof! Are you trying to make yourself sick?"
"How long was I out there?"
"Long enough, you idiot! What were you doing out there?"
I told her about my dream and the tourmaline's effect on me. By the time I finished my story, she had a bowl of sloop heated to warm me from the inside.
"Do you think another witch is hiding in the customs house?"
"I don't know." I drank as much of the sloop as I could stand to in a single swallow. It was watery and bland but at least it was hot. "There is something in there, though. Something terrible. I'm going to check it out."
"I'll come with you."
I shook my head, partly to decline the offer but also to shake off the sensation of choking down another mouthful of the warm concoction. "I'm just going to look. If there's something in there that needs to be handled the way we handled Sarto, I'll come get you and Six for it. I'm not stupid, or suicidal."
Lorena nodded but her gaze was rightfully suspect; after all, if she hadn't pulled me out of my dream I might have frozen to death right outside of her attic. "Well I'm going to be in Blackbrook for a few days so don't do much more than look without me."
I nodded, then took a deep breath to brace myself for the rest of the sloop.
I had to get supplies from one of the trench-coat merchants and the closest to the clock tower sold his wares near the Crippled Burrick. That brought me past Basso's office, and while I didn't intend to pay him a visit, I overheard some yelling that told me I should stop by.
"You son of a bitch! This is not the payment you were owed!"
"Hey! I already took what you owed me! Whatever else you think I took, it was probably somebody else giving you what you deserved!"
"This is not what I deserve, Basso. Now give her back!"
Wren was in Basso's office throwing a fit. Now that he was awake and sober, I could see how broad-shouldered he was. He could probably take on the two of us if he had any real fighting skill. The way he knocked random items around the room told me he only knew how to throw his weight but not how to put it to good use.
I stepped up behind Perkis and grabbed his forearm just as he reared back to swing a punch at Basso. Then I kicked him down to one knee and bent his arm behind his head so if he tried to pull away, he would hurt himself. "Calm down or I'll put you down."
After he strained his arm a few times, he finally got the message and settled down on both knees. Basso tried to cover up his relief with anger. "Think I didn't have an ace up my sleeve, Perkis? I know it's been a couple years since we've seen each other but you should know me better than that!"
"Thought I knew you," Perkis grunted. "Never figured you for a kidnapper. Now where's my Mary!"
He was talking about the girl that lived with him, not the coins we stole. I let go of his arm and moved around him so he could see the dangerous look in my eyes. For most it was usually enough to keep them from doing something stupid.
Basso did all the talking. "I may be a lot of things, but I'm no kidnapper, Wren. Whoever this Mary is probably got sick of your stink and ran off. Now get outta here before I have my associate twist your other arm."
Perkis didn't leave his spot. His body was shaking and those broad shoulders of his sank along with his head. He shuddered a sound that didn't quite make sense—until he lifted his face again. He was crying. The tears hadn't fallen yet but they had glossed over his eyes. "Mary's my babe... My little girl." He couldn't hold back the tears then. "Her mum passed recently. Is why I moved back to this city. I wanted her to have a fairer chance than we did on the road. Now she's gone missing. I can't lose her, Bass. She's all I got left."
I exchanged a look with Basso, who I could tell was trying to stay firm. He scratched his hair and spoke to Perkis with less anger in his tone. "Yeah, well, I hate to be the one to tell you but this city's no place for a child. If she's been taken by someone, there's a few obvious places you could look and my office isn't one of them."
Perkis crawled forward on his knees, as if he didn't look pathetic enough. I took a half-step forward to keep my warning fresh in his mind but when he stopped, he looked up at us with a desperate plea in his eyes. "Please, Bass. I'll give you back your share and then some. Help me find Mary, won't you?"
"I already took back my share, and the 'then some?' I already know where you keep it hid. I don't need anything from you."
"She's innocent, Bass! She's all I have left! You can take every coin; I don't care. I just want her back safe!"
I finally had enough of the exchange. "If it'll stop that pathetic noise you're making, I'll look for her. Just make sure that every coin in your vault is polished so that it looks good when it's transferred to mine." Desperate men were easy to take advantage of and I knew he wasn't going away until someone agreed to do something. At least I could profit from it.
Basso shook his head and smirked. "You hear that, Wren? My associate's feeling very generous tonight. So you go home, make Mary's room look nice and pretty for her, then make sure you have all your money ready to go when he gets back."
We watched Perkis collect himself and listened to him describe what his daughter looked like. I already knew but he didn't need to know that. As he turned for the door, he let out one last feeble statement. "You won't regret this. She means more to me than money."
"Yeah, well sober up so you can show her a little better!" Basso turned to me after Wren was gone. "Ugh. That poor girl'll be lucky if she hasn't already been shipped overseas. Are you really gonna do this, Garrett? Kids disappear all the time in The City and you know it's never pretty to see where they end up."
"You didn't see how much gold was in his vault. If his little girl is worth that much to him, I'll bring her back no matter what condition she's in."
"All right, but I have a list of other things you can do while you do that. Whether you find the girl or not, there is money to be made, my friend."
