Disclaimer: Jarred, Tay, Rinny, Piper, Elaine, and any other characters that were not created by Tamora Pierce are mine. Anything recognizable as hers is not mine, because I am a sixteen year old girl, and she's been writing since before I was born.

A/N: Sorry this update's late…I ran into a bit of trouble near the end, and this chapter has a TON of action, even for me, not to mention I've been traveling, playing Halo 3 with my cousin (who proceeded to kill me 4 out of 5 times, including twice by accident) yesterday and my laptop's internet is giving me trouble…and I will admit that I've gotten a little distracted between updates… but, anyway, enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

From the journal of Jarred Cooper,
Trainee in the Provost's Guard
Resident of the Lower City, Corus

April 24, 267

Before dinner

Rooftops are not good to run on. That's one of the reasons I haven't been able to write for two days. I broke my wrist while I was on Watch, but it really didn't have much to do with rooftops. Thankfully, yesterday was a Court Day and today is an off day for the Dogs of Evening Watch. I'll start with what happened when Watch started, since it began at muster.

Baton practice was the usual – I hit the dirt twice, once when Goodwin whacked my knee out from under me, and once when I didn't manage to avoid one of her nap-taps. That hurt.

Anyway, after that, once all of the Evening Watch Dogs were there, we headed out. It was our night to patrol the Nightmarket, so we started to head that way. Tay's eyes flicked about the street, as if he was nervous about something. That was enough to make Rinny, and in turn, me, uneasy. He was tense, too, and he looked like he would yelp if someone scared him. And Piper didn't tag along, for some reason. She didn't even show up, or anything.

I caught three minnows before we even got there, but none of them were worth the trouble to arrest or writing about. Once we got to the Nightmarket, I stopped another one, but that's not the interesting part: less than a quarter of the way through, a cove sauntered up to Rinny. He looked more than drunk. Stupid cracknob. I'm not going to repeat what he said, since it would be dirtying my journal. I'll just say that he suggested a few things that were enough to make Tay flush when he overheard. Rinny gave the cove a near perfect nap-tap, and moved on.

"Not a word," she told Tay with a pointed look. He chuckled.

"Wasn't going to say anything, Rinny," he replied. She glared at him. She wasn't having a good day, and Tay was not helping. Rinny rolled her eyes and walked on, muttering as she passed me.

"Looby." I couldn't help snorting at that. We kept walking, catching a few here and there, but, overall, it was rather quiet for the first part of the evening. We were almost done with the Nightmarket when we heard a screech from inside one of the buildings. A cove came flying out a window and landed on an awning, then proceeded to fall from the awning to the ground. He landed with an light thud, rolled over, and looked around. When he spotted us, he scrambled to his feet, and rushed towards us.

"There's another man up there, and I think he means to kill my cousin, Kevlin of Venicele!" The cove talked like a noble, though he was dressed as a commoner. Just like Kindan of Haryse. Not to mention, the person he was referring to had a noble's name, too. I couldn't help but wonder if there was a connection as me and my Dogs ran to the building the cove had fallen out of, and up the stairs. A yelp rang out as we got closer.

Tay got to the door first, and forced it open. Inside, a pale, blond cove with a knife stood over a noble, who was breathing heavily and staring at the cove who stood over him. Tay growled, and moved forward, his baton was already in his hand. Rinny flitted around Tay as soon as he was through the door, so that she could stand on his right. I shifted to the left when I could get in.

The cove was obviously Scanran, judging by both his appearance and the curse that he uttered when he looked up and saw three Dogs in the room. Before any of us could react, he threw himself toward the window. Tay lunged forward, trying to catch him, but missed. The Scanran jumped out the window, landed on the balcony with a thud, then reached up and hauled himself up onto the roof. He was off in an instant – I could hear him through the ceiling. Tay cursed and did the same, following the cove.

"Said he was going to do the same thing to me that he did to Kindan," the nobleman said from the floor. Rinny looked up at me; there was a worried glint in her eyes.

"Jarred, follow Tay. Try to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid or get himself doused." I nodded and ran to the window and balcony. I jumped out the window, and pulled myself onto the roof, just as the other two had. Tay and the Scanran weren't too far off, I could still see them when I was once I was up there.

I slipped a little while I was trying to get up the angled surface. By the time I was at the top, Tay and the Scanran were starting to get farther away, but they had slowed down some. Tay was faster on the roofs than the Scanran was, but he has some experience running on rooftops. It took me a few minutes to get close enough – it's hard running, or walking, on an uneven surface.

Finally, I was close enough to see that they'd come to a standstill on opposite sides of a roof with a chimney. The closest roof was too far away for any sane person to jump, and Tay was blocking the only way to another roof. The Scanran's eyes flicked to me, then back to Tay. He knew there was no way for him to get off the roof unless he jumped or got past me and Tay.

With a move as fast as lightning, there was a dagger in his hand. He flicked it at Tay, who didn't get out of the way fast enough, and caught the dagger full on in the shoulder. Tay yelped, stumbled back, and lost his balance and footing. He slid down the side of the roof, scrabbling for some way to stay on the roof. The look on his face was one of panic, and for good reason: he couldn't get a grip on anything. Without anything to grab, there was no way for him to stop his slide. He did grab the lip of the roof, but it didn't help much – he managed to get the upper part of his body back up before his shoulder gave out and he fell. I heard an almost sickening thud and two loud cracks within a few seconds, and knew that he'd hit the ground. I couldn't even do anything to help him without falling off myself.

The Scanran took advantage of the fact that my attention was on Tay and surged forward. He knocked me over, but I managed to grab the chimney. The cove glance back, then ran off, slipping into another house. I got to my feet as fast as I could without falling. Then, I managed a controlled slide down the side, and glanced down. Tay was on his side, gasping in pain.

I looked around to see if I could find a way down – it was an alleyway, and there was a set of stairs to one side of the alley. I somehow managed to move over to where I could slip onto the stairwell without killing myself, and worked my way down. As I reached the last landing, I realized that I could hear rushed footsteps against the cobblestone streets. I ignored them, rushing over to where Tay was. He groaned lightly, turning pain-filled eyes up at me. He winced when he tried to move, moving his hand down to one of his ankles.

"Landed on my feet. Stupid. I think I broke both ankles," he said. The footsteps were right on top of us before I looked up. It was Rinny, who looked very worried. Of course, I would, too, if my partner was on the ground groaning in pain.

"What happened?" She asked. She looked at me, obviously wanting me to answer instead of Tay, who just let out another groan.

"He fell off the roof," I told her, "and he landed on his feet. He said that he thinks both of his ankles are broken, but I haven't had a chance to check."

"Tay, you ducknob, why did you land on your feet? You ain't a cat, and you know that you're going to get hurt if you do that when you fall from a height like that!" Rinny gave him a dirty look, then moved to try to check his ankles. She placed one hand gently on his boot, and he winced sharply, even when she was just lightly touching.

"Well, he definitely broke it, if I can't even check to see if he did or not acos it hurt too much. Come on, Jarred, let's get him back to the Kennel," she said. We managed to lift him to a position that made it so that he wasn't, and wouldn't have to, touch the ground as we walked. I have to admit, Tay is heavy. Considering the fact that he's a good six inches taller than me, and has more muscle on him, I shouldn't be surprised, though. The people on the streets parted to let us through, but that was probably acos Rinny and I both had our batons out, and they could see that Tay was injured – Dogs aren't nice when their partners are injured and they can't get them back to the Kennel. It was actually rather easy to get back to the Jane Street Kennel. Now, getting into the kennel is another story. Both me and Rinny were tired by the time we got there, and I almost ran into the doorframe, which would probably have ended badly.

Apparently, it was one of the nights that Goodwin and Tunstall had come in early, since both of them were in there when we got there. Goodwin paled slightly, and Tunstall frowned. They watched while we moved Tay to the small infirmary in Kennel.

"What happened?" Goodwin asked, once Rinny and I had gotten Tay to one of the beds. The healer had come rushing up, and was already checking him over.

"Tay fell off a roof," I told her. "He landed on his feet, and we were more than two stories up. We think he broke both of his ankles doing that." I paused for just a moment, trying to catch my breath. Goodwin was now frowning at me.

"Why were you on a roof?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She shifted her weight to one side, making the stance even more imposing. I looked at the floor for a moment, then looked back at her. I know I was slightly red. I just know it.

"We almost caught the cove who killed Kindan of Haryse. We had him cornered on the rooftops by the Nightmarket, and he threw a knife at Tay. It hit Tay, and he slipped. He grabbed the edge of the roof, but his shoulder, where the knife hit him, gave out, and he fell. The cove knocked me over, and got away." I looked up at her again, hoping that she wasn't mad. She wasn't, but she had her hand over her face.

"Did you at least see what he looked like?" I nodded, which obviously brought her hopes up a little bit.

"Late twenties or early thirties, five feet, five inches, slender, hair light blond, eyes green or hazel, skin pale, broken nose, thin lips, sharp features, but still had some baby fat. Earrings in both ears, gold hoops in the cartilage. I'm almost positive that he was Scanran, but not totally sure, he could be from the northern part of Galla, but he knew some Scanran, at least." Goodwin nodded, and started pacing back and forth. She glanced up at the healer when the woman moved away to get something.

"Is he alright?" She asked. She obviously didn't like having half of one of the three best teams on Evening Watch injured. The healer stopped for a moment, glancing back at Tay, who was now unconscious.

"He will be. I can only do so much for him since he's built up an immunity to healings, just like your own partner has. Guardsman Prince will have to be off duty, and off his feet, for two weeks, but he'll be fine after that, if he listens to me this time. He is not to be up and about until then, and he has to come to see me so I can make sure the breaks healed as they should before he goes back on Watch. You remember what happened last time, when he broke his shoulder and didn't listen. I'll make some packets of tea for him that will help with the swelling and the pain." She paused for a moment before she walked over to her herb stores. "Is he married or involved with someone who can watch over him to make sure that he doesn't do anything else stupid?" She asked. This time, it was Rinny who spoke up.

"No, but he can stay with me and my husband until then. Kai rarely leaves the house after I go to Watch, so it would work fine, I think. We have a guest room he can stay in," she said. The healer nodded as she pulled out more herbs and started mixing some of them together.

It was right then that the door to the kennel burst open. Elaine stumbled into the room. Her right arm was hanging useless at her side and bleeding heavily. She steadied herself against the doorframe, trying to catch her breath.

"There – there's a riot in the Cesspool! Ersken and Birch told me to run to the Kennel if I could get away. There's three Dogs dead already. They killed Lireal, Dario, and Tylia." Tears were running down Elaine's cheeks as she said this, but her voice was clear. Goodwin nodded to her.

"Good job. Let the healer take care of you and don't worry about it. Jewel, Cooper, come on." Goodwin swiftly walked to the still-open door, which Elaine had moved from. I offered my friend the best smile I could as we passed. Tunstall was on Godwin's heels, and both of them were off at a run as soon as they were out the door. Rinny and I dashed after them, in the direction of the Cesspool. The route we followed took us right past where Ma and Kayly were talking to a shopkeeper.

"Jarred, what's going on?" Ma asked as we dashed past. I slowed for just a moment and turned towards them.

"There's a riot in the Cesspool!" Her eyes widened and she and Kayly exchanged glances. I turned back around and sped up before I saw any more of their reaction. I could hear them start after us after a moment, but I was too intent on getting to where we supposed to be going to really notice.

By the time we got there, it was more like a brawl. There were Evening Watch Dogs everywhere, and even a few Dogs from other Watches out of uniform. Already, Goodwin and Tunstall were blocking blows and giving mots and coves alike nap-taps. Things were getting ugly. I skidded to a stop a few yards from the fighting and pulled out my baton. With a deep breath to steel myself, I moved in to help try to calm the crowd down. It was not fun. Within a moment, someone had thrown a shard of something and hit me on the cheek, slicing a slim cut into my skin.

Then, a cove came after me with a sword. He obviously didn't know how to use it, and I have no idea how he managed to get his hands on one, but he did. I disarmed him and whacked him on the back of the head when he threw a punch at my shoulder. He dropped and I moved on. I don't know exactly how it happened, but almost immediately after that, I was slammed into from behind, and thrown to the ground. I tried to stop myself from hitting the ground, but that turned out to be a very, very bad idea. The instant my right hand made contact with the ground, I heard a crack, and fire surged up my arm. I instantly lost my balance and ended up on my back, clutching my wrist.

I should probably mention that my baton work is horrible with my left hand. And when I say horrible, I mean it's bad enough to get me killed. I'm good with my right hand, but not my left. The funny part of that is that when I handle daggers, I'm good with both hands. It's just the baton work that gives me trouble.

Anyway, I pulled myself up, and somehow – I really don't know how – managed to get out of the brawl, with my baton, too. I got lucky. Ma got her nose broken again, and Tunstall ended up with two broken ribs. Kayly has a concussion that the healer couldn't do anything about acos she was too tired, so Kayly will be out of action for the rest of the week. Most of the Dogs got out of it without being injured too much. Five Dogs died in the riot and ensuing brawl. No one really knows what started the riot, but it must have been bad.

The burials for the Dogs who were killed – Lirael, Dario, Tylia, Ghent, and Siarra – were yesterday. I knew Tylia from my Puppy class, Lirael and Dario were her Dogs, and they were both nice. Lirael was a third year Dog, and Dario a seventh year Dog. I didn't know Ghent and Siarra aside from seeing them before and after Watch, so I can't say much about them.

Hmm…Elaine's sister, Ria, has just walked into my room, so I suppose I have to stop writing. Not to mention, I think Piper wants dinner. I'll write about what happened today tomorrow.

A/N: Just a heads up, if I don't update, it's because I haven't been writing, or I just haven't had time to post a new chapter. I'm on vacation, and Lioness now has a new rule(that she made for herself) - no fanfics at the pool. That means that I don't know when the next update will be, but, I'll be back home in about two weeks, though I don't know if that will mean an update for sure, since I may be busy that week. So, updates may be in short supply for a couple of weeks, but, I promise, I will update sometime in the near future.

Posted 5/3/08