Clary hurried through the marketplace, making sure to keep an eye on her basket and her purse in case somebody tried to take her mother's money or the potions she'd been sent to get. She also looked at the stalls full of interesting things as she passed, especially the ones selling jewellery or pretty rolls of cloth. She'd have loved to stop and admire them properly, but she was supposed to be home by midday, and her mother was waiting for her to bring the potions to ease her headache.
All of a sudden she heard shouts calling for the Dogs from other people in the marketplace. Looking around, she saw that there was a crowd gathering a few stalls away and went to see what was going on. She squeezed around people until she could get a good view of what was happening, and saw a mot hit a cove so hard she sent him flying. There was another man there too, with a knife in his hand, and he lunged towards the mot now. Clary's eyes widened, thinking he'd stab her, but instead the woman gave him a solid kick in the stomach and left him winded. She could gather from the voices around her that these men were a pair of loobies who'd thought they could grab the mot, have her purse and anything else she had of value and get away without being caught. Clary supposed it might have worked, but it seemed they'd had the bad luck to pick an off-duty Dog and she was making them regret their choice.
The crowd started moving behind her and people were saying that the Dogs had arrived. A hand grabbed at her arm and tugged her backwards; she shook it off and hastily checked that the money and potions were still untouched.
"Sorry," said a heavily accented voice from behind her. "I am no bad man. People in black have…hard sticks."
Clary turned around and stared at him. He was young, probably only a few years older than Tom, and he didn't seem like a cracknob. He was smiling at her, his big brown eyes looking completely relaxed, and she supposed his Common just wasn't very good. It seemed that he was trying to tell her that he'd pulled her out of the way in case the Dogs started hitting people to make them move. It was fair enough, really, since the heavy batons did look quite painful. She turned back again to watch as the Dogs came through. It wasn't long at all before the two of them and the mot that had been attacked had hobbled the two Rats, and the Dogs were leading them away to be taken to the cages.
"I would like this," said the same voice from behind her. "Stop bad people with my stick."
Clary nodded, but it wasn't really the Dogs with their batons that had impressed her. It was the way that the woman had looked completely unsuspecting just like any other mot, and had then fought them off all by herself. She thought it would be fantastic to be able to fight like that, she was sure it would come in useful. I want to be just like her when I grow up, she thought. It would certainly be much more interesting than being boring and doing things like sewing and accounts. The crowd began to break up and she set off in the direction of home, her mind now occupied. So to fight like that, I'd have to be a Dog. Clary grinned to herself. That could be fun.