Bard: Chapter 32

In the week since he’d started on the night watch, Liam had seen the boy in lock up three times. He was there again, curled into a ball in the back corner, either sleeping or pretending to be asleep. The others in the cell left him alone. As far as Liam knew, he didn’t talk to anyone, and had staunchly refused to give the guards any information at all. They didn’t know what part of town he was from–he’d been picked up in a different place every time–and they didn’t know if he had any family to speak of.

So once again, he’d be held overnight, and released in the morning. What else were they going to do with him? Everly wasn’t one of those places that cut off a thief’s hands. Liam was grateful for that.

“Are there places to go in the city if you don’t have a place to live?” Liam asked. Ralts, his partner on the night watch, nodded.

“A couple places provide beds for those who need it,” he said. “There’s a temple on the north side of the city, and a few places down by the docks.”

Liam hadn’t seen them when he’d worked there, but then, he hadn’t had any need for them. It had been his first thought when the boy had started turning up so often. Sure it was uncomfortable, but it was a roof for the night.

“What about food?”

“There are some kitchens that serve people for free, if they’ve a need,” Ralts replied, raising an eyebrow. They turned a corner and strolled down a street near the docks. The harbor itself was quiet, but the taverns and inns along the wharf were alive with noise and light. There were men and women along the walkways, talking and laughing and other things, but no one caused any trouble and they kept walking.

“What happens to children without parents?”

“Is this about that thief in the lock up?”

“Yeah,” Liam replied, keeping his voice as level and uninterested as he could manage.

“There’s an orphanage run by some lady a bit inland, ” Ralts said. “Kids get sent there when there’s no one else for them. It’s where he’ll be going if he gets picked up again and won’t talk.”

“Is it a good place?”

“Don’t know,” Ralts said with a shrug. “Never been there. Never asked.”

Liam didn’t ask anymore questions. Orphanages were touch and go, in his experience, and there could be any number of reasons the boy wasn’t in one. Kids with parents still needed to eat, and there wasn’t always food around. The kid just wasn’t very good at not getting caught.

“He’s just a bad egg,” Ralts commented as they rounded a corner and started back up towards the college. “Can’t help himself. Some are just born that way.”

Liam made a sound he hoped sounded like agreement, but Ralts wasn’t done yet.

“He’s a disrespectful little shit,” he said.

“Yeah, well, so was I at that age,” Liam said lightly. Ralts laughed, and let the matter drop, which is what Liam had been hoping for.

They walked through the night, broke up a weak and sloppy fight between a couple of drunks closer to the college. Probably students who were staying up too late. They looked too put together to be laborers or visiting sailors.

Just as dawn was breaking over the water, Liam signed off, changed out of his uniform, and headed for home.

As he stepped out of the hall though, he caught sight of the boy, hurrying away down a side street. He wasn’t running, but he was moving fast, furtive, looking around like he was afraid of being caught, even though he had been freshly released. Liam watched him turn down the next street over, moving more inland, and followed after him.

It was all too easy to slip into old habits–sticking to shadows and close to walls, matching his steps with the boy’s so his footfalls didn’t give him away. They boy looked around before every turn, and never noticed him.

They ended up near one of the markets, the boy trudging wearily up the steps to one of the smaller townhouses and knocking on the door. From across the street, Liam could hear a baby crying inside. There was a light in the lower windows, and after a moment, the door opened a crack, then swung wide.

A little girl leapt forward, clutching the boy around the waist.

“What happened, Mat?” she exclaimed, her voice raspy, as if she’d either just woken up or not slept at all. “Gil won’t stop crying.”

The boy said something Liam couldn’t hear, and they stepped inside, closing the door behind them. Liam leaned against the wall, shadowed and unseen. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited, but no one emerged from the house. The baby continued to cry, and after a few minutes the curtains twitched open upstairs, letting in the weak morning light. He couldn’t see anything else from outside.

It was too nice of a place for them to be sneaking into when the owners were out, so he assumed the boy lived there. The little girl couldn’t have been more than five, and there was a baby. He waited a while longer, but no one came out, and there was no sign of anyone else, not even a glimpse.

He could assume a lot of things, but the only thing he knew for sure is that the boy kept trying to steal food. Liam pushed off the wall and strolled back down to the market. It was still early, but the bakery was open, a few produce stalls were already setting up, and a fishmonger was wheeling his cart into the square. Liam made the rounds, buying fish, vegetables that would keep longer, and a bottle of milk, since he’d heard a baby. He bought a loaf of bread and a bag of rolls from the baker, then asked them to throw in a couple of sticky buns, because they were children and who doesn’t like sticky buns?

By the time the sun was properly up, he had dropped it all on the boy’s doorstep, knocked, and ducked back into his hiding spot across the road.

The door opened slowly, and the boy stuck his head out. He spotted the pile of goods, looked confused, then looked up and down the street with something akin to panic. Liam considered stepping out and telling him it was fine, but there was every chance the boy might recognize him from the guard and he wasn’t sure how that would go. He would have bolted from any guard who singled him out back when he’d worked for Vultan.

The boy chewed his lip, then quickly moved everything inside and shut the door behind him.

Liam made note of the place–which square it was nearest to, and which street it was down, the neglected flower bed out front. Then he walked home.