He smiled, sidled closer to her and tipped his grungy bowler hat that he never bothered to take off at meals. “Doing my best, ’tis true, Madame Morrigone. Now, if Council wants to pay a wee bit more, I could ask me blokes to work even harder, I could indeed. Just a matter of a few more coins is all. Council would never miss it. Seeing as how they were going to pay two thousand of them just to catch Herms. Eh?”
Morrigone’s pleasant expression turned to flint. She stretched upward to her full height. “I think, Mr. Racksport, that instead Council will decrease the amount of coins it is paying you, and at the same time, we will expect your production to increase nonetheless. If there are bonuses to be paid afterward, I will recommend to Council that they be paid directly to your workers.”
The smile on Racksport’s face evaporated. “Beggin’ … p-pardon,” he stammered. “Did I miss a bitta somethin’?”
“You may have, but I can assure you that I have missed nothing about you at all. Attempting to profit off dangers faced by us all is repugnant. I’m sure it will be so to Thansius when I inform him of your disgusting and even traitorous offer.”
Racksport’s nine thick fingers clutched his seedy bowler as he whined, “I spoke out of turn, Madame Morrigone, truly I did. O’course we will take less coin for more work. Thansius, I’m sure, is busy. We need not trouble him with this bizness, need we?”
“What I need trouble Thansius with is no concern of yours. Thank you, Mr. Racksport, I must now move on to more pressing matters.”
As she turned to me, I realized with a start that I constituted the “more pressing matters.” The look in Morrigone’s eye was now all business.
“Vega,” she said briskly. “I require a word about John.”
She walked back outside and I quickly followed.
Bogle was up in the driver’s box of the carriage, but Morrigone continued past him and motioned for me to follow. We walked down the mostly deserted High Street.
“I trust you have been given your proper parchment to move about Wormwood?”
I nodded and pulled the sheaf from my cloak. It had so many official signatures and seals on it that even if it weren’t important, the papers certainly looked it. “Domitar handed these out to all Stackers the other light. I am right glad to have it, with the likes of Roman Picus and his Carbineer lot patrolling and asking stupid questions of Wugs they know fully well.”
“They are merely doing their job, Vega.”
“That may be. But mortas in the hands of Ran Digby and Cletus Loon is a recipe for a cock-up of grand scale.”
She looked at me curiously. “You may be right about that. I’ll speak to Council about the proper hiring, training and deployment of authorized Carbineers.” She stopped and added, “But now we need to speak about John.”
“All right,” I said, my chest tightening.
“At times of crisis like this, we must take advantage of everyone’s special gifts.”
“And what is John’s special gift?”
She looked at me in surprise. “His intellect, Vega. I thought it obvious. You heard the ideas he came up with for the Wall.”
“So, what about John?”
“Thansius and I want him to come and live with me.”
I stopped walking. It felt like the blood had ceased moving inside me.
“Come and live with you?” I said slowly. I looked back at the Loons, and my heart soared. Trading that pit for Morrigone’s home was a dream that I had never even dreamt. It was luxurious with plenty of food to eat, towers of books to read and proper fires and hot water in pipes that one did not have to go outside to enjoy. And then there was Morrigone to show us how to be more clean and proper and smart and just … better than we currently were.
“Your brother has a great many special talents, Vega, talents that need to be cultivated for the good of all Wormwood. That was why I sent him the books. That was why I invited the both of you to my home for a meal. I wanted to observe John for myself.”
“When will the move take place?” I said, not really believing our good fortune.
“John can come at first light. I will send Bogle for him.”
I was so excited, seeing all the possibilities of such an arrangement, that I did not quite comprehend her emphasis on the name John and word him for a sliver. The smile slowly slid off my face. “So only John will be coming to live with you?” I said, as my high spirits crashed back down like my first flight on Destin.
“I will take especially good care of him. I will teach him many things. He will truly blossom under my tutelage, I can assure you, Vega. He will rise to great heights.”
I so wanted to say, “What about me? Can I not blossom? Can I not rise to great heights with your fine tutelage?” But I could read the answer in her eyes and I suddenly did not want to give Morrigone the satisfaction of seeing even more evidence of my misinterpretation of her offer.
“My brother has never been away from me. That may not be good for him.”
“I can assure you that it will be very good for him. For one thing, he can stop living in that slop house that Roman Picus calls lodging. And the Loons are not exactly the ideal role models in Wugmorts, are they?”
“I am a good role model for my brother,” I cried.
“Yes, of course you are, Vega. And you can come and visit him.”
“Have you told John that I won’t be going?” I asked dumbly. I hoped that she said no, because John had not seemed overly disturbed about the move. Perhaps he assumed I would be joining him.
“Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”
That was actually nice of her, though it wasn’t like she had asked my permission for John to go. But at least I had my answer. John didn’t know.
She gave me a benign smile and added, “May I tell John I have your good wishes for this arrangement?”
I nodded, my mind largely blank and the lump in my throat and the ache in my chest so profound that I thought this must be what an Event felt like.
“Thank you, Vega. And Wormwood thanks you too.”
She turned and walked back to the Loons, which was apparently too awful for John to live at but perfectly fine for me to while away my sessions.
I watched her tall form glide back to where John was with his books. A chill so deep that I felt I had been dropped into the most frigid of water settled into my skin when I realized fully that I had just lost my brother.
SEPTENDECIM: Harry Two
THE WORK ON the Wall had commenced in earnest. Whole forests of trees had been felled. Involved in this process were long saws and axes and cretas and sleps and backbreaking Wug work. All able-bodied males were recruited to do these tasks, while other less physically fit Wugmorts and some females started digging out the foundation on the ground where the Wall would be erected and also the deep moats on either side. Council had wholeheartedly embraced my brother’s idea of a double-layered defense.
I continued to work at Stacks, but I stopped finishing pretty things. I was helping to build metal straps that would hold the logs and placement posts together once they were laid into place as part of the Wall.
Delph worked harder than anyone, his great muscles pulling and pushing and his lungs near to bursting as he dragged or carried heavy objects where they needed to go. I watched him do this when I was helping with the logs. We did not speak. Neither of us had the breath.
His father, Duf, led teams of sleps in bringing the felled trees from the forest to the Wall. His trained cretas were employed to pull on the stout ropes attached to strong pulleys that lifted the logs into place, their huge chests and muscled withers straining with the immense effort. I eyed the elaborate pulley systems and figured it might be one of John’s creations. I had also glimpsed the setting up of what looked to be a complicated digging machine that I assumed John had invented as well.