When We Were Executioners Read Free Page B

enough of them.”
    Jona had a vision of them, then. A few foreigners scrambling what they could, skimming off the top of other people’s shipments, maybe jumping people in alleys for their product. They would have to be moving around a lot. They probably wouldn’t use the same place more than a day. It was no wonder their marks were up all over, in and out of the Pens.
    Geek tossed the porter a coin. “Thanks,” he said. The porter winked and turned. He lumbered through the bustle back to the main slaughterhouse of the Pens.
    Geek looked around the street for ragpickers. “You know any ragpickers?” he asked.
    “I hate street kids,” said Jona, “You?”
    “Not yet.” Geek tossed a coin to the same food vendor the porter had used. The vendor said nothing, about it, and handed Geek a sausage. Geek offered Jona a sausage. Jona shrugged, and paid for his own.
    The sausage came wrapped in bread. When Geek was eating, the sweaty blood left on his hand got on the bread and he didn’t seem to care. Jona watched and it made him a little sick every time the red bread disappeared into Geek’s mouth. Jona thought about his blood. Then, he threw his own food into a sewer grate. “Guess I ain’t so hungry,” he said.
    Geek wiped his dirty hands off on the vendor’s apron.
    The vendor hated it, but he said nothing. The vendor looked at the two king’s men like they were chasing off business just by standing in front of the man—which is exactly what they were doing.
    “What?” said Jona, to the vendor.
    “Nothing,” said the vendor.
    “We’ll stay here long as we want,” said Jona. “Nice and safe with us around.”
    The vendor nodded his assent. His eyes burned. The vendor pulled out a glass flask half-full. “You king’s men thirsty after your meal? Maybe you take this brandy somewhere people don’t see you drinking it? Rainstorm coming. Hard enough to sell anything in the rain without you two blocking up the view.”
    Geek took the flask with his bloody hand, nodding.
    The two king’s men walked away down the street without a word more about it.
    Pens district streets coiled like muddy vipers. With so many boot prints and wheel-tracks, an empty stretch of avenue looked like a swarm of muddy vipers lying asleep in the sun. These muddy vipers grabbed at boots and held on. They hissed in the suck when the boot pulled loose.
    Jona left Geek to searching out the ragpickers among all those twisting veins of mud. He said he had someone he needed to talk to, and the two men separated. Jona went to Rachel’s apartment. He hesitated there, wondering if he should knock or not knock. He pressed his ear against it. He heard nothing. He thought about leaving, then.
    He lifted his knuckles to the door. He took a breath.
    “Djoss isn’t here.”
    “Yeah? Good.”
    “Jona?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Oh.”
    The door opened. She looked at him, up and down. Her hair was mussed. She had been sleeping. “What is it?”
    “I… It’s going to rain soon. Can I come in?”
    “You woke me up,” she said. “Want some tea?”
    He didn’t want tea. He didn’t want to enter. He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want anything. But, he wanted something, and he knew it was something with her and only her, wherever she might be.
    The rainstorm came, at last, washing up from the water. He leaned back out the window, deliriously happy to see the rain falling down, right into his face.

CHAPTER X

    This is how they did it in the beginning, before the kids were really involved. The mudskippers saw this, though. They saw and they told us and it sounded true to the minds inside of my head, mine and Jona’s.
    Turco pointed out the guy walking around like he was somebody out of his element. Turco gestured at Dog. Dog nodded. Dog had a leather rope in his pocket, and Djoss sat on the corner and watched for guards.
    People walking past that knew a thing about the Pens didn’t stop. Hat brims stayed low. Parasols angled out the view. This