Scrivener's Palsy

[Aldridge Moor]

?Wake up.?

The drunken hare?s lifeless head snapped up as he spoke in the voice of an undertaker. Aldridge reared back as the hare?s blood flowed, crept up his paws, rushed over his face and into his silent screaming mouth -

?Wake up!?

Light and air returned. The low hiss of the dream fell away into the distant hubbub of the Crater, and Aldridge Moor sat bolt upright in his chair.

A mousemaid stood in a cloud of dust motes turned to glowing embers and pinned still by morning sun. Her eyes were hard but they waited for his attention.

His paw found a small cup of cold tea, and he tossed the bitter liquid into his mouth. It cleared away roughness and mucus and he coughed as it did.

And then he registered his apprentice?s frown.

?What?s happened?? he croaked.

?Your tea friend,? she said, eyes turning downward, shoulders drooping and sending specks of light flurrying away from her. ?She was thrown in the arena, with the kitchen mouse and some oldster. Only the kitchen mouse walked out.?

Tea friend? Kitchen mouse?

Three heartbeats later, Aldridge leapt up from his chair and out of the room.

Hallways whirled past him. Stairs, then tunnels flew behind him as he ran to the one place that every dead body went.

She had saved the memories of his friends. She had written their names into the annals, given them closure. Prowler Envar. Tanra the Terror. And now if that damned mortician had her way, Adeen would be stripped down and flung to the scorpions. No. Absolutely not. No matter their disagreements, no matter her running away.

The mortuary was closer than he remembered; or the ground had flown beneath him faster than he had realised.

The mortician, who had yelled at him the last time he?d been here. Mother? Her name didn?t matter. She stood at her embalming table, arch silhouette picked out by witchlight. The torches on her walls cracked and sputtered as they barraged the room with bright green - no doubt wicked with some arcane powder or another.

?Where is she?? The words fell out of his mouth as he drew closer, as the mess of black and green shadow became the mortician proper.

"The stoat. The stoat again. The stoat again comes for his friend." The fox did not look up from the lumpen remains of half an old vole?s head. She pushed and prodded at grey and barely-red humours, picking her way through to somewhere behind the dead beast?s remaining eye.

Aldridge scowled. She remembered the last time he?d been there, and well enough to know him by voice alone.

No. Not by voice alone. Voices were particular things; only a bard, a spy, a speechwriter could remember a voice after a single meeting, and this charred and peeled vixen was none of those things with none of their subtleties.

And so Adeen?s body was here already, and her presence had sparked the vixen?s memory of his voice from their last encounter.

He mustered. Reminded himself that the look of this place was no reflection of the nature of the beast within it. Reminded himself that this beast who dealt with the dead had been nothing but bark the last time around, and would surely be nothing but bark again. Reminded himself that Adeen waited inside, soon to be thrown to the monsters.

He cast away any idea that he didn?t belong, and strode into the morgue as though he were Nire himself, an arrogant landgrave tramping through what was his.

Muda scowled, yanked on some cord inside the old vole?s skull, provoked a hideous rending sound. But she did not move to stop him and Aldridge knew that he was safe. He knew that he had sacrificed any hope of ever seeing eye-to-eye with this beast, but that he now had the chance to put Adeen to rest.

In the far corner, the equipment of a stonecutter and a scribe sat unattended.

Two beasts lay on a great stone slab to the side, nearly cutting the long barracked room in half. One rat? and one vole.

Adeen.

Disrobed, brow raised in a lump from some heavy impact, blood matting the fur on her temple from the same.

The air in the morgue helped, somehow. The crackling green torches and the stink of blood and viscera provoked extremities in his head and all he had to do was take one step back and breathe?

This slab was big enough for three beasts.
Every other body he?d seen in the mortuary had been on a bed for one.
A pattern ran across the surface of the light grey stone slab, something like the silhouette of a half-eaten leaf in autumn.
Blood channels, tributaries to the vein running down the centre of the slab and to a trench in the floor.
But for blood to flow, it had to be warm.

?Sharp.? The damn fox?s voice, hot breath, right in his ear. "Sharp enough to find the Sleepers. With me they stay, unless they wake."

His hackles rose though he willed them not to. He had been so dedicated to what was in front of him that he had missed her soft approach.

?And? how long do you give them??

?Three. Three moons. But if somebeast comes too soon...? Her left arm snapped out and her thumbclaw punctured the rat?s throat. Blood hissed out, spattered on stone and Adeen?s fur, gushed down the blood channels as she finished her sentence with a toothy grin. ?...I choose!?

No.

He brought both paws down, braced them against the edge of the slab, pushed with everything he had. The fox?s paw whipped across to Adeen?s throat but Aldridge?s shoulders slammed into her chest and her claws tightened around nothing as she staggered backward, one knee catching on the end of the bed behind her and sending her tumbling to the floor.

Aldridge grabbed the covers from one of the singleton beds and threw them over the vole even as the rat lost his last few cords of tension and passed into the hereafter. He bundled the vole as quickly as he could, kicked the vixen back down to the ground mid-rise, threw the heavy bundle over his shoulder and ran.

?Never. Never again!? The vixen was half upright again, screaming at him even as he put a doorway and a corner between them. "I ever see you again I'll choke you with muriatic! Burn your mouth and guts and bone!"

Her fury faded to nothing as Aldridge left the mortuary behind.

He nearly missed it in among flickering torchlight and the adrenaline of the fight. The flutter of shadow and motion that meant somebeast or other ducking away down a side tunnel, avoiding detection as Aldridge surged back up from the mortuary.

?I will have beasts watching you throughout the day. If you deviate??

The vole was heavy in her makeshift sack; he rolled his shoulders, pushing her toward the middle of his back. He tightened the corners of bedsheet he was holding into something more like a rope and switched the weight to his left paw, and raised himself onto the balls of his footpaws. He padded down the tunnel, thankful now for the hard training that left his breath still quiet and measured, that left his body convinced that the running had been a fraction of Blue?s standard morning exercise, that left his feet and arms marvelling at how much lighter Adeen was, than two buckets of water usually intended for boars to carry.

His paw lashed out and he pulled Tegue out of the shadows by the scruff of his neck.

?Evening, sir.? The rat at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

?So you?re my follower, Mister Tegue.?

?Oh, no sir. Just today?s. We take shifts.?

Aldridge scowled. ?And you?ll be reporting this to Nire??

?I?m afraid so, sir.?

?Then I?ll ask you now.? Aldridge let go of Tegue?s armour, shook his paw out. ?Ask, not threaten. I?m going to take Adeen to a safe place, and I don?t want anybeast to know where that is. Please, don?t follow me.?

?Sir,? he said. ?I know about that place already.?

Aldridge closed his eyes, let out a slow breath. Rage tried to climb up his throat but he held it back. ?I wasn?t paying attention when I took her to see it.?

?No sir, you weren?t. But I?m the only one of us watchbeasts who knows of it, and it?ll stay that way. Some things, I understand, are not for tyrant Nire.?

The rage subsided, and some part of Aldridge noted the strange turn of phrase. ?What did you tell him about that evening, then??

?That yourself and the vole walked for air to keep yourself awake, and nothing more. Everybeast who takes shifts on you knows that you?re tired all the time, knows that the nights you fall asleep in your workshop, Blue insists you?re left there ?til morning. An unthinking breach of rules with no more motivation than waking yourself up? Nire only wants to know these things, he doesn?t care to act on them until they become a problem.?

?Ah? Then the room you mentioned before??

?Would be a problem in Nire?s books, aye sir.?

A moment of silence.

?Thank you, Tegue. It?s good to know that this place isn?t all Nires and Hargorns.?

A distasteful expression on the rat?s face. ?Civilisation takes many forms, sir. Nire is misshapen, but he is recognizable. Hargorn? well, the less said about him the better, sir.?

Aldridge nodded. ?In which case - would you please tell Blue that I took ill overnight, and that I?ll be at morning training in a half-hour??

Tegue paused for a moment. ?Muda?s anger may yet spread as rumours do, sir. I?ll tell Blue that you were overcome with emotion and that you could not stand to allow your friend to pass without a proper burial. I?ll tell her that the body is in your office waiting to be buried, and I?ll send one of the infirmary staff to your, ah? actual hiding place. One of the Barrow beasts would be best, aye??

?It would. Thank you again, mister Tegue.?

The rat nodded, patted Aldridge?s shoulder, and walked away.

Tunnels didn?t fly past, this time. He paced carefully, made sure his motion didn?t carry across into the vole. Made sure that no more details missed his sight, made sure there were no other beasts following. And when he was sure of all those things, he ducked through the room of old dusty machinery, lifted the worktop out of the way, and took Adeen back into the room of the New Mark Wall.

Medic Aera, and Apothecary Ennis with his bleached arms, stood waiting. Aldridge silently thanked Tegue for his efficiency.

The New Mark Wall hung over them, perhaps a quarter-full now. The last few days had seen the addition of several Marks - Luthier Droven, Woodsbeast Breven, and now Baker Maudry, the first Mark from a beast who was enslaved in Northvale rather than the Crater itself.

?Your friend?? Aera said, nodding toward his back.

He unshouldered the makeshift sack, placed it carefully on the workbench, peeled the bedclothes open. Adeen lay in a tangle, still insensate and still marred with blood. Ennis held out a bowl of water and a pawful of linen for him.

?The Mortician called her a Sleeper,? Aldridge said, as he wetted the linen and started to clean the blood from Adeen?s temple. ?Killed the other one right in front of me. Awful creature.?

?The other Sleeper? a rat??

?Aye,? Aldridge said. ?Land rat, brown, white streaked muzzle.?

Aera closed her eyes, lips curling into a snarl. ?His name was Trema. He took half a bolt of scorpion venom a couple of days ago. It might have been a week or a month but he?d have woken up eventually. But she claimed him for herself, and now? Awful indeed.?

She shook herself out of her fury, grabbed the edge of the thicker bedsheet and worked it out from beneath Adeen as Aldridge cleaned. ?You?ve interfered with her business twice now, from what I?ve heard. I should make sure you don?t make it a third.?

She bundled some of the thinner sheet up under Adeen?s head as an impromptu pillow, threw the thicker sheet over her as a cover, straightened the vole?s limbs as Aldridge worked to clear away the blood.

?Definitely not,? Ennis said from the opposite corner where he was assembling a small meal. ?She?s a force unto herself. She?d tear you apart, I?m afraid.? An odd, faraway quality to his voice.

Peace, inasfar as it had ever been a part of Adeen, encroached onto her face as Aldridge cleared away the blood. In the other corner of the room, Ennis assembled a small meal.

?You thought well, to bring her here.? Aera stood back, waited for Aldridge to finish.

?We can take care of her??

?Aye.? The mouse medic leaned against a plain wall, watched as Aldridge finished tending the wound and switched to the fresh rat?s blood that had spattered Adeen?s neck and shoulder. ?I?ll teach you how to feed her. The rest of her business, I?ll attend to as I can.?

?Thank you,? Aldridge said.

Ennis placed a stool beside Adeen?s table-bed. On the stool, a wooden tray. A bowl of what looked like thin soup, and bread.

Aldridge cleaned away the last of the rat?s blood, and stood back. ?That?s for her??

?Aye. Thin soup means water and food at the same time.? Aera said. ?I?ll talk you through it. Some Sleepers swallow by instinct, others don?t. I suppose it?s time to find out which she is.?

Aldridge nodded.

?First, pull her mouth open. You?re larger and stronger, so learn her tension and don?t exceed it.?

He used one paw to place pressure on her cheeks, pushing her jaw open just a little. One claw between her front teeth.

?Good. Make sure your claw holds her tongue down as well.?

He did so, and pulled down until her mouth was far open enough.

?Take this, and place it as far back in her mouth as you can.?

Aldridge took a small piece of bread, well-soaked in soup, from Ennis? outstretched paw. The faintest movement of air came from Adeen?s nose as he reached past his own claw and placed the light, sodden lump at the base of her tongue.

She did not swallow it.

?Damnation.? Aera sighed. ?Very well. Place two knuckles under her chin, press in, and roll down. Again, learn her resistance and stay under it.?

He found the soft flesh where throat turned to chin, pressed in, slowly harder until a light croak escaped Adeen?s throat. He eased up a little, and began the slow rhythmic motion of pulling the scrap of bread down her throat for her. Tendon and muscle rippled as he worked, until just before he reached her collarbone, when something approaching life reared deep inside her and she swallowed.

Aera sat back, letting out a long breath. ?Good? good. Alright, twice more to prove you?ve got it, and then you?d better get to the training area. Tegue told me the plan; I?ll make excuses for you if anybeast asks.?

The next two pieces of bread were easier now that he knew what he was doing, though the sensation of pressing down on the vole?s throat did not become any less strange.

He finally stood to leave, but as he did, Aera placed a paw on his.

?I know I told you that the other Sleeper would have woken up when the toxin had worked out of his system,? she said. ?But you must understand that Adeen here has a bad head wound, and so she follows a different set of rules.? She closed her eyes for a moment. "Some beasts wake up from this, Alder... but some don't. I need you to know that now."

His head hung and his eyes half-closed. He did not need to hide such disappointment around Aera; she would understand.

?I thought that might be the case,? he managed. ?But better she has a chance here, than gets her throat slit by that damned vixen.?

Ennis coughed.

?Aye,? Aera said. ?Now then. You?ve done all you can. Go train. We?ll see you in the after.?

Aldridge looked back as he left the room. Aera and Ennis stood over Adeen and the New Mark Wall stood over all three of them.

With some difficulty, Aldridge turned away.

He went to the training grounds hungry, and Blue did not show any mercy.

-----

?You broke the rules again,? Hracken said as they walked through dark grey tunnels. One of his buckets bounced off a corner, letting out a hollow thunk.

Aldridge remembered the rat?s words again, and couldn?t hold back the scowl or the venom. ?Going to tell me to play along again, are you??

?What?s wrong with that? We do as we must down here.?


Aldridge thought of Adeen, then of Cricken and Tanra and Envar and all the other beasts he had seen die here. A crackle behind his eyes and their spirits stood in the dark. Nothing more than vivid imagination, he reminded himself as more joined them. Tens, then hundreds of spirits, crowded and circled around them. Every one of them staring at him and at Hracken with cold, dead eyes. Every one of them cut down too soon.

Their eyes bit deep, and sparked a deeper fury at the rat?s complacency. ?Oh, and I must play along? I must let yet another friend be thrown to the scorpions just because Nire demands it? Stay safe! Play the game! The Southern rat, who holds himself high! Who has the bearing of a beast who knows that life can be better and must be made that way! Who graces the poor idiot stoat with a visit to his cell, to dispense wisdom! Who opens his mouth, for the words of a rank coward to fall out!?

Hracken stopped walking. "What did you just say?"

Aldridge's temper flared as the ghosts of the Crater?s dead watched on, restless now. "You, who says that whoever calls himself master must be obeyed in all things. You, who says that our own survival is more important than anything else. No room for a decent burial here! No room for principles, or freedom, or love! I called you a coward, Hracken. A rank, stinking, pathetic coward."

Hracken's fist drove the air and a grunt of pain out of him, and slammed him into the tunnel wall as their yokes and buckets hit the ground.

Aldridge pushed himself away from the wall, abdomen shuddering in protest, a sneer on his lips, fist ready as he strode through the massing ghosts. He twisted out of the way of Hracken?s next blow, planted his feet, slammed his fist into the rat?s lower back. A grunt of pain and a twist-kick - Aldridge stepped over the rat?s leg but wasn?t ready for the tail immediately behind, which dropped him to the hard floor with a thump.

He shot a kick into Hracken?s knees, brought the rat down on top of him.

They grappled. Hracken tried to lock his arm, he tried to lock Hracken?s leg. They both squirmed out of each other?s holds, over and over again.

Equally matched as ever, the fight drained from both of them soon enough.

?I think I knew already,? Hracken said as he let himself fall flat on the ground. ?I think I knew how much you hated it, when I said that. Blue wanted me to talk to you, get you to toe the line. She?s well-known here, you know. She has a reputation, and you hurt it hard when you killed the Highlander.?

Aldridge contemplated the ceiling of the tunnel, trying to distract himself from the haunting cold that had been in Blue?s eyes since he?d killed the Highlander. ?I didn?t know,? he said, and in truth he hadn?t. The cold in her eyes was the look of a beast betrayed, not a beast inconvenienced or angered. She had trusted him in some form, and he had destroyed that trust.

?Aye. And you?re going to keep breaking the rules, I suppose? but at least learn how to hide it better??

Tegue came to mind, and Aldridge closed his eyes. He was already hiding so much, and some of it by sheer luck.

?I?ll see what I can do,? he said.

?That?s all I ask.? Thrayjen stood, and held out a paw. Aldridge took it, and pulled himself upright as the ghosts of the Crater?s dead dissipated into flickers of torchlight.

They went and got the morning?s water, aching all the way.