City of Hawks

Chapter 5

“Eat that gruel, you miserable little bastard, or I’ll thump your gourd!”

Leena the crone was in a fairly cheerful mood this morning, so she didn’t bother to carry out her threat. Satisfied with a sharp pinch that made the toddler yowl, she went off to see what she could discover in the refuse heaps along the Old City’s nearby wall. The day was warm, and that made her feel less irritable than usual. Cold made her old bones ache and her temper more foul than was usual even for Leena.

Why did she bother to care for the nasty little runt? The question bothered Leena, for she couldn’t honestly and fully answer it. Somehow she felt the brat had something to do with her luck, or perhaps her very existence. She wasn’t certain of that-but then again, she was not certain about a lot of important matters, including who she really was, where she came from, or why she didn’t just end her misery by ending her own life.

Leena thought she knew one important thing, though. The brat’s presence seemed to have something to do with her being able to continue to stay alive… at least, as long as she was inclined to do so. Some benefactor of the little bastard must watch over the place they lived in. Sometimes when Leena returned from one of her forays, when the hovel she and the runt shared had been empty for a while, she found evidence of that. One time a small sack of meal would appear, another time a pot of soup, and sometimes even a few small coins or a nice piece of woolen cloth.

“Stay out of here, witch-crone!” The warning came from a stick-thin drab who had taken up residence near the Slum Quarter’s refuse dump. Leena didn’t see the woman’s old man around, so instead of trying to avoid trouble, she stopped and stared at her.

“Shrivel your teats!” Leena shouted, and then she cackled loudly as she continued to glare at the drab. The whole display wasn’t much of a threat, but it did seem to have the desired effect, for the skinny woman covered her face and ducked inside the decaying old structure that housed her and the hairy old ragpicker who lived with her. A rock came sailing out of the doorway, but landed ineffectually a few feet away from where Leena stood.

Still cackling, Leena shuffled on her way. Being old and ugly had its advantages, yes indeed. When had she been young? Lovely? Leena knew that there must have been such a time. Deep inside herself she was sure of it. But she had no conscious memory of being anything other than Leena the Crone, no recollection of a time when she had done anything other than care for the skinny brat who shared her slovenly home.

The gangs of boys from the Labor Quarter and the Beggars Quarter were her worst nightmare. Sometimes Leena dreamed about them, and they took the shapes of terrible monsters as they came near. Then a noble warrior would intervene, or the brat would come into her dream and change into a giant who frightened off the dirty pack of boy-demons. Some laugh, that. Leena kept a long knife under her dirty old blanket, the same wrap that served her as a cloak when she went out. That way she was certain that she had real protection. The witch stuff, the shouting and cackling, didn’t work as well with the gangs as it did with other sorts of adversaries. But they usually only bothered her when she strayed from the area between the rubbish dump and her place in the abandoned tannery, so with care there was no problem-other than finding food and a few little things to add to her comfort.

“Glory!” The exclamation sprang unbidden to her lips. A whole bundle of wax tapers had been discarded along with someone’s garbage. The breaks in the candles weren’t too bad, and the oiled cloth they were rolled in was a minor treasure in itself. Leena bent down and began scrabbling around in earnest in that particular pile of debris. Perhaps there was more good stuff to be had.

At an earlier time inside Old City, even within the slums, and outside in the New Town as well, others conducted their own searches even more carefully than old Leena scavenged for the means to stay alive. The word had gone out, and who had put it forth mattered not a bit. Beggars and thieves were alert. Petty clerics and city guards kept a watch on all they saw. Peddlers, shopkeepers, barmen, and ostlers too knew and sought to gain from their knowledge. Merely seeing a pretty woman named Meleena, and being able to prove it, was worth one hundred gold orbs. If she was seen with an infant, then the sum would be doubled. Should both be taken by those who sought them, then the informant who enabled that to happen would have a thousand of the fat discs of gold for his trouble!

Every young woman in Greyhawk was viewed critically. Every mother with a baby was a potential fortune. A thousand eager informants turned the city inside out seeking the two, and a thousand false claims were checked and proved to be nothing more than that. The word was out for weeks before the offer was finally cancelled. By then, nobody much cared anyway, for avaricious expectations quickly turn to other and easier prospects.

Other agents, ones with non-monetary motives, also sought the woman and the baby. Men and women with position and power used magical means or discreet inquiries to try to locate them. Strange creatures roamed the city at night searching for the two.

No magic succeeded, no inquiry uncovered a clue, no occult observer saw anything of consequence. It was as if the earth had swallowed up Meleena and her charge, or the pair had been removed to some other plane. After a time the hunt was, in fact, transferred to likely places other than Oerth, places where the pair could have found refuge. Only a few of the nether plane’s operatives remained to continue the search in Greyhawk, and then only because those individuals had other duties there as well. Weeks became months, months rolled into years. By then even those agents had forgotten Meleena and her ward. Certainly, by now, both were long dead.

“No one as weak and insignificant as that one could have avoided the sending of Poxpanus,” Sigil-dark observed when the subject came up in conversation one day.

“Agreed,” said Arendil, the new Great Priest of Nerull now presiding over the Lightless Temple.

“Our lord and master placed potent curses upon both woman and babe as well, did he not?”

“Most assuredly. I assisted with minor portions of the whole complex of dooming which was cast,” the cleric said slowly.

The mage was at a loss, “Five years now, near enough, and there has been no sign, no trace, no clue anywhere. There is only one possible answer. The pair was vaporized, blasted into nothingness. That must have happened long ago; so why do we still search?”

Arendil gazed at the mage without expression. Sigildark was already above his true mark, and before long he would have to be replaced. “That is why I summoned you,” he explained. “Other, more pressing concerns now demand our attention. There is no longer to be any search for either of the two.”

Sigildark looked satisfied at this, as if he had been influential in the decision and was receiving long-overdue praise for what he had advocated. The priest didn’t inform him of the fact that the redes of both Hades and the Nine Hells were unchanged. Perhaps they bore on an altogether different individual anyway. It didn’t matter, for the spell-binder had no need to know.

“What urgent matter am I to attend to now?” Sigildark asked pompously.

“It seems, dear mage, that there are clues to the whereabouts of the… objects we seek, the portions of the ancient relic we must reunite, hidden somewhere in the grimoires to be found within the very library of the Savants of Greyhawk. You are to…” and the priest thereafter proceeded to explain to the mage his task in regard to that matter. That was the conclusion of the whole affair of Meleena in the city.

“…thump yer gourd!”

The crone was at it again, and the little boy leaped to get clear. Leena’s cackle of mirth was sufficient to send a wave of hatred through his skinny body, but he scampered even faster. “Fetch me wood, brat, and don’t come back without enough to keep old Leena warm all night, hear?”

Safely outside, beyond her reach and secure that her crooked stick couldn’t touch him, the boy turned and made a terrible face. “Go scratch, you old bag! I’ll never come back and you’ll freeze to death!”

“I’ll smash yer gourd!” Leena cried, raising her stick threateningly and advancing toward him. The small boy ran off immediately, and Leena cackled her ugly laugh once more. An empty threat from an empty little gourd. The boy was useless, but somehow she would manage to make him of some value. She’d work him to death if necessary, pound knots on his head in the process. She knew that the dirty little bastard was the cause of all her troubles, and she meant to even the score. Meanwhile, he would be made of use.

Spitting after him, Leena shuffled back into the still-standing portion of the old warehouse she called home. It was small and dirty, but rain didn’t come in and there were no other people around to threaten her. She liked this place better than the dozen or two others she had lived in since leaving the abandoned tannery. Old Leena crooned to herself as she went, smiling at her wisdom. An inner voice always told her things like that-keep moving, speak to no one unnecessarily, keep the boy alive because one day he must be made to pay. Oh, yes, indeed! Old Leena was smart and wise, and no one would ever catch on to her, never.

There was a place for a fire. It was near the rear wall, and above it was a hole in the ceiling. The hole went above to where the upper storey was collapsed. There were, in fact, floors above that one even. No rain found its way down the hole, but the smoke from the fire went up through it, drifted around above, and escaped skyward in wisps and wafts that were hardly noticeable by day, invisible after dark. “Smart,” Leena said aloud, She talked to herself, naturally. Who else was there to talk to? “Very smart, and getting younger and prettier too!”

That bit of self-delusion made her recall something she hadn’t thought of for a while. She looked around carefully to make certain the dirty little brat wasn’t spying on her, then pried up a loose flagstone beneath her pile of ragged bedding and took out a small box. She lifted the lid and looked at a scrap of parchment she had found inside the box long, long ago. “How long ago was it?” she asked absently, scratching her filthy gray locks until they became even more straggly and tangled than before.

She recalled how she had found the parchment, an event that mystified her to this day whenever she thought too hard about it. She had found the box under her bedding one day, and had no idea where it had come from-but all she really cared about was the fact that the box was hers. Then she got angry when she opened the box and found it empty-no food, no coins, nothing. Frowning at the container, she had growled, “Who would play such a bad trick on old Leena?”

Then, to her amazement, the bottom of the box seemed to disappear, revealing some items beneath it-but still inside the container! She reached in carefully and withdrew several sheets of parchment. Some of them contained writing she couldn’t read and didn’t care about anyway; on other scraps there were pictures of people, and Leena was immediately drawn to one of these portraits in particular.

It was a picture of a girl. Leena wondered if she was a princess. After all, princesses had their pictures drawn, didn’t they? “Not like this,” she said aloud. “How do you know?!” The response was cross.

The ink markings on the scrap were carefully drawn, and the detail showed a young and pretty face, a face without lines and wrinkles, framed by long, flowing hair. “I wish I were that lady!” she said, continuing to converse with herself. “You will be, silly girl, but it takes a long time to grow young and pretty…,” Tears made marks on the leathery cheeks of the crone, washing away the dust and grime of Old City’s slums.

“I didn’t wait for so long when I grew ancient and ugly!” she sobbed. Then a thick veil came over her thoughts. Leena toppled over onto her heaped rags and slept, still clutching the drawing of the beautiful girl. At the bottom was written a word, but only the first two letters-“ME”-were legible. Below that pair of letters was written the number “100”. Perhaps, the crazy old hag imagined, she would become like the drawing when she reached a hundred years old, or a hundred years from now…

Finding wood or anything else to use as fuel was no easy task. Old City was a vast place to the little boy. He didn’t dare venture very far from his home. Even though that location changed every few months, he soon exhausted all the ready sources within a quarter-mile of where he and Leena lived at the moment. This was now the case. He could find not even any dried horse-apples to use for fuel, so it was time to begin exploring some of the dark and dangerous old buildings on the fringe of his territory.

“Hey, sonny!”

The boy nearly jumped a foot at that, and he began running away from the sound immediately. A hand grabbed his garment, which was merely an old sack converted into a one-piece outfit.

“Don’t you remember me?” The voice was rough but bore no hint of menace or threat of punishment.

The urchin gathered his courage and turned his narrow face toward the voice. “Oh,” he finally managed to say.

The big, bearded face split into a friendly grin. “A clever lad like you can say more than that. I’ll give you a little something to help you speak-here,” the man said, producing an apple. “Try eating that up, and I’ll bet you’ll be able to say a whole lot more after it’s inside. It’s a magic apple, you know.”

The lad didn’t care if it was magical or otherwise. He was always, always hungry. He grabbed the little red sphere and bit into it without a word to the man. Eat it up first, then see what happens afterward. The fruit was soon gone, core and seeds included.

“Well?”

“Gotta nuther one?” the grubby boy asked seriously through the last mouthful.

The fellow took him gently by the shoulder, smiling and chuckling. “That and more, lad. My place is just there,” he informed the waif. “Let’s you and I go there for a bit. You can eat all you want, and I’ll just talk a bit-sort of fill in the gaps until you’re ready to take over. Sound all right?”

The man was big, much bigger than Leena, so undoubtedly he could hit very hard. His laugh was nice, though, not like the old hag’s. Besides, this was the same man who had saved him from a pair of bigger boys who had been pummeling him just a couple of days ago-and so far the two hadn’t come back to beat him up again. The boy was grateful to the man for that, too. He still didn’t trust him completely, but getting food was worth a risk. His large, gray eyes met the man’s merry blue ones, visible above the bushy beard.

“Yes,” the boy said after a moment’s hesitation.

The man walked off. The little boy had to hurry to keep up, and this fact was reassuring to him. He reasoned that if he had to work to get where they were going, the hairy-faced man wasn’t setting a trap for him. They went into a small, narrow building through a stout door the man opened with a key. Not many places in this part of the city were so guarded, but there were a few. Leena had told him to watch such places closely, because if he ever found one left unguarded, vast treasures would be found inside. But he had never before been inside such a place, and the little lad was instantly impressed.

“What’s your name?”

“Don’t know,” the lad said without thinking too hard about the question. His eyes were busy roaming over the place. It was a treasure trove. There was a real rug on the floor, dishes on a table, all sorts of wondrous things.

“Sure you do,” the fellow countered. “Everyone is called something. Now, I’m called Bru, see? That’s my name. What are you called?”

He thought for a moment, then said the first thing that came to mind. “Dirty little bastard.”

“Nope, that’s not a name. Think some more.”

It seemed evident that the man would keep at it until he had a name from him, and then perhaps he’d give him more to eat, so the little boy thought carefully. Almost everything that old Leena called him was like “dirty little bastard,” not really names but nasty things. That much the lad had understood down deep for a long time. Then something came to him. “Leena always says she’ll thump me… gourd!” It was an exclamation of near triumph.

“Gord… Well, then, that must be your name. Glad to make your acquaintance, Gord. Sit down on this stool here, and I’ll ladle up a bowl of soup for you.”

The lad’s big eyes grew bigger when he saw chunks of meat drop from the ladle into the big wooden bowl. “You got meat?”

“Sure, lad… I mean, Gord. A hunk of bread to soak in the soup, too. Now eat that up, and we can talk a bit. See, I been looking ’round for someone like you to talk to. There aren’t many folks in these parts who are worth talking to, of course.”

“Why me?” the newly named boy managed to ask through a food-stuffed mouth. Nobody ever wanted to do anything with him except pick on him or make him work. Maybe this hairy-faced man was a crazy-a dangerous man after all! He wanted to get out quickly-but not so quickly that he would leave any of this wonderful soup behind. Eyes darting from the bowl to the man and back again, he began shoveling the stuff into his mouth as fast as he could.

Bru noticed the sudden tension in the skinny little body, the suspicion plain in the child’s eyes. The big man let the child eat in silence for a couple of minutes, then got up slowly and went over to his cupboard. “That’s it for the soup, Gord, but I think you’re about filled to the top anyway. I’ll give you a piece of cheese to take with you when you leave,” he said slowly as he pulled a package off a shelf.

Gord was relaxing more with each passing moment. If the man meant to do him harm, he wouldn’t have let him fill his stomach first. As hard as it was to accept, Gord had to admit to himself that maybe this bearded stranger really did want to talk to him.

“I guess I like talking to you, lad, because I’ve got a sharp eye-’most as magical as that pippin I let you gobble up.”

Now that was just too much for Gord to pass up. “That old apple wasn’t magic!”

“Look at how blue my eyes are,” Bru countered. “Ever seen anything like that?”

“No,” the boy admitted slowly, “but I don’t see hardly anybody. Does a sharp eye hurt?”

That made the man laugh. “Hah! Good question, though, Gord m’lad. See how much you’re talking? That proves the apple was magic, I think. And see how good your question was? That’s what my sharp eyes spotted! Not everyone can tell a good lad who can talk so well and ask sharp questions. That’s sharp thinking, a sharp mind. Like my sharp eye, it means it gets to the point of things.”

Gord belched contentedly and gave a small smile. This was kind of fun. Not the eating-although that was enjoyable, it was done more as a matter of survival. The fun was in having someone like the hairy-faced man… Bru…to talk to.

“Do I really have a sharp thinker?” Gord asked, not quite convinced of what Bru was saying. “Leena tells me I’m a-”

“Never mind her-not for the time at least. Poor old woman is a little off her noodle,” Bru explained, tapping the side of his head to enable the boy to understand what he meant. “Maybe you’ll want to give her some of your cheese when you get home.”

“No! Anyway, maybe I could stay here with you, Bru. I’m pretty sharp at finding stuff.”

The big man shook his head ponderously. “Love to have you for company, Gord, but I’m not around most of the time. Tell you what, though-I’ll make a point of looking for you whenever I am about. Then we can have eats and a good talk. There are many things I can show you, and you’ll think It’s all fun, too.”

That seemed like a lot of empty promising to the boy, but he was too accustomed to disappointment to bother trying to argue. Things were as they were, and he had learned long ago that someone as small and weak as he was had to accept the pain and sadness that came along with lack of size and a shortage of strength. “Sure… I’ll go now.”

“Not just yet, Gord. I have to put my knife to the cheese for you. What were you looking for when I saw you, anyway? Something I can help with?”

That brought Leena’s warning back to mind. “Shit! I gotta find some wood in a big hurry!”

“Hold on, Gord, hold on. Here’s your cheese,” he said, handing over a hunk of the stuff as he finished wrapping it in a bit of cloth. The piece was bigger than the small boy’s fist. “Well, look at that, will you? You’ve no pocket to carry this back in, and I daresay you wouldn’t get far holding it out in the open. Say, would you maybe like a little sack to use? That way I could dump in a few bits of charcoal and some splinters of wood, too. That would sort of take care of things for you, I suppose.” He looked at Gord with his kindly, blue eyes, and the boy was happy.

“That would be…”

“Great! You got a deal, Gord. Now, just say ‘Thank you’ and that’ll make us even. Then we can be true friends.”

“Thank you,” Gord said quietly, humbly. He knew the word “friends,” but he had never heard it used to refer to himself before. Then it occurred to him that friends should help each other, and he became more animated. “Can I get the sack for you? I’m good at getting things.”

The big man considered the offer for a moment. “Well, you gather up some of the charcoal there in that box by the fire, and I’ll fetch the sack. Look around for the kindling wood-the broken stuff that’s in small pieces. You can take as much of that as you like.”

Bru produced a bag from the bottom of his cupboard. It was old and had several holes, but it was a prize nonetheless. They loaded the black sticks of charcoal into it, added handfuls of wood bits and ends, and then plopped the chunk of hard cheese atop the lot.

While all this work was going on, Gord kept thinking about something that puzzled him. Just as the cheese went into the sack, he looked at Bru and asked, “Was that apple really magic?”

“Do you feel any different?”

Gord smiled and nodded. He felt far, far different. He even had a name now. “It was magic…”

“Magic is funny stuff, Gord. It isn’t anything to talk about, and what’s magical for one might be something different for another. Let’s you and I keep the secret of the apple magic to ourselves, and that way it will stay magic.” Then Bru picked up the sack, hefting it to determine how heavy it was. “I’d say you can just about carry this halfway to your place. I’ll tote the load that far for you, but then I’m heading off for a while.”

“Will you be off a long time?”

“Not a chance, Gord my friend, not a chance. In a day or two or three I’ll be bumping into you again. You keep a sharp eye out meanwhile for stuff you and old Leena need to stay alive-and for the dangers hereabouts too, right?”

“Right!”