Those huge meals are one reason that when we reached our patrol route, I visited all the shopkeepers with businesses upstairs. I see no reason why both of us should be bored.Īnd so I went out to collect our Happy Bag’s worth of bribes with Silsbee and no one else, listening to him jabber about the meal his wife had prepared before he came on watch. He bores me, and he only lets you do boring things, too, my annoying constellation cat said. It was Pounce’s remarks about folk, and about Silsbee himself, that made it easier for me to walk patrol with the man, but Pounce would have none of it. The cat had stopped coming with us three days after I’d been partnered with Silsbee. I didn’t even have Pounce to make me feel better as we mustered for the Evening Watch. I’d thought I wouldn’t need to keep one after my Puppy year, but if Ahuda was complaining of my reports, it was time to start again. Our route took us along Fortunetellers’ Walk, where I’d be sure to find a shop that sold journal books. We had the Happy Bag to collect tonight, me and my partner Silsbee.

Steel yourself, wench! You’re not the only first-year Dog with partners who are less than gold. “Then however you kept your memory quick before, start doing it again. Goddess, not Puppy training again, not even one class! I’d never hear the end of it!Īhuda took her fist away and propped it on one of her sturdy hips. “Sarge, please don’t.” The plea left my mouth before I could stop the words. “Shall I send you back to Puppy training for a refreshing in memory study?” What’s the use, with partners like I’ve had? Ahuda put her brown fist under my chin and thrust my head up so I’d look her in the eye. Have you slacked on the memory exercises?”

You used to write the best reports of any Puppy or first-year Dog, but not of late. “You leave out detail, you skip what’s said. “Your reports have gotten sloppy.” That was Ahuda, never one to soften her words. I couldn’t think what I might have done to vex her. We’d gotten on well since I’d finished my Puppy year and in my five months’ work as a Dog. “A private word, Cooper,” she told me, and pulled me into a quiet corner of the yard. I should have known tonight’s watch would kiss the mule’s bum when Sergeant Ahuda stopped me after baton training.

The legend of beka cooper