Description: 1 Technically, this was spring, but it certainly didn''t feel like it. There was a definite bite to the air, and although there was no snow on the ground, the clouds looked as if they were contemplating dropping flakes any moment now. There was no scent of growing things in the air at all, only a vague dampness. Herald Mags trudged along the street with his arms wrapped around his chest under his tattered cloak--tattered, because he was in disguise, coming to visit his little tribe of spies-in-training, in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Haven. The street was surprisingly smooth, but people did a lot of walking in this part of Haven, and this was also one of the older neighborhoods. There had been a couple hundred years'' worth of patient, ill-shod feet wearing down the cobbles. It was not, by any means, a bad neighborhood. For the most part, folks here were working poor, with honest jobs; the neighborhood itself might have fallen on hard times over the decades, but it hadn''t turned into an absolute den of filth and thieves. That was why the house full of orphans and cast-offs fit right in and caused no curiosity. The only real difference between "Aunty" Minda''s houseful of discarded children and every other congregation of cast-offs around here was that Aunty Minda had the financial backing of the Heralds, so that they were guaranteed not to starve, go half-naked, or freeze. Well, that, and the fact that they were right next to the "Weasel''s" pawn-shop, and at the first sight or sound of trouble, one to three very large and heavily armed men would come rushing over from the shop to beat the living daylights out of anyone stupid enough to try and cause the little household grief. The few people on the street were in just as much of a hurry as he was to get where they were going and into the shelter of four walls. Like him, they strode briskly, heads down, worn and faded clothing bundled tightly around themselves. Unlike him, they''d be fortunate when they got to their destinations to find any sort of a fire going. In this part of town, people generally couldn''t afford a lot of fuel; they lit their fires only when they returned from work, and banked them as soon as they were ready to get under the covers in bed. The street was relatively narrow, and the houses and shops were crowded closely together and on the dilapidated side. Most of them hadn''t been repainted in decades, and although they were in repair, you couldn''t exactly call it good repair; priority here was on keeping the building standing and the roof sound. After that, the landlords often left it up to the tenants to patch holes and repair shutters. The two- and three-story buildings crowded close together, sometimes leaning a little toward each other like whispering gossips. About half of them had a shop of some sort on the first floor, though many people, especially women, worked out of their homes--doing things like sewing, mending, and laundry. The wind that whipped down the street at him carried some of the scents of that business: cookshop aromas (redolent with the two staples of the poor, cabbage and onions), wet laundry, and beer. It was too late in the day for bread-baking, at least around here. The couple of bakers on this street baked their wares in the very early morning, so it would be ready to buy as people came out of their houses. The common breakfast around here was a hot roll, with a smear of fat, or jam, or for the most prosperous, butter or butter and jam. By this time of the day, the bakeshops were closed, except to serve people who had left their dinners to be cooked for a fee as the ovens slowly cooled. If your hearth was tiny, or you didn''t have a hearth, or you lived alone but couldn''t afford to eat out of a cookshop every day, that is what you did for dinner. You made up a pot of something and brought it to the baker as you left for work, and picked up your cooked dinner when you returned home. This was not the poorest part of Haven, poor though it was--those streets had the dubious distinction of being around the tanneries; where extremely cheap rents made up for the stinks associated with tanning leather. It was poor enough that quite often entire families crowded into a single room, or two and even three families shared a flat meant for one. The landlords didn''t care how many people you squeezed in, as long as the rent got paid regularly. Almost no one here owned the flats where they lived, unless they were the shop-owners, living above their shops. Shops in this street tended to stay open for as long as the owner could manage, or find someone to man the counter for him, since people here worked long and irregular hours. It wasn''t uncommon to find a young child at the counter of many of these places, the offspring of the owner, learning the work of the business he or she would be inheriting by doing it. It was only after dark--and in the summertime, well after dark--that these streets became dubious, even dangerous. Once the folks who worked for a living shut themselves behind their doors, the ones that lived in the shadows came out. After dark, when you heard shouts or noises, it didn''t pay to be curious, unless you recognized the voice as that of one of the neighbors. He was glad to reach the converted shop where his little horde of helpers lived, and even gladder to get the door open and pull it tightly shut behind him as a wave of welcome warmth struck him. He turned and took in the room. He''d had the building gutted when he bought it; since then, he and Minda had taken on so many littles that he''d had a sleeping loft built around all four walls and a staircase to reach it. There were a couple of lamps up there, but nothing else but bedrolls and chests for clothing and trinkets. On the ground floor there were more bedrolls and chests, neatly stowed against the walls. There was only one real bed here, and that was the one reserved for "Aunty" Minda, who tended the children. There was a fireplace at the back of the room, nicely kitted out for cooking, and on either side of it, a row of buckets and basins for washing-up. Two big kettles hung on hooks over the fire, both of them full of soup. Loaves of bread were waiting, stacked on a table beside the fire. Minda had the fires going briskly and the kettles pulled away from them so the soup didn''t burn, as well she should, given the weather. She was virtually alone here at this hour, since her charges were all either at lessons or at work. Most of them were at work; most of them were messengers and delivery runners, installed at various taverns and inns around the city. Minda was seated on a stool at the side of the hearth, stirring one of the kettles of soup. She rose to greet him; he was pleased to note that regular meals, reliable heat in the winter, rest, and the (relatively) easy work of mothering a brood of youngsters had vastly improved her health. She walked easily now, only slightly favoring knees that had been swollen from years of scrubbing floors. She looked like every other respectable lady around here; maybe cleaner than most, since she was fanatical about cleanliness now that she had the means to enforce it. Her woolen gown and heavy linen undergown were much mended, patched and faded, but not in tatters. Her kindly face was older than her years, but that was the case with just about everyone down here. "All the littles are out, Master Harkon," Minda told him--calling him by the name he used down here, Harkon, nephew of "Willy the Weasel," who owned the pawn shop next door. She knew his real name of course, but no one here used it. Minda called all the youngsters "littles," despite the fact that food and proper care had caused a few of them to sprout so fast they were as tall or taller than she was. And it was about three of those few he had come. "I got it set up, Aunty," he told her. "Berk, Ray, an'' yer li''l Sally''r set up t'' go inter service up on th'' Hill. I''ll come get ''em termorrow, an'' next week it''ll be Starlin'', Kip an'' Jo." Minda sighed, and looked both sad and relieved. "Well, th'' bigger lads ain''t gettin'' th'' work as runners so much," she admitted, "now thet they''s tall as me. An'' we''re getting a wee mite crowded here. An'' Sally''ll be more''n a girl soon, an'' ain''t no place fer a girly wench here, ''mongst all these boys." Mags nodded. Having a girl who''d begun to bud woman-bits in a ramshackle "household" full of boys was just asking for trouble. Younglings would go experimenting when urges started, after all. And more likely to go experimenting among friends. "Sally''s t''be i'' Palace itself. Gonna put her in trainin'' as lady''s maid, all the airs and suchlike. She''ll be mighty handy t''me in a year or so, an put up in a room full''f other liddle gels in the meantime, so safe as houses. She''ll be gittin'' a day off ev'' fortnight t''run down here an'' see ye." Now Minda sighed with more than relief; she beamed to hear her "daughter" was going to be placed so well--though Mags never had learned if Sally was really Minda''s offspring, or someone the woman had just swept up the way a motherly cat will sweep up any kittens left orphaned. Minda would never have been able to dream of the girl going into service in the Palace before Mags had come along. The most she would have hoped for would have been that Sally could find a place in the kitchen of a tavern, or as a serving girl in an inn. And that would have been if she''d been lucky. "Th'' lads ''re all gonna be placed as hall-boys ''round the highborn houses. I''ll be keepin'' good track of ''em, an'' I''ll get ''em out if they''re treated bad. They''ll be damn useful, you bet. Hall-boys hear ''bout ever''thin''." Mags was particularly pleased about that. The job

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