Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 86 of 150

Ben stood in Jack's yard at midday with Cage's oilcloth folded in his pocket. The note said come alone. The note said third night. What the note did not say was whether Cage had written it, or whether one of the herbalist's men had pinned the messenger kit down in a field and copied her hand. He pulled the kit from his coat. It sat in his palm, orange, blue-eyed, no bigger than a pear. The red trader's knot was still on its collar. He turned the knot over. The weave was right. The oilcloth was Cage's paper. None of that proved the runner had not been taken. He needed to test the meeting before he walked into it. He could not send Eileen. Her face was known now. He could not send Millie. Her ankle still swelled by dusk. A voice came from the woodpile. "You're the one with the crate." Ben turned. A small figure sat on the top log with dirt on his knees and a green hood pushed back. Not a child. Small the way some people are small their whole lives. Marty. Chilly Willy had pointed him out yesterday, sleeping under the eaves. "Who told you that," Ben said. "Nobody. Wall hums when the wind turns. I count things." Marty jumped down. He came up to Ben's belt. "I hear you need a runner. Wet Ford. Tonight." "I need someone to walk into a mill and not come out dead." "That's the same job." Marty held out a hand. "Two coins now. Two if I come back." Ben had one coin left after Jack. He put it in Marty's palm. "One now. Three when you come back. You go tomorrow at dusk, one night ahead of me. You do not go in. You watch the mill from the ditch across the water. If you see one person waiting, a woman, alone, you leave a chalk mark on the north post. If you see men in the rafters or a second lamp lit inside, you leave nothing and you run." "North post. Chalk. One means safe." Marty pocketed the coin. "What if she's already got men with her because she brought them?" "Then no mark. I don't walk in on a buyer who lied." "Fair." Marty pulled a strip of dry meat from his hoodie and started chewing. "I leave in an hour. I sleep rough. I don't know you if anyone asks." "Good." Marty went out the gate without looking back. Ben watched him vanish down the track. He had bought a test he could afford. He had not bought certainty. If the mark was there tomorrow night, he walked in with the crate and finished this. If it was not, he ran with twelve pieces and no buyer left in the kingdom. He went inside to tell Jack the cart left one night later.