Litany of Winter

Severin made it halfway across the service yard before his left leg stopped obeying him.

The knee buckled without warning. Hans caught him under the arm and dragged his weight sideways before he went down, but the movement pulled hard across the stitches in his belly. Severin stayed bent against him until the pain eased enough to breathe properly.

Behind them, the laundry door slammed open.

”Hale!”

”Of course he found the fucking yard,” Severin muttered.

Hans shifted Severin’s arm higher across his shoulders. ”Gate.”

Thirty yards had looked short from the doorway. The last half felt longer. Severin managed it mostly on his right leg while Hans carried more of him than either bothered pretending. The little finger on his right hand had become useless again. When he tried to grip the iron gate, he caught it with three fingers and pushed.

A four-wheeled cab waited beyond the hospital wall. Hans had planned farther ahead than Severin expected.

The driver climbed down when he saw them. ”What the bloody hell?”

”Work accident,” Hans said. ”Don’t ask. Help me get him in.”

Severin almost laughed. The driver did not look convinced, but money had apparently reached him before questions did. He took Severin under the other arm.

When the constable shouted again from the yard, the driver moved faster.

They got Severin onto the rear seat with all the grace of loading a sack of coal. His abdomen pulled when he twisted, and the bad knee struck the door frame hard enough to bring water to his eyes. Hans climbed in after him and slammed the door. Then he rapped twice on the roof.

The cab moved as the constable reached the gate. Through the rear glass, Severin watched him stop in the street and shout after them while the horse carried them into a line of carts and delivery wagons.

Hans took off the smoked spectacles. A line of soot had settled beneath his blue eye. The blind one did not track Severin as he folded the spectacles and put them in the leather case.

”Your plan wasn’t so bad after all,” Severin said, smiling.

”Told you.”

Severin let his head rest against the seat. The cab turned twice, then again. He knew the streets well enough to notice when they entered Cinder Row.

Severin lifted his head from the seat.

”What?”

”Where are you planning to hide me?”

”A hotel.”

Severin raised his eyebrows. ”Now I like your plan even more.”

Outside, soot-dark brick and narrow shopfronts passed beneath the lamps. He had walked Cinder Row often enough. Men bought tools here and pawned things they claimed not to own. Those with enough coin could find a room instead of a common lodging house. It was ordinary Blackhaven.

He knew how to move through a street like this.

The hotel stood between a tobacconist and a shop with its shutters already down. It rose three stories above the row. The windows were clean, and a brass plate on the door had been polished brighter than anything around it. Respectable without being grand.

Hans gave the driver another silver coin while Severin concentrated on getting one foot to the pavement without reopening his stomach.

A porter saw the trouble from the doorway and came down the two steps. ”Easy, sir.”

”Left side,” Hans said. ”His knee’s injured.”

Between them they got Severin inside.

The entrance hall was narrow and warm, with a patterned runner across the floor. A clock hung above the desk. Two chairs nobody seemed meant to sit in stood against the wall, and there was enough polish on the wood to make Severin conscious of the hospital dirt still on his hands.

The clerk looked up as they approached. ”Evening, sir.”

Hans gave a small nod. ”The room is ready?”

”Yes, sir.”

The clerk asked nothing about Severin, and there was no constable waiting beside the desk. Hans had already dealt with the money.

They took the stairs slowly. By the first landing Severin’s leg was shaking. By the second, Hans had stopped pretending not to notice and put Severin’s arm back over his shoulders.

Severin noticed the single bed before anything else.

It was narrow by hotel standards, probably. To him it looked absurdly clean. White sheets and two pillows were waiting under a folded blanket, with no second body already claiming half of it and no landlord deciding whether he had paid enough to keep it.

A washstand near the window held a basin and soap, with folded towels stacked beside them. A parcel tied with string waited beside the bed.

Hans set the leather case on the chair. ”Sit down. Rest a minute.”

Severin lowered himself carefully to the edge of the mattress. It gave beneath him in a way he was not used to. He pressed a palm down once, testing it.

Hans untied the parcel. A shirt, trousers, underclothes and socks had been folded around a plain dark coat. A pair of boots sat beneath them.

Severin looked at the pile. ”You brought spares?”

”No. They’re yours.”

Severin picked up the shirt. The cloth was plain and new enough that the creases from the shop remained in it.

The trousers were a little long. Severin held them against his leg and looked at Hans.

”You didn’t get the size right.”

Hans smiled. ”Complain when you’re paying.”

A knock came at the door, and Hans opened it to a porter carrying two large jugs of hot water and another smaller one.

Steam lifted from their mouths. The man filled the basin and set the rest beside the washstand. ”Need anything else, sir?”

”Food in half an hour,” Hans said. ”As discussed.”

The porter nodded and left. Severin looked at the water.

Hans noticed. ”Keep that dressing dry and try to wash around it.”

”Don’t start. I just got away from that nurse.”

Hans took the room key from the table and put it beside Severin. ”I’ll be next door. Knock twice if you need me.”

”Thanks.”

Hans nodded once and left, shutting the door behind him. Severin locked it.

For a few seconds he sat with the key still between his fingers. Then he stripped as far as the bandages allowed.

Washing took longer than he expected. His right hand made the buttons awkward, and reaching below the knee pulled at his abdomen. He sat on the chair and worked slowly with a wet cloth, keeping clear of the dressing.

The first water in the basin turned gray. He poured it away and used the second jug.

Soap caught in the hair on his arms and lifted soot he had stopped noticing. He washed the back of his neck twice. The cloth came away gray with smoke and sweat, with old blood at one edge.

When he reached his feet, he had to brace the bad leg straight and bring the basin closer rather than bend to it.

The towel was white enough to make him hesitate. Severin dried himself with it anyway.

The clean shirt caught at the bandage when he pulled it down. He freed the cloth carefully with a curse and finished dressing while seated. Hans had guessed well enough everywhere except the trousers, which bunched slightly over the boots.

Severin rolled the hems once.

He looked down at himself. The freight-yard smoke and hospital stink were gone.

Someone knocked. ”Who is it?”

”Hans.”

Severin unlocked the door.

Hans came in behind a porter carrying a tray large enough that Severin assumed some of it had to belong elsewhere. Broth, bread and butter, sliced beef with potatoes, and a pot of tea. The porter set everything on the small table by the window.

Severin waited until the door shut. ”All that for us?”

Hans took the second chair. ”Mostly for you.”

Severin sat down. The broth went first. He had meant to take his time and failed almost immediately. Half the bowl was gone before the heat reached his stomach properly.

Hans tore a piece of bread. ”Slow down.”

Severin ignored him and took more bread.

The beef lasted longer because his body forced the issue. After the first few bites, the emptiness in his stomach changed into a heavy warmth and he had to stop between mouthfuls. He drank some tea and waited before going back to the potatoes.

At some point he caught himself looking at the remaining bread and calculating how much it would have cost outside.

Hans had already paid, but Severin left one piece beside his plate anyway. Hans noticed and said nothing.

When Severin finally leaned back, there was still food on the tray. He could not remember the last time that had happened because he was full rather than because someone else had eaten first.

Hans poured more tea. ”We leave Blackhaven tomorrow morning.”

Severin stopped with the cup halfway to his mouth and looked at Hans. ”Where to?”

”We need to get to the Empire.”

”Lovely place, so I’ve heard.”

”Much better than this crime-infested shithole.”

Severin set the cup down. ”What if I decide I’ve heard enough?”

Hans buttered another piece of bread. ”Then don’t come.”

Severin waited, but Hans just kept eating.

”You serious? I’m free to go?”

”Yeah. Isn’t that what I told you?” Hans finished chewing. ”Good luck dodging the police, though.”

Severin rubbed his thumb over the cup handle. ”How long do I have to think about it?”

”I’m leaving at sunrise. The room’s paid until ten.”

Severin looked down at his new shirt, then at what remained on the tray.

”Keep the clothes,” Hans said. ”They’re yours.”

Severin looked at the locked door again and believed him.

The clean clothes and locked door were still there, with enough food on the tray for another meal. Hans had paid for all of it without asking for anything back.

The Order could still be a lie, but the lightning had been real. So had the man whose bones had pushed through his own skin.

Severin wanted answers. He wanted wages too. A bed that did not depend on what he had earned that day sounded better now that he was sitting on one.

”See you at sunrise, I guess.”

Hans took a drink of tea. ”I’ll wake you.”

Severin nodded. ”Please do.”

Hans watched him for a moment, then stood. ”Get some sleep. We have a long journey ahead.”

”Already giving me orders?”

Hans smiled as he picked up the leather case and went to the door.

”Severin.”

He looked up. ”Yeah?”

”If you change your mind, take care of yourself.”

Severin glanced at the piece of bread beside his plate. ”All right.”

Hans left, and Severin locked the door again.

He moved the clean clothes he would need in the morning onto the chair beside the bed and put the room key on the washstand. Then he eased himself under the blanket without bending the left knee too far.

The mattress dipped beneath him. For once there was no floorboard pressing into his hip. He had the room to himself, without someone snoring an arm’s length away or shaking him awake because the bed belonged to another man after midnight. Rain tapped against the window.

Severin meant to listen for Hans in the next room, but he was asleep before he heard him.