Chapter 351: Day Labor

Lucian reached the river yards before the first bell had even tolled, finding Foreman Sull already etching names onto her slate.

"You’re back," Sull said.

"I said I would be."People say a lot." She jerked her chin at the open board. "Dock Six today, long crates. Same rules."

"Clear."

Pesh tossed him a brace strap as he came closer. "Didn’t think you’d return."

"Why not?"

"Most new Frees like the sound of pay better than the feel of it."

Lucian fastened his wrists. "I like pay."

Pesh grinned. "An honest answer. Come on."

They lifted.

The crates were long and unwieldy in addition to being heavy, and Lucian was grateful for the practice runs. He kept pace with Pesh and a taciturn woman named Orrin who only commented when she needed a corner opened. Sweat slicked his skin well before the second round, and dirt clung to his thighs, but by the third trip his shoulders were properly warmed. At the water barrel, Orrin rinsed her hands.

"You handle the length well," she said.

"Practice."

"From where?"

"Elsewhere." Orrin accepted the answer without comment. She drank. A yard clerk paraded past, inspecting crates.

He paused beside Lucian’s stack and frowned. "This mark is smeared."

Sull appeared at Lucian’s elbow before he could respond. "It’s clean enough. Your eyes are bored."

The clerk stiffened. "I’m doing my job."Do it over there."

The clerk moved on. Pesh waited until he was gone.

"Clerks get brave before lunch," Pesh said.

"Who do they?"

"They get hungry after it and forget bravery."

Lucian expelled a short breath that might have been a laugh and took the next crate.

At midday the work broke into smaller segments. Men and women sat on the low wall to eat what they’d brought, and Lucian bought a flatbread from a cart girl. He waited for Pesh and Orrin to settle on either side of him before he ate.

Pesh spoke around a mouthful of food. "You finding Reed Street all right?"Yes."

"Still mean?" Lucian asked.

"He’s fair."

"Same with him." Pesh swallowed. "You planning to stay on yards long?"

"For now."

Orrin glanced at him. "For now is how people stay five years."

"Perhaps."

She accepted that as an answer, and he thought it a good one. A pair of house runners passed the gate, their Veyrn crests catching the light as they walked past without coming inside. Conversation along the wall wilted until they were gone.

"They’re checking faces again," Pesh said.

"Looking for someone?" Lucian asked.

"Always looking. Makes them feel important."

Orrin cleaned her fingers of bread crumbs. "As long as they don’t stop Frees for sport."

"They will if the week turns sour," Pesh said. Lucian said nothing and ate the rest of his bread. The afternoon lifts stretched into the next bell, the work slowed by a malfunctioning crane that forced them to carry two stacks by hand. Sull swore at the machine, then at the workers, then the machine again. No one took it personally, and when it rumbled back to life, the yard erupted in a short, flat cheer that promptly died.

Near the last bell, Sull beckoned him over.

"You’re steady," she said.

"I try."

"Trying shows. Tomorrow is depot transfer. Same pay. Earlier start." Lucian was there. "I’ll be here."You better be. I hate rewriting slates."

Pay was always docked for taxes, and Lucian tucked the discs into his belt as he left the yards with the first workers. The city reeked of oil and fried fish, and he fell in with the others until he reached a suitable distance from the main thoroughfare. He veered toward the canal instead, avoiding the choke point at the bridge. No sign of Tallen or even Captain Ryn. Ordinary faces drifted by. A man sold cast-off boots from a bundle, and a woman mended a chair in the doorway. Two boys chased a rolling hoop and nearly ran Lucian down.

"Watch it," one said.

"You watch it," Lucian said. They laughed and darted away.

He bought a bowl of stew from a street vendor and ate it slowly at a standing table while the cook questioned him about bread.

"Yes."

"Extra for a chip."

"Fine."

The cook handed him off the bread, and moved on to the next customer. No further discussion. Lucian was fine with that. On his way back, he stopped in a shop and bought a pair of cheap gloves that were nonetheless a better fit than the ones he’d been issued. The shopkeeper only had to glance at his hands.

"Yards?" the man asked.

"Yes."

"They eat gloves. Buy two next time."

"I will."

Reed Street was quiet when he returned, the usual suspects already waiting. Old Henn sat at the desk with a ledger and a stub of pencil.

"You still employed?" Henn asked.

"Depot transfer tomorrow."Sull likes dependable. Don’t get clever."I wasn’t planning to."

Henn made a notation. "Good. Clever Frees make extra coin and extra enemies. Dependable Frees make rent."

Lucian rested his on the desk. "Any trouble on the block?"

"Same as always." Henn shrugged. "Rent arguments, one drunk, one broken latch on the side door. I fixed the latch." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"And the house clerk from yesterday?"

"Didn’t come back. Means he found someone else to bother."

Lucian nodded and stood. "Eat enough?"

"Yes."

"Sleep enough too. Sull can smell a late body from the gate."

"I’ll sleep."

The room had not changed. Same bed, same chair, same view out the narrow window. Lucian set the gloves on the chair and washed at the basin, sitting with his back to the wall. The city noises ebbed and swelled outside. A cart rumbled past, someone coughed, and a bell somewhere tolled the hour.

Cael murmured internally.

"You are settling."

"That’s the work."

"Keep settling. The lower plane still treats you like furniture. Furniture survives longer than monuments."

Lucian stretched his sore muscles. "Any change out there?"

"Nothing directed at you by name. Keep it that way."

He lay back while the room darkened. The mattress remained thin, his shoulders properly sore. In the alley a cat knocked something over and ran. Lucian closed his eyes and let the day settle around him. Work. Coin. Simple conversation. No fights, no revelations. He would rise early tomorrow and do it all again. For now, it was enough.