Post by Seek on Aug 9, 2012 20:07:52 GMT 10
Title: Dog Among Rats
Rating: PG
Team: PD/SS
Prompt: Cloak and dagger
Word Count: 387 words
Summary: Talk to them, my lord Gershom says and so Mattes does. Set a while before Mastiff, AU. Potential Mastiff spoilers.
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Talk to them, my lord Gershom says and so Mattes does. He supposes he could say no to the Lord Provost; even ask for a cushy posting in one of the better districts. He’d had enough hobbled Rats to his name to ask for Captain by now, even if Clary’d decided to stick with Sergeant in Jane Street. Last he heard, a place had opened up in Unicorn for a Watch Commander when the last one turned out to be crooked.
He spits. Crooked, and in Unicorn, no less. His legs still ache even on good days but he doesn’t say anything to Beka, not that she’s here. The Lord Provost had asked for him specifically and if it’s something the Provost wants kept from Beka, so be it. He rubs his hands together and thinks that he hasn’t entirely gotten used to patrol without Clary. Hard to lie to someone you’ve been walking the Cesspool with for fourteen years.
He’d feel a little guilty about keeping things from Clary. Beka…
One more day, he tells himself, aloud. More for the benefit of his aching, battered legs and the winter chill that the Dog uniform doesn’t quite keep out. A few cutthroats that some of the Ferrets have picked up whispers about, a conspiracy of mages—he curses in Hurdik and spits again. He’s walking into fire with nothing else to protect him and he resolves to go see a shaman and get some protective charms the first chance he gets.
He’s a Dog, and not supposed to do Ferret work but the Lord Provost knows, and even if Lord Gershom is kind, he knows about Sabine. Mattes has what they need, and he’s supposed to give it right to them.
Walking the line, the Dogs call it. Playing with fire. Sometimes the Dog goes in among the Rats and finds out he’s become a Rat himself.
You’ve done this before, Mattes reminds himself as he stares at the battered old door in Prettybone. One last time, and he’ll ask to be a Captain in Unicorn and maybe the gap between his station and Sabine’s won’t seem so looming. A Captain in the Provost’s Guard is respectable enough, isn’t he?
He exhales through teeth clenched against the pain, and raises one hand to knock on the door.
Rating: PG
Team: PD/SS
Prompt: Cloak and dagger
Word Count: 387 words
Summary: Talk to them, my lord Gershom says and so Mattes does. Set a while before Mastiff, AU. Potential Mastiff spoilers.
-
Talk to them, my lord Gershom says and so Mattes does. He supposes he could say no to the Lord Provost; even ask for a cushy posting in one of the better districts. He’d had enough hobbled Rats to his name to ask for Captain by now, even if Clary’d decided to stick with Sergeant in Jane Street. Last he heard, a place had opened up in Unicorn for a Watch Commander when the last one turned out to be crooked.
He spits. Crooked, and in Unicorn, no less. His legs still ache even on good days but he doesn’t say anything to Beka, not that she’s here. The Lord Provost had asked for him specifically and if it’s something the Provost wants kept from Beka, so be it. He rubs his hands together and thinks that he hasn’t entirely gotten used to patrol without Clary. Hard to lie to someone you’ve been walking the Cesspool with for fourteen years.
He’d feel a little guilty about keeping things from Clary. Beka…
One more day, he tells himself, aloud. More for the benefit of his aching, battered legs and the winter chill that the Dog uniform doesn’t quite keep out. A few cutthroats that some of the Ferrets have picked up whispers about, a conspiracy of mages—he curses in Hurdik and spits again. He’s walking into fire with nothing else to protect him and he resolves to go see a shaman and get some protective charms the first chance he gets.
He’s a Dog, and not supposed to do Ferret work but the Lord Provost knows, and even if Lord Gershom is kind, he knows about Sabine. Mattes has what they need, and he’s supposed to give it right to them.
Walking the line, the Dogs call it. Playing with fire. Sometimes the Dog goes in among the Rats and finds out he’s become a Rat himself.
You’ve done this before, Mattes reminds himself as he stares at the battered old door in Prettybone. One last time, and he’ll ask to be a Captain in Unicorn and maybe the gap between his station and Sabine’s won’t seem so looming. A Captain in the Provost’s Guard is respectable enough, isn’t he?
He exhales through teeth clenched against the pain, and raises one hand to knock on the door.