Read Online Jimmy the Hand by Raymond E. Feist, S. M. Stirling - Free Book Online Page B

the alley in a daze. That meant
that everyone they’d already caught—Flora and Gerald and
the rest—were doomed. He turned and hastened through the maze
of alleys to the nearest sewer entrance. It was now just a matter of
days before they died.
    ‘The
acting governor has had his proclamation,’ he muttered to
himself, swinging down on a grating and dropping soundlessly to the
slimy brick. ‘Let’s see what the Upright Man has to say.’
    Mocker’s
Rest was packed; Jimmy had never seen so many people there, and he
could barely hear himself speak. The mood was frightened, but the
faces around him were blank and hard. There wasn’t a Mocker
here who didn’t have a friend or relative already in the cells.
Jimmy wondered if the prisoners knew what awaited them.
    He slipped
between bodies and found that no one had any news except that of the
announcement. No one knew what the Upright Man intended to do about
it, nor had anyone seen the Daymaster for hours, and it was two hours
yet before the Nightmaster was due. Meanwhile, no one dared go out,
especially not the women and the beggars.
    Jimmy spied
Larry the Ear clinging to the V of one of the ceiling braces,
crouched like a gargoyle, and made his way toward him. When he
finally stood below Larry’s perch and their eyes met it was
like the shaking of hands, sharing the same thought without speaking.
The younger boy’s jaw set hard and he swallowed nervously, then
he looked up and saw something that caused him to stiffen.
    ‘What is
it?’ Jimmy asked.
    ‘Laughing
Jack,’ Larry called down.
    Others heard and
turned to where the boy was staring, silence spreading like ripples
through the shadows as word spread of the Nightmaster’s
lieutenant’s approach. By the time the Nightwarden took a
stance upon a table, the big room was silent except for the
occasional cough and the sound of dripping water. Laughing Jack
turned in a circle looking at all of them, his expression even more
grim than usual.
    ‘You’ve
all got word,’ he bellowed. ‘So I won’t repeat the
edict. Orders are to do nothing. Leave the matter to the Upright Man
and lay low as much as possible. Understood?’
    For a long
moment the crowd was silent, resentment building like a wave.
    ‘Well?’
Jack demanded, glaring.
    A few voices
murmured here and there, but mostly the Mockers stared, expecting
more, and with their silence demanding it.
    ‘Well
aren’t you a fine bunch?’ Laughing Jack sneered. ‘No
faith, at all?’ he shouted. ‘Where would most of you be
without the Upright Man? Huh? I’ll tell you, most of you would
have been dead by now. It’s easy to be loyal during the good
times. Easy to follow the rules and do what’s expected when
everything’s running right. But when times are hard, that’s
when you especially got to follow orders. Loyalty will carry us all
through the hard times.’ He swept them all with a hard look.
‘So what’s it going to be? Follow orders, or get tossed
out in the streets so the guards’ll find you?’
    Confused silence
greeted this question. There was a roar of affirmation waiting to
happen but the Mockers looked at one another uneasily, wondering how
to avoid sounding as if being kicked into the streets was what they
wanted.
    ‘Well,
when you put it like that,’ Jimmy muttered. ‘Upright
Man!’ he shouted, punching his fist in the air.
    The crowd went
wild and took up the cry, bellowing until mortar began to rain from
the ceiling and Laughing Jack held up his hands for silence.
    ‘Get to
your roosts and your flops,’ he commanded. ‘Keep your
heads low and wait for orders. One thing I can promise is that we
won’t take this lying down, but nobody does nothing until you
hear otherwise.’
    There was
another burst of applause at that which quickly died when Laughing
Jack stepped off his makeshift stage. Jimmy looked up at Larry and
jerked his head toward the door then moved off, knowing the younger
boy would follow as he could.
    Jimmy led