Roger Taylor - Whistler

‘Do you want to hear about this or not?’ Privv said irritably.

‘You’ll tell me anyway,’ Leck retorted, ‘as soon as you want something done. Suit yourself when – now or later. I’m not that interested.’ She turned to peer out of the window again.

Privv mouthed an oath at the back of her head. ‘I met my man last night.’

‘You’ve just told me that.’

Privv opted for iciness and, with an effort, managed to avoid repeating his opening statement. ‘He says there was some big row at the Chapter meeting yesterday.’

Exaggerated shock filled his mind. ‘Not another change in cassock design? Not ructions over the prayer-sheet printing contracts?’

‘Will you listen?’ Privv snapped irritably.

There was a long pause.

‘Well, go on,’ Leck prompted.

Privv swung his other foot on to the desk and spat out part of his thumbnail. ‘My man says that one of the Chapter Members crashed out of the meeting and went dashing off up the mountain. Right up into the thick of that cloud.’

‘More cloud madness, eh?’ Leck’s tone was only slightly caustic. A great many strange occurrences had come in the wake of the passing of the black cloud, and the Sheeters were suffering a surfeit of wild tales which, with their usual talent for imagination, they had categorized under the collective name of ‘cloud madness’.

Privv shook his head. ‘A little more serious, I think,’ he said, ‘because about half a dozen of the other Chapter Members – Chapter Members, no less – went lumbering up after him, while Mueran and the others made fairly strenuous efforts to fob off any inquiries by the servants and novices.’

Leck turned and looked at Privv. He smiled at the curiosity he could feel seeping through to him, and remained silent until she eventually demanded, ‘And?’

‘And they came back down again.’

Leck jumped down from the sill. With a single bound she was on his lap. Her claws dug into his legs and she mewed close to his face, her mouth gaping wide showing all her teeth – vicious, white and sharp.

‘All right, don’t lose your temper,’ Privv said tetchily.

‘Just tell me what happened.’

Privv became openly excited. ‘My man’s fairly certain that it was Cassraw. He was given the name by two novices before Mueran got to them. Apparently, Cassraw came out of the Witness House so fast he nearly sent them both flying. And he was staring up at the clouds and raving about something, although they couldn’t hear what.’

‘Cassraw, eh?’ Leck mused, intrigued. ‘The ambitious one. The one who got the Haven Parish amid a great deal of clamour. The youngest ever, and who’s had most of his flock up in arms this last couple of months with his stiff-necked preaching about obedience to the words of the Santyth. Do you think he’s cracked under the strain?’ She purred with relish. ‘This’ll put the fox amongst the hens. Come on – tell me the rest.’

‘The rest is vague, unfortunately,’ Privv said, looking pained. ‘But it’s just as interesting. Apparently, they all came back safely, Cassraw and the others, and shortly afterwards Mueran told all the servants that they couldn’t go into town last night – in case the storm returned and they were needed, he said.’

‘And your man?’ Leck asked.

Privv shrugged. ‘He’s an institution. He nods and acts daft, then he goes his own way. Besides, they’re not going to dismiss their poor simple privy cleaner for doing what he’s done every night of his life, are they?’

Leck cooled a little at this reminder. ‘How drunk was he when you spoke to him?’ she asked.

‘Not at all,’ Privv replied unconvincingly, just catching the faint, ‘And how drunk were you?’ on the fringes of the cat’s mind. ‘And there’s more,’ he said, ignoring the inference.

Leck waited.

‘He swears that as he was passing the Haven Meeting House he saw Cassraw’s wife getting into a church carriage.’

‘Really?’ Leck purred, interest well alight now. ‘Maybe it is adultery, after all. Maybe she’s spreading her… favours… around to further Cassraw’s ambition.’

Privv frowned. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said irritably. ‘This has got all the signs of something really worthwhile. A church carriage taking a woman up to the Witness House. Servants not allowed out.’

‘Yes, yes. Something to hide. Something to hide,’ Leck chanted. ‘Where shall we begin?’

Privv thought for a moment. ‘We can see if Dowinne Cassrawen is at the Haven Meeting House where she’s supposed to be, and if she isn’t, then I think straightforward naivety will be our best approach. We can take the trap up to the Witness House. Knock on the door. Bit of talk about some of the things that happened while that cloud was overhead, then ask whether they noticed anything unusual themselves, being so much closer to it than the rest of us.’

‘And I’ll sneak in round the back. Find out what’s really happening.’

Morem opened the door cautiously. He had been walking pensively across the entrance hall when a vigorous tattoo had startled him and drawn him to the door regardless of the servants’ protocol that it was not the task of Chapter Members to be doing such things. Privv’s bulky form filled the tentative space that Morem allowed. He was standing very close to the door and Morem started back a little, momentarily alarmed. However, a pleasant and open disposition protected him from almost everything and, recovering, he bounced Privv’s unctuous smile back to him with a welcoming one of his own. Gentle and pleasant though he was, Morem was not a foolish man, and at Privv’s announcement that he was a Sheeter, his face clouded a little and he instinctively began to close the door. Privv remembered where he was just in time and managed to refrain from jamming his foot in the shrinking gap.

Instead he made his smile even broader and launched into his opening remarks before Morem could decide what to do.

Morem just about caught the gist of it. ‘The black cloud… a lot of strange things last night… people having vivid dreams… hearing voices, singing, calling out… strange noises… things moving about. The Sheets have been full of it this morning, so I thought…’

‘Could you wait a moment?’ Morem managed to interject. ‘I think perhaps you need to talk to someone else.’ And, with uncharacteristic alacrity, he closed the door in Privv’s face and scurried off across the entrance hall.

‘I’m in.’

Privv nodded as Leck’s voice floated into his mind, then he turned around to gaze idly out over the valley, though he saw none of it. He began whistling tunelessly to himself and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Who would they send to deal with him? he wondered. They wouldn’t send old Morem back, surely – that would be too easy. Perhaps it would be Mueran – now that would be revealing. Or perhaps they would send a servant to tell him they had nothing to say. That would be the most likely. He practised his disappointed look briefly, with a view to engaging the servant’s sympathy and starting a conversation. One mustn’t let any opportunity pass by. He had his one contact, but the Witness House servants generally were a stern, self-righteous lot, with a quite inflated sense of the worth of their position and difficult to approach in the ordinary way of things. Still, servants were servants after all – paid retainers. A price could always be found eventually. It just needed a careful ear and a little imagination.

The door opened quite suddenly, startling him out of his reverie. He turned and found himself looking up at a familiar face. Any hopes of easy progress faded.

‘Well, well. Privv, my favourite Sheeter. How nice to see you again,’ Horld said, his voice and demeanour brutally contradicting his words.