The poet Luke lived on Pomegranate Street, at a crossroads. Many poor students from other regions lived in the area. Its houses were divided into as many rooms as possible and rented to students, sometimes with meals provided. That brought in a substantial income, so a fairly large organization called the Calx Cross occupied the district.
Gene knew Delphinad’s neighborhoods well, but he did not often enter the back alleys of territories ruled by other organizations. A misunderstanding could cause needless trouble. Fighting was a problem. So was associating with them. Gene captained a patrol of the Hand of Ilmoram, and the more skilled a patrol captain was, the more other organizations tried to entice him.
Mindful of the governor’s office, the organizations preferred running patrols rather than dirtying their hands directly. Every one coveted a patrol captain with a personal reputation like Gene’s. His fame helped an organization, but above all, the men under such a captain often moved with him. Gene’s men took pride in the name “Brothers of the Hawk.” Their identity as Gene’s men was much stronger than their attachment to the Hand of Ilmoram. If Gene moved to another organization, most would probably follow.
If word spread that Gene had associated with people from a rival organization, there would be consequences. The other side might even spread it deliberately. Gene found such situations tiresome. He did not intend to spend his whole life as a patrol captain, but neither did he mean to move organizations and invite resentment. The wisest course was to avoid other organizations except for official disputes or mediation.
Pomegranate Street’s alleys branched like leaf veins, so narrow that even a cart could scarcely pass. To Gene, visiting for the first time, it was almost a maze. Luke threaded through it familiarly, talking without pause. In nearly half an hour walking together, Gene learned, without wanting to, the origin of Pomegranate Street’s name, its population, room rents, the quality of boarding-house meals, the time rubbish was collected, the strange old man next door, the student couple who quarreled nightly, and the cat called Blacktail, chief of the cat organization that ruled this alley’s rubbish bins. Since he had no particular desire to know any of it, his head gradually began to ache.
“By the way, these books are rather heavy. Couldn’t you carry a few? I can hardly see my feet.”
“No.”
There was no possibility of that. This was another organization’s territory. He might have to draw his sword at any moment. He could not go about holding things.
“Oh, yes. Nothing to be done if you don’t want to. But you said this was your first visit to this street, didn’t you? You know which organization holds it, though?”
Yawning, Gene replied, “You said Blacktail.”
Luke chuckled.
“No, that’s the cat. I mean the people. The fellows who cut a nice share off the little money poor boarders send home.”
Narrowing one eye, Gene looked at Luke.
“Is that what you call an explanation?”
“Oh, of course, you too must extort… no, collect it legitimately, but what I mean is… You know the fellows who collect it, don’t you? In the same line of business, so to speak. Don’t you have something to promote fellowship among people in your line? A mutual-aid society, perhaps? An end-of-year song contest? An autumn sports meeting between organizations…”
Gene considered striking him on the back of the head, but the books would fall, and only Gene was there to pick them up. He decided to refrain. Threaten this poet, and he pretended to obey for a moment. In truth, he seemed so utterly fearless that he could never leave an unwelcome thought unsaid.
“What are you trying to say? Stop circling around it and say it.”
Stopping before a dark alley, Luke turned toward Gene with a bright smile.
“So I can just do it? Really? You’ve given permission?”
Instead of explaining, Luke kicked the door of the second house in the alley. It was already open. Apparently, a boarding house with many students coming and going left it that way. Slipping through the yard and into the first room on the ground floor, Luke shouted.
“It’s been a while! Thank you for working so hard today to guard my room, where the dust mites live so peacefully together! But do you know? Dust mites itch terribly if they get into your groin. Are you all quite well?”
Gene stopped in the yard, thinking this was already beginning to go wrong. As expected, Luke came running out again. Behind him came a noise like a pile of books collapsing, then two men burst out after him.
“You little rat! Where do you think you’re running?”
Luke hurried to Gene, smiled like a clown, and blinked at him. At the sight of Gene, the men stopped with a flinch. Confusion spread across their faces.
“S-ShadowHawk…”
Next, they looked at Luke. Their expressions demanded to know what was happening, but Luke pressed close to Gene and pretended to be occupied with something else.
Gene watched them with his arms folded and no expression on his face. Inwardly, however, he was no less troubled. They were undoubtedly full members of the Calx Cross. The cross tattoos on their exposed forearms made that plain. Ordinary patrolmen of the Calx Cross did not bear tattoos like those. Just as Gene had no tattoo on his own body.
Not meddling in another organization’s business was an unspoken rule between gangs. Moreover, the presence of full members meant Luke must be fairly important to them. Pretending not to know it was the best course. Above all, if a famous patrol captain like Gene fought members of another group, it could easily turn into a conflict between the Calx Cross and the Hand of Ilmoram.
But Gene had come on more important business than being a patrol captain and could not simply turn back. Neither could he say he would merely find some books and leave quietly. If he did, word would surely spread that the swordsmen of the Calx Cross had frightened the ShadowHawk away. Who would believe the ShadowHawk had come merely to retrieve a few books?
While neither side could readily speak, Luke said, “I see you’re not acquainted. Ah, well, to explain the situation, I have certain circumstances with these gentlemen…”
He spread one hand toward the Calx Cross members.
“And with this gentleman…”
He spread his other hand toward Gene. He looked like an impresario introducing fighters about to box.
“I owe you all a debt. Ah, it’s rather large to repay at once, no, I don’t mean I absolutely can’t, only that it will take time. And you gentlemen won’t be patient. To describe the situation precisely, I have only one head, so I can’t cut one off for each side, can I? Nor can I set you against each other when you have no quarrel, or ask one side to repay the other and buy the right to cut off my head. So I was in a difficult position. But a moment ago, a magnificent solution occurred to me. Would you like to hear it?”
It sounded suspicious. Luke plainly meant to pull Gene into this and escape their grasp. Gene merely did not yet know the precise plan. In the instant he was deciding whether to stop him or let him continue, Luke spoke.
“As of today, I’ve decided to become a Brother of the Hawk!”
The Calx Cross men’s eyes widened as though they would burst out. So did Gene’s. Turning to Luke, he shouted, “What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“You said I could do as I pleased! It was a difficult decision for me too!”
More precisely, Gene had said he could say what he wanted. Luke cunningly twisted it to his own advantage and protested. Gene raised his right hand without thinking, then stopped. A blow to the back of the head would not solve this.
“Do you think this is somewhere anyone can join just because they want to?”
“Why are you being like this? A patrol benefits from another member, doesn’t it? The Hand of Ilmoram will think so too…”
“Do you think a patrol’s a poetry club? Go write your poems in a café corner!”
Suddenly, Luke went back into his room. He emerged with a dozen books in his arms, including the lower volume of Visions of the Twilight Kingdom that Gene had sought. Piling them at the Calx Cross men’s feet, Luke spoke.
“Then you won’t mind if these gentlemen take every one of my books as security, will you? They can hardly be called mine anymore. Considering my debt, I don’t have a penny. No, even the money I’ll earn in future is pledged. All I possess is this brilliant mind, which may earn untold riches someday. Pay only six hundred pion, and it earns six thousand Serapion. A six-hundredfold return! But now that I think of it, I wonder who’s going to cut this head off first.”
Still talking, Luke kept bringing books and bundles of paper from his room and piling them in the yard. Books of every kind appeared. Since Gene had spent half a year looking for them, they could hardly fail to catch his eye. He did not yet know whether they were all there.
After making a decent pile, Luke addressed the Calx Cross members.
“This should do for the advance, shouldn’t it?”
One spoke.
“What are you talking about? Who asked you for an advance? We said hand over the manuscript.”
“I can’t write it. No, I won’t write it. No, that isn’t right. It won’t be written. Writing rubbish without a scrap of originality is torture in itself. I’m giving up now. If you want the advance you gave me, take these. If not, cut off my head or do whatever you please.”
“How dare this bastard be so insolent?”
One of the Calx Cross men began drawing his blade. Watching, Gene sighed. In the end, he had no choice but to intervene.
“Look.”
“Oh, yes. Go ahead.”
They were not Gene’s subordinates, but they nevertheless tried to show a reasonable measure of courtesy. No one knew how the world would turn. There was nothing to be gained by offending one of the foremost men in the back alleys. Gene continued.
“I have a very small piece of business with this fellow.”
He held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart to show how small. They nodded.
“I’d like to settle it now. But I think it might be inconvenient if you were here. For you, I mean. Not me.”
The two looked at each other. One replied, “Ah, I see.”
“So could you pretend not to be here for a while? Perhaps you’ve fallen asleep, or gone out for a smoke. It would be better still if you really went away. I’ll return this fellow in a day or two.”
Though it sounded like a kind suggestion, the two organization members understood at once that it was an order. Exchanging glances, they reached an agreement.
“Then we’ll step outside here for a cigarette.”
“Two would be fine too.”
As they were leaving, however, one suddenly looked back and asked, “By the way, is it true you’re going to fight General Nikephoros?”
“What?”
Gene had already forgotten the incident of a few days earlier. Had the spectators spread the rumor?
“They say you went into the general’s manor. Now he’s angry and means to take revenge. Is it a duel?”
Gene laughed in disbelief.
“What are you talking about? Do you know how old the general is? I’ve heard nothing of it. If he wants to attack, he’ll do it himself.”
“I see. There’s been a lot of talk lately. We wondered what was going on. Be careful.”
As the two slowly left, Gene glared at Luke. Luke smiled.
“Wow. The ShadowHawk’s authority really is something. Say a few quiet words, and those ticks all fall right off.”
A moment ago he had been in a panic over going home. Now, the instant they arrived, he was acting like a louse himself. Gene sighed low.
“You… What a headache. Pack the books.”
“All of these?”
“No. Just the ones written here.”
Gene took the letter from Cetila out of his clothes and tossed it to him. Opening it, Luke’s eyes went round.
“So you really were commissioned by a librarian. Wow, the librarians are something else too.”
“Shut up. Hurry and pack the books.”
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