When Luke returned to the House of the Masons, Rosa was still sitting on the wall before the yard, looking toward the sea. The mist was just beginning to roll in. Yet it was hard to call it the same scene as yesterday, for the atmosphere in the yard had changed. The Brothers of the Hawk and the Masons were dividing into teams for a wrestling contest. It was a good way to release the uneasy tensions openly, though there was some chance it might turn into a genuine fight.
Watching Luke stride in, Rosa said, “You haven’t gone.”
“Gone? Where would I go? I too am a Brother of the Hawk.”
“A Brother of the Hawk who doesn’t come down from the third floor.”
Luke smiled as though nothing were wrong.
“As you know, I had no way to get down. I’m a poet, not an acrobat. Jump from the third floor and I’d break an ankle. And of course I’m no swordsman either, so even if I’d come down, I wouldn’t have been any help… But I worked hard in my own way.”
“I’m sure. The meaningless agony of being hanged side by side from a beam…”
Luke, who had been lounging with his arms folded, started, came closer, and put a finger to his lips. Then he asked in a low voice, “How did you know?”
Rosa had quoted from the letter carried in on an arrow during the siege. It had spoken of transporting sixty coffins. After the fight, everyone had forgotten it. But Rosa seemed to have known from the beginning.
“The handwriting. And the sentences.”
“What about my handwriting and sentences?”
“I know your handwriting. You wrote ‘Garon Vendigate’ on the floor before. And the sentences were too grand.”
Luke lifted his chin proudly.
“I’m something of a genius at stirring people up.”
“They were so grand they had the opposite effect. Don’t expect too much of the patrolmen. If you’d simply written, ‘You’re all dead,’ they’d have understood at once.”
Luke shrugged and grinned.
“Oh, but a poet has his dignity. Well, the general isn’t a poet, but anyway, it was true, so let it pass. All I did was tell them a little earlier what they were bound to learn. And thanks to it, they stayed alert and prepared well. I work hard too when it’s something my talents can help. A man like me coming down for no reason and getting cut in half would be far worse.”
Instead of saying, “You certainly are good at excuses,” Rosa raised one corner of her mouth.
“You counted well.”
“I’m good at counting crowds. Behind the stage, I count how many of the audience laugh.”
“Do you get money for every one?”
“No. Just pride.”
Once he thought Rosa would keep his secret, Luke soon returned to calmly watching the wrestling in the yard. Then she abruptly asked, “Do you happen to know what ‘Sing’ is?”
“Sing?”
With no context for the question, Luke merely shrugged.
“If you want to play twenty questions, tell me what category the word belongs to, miss.”
“The name of an organization, or a religion, or a god or monster, or a place or a person. Something like that?”
“How can I tell with a field that broad? At least I know it’s not the name of a regional dish.”
Rosa decided not to ask further and tipped her chin as though telling him to go. Looking toward the wrestling ring again, Luke soon noticed something unusual. The men fought in teams of three, but each team included patrolmen from both lodgings.
“It isn’t a contest between the patrols, then.”
“The point is to let off steam, but I thought that could turn into another fight. So I told them to mix the teams.”
Since the siege, the Brothers of the Hawk listened closely to Rosa. After what they had been through, that was hardly strange. Luke nodded and glanced at her.
“Was the wrestling contest your idea too?”
“I gave them a hint.”
Luke whistled, impressed.
“Honestly, I’ve been everywhere and seen all sorts of things, whatever I look like, but I’ve never met a woman like you. Truly, never.”
“That isn’t a proposal, is it?”
“Hm? W-what did you say?”
Luke started and floundered. Looking at him with her usual expressionless face, Rosa said, “It’s a joke. You’re very easily startled.”
As the wrestling grew lively, Gene came out of the house, followed shortly by Hanbun. Until the siege, Hanbun and the others had never come to Hawk House, and the patrolmen had not even known they existed. But now that they recognized them, did it no longer matter? Hanbun looked serious, but Gene smiled and tapped his shoulder.
“I understand how you feel. But do you remember what I said before?”
“I do. My apologies. It will not happen again.”
“Good.”
Hanbun went around the yard and out through the entrance. Gene stepped among the men wrestling and grinned.
“Is there no place for me? I’m rather good at wrestling too.”
At once both patrols’ men raised a chorus of complaints.
“No, no. There are no places.”
“The levels must match! I’ll run away.”
“If you lose, Captain, I vote we make it a championship defense for the whole Shipwrights’ District!”
Gene wrinkled his nose and grumbled.
“You’re all too much. Ah, I’ve had a good idea. When Tahyang comes, shall we put one of us on each team?”
The patrolmen’s cries grew louder still. Unconcerned, Gene sat among them and began teasing the wrestlers with one comment after another. Before long, the two patrols had united in an effort to keep him out of the contest. Watching the wrestling reach new heights of excitement, Luke giggled.
“The captain isn’t an ordinary man either. Ah, well, I’m not just saying that as a Brother of the Hawk.”
“Then have you no intention of helping that captain?”
Rosa’s abrupt question made Luke turn around again.
“What do you mean?”
“Try to keep the Shadowhawk alive.”
Luke already meant to do so. To hide it, he put on an even more exaggerated show of surprise.
“Are you worried about the captain? Have you truly become one of the Brothers of the Hawk, miss?”
Rosa stared straight at him without changing expression. For some reason, Luke felt a twinge of guilt, and his cheek twitched.
She spoke.
“What’s wrong with you? Someone like you ought to understand. You spoke of something you could do with your talents. Do it now. This is when it’s needed.”
“Hey, I…”
As he tried to draw back, Rosa drove the point home.
“The third floor is safe.”
Then she turned away. Luke ran his tongue over his lower lip. What she said was true. The third floor had been safe. He had known it himself, which was why he had felt ashamed despite making excuses. And this time he had been about to do something. Rosa could not possibly have known what he planned, but he felt as though she had read his heart, and the back of his neck grew cold.
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