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MUTT

  by EVAN FULLER

  Book I of the Rittenhouse Saga

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any reference to actual persons, entities, or events is coincidental or is used fictitiously and is not intended as a statement of fact.

  Text copyright © 2011 Evan Fuller

  Cover illustration copyright © 2011 by Daniel Govar

  Cover layout and text © 2011 By Evan Fuller and Justin Livi

  https://www.evanfuller.net

  The year of this book's composition, between the Octobers of 2010 and 2011, was an exceptionally trying time for me. I'd like to thank my friends and family—and particularly a small group of loved ones back home—for your immense support, which means more to me than I may show. This book is for you.

  Contents

  1. A Good Man In Rittenhouse

  2. Il Collegio Classico

  3. Estate

  4. Coming To

  5. The Good Doctor

  6. The Way Out

  7. Jump

  8. Into The Night

  9. Bargaining

  10. Underwater Again

  11. The Price

  12. Colors

  13. Complications

  14. Three Dogs

  15. Hunger

  16. Fire

  17. Reunion

  18. Victory

  19. A Map Of Rittenhouse

  Acknolwedgments

  About the author...

  Visit https://www.evanfuller.net/muttmap to see a map of New Providence!

  1

  A Good Man In Rittenhouse

  “You promised you’d take me to see the king.”

  The gateman regarded Timothy through narrow eyes. “Step back, kid,” he said coolly. He put two fingers to Timothy's chest and gave a casual shove that sent the boy reeling. “Now, I said I’d try to get you in with the king. Turns out his majesty is awful bloody busy, and there’s no way I’m putting my pretty neck on the line trying to get you in there.”

  The gateman loomed over Timothy, his gaunt face all stubble and rigid lines. His gray eyes glinted sharp as shards of glass in the waning light. He raised his left hand to brush aside a tuft of the short matted hair protruding from beneath his filthy knit skullcap; his other arm rested inside his wrecked trench coat, suggesting a hidden weapon. Clearly he thought he could intimidate the child; just as clearly, he had no idea how motivated Timothy was. “I already paid you,” the boy insisted.

  “Yeah, well, not enough for this. A favor like you’re asking for requires a bit more compensation.” So that was what his sudden hostility was actually about. Timothy spat on the ground in disgust, but he knew he had no power here. He dug through his satchel and found half a dozen batteries inside it. With a rigid hand he offered them to the gateman.

  The gateman snatched the batteries away and raised one between two fingers, squinting at it through a single open eye. “These are good, right? You better not be trying to shortchange me.”

  “Of course they’re good,” Timothy replied indignantly, craning his neck to glare at the man. “Just like the last dozen I gave you.”

  “That’s a good thing for you, because I don’t want to show you what happens to mutts who try to cheat the king’s men.” The gateman’s greasy fingers fumbled through several of the dozen pockets of his coat; finally, he produced a flashlight from his massive backpack. He unscrewed the top and put two batteries in. The flashlight shone brightly in the gathering dusk.

  “Good thing for you,” the gateman repeated. “Yeah, follow me.” Timothy whispered a prayer of thanks that the man had chosen two of the working batteries; three of the six were dead. The gateman would be outraged when he discovered that he’d been cheated, but one way or another, Timothy counted on being long gone by then.

  He followed the gateman through a labyrinth of alleyways, skipping over chasms where centuries of neglect had left the pavement impassable, until at last they reached a desolate street. Timothy waited for the gateman to lead the way, but instead the man sat down at the roadside. “Here we are,” he said. “If it’s on schedule, the palace should be here within the hour.”

  The last rays of red sunlight slowly bled out, rendering the sky a deep gray overhead. The gateman muttered and swore in low tones; Timothy waited in silence. After half an hour, a pair of round yellow lights was suddenly visible in the distance. The gateman rose as he saw the lights, and Timothy did the same.

  “Here she is. A real wonder of the world, gracing your measly eyes.” The gateman drew another flashlight from his backpack. Its light was a cool green, and the gateman directed it upward, casting its eerie pall on his own chiseled features. He stood illuminated by the roadside, and the headlights began to slow.

  The palace was a massive double-decker coach bus, and it towered over Timothy and the gateman as it groaned to a stop before them, its tired brakes protesting the effort. With the gateman’s formidable height, it took him only a step to reach the bus’s entrance, but Timothy fairly leapt from the curb. He entered to find a host of two dozen people mingling in a dark cabin as soft lights of various colors danced over them. The passengers nearest the door tensed as Timothy and the gateman climbed aboard, but when they recognized the man, they greeted him and returned to their conversations.

  The gateman led the way to the back of the bus, where they climbed the staircase to the second level. This floor was different than the first; it was dark at the top of the staircase, but a sea of golden light beckoned from the far end of the cabin. Timothy fell into step, and when the gateman bowed, he did the same. “Raise your heads,” a smiling voice answered their arrival.

  “Majesty, this child of yours asked me for an audience.” The gateman’s speech was more eloquent in the king’s presence. As Timothy’s eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the king for the first time. Like Timothy, his breeding was clearly mixed; his wide nose and lips contrasted near-white skin. The deep ridges of his face were surrounded by a mane of dreaded hair, each gray-tinged lock adorned with a different bead or ornament. He was dressed in what only the homeless would call finery: mismatched, flamboyant clothes and necklaces recklessly hewn from scrap metal. He peered back at Timothy with acute interest.

  “I see,” he said. “Indeed, you are my child, for I be the father of every starving mouth in New Providence.” There was a strange rhythm to his speech that Timothy could not decipher. “So, son, what brings you here?”

  “I’m dying, your majesty.”

  The king laughed softly. “Indeed,” he said, “we all be dying in some way.”

  Timothy lifted his tattered shirt to reveal the bloody sores that covered his abdomen. The king’s deep hazel eyes widened. “I see,” he said. “You come here for medicine, I presume. How old are you, child?”

  “Fourteen, sir.”

  “I go blind before I see another die so young,” the king said, his brow creasing along its ancient lines. “We have no medicine for this illness, but I know someone who will help you if he can. It will not be easy to find him, but you will do anything you can, I think.”

  Timothy nodded. “Where can I find this person?”

  “That is the tricky thing,” the king said. “This man, he live in Rittenhouse.”

  “Rittenhouse?” Timothy asked incredulously. “If I was allowed into Rittenhouse, I wouldn’t be sick to begin with. Do I look like I have proof of my bloodline?”

  The king laughed again. “If ever I see a mutt, son, you are surely a mutt.” His face grew somber. “I know this is no easy thing. There be ways into Rittenhouse, ways not many know. They are hard to find, and if you go the wrong way in, they will kill you the moment you get inside. But you keep to the secret way, you follow the directions my gateman give you, and if you lucky, you will find the only kind man in
Rittenhouse. He will give you food, medicine, a place to sleep as long as you need it.”

  “What will he want in return?” Timothy asked.

  “He is a good man,” the king said. “He ask of all only what they can give, and he give what they need, as best he can. When your sickness is gone, he might tell you stay, to help look after the other strays I send him.”

  “The purebloods will tear me apart if they find me in Rittenhouse.” Timothy’s voice quivered. “Is this the only way you know?”

  “This be the only way there is,” the king said. “You go to Rittenhouse now, you may die there. But you die here for sure if you don’t go. My gateman, he will lead you as far as he can. After that, you’re on your own.”

  “Thank you,” Timothy said with another bow.

  “I am like my friend in Rittenhouse,” the king said. “I take from every man what he can give. A healthy man come here, he pays for my council. But you, so young and so close to death, I ask nothing from you but your thanks. I pray you find my friend in time.”

  The gateman, clearly annoyed by his assignment, dragged Timothy from the palace almost before it had stopped moving. He led the way wordlessly through the overgrown slums of New Providence. By the time they reached their destination, the lights of Rittenhouse shone above them, striking haughtily through the night sky. “Here it is,” the gateman said, motioning to the mouth of a tunnel and the small pool of filth that lay before it. “You’ll be going in through the sewer system. It’s a maze in there and you’ll be swimming through a lot of rich purebloods’ leavings, but once you’re in, you’re less likely to get caught going this way than any other. Here,” he grunted, handing Timothy a small map. It had been drawn on a crumpled piece of paper, its original contents too faded to discern. “Follow this exactly. A lot of times people get lost going this way and never make it out. They wash up out here weeks later. You have a flashlight?”

  Timothy nodded.

  “Good,” the gateman said. “Whatever happens in there, you follow that map.” With a muttered phrase and gesture, the gateman dissolved into ash and was carried away by the wind.

  Timothy looked at the mouth of the wretched little tunnel, a circle of pure black amidst the near-black that surrounded it. It looked to him like a hole in the world; in the darkness of night, what might otherwise appear merely repulsive became as foreboding as a den of wild dogs. But the stinging pain of his sores reminded Timothy of his errand’s urgency, and slowly he began his descent.