The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (22 page)

“…
know what you’ve been yelping about all those times,” Hazel was saying.

“
Oh, you took a turn?” Mikka’s voice was quieter and amused.

“
Sure did, hon. I figured if I’m going to be short this month I might as well get a little ride out of it.”

“
And?”

“
Good ride. I haven’t come like that in years.”

“
I thought you gave up males.”

“
I gave up sharing my property with them, not sleeping with ‘em.” She laughed. “Ain’t gonna make a habit of it though. Wouldn’t want to get hooked.”

“
I’m not hooked,” Mikka said, and then he said something else that Jonas didn’t catch.

“
Hoo!” Hazel laughed again. “You been investing more than you been thinking you have.” Mikka muttered something else, and Hazel said, “Ain’t nothin’ to worry about. He’s a sweet kid and he won’t hurt you.”

“
I know he’s sweet, dear,” Mikka said. “I just don’t want to confuse business with pleasure.”

“
You can afford to.”

“
This month, sure.”

“
Won’t have to very much longer, if I read things right.”

“
Hope not. I’ll have to spread the word a little more.”

Jonas set the rug down quietly and crawled into the other room, where he slept on a mat on the floor on days when the bedroom still smelled too strong for him to sleep. He was a little troubled at the thought that Mikka might still be infatuated with him, but he felt he was handling things as best he could. And he felt guilty about Hazel saying he was sweet—if only they knew he'd been spying on them. But he had liked listening in on the conversation; they talked more freely when he wasn’t around. Spreading the word about him, for example. They hadn’t said anything about that to him, just that he shouldn’t worry about getting more clients.

And a couple days later, Hazel didn’t seem to suspect anything when he asked her how he could let more people know about his services. She asked if he’d had any ideas, and he said (as if he hadn’t been thinking about it for the last couple days) he wondered if going to a couple of the local pubs and getting to know the barkeeps there would help. And when she said she thought it would, he felt warm and proud of himself.

So he started going back to the pubs, this time making an effort to talk to the bartenders and let them know what he did. One of the bartenders didn’t seem to care much, but the other was interested and friendly, and Jonas ended up spending the majority of his time in the Green Dragon pub as a result.

He also spent more time listening to Mikka and Hazel through the hole in the floor. They didn’t always talk about him, but he enjoyed listening anyway. He and his brother had held their ears against the door of their room when their parents were talking some nights, and Jonas had enjoyed listening in then as much as he did now, even if his parents were just arguing about money. Once, they had eavesdropped on their parents making love, and though his brother had fled back to his bed when it was apparent what was happening, Jonas has listened, fascinated, to every growl and pant.

That wouldn’t happen with Mikka and Hazel, he was pretty sure, but he still liked to listen to them talk, and sometimes he picked up tips like the one he had that first night. The month following Priva was still bad, but the Green Dragon bartender sent a couple clients his way, and one of them became a regular too, and the next month he only had a few days with no clients.

His biggest surprise of those first few months came when a familiar-smelling female bobcat stepped up into his foyer. He was surprised, but his experience with Hazel gave him enough confidence to wave her into the bedroom. She just shook her head and smiled, and when she said “I’m Delena, Xaric’s mate,” he realized why he recognized her scent.

“
I, uh,” he stuttered, not sure what to say, though she obviously wasn’t angry at him.

She held up a paw. “I just came here to say thank you.” When he didn’t say anything, she patted his paw. Her pads were soft on his fur. “Xaric’s a little high-strung, but since he’s been coming here, he’s been much more relaxed. And he hasn’t tried to put that thing in my mouth for two months. It’s delightful, really.”

Jonas grinned, still a bit nervous. “He told you he comes here?”

“
Gaia, no!” She laughed. “But we have servants, and I noticed that some of our money has not been going to the local pub. I thought he might have a mistress, but it didn’t take me long to figure out the truth. This is definitely preferable, trust me.”

“
Well…I’m glad to be of help.”

“
Is there anything I could do for you?” She smiled. “Make him bathe before his appointments?”

Jonas laughed, and then an idea occurred to him. “Well, if you have any other friends who would like their husbands to have a distraction, I could use the business.”

Her smile broadened, and she held her paw out to him. “Done.”

“
Thank
you
, in that case.” He took her paw gently and brought it to his nose, taking in her scent politely. She bowed, and left him feeling curiously happy.

Chapter 12

Business was good, finally, with enough regular clients to pay his rent and several one-time clients from referrals each month. With his extra income, he bought a nicer bed (moving the old one to the foyer for sleeping) and a trip to the local surgeon. His fur was long and getting shaggy from the winter, and although it stirred memories of Van Wyck, he realized he needed to get it trimmed. The surgeon was a raccoon with very gentle paws who did excellent work, and Jonas went back to him every month after that. He still hated being groomed, but he took great pleasure in instructing Doctor Hewill where to trim and where not to trim. And it was surely no coincidence that his tips went up the month after his first trim; more than one of his clients mentioned it.

Jonas settled into a routine more easily than he would like to have thought possible. He mostly saw his clients, occasionally the other lodgers, and Hazel and Mikka. He enjoyed the dinner conversation he was included in, and the guilty pleasure of eavesdropping afterwards, sitting in the dark with the rug held in one paw, ear cocked to the stream of dim light that filtered up from the lower floor.

Summer was at its peak, and Hazel had opened all the windows in the house and spent most of her time on the porch, as much because it was cooler there as because, she told Jonas, “in this heat you can smell me comin’ a mile away.” Jonas didn’t put on a shirt for weeks at a time, and many of his clients arrived nearly naked themselves. Skirts coming down to mid-thigh were fashionable for both sexes, but some thicker-furred species like wolves wore even less when they could get away with it. Mikka complained that this time of year was hardest on him, and he could barely afford to keep himself and his apprentices housed. While Jonas was eavesdropping one night, he heard Mikka make reference to some competitor who seemed to be trying to make things difficult for him. It was odd, he thought, that Mikka wouldn’t discuss that when Jonas was around, but maybe he was just private about his business. Hazel’s response was odd, too. She said he would “get tired of it” soon enough, which didn’t make sense to Jonas.

Jonas was reflecting on this and, for the fortieth time, the fact that it got much hotter in Caril than it had in Divalia, when he heard steps and claw-clicks on the stair and sat up to greet his client. To his surprise, the scent that greeted him was as familiar as the muzzle that rounded the corner a moment later.

“
Benton!”

The fox gave Jonas a warm hug, tail wagging. “Hi there, Jonas! Sorry I haven’t come by before. I kept meaning to, but I always thought you might be busy, and then things have been busy at the shop and I just haven’t really had time.”

“
That’s okay.” Jonas matched the fox's wide grin. “It’s great to see you. What have you been doing?”

Benton was carrying a folded piece of parchment, as there was obviously no place for him to put it in his skirt. Without his shirt, he looked thinner than when Jonas had seen him last, though that might’ve just been Jonas’s memory playing tricks on him. “I’ve mostly been working. But that’s not why I came by. You got a letter.” He handed the parchment to Jonas.

“
A letter?” Jonas took the parchment and read the outside, and when he saw the handwriting, he forgot for a moment that Benton was in the room watching him, that he was in a stuffy, hot building in a different country from where he’d grown up. “Pike,” he whispered, and broke the seal on the letter.

“
You want me to go while you read it?”

“
No, no, that’s okay. I want to talk with you some more.”

“
I’ll wait downstairs, then.” Benton smiled and padded down quietly.

Jonas sat down on the sleeping bed and unfolded the letter carefully.

Dearest Jonas,

I can’t tell you how delighted I am to hear from you. We were all worried when you left, myself most of all. We asked the guard whether you’d been hurt, but they had no reports. Tally said you’d run away, but I didn’t think you would. I guess he was right. And you are right to think that he would not take you back. But that’s nothing personally against you. He doesn’t take anyone back once they’re gone.

I’m dying to hear about your adventure! How did you travel to Tephos? And with whom? And is there anything I can do to help you? I hope that sending this letter to the guards doesn’t mean you are in prison.

Do write back as soon as you can.

Love,Pike

He read the letter several times over. He wanted badly to reach out and hug the raccoon , but in lieu of that he vowed to write back as soon as he could.

After storing the parchment in his money box, he took Benton out to the Green Dragon for lunch and a drink. “So that letter was from someone you knew back home?” Benton asked when they were seated.

“
A friend I used to work with.”

“
Did you have many friends there?”

“
A few.”

Benton looked down at his ale and sipped it. “I guess not too many, or you wouldn’t have run away.”

“
It wasn’t really my friends. It was my life. My friends couldn’t help with that.”

Benton thought about that for a second and then said, “Don’t you have the same life here, now?”

“
Not really.” He took a drink and then, since Benton still looked curious, said, “I’m my own boss now. That seems to make a lot of difference.”

“
Oh. Okay.” Their food arrived and Benton took a big bite. “Thanks for lunch,” he mumbled around his food. “Sorry I haven’t come by more often. I really did mean to.”

“
It’s all right.” Jonas smiled at the fox’s lowered ears. “I’m glad you came by now. If you want, you and Jherik could come to dinner sometime.”

“
I’ll see if he wants to. I’d like to.”

They ate quietly, and as Jonas was finishing his stew, he said, “How’s Master Talid’s weapons business?”

“
Busy. I haven’t had a chance to relax in months. The orders for customized weapons are coming in more than ever. I think all the nobles are worried about tensions with Tephos.” His ears flicked down as he said the name of the country. “Sorry.”

“
Why?”

“
Well, because you…”

“
Oh.” Jonas waved a paw. “I don’t care for politics either way.”

“
But still, all this talk of war…don’t you worry about your friends, your family?’

“
I try not to.” But now that Benton had mentioned it, he did start to worry about Pike, about Richy. How would they fare if there were a war and they were conscripted?

“
Which side would you fight on?”

“
I…never thought about it. I guess I would have to fight for Ferrenis.”

“
Against all your old friends?”

Jonas sighed. “Should I fight against all my new friends?”

Benton’s ears drooped. “I guess not.”

“
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“
Yeah.” The fox nodded. “If it did, you know, Jherik might be able to help you get out of fighting. He has some connections. Or I might be able to get you a job with Master Talid. Weapons-makers are protected from conscription. But I don’t really know if I’d be able to.”

Jonas gave the fox a small smile. “Like I said. I’ll keep hoping I don’t have to worry about it.”

“
I hope you won’t too.” They finished the meal in silence.

As they were draining the last of their ales and preparing to leave, Benton looked at Jonas’s chest and said suddenly, “Say, has Dixan come bothering you?”