The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (23 page)

“
Who?” The name was vaguely familiar, but Jonas couldn’t quite place it.

“
Alexan’s brother, I guess. He came by Master Talid’s a couple days ago to talk to me. Wanted to know something about a pendant—maybe that one you’re wearing. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him anything. I was just wondering if he bothered you at all. I don’t know where he got my name from. Probably Phineas.”

“
Oh. No, he hasn’t come bothering me yet.” Though it sounded to Jonas as if it were only a matter of time. He stopped himself from pressing a paw to the gold pendant around his neck.

“
Okay. Cause I didn’t tell him about you.”

“
I appreciate that.” Jonas said the words distantly, hearing Mikka talk again. “Listen, did...Dixan? Did he say anything about Mikka?”

“
Um…” Benton chewed his lip. “He didn’t say anything directly. But he didn’t seem to believe me.”

The fox looked worried. Jonas leaned over the table. “What else did he say?”

“
Nothing.” Jonas tilted his muzzle, frowning, and Benton lowered his ears. “He said a couple things as he was leaving. I think he was just frustrated.”

“
What did he say?”

Benton hesitated again, but talked before Jonas could prod him. “One of the other apprentices heard him talking to Master Talid on the way out. Something about keeping an eye on me and that I might bring him more trouble than I was worth. But listen, he was in a really bad mood and I didn’t help when I couldn’t tell him anything.”

Jonas nodded. “Maybe.”

Benton glanced out the window and stood up quickly. “Oh, Fox, I’m gonna be late back. Listen, Jonas, thanks for the lunch. I really appreciate it. Let’s do it again sometime?”

“
Absolutely. Soon.” Jonas smiled and clasped Benton’s paw. “Thanks.”

He knew he should get back himself; he had an appointment later that afternoon. But he kept hearing the worry in Mikka’s voice when he talked about someone making things difficult for him.
He’s cost me a couple sales already
, he’d said.
But it’s nothing I can’t handle.
It wasn’t a competitor, Jonas knew now. It was Dixan, pursuing Mikka for the pendant that would get him his brother’s house back, now going after Benton, too. Maybe he had just been frustrated, like Benton said. But Jonas remembered Alexan’s single-mindedness, and he didn’t think so. Thinking back to their conversation, Jonas didn’t think Benton thought so, either.

When the rabbit came around to ask if that was all, Jonas ordered another ale. He drank it slowly, and he thought about Benton and Mikka. He wondered how much trouble they could be in, and he thought a good deal about a fox who might be primarily made up of Alexan’s worst traits.

The following day, he got up earlier than normal and took a walk to Benton's shop. His work hours usually kept him from enjoying the cool summer mornings, the way the brisk breeze ruffled the fur on his chest and occasionally snuck up under his skirt. Today, it was his preoccupation with Dixan that kept him from enjoying these simple pleasures; his paw played with the golden pendant in his skirt pocket all the way to the shop as his mind grappled with the problem.

Of course, they didn’t allow him into the shop itself. Benton came out a minute later, ears askew with curiosity when he saw Jonas.

“
Hi, Benton. Listen, I need to ask you something important.”

The fox gave him a wary look. “Okay.”

“
When that Dixan talked to you, he told you where to go if you found out anything, right? He gave you his office address?”

After a pause, Benton said, “Ye-es.”

“
Can you give me that address?”

“
Look, Jonas, there’s no point in you getting mixed up in the middle of this. Dixan has no idea where you are and he doesn’t have to.”

“
I’m not going to tell him where I am,” Jonas said patiently. “I just want to talk to him.”

“
Please don’t, Jonas. It’ll just make things worse.”

“
I don’t want you getting into trouble on my account. I just want to tell him to leave my friends alone.”

“
O-okay.”

Jonas waited patiently. “So?”

“
Maybe we should go see Mikka.”

“
Benton, I just want to know where to go. I’m going to go tell him to stop worrying about the pendant.”

Benton sighed. “All right.” He gave Jonas an address. “Just go up towards the palace and don’t cross the river, turn right along it. You’ll see a rose marble building at a busy corner. It’s the one just before that, on the riverside.”

“
Okay. Thanks.” He reached out and squeezed Benton’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right.”

Benton didn’t look convinced, but Jonas couldn’t think of what else to tell him. He left the fox and walked back out into the sunlight, shading his eyes as he followed Benton’s directions towards the river. The day was already getting warmer and the streets more crowded. Around lunchtime, he knew, the crowds would hit their peak, but that didn’t worry him. In this part of town, where his clients mostly came from, nobles were not unfamiliar. Dressed in Mikka’s finery, he barely merited a second glance from most of the wolves, raccoons, bobcats, and other non-cougars he passed.

Wooden buildings gave way to stone, adorned with ornate reliefs and plaques proclaiming the name of the king they had been built under. At the river, he looked across for the first time into the Palace Quarter, where the minor nobles lived. All the grey and white buildings sported elaborate towers and decorations, the most ostentatious being a two-story high sculpture of some cougar noble holding a long sword in front of him. Jonas leaned on the railing and looked across the river at them, then down at the river itself. A steady stream of barges floated down the river, while two lone ships headed upstream and a flurry of small craft darted between them. To his right, a thick stone bridge spanned the river, with pillars on either side topped by bronze statues of eagles.

Just on his side of the bridge, he saw the rose-marble building Benton had described, looking across at the lofty splendor of the aristocrats. A small bronze plaque on the building next to it bore the name “Dixan of Paravul, Esq.” Jonas touched the words briefly. He’d never known Alexan’s family name.

Inside, a female weasel greeted him from behind a high small wooden desk, her muzzle slightly below his eye level. A portrait of a fox dressed in elegant formal wear hung on the wall; Jonas looked at it only long enough to note the resemblance to Alexan. The soft pile carpeting of the room felt soothing to his paws, but he felt anything but relaxed as he walked up to the weasel’s desk.

He asked to see Dixan, and she told him that he would have to wait, that Mister Dixan was engaged in important business and would not be free for another hour.

“
It’s very important,” Jonas said, leaning over the desk.

“
I’m very sorry, but his time is otherwise occupied right now.”

“
All right,” Jonas said, turning. “Just tell him that I’ll be back in an hour and that I know where that pendant he’s looking for is.”

“
I will tell him, sir.”

He wandered along the river until he found a small bakery. With a small roll of spiced bread and a square of cheese from the shop next door, he made a small lunch and leaned on the balustrade, looking across the water. He wanted to walk around the other side, but there were guards on the bridge and he wasn't sure if he needed papers in order to go across.

The people on the far side were mostly cougars, dressed finely (though, he noted, not much more finely than he was). He was sure they were eating better than bread and cheese, though his bread was very fresh and the cheese soft and sharp, just to his taste. All in all, he thought, there wasn't much to indicate that the cougars over there had it much better than he did over on his side.

When he returned to Dixan's building, a lanky fox was leaning against the weasel's desk, and Jonas caught his breath; for a moment, he'd thought it was Alexan. But the fox's head turned when he came in, and the smile had a nasty edge to it that even Alexan had never had.

"Well, well. Right under my nose this whole time and I'd no idea. And now you've come to see me. How priceless."

"What?"

"I knew Alexan had found himself a whore somewhere who'd gone back to the street after he died, and I knew he'd had a cougar staying with him. I just never put together that they were the same person. I thought he was putting up some hard-luck noble's son, trying to get in good with a noble, maybe sharing the whore with him. And it was you all along. What are you, some wastrel from the provinces run away from home?"

Jonas felt his temper fray and struggled to keep it under control. "Listen," he said, "I just came to deliver a message."

"Errand boy and whore. A cat of many talents," Dixan said. "Go ahead, whore. I'm all ears."

Jonas felt his claws extending and willed them back in. He took the pendant out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Dixan. "I heard you were looking for this. So I just wanted to tell you to stop."

The fox's eyes narrowed when he saw the pendant. "So you had it. You've no right to keep it, whore."

"Your brother gave it to me," Jonas said through gritted teeth. "That's all the right I need."

"It's mine by right," Dixan said. "And I can make the court see it that way too."

Jonas paused for a moment, unsure. "You're welcome to try," he said finally, and stuffed the pendant back into his pocket.

Dixan's manner changed again; his features relaxed and an oily smile replaced the sneer on his muzzle. "Listen," he said, "it's not worth my trouble or yours. I'll give you the pendant's weight in gold. You can sell it and get yourself another outfit maybe."

"Don't waste your time." The anger was being replaced by disgust. Jonas turned to leave.

"Ten gold."

"Forget it."

"You're making a mistake." Dixan said it quietly. Jonas almost turned around, then. The fox’s resolve and confidence alone felt like weapons he couldn’t match. Giving in would end all the trouble, after all. His paw closed around the pendant, and he remembered again Alexan’s smile when he’d given the gift, the family pendant he’d lost. Why should he give this up and tell the fox that his bullying tactics had worked? He forced himself to open the door and walk through it without another word.

He hardly saw any of the town on the way back. Dixan’s last words echoed in his head, and he couldn’t banish the feeling that maybe he had made a mistake. Going to confront the fox had seemed that morning like the only course of action he had, but would it have hurt to lie low and help out his friends as he could? He was tempted to throw the pendant in the river, just out of spite, but the meeting had deepened his attachment to it, if anything. It represented the sweet Alexan that he preferred to remember, the one who was nothing like the creature in the office with the fancy carpet and the portrait and the weasel who looked down on everyone.

By the time he reached his home, he was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice Hazel sitting on the porch until she called out to him.

“
Come sit here a minute, Jonas, and you tell me what’s wrong. I never seen a tail droop so low.”

Paw on the door handle, he paused and started to shake his head, but he was starting to worry, really worry about Dixan, and telling Hazel what he’d intended to be a noble secret felt far preferable to stewing in his own worry. Besides, if Dixan intended to make trouble for him, she would probably be involved.

He sat next to her and she put a large arm across his shoulders, pushing him down a bit so she could be comfortable. He didn’t talk immediately and she didn’t ask him to. Finally, he said, “I went to see Dixan.”

She exhaled and squeezed his shoulder. “Why would you do a fool thing like that?”

“
I heard,” you and Mikka talking, he’d been about to say, and then realized he wasn’t quite ready to confess that, “that he was looking for me. I mean, for the pendant.”

“
Where did you hear that from?”

“
Benton.”

“
That fox who was here yesterday?” He nodded. “I shoulda stuffed his fluffy tail into his muzzle. Why would he tell you, when Mikka’s been doin’ all he can to keep that lawyer away from you?”

“
He has?”

Hazel nodded. “Well, spilt milk. What did you say?”

“
I showed him the pendant and told him to give up looking for it.”