The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (28 page)

On the Feliday eight days after the fire, he decided he could not afford to wait any longer. Feliday would be an auspicious day for him, he hoped. He took his pendant out of the money box, weighed it in one paw, and then slipped it into his pocket.

Hazel was cooking some kind of cake, but had lost some of her usual bounce, as they all had since the fire, especially with Mikka’s cheerless convalescence.

“
Heading out?” she asked as Jonas passed the kitchen.

“
Just a short walk.”

“
Stop by the market and get some flour, would you? Save me a trip.”

“
Sure.” He waved and walked out into the street.

The walk to the river went very quickly; Jonas barely saw the people passing him or the stores just opening. He found Dixan’s secretary inside the office, arranging things on her desk. When she saw him, her muzzle curled into a smile and her eyes narrowed, a marked difference from the respect she’d shown on his first visit. Cutting off her “Good morning,” he took the pendant from his pocket, put both paws on her desk, and brought his muzzle very close to hers.

“
Tell Dixan that I will be out on the middle of that bridge for the next half hour. If he wants his precious pendant to end up in his paws and not at the bottom of the river, he’s got half an hour to get fifty gold together and meet me there. If I see guards or thieves, or feel threatened, the pendant goes into the river. Got it?” He dangled the pendant in front of her for emphasis.

She had recoiled from him, and now blinked, staying silent. He felt a bit of satisfaction at having rattled her, but that was all the dark he allowed himself. She was eying the pendant and he knew she was thinking she could snatch it. He gathered it into his paw and watched her gaze return to him. “Got it?” he repeated.

“
Yes, sir,” she said. “But if you’ll just wait, I’m sure—”

“
I’ll be on the bridge.” He pocketed the pendant and raised a paw. “Good day. I don’t expect to see you again.”

Nobody ran after him. He walked quickly out to the middle of the bridge, only there allowing himself to relax. He rested his elbows on the stone balustrade and took the pendant out again. The smooth lines of the cougar head caught the sunlight as the pendant spun. In his mind, Jonas saw Alexan giving him the pendant again, and felt a twinge in his heart. But the months since then had distanced the memory, and the sacrifice was worth the peace of mind his friends would get.

He glanced left and right every few seconds, half expecting guards to run up the street, but when Dixan appeared, the tall fox was walking alone. Jonas listened for the jingle of coins and didn’t hear it, but as Dixan came closer, he saw that the fox was holding a purse in his paws.

“
You obviously have no idea how the world works,” the fox said, approaching him.

“
You can stay right there,” Jonas responded mildly when Dixan was two feet away.

The fox stopped. He set the purse on the railing. “Twenty-five gold,” he said softly. “It’s all I could raise.”

“
Pity,” Jonas said, and reached out over the water. “Alexan’s house has to be worth a hundred gold, easily.”

“
It’s not that easy!” Dixan was snarling now, eyes fixed on the pendant. “You think I just sit on a mountain of gold? This is all I have.”

“
How much did you pay the raccoon?”

Dixan looked at Jonas now, studying him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“
My friend’s life is ruined. Burned to the ground.”

“
How unfortunate.”

“
What would be unfortunate,” Jonas said, controlling the urge to smack the fox in the head, “would be if this pendant were to drop. You lose, we lose, nobody’s happy.”

“
That would be unfortunate,” Dixan said. “And there would be further consequences, you can bet on that.”

Jonas shook his head. “When someone has nothing left to lose—like my friend—he can become very reckless. How do you think he would feel if he learned I gave you the pendant and only got twenty-five gold in return? If any of us were to lose any further parts of our lives, I think we would care much less for our own safety. Desperation, Dixan.” This was the cornerstone of his argument, and he had spent hours crafting it.

The fox’s ears flicked at the sound of his name, but he calmed down. “Regardless of whether your friend feels that twenty-five gold is adequate compensation for his
accident
, or whether you feel generous enough to give it all to him, it is all I have. I’m counseling you to take it.”

Jonas stared back at the narrow golden eyes. “I would have counseled you not to employ filthy thieves to get this back.”

“
Then give me another day to raise the money.”

Jonas looked up at the sun and yawned. “And raise the guard as well? You have about fifteen minutes left, I would estimate.”

The fox glared at him, picked up his purse, and walked away.

Twenty-five gold was a lot of money. But it wasn’t enough. Jonas knew the smart thing to do would have been to take the money, but he also knew Dixan, and he knew the lawyer wouldn’t bring his final offer first thing. The fox’s body language spoke of arrogance, and only after their conversation, Jonas thought, had he really understood that Jonas was perfectly willing to drop the pendant into the river.

He expected to see guards now, though it would’ve made no sense for the fox to send them. Once Jonas dropped the pendant, as he would if he saw guards coming towards him, he would have nothing on him that Dixan could claim he’d stolen, nor any grounds for being arrested. They could likely send otters to search the river, but the pendant was heavy, the riverbed was muddy, and they might never find it. He trusted the fox was smart enough to work that out in five minutes, even though it had taken Jonas the better part of a day.

The sun kept climbing, and Jonas guessed that five minutes were left in Dixan’s half hour when he saw the fox at the end of the bridge, running towards him. This time, as the fox approached, he heard clinking.

“
Forty-three,” Dixan huffed as he stopped in front of Jonas. “And I had to borrow two from my secretary. That’s what you’ve reduced me to. Are you happy now?”

Jonas gauged the fox’s mood. He held the pendant over the water. “I wonder if it’ll float.”

“
This is all I have!” A passing cougar, dressed splendidly in a red velvet suit with a feathered hat, stopped at the fox’s shout. He glanced at Jonas and then back at Dixan, and waited.

Jonas spared him a glance before focusing on the fox. “I don’t believe you.”

Dixan looked at the pendant, then back at Jonas. “I’m telling the truth!”

“
Two minutes.”

“
Listen...” Dixan’s ears flattened. “All right. All right. Here’s three more. That’s all, that’s really all.”

Jonas looked at the three coins the fox had produced from his waistcoat pocket. “Well, how can I believe you now?” He did, but he wanted Dixan to worry just a little more.

“
I didn’t count this before because this is the rent on my office. I was hoping not to have to use it.”

Another ten seconds. Jonas finally brought the pendant back from over the railing. “All right,” he said. “That’s good enough. Just hand it to me.”

“
Give me the pendant first.”

“
I don’t trust you any more than you trust me.”

The cougar interposed. “Perhaps I can help? Am I correct in understanding that a transaction is being negotiated?” When they nodded, he continued. “I can hold both items and make the exchange.”

Warily, they looked at each other, and then handed the pendant and the purse to the cougar. “And the three extra,” Jonas said. Dixan glowered and tipped the three gold into the purse.

“
This pendant’s probably not worth more than twenty,” the cougar observed as he passed it to Dixan.

The fox clutched it. “It has great...sentimental value. It was my brother’s.” He shot Jonas a venomous look.

The cougar raised an eyebrow and looked at Jonas. “His brother gave it to me,” Jonas said.

“
Before you killed him.”

“
He died in an accident.” Jonas felt his claws extend, and forced himself to sheathe them.

“
A very convenient one.” Dixan was regaining confidence now, acting the lawyer in front of this cougar.

“
But still an accident,” Jonas insisted. “And that pendant is worth his house to you.”

The cougar looked at Dixan now. “Is that true?”

Dixan remained quiet. The cougar nodded, and handed the purse to Jonas. “All right. I’m glad to have been able to help you two.” He bowed, and walked away without waiting for them to return the bow. Dixan gave Jonas a contemptuous look before heading back to his office.

Jonas hefted the purse and glanced into it, then tied it tight. “Whew,” he said to the water, and stayed on the bridge for a long time, watching the boats go by, before he trusted his legs to take him home.

Chapter 15

He took the purse directly into Selia’s old room where Mikka was lying, and closed the door. The fox’s head turned at the sound of the door closing, and he sat up when he saw Jonas and what he was holding. Jonas walked over and sat next to him.

“
Hi.”

Mikka smiled wanly. “Hi.”

“
Listen. I feel like the fire and everything...it’s my fault, really. If I hadn’t held on to the pendant, Dixan wouldn’t have come after you guys. And if I hadn’t gone to see him, he wouldn’t have known...” He sighed. “Anyway. I know there’s no way you can get all that back, but I want you to have this. It’s all I can do.” He set the purse on the nightstand.

Mikka’s ears flicked up at the clink. “Jonas, you don’t need to...” He sniffed the purse. “You got this from him? You gave him the pendant.”

“
It was the only way to keep him from bothering us any more. I did get more than he wanted to pay.”

Mikka reached for the purse, then drew his paw back. “It’s yours, just as the pendant was.”

“
I’m giving it to you. Like Alexan gave the pendant to me.”

Mikka shook his head. “The decision to keep the pendant was yours.”

“
I know, and that’s what—”

“
The decision to stand by you was mine. I knew Dixan might come after me, and I chose to take that risk. That’s what it means to be...” He lowered his muzzle.

Jonas tried not to think about what the fox had been about to say. He took a breath. “I want you to take it. I owe it to you.”

“
You want to be rid of me, right? Not owe me anything?”

“
No!” But it was uncomfortably close to the truth. He didn’t want to get rid of Mikka, but he didn’t want to be in debt.

“
You’ve paid for the clothes, Jonas, a long time ago. You don’t have to see me every week any more.”

“
I didn’t mean that.”

Mikka shrugged. “Maybe it’s better that way, dear.”

“
No, I...” He took a breath. “I don’t want a mate. It’s not that I don’t want you, it’s that I don’t want that at all.” He couldn’t look at Mikka. The words just kept coming. “I thought I did with Alexan, but you know how that went. I’m just happier being independent and I feel like I bring bad luck. Like the fire. Only now I can make up for it.”

Mikka was quiet for so long that Jonas had to look up. The fox had an odd, quirky smile on his muzzle. “Sweetheart,” he said softly, “whatever made you think I wanted to be your mate?”

Jonas tilted his muzzle. “Well, you...I mean, you kept...” He gestured vaguely upstairs. “And, I mean, you said...”

The fox patted his paw. “You make a living selling your body, and you can’t understand why a lonely old fox would want to spend as much time with it as possible? But I do like you, dear. I like you a lot.”

“
So...?”

“
That doesn’t mean I want to be attached to you. Except...let me tell you what I think you want, and what I want, and maybe you’ll see things differently.” He settled back. “I think you want to have a family. You’ve talked enough about your old friends at your workplace, and I’ve seen how you get along with Hazel and Selia here. You’re happy with them. This is your family.” He sighed. “And I suppose that’s all I want, really. I have my little family at my shop, but journeymen come and go, and the apprentices are like cubs. Apart from the fact that you are so sweet, I like coming here and being with you because I get to talk to Hazel, and have dinner with you, and I feel like for just a little while, I’m part of your family.”