Shadow of the Father (22 page)

“You work for Balinni,” Sinch said.

Valix laughed softly. “I take ‘im sweet cakes on Rekindling, too, but that don’t mean I tell him everything.”

Sinch furrowed his eyebrows. “Rekindling?”

“Summer festival. Don’t you celebrate it in Divahhhlia?”

“No.” He sighed. “Yes, I was going to get gold from someone I know in the castle.”

“But he’s not there.”

“No.”

She sat back on his hips, the pressure of her rear rubbing his sheath. “Then what now?”

Whether or not he could trust her, her expression looked sincere enough. He wanted to trust her, wanted to have someone else to confide in. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to confide partially in her, and it would get her off him. “Wait another night? I don’t really have another plan.”

“Tchah. Balinni won’t wait another night.” She leaned closer. “If you don’t come back with the money by noon tomorrow, I’m supposed to torture you to find out where you stashed the thing.”

She said it so amiably that he thought at first he’d heard her wrong. “Torture?”

“You know, extreme pain to compel the release of information? I don’t think you’d need extreme pain, though. Probably just a little.” She tilted her muzzle. “Maybe just the threat.”

The pressure on his sheath took on a different character. “All right,” he said. “Get off.”

From behind Valix, downwind, the clatter of a small pebble across the ground. Both their heads shot up, ears perked. “Rodenta’s—” Valix started, springing off Sinch, but before she could finish either the action or the oath, a tall shape grabbed her by the neck and lifted her bodily into the air.

Sinch scrambled back as the weight was lifted from him. “What luck,” said a familiar voice, and then a cough. The scent hit him all in a rush.

“Maxon?”

The fox laughed, softly. “Yes, I remember you, too. It is lucky, I was just looking for you.”

“
He’s
your friend?” Valix squeaked, struggling.

Maxon looked at her as if just remembering he were holding her.

“Quiet,” he said, and threw her against the wall.

Sinch heard the crack of her skull, saw her slump to the ground. He started toward her, but Maxon held up a paw. “Ah-ah,” he said. “Do not concern yourself with her. The guards will find her in the morning. In fact,” he stroked his whiskers, “it might be best to ensure her body is still here in the morning.”

“No!” Sinch cried, scrambling to his feet. “Don’t you touch her.”

“Tsk.” The steward’s smile gleamed in the moonlight as brightly as the blade of the knife in his paw. “And here I thought it was the lord-to-be you loved.”

Sinch kept his eye on the knife. “Don’t touch her,” he repeated.

“So.” Maxon eyed him. “We both want something from each other. Very well.” He bent and picked up Valix, slinging her over his shoulder with surprising ease considering his slender frame. “Take me to the crown. If I have it in my paws before sunup, you and she will go free. If not, well, I will manage some way to explain a dead mouse in the city.” He grinned again. “It won’t be the first time.”

Sinch’s insides were ice cold. “What makes you think I know where the crown is?”

“For Canis’s sake,” Maxon said. “We may be provincial, but we are not stupid. How would a group of mice know that the lordling had taken the crown from me and was carrying it about the city? How would any mouse know, except for one?”

Sinch sighed. “It’s in the Warren,” he said.

Maxon shook his head. “Possible, but doubtful. In that case, you will have to get it yourself and bring it back, and I will take our guest here to the castle dungeon.” He readjusted Valix’s weight on his shoulder and held up the paw with the silver bracelet on it. “That looks too pretty for a mouse. Stolen, of course. Charged with theft, trespassing… she’ll spend the rest of her life there. Such as it is. So which will it be?”

Of course Maxon wouldn’t be tricked into the Warren. Sinch’s shoulders slumped. “I’ll take you to it.”

Maxon made him walk ten feet ahead, so it was hard to keep an eye on Valix, but Sinch kept turning around to try. Even when the steward snapped, “Keep your eyes forward,” Sinch snuck glances back whenever they rounded a corner.

He deliberately took a more circuitous route, partly to give Valix some time to recover, partly because Maxon kept steering him down smaller, quieter streets. “We’re going in circles,” Maxon growled.

“I’ve only been there once,” Sinch said. “The streets all look the same.” He scanned the expressions of the few foxes they passed for any hint of sympathy, but they all looked away as soon as they came close to meeting his eyes, and he soon stopped hoping. Down alleys, he saw a quick, furtive movements and recognized the scents of other mice, but they never even came close enough for him to see their faces. Help from them was even less likely.

“Why don’t you just tell me where it is?”

“I don’t remember the name,” Sinch said truthfully. He was certain it wasn’t the next street he turned down, though he thought it might be the one beyond. He would have to start from the site of the robbery to be absolutely sure, especially in the dark. But he walked with confidence. The city couldn’t be so large he wouldn’t find the street soon. And he only needed to stall Maxon until Valix woke.

The next time he looked back, the street was empty. He was about to turn back when movement in the shadows behind Maxon caught his eye. “One more look behind…” the steward warned, but whatever had been moving had stopped. Sinch’s whiskers tingled again. He was about to turn forward when he thought he saw the briefest flick of Valix’s ear.

He pointed behind them. “Thought I saw someone. Following us.”

Maxon studied him. He held out a paw. “Stay.” Then he turned his head quickly back. In that second, Valix stirred and moaned.

The steward glanced back to make sure Sinch was still ten feet away, then shrugged Valix off his shoulder. “Time to keep her asleep,” he said, shooting a nasty smile Sinch’s way. “If I have to do this much more often, all my promises may come to naught, you know. We’d better get the crown soon.”

He hefted her, preparing to slam her against the nearest stone wall. Sinch dropped to a crouch, grabbed his knife, and in the moment before Maxon thrust Valix forward, threw it as hard as he could.

It struck the steward in the leg, just above the knee. The fox howled in pain and dropped Valix, crumpling to the ground. Sinch sprang forward, grabbing her paw.

They were still close enough that Maxon could swipe at them, but the steward hadn’t quite processed what was going on. Valix staggered to her feet, stumbling after Sinch, at which Maxon did grab her leg.

“Come on!” Sinch urged, tugging her.

Valix had a paw to her head, still looking woozy. She kicked weakly at the steward, but failed to dislodge him. The fox grimacing, reached down to the knife in his leg.

Sinch stomped on Maxon’s arm. The steward didn’t howl this time, just growled and swiped at Sinch. He skipped aside and kicked out one more time, catching the fox in the shoulder and knocking him backwards. He grabbed Valix again and pulled her away, throwing her arm over his shoulder. “Come on!”

She was getting her senses back, enough to trot after him. Behind them, he heard the steward struggling to his feet. “Stop them!” the fox yelled in a high voice. “Thieves! They’re getting away!”

Valix shook her head. “Did you steal something from him?”

“Just you. Do you know anywhere to hide?” No foxes had appeared yet, but with Maxon continuing to scream for help behind them, it wouldn’t be long before—

There, ahead of them, footsteps. Sinch scanned the street frantically. There were two small storefronts next to them, and a closed residence across. Curtains stretched taut across the entrances, but Sinch didn’t have his knife any more, and the one closest to him showed metal bars behind the curtains anyway.

“Corner,” Valix said. “Around there, there’s an alley to the left.”

A fox appeared at the corner. Maxon screamed behind them.

“Thieves!” He broke into a coughing fit. Sinch hoped it was as painful as it sounded.

They kept moving toward the fox ahead of them. He was tall and muscular enough that he stood his ground as they approached. “Hold on there,” he said.

Sinch didn’t have any sort of plan other than to get around him, somehow get around to the left, and find the alley Valix was talking about. But as he got closer, he saw the flick of the fox’s ears, a gesture he recognized from his friendship with Yilon. He stood taller. “Out of our way,” he said, and reached for the empty knife sheath at his waist, looking as menacing as he could.

The fox took a step back. “Don’t try anything,” he said, but his voice wavered.

“Stop them!” Maxon shrieked.

Valix pushed away from him, standing upright. “Get out, redtail,” she snarled.

“In the name of Lord Dewanne, stop them!” Maxon was getting closer, his wounded leg dragging on the flagstones.

The fox in front of them had his tail between his legs. “Just stop,” he said.

Maxon’s voice was a scant ten feet behind them. “Right,” Sinch said. He grabbed at the empty knife belt.

The fox backed away another two steps. “I don’t have a weapon,” he said.

“They’re unarmed!” screamed Maxon, but Valix and Sinch were already on their way around the corner. More foxes were approaching down the street, but they were keeping their distance.

“There it is.” Valix hurried ahead of him, still weaving, to the dark crevice between the buildings. Sinch kept up, more slowly, making threatening jabs at foxes watching them. Maxon rounded the corner, limping their way fast.

“I hope there’s somewhere in there for us to hide,” muttered Sinch as he followed her into the shadows.

“Leave that to me,” Valix’s voice floated back to him. There was a small clatter of metal as she appeared to lift up part of the flagstones.

“Down in there.”

She was holding a metal grate. Sinch hesitated at the smell of filth, faint though it was. “Hurry,” she snapped.

He could hear the foxes behind them, seconds from the alley. He stepped forward and dropped into the darkness.

He only fell for the span of one heartbeat before his paws slapped down on the damp stone. Above him, the grate clanged back into place. “Out of the way,” hissed Valix.

“I’m clear,” he said, stepping to one side. She landed beside him. When he started to say something, she said, “Shh,” and looked up.

Through the holes in the grate, they could see the stars. Then a shape blotted out the light. “They went down there,” Maxon’s voice said. “I heard the grate.”

Only muttering answered that. “Well?” he said. “Go down and get them.”

“That’s the sewer,” someone else said.

“Aye, so it is,” Maxon snarled. “And those are mice who attacked a member of the court. Who have valuable information the Lord needs.”

“He’s closer to them than we are, now.” There was scattered laughter.

“I order you to go down there. In the name of your Lord and ruler!”

“Our Lord died last month,” another voice answered. “Go down yourself.”

“Come back here!” Maxon yelled. “The court of Dewanne…”

“When there’s a new Lord, he can tell us to go in the sewer,” a voice called, faintly. Maxon stomped around on the grate. The gleam of his eye appeared at the opening a moment later. “I can see you down there,” he hissed. “I’ll get you, never fear.”

He coughed once and then was gone, revealing the bright pinpoints of the stars again. Sinch found a wall near him and leaned against it, exhaling. “How’s your head?”

“Feels like someone slammed it into a stone wall,” Valix said. “It’ll heal.”

“At least we can rest here for a while.” Sinch couldn’t see any dark patches in her head fur, but his examination was made difficult because she kept turning her head from side to side, ears perked. “You look okay.”

“Well,” she said, “this might be safe. If we’re lucky.”

Sinch felt a paw grab the back of his neck at the same time as a shadowy paw descended to clutch Valix’s. Both of them jumped, but the paws held them fast. A cold female voice floated down to them. “Let us assume, for the moment, that you are not.”

 
Corwin’s knees weakened, but his paws kept their grip on Yilon’s shoulders, pulling him down. “Dear boy,” he gasped. He took in a rattling breath. “Dear boy,” he repeated. “Not… the shadows.”

Yilon dropped to his knees, just as something split the air over his head and clattered against the wall of the public house behind. “Help!” he called. “Help!”

Foxes were already beginning to gather, and at the sight of the quarrel tail sticking out of Corwin’s back, a vixen screamed. Paws pulled Yilon to one side, lowering Corwin to the ground on his side. Yilon couldn’t tell if the older fox were still breathing. “Get a chirurgeon,” he said.

“There’s one near here,” someone answered. “I’ll go.”

Other voices crowded the air with questions. “What happened?”

“Who did this?”

Yilon shook his head and pointed up. “There, somewhere. Don’t know.” There was a line of buildings whose roofs looked down on the street with a perfect shooting angle. From where he was, near the street, they were now above the sun, so he could see their stark silhouettes against the sunset. Nothing moved up there. If the shooter had been on the roof, he was now gone.

Another paw landed on Yilon’s shoulder. He looked up at a green vest. “You need to be away from here, now,” Maxon said after a sharp cough. His eyes were narrowed, his ears down, but he wasn’t looking around as though worried about the attacker. He looked angry, as if he were personally aggrieved that this attack had occurred in this city.

“But Corwin…”

“They’re already fetching the chirurgeon,” Maxon said. “There’s no more you can do.”

The tod who’d said he would go was returning now, a disheveled fox in a plain white tunic in tow. “What’s this?” the chirurgeon was saying. “Shot? In the street? Again?”

Yilon watched long enough to see the fox kneel next to Corwin, touch the quarrel, and elicit a low groan from the injured fox, and then he followed Maxon away from the public house, back to the plaza. But when Maxon tried to guide him away from the governor’s mansion, he resisted. “I’m not following you,” he said.