The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (3 page)

But only for a moment. He panted, resting back on the bed, and didn’t object when Pike lay beside him. “See? Wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“
It was okay.” He felt reluctant to concede more than that.

“
Aww, cat miss his mousie?” Pike was half-sympathetic, half-teasing. “Enjoy what we can give each other, but don’t get attached. Worst thing you can do. Short of catching something.”

He lay quiet while the question burned in his mind, revived by Pike’s comment. Discretion warred with worry, and worry proved the stronger warrior. “Pike?”

“
Mm.”

“
If we did catch something…there’s medicine, right?”

Pike’s head snapped up, his whole body tense. “You sick? No, you couldn’t be. You just went to see Van Wyck.” He relaxed again. “Yeah, there’s medicine. Not cheap, though.”

Jonas brushed the raccoon’s fur lazily. “Really expensive?”

“
More than I could afford.” Pike yawned and showed every sign of wanting to go to sleep right in Jonas’s bed.

Jonas wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He was rather sleepy himself, and Pike’s eyes were closed. He let his eyelids droop, and it felt good, so he let them fall all the way.

He heard a low sigh beside him. “Sasha.”

“
What?” His turn to tense now, though he didn’t startle as Pike had. But when he opened his eyes, Pike was looking at him.

“
Sasha’s sick. That’s why he skipped early, missed Van Wyck.”

“
Uh…”

Pike patted his chest. “And he told you not to tell anyone. Sweet.” He yawned again. “It happens every now and then. Sad. But best to put him out of your mind. You won’t see him again.”

“
Why not? There’s medicine.”

“
Tally won’t let him back in, for one thing. For another, he’d have to sell all his pretty things to pay for it. I don’t know if he’d do that.”

“
Tally doesn’t know yet. And Sasha said he’d come back.”

Definitely awake now, Pike patted Jonas’s paw, swung his legs down, and stretched as he got up.. “People say all kinds of things, kitty. Sometimes they even mean them. Thanks for the paw. Maybe I’ll work you up to more later. It could be really good with us.” Jonas drew his legs up, thinking about Sasha and not wanting to. Pike patted his knee and grinned. “And I mean
that
.”

“
Pike? You won’t say anything to Tally?”

The raccoon paused, studying Jonas, and then shook his head. “I won’t.”

When he was gone, Jonas snuffed the oil lamp and lay in bed on his side, staring into the darkness. He could see the walls of his small room in the dim ambient light, but there were black corners where even that light faded and died. He stared at those corners now, praying to Felis and Rodenta that Sasha would be all right, and the repetition of his prayers soon lulled him to sleep.

The dream begins familiarly. Sasha was playing cards with him. They were in a jail in the center of town, naked and vulnerable to the eyes of everyone walking by. Some stayed to watch and some just glanced as they passed. Jonas knew they had committed a crime but couldn’t quite remember what.

He couldn’t see Sasha’s face any more behind the cards he was holding. “You’ve got to get out of here, kitten,” Sasha said.

“
I know,” Jonas heard himself say. “But they made the bars out of wood.”

“
You can cut through,” Sasha said. Jonas turned to look at the bars, and when he turned back, Sasha was Pike, holding his erection out. “You can cut with this,” he leered.

“
I have claws.” It was as if he were seeing them for the first time. He scored the bars with his claws, and then scored them again, and two of the bars gave way. As he pushed his way through, the crowd suddenly surged against him, pushing him by the shoulders…

“
Jonas. Jonas.”

He shook awake and looked up. Tally was shaking him by the shoulder. “Get up.”

He blinked at the white cougar. “Mmmf. Client?”

“
Yes, a wolf.”

“
Get Richy.”

“
He doesn’t want another wolf. I’ll double your tip.”

Jonas forced his tired body awake. Double tips was a good deal. He stretched, sniffed himself, and nodded. “All right. Let me clean up.” If he got a good tip, he would get some money to Sasha.

“
Thanks, dear. Room five.” All smiles, Tally kissed his ears before hurrying out.

The water in the washroom was always cold, but it woke Jonas up. He scrubbed his fur clean hastily and then threw on a robe in case the client wanted to undress him.

The corridors were deserted as he padded through them. He heard the muffled sounds of pleasure from one room. Ishel, back at work, he thought. But the sun was rising and the Jackal’s Staff was mostly quiet.

The door to room five creaked as it opened, as did most of the doors in the old building. Even though they were laid out identically, Jonas could tell any of them by sight now. Five was one of the largest, windowless, with one discolored board in the paneling of the far right corner. Despite the cleaning to erase the smells, he still remembered every client he’d had in this room every time he walked in.

Tonight, it smelled of young wolf. He was on the bed, sprawled out and naked, energetically rubbing his sheath.
He wants a blow job
, Jonas thought instantly, and sure enough, he was on his knees moments later, taking the wolf’s thick shaft into his muzzle. He couldn’t say how he knew; Sasha had worked twice as long as he had and still couldn’t predict what a customer would want. Jonas saw them as types that reminded him of other types, across species borders. He knew without being told that the wolf had never been here before, had saved up money, or perhaps gotten a gift, for this special occasion, and that his tip would therefore probably be minimal.

But he saved his anger for Tally. It wasn’t the wolf’s fault, and if he wanted a special time, it was Jonas’s job to give it to him. Judging from the spastic twitching of his arms and legs, and the energy he poured into his howl as he came, the wolf had a very good time indeed. Jonas never even had to take off his robe. He got a breathless ‘thanks’ as he left, and he did get some pleasure out of the wolf’s broad, satisfied grin.

Too restless to go back to sleep, he stayed in the staff lounge, absently stroking Alicar’s fur. Tally walked in a few minutes later and dropped three coppers into Jonas’s paw. “Here. He didn’t leave anything, but I promised you something.”

Jonas closed his paw around the coins and nodded. Tally’d made at least three silvers, more if he’d charged full price. Sasha said Tally discounted for younger clients so they’d keep coming back. But three coppers was better than nothing. He’d pass on a silver to Sasha—maybe that would help.

Over the years he’d dropped many coppers and silvers into the small lockbox in his room. Sasha periodically changed the coins for him, so that now he had a scattering of coppers, thirteen silvers, and six precious gold Royals. When he dropped the three coppers in tonight, however, he heard them thunk against wood, not metal.

Fur prickling, he opened his chest and retrieved the lockbox key from under his bed. Even though he hadn’t touched it in weeks, it wasn’t dusty. He sniffed it, but it was metal and wouldn’t take a scent that he could smell over his own. Dreading what he might see, he fitted it into the lock and turned it.

The box held a few copper pieces, and nothing more.

He held it upside down and shook it in disbelief as the copper coins rattled into the bottom of the chest. Robbed? Who would come in here? Why was nothing else touched? And nobody knew where his box was, much less the key, except…

Except Sasha.

He sat down heavily on the bed.

Chapter 2

The Jackal’s Staff never closed, but between sunrise and noon, most of the staff slept, so “morning” was defined as the few hours before lunch when the staff got together for calisthenics. Tally didn’t force attendance, but most of the non-residents showed up anyway. A worker who didn’t stay in shape got fewer tips and would be out of a job before long.

After exercises that day, everyone except Jonas and Richy had left to go home or to go on duty. Jonas was ignoring Richy and finishing up his stretches when the wolf came up behind him and put a paw on his shoulder.

“
Hey,” he said.

Jonas grunted, and kept stretching.

“
Listen,” Richy said, “you haven’t said two words since Sasha left. I know you guys were close, but you need to get over it.”

Jonas shrugged off the paw and started walking away. Richy followed him. “It’s going to start affecting your work.”

“
My work?” Jonas turned and glared at the wolf. “My
work
?! This isn’t work. This is slavery. This is…” He groped for words. “A trap, a prison. If I could walk out of here and get a good honest living, I would.”

Richy had folded his arms defensively and laid his ears back, though he looked more bewildered than angry. “Why don’t you, then?”

“
Because I’m not trained for anything!” Jonas hissed. “Who’s going to take an eighteen-year-old apprentice?”

“
I thought you were happy here.”

“
You thought. You thought. What would you know, anyway? Take your mouth out of Pike’s lap and look around once in a while.”

Richy flicked his ears. “I do look around. You don’t act like this. Not usually.”

“
Maybe I just never realized before.”

“
What did you realize?”

Jonas wanted to tell someone, felt the hard lump of Sasha’s betrayal in his stomach and wanted to get it out. But Richy, this lap dog of a wolf who crawled up to Pike every night no matter how he got treated by the raccoon, couldn’t understand. Nobody could understand, not in this place. He growled and clenched his paws in frustration. “Just…forget it.”

“
Jonas.”

“
I said, forget it. Hey, I don’t think Pike’s left yet. Why don’t you see if he wants a quick one before he goes?”

Richy’s ears flattened again. “That’s not your business,” he said.

“
It’s all of our business. Do you see how he treats you? Do you see how little he cares? Did you see him push you away to come jack me off the other night?”

“
He wanted to make you feel better.”

“
Make me feel better. He wanted to get under my tail, is all.”

“
Maybe that’s what he thought you wanted.”

“
That’s what
he
wanted. There’s a difference.” He looked at the wolf’s muzzle. Richy was a year younger than he was but had been working at the Staff for a year longer. Sometimes he forgot that. “He’s already been under your tail, hasn’t he? He got what he wanted from you and now he just tolerates you.”

“
I like to make him happy.”

“
I’m sure he loves it, too. ‘Til he gets bored of you.”

Richy lowered his arms and turned, walking the other way out of the room. Jonas called after him, “Hey! Why don’t you worry about making
me
happy?”

He’d meant it as a jab, but his voice cracked on the word ‘me.’ Richy turned and looked at him. “Oh,” he said softly, “I don’t think I could. I don’t think anyone here could.” Then he turned, tail still between his legs, and left.

Jonas cursed himself. Then, for lack of anything better to do, he got dressed and walked through the streets of Divalia.

The walk did nothing to improve his mood. The weather was already turning colder, and his ears kept flicking to keep warm no matter how hard he tried to hold them down against the occasional bursts of wind. He’d left his heavy shirt back in the room, and his newly-trimmed fur didn’t keep out the cold well—another discomfort that he added to his tally of grievances against his current position. His tail lashed back and forth as his mood grew blacker, and the delightfully warm smells of pastries from pubs and bakeries only served to remind him that he couldn’t afford to treat himself now, and maybe not for a while.

The worst part was almost not that Sasha had abandoned and betrayed him; it was that he couldn’t tell anyone about it. If he reported the theft, Sasha would be possibly arrested; at the very least, Tally would definitely be told about his condition if he didn’t know already. Jonas had been avoiding the other cougar for the last couple days, but knew he would have to face him eventually. He couldn’t stay out on the streets forever, as cold as it was and as poor as he now was.