The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (9 page)

“
You should spend more time with her, maybe help her out a bit. You’re almost done with the inventory, right?”

Jonas nodded. “A couple more days.”

“
Okay. Well, help out Julianna for a bit, and I’ll bring some friends over soon, I promise.” Alexan squeezed Jonas’s paw. “I do want you to meet them.”

That made Jonas smile, made his heart swell, and reassured him that everything was going to be all right.

When Alexan did bring his friends by, three days later, Julianna had made a nice stew for them, and Jonas had helped her clean up the dining room. He wanted to get dressed up, as Alexan had, but the fox didn’t have any clothes that would fit him, and of course Jonas had no other clothes. “You’ll be fine,” Alexan assured him. “They won’t be looking at your clothes.”

He was wrong, but Jonas tried to ignore the searching stare he got from Mikka, the short grey fox who was the first to arrive. In truth, Jonas was staring just as hard down the foot and a half at the fox, never having seen someone so flamboyant. Even Tally didn't have metal bangles in his ears, gold or silver, though he might have worn the fox's loose purple shirt. It was open at the chest, revealing a fluffy white chest ruff bordered with rust-colored fur that also ran up his throat to his chin. White cotton pants below an arched tail drew Jonas’s eye down to the really remarkable part of Mikka’s wardrobe: a pair of leather boots decorated with a beaded pattern.

Jonas had heard of footwear, but had never seen anyone wearing any. He wondered whether Mikka’s paws were injured; if so, his stare would be considered rude, but Mikka didn’t seem to mind. “Like them?” he said. “I can get a pair in your size without a problem. Though you really would want to get more than just that.”

“
Thanks,” Jonas smiled as Alexan looked on, amused. “Aren’t you cold?”

Mikka ran a paw through his chest ruff. “Oh, a little, but you know, it’s worth the sacrifice.”

“
Sacrifice?”

“
To give the rest of you something to look at.” Mikka gave him a slow wink.

“
All right, that’s enough,” Alexan said. Jonas half expected him to be angry, but he was smiling. He led Mikka into the dining room and Jonas followed.

The next guest to arrive was Taypha, a small, portly bear. He too looked over Jonas’s clothing, but without the implicit judgment Mikka had applied. Jonas smelled ale on his breath, and thought that ale was probably also responsible for at least two of the stains on his worn vest. His linen shirt was clean, as were his pants, and though they were the same material as Jonas was wearing, both were of better quality and in better shape. “Pleased,” was all Taypha said when his meaty paw grasped Jonas’s, weakly.

Jonas shook back and smiled, and as a second carriage was just drawing up, he waited to greet it while Alexan took Taypha into the dining room.

A small red fox got out, about Mikka’s height. He paid the wagon driver and started up the stairs, and only then did he see Jonas.

His reaction surprised Jonas. Instead of mild surprise, as the others had shown, he did a double take and took a step backwards. Then he peered more closely and came forward, ears back in what Jonas thought was embarrassment at his initial reaction.

Jonas extended a paw. “Hi, I’m Jonas. I’m not a noble.”

“
Oh. Benton. Pleased to meet you.” He looked Jonas up and down. “Alexan didn’t say…”

“
It’s okay, everyone has the same reaction.” Jonas smiled. “I think you’re the last to arrive, so we can go in.”

“
It’s not that,” Benton said, following him inside. “It’s…”

“
Hi, Benton.” Alexan met them at the door. “Come on inside.”

Alexan sat at the head of the table, with Mikka and Taypha on his right. Jonas sat on Alexan’s left, with Benton on the other side of him. Julianna served the wine to start with and everyone turned towards Alexan.

He raised his glass. “I would like to introduce you all to Jonas, who has come all the way across the mountains to stay with me.”

The others raised their glasses and Jonas, caught off guard, didn’t know whether to lift his and drink or not. He left his on the table and just smiled as everyone else took a sip. Three glasses came back down almost in unison; Taypha’s came down several seconds later and he signaled Julianna for a refill.

“
So is this a permanent thing?” Mikka smiled, both paws on the table. “He is a cute one.”

Jonas blushed and smiled, taking the opportunity to sip his own glass of wine. “I hope so,” Alexan answered, smiling as well. “But it’s only been a week. We both have high hopes, don’t we?”

“
I know I do.” Jonas put down the wine and wiped his muzzle.

“
So where do you come from?” Taypha asked, slurping his second glass of wine. “What’d you do? I guess you’re not a noble.”

“
No, I’m from Tephos.”

“
How did you meet?” Mikka, this time looking at Jonas.

“
Well…” Jonas paused.

“
He worked in a brothel and I was his best customer,” Alexan said cheerfully.

Benton looked down at the table; the other guests looked with interest at Jonas. He glanced quickly across all their eyes, feeling as though Alexan had stripped his clothes off in front of them. “A prostitute, really?” Mikka said. “I always wanted to try that. If I hadn’t had to take over my father’s business…”

“
You wouldn’t have had the money to gain so much knowledge about brothels,” Taypha rumbled.

“
And if he’d been working at the Cat’s Tongue, I’d have spent a bit more. Speaking of which, if you’re looking for work here, I’m sure they have an opening.”

He looked around for someone else to chuckle at his joke, but the closest was Alexan, who merely smiled tolerantly. Mikka flicked his ears and made a little throaty noise that Jonas couldn’t interpret.

Taypha lowered his goblet, signaling to Julianna again. “That must have been pretty interesting. But I imagine it would get tiring after a while.”

Jonas was grateful to the bear for at least the polite pretense of understanding. He ignored Mikka’s dainty snort. “There were a lot of good things, but there were a lot of things that I got sick of. I couldn’t do any of the things I enjoyed.”

“
And so you rescued him from sexual slavery. How romantic!” Mikka had turned to Alexan.

“
Actually, he came and found me,” Alexan said with a smile. “And I couldn’t resist.”

Jonas smiled. “He was the one I never got tired of.” That had more than a little truth to it, and even Benton raised his head to smile then.

“
Cheers to you both, then,” Taypha said, raising his goblet again and draining it before anyone else had a chance to lift theirs.

“
Where’s Gaff?” Mikka asked Alexan. “You know Jeni’s expecting again, right?”

“
Again?” Alexan shook his head. “She's been lucky twice.”

Taypha shrugged. “She’s healthy enough.”

“
I hope she’ll be all right.”

“
We all do.” Mikka grinned around the table. “After all, none of us is having cubs anytime soon.”

Julianna brought their dinners then, and the conversation was soon lost to hearty slurps and chewing noises. The stew she’d made was chicken, spiced with some kind of pepper that Jonas loved. After a week, he was getting over his surprise that the food on this side of the mountains was so similar. The meats and breads were the same, of course, but even the basic spices were very familiar. There were a few that he found exotic, like this pepper, and he liked them all. The wines and ales he’d tried had been different, but the meals he’d had could have come from any pub or house in Tephos.

After dinner, they retired to the living room, where Jonas sat next to Alexan while the fox talked to Mikka, on his other side, about his plan to approach the king. “I’ll need some nice clothes, if I can get you to loan them to me.”

Mikka jerked his muzzle towards Jonas. “For one night with him, you can
have
them.” He was grinning slyly as he said it, and everyone laughed. Alexan didn’t say anything further about it, but Jonas remembered what the fox had said about him taking up his work again, and felt a stir of unease.

“
Benton, does your master already know about this proposal?”

The small fox nodded. “He is arguing with the woodcraft guild to gain their support. Since most of them don’t make weapons, they are divided about what to do.”

“
Ask him if there’s anything I can do to help his cause.”

“
All right.” Benton was sitting on the other side of Mikka, and the grey fox now turned to Alexan.

“
Nice clothes,” he mused. “The sort you might need to pay a visit to the palace?”

“
Just that sort. I’m hoping to get a noble sponsor. I think that’s the only way this will work. I have a couple names, but I need to sound them out and see how they feel about this issue.”

“
Very bold!” Mikka clapped the other fox on the shoulder. “Have you thought about maybe giving away some of your stock to the nobles? I can tell you, that really helps.”

“
Give away? Don’t they have enough to afford anything?”

“
Some maybe less than you think.” The grey fox winked. “But regardless, if you couch it as a gift, they don’t have a choice about whether to buy it…”

Jonas listened to the conversation for a little while before noticing that Taypha wasn’t paying close attention. The bear sat patiently tapping his claws on the couch, and although he affected nonchalance, Jonas sensed that he felt bored, and maybe a little bit left out. He shifted a bit to his right, closer to the bear, and smiled when Taypha looked up.

“
You’re not in the merchant business?” he said, quietly enough that he didn’t intrude on the other conversation.

Taypha shook his head. “I’m in the city guard.” He shrugged. “Not very exciting.”

“
I’m sure there are exciting times.” Jonas smiled.

Taypha shrugged again. “I guess.”

“
What would you rather be doing?”

“
Drinking.” The bear had brought his glass out into the living room, but was nursing this drink. He gave Jonas an abashed grin. “No, it’s okay. It just seems like these fellows here get to see more things.”

“
Than a guard?” Jonas was genuinely surprised. “I bet you see all sorts of things they’ve never seen.”

“
Not pleasant things. Drunk people, criminals…”

Jonas laughed suddenly, so that everyone in the room looked at him. He waved the foxes away and waited until they’d resumed their conversation before turning back to Taypha. “Sorry, you just reminded me of something. We had this one customer…this otter. He used to come in roaring drunk and demand to be serviced, but usually he couldn’t…you know, manage to…”

Taypha nodded, a smile creeping across his muzzle. Jonas continued. “Anyway, he’d start cursing really loudly and then usually he’d fall off the bed, stagger around for a while, and fall asleep. Once he surprised the guy who’d taken him,” it had been poor Alicar, who didn’t know what to expect, “and staggered into the hallway naked. He shut the door behind him and nearly got out into the main room before we caught him.”

Taypha was laughing quietly now. “The funny thing was, he would come back the next day, pay handsomely, apologize, and say he couldn’t remember anything but he was sure he’d had a great time. So once we got to know him, we used to fight over who got to take him. He was the easiest client I ever had.”

“
Well, I never met a drunk that interesting. Though there was this one raccoon who climbed up to the rafters of the inn and peed on everyone below him.” He grimaced. “That was funnier when it was over.”

Jonas giggled behind a paw, picturing the scene. Taypha leaned back and smiled, then tilted his head. “Who was your most difficult customer? Heh. I was about to say ‘hardest,’ but that’s a different story, isn’t it?”

Jonas was spared having to reply by Alexan, who leaned over and put an arm across him, mock-growling at the bear. “Hey, no flirting with my cougar.”

“
I’ll snap you in half, stick-fox,” Taypha said mildly, grinning.

“
You’ll have to get past him first.” Alexan squeezed Jonas’s upper arm. “Look at these muscles.”

“
I have been,” Mikka murmured from behind him.

Alexan went on. “Anyway, you’re so drunk you probably can’t tell which of the three foxes you’re seeing is me.”