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Chapter 56. Jailhouse Rock
by Zula

This was becoming a fairly regular little trek, Zula mused as she trotted at Antonio's side. The lines her friends were drawing between each other were growing broader every day. Yet, Sheriff Brull's idea was to go to the enemy headquarters, and now, a scant day later, Antonio's idea was bringing them to the exact same place. Maybe they weren't so different after all...So why were they having so much difficulty seeing it?

"Kindly desist with your incessant bobbing, young madam," Silisk's somewhat queasy voice murmured in her ear.

Zula pondered the snake's words. Not because they were particularly poignant, but because she only understood roughly half of them.

"Bob...? Oh! Y' mean like this?" The young vixen began to skip down the street, evoking a pleading hiss from the serpent coiled about her neck with each bound.

"Yes, that indeed. Prithee cease and...just stop, stop!"

Zula slowed to a walk, giving Silisk's scales a comforting pat with a grimy paw. "Sorry 'bout that, Silly. I'll remember t' prithy seas from now on."

"We're nearing the headquarters now," Antonio cautioned. "Zula, the time for jokes and loud speech has passed."

The vixen giggled softly into her paw. "Oh, Mr. Tonio, Mr. Sheriff told me much th' same yesterday, he did. You sound just like 'im, Sir!"

Zula noticed the stoat's uncharacteristic flinch at that, small and sudden as it was. "I believe you are mistaken, young one. I do not speak with as crude a tongue as that one does."

"Oh, I don't mean usin' the same words, Mr. Tonio. Yours are much prettier by far! It's just that y' say the same types o' things without even noticin' it sometimes. I just think we're all in th' same boat, really, an' we have that in common, but I think we've got more than that."

Antonio gave her a stiff sort of half-smile, the kind that said plainly, "That's sweet, but you'll understand when you're older." Zula was well acquainted with this expression. What more was there to understand? Unless beasts actually understood less and less with age. Perhaps that was it. It all seemed so simple to her; older beasts were always adding all sorts of complications and conditions to everything, so it was a wonder they were able to understand anything at all.

Zula's thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the headquarters. At least they'd managed to douse the fire, she noted with a grin. Antonio snuck them around to the back of the building, pulling open a pair of heavy doors that led to the cellar. Zula and Silisk watched the stoat as he went in first, padding cautiously down the steps. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, ears perked, tail twitching in unnaturally even rhythms. After a moment's inspection, he raised a paw and beckoned the pair of them. Zula plodded down after him, stopping at his side in the cramped, dimly lit wine cellar, much smaller and grimier than the one she'd blown up the day before.

"The coast is clear, but be alert," the stoat warned. "I shall make short work of these, and we'll go in search of the larders next."

As Antonio went to work with his bottle of Red Brandy, Zula perched on a firkin, watching Silisk's tongue dart in and out curiously, tasting the air. The vixen stuck her own tongue out, but all she tasted was cold air. What was so special about that?

Silisk turned her head to look at Zula. "Praytell, find you amusement in my mannerisms?"

The young fox hastily tucked her tongue back in her mouth. "Nope. Just wonderin' what you're tastin' in this air that's so good, I was."

"A drop of yon ale would do nicely," the serpent said. "A pity it has to be spoilt so."

"Cor, don't touch that stuff, Silly. Makes beasts act badly, it does. I don't like it."

Antonio looked mildly amused at that, but stiffened suddenly, as did Zula and her passenger, at a sudden creak of a door and footsteps. The stoat heaved Zula behind a stack of barrels, clamping a paw on her muzzle to keep her from crying out in shock.

Two rather disgruntled mice came trudging down the stairs, both smudged from tail to nose with soot.

"Bloody nightmare," the first said.

"Aye, and a waste of perfectly good ale t' boot!" said the other. "They might not be good for much else, but these Evnarans know their way around a brewery."

"An' then one of them just had to blow most of it up. I thought we'd never get that fire put out."

Zula grinned into Antonio's paw. The stoat gave her muzzle a light, warning squeeze.

"Can you believe Marcion, wanting all this for himself?" the second mouse grumbled, grabbing a bottle.

The first mouse shrugged. "Well, he's had a bit of a busy day, so he's entitled to some at least. Did you hear about the traitor, Gericault?"

His companion snorted. "Who here hasn't? Murdering dog killed his sister, Althra. Apparently he was working for the Red Dusk all along. What's Marcion going to do with him, d'you think?"

"Oh, I dunno. He's got him chained up in one of the empty barrack rooms on the ground floor for now. Probably let him stew in there for a while."

The second mouse raised his eyebrows. "And then...?"

The first drew a harsh line across his throat with a claw. "You know how Marcion felt about Althra. He's not going to let the beast that killed her live for long."

"You'd have to be stupid to get on that squirrel's bad side," the second mouse said with a shudder. "Come on, let's get this lot up to Marcion."

The mice exited the way they came, shutting the door with a dull thud behind them. The instant Antonio relinquished his grip on her muzzle, Zula wailed in horror, "Mr. Geri! They're gonna kill him!"

"Who? Oh, yes, he was the beast that helped you free the prisoners, was he not?" Antonio asked, his lack of concern plainly evident in his tone.

"Grah!" Zula snapped. "We've got t' save him, Mr. Tonio, Silly, come on!"

Silisk's laughter sounded much like a tea kettle on the boil. "Surely you jest. This mission is dangerous enough as it is without risking our necks for some lowly woodlander."

Zula was sure that if Sheriff Brull had been there he would have cracked some witty joke about Silisk being all neck anyway, but the precise words he would've used weren't coming to her. And anyway, this wasn't the time to think about that sort of thing.

"But Mr. Geri risked 'is neck for us yesterday! He helped us, an' he's my friend!"

"And he murdered his sister, apparently," Antonio added, still looking unconvinced.

"No, no, Mr. Geri wouldn't do that!" Zula was practically crying now; she could feel hot tears welling in her eyes but forced herself not to blink. "It had t' be that bad squiller—er, squirrel—Marcion. Please, Mr. Tonio, save him! He just wants to help us!"

She could help it no more. Her blink finally sent the tears bursting down her cheeks, and she sniffled miserably. Part of her wished she hadn't asked to come along on this escapade in the first place.

Antonio let out a deep sigh, the kind that usually meant one was about to do something against their better judgment.

"All right. We'll save him. But only after what we've come here to do in the first place."

~

As luck would have it, the larder turned out to be somewhat close to the room in which Gericault was being kept. Silisk suggested Antonio take care of the poisoning while they busted they otter out themselves. This plan was immediately shot down when they saw that the room was being guarded by several members of the Felldoh's Heirs, and so Zula and Silisk hid themselves in an empty room nearby until Antonio returned.

"What has taken you so long?" he asked them.

Zula absent-mindedly inserted a digit into her nose and wiggled it about. "Too many guards, Mr. Tonio. I gots m' knife, but sure 'n' if that doesn't make me a warrior wot can take on all o' them at once. An' I don't think Silly could bite 'em all fast enough either."

The stoat nodded. "Very well. I shall go back to the larder and make a loud noise of some kind. That should distract them long enough for you to get Gericault out."

Silisk nodded her approval. "A sound enough plan, sirrah."

Antonio went to the door. "Ready?"

"Aye!" Zula nodded.

The stoat slipped out. Zula and Silisk waited for a few moments before hearing an impressive crash, shortly followed by several pairs of footpaws shuffling past their door. Zula peeped her head out. When she was sure the coast was clear, she made her way to the corridor where Gericault was being held. Silisk slithered from the young vixen's shoulders onto the cold floor, where she kept watch for any returning guards. Zula, meanwhile, set to work trying to pick the lock with her knife.

"...Yer all neck anyway, so y've got plenty t' spare! Aye, that's it," she murmured to herself.

Silisk swiveled her regal head in Zula's direction. "Pardon?"

"Nothin', mam."

She might just have to tell that one to the Sheriff later, when Silisk wasn't around to have her feelings hurt. He'd be proud.