Jan narrowed his eyes. "After they burned Koto? Never."
Gert shrugged.
"We have something to fight for now," Daeric said.
"Kit?" Timothy’s eyes fluttered open. Kit felt relief when his gaze found her. She had heard head wounds could make people different. Those eyes were her Timothy—a little glazed, but aware. Kit saw her reflection in their hazel depths. She laid a finger across her lips and hugged him with her tail. His eyes tightened with worry. He always worried too much about her. He needed to worry more about himself. He lands into trouble more than anyone else I know!
"Shhh. I’m here." Kit teased Timothy’s hair between her fingers. She met Jan’s gaze. The man hadn’t stopped ogling her since Daeric had forced her to reveal her tail.
"What happened?" Timothy touched his face and groaned.
"You decided to be a hero again."
"Remind me to stop doing that."
Jan fingered the hilt of his knife. "We just need the fox, right?"
Daeric glared at the man. "Sunflower will do whatever we say as long as we don’t hurt her husband. Isn’t that right?"
Kit unclenched her fist before Timothy gained a bald spot. Timothy’s bound hands brushed against her tail, making her shiver. Not now.
His eyes widened. "Your tail!" He shot out of her lap. "Ugh." He held his forehead.
Daeric pulled at the shredded carcass over the fire. "Don’t get any more heroic ideas. We only need you to keep Sunflower behaving. That doesn’t mean you have to be whole."
Timothy turned slowly and handed Kit her skirts. "Put these back on."
Kit laid a hand on his shoulder in warning. I need you to be a puppy right now. She fumbled with the heavy fabric. I am not following your orders. I am just tired of being cold.
Daeric shrugged. "Go ahead. We can’t have you getting sick." He frowned at Jan. "Besides, you need to get your eyes back into your head."
Jan pivoted and opened his mouth.
Gert jerked and darted to his feet. "Your bickering must have stuffed your ears. Someone—"
Shouts rustled the trees. Tell leapt into the clearing and tore across it. He disappeared into the trees on the other side. Uniformed soldiers crashed behind. Jan and Daeric lurched to their feet just as the halberd armed men closed the distance. Shadows danced wild in the anxious firelight. Grunts, yells, and men flooded the small area, forcing Daeric, Jan, and Gert to dash into the trees.
Yuzu knelt beside Kit. "We have to go, Sis."
"Timothy’s feet are bound." Kit coiled her tail under her skirts and raised her hood.
"I don’t have a knife," Yuzu said.
"You and Tell led them here?" Timothy asked. Pain edged his voice.
I never thought I’d come to know someone well enough to notice a change in his voice like that, Kit thought.
Yuzu nodded. "We found a group of them while we followed you. I had hoped we could slip away while everyone was distracted, but it doesn’t look like it now."
"Fan out," a strong voice resonated. "Don’t go running around like you did. You boys are lucky he didn’t lead you into a true ambush."
More soldiers filled the clearing. A dozen eyes watched Kit. She held her hands out to her sides. Yuzu held hers above her shoulders, and Timothy sat frozen. Blades pointed at them from all sides.
"Nice job," Kit said. "We traded three captors for three dozen."
The half circle parted to allow a familiar graying man through. "What do we—Timothy! What are you doing out here?"
Timothy looked up and blinked. "Kyle? That is Kyle, or am I seeing things, Kit?"
Kyle beamed. "Who else would this ugly mug belong to? Two women now?" He waved at the soldiers. "It’s okay, boys. I know them." The men raised their blades and stepped back. Kyle knelt beside Timothy. "By the looks of your face, they didn’t care much for the arrangement. Just what are you doing out here?" He cut the ropes binding Timothy’s wrists and ankles.
"Being kidnapped and dragged through the forest," Timothy said.
Kit felt her shoulders loosen. Yuzu studied Kyle. "It’s okay," Kit told Yuzu. "Kyle is a friend. What are you doing out here, Master Kyle?"
A Jesuit walked up. "Lieutenant Dalton, who—you were the ones with the lamb."
Kit recognized the Jesuit. It was the same man who arrested Tahd. Who else is going to show up?
Timothy rubbed his wrists. "It’s a long story, Kyle. I thought I wouldn’t see you again."
"I’ve known this one for a long time, Balwar. This is Timothy, his wife, and…."
"Yuzu, Kit’s sister."
Kyle squinted. "Black hair. Red hair. Brown eyes. Green eyes. Yep, blood sisters all right."
Yuzu glared.
"Adopted sister, Master Kyle. We were traveling when those men kidnapped us." Kit adjusted her hood. That Jesuit may have let us go before, but we don’t have Cat with us this time.
"What do you know about those men?" Balwar asked.
Kyle helped Timothy to his feet and offered a hand to Kit. Kit smoothed her skirts and checked the latch. I can’t have my tail flashing anyone. As long as Kyle doesn’t let what he knows slip.
"Their leader goes by the name Daeric Rhine. The others are called Jan and Gert," Kit said.
"And what about the man we followed?"
Kit glanced at Yuzu. The girl wrung her hands. She is taken with Tell. Kit shrugged. "Only those three caused problems for us. I don’t know if they had anyone else with them or not."
Balwar looked at Kyle. Kyle nodded and clapped Timothy on the back. "You never were a fighter. Well, you don’t have to worry now. They don’t look it, but these boys are a good lot. Better than Fairhaven’s militia." He winked and jerked a thumb at the Jesuit. "He’s an Inquisitor, but not a bad one. He even has a lady—"
"We’ve already met before," Balwar said.
"Oh. Well, then—"
A soldier stopped and saluted. "Sorry, sir. They got away."
"These woods are worse than slums for having hide-holes," Balwar said. "Gather the men, Dalton, and let’s get back to camp."
"Lieutenant Dalton?" Timothy asked.
Kyle rolled his eyes. "Henrietta’s idea. I’ll tell you once we are warm."
Chapter 5
"Yeah, she told me to get a real job. You know me, Timothy. I never could do much. So I joined after you and your wife left." Kyle sat across from Timothy, Kit, and Yuzu.
Timothy sipped a mug of warm, weak tea. Kit sat on the bench beside him. Her hand rested on his thigh, and she kept glancing at him. His head ached, and a bruise complained on his cheek. Yuzu stared out of the window, chin in hand. The meal hall buzzed with conversations. Uniformed soldiers hunched and gestured over large, steaming bowls.
"It is all your fault, you know," Kyle said.
"What did I do?" Timothy asked.
"What haven’t you done?" Kit squeezed Timothy’s thigh.
"Because of you I had to ring Henrietta. And here you are with two!" Kyle gestured at Yuzu.
Kit’s fingers dug, and Timothy winced. "He is mine only. My sister has nothing to do with him."
"I hope Tell is fine," Yuzu said.
"He’s that lad we chased?"
Yuzu nodded in her chin. "He helped me find Sis and Timmy."
"As you can see, Master Kyle, my poor sister has fallen for the boy." Kit grinned at Timothy and squeezed. "Timmy is mine." Timothy squirmed on the hard bench.
Kyle stroked his chin. "You certainly look closer now. The men are already jealous of you."
"Is it true what they say of reds?" a voice called.
"I like the dark-haired one. Those eyes of hers…"
Kyle twisted. "Behave yourselves. These two are not to be bothered." He leaned toward Kit. "Whatever you are doing under the table to make poor Timmy squirm…"
Kit blushed and removed her hand.
Timothy wanted to rub his thigh. "So what happened with Treblin?"
Kyle laughed. "Now that was a pickle. I said I wanted to be a h
ero, remember?"
Kit yawned.
Timothy smiled. "Being a hero isn’t that great," he said. Kit snorted.
"You’re right there! Cost me my freedom, it did—and I don’t mean Henrietta. Don’t look at me that way, Mistress Clarke. I am happily knotted. I am!"
"Be glad you are not caught between a fox’s paws," Timothy said. He swallowed and looked around. No one paid attention to them.
"Better than being caught between my teeth." Kit showed her fangs.
"Well, my heroic charge wasn’t—"
"What is it about men and failing at heroics?" Kit elbowed Yuzu.
Yuzu shook her head. "You know more about men than me, sis. Allen and Tell are all I know."
Kit frowned. "Are you implying something? Timothy already knows how many—"
Timothy cleared his throat. "I’d like you to meet my friend Kyle, who I worried about for months and would like to speak with."
"Oh, dear me, Master Kyle," Kit said in a honeyed voice. "Please pardon my interruption, husband." She laid her head on Timothy’s shoulder and feigned rapt attention. Timothy gritted his teeth as Kit pinched his leg and twisted.
Kyle leaned forward and gestured at Yuzu. "So she knows about Kit?"
Yuzu gazed at Kyle. "That my sister is a fox? Yes."
Timothy choked on his tea. "Not so loud."
Yuzu shrugged. "No one is paying attention. They are just ogling." She twittered a hand. A distant table erupted into laughter. A young man—not old enough to shave regularly—blushed and ducked under the back slaps.
"I will have to watch the boys. Finding your wife is…one of them…could be trouble. Balwar’s a good man, but he still has a job to do," Kyle said. "Anyway, my heroics ended with me getting caught and tossed in prison."
"They threw you in prison." Timothy sat down the tea before he choked on it again. Kit shifted against his shoulder.
Kyle nodded and leaned back in his chair. "Deep, dark one too. Didn’t know they had cells beneath the ones we used. Cold down there, but I only had to stay a day."
"What happened?" Yuzu asked. She half turned away from the window.
"Henrietta busted me out."
Kit shifted against Timothy. It felt like she was laughing.
"She came down there with a lantern in one hand, dragging two of Treblin’s men behind her. You’d never think a little woman like her could drag two full-grown men with one arm."
Timothy looked at Kit’s head. A few locks of red hair peeked from under the hood. "Doesn’t surprise me. I’ll have to tell you about the time Kit carried me out of a burning town."
"Sounds like you make a good hero too. I knew you would!" Kyle grinned. "Well, Henrietta was as fired up as an overloaded musket. After getting me out of the cell and blinding me with that lantern—it was dark down there—she walloped me worse than Treblin’s boys. Then she hugged the stuffing out of me before walloping me more." Kyle laughed. "I don’t know what I’d do without that old girl. Not that she isn’t still a looker. Ripe. Not old."
"I won’t tell her you called her a dried prune, Master Kyle," Kit said.
Kyle groaned. "That means she will tell Henrietta everything I said."
"Sounds like I would like this Henrietta," Yuzu said. "I might be able to learn more from her than Sis."
Kit jerked, and Yuzu winced. She reached under the table, grimacing. Kit settled against Timothy’s shoulder. And you say you don’t want Yuzu as a sister, Timothy thought.
"Anyway, Henrietta dragged me out, all the while saying, ‘I know you wouldn’t have gotten into real trouble. Tell me what happened.’" Kyle looked at Kit. "Henrietta’s persuasive, you understand, especially when she’s swinging a chair at you."
"I think I would like her." Sleep tinted Kit’s voice. Yuzu yawned.
Timothy could feel the warmth of the room and the exhaustion of the past several days creeping on him as well. "Women tend to all be that way."
"Wives especially," Kyle said. "I told her. About your wife. Ears and all."
Yuzu dozed in her hand, and Timothy yawned. Can’t fall asleep yet. He took a sip of cool tea. "What did she say?"
Kyle hesitated. "That Treblin needed to be turned over to…." He leaned in. "The Inquisition. She wants to see your ears for herself."
"I want to meet her. A chair would do little good against me," Kit said.
Kyle whistled. "Now that would be a tough bet. My Henrietta has age—experience—over your wife. Maybe I could bet on both to break even."
"I’m not sure either of us would survive that confrontation." Timothy yelped as stiff fingers jabbed into his thigh. That spot would be tender for days. As if getting slapped by a spear wasn’t uncomfortable enough.
"A wise husband would say his wife would win," Kit mumbled.
Yuzu’s head bobbed in her hand as she dozed.
"What did she do?" Timothy moved Kit’s hand and rubbed his thigh. She snatched his wrist.
"Exactly as she said. She dragged me to the priest, talked him into setting a runner to the nearest Inquisitor, and brought the man down with a gaggle of soldiers. The Church takes this stuff seriously. We wouldn’t be all the way out here otherwise. So the Inquisitor asked around, and in a few days Treblin was in the stocks, and I had the Inquisitor asking me if I wanted to join up."
"And Henrietta made you," Timothy said.
"Right so, and she dragged me down to the priest to be married the same day. ‘I am no longer waiting,’ she said. She had something to do with my fancy title too. That much I am sure."
"There is more than one way to get married, I guess," Timothy said. Kit patted his hand under the table.
"Have you had enough time to catch up, Lieutenant?" Balwar stopped at the end of the table with hands clasped behind his black robes. This heavy, silver crucifix gleamed against the fabric.
Kit shifted. Timothy suspected she was staring at the Jesuit from under her hood.
Kyle shrugged. "Time for business then. You know about these bandits troubling us, Timothy. Well, me and Balwar have a plan, since we can’t pin them down."
"A lot of effort for just a handful of…bandits," Timothy said.
"Heresy is a serious matter," Balwar said. "Demons, even rumors of demons, are even more serious. Guillermo and I weren’t the only ones hunting Valador." He smoothed his robes. "Why are these men after your wife?"
Kyle shared a look with Timothy. "It’s not very often you see a redhead," Kyle said.
Balwar frowned. "Rumors were Valador had an…affection for fox-demons. He hunted both of you. Now you were found in the hands of heretics near a known nest of fox-demons."
Kit tensed under her cloak. Several of the men watched from their tables. Timothy felt a bead of sweat run between his shoulder blades. He swallowed.
"Timothy grew up with nuns. He wouldn’t meddle with heretics except to cause them trouble," Kyle said. "I vouch for him."
Thank you, Kyle, Timothy thought. Kit let out a long breath.
"We—we were on our way to Kit’s home when Daeric found us," Timothy said. "We…hired him to helps us find our way through these woods, but he instead took us…captive." That is close enough to the full truth. "I don’t know why he wants us."
Balwar rubbed his crucifix. "When we found you with Valador, a lamb died protecting you from him."
"Cat was her name," Timothy said.
"I remember her. Strange name for a lamb." Kyle scratched his beard. "I’ve never known a lamb to protect anyone. She was a strange one."
"They don’t." Timothy blinked his hot eyes.
"I cannot ignore a sign from God like that. Then or now." Balwar shook his head. "You were meant to help me again."
"Does it matter why?" Kyle shrugged. "With my plan, we can draw them in and…" He clapped his hands. Yuzu jumped awake. Kit didn’t move.
Kit really needs to practice at fake sleeping more. "Sorry." Kyle held up a hand at Yuzu’s drowsy glare.
"You still haven’t told me your plan." Ba
lwar asked.
"A party." Kyle grinned.
Timothy couldn’t help but laugh. Kyle hasn’t changed. Yuzu yawned, and Balwar frowned.
Kyle held his hands up. "Hear me out. We have a spy, right? We know they are after Timothy and Kit for…whatever reason. We can use them as bait and the celebration to make us look vulnerable. Only we are not. We can hide our best boys and get them."
Balwar stroked his crucifix. "Why would anyone risk coming here? It would be foolish."
Kyle opened his mouth and closed it. He frowned. "The boys could use a little fun. Their morale is low."
Balwar shook his head. "This Daeric must be a complete fool if you are that convinced. Perhaps we will catch our spy." He smiled. "The fact it will upset the captain is reason enough to do this."
Balwar must really dislike this captain, Timothy thought.
"What will make me upset? Are you planning on taking in more refugees without notifying me?" A stern-faced man walked up. Red hair stuck out from his black cap. "Everyone, dismissed." His voice cracked the room. The room filled with the sounds of boots as men left. In just a few moments they were left alone.
"Dalton and I have a plan," Balwar said.
"Why are you discussing it with them." The man gestured at Kit and Timothy. "And not me."
Kit stirred, sat up, and yawned into her hand. A few locks of hair slipped from her hood and onto her face. The captain paused and stared. I’ve seen the same look on Jan. Timothy frowned. Yuzu drowsed again.
"I was going to let you know after I spent time with my old friend, Captain." Kyle held up a finger. "As I was saying, I worked out a way to bring our bandits to us."
Balwar watched the captain, who returned the stare. Timothy had seen less tension between a lamb and a butcher.
"I’ll do it," Kit said. "I owe you for your help, Master Kyle."
"Are you…" Timothy closed his mouth at Kit’s look.
"I am not sure if I am in a big rush to get back to Henrietta, but it would beat marching around in this snow."
"You will do what?" The captain crossed his arms.
"It is better than searching those woods," Balwar said.
"The boys have been feeling down lately," Kyle said. "I wanted to hold a celebration to cheer them and honor the boys we’ve lost."
Memory Hunted Page 8
