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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ever hyper-observant, no matter the situation, Shari demanded, “What happened to your hands? They look like you’re wearing pink lace gloves.”

Daphne’s sobs choked off into sniffles as she lowered her big glossy eyes down to where I clutched my rations to my chest. “Oh, Meadow!”

“It’s nothing,” I assured them. “Daphne, what’s this about Flora?”

“It’s not nothing,” Shari corrected me. “Why aren’t you healing?”

The porcupine was more insistent than the badger. “Because if I healed right away,” I explained, “I wouldn’t have been able to beg off charging the key and come scheme with you all again.”

“Clever.”

“Now enough about me,” I almost snapped. “What’s this about Flora?”

Shari scooted over so I could drop down on the cot, using my dress as a kind of apron to corral the massive amount of food Mrs. Bilberry had given me. I offered the apple to Daphne, who was too upset to eat, and the pear to Shari, but she was too busy stress-crocheting. I, however, was not.

Corralling Auggie in one hand, I lifted the other, tore a mouthful from the supersized sandwich, and got chewing.

Daphne gave a little bluster then started in with her tale. “We were doing as you’d asked, Meadow, rousing the rabble, as it were. We’ve been all over town and the surrounding hamlets, always with a good excuse, and last night we went to Patty’s Pub. Just to listen, you know, get a pulse on the town. It’s far too risky to speak out against him there, what with the Brotherhood frequenting it for their meals.”

“And is it working?”

She bobbed her head, forelock swishing across her eyes. “Very well. There’s a lot of unrest, with Cody Beecham stoking the coals at every opportunity. Ms. Harris has taken up the cause as well. She and her gossiping hens are more subtle in their discontent, but just as effective. As it turns out, it hasn’t taken much to turn the town against him , despite how much they fear him. It’s you, Meadow. After that display in the great hall, they know you’re on their side.”

“Good. Because I am.” The underhanded nature of the rebellion, however just, still had me wanting to assure them, and myself, that I wasn’t using the town’s sympathies for selfish gain.

“We know, dear,” the mare said gently. Daphne gave her mane a toss, snorting another sigh as she got to the meat of her story. “So we were at Patty’s last night for a drink and a snoop when a whole pack of Brothers came in. They’re brutes at the best of times, but tonight, they were nasty. Spoiling for a fight. I scooted right away. I’m sort of easy to recognize, you know, and I didn’t want them to discover the castle game warden so far away from her territory. I mean, there’s nothing saying I can’t go where I please, but, you know— ”

“Appearances.” Shari gave her a quick nod, crochet hook twirling madly.

“Exactly. Well, once I slipped out the back, I found Flora wasn’t with me. So I waited, but I couldn’t wait too long. Again, I’m kind of obvious. I listened at the back door and even snuck a look or two through the windows, but I couldn’t see her. I could see the Brothers were upset, though, and their tempers were quickly transferring to the townsfolk.”

Suddenly, the mare sobbed, a guttural wheeze-like sound akin to a donkey’s bay. “I left to go get Gerty,” she bawled. “I-I thought the robin could help. You know, sneak in and hide in the rafters and keep an eye on Flora. When we returned, it was obvious a fight had broken out. There were shattered chairs, beer soaking into the floor, and someone had overturned an oil lamp so fire was clawing up one of the curtains.

“I couldn’t abandon them, so I helped put out the fire and hauled Millie out from under a broken table and braced one of the beams so Emmett could secure it so the roof wouldn’t collapse. They’d used magic , Meadow, against powerless animals!” The mare threatened to rear but quickly remembered the tight quarters of the stick hut, not to mention she’d get all those cobwebs stuck in her forelock and ears, so she scraped her hoof against the packed earth of the floor.

“Do not put ruts in my floor,” Shari said sharply. “Tripping into the firepit is not on my to-do list today.” She skewered her yarn and crochet project on her quills and heaved herself off the cot. Lumbering over to her shelves, she got to selecting bolts of fabric.

“Sorry, dear,” Daphne apologized. “When we got the wreckage sorted, Patty was finally able to give me an explanation, brief as it was. She couldn’t say what had the Brothers riled, but Mr. Bensen made a comment about them getting what they deserved, and that was that. W-we took a headcount and found four missing. Meadow, they took them. Millie said she saw one of them stuff Ms. Harris into a burlap sack, sling her over his shoulder, and skedaddle!”

I spat my half-chewed sandwich bite into the fire. “Took them where?”

“Nobody knows. I-I mean, we all know they have a place somewhere in town that they use as a jail or something, but no one’s been brave enough to follow them. And those they take, well, no one’s seen them again.”

Daphne stamped her hoof again, earning her a warning glance from the porcupine. “I looked , Meadow. Heavens know I searched, but I’m not a tracker! And with the ground frozen, it’s not like there were any tracks to follow. Even Gerty stayed out all night with me, but nothing. Ms. Harris, Axel, Mr. Bensen, Flora—they’re all gone!”

“Speaking of gone.” Shari returned to the cot to dump a bolt of white satin and another of tulle. “Where is your furry friend?” If we weren’t invoking Ossian’s name, we certainly weren’t using Sawyer’s, nor “cat” either.

I tore off one last mouthful of the chicken sandwich and shoved off the cot towards the firepit. I set Auggie down on the cooler edge of the bricks lining the firepit and pointed to Shari’s metal teacup. “Can I use this again?”

Her bulbous nose twitched. “I haven’t cleaned it out since you last used it, and that doesn’t answer my question.”

“I need to work and talk.” I dropped the cup onto the coals of the cooler side of the fire to let the heat burn out the residue. “We found a tunnel last night in the dungeon and my furry friend is finding a way in. Brandi says the Brothers bring in new inmates through that tunnel, so if he can follow it to its end, maybe he can find Flora.”

“Oh!” Daphne cried hopefully.

“But just in case”—I hooked the metal cup out of the fire with a stick and sluiced some kettle water into it to rinse it out—“I’ll go myself and cast a Tracking Spell. After I set up a potion to cook.”

“ After? ” Daphne trumpeted. “Meadow, Flora is your friend; how can you wait to set up a potion before going off to rescue her?”

“By remembering I have greater responsibilities,” I snapped. But my frustration was more at the situation than at the mare. “ This being one of them.” I plucked Auggie from where the snail had slid over the side of the brick and replaced it back on top and within view.

“A snail?” Shari bent down to give Auggie a curious sniff.

“It’ll free my other furry friend. The big one.”

“Flora was your friend first, before that lumbersnack,” Daphne said resolutely.

“Flora doesn’t have arcane fae magic trapping her in an animal form and draining away her grip on her humanity, either,” I fired back, angrily grinding papaver seeds and woad into a powder in the metal cup. “When he and his magic are defeated, you all turn back. My other furry friend won’t. Not without help. So excuse me while I take a moment to try and help everyone . Besides, turning into a honey badger was the best thing that ever happened to Flora—now she has a bite and claws that match her personality. She’ll be okay for another hour.”

By the Green Mother, please make it so.

The mare shifted her weight, flicking her tail irritably.

After a moment, Shari spoke up. “You can’t have two furry friends; that’s too confusing. We could call the big one your furry lover, for clarity’s sake.”

“No we certainly will not,” Daphne told her, sending a hearty snort in Shari’s direction that rattled her quills.

“Fine. Stripes for the small one and Snack for the other. ”

“I’m walking a knife’s edge,” I whispered, Shari’s attempt at levity washing right over me. “We all are. Yesterday he discovered the elm tree. He was able to siphon off its magic and reverse the effects of the curse that’s turning him into a stag. He’s gaining power!”

Deftly, I added water and mixed the witch’s butter and red maple sap into the metal cup and stirred it all with that stick of mountain ash I’d found in the kindling pile a few days ago. Then I held out my hand to Shari. “I need a quill, please.”

The porcupine gave herself a once-over and selected a small one from the back of her arm.

While the potion bubbled and cooked, I channeled magic into the tip of the quill. Now that I understood my abilities better, I realized this was a true combination of both my green and hearth magics, of earth and fire. When the tip glowed hot and green, I etched all manner of protective runes into Auggie’s shell.

“I erected a barrier around it that prevents basically anyone but me from accessing the tree,” I continued, still etching. “That’s probably what the Brotherhood’s so pissed about. And him , obviously. I told him I’d let him through if he caught the hobgoblin and the kidnappings stopped. That means he gets magic but the Brotherhood doesn’t. He must’ve told them last night, hence the high tempers.

“And if I don’t maintain the lies I tell,” I added sternly, “he’ll get suspicious. I told him I’d be here getting a dress made while he’s off hunting. I’m also supposed to be healing from my ‘ordeal’ so I can tackle the essence of water tomorrow.”

Auggie’s supplement was finished now, so I poured it into one of the jars I’d taken from the dungeon and dropped the snail in after the sludge. Then I got to cleaning out the cup again for another round of magic—the beginnings of the Mabian bindings .

“But he also knows how deeply I cherish your friendship,” I said. “It’s why I put you all in the bargain I made with him, after all. It would be within my character, enthralled or not, to abandon my original plans to go help Flora.”

I dropped a handful of hickory tree nuts into the cup and followed them with a generous sprinkling of the chickadee feathers and a hefty pour of dandelion milk. “But I must do this first. I figured out a way to trap him, to imprison him, but the spell takes time. If I can do this, the rebellion won’t be needed. Redbud will be safe.”

“While I agree with the cider witch on all accounts,” a fourth voice interjected, “I still would’ve liked to be rescued, not that I needed it.”

We cried out in surprised delight as Flora sauntered into the hut on her hind feet, looking supremely self-satisfied.

“It’s the thought that counts, you know?” she said. “Even badass girls need to be treated like princesses once in a while. But I was called to be the knight this time, apparently.”

In her front paws, she cradled a harassed-looking tabby cat.

“Sawyer!” I exclaimed.

“Easy, Stripes,” the honey badger said, releasing the tomcat.

He landed on all fours, immediately yowled, and held up his front paw. He only took two limping steps before my magic whisked him into my arms. He thrust his head up hard under my chin.

“She’s the worst cat-carrier ever ,” Sawyer whispered up at me.

“Kitty, what happened?” I didn’t wait for a response to flood him with healing magic. He stretched out his paw, flaring his toes and wiggling his claws. Right as rain.

“I had nothing to do with that injury, and I could’ve just as well dragged you in by your tail, tomcat.” Flora’s beady black eyes nearly bulged out her head. “Jumping hop-toads, cider witch! What happened to your hands?”

“I’m fine, look.” At my unspoken command, my magic transformed the scars to smooth skin.

“All better. Now—”

“You were taken ,” Daphne trumpeted.

“Sorry, Daph. I can see why it’d look that way.” The honey badger patted her leg. “But, um, is that roasted chicken I smell? Ooo! And Brie cheese? Food first, explanation later.” Flora hauled herself onto the cot and hefted the massive sandwich that I’d only put a small dent in. “Come to Momma.”