Page 57 of The Filigree Key

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.