‘You make a lousy familiar, you know that?’
That got me a growl. His fur bristled, and I swear it looked darker all of a sudden; I could see fierce silver-grey stripes along his flanks. ‘My people are the apex predators of the world, got it? When devils want to scare their young into obedience, do you know what they do?’
‘I didn’t know devils had children.’
‘They threaten to let the squirrel cats in to eat their eyeballs, that’s what! We ain’t nobody’s familiars. What do I look like to you anyway? Some kind of weak-willed, feeble-minded falcon who’s going to bring you field mice to nibble on while you sit on your ass all day?’
‘That’s not what familiars do.’
He looked away and waved a paw in the air. ‘Whatever. Clean yourself up, would you? You look like you’ve got rabies.’
I wiped the last flecks of green foam from my mouth onto the sleeve of my shirt. ‘So I guess all the stories about your kind serving the Mahdek were just myths?’
‘The Mahdek didn’t have familiars,’ he replied. ‘We were more like … business partners.’
‘Business partners?’
He looked back at me and cocked his head. ‘Let’s just say that we and the Mahdek shared a few mutual enemies. Your people, mostly.’
‘So why are you helping me?’
The squirrel cat sauntered over to the door leading outside and chittered loudly. ‘Good question. Why am I helping him?’
A series of chitters and growls followed, none of which I understood. When Reichis looked back at me he just grunted, ‘Females.’
‘How come I can understand you but not any of the other squirrel cats?’ I asked.
Reichis glanced up at me. ‘Do you speak our language?’
‘Not so far as I know.’
‘Then there’s your answer.’
I couldn’t see how that explained anything, but I got the sense he wasn’t interested in discussing it futher. The nausea having mostly passed, I started to push myself up. With the effects of the lightning weed wearing off, I found I was exhausted and the soles of my bare feet hurt like seven hells. After a few false starts, I managed to stand. Barely.
‘Looking good, kid,’ Reichis said unconvincingly.
Suddenly the other squirrel cat leaped into the building and growled. ‘Great,’ Reichis said. He turned to me. ‘Okay, turns out this wasn’t the best hiding place.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Somebody’s tracked you here.’ The other squirrel cat chittered for a moment, then Reichis added, ‘A bunch of somebodies.’
Most tracking spells use a combination of silk and iron magic – silk to bind to the subject’s mind, and iron to create the pull, drawing the mage ever closer to the target. There were any number of people who might be using those spells on me now. My parents for starters. Tennat and his insane brothers. Bloodthirsty Mahdek assassins. I was starting to wonder who wasn’t determined to kill or cripple me.
‘How close are they?’ I asked.
Reichis ran to the door and sniffed the air. ‘Hard to say. This whole city stinks of skinbags.’ He sniffed again. ‘There’s one that’s nearly here though. Female.’ His ears went slightly flat as the sides of his mouth twitched up to reveal his teeth. ‘And soon to be dead.’
‘Wait … What?’
Reichis didn’t reply. Instead he crouched down low, the muscles of his haunches tensing, preparing to pounce, his tail twitching. I could still hear the sound of the rain outside, and beneath it the sound of light footsteps approaching.
‘Oh, this is gonna be fun,’ Reichis snarled.
I sidled up to the door, my back against the adjoining wall. I slid my hand in my pocket and drew the one steel card Ferius had given me.
‘Kellen?’ a voice called from outside. ‘Are you in there?’
Nephenia.
She appeared in the doorway, the fingers of her right hand tracing the form for the spell she’d used to find me. ‘Kellen, you’ve got to get out of here! There are people coming to –’
Too late she saw Reichis and the other squirrel cat. I’d caught the motion from the corner of my eye and, in what was certainly one of the dumber moves in my life, I stepped in front of Nephenia, arms wide. ‘Reichis, don’t.’
If you’ve never had a squirrel cat launch itself at you, jaws wide, claws out, gliding membranes extended and eyes absolutely crazy with rage, well, I don’t recommend it.
‘Reichis, stop!’ I barely got my arm up in time for him to sink his teeth into it. For a second he held on, claws trying to grab for me. I’m pretty sure the little monster would have torn my arm off if the other squirrel cat hadn’t leaped on him and taken him by the neck. Reichis let go almost instantly, landing neatly on the floor and turning his rage on the other animal. ‘Mine!’ he growled.
She growled right back.
Nephenia stood close behind me. ‘Kellen, what’s happening? What are they doing?’
Reichis started chittering and growling almost incoherently. It took me a moment to make any sense of what he was saying. ‘I don’t care what scent she’s giving off!’ he shouted. ‘She and the other skinbags tried to kill me!’
The other animal’s reply wasn’t nearly as loud. In fact it was quiet … like a whisper. Whatever it was, it took the fight out of Reichis. He looked, well, I guessed it was frightened. He knelt down low, his chin on the ground. ‘Fine, let her talk,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m still going to kill her later.’
‘Kellen?’ Nephenia asked.
I turned, and saw that she was drenched from the rain and not dressed for it. Her hair clung to her face and she looked absolutely terrified. I wanted so badly in that moment to hold her, to reassure her, but I just wasn’t sure I could trust her. ‘What are you doing here, Nephenia?’ I asked.
She looked down at Reichis. ‘Is that …? Is that the one we …?’
‘Tortured?’ he growled. ‘Used filthy Jan’Tep magic on?’
‘He looks different,’ she said. ‘Not like the monsters we were told about at all.’
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, given he looked pretty much the same as when she’d tortured him, so I settled for, ‘His name is Reichis.’
For some reason that set tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she cried. ‘I don’t know why we … I wanted so badly to prove myself to the others. I wanted to show I could do the high magics.’ She turned to look at me, all the composure drained out of her face, replaced with misery. ‘Will you tell him I’m sorry?’
‘He can hear you,’ I replied.
She turned and, with what I thought was remarkable bravery, knelt down in front of Reichis. The hackle of his fur rose as he bared his teeth at her and growled something I couldn’t make out. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I know there’s no excuse for what I did.’