RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred ay - Jailbirds

  “Wow,” I said as I leaned bato the very unfortable mattress and stared up at the bare rock ceiling. “Being in jail sucks.”

  “Oh, really?” Amaryllis asked. She was in a cell right o mine. “I thought that being in jail would be great fun.”

  “Don’t be sarcastic,” I said.

  “Don’t be dumb,” she shot back.

  Obviously, Amaryllis wasn’t in the best of moods. It probably had something to do with our current incarceration. We were all pced in little cells in a rge, semi-circur room, with doors fag a small desk where a bored sylph guardsman was reading the neer while occasionally looking up to make sure we weren’t up to anything.

  Awen had the cell on Amaryllis’ other side. She ag in little circles, her hands sometimes wiggling around with nervous energy.

  I didn’t have much else to do but pin. They’d poked at us, and taken away all of our armour and gear. We couldn’t fit in any of the sylph-made jail uniforms they had, so we were left in our normal clothes, which was hen they put strange cuffs on our hands that glowed while burning off our mana about as fast as we geed it.

  That meant that when I ed my cell, I had to do it the old-fashioned way.

  But that was twenty-minutes ago, and now I had nothing to do.

  “This is really b,” I said. “Want to py a game?”

  “Shut up!” one of the other prisoners shouted over at me.

  “I’m sorry for b you, mister, but I’d really rather not. Talking with my friends is the only thing I dht now,” I called back. “Did you want to py too? We do twenty-questions maybe? Oh! We could sing some songs!”

  “I don’t want to sing any songs!”

  “That’s okay too. I’d never make someone participate in sing-along time if they’re shy and don’t want to.”

  Amaryllis sighed. “Broccoli, do you have any cept of how much trouble we could be in?”

  “A bit,” I said. “But really, if the sylph are as fair and just as they cim to be, then we should be fine. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”

  “Maybe we weren’t doing anything wrong, but we were certainly doing something illegal. The sylph have so many ws, many of which tradict each other, that no matter what you do, you’re doing something that’s breaking one obscure w or another.” She crossed her wings. “I don’t want to end up in some bour camp smashing rocks.”

  “We’ll be fine,” I said, this time trying to reassure her.

  We... might not be fine. I didn’t actually know that. But I didn’t get as far as I did in life by being a pessimist. I’d just have to hope for the best and work through the worst.

  The door at the end of the prison building rattled, and the guard behind the desk sat up straighter while stashing his neer in a drawer. The door opened, and a warden walked in, thehe door open for a pair of guards who statiohemselves oher side of the entrance.

  Then a familiar face walked in.

  “Oh hey, Princess Caprica,” I said. “Were you arrested too?”

  The princess iion perked an eyebrow even as the guard on duty jumped to his feet so fast his chair cttered to the floor while he saluted.

  “Hello Broccoli. And no, I was not arrested. You three, oher hand, were.” She walked across the room and stopped near our cells.

  “Are you here to visit then?” I asked. “I didn’t even know they had visitation hours here.”

  She chuckled, then shook her head. “Not quite, no.” Her smile grew a lot menuine, and I detected a faint note of blushing on her cheeks. “I was asked to do a favour by a mutual friend of ours.”

  Well, that had to be Bastion. “Really? What’s the favour?”

  “To look into why his three most troublesome panions found themselves behind bars within three days of arriving at the capital. He said that it was entirely expected that you’d all eventually get arrested, but he expected it to at least take five days.”

  “We’re alleased to defy expectations,” I said. “And it wasn’t our fault. We were chasing after stolen stuff and were caught up in the kerfuffle.”

  “And the accusations of breaking aering in the warehouses, refusing arrest, and... autodeferation?” the princess asked.

  “Uh.”

  Caprica ughed. “Yes, I thought so. Fortunately, you did assist in the arrest of a known band of thieves. The Mitchhum have been something of a thorn in the side of the guard for a while, and they’d retly stolen some goods from some rather promi and important people.”

  “Oh, the grenoil cargo,” I said. “What was in that in the end?” I asked.

  “i jerky,” Caprica said.

  “You mean to tell me we went through all that trouble and were arrested just to free up some dried bug meat?” Amaryllis asked.

  Capriodded. “It seems so. Now, Bastion asked me to look after you, and after a small talk with the chief of the guard, we decided to let you out on bond.”

  “That’s a thing here?” I asked.

  “It is,” she firmed. “Though, I had to pay for it myself.”

  Amaryllis huffed. It was a very ‘of course you did’ sort of huff. “Which means that noe you.”

  “Just a little,” Caprica said. “I’ve also lost an afternoon ing down here. It’s ly door from the pace, you know?” She pced her hands on her hips and looked quite pleased with herself.

  “Thanks Caprica,” I said. “We really do appreciate it. We’ll pay you back, of course. We have some money ying around.”

  “Oh, I don’t need money, my dear Captain Bunch. Money is wonderful, but I have plenty of that. I’d be much more ied in obtaining... let’s call it a favour or three?”

  “Helping a friend out isn’t a favour, silly,” I said. “You know we’d help you with stuff without expeg anything iurn.”

  “Broccoli, you moron, don’t go around telling people that or they’ll start abusing your... niess,” Amaryllis grumped.

  “If they’re abusing my niess because they need help, then it’s perfectly fine,” I retorted.

  Caprica giggled, then cut herself off with a cough to clear her throat. “I think I really do see why Bastioed that you were mostly harmless.”

  “Only mostly?” I asked.

  “Only mostly,” Caprica agreed. “You have caused your fair share of problems, you know.”

  “That wasn’t on purpose,” I said.

  One of the princess’ eyebrows rose. “So you’re telling me you wouldn’t have broken into a warehouse and chased after a known band of thieves if you could avoid it?”

  “Ah, well, there were a lot of circumstantial things going on,” I said.

  Caprica ughed. “I’m sure. You three cool your heels for just a moment longer. I'll get the warden to get you out of there. Then you meet me outside, I have a carriage waiting.”

  Caprica went off, and soon enough a warden came and opened our cells up. A few of the people iher cells whined about it, but it was mostly the really drunk sylph that smelled like beer that pihe loudest.

  We were escorted to a room where we were given back our stuff. I was quick to tie e’s colr ba, then I summohe spirit kitty, just to make sure.

  I think I might have yoinked her away mid kitty-nap, because she was entirely displeased at being summoned in the middle of a jailhouse. I tried to make it up to her with rubs as I followed a guard out of the prison and bato the streets of Goldenalden.

  As promised, a carriage was waiting for us just to the side. A big one, with lots of gilding and nice paint trying to disguise the fact that it looked so square. Anuard, this oh the whole orup of a royal guard, opehe carriage door for us.

  We found Caprica sitting on the front side of the carriage, so the four of us--myself, Awen, Amaryllis, and e--bundled ourselves into the rear seats, fag Caprica.

  “Did you find all of your things?” Caprica asked.

  “Yup,” I said, and my friends nodded.

  “Good. Well, now that we’re here, I wao talk about... what is that?” She was staring at my arms, where e was grumpily settling in for a nap.

  “This is e.”

  “Is that a spirit cat?” Caprica asked.

  I nodded. “Yup. e is the Grand Admiral of mouse-catg aboard the Beaver Cleaver,” I said. I let go e, who sat on my p and puffed her little chest out. Though... she wasn’t quite as little as she’d been when I first found her.

  “May I touch her?” Caprica asked.

  “Oh, sure,” I said.

  e shot me a look as I picked her up and pced her onto Caprica’s p. The little sylph princess seemed entirely uain of how to treat e. Carefully, she ran a hand down e’s back, and e stood up with the gesture, pressing into the petting. “Oh, she’s majestic,” Caprica said.

  e’s smugness grew.

  The carriage took off with a rumble, boung over the cobbled roads of Goldenalden while Caprica seemed to pletely fet that we were there and made little g e. She rubbed e on the head with her forefingers, then when e looked up, Caprica started squishy-squishing e’s cheeks.

  I think Capriearly fainted when e flipped over a her touch her belly exactly twice before batting her hand away.

  Amaryllis cleared her throat, and Caprica looked up, then blushed. She tinued petting e, but with a more dignified air to her, as if she wasn’t just making baby voices at the cat. “Yes, well, as I was saying earlier. I have something of a request for the three of you.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  “Broccoli, for just once, we listen to the request before accepting it?” Amaryllis asked. Awen giggled o her.

  “Fine, fine.”

  “What I’m looking for isn’t anything too plicated,” Caprica said. “It is, in fact, something you want as well. The cervid delegation is statio their embassy in the purple district. They’re more or less closed off from the rest of the city, focused as they are on minding their own business.”

  I nodded. “You want us to befriend them.”

  “Essentially, yes. That would be he delegation has a few younger members that expressed a wish to explore the city. We offered them an escort, but they don’t like the idea of having a military escort, especially ohat’s from a nation with which they have some ongoing tension.”

  “Oh, you want us to take the pce of a military escort,” I said.

  Capriodded. “And I want you to put your friend-making skills to the test. Try to befriend them. They might be younger members, but they still have a little bit of power, and perhaps the ability to sway their parents towards a less violent course.”

  “Yeah, that sounds easy!” I said.

  “Um, Broccoli,” Awen spoke up. “Do you remember Emmanuel?”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “What if, ah, the other cervid are like that?”

  I sidered it. “Nah, don’t worry Awen, there’s no way any of the cervid we meet will be that bad.”

  “I would certainly hope not,” Amaryllis said. “If only for the sake of the try's diplomatic ability.”

  “Should I know what you three are talking about?” Caprica asked.

  I shook my head. “It’s fine. So, when do you want us to meet these new potential friends?”

  The carriage rumbled to a stop. Caprica smiled. “Why, right now.”

  “Oh, shoot,” I said. “Whelp, you keep an eye e for us, okay?”

  “Gdly! And good luck.”

  ***

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