Chapter 13: Fox at the Door

Chapter 13: Fox at the Door

Put it down. Lochlanns sword was steady and rather close for comfort. Still, there was room to dodge. Room to run. Run where was the problem.

Put what down, Lieutenant? Aaron asked.

Whatever youve got. Just surrender.

Aaron managed not to laugh at that, but it was a near thing.

The bell kept tolling. Once, twice

He felt his own shoulders tensing, even as the lieutenants eyes flicked towards the wall.

Three times. Four.

It wasnt their bell tower that was ringing. It was at the outer edge of the city, the sound coming closer as it was taken up by the nearer towers. Four and four again, until the whole city was awake with them. Up in the royal tower, the answering tolls confirmed it. Four. Fox at the door.

Both their eyes had strayed to the sound. Aaron didnt know which of them looked back first, whether he did and the motion snapped the lieutenants gaze back to him, or whether it was the other way around. He met the mans eyes.

You dont have time for me. Aaron said, shoulders relaxed, grip on the carving knife tense.

Ill make time.

Lieutenant Varghese, do you really think Im going to stand here and fight you withwhat? Pocket lint? If you attack, Im running. You dont have time for me, and you dont have men to waste in chasing me down. He could see the mans expression darkening. Aarons foot slid back on reflex, and the redcoat tightened his grip on his sword.Read latest chapters at nov(e)lbin.com Only

So I let you go free. In the castle. In the middle of an attack. None of these were questions. Some might call that timing suspicious.

No. Aaron took his hands from his pockets and held them up, harmless as can be. The knife he left tucked away. Let me fight with you.

Why?

Im human enough for this. Its my city, too.

Once more the bells repeated. The silence they left behind stretched out over the upper town. At the top of the castle wall, a man started shouting orders.

Lochlanns jaw tightened. You dont leave my side.

Aaron held his hands up just a little higher. Kirins own council.

The lieutenant swore and rammed his sword home in its sheath. He grabbed Aarons arm and dragged him towards the nearest stairwell up.

The ramparts were already growing crowded. The Captain of the Guard was shouting orders and people were getting in position, but the plain truth was that no one knew where to be. Four bells. This wasnt griffins or dragons, where archers and ballistae would win the day for them. It wasnt someone breaking a Letforget seal, where the only thing to do was lay lines of salt and iron and wait for the old magic to run its course.

Four bells was the fox, up from his forest.

Chereaus gaze flashed between them. Yes, sir.

Aaron. Give the officer back her coat, please.

He shrugged out of the thing and held it out. Like a dog snapping at a piece of meat, she just about took his arm off jerking it away. The lieutenant made sure to stand between them at the parapet, for which Aaron was grateful. He barely noticed John Baker bounding up the steps until the boy was running behind them, still covered in flour, a militia-standard crossbow in his arms. He joined the other archers without so much as a glance towards Aaron. Aaron returned the favor.

They waited.

He saw it first from the corner of his eyes. A flicker of something off, something wrong. Even after hed turned to look, it took him a moment to put a name to it.

The lanterns above the main gates were burning blue.

A fox only has its lies, Lochlanns voice carried in the sudden stillness. Everything you see is illusion. Find the real one and kill it.

Simple enough, Chereau muttered.

They shouldnt have been able to see the city gates from here, much less the forest down below. The moon was only a sliver in the sky. All of that should have been shadow.

Nonetheless.

Pale blue fire wreathed the trees, until the foxs forest cast a glow up into the sky. One by one, the lights from the watchtowers wavered, their color seeping out. Some of the flames were more green than blue, but none of them were the familiar reds and yellows. None of them were the color of warmth, or safety.

Aaron let out a slow breath. Now might be a good time to

Lochlanns gaze flicked to him.

Hed have to wait for a bigger distraction, then.

The fox obliged.

At the gates to the city, twenty feet or more above the ground, great claws reached above and over. Dark little shapes dove out of the monstrositys waythe redcoats on the outer wall. It might have been a paw, once, or a hand. Each digit was thin, long, twisted. Each had more joints than any living thing needed. They were black as the night behind it, and wreathed in blue flame. The hand lifted high into the air, the bony wrist giving way to a knotty elbow. All of it was disproportionate as a fever dream. All of it was wrong.

The claws bent over and down. It ignored the men on the wall, with their little weapons furiously hacking. It curved inside the gate and scratched against the thick timber until its claws hooked on the heavy bar that kept them closed. It lifted. And, in one casual flick, it dropped.

Aaron rubbed his arms, cold now that he was missing his second coat. Illusion, is it?

The lieutenant didnt answer, but Chereau did. Some lies are true enough.

The arm retracted, snapping and bending, joints appearing where they hadnt been before.

The gates swung open.

The fox strode in, nightmares dripping from its fur.