The War and the Fox Read online

  Captain Lowell had been much more deferential to Kip since his return, and during this harangue caught Kip’s eye and advised him with a minute shake of his head to keep quiet. So Kip withstood it, and at the end Jackson said, “If you’re going to help us win this war then you’ll have to do better about carrying out my orders.”

  “Yes, sir,” Kip said.

  “Now what was so difficult about finding that fleet?”

  He bit back the response of “they weren’t where you said they would be,” and kept his voice level. “They were warded, sir. I sent a demon out to look but it only found one ship, set as a decoy to trap me.”

  “We’ll have to do better about breaking wards, then. O’Brien, isn’t that your field?”

  “Yes, sir,” Malcolm said.

  “Consult with Luke Tarsian. If he can’t help you then we will assign him to Penfold instead of you.”

  “Yes, sir.” Malcolm did not bring up that he had already been working with Tarsian, but his flat tone told Kip what he thought of Jackson’s orders.

  “Now.” Jackson spoke more calmly. “Did you learn anything of interest while a prisoner?”

  “I think the other sorcerers are being held at Gibraltar,” Kip said. “The soldiers were asking if we were to be taken there. And I think…” He hesitated. “They talked about going up the river. I think they mean to attack Peachtree.”

  “There’s nothing of value there,” Jackson said. “Who did you meet on the ship?”

  “But sir, they were sending ships up the river.”

  “To establish a base and cut off our land access to the city, I’m sure. Who did you talk to on the frigate?”

  “Brigadier General Stafford,” Kip answered. “And a sorcerer named Dewaite.”

  “I don’t know him.” Jackson stroked his chin. “But Stafford…for him to be here, Savannah must be very important to them.”

  “Or Kip is,” Malcolm said. “That Stafford fellow made quite the speech to him. Told him thousands of lives would be lost if he didn’t join them.”

  “Did he now? They think highly of you. And yet you’ve not done much damage to them. Interesting.”

  Kip bit his lip. “Sir,” he said. “May I have your permission to visit my parents in Peachtree and make sure they’re all right in case of any British incursion?”

  “No,” Jackson said. “It would be a waste of your time. We may be planning for a new offensive to retake Savannah, and you will be needed for a defense of New York. The British are threatening our end of the Road.”

  “Sir,” Captain Lowell said. “What if I accompany Penfold? He hasn’t seen his parents in quite some time, and they may be concerned for his safety.”

  “Oh, very well.” Jackson waved irritably. “But take your whole unit. From now on, Penfold, you don’t go anywhere without a defensive sorcerer. Even O’Brien.”

  “Yes, sir.” Kip kept his tail from wagging as successfully as Malcolm was keeping himself from grimacing, which was to say mostly.

  Securing Jackson’s permission was only the start of a frustrating process. Even though Kip could send himself to Peachtree, and potentially another person, he was not registered as a translocational sorcerer, so he wasn’t allowed to officially send the others in his unit (and, he had to reluctantly admit, there was also the problem that if he sent the others into danger, they would have no way to get back). So another translocational sorcerer had to be found. Callahan had collapsed in his bed and Jackson forbad them to wake him, so after knocking on several doors, they found a younger translocational sorcerer named Broadwood, a short straw-haired man with freckles who agreed to send them even though he’d never been to Peachtree.

  “Find a spiritual sorcerer to convey the destination from your mind to mine,” he said. “Easy as pie.”

  “I can just send you there.” Kip stopped and took a deep breath. “And then you can come back. Yes?”

  Broadwood furrowed his brow into lines over his pale, gaunt face. “But you’re not a translocational sorcerer.”

  “I can do it; I just can’t bring a lot of people with me.”

  “If you’re not approved, I shouldn’t let you. Go find what's-his-name, Johnson, he’ll do it.”

  Kip weighed the benefits of spending more time arguing versus trying to find Johnson and opted for the latter. By the time they did find him, Kip’s frustration and anxiety had grown enough that Johnson’s perfectly understandable confusion caused him to snap at the old sorcerer. Captain Lowell took over the explanation, and though Johnson clearly didn’t understand the urgency, the task was (as he said) a simple one. “Think clearly of Peachtree as though you were there in this moment,” he said, reaching out to put a weathered hand between Kip’s ears.

  Kip flattened his ears but envisioned his parents’ house. “Got it,” Broadwood said a moment later. “Thanks, Master.”

  “No worries at all. Better than rummaging around in prisoners’ minds.” The old man shook his head. “The important ones have charms on them that destroy their minds if I press too hard, so I’m afraid we haven’t been able to learn anything.” He wiped his forehead. “It's terribly disconcerting to have a mind crumble away as you’re investigating it.”

  “Moreso for the owner of the mind, I’ll wager,” Malcolm said.

  “Oh, no doubt, no doubt. I’m finding out more about this spell. It’s devilish really. I wonder who could have laid it.”

  “Master Albright,” Kip said.

  “Oh, yes.” Johnson showed no recognition. “I’ve heard the name but not run across his work before now. Let’s hope in time I’m able to crack his spell.”

  When he’d left, Malcolm said, “Let’s hope in time we’re able to crack his head. Or burn him up.”

  “First things first.” Kip turned to Broadwood. “Let’s go.”

  He knew as soon as the humid evening air surrounded him that something was wrong. All the houses stood where he remembered them, but the village lay silent. His parents’ scent hung in the air, as did the scent of a hundred or more other Calatians. Captain Lowell looked around uneasily, sensing the trouble as Kip did without the context to identify it.

  “Wards up,” he told Malcolm as soon as Broadwood arrived with the other two of their unit. “Broadwood, stay with us. We might need to leave soon.”

  “Take Alice and Captain Lowell first,” Kip said. “Malcolm and I should stay together.”

  “I can fight,” Alice protested. “Should I summon Poudre again?”

  “It’s hard to summon a particular elemental.” Her question reminded Kip that he wanted to ask her about that summoning, how she had learned the air elementals’ language so quickly. Later, when this situation was resolved. “They’ll have gone to the river,” he said.

  “Should we scout around and see if anyone remains?” Malcolm asked.

  My parents aren’t here, Kip started to protest, but kept control enough to hold the words in. He looked to Captain Lowell, who was in charge, and the captain answered. “If there are some still here, their need is less than those who have been taken. We go to the river.”

  Kip didn’t know whether Lowell could see the gratitude in his expression, but he gave the man a smile. He took Malcolm’s arm and led them through the town to the path that led to the riverbank and the small dock.

  They had just made it to the edge of town when Kip caught the scent of blood and , the newly dead. He stopped and peered through the evening light, spotting the light tunics of two motionless shapes lying outside one of the last cottages on this side of town. By the smell, they were dormice, not foxes, and he couldn’t help them. He started forward again, but his hesitation had alerted the others, and Alice gave a small cry and ran to the bodies.

  Reluctantly, Kip followed, taking Malcolm with him. “What’s going on?” Malcolm asked.

  “Two bodies,” Kip said. “Dead no more than an hour, I’d say. I don’t know them. They’re dormice.”

  “Shot through the chest,” Captain
Lowell added. “They’ll have died quickly, at least.”

  “Why shoot them?” Alice knelt beside the bodies, her nose twitching, but not touching them.

  Kip had been wondering this himself, and gave voice to his only idea. “Because the British wanted all the Calatians,” he said, “and they wouldn’t come along.”

  “As a warning to the others.” Lowell stared at the bodies. “To make the others more compliant. The first ones who voice any kind of resistance are shot. It’s…a tactic.”

  “They had families,” Alice said, staring down. “They weren’t armed. They weren’t a threat.”

  They weren’t his parents, but they might have been. Kip’s chest tightened, and then he thought, had his parents been specifically kept alive as leverage on him? Had these two been sacrificed because they weren’t related to him? How much death would be laid at his feet before the war was over? “Come on,” he said. “We should try to help the others if we can. We’ll come back to bury these and…any others.”

  Alice stood without a word, her tail curled tightly around her legs, and shook a little as she composed herself and nodded. As they returned to the path, Captain Lowell extended his hand to her, and her black paw curled around his dark fingers.

  At the river, Kip hurried out onto the dock and looked up and down the cool water. Evening light gave him little to work with, but he caught the sound of something moving through water not too far downstream. He could have levitated the small party, but Alice was still quiet and thinking about the dead dormice and he wanted to give her something to do. Activity was not an anodyne to grief or fear, but it could help her put those thoughts aside for a moment. “Alice,” he said, “can you fly us all over the water that way? I think I hear the ship not too far off.”

  Her ears came up. “I hear it too,” she said, and her paws glowed turquoise.

  Behind Kip, Lowell cleared his throat. The fox turned to see the captain’s eyebrows raised, but it took him a moment to decipher the expression. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said. “You’re in charge.”

  Lowell nodded. “Go ahead, Penfold. Your plan is sound.”

  “Let me call my demon, while we’re casting spells,” Malcolm said. “If we’re to be chasing someone I’d prefer to be able to see about me. And he might be able to pierce a ward for us.”

  Kip fretted through the few minutes of these preparations, and when they were finally on their way, he kept his ears perked, straining to follow the faint noise. After some ten minutes of flying down the river in silence, Malcolm gestured to Alice to bring everyone together around him.

  “My demon’s spotted a disturbance in the water ahead, maybe five hundred feet,” he whispered. “It looks like the wake of two ships.”

  “The third must have anchored closer to Savannah,” Lowell whispered back.

  Malcolm nodded. “We can break through the wards simply by flying through them.”

  Captain Lowell turned to Kip. “Be ready with your fire, Penfold. You may need to kill whatever sorcerers are on board before they can attack us or escape. I’ll give the order. And Broadwood, be ready to effect our escape if needed.”

  The translocational sorcerer had spoken not at all since the bodies had been found, and even now when addressed directly only nodded. He looked ill. Kip hoped he wouldn’t let them down, and hoped that he himself would be equal to the task. The idea of burning sorcerers churned his stomach, but he reminded himself that his parents were in danger. “I’m ready,” he said.

  Lowell nodded. “Bring us in a little higher than this,” he instructed Alice. “It may be that we can escape detection for a few seconds if we are above them, and a few seconds can mean the difference between victory and defeat. And from here on out, silence.”

  They floated on down the river, Kip straining for any sound or smell that might indicate that their target was near. Several agonizing minutes later, he caught a waft of Calatian scent, several species, strong and rank with fear. He reached out to Captain Lowell’s arm and indicated that they were close, and the Captain nodded his understanding. He gestured behind them, waiting until he’d received acknowledgment from everyone before turning back to face the twilight darkness of the river.

  Around a large bend, Malcolm grabbed at Kip’s robes and with urgent motions of his arms indicated the two wakes in the river below them. Before Kip could warn anyone, they were flying over the wakes and then, as though from another plane, two ships appeared below them, both sloops.

  Crewmen manned the sails and rudder of both boats, but what drew Kip’s eye immediately were the small groups of Calatians on the deck of each boat: three on one and two on the other, both surrounded by soldiers and facing a British military sorcerer. As he watched, the small group of two Calatians disappeared, and the sorcerer leaned on one of the soldiers near him, obviously exhausted.

  In that moment, one of the crewmen happened to look up. “Americans!” he yelled. “Sorcerers!”

  Kip waved to Malcolm to bring the remaining Calatians up to them, while he set fires at the stern of each boat to distract them. The sorcerers on both boats looked up.

  “Kill them!” Lowell yelled to Kip.

  The sorcerer who’d just translocated the two Calatians vanished. The other sent an array of light cannonballs from the deck shooting up at the small group. Malcolm and Alice were preoccupied, and Kip didn’t know how good Broadwood was at physical magic, so he diverted his attention to pushing the projectiles back down at the ships. As he did, the three remaining Calatians rose from the deck, flying quickly through the air towards Broadwood.

  “Fire!” screamed the sorcerer from the boat, and one soldier raised his gun and fired before Kip, taking advantage of the sorcerer’s distraction, sent cannonballs into all of the soldiers. He gathered magic again and this time set fires to the wood of both ships, commanding the fire not to consume human flesh, but only the wood below them.

  The people, of course, did not know the difference, and most jumped overboard. But two more gunshots sounded before one more scream cut them off, and behind Kip, Alice’s voice cried out. His heart stopped for a moment, and he had time to contemplate what a foolish idiot he was before Alice said, “I’m all right,” but in that space he had already turned to the other boat and spotted the soldier sighting along his rifle. Fire consumed the rifle, and this fire burned without restriction.

  “Clear a place on the deck,” Lowell shouted to Kip. Kip pulled the fire back from one charred portion of the nearest ship, and Lowell gestured for Alice to lower them to it. As the captain passed near Kip, he said in a lower voice, “We’ve no means of securing the sorcerers, so keep a close eye on them.”

  “They’ve all gone,” Kip said. “I looked for the one who threw cannonballs but he’d gone too. I suppose they were all translocational.”

  “That’s why I told you to kill them.” Lowell stared pointedly at Alice, who was pressing a paw to her leg.

  “She wasn’t shot by a sorcerer,” Kip responded. But Lowell’s implication was clear and inarguable: failure to obey orders could cost lives. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll listen next time.”

  The man’s face softened. “I know it’s difficult, Penfold. You’re not a soldier. But for God’s sake, when we’re in a battle, do try to act like one.”

  Kip coughed. “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m fine, really,” Alice said. “It barely hurts.”

  “It will soon enough,” Lowell told her.

  They had nearly reached the deck, charred wood coming up to meet them, and Kip held his paw out. “Ah, Alice? The fire has burned quite a bit of the ships so let’s find a good place to stand.”

  “Extinguish it all,” Lowell ordered.

  “Yes, sir.”

  They had reached the ships, and now Lowell called out to the soldiers swimming in the river. “We have your ships, and your sorcerers have deserted you. Surrender, you are prisoners of the American army.”

  Most of the soldiers managed to raise enough of their arms
even while swimming to indicate surrender. One, flailing in the water, did not, and Lowell and Alice had to rescue him, for which he thanked them.

  Alice was bleeding, but once Kip had found bandages on the ship and applied them to her leg, she stoutly refused to be translocated back to headquarters unless they were all going. Kip did not like this, but couldn’t force her, so he stayed near her even when she told him he didn’t have to be so worried.

  The ships remained seaworthy enough to be sailed downriver. One of the soldiers volunteered the location of the third ship at anchor, obviously hoping for better treatment from his captors, and when they came upon it they captured it easily. That being the least damaged ship, Captain Lowell took command of it and brought his unit and all the prisoners aboard, and then ordered Alice to sink the other two.

  “Easy,” she said. “I know how to take ships apart now.”

  Her paws glowed turquoise, and a moment later the two half-burned sloops foundered and sank while the British prisoners watched the slender vixen with wide eyes.

  9

  France

  They docked a little north of Savannah, wanting to keep a presence on the river but mindful of the British fleet that controlled the harbor. Broadwood translocated them all back to the Trade House in Boston, where Master Colonel Jackson received them with loud demands to know why two badger-Calatians had appeared in the main room, as they had been unable to offer any reasonable explanation.

  Captain Lowell explained the circumstances and the short battle, whereupon Jackson seized on the military importance of the river and dispatched Broadwood to take a crew of soldiers and a sorcerer unit to the sloop to hold the river, and possibly ambush the British from the weak side should the army attempt to retake Savannah.