Free The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories by Kyell Gold Page A

do.” Jonas put down the wine and wiped his muzzle.
    “ So where do you come from?” Taypha asked, slurping his second glass of wine. “What’d you do? I guess you’re not a noble.”
    “ No, I’m from Tephos.”
    “ How did you meet?” Mikka, this time looking at Jonas.
    “ Well…” Jonas paused.
    “ He worked in a brothel and I was his best customer,” Alexan said cheerfully.
    Benton looked down at the table; the other guests looked with interest at Jonas. He glanced quickly across all their eyes, feeling as though Alexan had stripped his clothes off in front of them. “A prostitute, really?” Mikka said. “I always wanted to try that. If I hadn’t had to take over my father’s business…”
    “ You wouldn’t have had the money to gain so much knowledge about brothels,” Taypha rumbled.
    “ And if he’d been working at the Cat’s Tongue, I’d have spent a bit more. Speaking of which, if you’re looking for work here, I’m sure they have an opening.”
    He looked around for someone else to chuckle at his joke, but the closest was Alexan, who merely smiled tolerantly. Mikka flicked his ears and made a little throaty noise that Jonas couldn’t interpret.
    Taypha lowered his goblet, signaling to Julianna again. “That must have been pretty interesting. But I imagine it would get tiring after a while.”
    Jonas was grateful to the bear for at least the polite pretense of understanding. He ignored Mikka’s dainty snort. “There were a lot of good things, but there were a lot of things that I got sick of. I couldn’t do any of the things I enjoyed.”
    “ And so you rescued him from sexual slavery. How romantic!” Mikka had turned to Alexan.
    “ Actually, he came and found me,” Alexan said with a smile. “And I couldn’t resist.”
    Jonas smiled. “He was the one I never got tired of.” That had more than a little truth to it, and even Benton raised his head to smile then.
    “ Cheers to you both, then,” Taypha said, raising his goblet again and draining it before anyone else had a chance to lift theirs.
    “ Where’s Gaff?” Mikka asked Alexan. “You know Jeni’s expecting again, right?”
    “ Again?” Alexan shook his head. “She's been lucky twice.”
    Taypha shrugged. “She’s healthy enough.”
    “ I hope she’ll be all right.”
    “ We all do.” Mikka grinned around the table. “After all, none of us is having cubs anytime soon.”
    Julianna brought their dinners then, and the conversation was soon lost to hearty slurps and chewing noises. The stew she’d made was chicken, spiced with some kind of pepper that Jonas loved. After a week, he was getting over his surprise that the food on this side of the mountains was so similar. The meats and breads were the same, of course, but even the basic spices were very familiar. There were a few that he found exotic, like this pepper, and he liked them all. The wines and ales he’d tried had been different, but the meals he’d had could have come from any pub or house in Tephos.
    After dinner, they retired to the living room, where Jonas sat next to Alexan while the fox talked to Mikka, on his other side, about his plan to approach the king. “I’ll need some nice clothes, if I can get you to loan them to me.”
    Mikka jerked his muzzle towards Jonas. “For one night with him, you can have them.” He was grinning slyly as he said it, and everyone laughed. Alexan didn’t say anything further about it, but Jonas remembered what the fox had said about him taking up his work again, and felt a stir of unease.
    “ Benton, does your master already know about this proposal?”
    The small fox nodded. “He is arguing with the woodcraft guild to gain their support. Since most of them don’t make weapons, they are divided about what to do.”
    “ Ask him if there’s anything I can do to help his cause.”
    “ All right.” Benton was sitting on the other side of Mikka, and the grey fox now turned to Alexan.
    “ Nice