Sage gathered Frannie into her arms. “You’ll still befoxen,” she said quietly, “You might still choose to stay with family at times like this,” she said, gesturing to Mina, who had no Tether and could leave Serenity but chose not to. Frannie didn’t answer and Sage kept quiet, knowing Frannie was terrified. Khain treated thefoxenin Serenity like his property, but he only took the males for fighting, and only as adults, and only if he could find them, which wasn’t easy. The females weren’t taken for fighting, but they were still sought by Khain, still stolen, used as servants, or sometimes killed or violated.
Frannie cried, soft sniffles she hid from those around them.
“This is why you like thevod, isn’t it?” Frannie said, her voice muffled by Sage’s hug.
“What?” The question seemed to come out of nowhere, and it caught Sage off guard.
“Because if you mate avod, he’ll protect you from Khain.”
Sage barked a laugh and said, “It’s not that I like thevod, it’s that I think we should be working together.”
But she did like them, thebearen, too.Rhen help her. Since she’d been working at Mugshots, she’d discovered she got along with them well and she respected them and enjoyed their company. She was supposed to be spying on them, which she did. She did her job well and she justified it easily, but still…
“Maybe you’re thevixiefrom the sign,” Frannie said, her voice soft.
Sage flinched. When she’d been younger, she’d dreamed of being thevixieof Vahiy sign number 742, but the older she got, the more she’d branded it impossible, and the more she hoped none of them ever saw sign 742 during her lifetime, or during Paisley’s.
“The captor asks the captive what he knows about Wisdom. The captive decides the captor’s worthiness. If worthy, avixietakes her rightful place among thevod.”Frannie recited softly.
They were silent for a long time, each lost in their own thoughts. Family members slowly drifted away, toward their sleeping bay, until it was just Frannie, Sage, and Paisley left. Paisley hummed a little song while shoveling sand into a bucket. Frannie and Sage were just sitting, staring at nothing.
“You girl,” Nana White called from somewhere.
Sage looked behind her. Nana was standing near a cabin, under a streetlight, all alone, her fox-pelt purse in both hands.
Sage got up. “I’ll be right back,” she said. She ran over.
“Tell everyone that lockdown ends tomorrow after I return,” Nana said.
“Return from… oh, ah—I thought…” Sage faltered. She had to go to treatment tomorrow night for three days. Paisley normally went out of town to stay with Sage’s mother during that time. Since they were all locked down, Sage had thought Paisley would stay with the family at the Inn—
“You thought what?”
“Why are we getting out of lockdown? What about Khain?”
“He’ll be returning to the Pravus to rest sometime tonight. The current assault is almost over.”
Sage felt nervous and she didn’t know why. “What about Reynard?”
“He’s alive and with his elder.”
“But… the poisoning?”
Nana White gave her a stern look. “Averted.”
“Averted—how?”
Nana White grasped her purse firmly and stood on her tiptoes to look down her nose at Sage.
“Don’t you worry about things that aren’t your business, girl. Thevodhad an ace in the hole and that’s all you need to know.”
Sage knew better than to argue. She didn’t say another word, but she still felt nervous and it was getting worse. She looked all around. The very air and atmosphere near them seemed to be disturbed by nothing and then a voice spoke like a thunderclap from all around.
“MAKE IT SO.”
Khain’s voice. Instantly hyper-focused, Sage crouched slightly. She checked Paisley and Frannie—they were still at the sandbox, both with their hands pressed to their ears, looking up into the dark sky. She turned back but the street was empty; Nana White was gone.
Sage ran for the sandbox. Frannie picked Paisley up. Sage caught up with them, and the three of them sprinted to the sleeping bay. They went quickly up the stairs, inside, through the corridors of bunk beds, and into the open room where their family was. Everyone was talking at once. Some of the younger children were crying. Two of her uncles were arguing heatedly near the center of the room.Chaos.Sage felt frantic.
