Chapter 24 – Leverage

	I’d been here before.  Muddled voices dancing through my ears, fading in and out of existence.  Someone I cared for, calling my name.  I couldn’t see, but I could feel the eddies of a great storm roiling beneath me, thunder rumbling.  Water lapped at my fur. . . I was lying in it.  I tried to feel what was beneath me.
	There it was, that yawning abyss.  Beneath me, a maelstrom of spirits drawn down, clawing and crying out, as they were pulled into the cyclone of pain and fear.  I was suspended somehow, my body resting in a few inches of water.  Or was it blood?  
	I could feel a presence.  See its shadow.  I tilted my head up slowly.
	It stood there over me like a monolith.  Towering and powerful.  The Ursark from my dreams.  The two joined souls of my mighty blood parents, watching over me.  It didn’t speak, but I could feel its intentions.  My body was sinking into that roiling abyss beneath, but it wanted me to stand up.  It wasn’t time, yet.
	I was so tired.
	Stand up.
	I wasn’t sure if the command had come from the Ursark, or within.  But I felt it.  It was the first thing I really felt clearly.
	Strength.
	Time left to fight.

	“Tuli!  He’s waking up. . . .”
	Hands, on my shoulders.  Shaking me.  A palm on my cheek.
	“Harder,” I heard someone say.
	My cheek stung for a moment, and I blinked my eyes blearily open.  Everything was spinning, all the colors were blurred together.  It was too much.
	I closed my eyes again.
	“Tulimak, NO!”  A fierce voice yelled, joined soon by one I recognized better.
	“Baby, please don’t go back to sleep!”  Finn.  Begging, his voice on the edge of tears.
	I slowly opened my eyes again, fighting past the waves of dizziness and nausea.  The world was still blurry and confusing, but one face, one voice, grounded me.
	“Finn. . . .”  I mumbled.
	“Yes,” he said gratefully, and I felt his hands around one of mine.  “I’m here.  I’m here.”
	I did in fact feel water around me.  That hadn’t just been in my vision.  I turned my head very slowly, realized I was lying in it.  The whole floor was wet, nearly an inch of water seeping into my back where I was lying, and washing into one of my ears.  The thunder was real, too.  I could vaguely see a window, not like a glass one, more of a small opening with metal bars across it.  Water and wind beat in through the small square, a storm rumbling outside.
	“We’re in some kind of holding cell,” Finn explained quietly, noting that I was looking at the window.  “I don’t know where.  They put us in wagons, I couldn’t see where we were going.”  He gave a ragged, fearful breath, squeezing my hand tighter.  “There are Priests with the City Guards from the raid.”
	The pained cries and wails were real, too.  As the world slowly solidified, I began to take stock of where we were.  It was a large cell, one half of what seemed to be an underground building, by the smell of it.  Near the pier, if the water leaking inside was any indication.  There was one hallway down the middle and another large cell like this one on the other side.  Both were full of men.
	I recognized almost all of them from the tavern.
	Including Akachi, who’d been the other man there beside me when I woke.  Now he’d moved over to another unconscious man. . . the older otter.  The canine who’d been with him was hunkered at his side, talking lowly to Akachi, while stroking the otter’s head.  He was bleeding from a split somewhere between his ears.
	So was I, I realized.  I could smell my own blood, feel the warmth of it seeping from one of my ears.  Looking around the room, a lot of the men here were injured.  Finn had been hit across the muzzle and was bleeding from the nose, but he seemed alert.  Not like me.
	“Akachi helps with the fights,” Finn explained quietly, stroking my good ear. The other was still ringing and everything through it sounded muddy.  “I’m sorry I hit you.  He said you have to stay awake.”  He paused, gingerly forcing my muzzle to look at his.  “Are you with me?  Tuli?  Can you say something?”
	“I’m. . . here,” I said, my muzzle working slowly.
	He gave me a fragile smile that didn’t last long, crumbling into misery.  He slipped an arm around my shoulder, pressing his nose into my fur.  “I’m so, so sorry,” he said raggedly.
	A wracking sob to the left of us caught both of our attention.  It was the older canine, bent over his otter mate, his body shaking as he cried.  He was still trying to shake the other man awake.
	Akachi moved back towards us, shaking his head.  “It is bad,” he said quietly, “very bad. . . when they are out that long.”
	I saw Finn’s expression morph from fear to anger in a matter of seconds.  He stood, squeezing my shoulder once more, then strode across the cell to the bars, grabbing at them and sticking his muzzle through, yelling at the top of his lungs.  “There is a man dying in here, you sons of bitches!  Get a Physician!  He needs help!”  
	If I looked past him, I could see a collection of guards and one man in a long black robe with gold stripes down the front, and three bars across the middle.  Those phases of the moon were emblazoned on it, too.  They all vaguely looked in Finn’s direction, but did little more.
	“God have mercy on your heartless souls, you fucking roaches!”  He continued to yell, as Akachi worked an arm underneath my shoulder, helping me sit up slowly.
	“He’s been trying that for over an hour,” he said, looking towards Finn.  “Other than battering him and the others away from the door, they’ve done nothing since they put us here.  They seem to be waiting for something.”
	I looked out towards the collection of guards and noticed something, or rather someone, I hadn’t seen out there before.  He was easy to miss, both given his size and the fact that he was sitting curled-up in a chair, diminishing his presence further.
	Rory.
	Akachi noticed where I was looking and his expression fell to sadness.  “Yes.  It seems you were followed.  Or I was.”
	“No,” I said knowingly, “I’m certain it was us.”  
	In all the time since I’d begun these travels with Finn, in all the dealings I’d had with adults, with those who wished to harm us. . . I’d never felt so betrayed as I did in that moment.  The little rat had inserted himself into our dealings since we’d gotten into the city, always hanging about or tailing us into the warehouse, gone when trouble arose and somehow back when coin was to be made.  He was charming, knowledgeable, and most importantly, a child.  I’d never minded his presence, or thought to question why he was still with us after so long.
	He’d been different over the last week, I remembered.  Quieter.  I remembered thinking he’d just been reserved and keeping his head low, because of all the tension in the air.  But he’d still stuck around us, and Grayson’s men.  Even despite the danger.
	We never would have seen, or smelled him following us.  He knew this city better than any of us and his scent blended right in with his surroundings.  And we’d been looking for canines, besides. . . .
	Metal groaned and scraped, followed by the echoing bang of a door blown in by the wind.  The sound of the storm outside intensified, a gust of cold, wet air blew down the hallway, and then many sets of purposeful footsteps joined in.  And one particular sound I’d only heard once before, but would never forget.  The leathery scrape of a heavy tail brushing over stone floors.
	I forced myself unsteadily to my feet, fighting back vertigo.  I needed to be with Finn.  Something terrible was about to happen.
	I stumbled over to his side, grabbing the bars as well, although in my case it was to steady myself.  He looked to me worriedly, but at that point the procession coming down the steps had rounded the corner, and both of us had our worst fears confirmed.
	Gezan and several of the largest Jackwalds he’d surrounded himself with last time, including the maned dog whom they’d called ‘Captain’, stopped at the end of the hallway, pushing back the hoods on rain-slicked greatcoats, the water beading off the leopard seal’s slick, predatory features.  He stared down the flooded hallway towards the cells, immediately catching sight of us and smiling vaguely, before turning his attention to the little rat curled up on a wooden chair, flanked on either side by two of the city guardsmen.
	“Well done, lad,” he patted the small boy none-too-gently on the back.
	“Make the men leave,” Rory said, his voice shaken, but remarkably forceful considering what he was up against.
	“In due time,” the leopard seal promised.
	“You said they’d leave!”  Incredibly, the rat raised his voice to the enormous man, his words cracking with desperation.
	“Boy, do I need to teach you some manners?”  Gezan snapped.  “’Cause clearly your whore sisters ain’t getting’ the job done.”
	Rory went silent at that.
	Gezan turned his attention towards us, his eyes immediately fixing on Finnegan.  “Well ain’t you just the sorriest picture I’ve ever seen,” his voice boomed off the stone walls of the decrepit prison.  He took his time making his way down the narrow hallway, his tail brushing against the bars as it swung behind him.  “You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I figured I’d give you time to bury yourself, y’arrogant little bastard,” he chuckled, “but you and your father really are cut from the same damn cloth.  Slaves to your,” he glanced at me with a shake of his head, “vices.” 
	“I would have honored our deal,” Finnegan said, forcibly keeping his voice level.  “I still will.  Please, just-“
	“Well see, that’s the thing about business,” the leopard seal’s voice fell to a dark timbre, as he reached us.  His eyes bore into mine.  They were like empty pits in his pale, rubbery hide.  “Always in motion.  Always changing.”  He leaned in close to the bars, inches from Finn.  “And this here?  This here changes things, wouldn’t you say?”
	Softer footsteps approached.  A thin, angular canine, the one wearing robes, approached.  He was followed by several of the Jackwalds, which he seemed irritated by.  But also intimidated, so he didn’t complain.
	“That’s the man you wanted?”  He asked, leaning in to inspect Finn as well.  
	“Aye,” Gezan nodded, grinning.  “That’s the one.”
	“All alive, as promised,” the man in robes said disdainfully, looking over the rest of us.  “What exactly do you expect me to do with the rest of them?”
	“Ain’t your Order got their own ways of handling sodomites?”  The seal curled a lip.  “Workhouse?  Gallows?”
	The Priest. . . that’s what Finn had called them. . . gave a frustrated sigh.  “The workhouses are all full, and a mass execution would be poor for morale in the lower districts, right now.  The Bishop’s put a stop on all public hangings until further notice.  The last time we held one, there was nearly a riot-“
	“The last one was a thievin’ streetwalker,” Gezan pointed out.  “Honestly, you Godly men are supposed to be ‘shepherds’, ain’t you?  Y’all should be cleverer than you are, manage your ‘flock’ with some sense.  It’s not hard to keep the masses from banging down your door, just make sure they don’t all starve, and don’t hang the ones that remind ‘em of their whorin’ mothers!” He gave a disgusted snort, shoving the man away from the barred door.  “No one, and I mean no one, gives a damn about sodomites.  Except other sodomites, and even they’re just looking to fuck their fellows in the ass.”
	The Priest gave a scandalized, disgusted sneer and bowed his head for a moment, murmuring to himself.  Gezan chuckled at him, then snapped at his men, two of the largest Jackwalds stepping forward.
	“Get him out, leave the rest,” he said.
	The Captain took the keys from the outstretched hand of one of the city guards and began moving towards the door.  Thinking as quickly as I could, I realized that if we were separated now, that would truly be it.  I had to do everything in my power to prevent it.
	There wasn’t much I could do except bodily block the door.  So that’s what I did.
	I pushed Finn aside, even weak though I was, he couldn’t really stop me.  My body was more than large enough to block the metal door, I would have had to turn sideways to even get in.  How they’d dragged me into this place was beyond me, but it must have taken many men.
	“Tulimak, no!”  Finn bit out.
	The door swung open, and I planted myself in place as well as I could.  
	“Loyal savage you’ve got there,” Gezan said, chuckling.  “That your buck, Ambrose?”
	“Look, he’s simple, alright?”  Finn insisted, wedging an arm through at my side.  “Just leave him, I’m coming with you.  He’s nothing to me.”
	Gezan gave him a withering stare.  “That so?”  He asked in a low, cold tone.
	Casually, like brushing off an insect, he reached down to his belt and pulled free a pistol, cocking the hammer and pointing it directly at my heart.
	“NO!”  Finn screamed, shoving up beneath my outstretched arm and directly in the line of fire.
	Gezan howled with laughter, and the two Jackwalds at the door took the opportunity to grab Finn and yank him out past my grip, before slamming the door back into my muzzle.  The two of them together were enough to overpower me, and just like that, I’d lost him.
	It happened so fast.  
	Gezan was still chortling as they shoved Finnegan to the ground, yanking his arms behind his back.  “Boy, you need to stop givin’ me so much to work with!” the leopard seal crowed, holstering his pistol.  “Lord above, I am almost starting to feel guilty.” He squatted slowly before the kneeling wolfdog, broad arms resting over his knees.  
	“You know, I never intended to take the bulk of this Company from your old man, either,” he shook his head, “but your blood’s just. . . weak.  You keep making it so.  Damn.  Easy.”  
	I saw it before he did.  Finn had an arm twisted, and managed to slip it out from beneath the maned dog’s grip.  His hand moved like lightning for the pistol on Gezan’s hip, and he very nearly got it.  But the other Jackwald leveled a kick at his side before he could grab it, throwing his whole body to the left.  And then they were on him again, shoving him down onto the flooded stone.
	“Damnit man, can’t you do your fuckin’ job?!”  Gezan snarled angrily at the Jackwalds.  “What the hell am I paying you for?!”  He stood, fixing his coat.  “Alright, enough of that shit.  Which is it, right or left?”
	“Right,” the maned dog said, stomping a foot down on Finnegan’s back and grabbing his right arm by the wrist, yanking it backwards.
	I watched in horror as he deftly wrapped his bicep around Finnegan’s arm, and twisted his wrist back nearly to the breaking point.
	“Where are the manifests, Ambrose?”  Gezan demanded.
	“I don’t. . . have them!”  Finn ground out between sharp whimpers.  I had almost never heard him cry out in pain.  It made my chest burn with something feral and frightening.
	Gezan merely nodded at the man, and with a final jerk of his arm, he snapped Finnegan’s wrist.  His helpless cry of pain was one I would never forget.
	“Left’s next,” Gezan warned.  “Then we move lower.”
	“We lost them,” Finnegan sobbed out between heaving breaths, “on the river!”
	“The Roseline?”  Gezan asked.
	Finn shook his head, his whole body doubled over in pain, mouth frothing.  “Up. . . north.  T-took. . . a raft. . .up-river. . .” he sucked in a breath, “it tipped!  I lost. . . everything.”
	“Then why the hell would you be in Arbordale?”  Gezan growled out.  “Don’t you think you can lie to me, boy.”
	“Papers,” Finn spat out, his voice shuddering, “Citizen. . . ship.  Papers.  That’s why we. . . we were in the. . . Immigration. . . Offices.  I didn’t know you were. . . the one. . . behind the bounty.  Thought it was m-my sire.”
	Gezan looked down at him thoughtfully for a time.  “You were just tryin’ to hide from  your old man with a new identity?”
	Finn nodded fiercely.  “I l. . . lied. . . about. . . still having. . . the manifests. . . .”
	“Could all be bullshit,” the maned dog said.
	“It’s plausible bullshit, if it is,” Gezan said irritably.  “Alright.  Get him up, get him to the Fortune’s Favor.  And then I want your boys tearing up the pier and the lower district, until you find me something.”
	“What if we don’t?”  the maned dog asked flatly.
	“It makes a point either way,” Gezan muttered darkly.  “I don’t like Reed’s boys thinking they can just move in on me like they have.”
	“Finn. . .” I called to him as they pulled the agonized wolfdog to his feet.  My head was still spinning, my body wanted to give out beneath me.  Part of me hoped this was all still just some horrible vision.
	He turned his green eyes towards mine, despair and longing and a thousand other things passing between us in the matter of a moment.
	“Inkonuvit ek nua,” he rasped out, before they shoved him down the hall.
	“I’m coming for you,” I promised in return, raising my voice so I was certain he’d hear.  I wasn’t even sure he’d understood me.
	“I don’t care what you do with the rest of them,” Gezan was saying to the Priest, “but the bear?  I want him kept somewhere.  Alive.”  He glanced back at me for a moment.  “And take an ear.  Send it to the Fortune’s Favor.”
	“I-where?”  The Priest asked uncertainly.
	Gezan continued to stare back at me, then said to the man.  “Canal Street, 31st District, warehouse with the tin roof.  My man will meet yours out front.  Get it done within the day, you hear?”
	“Yes, sir,” the Priest said submissively, stepping away from the towering man.
	Gezan was silent another moment, then gave a slight smile.  “How’s your girl?”
	The robed canine was unresponsive.
	With a final chuckle, Gezan and the Jackwalds ascended the stairs, and were gone.