--23--
	The second time there was a knock on her door, Catherine had given up and crawled into bed to get some sleep.  It was just after sunset and she was tempted to lie right where she was and ignore it.  She’d just gotten warm for the first time all day and lighting the lantern in the dark was going to be a pain.  She rolled over, put her arms over her head, and hoped whoever it was would go away.
	The knock was repeated, louder this time, like someone was trying to break the door down.  She flung the covers off and rolled out of bed, whimpering a bit at the cold of the bare wooden floor.  She stayed low, under the level of the window and she stuck to the walls so she couldn’t be seen.  At the south wall, which had once held her father’s bookshelves, her hands brushed against a piece of cold metal.  This was her grandfather’s old sword, one of the souvenirs that he had brought back with him from his trip to the East.  It was only a little longer than her arm, and it curved a bit, like a wolf’s tail.  A sword wasn’t usually any good against a gun, but all weapons were equal in the dark and holding it made her feel a little better.
	She crept over to the door and put her nose next to the crack between the door and its frame.  It hadn’t been hung right and there was a gap near the floor that would let her smell whoever was on the other side.  She took two deep breaths to get past the smell of wood, and then a third in an attempt to identify her visitor.  There was a hint of spice, like cheap cologne, but she couldn’t tell if it was new or from Jacob’s visit.
	Light flared behind her, and she jumped to her feet and thrust the sword out in front of her, but she was blind while her eyes adjusted, and all she could see were blurs.  There was a bright blur in the middle of the room that was probably the lantern her vistor had brought.  A cold breeze came in from the curtained-off cloakroom and she remembered too late that she hadn’t locked the window there.  She slashed with the sword and hoped that just the idea of being hit with it would scare off any intruders.
	“This place is empty.  That’s really sad,” Sarah said.
	Catherine felt Sarah’s arms slide around her and yelped at the icy hands that cupped her bare breasts.  The sword dropped out of her fingers and it was probably only luck that kept either of them from losing a toe.
	“Damn it, I told you Jacob has been coming to harass me.  You should have told me it was you from the start!  What if I’d stabbed you by mistake?” she said.
	“I was checking your windows.  If I can get in like this, so could he,” Sarah said.
	“I don't think it would ever occur to him.  Jacob isn't smart enough to be a thief,” Catherine said.
	 Sarah laughed and she nipped the side of Catherine’s neck.
	“I brought some wine, to see if I could get you out of your clothes.  But I think I wasted my money,” she said.
	She let go long enough to shrug off the ankle-length coat she was wearing and she draped it over Catherine’s shoulders.  Underneath, Sarah was dressed in a loose, dark grey shirt and long pants with pockets sewn all the way up both legs.  That was what Sarah always wore when she thought she’d had a clever idea.
	“Wine, huh?  What have you done now?” she said.
	“Nothing.  Much. Besides, I lost them an hour ago”, Sarah said.
	“Great.  What will you do when you lead someone to my door?” Catherine said.
	“You worry too much.  I came to tell you that I think I found where our old friends are hiding out,” Sarah said.
	Sarah’s hands slid slowly up her body and Catherine shivered with excitement.
	“I still don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said.
	“It isn't.  Neither was rescuing Jess.  But we're kind of stuck now,” Sarah said.
	“If we get caught, we’re going to be in a lot of trouble,” Catherine said.
	“We already are.  You will lose everything if you quit now.  We both will,” Sarah said.
	Sarah finished buttoning up the coat and unlocked the door.  Catherine caught the doorframe as Sarah pushed her forward and braced herself against it.
	“What are you doing?  I’m not going anywhere with you tonight.  It’s cold, and I'm sleepy,” she said.
	“I’m taking you out to dinner so you won’t starve to death.  You can’t live on nothing but tea and crackers,” Sarah said.
	“Dressed like this?” Catherine said.
	Catherine shoved herself away from the door and locked it again.  Then she fumbled in the near darkness by her bed for her clothes.  They were a bit smelly from being worn for two days, but they were better than going outside practically naked.  It might be okay for House girls to wander around with their tits hanging out, but she had an image to maintain.  After she was dressed, she put the coat back on, and she slid her grandfather’s sword through the belt, too.  People did wear swords sometimes for decoration, though the trend was much more popular among young males.  As ready, then, as she thought she was going to be, she let Sarah lead her out the door.
	The air felt like it had crystalized with the cold and a light breeze carried in the scent of the ocean, which made Catherine’s breath catch in her throat.  She’d been hiding from that smell as much as from Jacob, and it hurt her worse than he ever could.  She bit the side of her tongue to keep herself from crying and Sarah put an arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
	“We’re going to be fine.  Once your brother gets here, you’ll see.  Maybe he’ll be able to come up with something,” Sarah said.
	“If he comes,” Catherine said.
	“Why wouldn’t he?” Sarah said.
	“Because he doesn’t owe me anything.  And he’s a rabbit,” Catherine said.
	“He’s still your father’s son.  He’ll come,” Sarah said.
	Sarah steered Catherine around a crowd of sailors who were pushing a cartload of barrels towards the docks and turned her towards the middle of the city.
	Because it was a port town, Jaspertree never stopped working.  In fact, the streets were sometimes busier at midnight than they were at noon, and many of the shops never shut.  Ships came in at all hours and nobody wanted to miss a chance to get their shipments or sell things to visitors.  Everything was lit by gas lamps in the richer parts of the city, or by the lanterns that many shopkeepers hung in front of their doors.  The streets and sidewalks were full of people of every species, all mixed together without the usual concern for social class that ruled the rest of the city.  Nevertheless, they both tried to avoid jostling anyone and they kept their eyes on each other.
	Catherine was relieved when they turned off the main road onto a narrow side street, but that feeling faded again when Sarah stopped in front of a squat, brick building with smoked windows and no name painted over the door.  It was clearly a bar, but one of the dangerous ones where the wrong word, or even the wrong glance, could get them in trouble.
	“We can’t afford this.  Let's find somewhere else,” Catherine said.
	“It is quiet, and I know the people who own the place.  Kind of,” Sarah said.
	“They’ll cut our throats, and throw us back out in the street,” Catherine said.
	“They won’t.  Probably not.  They hardly ever do that anymore,” Sarah said.
	When Sarah opened the door, a thick cloud of tobacco smoke rolled out to meet them and Catherine wrinkled her nose in disgust.  A fire burned in a large pit in the middle of the single room, which made the bar stifflingly hot, and everything stank of stale beer.  The smoke stung her eyes and she got the impression that they were being watched, even though nobody had looked up from their food.  Sarah kept a tight hold on her, and they didn’t stop moving until her legs bumped against the hard edge of a bench.  Catherine felt Sarah sit down, and she sagged onto the bench and fought to ignore the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
	She was used to bars being loud, chaotic places, but there was none of that here.  People sat in small groups, or by themselves, and everyone was so intent on what they were doing that they might as well have been alone.
	“That’s our lucky girl, sitting over there,” Sarah said.
	She nodded at a big, round table all the way on the other side of the room.  A stocky, white-furred goat sat at one end, nursing a glass of beer.  Sitting next to him, with her hand on his arm, was a pretty female ringtail in a soldier's uniform.
	“I still think this is a bad idea.  Why her?” Catherine said.
	“Because she owes me a favor,” Sarah said.
	“Then you definitely can't trust her.  She'll turn us in before we're halfway home,”  Catherine said.
	“We’ll see.  Get something to eat, and stay calm,” Sarah said.
	Sarah raised a hand over her head and a big grey wolf that Catherine hadn’t noticed appeared at their table with two glasses of water and a menu.  Sarah gave him a little smile as he set the glasses in front of him and he answered her with a glare.  Cathering looked over the menu, and knew that they weren’t going to be staying for dessert.  A meal here cost as much as she used to spend on food in a week.
	“Do you trust her?” she said.
	“Not really. But she’s not an officer, and she's known to be honest, and I think we can rely on that,” Sarah said.
	“Do you have any idea what Marcus would give to the person who gave him the rebels?  She could make Colonel without even trying,” Catherine said.
	“I think we'll be safe.  I was friends with her when we were growing up and I know that her father was just thrown into prison with no explanation,” Sarah said.
	Catherine took a drink of water to hide her sneer of disgust.  Before they had bought their way into power, the Kepplers had been a family of mercenaries and petty thieves.  Marcus wasn't any different, in spite of his expensive clothes and high title.
	“I suppose she'll have to do, then,” she said.
	The waiter came back, and while they argued over what to get the goat got up and stumbled away to the back room.  The ringtail waited until he was out of sight, then slunk over to their table.  She slid onto the bench across from them and dropped a thin envelope in front of them.  Sarah nodded at her, but didn’t look at the envelope until after they had ordered two bowls of soup and a plate of hot bread.  Then she picked it up and opened it with a claw.
	“There aren't any maps.  They aren't that stupid.  But if you start where I tell you, and stick to the paths, you should do okay.” the ringtail said.
	“That’s fine, Maria, thank you.  What about passwords?  Secret signs?” Sarah said.
	“It doesn't work like that.  I thought you understood.  They know who is on their side, and who isn't,” Maria said.
	A chill slithered down between Catherine's shoulderblades, and she had to tuck her hands under her knees so nobody would see them shaking.  Maria was too pretty to have been in the army for long and her clothes were new and neatly pressed.  If she was the best that Sarah could do, there was no telling what the girl's friends would be like.  A bunch of children wouldn't be much help.
	“That doesn't sound very reassuring.  What about us?” Catherine said.
	“What about you?” Maria said.
	“If we're going to go out looking for them, what happens when we find them?  I don't want to get shot by people who are supposed to be on my side,” Catherine said.
	Sarah put a hand on her wrist and squeezed it.  Catherine growled at her, but Sarah only tightened her grip.
	“If they do, it won't be her fault.  She's going to be in enough trouble as it is, and you don't need to add any more,” Sarah said.
	“You're asking for a lot, you know.  I still think we could find a better way,” Catherine said.
	“Captain Thomas is leading them.  He knows what he's doing,” Maria said.
	“He thinks he does, anyway,” Catherine said, and she winced when Sarah's claws dug into her arm.  The ringtail's expression didn't change, but Catherine saw the girl's fists clench.
	“I know what you think of us, but at least we tried to fix things.  We didn't just sit on our butts and hope,” Maria said.
	“Yes, I know.  And look at the mess you made of that.  A little forethought wouldn't have hurt, you know,” Catherine said.
	“Ask the girls from the Silver Street House about that,” Maria said.
	When their food arrived, Maria grabbed a piece of bread from the plate and went back to her own table.  Sarah tucked the envelope down the front of her shirt just as the goat came back into the room, and she turned in her seat so she wasn’t facing him.
	“Just what did you do to that girl?” Catherine said.
	“Nothing much,” Sarah said.
	“Oh, God.  It scares the life out of me every time you say things like that,” Catherine said.
	She ate a couple of bites of her soup, but she wasn’t very hungry.  Fear and guilt made her stomach clench until just swallowing made her feel ill.
	“We're going to get these kids killed,” she said.
	“We won't.  It's all going to be fine, you'll see,” Sarah said.
	Sarah finished her soup, and Catherine's too.  Then she licked both spoons clean and slipped them into her pocket.  The cutlery wasn't valuable, but the girl had never been able to resist stealing anything that shone.  They waited until the wolf who had brought them their food went into the kitchen to fetch something, and then Sarah nodded.
	“Oh, come on.  Not tonight, please?  We're in enough trouble already,” Catherine said.
	“Just the one last time, I promise.  Unless you happen to have about fifty dollars in your pocket right now,” Sarah said.
	“You pulled me out of the house so fast, I'm lucky to have pockets.  Or pants.  This had better be the last time, damn it,” Catherine said.
	They jumped up together and ran, both going around opposite sides of the room so they wouldn’t get in each other’s way.  Maria's goat tried to grab Catherine as she passed him, but he was too drunk and his fingers only grazed the sleeve of her blouse.  At the same time, a leopard sitting at a corner table stuck out a leg to try to trip Sarah.  Rather than trying to dodge she jumped up on top of his table, which sent his drink spinning to the floor.  They hit the door together and the little triangular window set in the top of the door cracked against the brick wall with a sound that reminded Catherine of breaking ice.
	They ran until Catherine’s legs ached and they were both panting so hard that, for a long moment, neither of them could speak.  They stopped to catch their breaths in the middle of an old bridge, under a flickering lamp. As they rested, Sarah slid an arm around her waist and, for a moment, Catherine felt like she could have run all the way around the city.
	“Next time, I get to pick where we eat,” she said.
	“Only if it’s fun,” Sarah said.
	“We can’t afford any more fun.  I shouldn't have let you do this to me, now.  There's too much at stake,” Catherine said.
	“This is exactly why you needed to come here tonight.  You're can't be concerned about breaking the law when those laws are wrong,” Sarah said.
	Once they were ready, they limped the rest of the way back to her house.  Halfway there, Catherine felt a prickle of fear at the back of her neck and she slowed her pace, forcing Sarah to do the same.  She hadn’t locked the door because there wasn’t anything left in the house worth stealing, but now she wished she had.  She could smell strange wolves on the breeze, mixed with a hint of metal polish and cheap whiskey.  She kept going because she refused to be scared away from her own doorstep even by Marcus himself.  Sarah let go of her so she could get to her sword if she needed it, but that left her feeling exposed and more afraid than before.
	Jacob stood on her front steps, flanked by two of his cronies.  None of them had their weapons draw, but Jacob moved his sword forward on his hip so that it was more visible.  He tucked his hands under his arms against the cold, and he looked more miserable than threatening, but this didn’t make Caatherine any happier.  He had an old-fashioned leather cuirass on over his regular clothes, painted with the city crest.  His officers had on steel chain vests and plumed helmets, which Catherine knew was meant to scare them.
	Catherine left Sarah standing back in the shadows and went up to the bottom of the steps with her ears flat and her teeth bared.
	“We had a nice little talk only this morning.  If you think you’re going to scare me with your little toy soldiers--” she said.
	“No.  You’re not bright enough to be scared when you should be, are you?  But I am taking your house, until you decide to cooperate,” Jacob said.
	“You can’t do that,” she said.
	“I can do anything I want, you know that,” Jacob said.
	He came down the steps until he was standing just above her and he swatted her hand away from the hilt of her sword.
	“I’m a nice guy, so I’ll let you lock the door yourself.  But if you try anything I’ll find that little girlfriend of yours and make her regret it,” he said.
	“She doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Catherine said.
	He brough his arm out from behind his back and held the key up just out of her reach.  She grabbed for it, and he let her fingers close on the key before he caught her wrist and squeezed.  She could feel his claws digging into her skin and she fought to keep her expression neutral.  He leaned in close to her and put his muzzle up next to her ear.
	“That depends on you, now doesn’t it?  I’ll have your house watched, all the time.  For your peace of mind, of course,” he said.
	She growled, just loud enough for him to hear, but she let him guide her up the steps to the door.  He watched as she locked the door, and he snatched the key away from her when she was done.  As she turned to go, he put his hands on her shoulders and brushed his muzzle against her cheek.  She could smell the alcohol on his breath and she though that if he kissed her she would bite him.  It was just like him to act like every female he met was wearing a black collar.
	“You know, it isn’t right for two girls to be so close.  That could lead you to all kinds of trouble.  If you’ll give me what I want, I’ll see to it that you have your house back tonight,” he said.
	“And end up as no better than a House girl?  I’ll take Sarah and all the trouble that goes with her, and you can burn in Hell,” she said.
	She raked her claws down his arms and ran when he lost his grip.  Sarah was still waiting in the shadows and Catherine caught her hand as she passed.  Jacob shouted threats after them, but she just laid her ears flat and ran faster.