31

	There had never been much room in Jacob's life for doubt.  He knew he wasn't very smart, people had told him so every day of his life, but there was something troubling about the idea of keeping little girls tied up in musty rooms and raping them every day.  Marcus said that it wasn't any different than using a House girl, but every time he'd been to see a girl, he'd had to pay up front and they had been, if not willing, then at least resigned.  They had been well protected, too.  Anyone who hurt a House girl ended up in prison, if he was lucky.  The first time Marcus had had her, this girl had screamed the whole time and bitten him on the top of his muzzle.
	She was screaming now, and Jacob moved to the far end of the hall where it wasn't so loud.  He didn't mind the Houses.  People who didn't pay their debts should be punished, and anyone stupid enough to get put in one of those places didn't deserve any sympathy.  But Megan was only a child, and she was a wolf.  He walked his fingers down his side to the sheath he wore there, and the hilt of his dagger.  It had been forged for him just last year, as a present from his sister, and he kept the edge sharp.  If he didn't think about it too hard and just let the knife slip out of its sheath, nobody could really say that he'd broken his oath.
	The door to the bedroom opened and Marcus came out, buttoning up his pants.  Jacob's hand dropped away from his dagger to hang limply at his side.  When he was in the same room, Marcus looked a lot bigger and much more frightening.  The bite on the bridge of his muzzle was raw, and a little bit swollen, and there were fresh scratches down both his arms.
	“Can't I get five minutes peace?  What is it now?” Marcus said.
	“We caught another spy.  At least, we think she is.  She was in the poor quarter, near the old barracks,” Jacob said.
	“Why are you bothering me with this?  I already told you what I expected you to do with them,” Marcus said.
	“I know, that's been taken care of.  That isn't why I'm here,” Jacob said.
	“Well, what then?”
	“It's about your son.  He's gone missing,” Jacob said, and he shut his eyes and gritted his teeth against Marcus's anger.
	The blow, when it came, made Jacob's head snap back.  But there wasn't any pain.  Marcus had hit the wall, instead, and split two of his knuckles on the unfinished stone.  
	“How long?” Marcus said.
	He didn't raise his voice, but the tip of his tail twitched back and forth and Jacob could see his ears trying to flatten.
	“No sooner than last night.  Madeline saw him last night, when she went in to fix his supper, and nobody else was in the house until this morning,” Jacob said.
	“Have you checked the city?  He's been trying to sneak something past me for months now, and I don't trust Madeline not to lie for him,” Marcus said.
	“I have people looking, but he isn't in any of his usual places.  I don't want to call it a kidnapping until we've finished our sweep--”
	“If someone hasn't grabbed him, I'll make him wish they had.  I've warned him about wandering off.  He knows what could happen to him if I'm not there to watch out for him,” Marcus said.
	“We'll find him,” Jacob said.
	“No.  My little girl broke her arm in our last round and I want you to patch her up.  I'll find Richard myself.  That's what a father is for, isn't it?” Marcus said.
	He turned away and stuck his knuckles in his mouth, to lick the blood off.  Jacob waited until Marcus reached the other end of the hall before he went to the bedroom door.
	It wasn't really right to call it a bedroom since there wasn't a bed and there were bars on the window.  There was a mattress in one corner, but it was ragged and bare with springs showing through the top.  Megan sat on it, wrapped up in the thin blanket Marcus had given her against the chill.  She held her right arm tight against her chest and her fur was matted with  blood.  Most of it was her own, from the shallow scratches all over her neck and arms. She bared her teeth when he came in and pushed herself back against the wall.  He was, briefly, afraid that she would lunge at him.  She'd been locked up here for nearly three months and she hadn't stopped fighting them yet, but she was tethered to the wall by the kind of thick collar and heavy chain they used for violent criminals and he doubted that she could break them.
	“You cowardly son of a bitch.  Touch me, and I'll bite your balls off,” she said.
	“I only want to look at your arm.  I don't want to hurt you,” he said.
	“It's too late for that,” she said.
	He squatted down beside the mattress and reached for her arm.  It was badly swollen and he could see how badly bruised it was even through her fur.
	“You don't think I like doing this, do you?” he said.
	“I think you're nothing but a coward who'd lick his feet if he told you to.  Don't you dare whine to me,” she said.
	She went stiff when he touched her, but she didn't do more than growl a little with pain when he pulled her arm out straight.  There was a little metal box in one corner of the room which was kept stocked with gauze bandages and some painkillers.  He could just reach it to hook it with his foot and he pulled it close, hoping he still remembered the combination.
	“I'm not.  I just want you to know the way things stand.  I don't have any choice but to work for him,” he said.
	“I'm sure that would make Robert Coburn feel much better.  And everyone else you murdered.  Does he force you to enjoy it, too?” Megan said.
	“I have to protect my sister.  If I don't do what he wants, he could kill her,” Jacob said.
	He didn't really have what he needed to do more than make a crude sling for her arm.  There were a couple of thin pieces of wood that would do for a temporary splint, and he wrapped most of one roll of gauze around them to keep them in place.  He tied the rest in a loop around her neck, and helped her hang her arm so she would be reasonably comfortable.
	“Does your sister know what you do?” Megan said.
	“Michele knows what it takes to survive in this city.  Which is something you haven't learned yet.  If you keep fighting him, you could end up really hurt,” Jacob said.
	He took a little bottle of pills out of the box and shook several of them out into his palm.  They were supposed to be a mix of stuff, good for fighting pain and infections at the same time.  All he knew for sure was that they made people fall asleep.  That wasn't much help, but it was the best he could do.
	“Jess is going to come and get me.  She isn't going to like what you've been doing, either,” Megan said.
	“Am I supposed to be afraid of a little House girl?” Jacob said.
	“But you are, aren't you?” Megan said.
	“Because she's insane.  I saw what she did to the guards at the prison,” Jacob said.
	Megan smiled a little, which frightened him.
	“Jess knows what it takes to survive in this city, too,” she said.
	He crushed the pills up with his fingers and sprinkled them in the bottom of a paper cup.  He'd have to go down to the other end of the hall to get water.  There wasn't much chance that she would be able to escape, but he pulled the door shut when he left the room, just to make sure.  As much as he felt sorry for her, he knew what Marcus would do to him if he let her escape.
	The door was nearly shut when he heard her lunge to the end of her chain, and something heavy hit the wall.  He had left the box beside her bed, and if her aim had been a little better it was heavy enough that it might have broken the door.  Suddenly terrified of her, he locked the door behind him, and dragged a chair from across the hall to shove it under the doorknob.