42
	After five more alleys, and no end in sight, Sebastian's patience was wearing thin.  The old vixen insisted on sticking to the shadows and walked slowly, when he wanted to run.  Every time they came to an intersection she stopped and stood with her back to the wall for a minute, listening, so she said, for any sign of pursuit.  Only they hadn't heard anything for the last twenty minutes.  As far as any of them could tell they had been moving steadily away from the fighting since they'd left the prison, and even the flames that had been behind them had gone out.
	“You told us you knew where they were taking her,” he said.
	“Of course I do.  It isn't that much further now,” Elizabeth said.
	“You said that half an hour ago,” Megan said.
	“And I'm saying it again.  You need to have patience and to understand that I'm doing the best I can,” Elizabeth said.
	“And in the meantime, Jess could already be dead.  Or do you care more for yourself than for her?” Sebastian said.
	“What gives you the right to come into our lives, now, and say such things?” Elizabeth said, ears flat.
	“Somebody has to,” he said.
	The next alley was wide enough for Sebastian and Megan to walk comfortably side by side and the far end opened out into a large, dark square.  The city had burned here, too, until somebody had put it out.  The paving stones under their feet were charred and cracked and the walls of the buildings dripped with water.  There were thick, damp clumps of what looked like white flour that stuck to his feet.  But worse than any of that was the smell.  It was burned meat and singed fur, so thick that Sebastian could taste it at the back of his throat.
	“No more.  I won't go another step,” Megan said.
	“We have to,” Sebastian said.
	“Please.  Don't you see her?” Megan said.  
	Her claws dug into his arm and terror made her voice thick.  She was staring at something on the other side of the plaza, but all he could see were vague shapes in the shadows.  He pulled her tight against him to quiet her trembling and pulled her across the square.
	“It's just a few more steps and if we don't go we might miss something important.  What if it's something that tells us where Jess is?” he said.
	“I know where she is.  Dear God, just listen to me, I can see her,” Megan said.
	But now Elizabeth had taken hold of her, too, and she led them irresistably forward.
	They stopped in the darkest part of the square, under the shadow of a broad, two-story building without a roof.  Against the wall, less than a foot away from the front door, there was a gibbet.  It was missing its rope and it had been badly burned in the fire.  Someone had been tied to the gibbet pole, to one side so they were less visible from the road.  It was impossible to know if they'd been alive when the fire had started, but it didn't matter.  All that was left was a heap of ashes and charred meat in what might have been a dress.
	“There's where love gets you,” Elizabeth said.
	Sebastian felt his anger rise until his fists clenched, but it was Megan who hit her.  She punched the old vixen's muzzle hard enough to knock her down, and kicked her legs away when Elizabeth tried to stand.
	“She died for you, too, God damn you.  Don't you have any heart left, or did you sell that along with everything else?” she said.
	“It was cut out, long ago.  I can't even remember what it was like to have one,”  Elizabeth said.
	She shut her eyes and leaned her head back against a leg of the platform with a groan.  Her black dress had ripped in the fall and her white hair was full of soot.  For the first time since they'd met her, she looked like an ordinary person.
	“You children don't know the first thing about loving someone else.  Would you have kept her on a leash?  Then you're no better than Marcus is,” Elizabeth said.
	“I wouldn't have sold her friends to Marcus.  I wouldn't have betrayed everything she ever worked for,” Sebastian said.
	“And you think I did?  You don't know what Thomas is.  He's nobody's friend, I saw that the first day I met him.  My only mistake was thinking I could use him,” Elizabeth said.
	“No.  That was just your last one,” Sebastian said.
	He couldn't bear to look at Elizabeth.  Megan was on her knees, sobbing, and his eyes burned with tears, but Elizabeth's face was dry and he heard no hint of emotion in her voice.
	“What do we do now?” Megan said.
	“You should go away.  I know you think I'm a monster, boy, and maybe I am.  But I won't see any more children killed,” Elizabeth said.
	“I'm not going to leave her.  She came back for me,” Megan said.
	“I thought that you, at least, would be smart enough to see the lesson here.  Go away, little girl, and pray you never have to come back,” Elizabeth said.
	Megan stood up, and when she raised her arm Sebastian thought she might hit Elizabeth again.  The old vixen lifted her head and turned it slightly, to show her left cheek.  But Megan just let her hand float in the air for a moment before she dropped it back to her side.  Elizabeth's mouth stayed neutral, but Sebastian caught the flash of smugness in her eyes.
	“I don't belive it.  Almost, but no.  That isn't her,” he said.
	“It doesn't matter.  It might as well be,” Elizabeth said.
	“You told us you knew where they were going to take her.  You said you'd help us find her,” he said.
	“I know, and God help me, if I'd thought there was a chance, I'd have done anything to help Jessie.  But Marcus has her back now and he'll do worse than burn her,” she said.
	“But there's still a chance,” Sebastian said.
	“For you, yes.  I should have put a stop to this before now,” Elizabeth said.
	Now she got up and she barked three times in a shrill voice that hurt Sebastian's ears.  The clanking of metal echoed across the dim plaza, and soldiers emerged from the distant corners.  Two of them came from the mouth of the alley, leading the horse that Jess had left by the old warehouse.  The metal sound came from the iron cuffs that hung down from the saddle horn.
	“Everybody thinks I'm just an old whore, and mostly they're right.  But they forget the kind of power we can have, and the sorts of favors we can call in, if we're clever” Elizabeth said.
	She took the reins from the soldier who led the horse and nodded.  He grabbed Sebastian by the arms, and was joined by a second lieutenant who helped lift him up.  Sebastian fought them and bit at their arms, but their sleeves were too thick for it to do any good.  He kicked one of them in the chest and she grabbed his foot and twisted until the tendons creaked.  Then they had him on the saddle and two more fighters came up to lock the shackles around his wrists and ankles.  Megan was able to knock one of them down, but she was thrown up behind him in a graceless tangle of arms and legs, and he heard her shackles lock shut.
	“Whose side are you on?” Megan said.
	“I don't know anymore.  Sebastian, I know you made a promise to my Jessie.  She would have insisted, and I want you to keep that promise now,” Elizabeth said.
	“How?  Even if I can find a way out of the city, where will we go?” he said.
	Elizabeth let go of the reins and turned away to look for something only she could see.
	“I can't imagine,” she said.