The War and the Fox

by Tim Susman

  Kip found space to set the four of them down near the wheel, where the tall red-bearded captain steered the ship with thick arms like corded wood and Abel watched beside him. When he saw Kip, Abel’s ears snapped up and he clasped Kip’s paw with a broad smile. Around them, other Calatians murmured and held out paws for Kip to touch, then withdrew so the two foxes could talk.

  “Why are they on the deck?” Kip asked. “Why not in the hold? They’re out in the open.”

  “Hold’s full,” grunted the captain. “Got my coin, have you?”

  Kip took one of the two leather wallets he carried and placed it in the captain’s hand. “Here’s half. The other half when we’re safely ashore at Lechlade.” He showed the captain the money in the second wallet and then gathered magic and translocated it to the attic above his parents’ old shop in New Cambridge, which was now deserted. “I’ll retrieve it then.”

  The captain only raised his eyebrows at the spell, then rifled through the wallet with meaty fingers before pushing it into the pocket of his pants. “Take longer than we thought with this heavier load.”

  “Can the ship bear it?”

  He let out a loud laugh. “Aye, she’s stout and true, but I’d been told a hundred and fifty people, which is fifteen tons, and we’ve twice that.”

  “Twice that?”

  Abel smiled at Kip. “More people wanted to come when they saw we were serious about this. The captain said we could bear the weight, and I couldn’t leave them behind.”

  It made the trip more dangerous: twice the passengers meant twice the chance for someone to be seen or suffer an accident. But Kip couldn’t send them back either, not if they wanted to escape the Isle. “Alice can help with the journey,” he said, putting an arm around Alice’s shoulders to bring her forward. “She can get you a fair wind all the way there.”

  “That’ll help, to be sure.”

  “Anything else you need?”

  The captain looked to either side. “Room to move my arms, that’s all.”

  The Calatians around him drew back a little more. Abel took Kip’s paw and led him to the side of the ship, the other sorcerers following except for Alice, who stayed to take the captain’s direction for her air elemental. “He’s kinder than he sounds,” Abel said. “But he was talking about ‘traitor’s gold’ earlier.”

  “Are you worried he’ll turn you in?” Malcolm asked.

  Abel shook his head. “He values his coin. What you’re giving him is what he’d make in ten trips. He’ll think it well worth it, especially if it never comes back to him, and with you hiding us from view, he suspects it won’t.”

  “It won’t.” Kip indicated Malcolm. “We’re well warded. Malcolm has experience and we’ve other protections in place.” He remained vague because there was nowhere to talk privately on the boat. “As long as we’re out of London by daybreak.”

  “You think sunlight can defeat my inattention ward?” Malcolm took a joking tone. “Why, just a moment ago you were singing my praises.”

  “I’d prefer fewer people around to be affected.” Kip rested his paws on the railing and turned back to Abel. “Everything else went to plan?”

  “There were two calyxes at the College. We waited as long as we could but they didn’t come back.” He sighed and looked out over the water as it rippled by. “They understood we would leave without them.”

  “I hope they’re—” Kip stopped himself.

  “If they’re not dead now,” Abel said, “the sorcerers will soon use them up.”

  “But we’re getting the rest of you out.” Kip’s hackles rose as he sensed a presence behind him. He turned and had to look up to see the wolf glowering down.

  “Hello, sorcerer,” Grinda said.

  “Grinda.” Kip looked around her. “Did you bring your family?”

  “I simply came to tell you that I am on this voyage in solidarity with my fellow calyxes, not because I trust you. Whatever a sorcerer does is for his own ends, regardless of his skin or fur.”

  “Kip’s intentions are honorable, ma’am,” Malcolm said, “and I shouldn’t think that one as formidable as yourself need worry about him.”

  “I’m no sorcerer.” Grinda growled the words and then stopped short when she got a good look at Malcolm. She recovered quickly. “But I can defend myself and mine.”

  “My friend thinks of his people,” Malcolm went on. “It’s quite inspiring. If all the Irish in London lived on an island, I’d be mounting an expedition to rescue them as well.”

  “He’s partaken of the calyx ritual,” Grinda said. “That marks him as a sorcerer.”

  “He never said he did,” Abel put in.

  “He never said he didn’t, and that’s near enough an admission for me.” The wolf fixed Kip with a glare and then turned and made her way back through the crowd.

  Kip sighed. “Not everyone will be happy. I’ve learned that.”

  Everyone around him was quiet until Abel said, softly, “If you have…I understand. You must do as they tell you, and for you to summon a demon…”

  “Yes. I have,” Kip said. “But only a few times. I found that for most things I can…use myself as a calyx. But it took me some time to discover that. I regret it, but I do not deny it.”

  He forced himself to look Abel full in the face, to see the fox’s revulsion and rejection if it appeared, but Abel kept his ears up and his smile, if anything, grew. “It must have been very hard for you,” he said.

  “Aye. I know how it looks to you—”

  “Hush.” Abel patted his paw. “Let’s hear no more about it.”

  “That’s a good thought for all of us,” Malcolm said in a low voice. “I’m keeping us hidden, but sound travels over water, so the quieter we are the better.”

  “Captain Jones said that too.” Abel lowered his voice. “Sorry.”

  Kip nodded and indicated that he was going to go back to the wheel. Abel acknowledged with a wave but remained with Malcolm and Broadwood.

  The barge had picked up speed, and in the silence the rippling of the water against the hull sounded as loud as a waterfall. At least the Calatians were keeping quiet, Kip thought, looking down over the sea of ears, rounded and pointed, perked and flat. All of these people, putting their trust in him, and so many things outside of his control. Beyond the water, the fires and gaslamps of London still burned, and anyone at one of those lights might be a sorcerer watching the water, but the barge sailed forward toward darkness and relative safety.

  Kip found Alice staring up at the sail and murmuring in the language of air elementals. When she noticed Kip, her ears came up and she smiled. “They like moving,” she whispered, “and don’t mind pushing against things.”

  “Good,” he whispered back, his eyes still on the shore.

  “It’s going to be fine. Luff will blow us to Lechlade, and you and I will get us to the Road, and Malcolm will keep us safe to the boat. The British have no idea we’re here.”

  “I hope so.” He looked again down the barge full of Calatians. “It’s a long trip.”

  “Why don’t you get some sleep?” Alice patted his arm. “I’ll keep Luff company for now.”

  Kip slid an arm around her shoulders. “You’re doing wonderfully, and I don’t just mean spellcasting. You’re smart and you’re determined and I could not have done this without you. I just wanted you to know that.”

  “Of course you couldn’t,” Alice said, and leaned into his embrace. “But I hope you won’t ever have to worry about doing things without me.” She rested her muzzle against his chest.

  He wanted to tell her more, how proud he was of her bravery, how scared he was that she would be hurt in this war. Being surrounded by so many Calatian families made him think about the end of the war and starting his own family, and though he would like to have her father’s blessing, he saw that they would no longer need it. Alice was her own fox, in spirit and nearly in age, and if her father would not approve their marriage, she almost certainly would
marry him without her father’s blessing.

  The barge swept past the last of the fires and the air cleared both of smoke and of the smell of refuse as they entered the cleaner waters above London. Around Kip, many of the Calatians sat on the deck or lay down, taking the chance to sleep, enough that he could see over them to Malcolm and Broadwood and Abel. Broadwood sat down, but Malcolm and Abel remained standing. Kip fought the urge to go to them, recognizing that he would be more valuable rested.

  Nikolon, wake me if there is any trouble, he instructed, and lay down at Alice’s feet to sleep.

  Rain, not his demon, woke him after what must have been a few hours of sleep. Many of the Calatians around him stirred, stood, walked around staring at the green hills and trees on the river bank. They spoke in whispers, but Kip gathered enough fragments of conversation through the patter of rain on the river to hear that many of them had never seen countryside so green and empty. Springtime had brought flowers and an overcast sky that, with their wet fur, assured the Calatians that they were still in England. Birds wheeled about over the boat, back to shore, and back over the river again.

  Malcolm had pulled his robe over his head and sat apparently asleep against the rail, and Broadwood lay on the deck beside him. And behind him, Alice stood next to the Captain, whose hands remained on the wheel as if they were part of it.

  “Morning,” Alice said as Kip looked up and met her eyes.

  He gathered his wet tail and tried to brush the water out of it. “Everything going smoothly?”

  “Aye,” the captain replied. “At this rate we’ll reach Lechlade before the end of the afternoon watch. Have you all food for the trip?”

  “Everyone was told to bring two days’ worth of food.” Alice patted the small pack at her side.

  Kip stood, wishing he’d brought a cloak. “We might be able to jump back and get food from Boston if anyone needs it, but I’d prefer not to.”

  “Why don’t we have Broadwood send some people back now, while we’re on the boat?” Alice asked. “I know we’re supposed to meet the American boat and all that, but we’ve also got more people than we’d planned, and I’d wager he can get through half of them before we get to the Road.”

  “Not a bad thought,” Kip said. “A very good one, in fact. I’ll put it to him when he wakes. I don’t think we can send them to the Trade House, but we should be able to send them to, ah,” he glanced at the captain, “to the place where the others are.”

  “We’ll be coming up on Windsor soon,” the captain said. “Most dangerous part of the journey outside London, I daresay. Guards along the river and all, likely some sorcerers too.”

  “After that, then.” Kip glanced toward the sleeping sorcerer. “Let us know when we’re approaching, if you please.”

  The captain grunted, which Kip took for assent. “Weybridge,” he said, pointing up ahead. On the south bank, a collection of cottages stood around three larger buildings, and resolving out of the rain was a large structure across nearly half the river.

  “What’s that?” he hissed, pointing ahead.

  The captain raised his head. “Sudbury Lock.” He raised an arm and signaled to the men manning the sail. They braced themselves and passed on the signal down the barge. “Making for the weir,” the captain said to Alice. “Ready there, young miss?”

  “Ready.” Alice smiled at Kip. “Don’t worry.”

  The great metal gates of the lock stood closed between stone pillars upon which men stood and waved signal flags. To the right of the lock, a small barrier separated the upper reach from the lower, over which the Thames flowed in frothy jubilance. The barge headed toward this barrier, and as it approached, Alice summoned magic and lifted the entire vessel out of the water, keeping its forward momentum so steady that when she lowered it back into the water on the other side, Kip barely felt an impact at all. He kept his eye on the men at the lock, but only once did one of them turn as though he’d heard something unusual. He looked at the sky, then the Thames, and then went back to his work.

  And then they were past, and Kip relaxed. “You’ve done this a few times already.”

  “That was my fourth. Abel told me the captain had said we needed to get past the locks and that he thought you could lift the boat, and I told him I could do it, and so we did. It’s much easier in the light, even with the rain.”

  “All right. And when you get your rest…that’s all I need to do? Lift the boat, keep it moving forward, clear the weir?”

  “That’s all.” Alice’s whiskers twitched with her smile. “You can try the next one if you like. I know physical magic isn’t your strong suit, but the boat is just one thing. Heavy, but simple.”

  “Hah.” Kip smiled back and gauged the boat. “I believe I can manage it.”

  “Two more before Windsor,” the captain said.

  So Kip lifted the ship for the next lock, and though it wobbled a little upon landing, the only effect was to wake Broadwood, which was a good result anyway. The rain had not completely stopped, but had turned patchy, so there would be moments of dry weather and then a splattering squall.

  As the barge approached Windsor, the whispered conversations died down as the towers of Windsor Castle came into view. King George III himself probably sat there at this moment, Kip thought, and this was closer than he’d ever been to his monarch (while Emily was off standing in the presence of kings of Spain and France and Holland).

  Even in the rain, small clusters of men gathered down at the riverbank, and if Kip could see them, they might easily see the barge. But Malcolm had woken with Broadwood and stood in deep concentration at the side of the ship, keeping it concealed to the best of his ability. As the barge glided up the Thames, Kip sent Nikolon to look more closely at the men on the bank, to alert him if any were sorcerers or seemed suspicious at all.

  The first group of soldiers merely lounged by the riverbank under the shelter of trees. The next group, concealed from the town of Windsor by a copse, did not look like they would have noticed the barge even without Malcolm’s wards. Six soldiers in various states of undress watched while two of their fellows enjoyed the intimate attentions of two ladies. Kip ordered Nikolon to move on quickly from this one, but another of the groups of soldiers were engaged in the same pastime. Only one group swam in the Thames, and one of them noticed the ripples left by the barge.

  He began to swim out to investigate. “Malcolm,” Alice said under her breath.

  “I see him,” Malcolm said. “Give me a moment.”

  His hands glowed orange and he muttered some words under his breath. The swimmer pulled up in the water and stared back at the shore, directly at the soldiers and their ladies. He watched for a moment and then swam eagerly in that direction.

  “A little trick Luke and I have been working on,” Malcolm said. “You can invent a distraction, but it’s easier to nudge them toward one that already exists.”

  “I’m glad you keep improving your spells,” Kip said.

  “Got to keep up with you lot somehow.” Malcolm smiled at him and Alice.

  And so they passed Windsor without incident. Once they were past, Kip had Alice curl up for a nap in the fore of the ship while he took over lifting the ship past weirs, and he instructed Broadwood and Abel to go among the Calatians and find those amenable to being sent immediately to America. “Send them to the College,” he said, “and instruct the soldiers there to house them with the New Cantabrigians pending further instructions.”

  Broadwood took these instructions dubiously. “I’m only here to provide swift exit for you and the others,” he said. “Nothing said about sending Calatians to wherever.”

  “Listen,” Kip told him. “We haven’t a commanding officer here and I’m trying my best to make this plan work. You know the danger we run in getting these people to safety.” He lowered his voice for that so as not to panic anyone nearby. “I’m not asking you to send all of them back. We have maybe five hours, according to the captain. Can you get a hundred of
them there in that time?”

  The sorcerer rubbed a hand through his straw-colored hair. “Forty an hour? Two every three minutes? Probably not quite that many.”

  “Even with the calyx ritual?” Kip hated to suggest it, but if it could save them, he had to.

  “I’ve never done that. It’s disgusting. And it doesn’t matter anyway because Master Colonel Jackson gave me very direct orders. I’m to remain alert for any sign of danger, at which point I’m to take O’Brien and the young lady back to Boston.” He paused. “Master Colonel Jackson said you could take yourself, but if not, I was to be available to you.”

  Kip had no doubt that if he were unable to take himself, Alice would be left behind, but he left that worry for another time. “They’ve brought double what we expected. The plan’s changed.”

  “Then we should go back to Master Colonel Jackson and apprise him of the changes and receive his orders.”

  Kip sighed. “We haven’t the time. Man, look at the people on this boat.” Broadwood did, and the resolve in his eyes wavered. “We are responsible for them, you, me, Malcolm, and Alice. We made them a promise to take them to safety and we have to do whatever it takes to fulfill that promise.”

  “Yes,” the young man said. “I see that, but…our orders…”

  Kip saw the crack and forced his way in. “Listen: I will take full responsibility with Master Colonel Jackson. You can tell him that I claimed the authority to change your orders, since Captain Lowell isn’t here.”

  Broadwood’s eyes widened. “Have you the authority?”

  Inwardly, Kip sighed. “Yes. That’s what I’m telling you. In the interest of the safety of our charges and the success of the mission.”

  “Yes, I see.” The young man scanned the full deck of the barge. “It’ll take the wind from my sails, but I take your point. The fewer we have to get to the Road, the less chance of something going cockeyed.”

  “Right.” Kip clapped him on the shoulder. “Thank you. Now let’s start with the youngest and those who care for them. Abel will get some ready while you go back to the College and make sure they’ll be received.”