Promises to Keep by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Author:Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 0385741928
Publisher: Delacorte
Published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

JAY TESTED THE front door. It had no apparent lock but didn’t budge at a casual push.

Well, then. He would deal with that later, after SingleEarth had some time to work out this snarl, and Jay had made an attempt to reason with Brina. For now, he had more important things to do.

The cat’s body was dense and its ears rounded, as if it had some wildcat in it. Hopefully that would be useful; his connection with Lynx made it easier for him to communicate with other felines.

Where’s the food? Jay asked it.

It darted from the room. Follow!

Funny—the cat and Brina seemed to have a lot in common.

Jay scraped a can of food into a hand-painted porcelain cat bowl, then watched while the irate feline ate. Once it had finished its meal, he wrestled with it for a few minutes, gradually getting himself more attuned to its mind and letting it investigate his. The cat didn’t have a sense of what a witch was, and didn’t care, but it was willing to tolerate his catness as long as he maintained proper deference.

When Jay inquired what the household was like, he received a mixed bundle of images.

The person who normally gave it food was also somewhat feline. The cat had tried to talk to her, but Pet’s cat wasn’t allowed to talk back. She was only allowed to act human, feed the cat, and order the other slaves to clean up and provide playtime.

There was one slave who normally provided the most playtime, but the cat had not seen him in a while, since the food-giving slave with a cat hidden inside had disappeared.

The cat thought of Brina as two people. One was a love giver. One was evil. The cat could normally tell quickly which was which, and when that Brina was around, the cat ran outside.

Outside? Jay asked, wondering if there was another exit.

The cat showed him to its cat door, installed in place of one of the panes of a downstairs window. It was too small for a person, but Lynx might be able to fit through if he came looking for Jay.

Do you know where the playtime slave is? Jay asked.

Upstairs, the cat replied, showing him to a grand staircase. At the top of the stairs was a landing, and then a locked door.

Key? Jay asked, trying the doorknob. He was pretty sure the lock here was mundane, not mystical.

The cat didn’t understand the concept of a key, only of doors opening or closing.

Who normally opens the door?

Images of Brina and Pet answered him.

If I were a key, where would I be? Jay wondered, making the cat twitch its ears.

First you’re a cat, and now you want to be this key thing?

He had learned from past experience that trying to explain a figure of speech to a cat was a lost cause, so instead he proposed, I have a hunting game. If we succeed, I think we may be able to find the playtime slave. There is an object that the food slave would have used whenever she opened the door.

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