The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 129: He Who Intercedes (and Provides Free Food and Drink)

I gave a strangled shriek. That idiot! Who held the high ground and then jumped off it into the middle of an angry mob? Was Katu trying to get himself killed?

But apparently the mob was just as shocked as I was, because before it could trample or tear him to pieces – or just stand back and let him break his neck – the butterfly spirits dove after him. They surrounded him midair, beating their multi-colored wings to slow his fall, so that when he landed, it wasn't too heavily. It could have been more graceful – he did pitch forward before the butterflies steadied him and pushed him back on his feet – but it worked.

And no one mobbed him. Maybe the rioters weren't sure what to make of this idiot poet either.

Katu threw back his head, flung his arms into the air, and shouted, "Come, good people of Goldhill! Let us seek the aid of the Divine Intercessor! Let us hie to the Temple!" He set off down the alley, trailing butterflies. The spirits seemed to have decided that here was a human who needed adopting.

His way was blocked by masses of people, but he strode at them as if he expected them to part for him – and they did. Then, miraculously, they fell in behind him.

I gaped after him, my thoughts in a churn. This wasn't how I envisioned the High Priest's arrival at the Temple, but it was working. I couldn't break his momentum. Who knew what would happen if I broke the (non-magical) spell he'd cast over the mob? But his robes! He needed his High Priest robes!

I zipped back through the air to the serow. He led them away! He's leading them to the Temple! Quick, we have to get his robes and meet him there!

We dashed to Lodia's workroom, where – mercy of mercies – she'd cut and hemmed a cape and was now basting it onto the robes. (Even her "basting stitches" were straight and even and for anyone else would have counted as normal stitches.)

Lodia, Lodia, we have to get to the Temple right now!

"Now? But I'm not done! I need five more minutes!"

(For her, that meant at least ten. Maybe an hour, even.)

There's no time! Katu's leading the mob to the Temple right now! We have to get there before he does so we can get him into his robes and fill him in on what's happening. He's winging the whole thing.

"He's leading them to the Temple? Katu left? He's outside?" With every question, Lodia's voice lifted higher into a shriek.

As abruptly as Katu had jumped off the gate, she leaped to her feet and started bundling up the robe and her sewing box.

"We have to go after him!"

What? No! You're not coming! It's too dangerous out there. Just finish the robe and we'll take it!

Lodia's chin jutted mulishly, the way it had that time right before she cut up her own embroidery. "No. If it's safe enough for Katu to be on the streets, it's safe enough for me to be on the streets."

That does not make any sense whatsoev–

"And besides, I have you."

Well.

After that, how could I deny her?

And that was how the three of us returned to the Temple, with me clinging to the serow's horns, and Lodia clinging to the serow's neck, and the robes, which had come loose during the wild run, flapping behind us like a warlord's banner. It must have been quite a sight, because as the serow bounded across the tops of gates and garden walls, rioters stopped to stare, point, and shout. Hands reached out to grab her legs, but she kicked them away, and we arrived safe and sound, if somewhat windblown and frazzled.