The Beastkeeper's Redemption

Forty-Three

Forty-Three

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

"The flame is slow to burn, beginning small and slight," Blayne Leowyn had explained to Izzy when he had pressed the flint into her palm before she and Lou set off. "It'll take time to cause any damage, but once it is lit, it cannot be extinguished."

She was, Izzy thought as she extracted Otto from her pocket, immensely glad for the smallness of the flame that licked about the tip of a piece of parchment paper she had rolled and crushed into a narrow stick that served as kindling.

A cold draught blew the tangles of flaxen hair from her face as she leaned over the window ledge of the private chamber she was in, the darkness of the evening making it almost impossible to see anything below her.

Setting Otto carefully on the narrow ledge, she released him for a moment before setting the lit parchment before him. The little rat twitched his whiskers and proceeded to clean his snout, enjoying the moment of freedom considering he had been confined in the pocket of her skirt for quite some time now. Izzy glanced apprehensively at the window to the left, a few metres away.

A small space separated the ledge she leaned on from the neighbouring window.

If Otto were to cross over to the other ledge, he would need to jump.

She prayed and hoped that he had the capability to do just that, knowing she would never forgive herself should the rodent plummet to the ground. Oh, it wasn't awfully far- maybe twenty feet?

She was, after all, on the second floor of the house. But to a tiny rat...

"Well, Miss Hawkins?" Grover said from behind her. "Give your directives to the odious rat so that we do not tarry in this part of the house."

He was right, of course. The room they were in seemed to serve as a private parlour of sorts, adjoined to the study beside it, which was exactly where Izzy needed to be. But since the room was barred and only the proprietor held the key, she had to get ingenious with how she got access to the records that were contained within.

Records that held a wealth of information on the fae imprisoned presently.

Records that had to be destroyed.

Leaning over Otto, she cupped the creature in her hands and whispered her single command, "Otto, listen well. Go into the window of the room to our left. Take the flaming parchment. Set alight as many flammable services as you can and return to me."

"The simple phrase 'listen well' will activate the rat's need to obey you. Your words must be specific," Rogane had instructed as he handed Izzy the rat earlier prior to her leaving the London townhouse, "and simple in nature. Too complicated, and Otto may not be able to fulfil his obligation."

Otto stilled, not even his whiskers twitched, and for a moment Izzy thought that Rogane's enchantment would not work, that she had made her instructions too complicated for the small creature to follow. But then the rat sprang into action, snatching up the bit of parchment between his teeth and sprinting across the narrow ledge, leaping over the small space and landing smoothly on the other side, before slipping inside the open window of the other room.

Izzy breathed a sigh of relief and straightened, turning to grin at Grover. "Nothing to it."

The other man snorted and folded his arms across his chest. "If we make it out of this situation alive, I'll be inclined to have more faith in your nauseating optimism."

"Well, we've already achieved one phase of the plan," Izzy told him proudly. "Where did you say the familiars are kept again?"

Grover inclined his head towards the closed door of the room they occupied. Outside, Lou stood guard, ready to tap a warning should anyone approach- unlikely since there seemed to be boisterous commotions and ribaldry occurring downstairs. "Down the passage."