Broken Fang received no warm soup or kindness. Instead, he was roughly shackled and thrown into the dungeon.
The crying Litt was taken away too. Broken Fang hoped he would be all right. Surely they wouldn't be so cruel as to harm a child of their own kind.
"Are you arresting me?"
Broken Fang turned to the Jailer locking the door. Rather than scream and shout like the Ratfolk, he questioned him calmly.
"Arresting you? Of course not," the Jailer said with a sneer. "You'll be executed."
"...Didn't you hear me? I'm a cavalryman stationed at Hell Mountain, not a spy."
"Doesn't matter. Spy or deserter, you're going to die."
Broken Fang could no longer stay calm. He rushed to the bars and shouted, "I'm a citizen of Free City! I fought the Rat Tide as a cavalryman! I'm not a spy!"
"I believe you, I believe you. We all know that City Lord Annan of yours has some strange tastes."
Broken Fang tried to think like a human, and a thought struck him: they didn't just hate him. They hated Free City too.
"Lord Annan will avenge me..."
"You mean he'll challenge the Orr Empire over an executed Ratfolk deserter?"
"What about Litt? That boy—what are you going to do with him?"
"The same as you." The Jailer suddenly had the strange feeling he was talking to a human.
Broken Fang said bitterly, "Frame a child as a spy and kill him? I thought only Ratfolk did that."
"None of your business!"
That gave the Jailer pause. He struck the iron bars, blustering, "Enjoy your last moments while you can!"
The Jailer left. Broken Fang sat silently on a pile of filthy, damp straw.
The dungeon was wretched, but he had endured worse.
"How interesting..."
A deep voice suddenly