The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 174: Rat

Scurry scurry.

Food smell. Bread smell. No human smell.

Creep creep. Sniff sniff.

No human smell. No cat smell.

Run!

Nibble nibble. Cheeks bulging. Eat faster. Nibble nibble gnaw gnaw gnaw.

Door slamming. Trap! Cage! Hand reaching, grabbing, pressing down.

Thrash! Bite!

Metal shining, rising high, coming down.

Squeak!

Thud.

"Tsk tsk, Piri," said Cassius when I entered Flicker's office again.

I was still a glowing black ball, but who knew how much longer that would last? I was pretty certain that I'd bitten the cook who grabbed me and beheaded me with a cleaver. Please don't let me have given her mad-dog disease. Please don't let me have given her the plague.

Cassius shook his head sorrowfully. "At this rate, in a few lives, you're going to drop back down to a bird."

Whew. I was expecting him to say "Green Tier." To be honest, being a sparrow hadn't been so bad. I recalled the feel of wind flowing over my wings, of gliding across the sky with Stripey. If only Bobo could have flown with us.

"You don't seem nearly as concerned as I thought you would be," Cassius observed. "For someone who's spent her lives clawing her way up the hierarchy by any means imaginable – and many unimaginable – you are remarkably blasé."

Pay attention, I scolded myself. You can't afford to daydream when you're dealing with Cassius.

I dipped a low, contrite bow, brushing the top of Flicker's head to encourage him while I was at it. Who knew how long he'd been prostrated on the floor, and that position had to be hard on his joints.

Heavenly Lord, if it is the will of Heaven that I reincarnate once more as a sparrow, who am I to complain? I couldn't resist adding, The Accountants are just.

The jab didn't perturb Cassius in the least. No matter how much the clerks revered the Accountants, to a god, they were no more than a higher class of servant. What could they do? Revolt and refuse to ply their abacuses?

"Are you hoping that reincarnating as a sparrow will allow you to see that peasant girl again?" I thought he was referring to Taila until he went on. "If so, best hurry and drop down the karma scale. The Goddess of Life will eliminate her sooner rather than later."

The Goddess of Life was behind the assassination attempt on Lodia? But why?

Not Aurelia? I blurted out. I mean, the Star of Reflected Brightness?

Savoring my shock, Cassius steepled his fingers like a villain from a marketplace play. Actually, marketplace play-actors would have done a better villain impersonation. "The Star of Reflected Brightness? My, my, that's quite an accusation. What evidence do you have against her?"

From floor level came a gasp. Cassius and I both surveyed Flicker, me with interest, Cassius with amusement.

"Because, you see, if you have evidence of malfeasance, I have a duty to warn my poor, besotted employee."

Flicker seemed to have stopped breathing. "You knew?" he breathed.

Cassius' fake benevolent smile was wasted on the nape of Flicker's neck. "But of course. I am, after all, Assistant Director of this Bureau. It is my duty to oversee the moral edification of my employees."