Human Rights (6 page)

But it did end. After the nap, we had one more game of Colors before the masters and mistresses collected their pets. One by one, I watched my friends—because they were my friends now. I had friends!—wave and leave. Another week until I would see them all again, and it seemed like such a long time away. Still, I was all smiles when Sir Jiat came for me, the house silent as Hosanna began the long process of cleaning up after pets and masters alike. Sir Jiat led me into his room, and he began to undress, tossing the used clothing into a basket.

Sir Jiat was unusually quiet, his ears back and tail still. He was unhappy. All I had to do was see his limp tail to know he was very unhappy. Why would he be unhappy? And then my heart dropped. We hadn't been quiet. Oh, no, I hadn't kept everyone quiet, and I was surely in trouble now. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. "I'm sorry," I rasped out.

"Sorry?" Sir Jiat lifted his head, those eyes sharp on me. "What are you sorry for?"

A blush rushed across my cheeks, down my throat. "I—I didn't keep... keep everyone quiet. We were too loud. I'm sorry I failed. It was a simple task, and I failed." I looked away, hoping he wouldn't see the tears in my eyes. "Will you beat me now?"

Sir Jiat growled low in his throat. "Beat you?"

"I... didn't obey."

"Beat you? Because you and your friends were enjoying yourselves?"

I looked up slowly, so confused. "But I disobeyed."

He sighed and walked into the bathing room, opening the taps to fill the tub with hot water. I followed, unsure. "I'm not going to beat you, Ewan, now or ever," Sir Jiat said, standing and facing me. "That isn't what this is about."

"You're unhappy." I shifted on my feet. "Why are you unhappy?" I asked. It was a small question, a simple question, and I dipped my toes into those waters, hoping not to drown.

"We lost a member of our organization this past week." He shut off the taps and stepped into the steaming bath. "Magistrate Chiaran, someone who was instrumental in our attempts to legislate human rights, fell from his roof two days ago. We lose so much ground with his death."

I had met Magistrate Chiaran once, several weeks ago, when he'd come to visit Sir Jiat. It saddened me that the jovial, tall Lion would never again laugh in my presence. I crossed the room to kneel beside Sir Jiat's tub. "I'm sorry he's gone," I murmured. "I liked his laugh."

Sir Jiat's hand reached out and cupped my face, a sad smile on his. "He had a good laugh and a good heart. I am certain there is another Magistrate that will help our cause, but I will miss Chiaran."

I turned my face into his touch, kissed his palm reverently. My master's heart hurt, and I wished I could heal it just a little. I had so many questions, and I hadn't been reprimanded for my first one, so I chose another. "I don't understand the full purpose of the Human Rights Movement. Victoria once told me that it was a movement of Felines and Canines that..." I blushed, not wanting to compliment my own species so brazenly, even if they had been Victoria's words.

"Tell me what Victoria said," Sir Jiat urged. "I know there is a question brewing in you, so out with it all, my sweet Ewan."

The way he said my name, calling me his, calling me sweet, made the blush all the deeper. "She told me that those who were a part of the Movement thought we shouldn't be bred and kept as pets. That... those of the Movement thought us intelligent, thought we should be equals." I tilted my head a little. "Is that what it is? Is that... how you see me?"

Sir Jiat leaned back against the rest of the tub. "Yes, in the simplest terms. Humans are enslaved. Beaten. Treated as nothing but prizes for our kind to own. It may have always been so, but just because it's always been doesn't mean it must always be." He cupped the water, let it slip through his fingers. "The Movement seeks to legislate equality. Free those who wish to be free, protect those who wish to remain owned. We want to see choice given to all Humans." His slitted eyes turned to me, and my heart began to pound. "We want to be able to love Humans as we love each other."

I shook my head, breathing quickly. "That is a crime. That will bring about any pet's death!"

Something shifted in Sir Jiat's gaze, but I didn't understand what I was looking at. "Sometimes, death must be risked to achieve progress. Outside this city, there is a colony, Ewan. It has Felines and Canines making lives side by side with Humans. No one is owned. There are no pets, no collars, nothing but love and determination to make a better world for ourselves and our children. The law in this city does not reach the colony, and while lawmakers here wish to keep silent the existence of the colony, many of us know of it. Many of us want to live there ourselves, but some must remain here to help change the laws."

"But,
how
?" My brow furrowed. How could a whole colony exist and no pet know of it? "How can such a place be?"

Sir Jiat smiled at me, an indulgent, soft smile. "Where there is a will, sweet Ewan, there is a way. As needed, we leave this city and never come back. But until circumstances dictate, we remain here, making changes where we can."

"And the meetings?"

"It is one small part of the whole. Such meetings happen all over the city, and word travels between each group. Ewan, it's about
change
. It has to start somewhere, and we've chosen to start that change with all of us." Sir Jiat sat up in the water so he could face me. "None of us force our pets to
be
pets. You are all loved, cared for, treated as much of an equal as we can without drawing eyes our way."

What he spoke of was wrong. It could mean death for me and imprisonment for him. I lifted my head, met his eyes. "All the pets, we're... we're all from the pound. You choose us."

Sir Jiat ducked his head, his smile bashful. "We don't support breeders, and we feel the pets abandoned in the pound deserve more than they're given. Yes, we choose you specifically. I've always chosen older pets to take into my home."

"Where are the others?" I asked, feeling bold and brash. "Are they dead?"

"No!" Sir Jiat sighed. "I have only been part of the Movement for about a decade. It isn't long, Ewan, and if I had an abundance of pets, it would draw attention to me. There were two before you. A forty-year-old female and a twenty-six-year-old male. Both were eventually relocated to colony as soon as I could reasonably arrange it. The female was first, and then the male. You're my third, Ewan."

Disappointment rolled through me, and I didn't know why. Suddenly, I wasn't special. It hurt. "You save us. After a little while, you send us on our way. Free us," I murmured.

"It's what the Movement does." Sir Jiat reached for me, but I pulled back. "Ewan, I'm sorry. I was trying to ease you into these truths."

I swallowed, my eyes stinging. I wasn't special. His gentle touches, his reading to me, his care for me... it was what he did for all pets he took in. It left me hollowed out, tired. "May I go to bed now?" I asked, my voice thick and uneven.

Sir Jiat sat back in the water. "Of course," he murmured. "I'll be in shortly."

"I would rather sleep in the second bedroom." In my grief, my boldness remained. "If you don't mind, Master."

"You are free to sleep wherever you wish." Sir Jiat was quiet for a moment, and then said, "I will miss your heat tonight."

I rose and turned my back to him. I blinked and two hot tears slid down my cheeks. There was nothing I could say to him. I left the bathing chamber. A glance to the bed, a bed I'd thought of as part mine since coming to Sir Jiat's, but it looked dulled and imposing now. It was where two before me had slept, and it was where all others after me would sleep. I walked from the bedroom I'd slept in for nearly five months and into the second bedroom saved for guests. It was what I was, after all. Just a guest in Sir Jiat's life. It had been such a prideful thought for me to have, expecting to be special and treasured, kept until my life wound down, but I'd been foolish. I'd fallen in love with a master who was transient. A master who was saving, not keeping, me.

In the dim room, curled up in the cold bed, I wept bitterly. My love wasn't returned, not even the slightest. It hurt in a way I'd never hurt before. I wallowed in my own misery until a light fell over my trembling body. Sir Jiat stood at the bedside, tall and pale and so beautiful it made my heart ache all the more. He held his hand out to me.

"One day, Ewan, I will take you to that colony. One day, we will leave this city behind and you'll be free, and I will be there with you," he murmured, voice warm and rumbling. "Come to bed."

I stared up into his face, those amber eyes reflecting the little bits of light in the room. There was nothing else I could do; I reached out and took his hand. He pulled me up, pressed me against his side, and led me from the cold spare room. With gentle hands, he put me under the covers of his bed, beside him instead of at his feet. He snuffed out all the lights and crawled in next to me, held me against the warmth of his body, and I wept anew.

"I thought... I wasn't special," I confessed.

Sir Jiat licked my cheek, his tongue rough against my skin. "You are special, Ewan," he whispered. "So special."

He held me as I wept. I was afraid. I was uncertain. I was hurt. I was in love with my master. I was so many things, some I didn't even know yet, but the one that followed me into the darkness of sleep was the one I wanted to be most of all: special.

Chapter Five

When dawn broke through the curtains and across my face, I rolled over, groaning softly. What I rolled into was soft fur that smelled of musk and the fine almond oil Sir Jiat liked. I cracked my eyes, peered up through my lashes. White fur and glittering amber eyes greeted me. A flush crept up my throat and face, but Sir Jiat didn't push me away. I think his arm even tightened around me. It was a safe feeling, a sense of belonging I held tightly to. All my life, I had wondered what this feeling might be like, and now I knew. But I also knew that it was a double-edged sword. Along with the belonging came the fear. Fear he would change. Fear he would cast me aside. Fear he didn't want me as I wanted him.

I couldn't let the fear rule me, though. I'd spent much of my life afraid, and I didn't want to spend what years I had left fearing. If my time with Sir Jiat was short, I wanted to revel in it as much as I could. I cleared my throat, chasing away the frog that had settled there in the night. "Master."

His paw-like hand came up to brush back my unruly hair. "I think, after all you went through last night, that you deserve a treat."

"A treat?"

Sir Jiat chuckled. "A treat, Ewan. There is a very nice groomer in the city center. Would you like to go there, be trimmed, cleaned, and made to sparkle like the diamond you are? We could then lunch at one of the nearby eateries." His hand slid across my shoulder and down my arm. "You have been kept inside so much, venturing out only when I go to one of my meetings. It's high time I showed you about."

Showed me about? I was nothing but a common mutt, nothing for my master to boast about. Or maybe I was. Sir Jiat had chosen me over all the others. He had entrusted me with his secrets. He'd told me I was special. I felt myself puff up a bit at that thought. "It sounds wonderful," I breathed, a smile coming to my lips. "I've never seen the city center."

"Then that's what we shall do today." Sir Jiat withdrew his hand, and I missed it immediately. "Hosanna should have breakfast ready for us soon, and then we will head out."

I've never eaten a meal as quickly as I did that breakfast. I was so excited about the prospect of the coming day that I couldn't slow down. I was done long before Sir Jiat, of course, and was forced to sit, impatiently squirming in my seat under his amused stare, as he calmly finished his meal. He wouldn't be rushed, and it only made my desire all the more insistent.

That excitement evaporated once we passed the boundaries of Sir Jiat's estate. I could see a few other pets being walked by their masters and mistresses, but none as old as me. I felt like an embarrassment to Sir Jiat, that he should have to be seen with such a disheveled creature at the end of his leash. Still, I kept to the brisk walking pace that Sir Jiat set for us, unwilling to be seen as difficult in addition to unkempt.

The city center was an explosion to my senses. So many new sights, sounds, and smells all around me. There were more pets than I had expected to see, more than I'd ever seen at one time, even in the pound. And with those pets were their masters. Males and females from the feline and canine lines, some chatting, some reading, all of them enjoying the unusual warmth of the day. Sir Jiat must have noticed my apprehension, because he began gently rubbing my back, instantly soothing my frazzled nerves. I focused on that touch, on the scent of my master, and the swirling chaos around me faded into something that I could handle. It was an affectionate touch, and it warmed me from the inside out.

Sir Jiat led me into the cool shadows of a shop off the main road, a little bell above the door ringing to announce us. A woman behind a bank of counters looked up from her papers and smiled at us.

"Jiat! It's a pleasure to see you again." Her icy blue eyes slid to me. She was all white, one of the canine breeds with pointy ears and fluffy fur along her body. "This must be the new pet you've kept hidden for the last season."