Chapter 49: The Rescue Had Stripes

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: The Rescue Had Stripes

Dante asked the attendant to stop beside the witness with the green wrist cloth before approaching the crate. He asked her to stay with the injured woman, then crouched far enough away that the animal could see him without having another stranger reach through its bars.

It had the narrow face and unsteady legs of a very young foal, but striped fur covered its shoulders and its front feet ended in padded paws. Pale mist gathered beneath two small wings whenever it struggled, vanishing before it reached the floor.

"I don’t know what you are," he told it, lowering his phone light. "That’s been happening a lot tonight, so please don’t take it personally."

The attendant tapped the EMPTY label. Dante pointed through the bars at the moving chest. "Then tell it, because it hasn’t noticed." He handed Anika his phone for light and made the man call the perimeter station. Whatever the label believed, he could hear something frightened inside.

Honey identified dry flowers in the restraint that reacted to movement, while Rhea sent a photograph through the attendant’s working connection. Blackwell’s search team had reached the gate after Ms. Lane’s call, and the responding officer told them to wait for a handler.

Dante stayed back and talked quietly about Jett’s dishonest cheese buns until the creature stopped throwing itself against the bars. "Neither had cheese, which I’m mentioning because trusting food is apparently how they catch beginners," he explained, resisting the urge to reach inside.

Rhea covered the bright side of the crate with her jacket, and Anika returned Dante’s phone before holding the fabric clear of the hinge without casting. The animal settled enough for Honey to point out where the restraint had tightened around the door hinge.

A loading bell rang farther down the path. Blue letters crawled from the trolley’s tag onto its wheels, and the crate rolled toward the closing service gate. The animal kicked against the tightening loop. Dante got between the trolley and the drainage channel before it gathered speed.

Dante braced his shoulder against the trolley and asked Anika to catch the side rail before the wheel reached the drainage channel. Rhea pressed the stop plate, but its light blinked without slowing the pull. Honey spotted the loading tag passing its reader and tore it free, cutting the command while Dante’s shoes scraped along the paving.

The trolley stopped with a wheel over the channel, pressing against Dante’s shoulder. He warned Anika when his footing slipped, and she braced her shoes while the animal struggled inside.

The search officer came through the gate with Professor Bell behind him and a handler carrying a folding support. Dante had never been so pleased to see the professor’s bald head or the indignant shadow bird riding his shoulder.

Professor Bell drew a barrier across the service lane and spoke the closing words, blocking the next trolley before it reached them. The handler positioned the support beneath the tilted crate while the officer held the base steady.

"Can you keep that corner level with the lift you’ve already practiced?" Professor Bell asked Dante. "Only to the height it was before, and release when I say."

Once the officer took the weight, Dante moved his shoulder clear and pictured the familiar practice gap beneath the sagging corner. He could hold that small distance without pretending he knew how to float an entire frightened animal.

Warmth gathered in his fingertips alongside the separate ache in his bruised knuckles. The corner rose too fast, so he shortened the imagined gap until the crate leveled, letting the handler slide her support underneath.

Success felt wonderful enough that he wanted Anika watching and Jett hearing about it afterward. Professor Bell’s reminder kept him focused while the handler checked the loop at the hinge, and Dante returned to his cheese complaint until told to lower the crate onto solid support.

The animal watched his face through the bars. He stayed where it could see him while the handler tested the support, fighting the urge to make the lift look effortless. Holding something small and steady was harder than his speeches had ever admitted. He waited for the signal before releasing it.

The warmth faded without fresh pain, leaving him pleased enough that he nearly missed Anika sitting down on the low wall beside Rhea. Neither woman was smiling at the successful lift. He looked back at his hand, unable to tell whether the sudden cold feeling in his stomach belonged to the spell or to seeing Rhea reach for the monitoring charm.

Rhea checked her wrist with the monitoring charm while the handler used the restraint’s marked release. A medic reached them as Rhea’s fingers shook against the charm and a muscle jumped in her forearm. She gave the earlier shield time and the check afterward without trying to hide the new reading.

Dante gave the medic his lift times, clearly naming which were estimates, while the handler opened the crate. Honey accepted a clean cloth to hold without arguing about her qualifications, speaking softly until the animal stopped flinching.

The injured resident went through the perimeter first with a medic and her treatment note. Anika followed after giving the officer her account of the defensive wind, and Rhea was asked to travel seated while they repeated her reading.

Dante gave Professor Bell the route photographs and checked that the witness strips were included. Honey saved his number, informed him that he still owed her a proper thank-you and stayed behind to make the court record the transport crate as occupied.

Dante saved the handler’s reference for Professor Helena’s sanctuary team. He wanted the creature to recognize him next time, but asked what the team needed rather than declaring it his newest possession.

He asked Professor Bell to record the lift beside Rhea’s check. He wanted to remember tonight as the time he saved something with magic, but Rhea had sat down while he was busy being pleased. Both things had happened, even if he hated seeing them together.

"Can I ask about visiting tomorrow?" he said, and the handler told him to call the sanctuary after its first check. He saved that instruction beneath the reference instead of giving it a name while everyone was busy. If the creature ever wanted to come close, he wanted it to be because he had become familiar, not because he had opened the door and decided it owed him.

At the response vehicle, Rhea showed the medic her earlier note. Her reserves had been steady after she ended the shield, but the newest drop had happened while she stood beside a spell somebody else was casting.