The Library · NOTE
Chapter 80
Left for the Dogs
also called the fold-note, the dog note
A scrap nailed to the empty sheepfold in the departing family's hand — instructions for whoever came next to feed the guard-dogs they could not take, and an apology to the dogs themselves.
To whoever holds Foldfast after us:
The four dogs in the fold are good dogs and none of this is theirs. We could not take them where we are going — no room, no coin to feed them, and the road is long. Their names are Bell, Grip, Old Fen, and the small one the children called Nettle. Feed them and they will keep your walls better than any wage-man. Do not, and they will not forgive it, and I would not blame them.
We fed them this morning. If you are reading this soon, they will still come to a whistle.
(No one came soon. The dogs went feral on the Spur, and something the note does not mention — the ash-hounds out of the cold country — smelled the empty larder and denned in the cellar. The whistle would not bring anything back now but teeth.)