bucks.” Carson pushed the cage against the wooden building, and Copper twitched in surprise as a dark panel in a certain board opened and the cage slipped inside, the board acting as a door and closing over it again. Carson had obviously well prepared himself for this night.

The scheming man stood up and brushed the snow from his pants, and stepped into a patch of light.

“Freeze!” A hard hand came down on Carson’s shoulder, and the circle of light turned into the glow from a policeman’s lantern. Carson stiffened and tried to jerk away, but the policeman held him tight, and Copper could tell he was close to laughing. “So, it’s Nicholas Carson. We have a mighty long record with this dog-fighting business, don’t we? Decided we wanted to add another charge, didn’t we? Oh, and don’t worry. You’re not escaping this time, ol’ Carson. ‘Cause we’ll be watching your every move. Heh heh.” The policeman called over his shoulder as Carson ground his teeth. “Hey, I’ve caught our ol’ buddy Nick Carson! I think he started this whole ‘Borealis Fights’ thing, right, Carson?” Carson did nothing but grind his teeth, and he was led away to where dozens of police officers had managed to stop twelve of the sleighs out of twenty and arrested all the desperate men inside them.

Carson cautiously darted over to where the secret panel was and was about to push it open with his paw, when he stopped. Why was he doing this? This was Taya, the best fighter in the Northern Fights, and maybe even Steele’s daughter. If she found out he was Balto’s son, she would probably rip him to shreds. How could he release her? He had been thinking about maybe trying to release Taya, somehow, since last night, and again his thoughts worked in a similar pattern: ‘She’s had a terrible life. If I free her from Carson, she can find out there’s another side to life she hasn’t seen.’ Not at all sure of himself but knowing it was the right thing to do, he poked open the board and hooked his paw into what felt like a bit of wire. He pulled his paw back, and out came the cage with Taya almost touching nose to nose with him through the wire.

“Who are you?” Taya cried almost instantly, and Copper jumped back, wincing when his injured leg hit the ground. “What are you doing?”

“I’m a friend,” Copper said, examining the lock on the cage, “And I’m here to get you out.”

“Out?” Taya seethed, “My owner’s going to be back for me, so stop monkeying with the lock!” She swatted his paw away as he was about to insert a nail into it. Copper backed off, blowing out a hot breath.

“Carson’s not coming back for you. He got arrested, and it sounded like they’re going to be keeping a very close eye on him. Didn’t you hear?” Then he looked at her tattered and torn ears. Her hearing had more than likely been damaged in the Fights. “Oh…maybe not.” He stepped forward again, but was a little more cautious. “Anyway, he’s not coming back. And you can’t stay locked up in a cage like this under that panel. You’ll suffocate, or starve. You’ll die.”

“Then let me die,” Taya muttered, turning away and slumping to the floor, “I deserve it.”

Time fled like the blowing snow, and Copper stood there in the cold, emotionless and senseless and lifeless as ice. After everything, this was what it had come to. He was trying to do what was right, trying to do a favor for even a dog who could be his enemy, and she refused to cooperate. Refused.

Life never cooperated for him.

He didn’t even have the slightest liking for something that had been in his family’s blood for generations, racing. His sister had run away leaving him to worry, his dad didn’t understand him, his mom only half-understood…and now this. A resolution flared up in him that this time, he would make something cooperate with him if he had to kill himself.

“Alright!” Copper slammed a paw into the wire as hard as he could, making it jingle and Taya jump. “So you deserve to die! So you hurt and even killed a lot of those dogs in the ring! Maybe you deserve the worst death imaginable for all the torture and stuff you did to all those other dogs!...Well, guess what. Maybe you don’t.” Copper lowered his voice and stared hard into the blue glass of Taya’s eyes. They didn’t soften in the least. “You haven’t even seen the half of what’s out there in the world. It’s not all fighting and winning money and your owner whipping your hide off every chance he gets. Believe it or not, there’s some little things I like to call family…and love.” Copper was about to continue his rant, but was taken off guard when Taya snorted.

“Family,” she sneered, “Don’t think I’m completely ignorant. I’ve had a family. A lot of help they were.” She glared distrustfully at Copper. He could tell she wasn’t going to go on. She didn’t trust him at all.

“Alright,” he snapped, “Fine. Think of it that way. But whether you like it or not, I’m getting you outta here. No dog deserves to be like this.” His paw inched toward the lock again, but Taya snarled so ferociously at him that he drew back quickly. “I just want to help!”

“Don’t be so sure of it, hot shot!” Taya hissed. Her voice thickened into smugness. “How are you going to get the cage open? Your nails won’t work. You don’t even have the key!”

“I have the keys to the city,” Copper said softly, remembering the time his father, Balto, had told him that he had said those exact words when he was going to show Copper’s mother the polar ice caps for the first time. Copper caught Taya looking at him strangely, and, embarrassed, he hurriedly added, “Or to the cage, in this case.”

As the chow/malamute watched his every move, Copper carefully pulled out the nails holding the hinges of the cage door on with HIS nails, and the door swung open the opposite way, smashing the lock against the metal. He watched Taya’s face go from smug to amused to suspicious to downright amazed, all in less than ten seconds. She stared at him with her mouth hanging open, but then her blue eyes hardened and her mouth tightened into a thin line. Copper knew that he had come to another bump in the road with Taya. She didn’t trust him. She didn’t trust anyone except her caretaker and owner, Carson, and he wasn’t coming back.

‘Rescuing her is becoming a real pain in the…’ Leaving her would be easier, anyway. He didn’t have to do this. Yet his conscience kept tugging at him. Copper stepped aside, leaving the entrance open. “C’mon.”

“The door may be open, but I’m not going,” Taya growled, huddling into one of the back corners of the cage.

Copper’s heart fell apart for Taya. She was afraid; she was afraid of the world, of what she didn’t know, of the stranger she saw in him and any other living creature besides Nick Carson. She was afraid of herself and what she could become if she let him lead her away from all she knew. His heart felt sore just thinking about it.

“Taya,” he whispered, his eyes pleading with her, “Let me help you. C’mon.”

“No.”

Finally Copper came to a decision. He didn’t want to be rough with Taya, but there was no other way. He poked his head in and clamped his teeth around the fur on the scruff of her neck and pulled. The two tumbled out of the cage to land in a heap in the cold snow, Taya lying astonished beside Copper. Copper sprang up and slammed his back paws into the cage, and it sailed back into the secret panel with an ear-ringing clatter. The little door swung shut, never to be used again. Taya was free.

Sharp teeth grabbed him by the back of the neck and swung him so he landed on the ground on his back, winded. Oof! Taya stood over him, her blue eyes sparking like fuses hissing down until a bomb explodes. Copper suddenly realized she could kill him, and felt like slapping himself. He had just done one of the stupidest things in his life…and yet it was one of the best things, too. How did good and stupid get mixed up so much?

“I don’t want to fight,” he said softly, and looked up at Taya with what he hoped was a sincere expression. She studied him. Copper could almost feel her gaze scorching his face. He stayed as still as possible, so she would know he wasn’t up to anything, but when he felt his legs start to grow numb he got up, and Taya only watched, alert and angry as usual.

Copper shifted his legs to get the blood circulating in them, and when the tingling started he looked out into the dark night where the two sleighs that hadn’t been taken by the police had disappeared into. The walk back to Nome would be one of the longest and hardest journeys of his life. He knew this as snowflakes combed through his red and white fur and cold wind blasted into him. For once he actually appreciated how much a sled team could do with a journey like this ahead of them. The dogs could work together and share the burden, playing off each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and there was also a musher to partly guide them-

Taya padded up closer to Copper and glared at him. “Thanks for nothing, sap. This isn’t any different from that cage. I might as well just die out here anyway.”

“We’re going to get back to Nome,” he answered, still looking out into the black, “And we’re going to