Salvia looked down at her footpaws. Never before had her old master or a guard treated her this kindly. Maybe she should trust, maybe this would be different. She shuddered. No! She was being set up. The only time creature she trusted was Ishmael. From her first day as a slave – tears sprang to her eyes at that painful memory – Ishmael had always apologized, very quietly, but he had apologized nonetheless, whenever he had to hurt her. It was as if he knew something she did not, something that intangibly bonded them together.

Heilen closed her eyes for a minute. Maybe she could gain Salvia's trust if she spoke in Salvia's dialect. Thinking hard, she said, "Salvia, I want to help you." Salvia's head jerked up, and she barely caught herself before she made eye contact with Heilen. She tensed, scared a whack or a kick might be coming. When Heilen did not move, Salvia relaxed slightly.

She began thinking intensely. Heilen had not even hurt her, which was even better than what Ishmael had had to do. Heilen had even spoken in her own dialect.

Heilen watched, Salvia's feelings pasted plainly on her face. She crouched in front of Salvia and placed a gentle paw on Salvia's shoulder. Another bad idea. Salvia immediately curled up, protecting her head and neck with her paws. "Salvia, I don't want to hurt you," Heilen said carefully, struggling slightly with the different dialect. "Why do you think I will?"

Salvia whimpered, then asked a question quietly, "Canamay Salviamouse speakatalk likeMasterHeilen isnow?" She tightened her ball, in case she was going to be punished for asking a question.

"Of course, Salvia," Heilen answered. She looked quizzically at Salvia. "Why were you afraid, just now, that I was going to hurt you?"

"I asked a question, Master, which is insolent behavior for a slave."

Heilen looked sadly at Salvia. "Salvia, I don't want to be your master. I want to be your friend."

Salvia did not bother uncurling, certain she was being set up. "I'm a slave Master. Slaves don't deserve friends; they aren't worthy." Heilen was disgusted, how dare somebeast basically tell this poor, poor creature she was not worthy of kindness and compassion. Heilen drew Salvia into a hug, saying, "Salvia, how did you get away from Grausam?"

Salvia flinched. Nobeast knew the story of her escapade. At the castle she had merely said she had escaped, not caring to share the details of her story with the creatures there. But now she had to answer, her master had asked her a question. Salvia murmured, "I had help, Master." Was that a good enough answer? Or was she going to be punished now? She tried to ball up, but Heilen held on tightly.

"Salvia, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Yes, Master," Salvia said simply, wondering when her master would spring a trap on her and hurt her. Heilen looked down her muzzle at Salvia, unconvinced that Salvia believed her.

"I want the truth Salvia," she said softly, "what do you think I'm going to do to you?"

Salvia flinched again, terrified. This was it, as soon as she answered, she would have to endure some kind of brutal punishment. "I thought you were going to beat me Master. Or starve me. Some kind of punishment Master, or I also thought you would make me do something humiliating."

It was Heilen's turn to flinch. She could never do something as cruel as torturing a helpless young one. "Did Grausam do all these things to you?"

Salvia nodded, and added glumly, "Not just him, Master. Almost everybeast else was very cruel as well." Then she gasped in horror, quickly clambering out of Heilen's arms and prostrated in front of the shrew. "Please forgive me Master." What had come over her?

"What is there to forgive Salvia?"

"I-I told you my opinion on something. Slaves aren't supposed to have opinions."

"Let me guess," Heilen said, almost mockingly, "you aren't worthy." Salvia nodded, tears forming in her eyes. Heilen immediately regretted her words. She tried to hug Salvia, but Salvia drew away. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Heilen apologized.

Salvia just shook her head. "Masters don't apologize to their slaves."

Heilen saw an opening and grabbed it. "See, Salvia, if I was your master, I wouldn't apologize, now would I?"

Wiping away her tears with a paw, Salvia said, "I suppose Master."

Heilen could not take it anymore. She thought if she heard herself called Master one more time she would explode. "Salvia, look at me," she said sternly. Salvia obeyed, looking at Heilen's footpaws. "No Salvia, look me in the eye." Salvia still hesitated.

"But Master-"

Heilen gripped Salvia's chin firmly, forcing her head up. "Look at me," she commanded again. Salvia finally obeyed, barely managing to keep eye contact. "Now let's get something straight," Heilen said. She reverted back to her normal gentle tone, "Salvia, I am not your Master. I am your friend." Salvia nodded in an unsure manner, lip quavering a bit, struggling to keep looking in Heilen's black eyes.

Heilen sat down, pulling Salvia down with her. She asked sadly, "Have you ever had a friend?" Salvia looked away, trying hard not to cry. Suddenly, she gave up trying, and began sobbing. It was all too much for her traumatized mind to handle. Heilen gently hugged Salvia again, and this time Salvia willingly let it happen.

"Who were your friends?" Heilen coaxed gently.

Salvia sniffed, trying to control herself. "Auster and Ishmael and…" she paused.

"Who else?" Heilen prodded again.

"My-my sister, I guess. But I'm not sure if she was a friend. She could be mean at times." Don't worry Sal, I'm gonna be a warrior, I'll get us fwee! "But, she…she's my sister. It would be wrong to hate her, wouldn't it?" Salvia looked up at Heilen, searching for an answer there. "But, I think she hates me." Tears began to flow again, Salvia's tunic front practically dripping now.

Heilen held Salvia closer. "How could she hate you?" Heilen did not understand, this creature, trembling and crying in her lap, was much too good to be hated.

"Ishmael helped me escape but not her. I'm sure she's jealous now, wherever she is…." Salvia's voice trailed off miserably.

"And who's Ishmael," Heilen asked. She noticed Salvia seemed to be relaxing as she opened up to the shrew. Maybe this was just the thing the young creature needed.

Salvia closed her eyes, thinking hard. "Our half-nephew."

Heilen cocked an eyebrow. "How in the world do you have a half-nephew?" she asked incredulously.

Salvia sighed deeply, "I think this is how it goes. Auster explained this to me."

"Pardon me for interrupting, but who's Auster?"

Salvia looked away again. "My guardian." Heilen looked at Salvia, understanding her eyes.

"Please continue," Heilen said.

Salvia fought to keep her voice from trembling. "I'm hazy on the details. Auster said I was too young to understand everything, but that she would tell me when I was older. Older never came," Salvia added bitterly. "It goes something like this. My father married unwillingly in his clan. It is called the Wustenrenn clan."

"Wustenrenn?"

"It comes from their word for gerbil. The whole clan is of gerbils."

"They speak a different language?" Heilen could not help but find the whole story very fascinating.

Salvia nodded. "I can speak it too. I learned it from my old ma-" She bit her lip. "From Grausam." Her voice trembled as she spoke his name without the title of Master or Captain in front of it.

"He actually taught you?" It made no sense that somebeast as cruel as Grausam seemed to be would teach his slaves anything.

Salvia shook her head this time. "No, I just picked it up. He used it all the time with his guards so I wouldn't understand. I heard it for seasons and just began to understand it.

"But anyway," Salvia continued, "around this time my mother left her clan, the Kurz clan, to join the rogue clan."

"Kurz?"

Salvia blushed. "I don't actually know what it's called, but that's how Gr-grausam referred to it. So, somehow they both ended up in the rogue clan. There's more to it, but Auster wouldn't explain." Salvia took another deep breath. "My father remarried to my mother, and then they had me and Yomi."

"Pardon my asking, you don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, but was your mother a gerbil as well? You don't look completely gerbil."

"Auster told me she was a hamster. The only feature I really got from her was my cheek pouches. Auster said Yomi looks a lot more like her.

"Then…then they died. Auster wouldn't say, but I think my father was murdered. My mother…I don't know. I wish I did." Salvia's voice was beginning to lose emotion as she talked of past, painful events of which she knew very little.

"But that still does not explain how you have a half-nephew."

Salvia closed her eyes, imagining Auster telling her all of this again. Once she thought she had the story correct, she continued, "Apparently, even though my father and his first wife did not really love each other, 'they had to love each other so there would be somebeast to succeed them to the throne,'" Salvia quoted Auster. She laughed mirthlessly, "I did not quite understand that when I was little, but now I do."

Heilen nodded, but looked a little stunned. It began making sense. Before she could interject, Salvia finished the narrative. "So, as rumor has it, my father's first wife bore a son soon after he had left." She took a painful breath. "Grausam, my half-brother. My Master," she spat. "Then Grausam married and had a son, Ishmael."

"Hold on a minute," Heilen said. "That makes you royal, doesn't it!"

Salvia shrugged. "I guess so."

Heilen smacked herself on the forehead. "No wonder Grausam enslaved you and Yomi. He wanted you out of the way!"

Salvia shook her head, confused. "I don't understand."

"Is Grausam's mother still living?"

"I-I don't know."

"She must not be. Because, think about it, if Grausam was greedy and power-hungry enough, which he seems to be," Salvia nodded, "if she was dead, he would be King of the clan, wouldn't he?"

Salvia nodded, the truth dawning on her as well. "He must have thought if you and Yomi figured it out, you would assassinate him and Ishmael and then you would become the Queen. Which one of you is older?"

Salvia looked away again. "We're twins," she said shyly. "Auster didn't know who was older, but she always said it was me." Salvia paused a minute. "That means if the two of them died, I would be Queen."

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Yomi awoke, finding that the once-fiery pain in her side had diminished to a dull ache. She twitched when she felt Spion place a paw on her shoulder. "Ishmael wants to know how your feeling," he said slyly.

Yomi accepted a warm canteen from the gerbil. Resting her head on the pillow, she said, "I was hallucinating. You can't fool me now Spion." She glanced down at the canteen. "And what are you trying this time, poison? I'm not stupid."

Spion shook his head and replied indignantly, "I wouldn't try and poison you! It's tea with blue vervain; it'll help with the pain. I gathered some while you were sleeping. Enough to last us the length of our journey." Yomi sniffed the tea warily. It was blue vervain sure enough. She took several long pulls from the canteen.

Then, suddenly, she glared up at Spion. "I'm not going with you," she spat.

Spion sat down next to where Yomi was lying on the floor of the burrow. A reasonable, if condescending, expression settled onto his face. "Well, you just hobble back on home to the fortress. I'm sure Grausam will understand." A split second later his muzzle was pressed against Yomi's. She closed her eyes as his hot breath swirled around her head. "Listen friend," a heavy paw at Yomi's throat suggesting he was otherwise, "You have to do what I say. Ishmael's gone. Do you think there's actually a chance he'll make it back? That oaf. Too noble for his own good."

Yomi's eyes darkened. Spion noted with a sense of satisfaction that tears were forming behind her eyes. Closing her eyes, she murmured, "Ishmael can take care of himself. He'll be fine."

"Ah, he may turn out all right in the end. But what of us? Grausam would simply kill both of us."

"But you said yourself," Yomi spat angrily, pulling herself up into a sitting position, "Ishmael's too noble. He might be able to turn you in, but he wouldn't do it. And he's practically bound to not turn me in. We're-"

"You're what? Friends? Family? Ha! Don't make me laugh. Ishmael could have saved you from day one. And besides, I heard you arguing with him all the time. He would never agree to free the slaves, would he?" Yomi flinched visibly, as if she had been struck.

Averting her gaze, she said almost inaudibly, "But he was nice to me."

Spion scooted closer to Yomi. He placed his paw on hers. "Then you have a pretty poor definition of nice. He didn't value the fact you put your life on the line spying everyday, did he? He didn't value the fact you would have to do your work, do his work, then go down to your cell and get no reward, did he? He didn't-"

"Stop." Yomi did not scream, or even yell, but her voice was like venom. Supporting herself with a paw on the side of the burrow, she managed to stand up, being so short her head came below ground level. "You have no idea what my relationship was with Ishmael."

Spion did not even bother looking up. "Well, I can figure it out. You're not exactly best pals, are ya?" A horrified expression flitted across his face for a moment. He looked up hastily, "You're not in love are you?"

Yomi did a quick jig-like dance, rubbing her paws on her arms, as if trying to brush the idea off her. "Ew ew ew! And have puppies with six toes? No thank you!"

Spion also stood up, being unnaturally short as well. "So, that leaves a working relationship." He spun around, and placing his paws on her shoulders murmured into her left ear, "And working relationships die easily if there's somebeast else that can take the place of the other beast."

Yomi whirled around, grabbing her side ruefully afterwards, then knocked Spion's paws from her shoulders in disgust. "You want me to work with you?"

Spion bowed mockingly. "With me, for me. Take your pick."

"For you? I would never do that! Don't suggest such horrible things, gerbil!"

Spion lounged easily on the side of the burrow, reveling in his power. "Resorting to insulting your own heritage? I didn't think you'd sink that low."

Yomi backed up, feeling for the exit of the burrow. "I'm nothing like you!"

Spion grabbed Yomi by her throat in one swift movement. Whispering fiercely, "You're everything like us, halfbreed. Just by saying that, you're pinning your true colors on your sleeve. Don't deny it – you know it's true."

Yomi growled. "Your in no place to say such things about me, spy."

"Ha. You're a spy too, you know." Thinking quickly, Spion came up with what he considered quite a good plan. Of course, he thought all of his plans were good.

"At least I give my information, and I give it to the good side."

"It all depends on your definition of good. I could easily say I work for the good side because Grausam takes care of you pesky lot."

"But we were enslaved," Yomi shouted angrily.

"And I could argue slavery is good." Yomi growled again, deep in her throat. Hyperventilating for a few moments to release adrenaline into her blood, she suddenly lunged at Spion, the adrenaline killing any pain she normally would have felt in her side. Spion, guessing this was coming, easily dodged. Thrusting out his right paw, he slammed Yomi against the wall of the burrow. Rolling quickly over the wall, he placed his dirk point at Yomi's throat.

"Yes, but here you're making the assumption that Ishmael used your information for good." Spion grinned inwardly as Yomi's face went ashen.

"He didn't!"

"He most certainly did!" A single tear ran from Yomi's eye.

Almost inaudibly, "He lied to me. He lied to me. And I thought he was risking his life too…." Spion relaxed his dirk so Yomi could slide down onto the floor of the burrow. Her eyes went blank as she kept murmuring over and over, "He lied to me. He lied to me." Soon tears began to fall thick and fast down her face. She didn't bother to wipe them away, just sat there, twisting her paws back and forth in her lap.

Spion took full advantage of the situation he had just created with his lie. Ishmael was too noble for his own good; there was no way he'd ever sell Yomi's actual information to Grausam. But Yomi seemed too traumatized by those few words Spion had spoken to think logically and clearly.

He slid down beside her, drawing her into his lap, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. "Was I that blind, Spion," she moaned. He simply nodded. She clenched her paws. "I've been such an idiot."

"What if I said I knew how to fix your mistakes?"

Yomi looked up, hope shining in her dripping eyes. "Tell me."

Spion began to gently stroke Yomi's headfur. "Just think logically. Who's the problem?"

"My heart says Ishmael, but my mind says Grausam." She looked angrily at the floor.

"Ah, but your mind should not only say Ishmael as well, it should say…Salvia."

Yomi jerked, looking back up at Spion. "What?" She gasped. "I don't understand."

"Just think about it for a minute. This whole problem comes from the fact the Grausam is the leader of the Wustenrenn clan. Correct?"

"What are you getting at, Spion?"

"Well, supposing Grausam had, ah, an unfortunate 'accident'. Who's next in line?"

"Ishmael," Yomi spat.

"Exactly," Spion agreed. "Then after that?"

Yomi paused for a moment, stunned by the thought.

"Salvia." She leaned back on Spion, amazed. She had never pondered who would be next to rule the Wustenrenn clan. It had seemed like Grausam would go on forever, killing and torturing and capturing slaves, building a fortress, generally being evil.

Spion grinned wolfishly. "And after that?"

Yomi's heart was pounding in her ears. "Me…," she said breathlessly.

"I knew you'd catch on. Now, suppose all three, Grausam, Ishmael, Salvia, all," Spion snapped his fingers, "disappeared."

"Wait," Yomi said in a panic, "You can't kill Salvia."

"Relax, relax, just hear me out. Notice I used the word disappeared. Grausam and Ishmael can just disappear more permanently than Salvia."

Yomi's brow furrowed. "Where would Salvia go?"

"A queen's advisor doesn't necessarily tell her everything right away. Fro her own protection of course."

Yomi gaped. "You-you-you mean, you'd help me become queen of the Wustenrenn clan?"

Spion smiled, and nodded. "There's one regrettable catch, though. When we travel, you'll have to act as my slave. We're much less likely to be attacked if I have the prestige of owning a slave."

Yomi took a deep breath, then nodded in reply. Spion placed a comforting a paw on her shoulder. "That's my brave future queen."

Yomi gingerly stood up, asking, "Why are we going after Salvia first? Wouldn't it make more sense to go after Ishmael and Grausam?"

Spion shook his head. "Salvia's position is relatively unknown, and her movements are, for now, erratic, because her current situation is unknown as well. Grausam's always going to be in or near his fortress or somebeast there will know where he is. Same thing with Ishmael. So, we get the hard disappearance out of the way."

Spion stood up as well. Kissing Yomi's paw, he said, "Shall we journey, my Queen?"

A/N: This is my longest chapter yet - over 3000 words - and I can tell from my hit counter that more people are reading this. So, please please please please review. Constructive criticism is appreciated.