13

The doctor shuddered as he walked through the ancient tunnels that were beneath the city of the Highlands. He had little idea where he was going, just that he had been sent here by letter.

He walked along, guided by a torch that lit the way about three feet ahead of him. The walls loomed out in front of him like monsters. The silence was getting to be unbearable.

The doctor tried calling out, but there was no answer. He hefted his medical supplies and called again. Still no answer came from him.

Listening for a few moments, the doctor decided that it had been a joke meant to make a fool of him. Angrily, he turned to leave the way he came.

Suddenly he heard footsteps. Whipping around, he saw a pretty young hare approach him.

She waved frantically with her paw to follow him, "This way, doctor. Please."

The two of them entered a small cave lit with a golden glow of a lantern.The doctor set to work immediately. The patient had been beaten, burned, and dragged along the ground.

Thornback moaned, and there was something savage in his moan. He struggled furiously against Harmonia's and the doctor's grasps, and screamed in the pain that he was in. The doctor saw immediately that Thornback had broken two ribs at least, and he had third-degree burns on his face and shoulders.

The more Thornback struggled, the more it hurt him, but he could not stop. He was hallucinating, and he was still fighting the hares in Taskill's lair.

Harmonia, in the end, took a portion of ether, and applied it to Thornback's mouth and nose. Coughing feebly, he fell into a drugged sleep.

The doctor sighed, "Thank you, miss. Your friend would have killed one of us if he could have." He began to examine the badger, grimacing at the wounds inflicted on his body.

One of Thornback's eyes was almost hidden by swollen bruising, and the other eye had been extremely lucky to not get burned by a poker thrust on the badger's snout. His shoulder bone was chipped, and he had swallowed two teeth.

Thornback was going to spend a while down here, the doctor thought as he worked. He was himself a neutral character, and he hated the gangs and their wars.

Harmonia saw the damage, and wept over the agony that Thornback must be feeling. She had never seen a creature so brutally hurt by the purpose work of others. Was this how far the Highlands had fallen? How could there ever be hope of a decent city again?

The following days went quickly for Thornback, but for his friends it was agonizingly slow. Maon, Harmonia, Skipper, Jander, Raga, and Earnan all spent long days in the caverns, watching over Thornback. Priam came down frequently as well, and he told Thornback stories of what was going on. It was hard to tell whether Thornback listened or even heard them: he stared into space, at least when his eyes were open. He barely moved, ate slowly, and he never spoke.

Thornback thought of little, until June and Talia came to see him one day. It was their turn to look after him and dress his wounds. However, as soon as he saw them, reality hit Thornback as hard as a boulder rolling down a hill. He screamed and wept, gibbering apologies to the sisters, and a firm-faced Raga had sent them away.

Shane was dead. Thornback still heard the otter's screams as he was nailed to the wall. The otter's corpse had been lynched on one of the trees growing in the town squares, until a rescue party had taken the body from its place of humiliation.

Talia and June had grieved, but it hurt them even more to see how Thornback was reacting. His grief was not helping his recovery, and he could not be persuaded that they did not blame him.What they didn't know was that Thornback knew who it was to blame: Ben, the damned mercenary all the way to the end. It had been Thornback who had met him, Thornback who had persuaded Ben to come to the Highlands, and Thornback who had loved Ben like a friend.

Raga was furious at Taskill, and had spoken out in the streets, swearing that Taskill was a terrorist and a tyrant. He stated that Taskill would fall to the forces of the right, but his message was not received with much vigour. If they approved, they wouldn't show it while the Nativists ruled.

Maon was hesitant to start a gang war. He was going to be a father, and he did not want his leverets to be fatherless. Priam, too, wanted peace for the moment, knowing that to resist now was stupid and wasteful. Shane's death had been a reproof to them, and they would learn from it, no matter how humiliating the victors were.

All of this was lost on Thornback, who dwelled on his self-pity, his throbbing pains, his grief at Shane's death, and his rage at Ben's betrayal.

A season passed, and there was no news of great importance to give. It seemed, to Thornback, as though the world waited for him to recover. He sat silently in the cavern for ages and ages, starting to ebb away from his withdrawal. He began to think about the clue again, but every time he dwelled too hard on it, he would think of his humiliation and Shane's death.

One day, Harmonia and Thornback were both napping on opposite sides of the earth walls, when a figure, carrying a lighted torch, entered the little cave.

Harmonia woke instantly to the new sound, and pulled a small knife from her belt. Standing up to confront the character, she saw his face in the light of the torch, and she relaxed.

Thornback had awoken from the smell of the smoke. He heard a vaguely familiar voice,

"It's alright, there, miss Harmonia. I just want to talk to our damaged friend. That's all I want."

Thornback turned around to see who it was, and with a thrill of horror and fury, he saw that it was Ben.

Ben! Thornback was so racked up with emotion that he couldn't speak. He only stared wildly at the raccoon. Ben was still dressed in his top hat, and his usual brown coat, dark green vest, and white undershirt. A gold pocket watch was added to the coat, and he did not carry his shillelagh with him. He looked tired and mildly wretched. 'Fucking serves him right!' Thornback raged, but his tongue seemed to have been frozen. He remembered that Harmonia had applied a pain-killing drug to his sore jaws and his tongue felt deadened.

Ben looked right into Thornback's eyes, and walked towards him. He approached as though he feared Thornback would jump up and strike him.

The raccoon turned to Harmonia, "Get some rest upstairs: I'll look after him down here, Harmonia." The female hare hesitated, but was relieved at the replacement watchdog, and she left with a nod of thanks.

Ben walked over to the other side of the room, watching her leave. Thornback did not break his stare. The raccoon spoke to the badger without even looking at him.

"I've got ninety-three notches in my shillelagh now. I never thought I'd have so many, really: it seemed like I would die before I made so many kills."

He turned to the badger and walked forwards, "My father rejected me too, Thorn. He and my mother had lost our only daughter, and she had always been their favourite child. I was pushed into leaving them, and I doubt they even cared."

Thornback felt a pang of sadness, but he hardened his heart and said nothing.

Ben's face was grim, "You and I, Thornback, our story is as old as the beginning of time. I also know what you've been feeling. You've lost faith in your father and your older brother, and you've been looking for replacements. You'll never admit it, but you know it's true. To you, Ebs was a father, and I was an older brother, one who'd heard the owl and seen the wolf. Ebs died, and you turned to me, as the older brother you never had. Now I've hurt you as much as Roaveen probably did, but not nearly as much as you think."

Thornback said nothing, but fumed at the parallels in Ben's words. He had indeed found a father and brother figure in Ebs and Ben. It was almost a fixation, and he had taken for granted that he would not be disappointed.

But that did not excuse the betrayal: Ben had sold Thornback and Shane out to the enemies. Ben could surely not talk his way out of this!

Thornback felt the effects of the pain killer start to wear off, and he turned around to speak thickly, "You sold my hide! Shane is dead!"

Ben gave a twitch of his jaw, "Taskill tried to hire me to kill you."

Thornback shuddered, and waited for the rest.

Ben paused, and spoke again, "He'd been after me for some time now, wanting me to put my shillelagh through your skull. He'd have made me a rich beast, he said, and he always left with the same answer from me; no. He got more and more threatening, until I realized I'd be murdered in my sleep if I said no one more time.'

'Not only that,' Ben continued, 'but you got strange ideas in your head, and you would have gotten yourself killed if you continued on without an intervention. I made a bargain: you get caught, and the Black Rabbits get humiliated, but you and I both live. Why do you think you reached Taskill's quarters so easily? He was expecting you the whole time, because I told him how you'd be arriving."

Thornback glared, "And Shane?"

Ben shook his head angrily, "Damn you, Thornback, Shane would have killed himself if he had to! He couldn't stand life anymore, so he needed a way to go, but a way to go with honour. He wanted to take Taskill with him, and then cut his own throat even as Taskill breathed his last. I even saw him practice the suicide!" He shuddered uncontrollably, remembering how Shane had dragged the knife blade across his neck in a strange caress.

Thornback was disturbed by this, but he had to go on, "So let's say that you wanted to save my life, then why did you go to his room and talk to him about it?"

Ben gave him a cold, angry stare, and reached for his coat pocket. He drew out a little scroll.

The missing clue to the puzzle of the King's Scroll.

Ben growled, "I thought you'd think of that one yourself."

Thornback was stunned beyond belief. Ben had betrayed him to help him the whole time. He had done his best, and his best had worked.

Ben stood up and looked at the door, almost absent-minded in his bitterness, "Wow, I'm sick of doubt. Living light a certain south, cruel bindings: the servants have the power: dog men and their mean women, pulling poor blankets over our assailers."

He lowered his head, and walked out of the cave, leaving Thornback to think about whether he had lost Ben after all.