Judy didn't know what she had expected after Bogo's ominous pronouncement. That he had somehow figured out one particular culprit, perhaps, and he wanted Nick and her along to make sure the mammal's arrest went smoothly. That had seemed like the best case scenario. At worst, perhaps his suspicions of Nick had flared up again, and it was all a ruse to get him locked in a cell. What actually happened, though, was far less dramatic than either of those possibilities. Bogo had simply brought the two of them to his carriage, and then began writing letter after letter in stony silence.

Judy had dared trying to interrupt him once, shortly after he had finished his first letter and sealed it with wax, but her question had been met with a response that was as curious as it was brusque. In answer to "Sir, is there anything Captain Nicholas and I can do while you work?" Bogo had said only, "I need the two of you to stay in my sight."

With that, the buffalo had dived back into his work, silent as ever. He had even rebuffed the queen's questioning before leaving her carriage; when she had asked him what he was thinking, Bogo had merely said, "I'll let you know as soon as I'm sure, your majesty."

His tone had been mildly apologetic, something Judy wasn't sure she had ever heard in his voice before, but the queen had accepted the answer with a slight nod. Excepting Judy's own futile attempt at getting an answer, Bogo had remained silent, the only noise in his carriage the slight creaks and groans as it moved and the whispering sound of the tip of his pen across paper. Standing where Bogo had left them, near the door to his carriage, Judy couldn't make out the surprisingly small and neat script her commanding officer wrote with, but he seemed to be agonizing over each word. More than once, he had crumpled up a sheet and thrown it aside to start with a fresh piece of paper, but it wasn't as though he was doing anything so interesting as to keep her attention. With Bogo's very strongly implied desire for silence, she couldn't even speak with Nick—whose features seemed set into an expression of mild interest as he stood at her side—and although she might have actually welcomed the sly words of the Nick she had imagined while exhausted, Judy was alone in her head.

It gave her time to think, and too much time at that. She tried to push aside her own desire to spend time alone with Nick—it just didn't seem fair that they had barely had a moment to themselves yet—and focus on the mystery of what Bogo was planning. He had been frustratingly vague when explaining how Cencerro had confessed, and while it certainly made sense for the ewe and Diego Cencerro to be co-conspirators considering their relation it still told Judy very little. She supposed it might have been possible for Diego Cencerro to sweep Phoenix with mercenaries after she and Nick had been locked up; it would explain why the city had looked oddly abandoned. Maybe he had enough loyal mammals to go from building to building, wearing the right uniforms and demanding that the residents went along quietly. But if that was the case, what had happened to the mammals who had lived in Phoenix? And why had Cencerro then chosen to use the banner of the Betrayer for his mercenary army?

Judy supposed it was possible that Diego Cencerro had been more monstrous than she had even thought—the crevasse surrounding Phoenix was too deep to see the bottom of, after all, and if he had thrown innocents down into those murky depths there'd be no sign of them—but it still made her uneasy. Bogo's own feelings, however, were impossible to determine. Sometime after her one question—it might have been mere minutes or maybe even hours, as time stretched interminably without any distractions—they were finally interrupted.

The simple routine of exchanging pass phrases with the guard who wanted entry was something to do, at least, and the possibility that Bogo was about to be attacked as the princess had been brought Judy back to full alertness. All it ended up being, though, was a report that in searching Alba Cencerro's belongings, the twin of the code book she and Nick had recovered from Diego Cencerro's office had been found. Bogo had grunted at this news, seeming completely unsurprised, and had asked if any messages had been recovered along with it. When the answer came back in the negative, Bogo seemed to lose all interest in the code book whatsoever, simply gesturing vaguely for it to be put on his desk and then returning to his work.

Shortly after that interruption, another one came, and with it Judy felt the same gathering tension in every fiber of her being. She felt somewhat abashed at it; it wasn't as though she hoped that someone would attack Bogo, and with Diego Cencerro dead and Alba Cencerro securely locked away the risk didn't seem particularly great. Unless they hadn't acted alone, and she was keenly on edge as she went through the ritual of allowing another guard in.

Bogo's interest seemed piqued to a far greater extent by the autopsy report on Diego Cencerro, which confirmed what Nick had suspected. Some form of alchemy had turned just about everything in his head under the skin into sand, which must have killed him nearly instantly. There had been no trace of what had been used to do so, however, and the court alchemist could offer only guesses. Judy found herself listening keenly to the report, but it wasn't simply in an attempt to stave off the boredom of having nothing to do but watch Bogo see to his correspondences; she had a genuine interest in hearing the information. Perhaps she could also spot what Bogo had, or maybe even something that he hadn't.

She didn't, though.

Whatever truth or hunch Bogo had come across and decided to hold tightly to his chest, it wasn't obvious to her, and from the way Nick's expression didn't change throughout she supposed the same was true for him. Diego Cencerro had apparently committed suicide using a small alchemical device rather than be captured, but why had he killed himself while Alba Cencerro had given herself up? And what had his final words meant? He had tried calling Bogo something, but didn't seem capable of getting the words out. And then he had said nothing more than "bigger picture."

Judy herself certainly couldn't see the bigger picture, and while she tried puzzling the pieces together she was almost too deeply focused to notice when Bogo's carriage came to a gently stop sometime after the guard who presented the autopsy report had left. At that, Bogo looked up at last. "Check if we're outside Phoenix now," he said, and Judy eagerly obeyed the order largely to have something to do.

After first checking with the guard keeping pace outside the carriage that all was clear and opening the door, Judy saw Phoenix again with her own eyes. The city looked largely the same as it had the last time she had seen it, with the notable exception that the army surrounding it was gone. It was more than a little eerie, seeing the settlement so close again, the carriage no more than three hundred meters away from the massive crevasse that surrounded it, without any sign of life. There didn't seem to be any sounds whatsoever coming from Phoenix, neither of residents or invaders, and when Judy reported that it was all clear, Bogo nodded. "Phoenix really does appear abandoned, then?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Judy replied crisply, "And the bridge is still out."

Exactly as I reported was an addition she thought but didn't say; if nothing else Bogo could see the truth of her words with his own eyes. "Then Alba Cencerro seems to have been telling the truth about some things," Bogo said, and then he pushed himself up from his desk and approached the door.

He began barking out orders to one of the guards, demanding that sentries be posted circling Phoenix, and that preparations be made for repairing the bridge. "But no one crosses until I order it," he added, "Is that clear?"

The guard snapped to his orders eagerly, but if the simplicity of his orders was clear to him they still didn't make much sense to Judy. It didn't seem unreasonable to expect that it was some kind of trap, but of what sort Judy couldn't say. The wastelands of the Outer Baronies were simply too empty to have anything to hide behind, and if mammals tried popping out of hidden tunnels from the ruins under Phoenix Bogo simply had too many mammals on his side to make it anything but a slaughter at the choke points.

Surely, though, it made sense to send at least a few scouts into Phoenix to investigate, whether it was by repairing the bridge or sending someone on a reverse of the escape that Judy and Nick had made from Phoenix. But Bogo didn't seem inclined to do so, instead spending perhaps another fifteen minutes finishing a letter before sealing it with wax as he had the others. "It's time," Bogo said, standing up, "Take these."

He gestured at the neat little stack of letters he had left on his desk, and Judy picked them up carefully. The one on top was addressed to the queen, but there was also one addressed simply to a Maria (which Judy suspected might be one of his generals), one to the princess, one to Tzitz Quit, and rather surprisingly, one to her. "I'm afraid I can't explain everything now," Bogo said, seeming to catch the expression that crossed Judy's face when she saw her own name in Bogo's neat script across one sealed letter, "But I want to tell you this: in the letter I wrote to the queen, I say you have my full confidence and approval for whatever decision you're about to make."

"Sir?" Judy asked, not even trying to keep the confusion out of her voice.

"You'll understand," Bogo said with a strange sort of finality to his words.

Judy exchanged a quick look with Nick, who seemed as puzzled as she was. Bogo didn't seem to have noticed and stood up straighter behind his desk. "Come with me now," he said, and he walked for the door.

Once they were out of the carriage, Bogo seemed to completely ignore the controlled chaos of the army setting up their circle around Phoenix, his attention focused solely on where he was walking. To Judy he looked almost like a condemned prisoner breathing fresh air for the last time on the way to his execution. His behavior was baffling, and Judy felt her skin crawl beneath her fur. It was almost like watching Diego Cencerro's last moments, but Judy couldn't say how. Bogo seemed to be in full control of himself, and he walked slowly but purposefully through the throngs of members of the City Guard before stopping in front of a rather unremarkable carriage. "How is he?" Bogo asked, nodding toward the carriage's door.

The guards outside the carriage snapped to attention. "Awake, sir," one of them said.

Bogo nodded. "We'll be going in to see him," he said, and with no small amount of trepidation Judy followed him.

The interior of the carriage was rather unremarkable compared to Bogo's, and positively utilitarian compared to the queen's. It was nothing more than rough wooden walls and floors, windowless and with a single alchemical torch in a cheap fixture overhead. It was barely large enough for Bogo to stand in, and completely empty except for a single piece of furniture, a bed with a rather fat pig in it. Judy recognized the pig as Esteban Cerdo, one of the members of the queen's council, although it took her a moment. The pig looked positively ill, and the harsh light of the alchemical torch gave his pink skin an unhealthy pallor to it.

"Lord Cerdo was poisoned before I could question him," Bogo said to Judy, as if that explained anything before he turned to face the pig, "I'd like to speak with you now."

Cerdo's eyes, almost lost beneath the fat folds of his face, were nevertheless bright and alert, and he nodded. "Anything I can do to help, Lord Bogo," he said, his voice somewhat weak, "And is that Commandant Totchli and Captain Nicholas with you?"

Bogo nodded. "Lady Cencerro has confessed to her guilt in the plot to kill the princess," he said, speaking slowly, "And to having been involved with her cousin Diego's scheme in Phoenix. She's working on writing a confession as we speak."

"Lady Cencerro?" Cerdo asked, his face resolving itself into an expression of confusion, "I can't believe she'd do such a thing!"

"Indeed," Bogo replied.

Judy got the sense that Bogo was examining Cerdo's face with intense scrutiny, but what thoughts were running through the buffalo's head she couldn't even guess at. Why had he wanted her and Nick to be present for this? Nick was looking at Cerdo with puzzlement himself, as though he was also wondering why Bogo was so eager to talk to the pudgy and bed-bound pig.

"But you've caught the culprit," Cerdo continued, "I suppose congratulations are in order, Lord Bogo. I suppose all that's left to do now is mop up Diego Cencerro's mess in Phoenix and put anyone we find to justice before we head home and put this terrible crime behind us."

"No one's going into Phoenix," Bogo said, "It's a trap."

Cerdo chuckled, and suddenly his voice didn't sound so weak. "Obstinate as always, Lord Bogo. You will order your troops to advance into Phoenix. And stay where you are for now."

"I will," Bogo repeated.

Judy's attention flew from Cerdo to Bogo, utterly confused about what could make Bogo's entire demeanor change so entirely. "Sir, what's going on?" Judy asked.

"What gave it away?" Cerdo asked, his question directed at Bogo.

"Lady Cencerro said I'd be getting a message about Alfonso giving her up," Bogo replied.

He hadn't moved from where he was standing, and Judy herself felt almost rooted in place. Cerdo had casually given the head of the City Guard an order, and Bogo seemed to have every intention of obeying it. What's more, he was speaking as though he was behind the attacks.

"All of that from so little a slip up?" Cerdo said, shaking his head with an expression of amazement, "You really are quite good, Lord Bogo. Please, walk me through your logic."

"Lady Cencerro couldn't have known I sent a message to the prison asking to interrogate Alfonso further," Bogo said, "And Alfonso being involved simply doesn't make any sense. But the last time I went to the prison, you were there."

Cerdo nodded sagely. "And from that, you made the leap to... what?" he asked.

His words were almost polite, even though Judy couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief. "You had some kind of power over him. And over me. I remembered something. 'You're growing old and forgetful, Lord Bogo.' You're the one who said that to me. I've been having difficulty with my focus, but you're the only mammal I've spoken to where I completely lose time talking to you," Bogo said.

Cerdo sighed. "The process isn't perfect, I admit, and there are side effects. I could have made you perfectly loyal to me, but then the queen surely would have noticed how quickly your demeanor changed. Easier to just edit your memories as necessary and pump you for information. But—"

"Lord Cerdo, you're under arrest," Judy interrupted firmly, taking a step toward the pig's bed.

Nick threw out a warning paw, but Judy ignored him. "You've confessed to your crimes and—"

"Oh!" Cerdo said, interrupting with a laugh, "This was your plan? Bringing these two along to spot if I tried controlling you?"

"Yes," Bogo replied.

His speech had a certain dullness to it that Judy didn't like. "Commandant Totchli and Captain Nicholas together could kill me, if necessary. And Totchli has signed orders to the queen approving that course of action."

Cerdo almost looked impressed. "You clearly planned quite well," he said, "You really do have a remarkable investigative mind, Lord Bogo."

"Get up slowly," Judy ordered.

She had pulled a set of restraints off her belt, but was standing a few feet away from Cerdo's bed out of an abundance of caution. Bogo was still as a statue by the door, and Nick had inched a bit away from the buffalo. "I suppose you thought that they were too new for me to have any power over them?" Cerdo asked, even as he sat up and got out of the bed.

Bogo nodded. "You were wrong," Cerdo said simply, "Commandant Totchli, you don't want to restrain me."

Judy blinked down at the restraints in her paw. Why had she pulled them from her belt? It had seemed so important a moment ago to restrain Lord Cerdo, but surely that wasn't necessary. She felt foolish to have even considered the possibility. Nick was gaping at her in disbelief, but she couldn't imagine why. Cerdo was guilty, certainly, but there was no need to restrain him. Judy frowned. That didn't quite make sense, but it felt right. "You don't want to restrain me either," Cerdo said to Nick, who had slowly started advancing toward the bed.

Nick froze in place, and Cerdo turned back to Bogo with a smile across his face. "Had you picked almost any other two mammals, your plan might actually have worked," he said, "But no matter. I'll just need to keep a closer eye on you while—"

Nick had made a sudden pouncing lunge at Cerdo, who squealed in alarm and clumsily rolled across the floor. "Protect me!" he demanded.

As though of its own volition, Judy's paw went down to her belt and drew her sword. She turned and faced her opponent. Nick. Something seemed to war in her mind, and it sent an agonizing spike of pain through her head. Nick seemed to swim in and out of focus, her focus snapping between two extremes. She had to protect Cerdo. But she couldn't hurt Nick. Cerdo's protection was more important than anything. But it was Nick standing in front of her, a horrified expression splitting his face as he stared at the sabre in her paws. "Judy, please," he begged, his voice small, "You don't have to do this."

"She does, actually," Cerdo said.

He was standing behind Bogo now, who had drawn his own weapon and taken a single menacing step toward Nick. "I am curious, though, as to why you aren't affected. The torcs worked on every test subject I tried."

Nick was holding out his open palms beseechingly toward Judy as he tried to shrink away from her, but in an instant he was against the wall with nowhere to run. "I must just be special like my mother always said I was," Nick said, with what struck Judy as a weak attempt at his usual charm.

"You must not have worn it," Cerdo said, nodding to himself, "Is that a fake around your neck, then? I should have seen that possibility. Ah, well. Another alchemist is too useful to pass up. Capture him."

Judy wanted to fight the order, but it was so pernicious in her head that she couldn't. Cerdo was simply asking her to capture Nick, after all. Not hurt him. But what happens next? she thought. An answer didn't come. Didn't matter. She had to capture him. "Just give up, Nick," Judy said, "Please."

That'd be the best solution, after all. All Nick had to do was give in without a struggle and everything would be fine. There were only a couple feet between them now, and Judy smiled at him. "Please, Nick. No one has to get hurt," she said soothingly.

"You know, I'm not sure I believe that," Nick said, his eyes darting from her to Bogo.

"Come on, Nick," Judy said, "You can—"

Nick suddenly dove at her, and Judy swung her blade awkwardly, trying to hit him with the flat of it. She felt something pull at her belt, and then the pressure was gone. She spun around to see Nick on all fours, rolling to the side to avoid a crushing attempt by Bogo to catch him. Cerdo had pushed himself into a corner, away from the action, but Nick wasn't going for him. "Lord Bogo, the door!" Judy warned even as Nick dove at it.

Bogo lunged again, but the fox slipped through his grasp as though he had been greased, swinging the door open and squeezing out. "Catch him!" Cerdo roared, his voice high and tight.

Judy slipped beneath Bogo's arms, far faster to get out the door and chase after Nick, barely noticing the look of surprise on the faces of the guards she passed. Nick was running flat out toward the crevasse just outside of Phoenix, and Judy called on herself to run even faster.

But she couldn't.

The distance between them, rather than shortening, was getting longer. And dramatically so; Nick was running far faster than a fox should be capable of moving. Judy reached down to her belt to grab a cheetah quauhxicalli, but her paw groped fruitlessly at nothing. She suddenly remembered the tug at her belt she had felt as Nick had dodged her and realized what he had done; he had stolen all of her quauhxicallis.

Even though she had no chance of catching him, Judy pushed herself as hard as she could, shouting for someone to catch the fox. But Nick seemed to be moving as fast as lightning, little more than a red blur as he sped for the edge. When he got there, he froze, turning from her to the yawning emptiness below and then back again. Terror and despair seemed to war across his face as Judy closed the distance, his fear of heights keeping him trapped.

"Come on, Nick," Judy called as the distance between them narrowed to a matter of yards, "Give up."

No one else had dared interrupt, a loose circle of guards having formed a respectful distance away from either of them. Nick shook his head. "This isn't you, Carrots," he said, and he swallowed hard.

Before Judy could even begin to respond, he closed his eyes and jumped into the abyss. By the time Judy reached the edge there was no sign of him, her ears full of the roar of water pouring over the edge of the other side of the chasm. "Nick!" she screamed, and she could feel tears welling in her eyes.

She knew for herself just how far down the bottom of the chasm was. It was almost certainly too far for any mammal to survive, and she hadn't wanted to kill him. Only capture him. That was what she had to do, after all; the command seeming to pound in her head. An eternity seemed to pass as she stood there, looking into the inky black depths far below where she stood.

"He jumped," Bogo's voice suddenly interrupted.

Judy turned to look at him. He must have run after her, Cerdo tucked beneath one massive arm. As she watched, Bogo set the pig down. "He stole all of Totchli's quauhxicallis," Cerdo said, "He might have survived."

A tiny flicker of hope flared to life in Judy's chest. That was true; Nick had stolen all of her quauhxicallis, not just the one that he had used to run so fast. Perhaps one intended to make him more durable would have let him survive the fall, or perhaps he could have used his alchemy. It was entirely possible that he might still be alive, that she would be able to find him and hold him tight and tell him how much he meant to her.

And for her to capture him.

"He's a loose end," Cerdo sighed, pitching his voice so low that Judy doubted anyone else could hear him, "That'll need to be dealt with."

"I can find him," Judy volunteered eagerly.

She wanted nothing more than to see Nick again, to be able to show him he had been wrong to run away. Cerdo looked at her for a moment before he spoke. "You hate that fox," Cerdo observed, frowning over the chasm that Nick had vanished into, "You hate him, and you'll do anything to find him. I'll give you a torc to put around his neck so you can order him back. Kill him if you can't."

Judy's vision seemed oddly blurry, and she wiped at her eyes. Her paw came away wet, but she didn't know why. She had an order, and it was her duty as a member of the City Guard to fulfill it. There would be a pleasure in it, too, she was sure. After all, there was no one she loathed more than Nick.