The Ice Storm
Chapter Fourteen
"Danger"
Wolf startled awake at the nudge in his mind. Where, when, who? His senses scanned the night. It was late, and quiet, but not quiet enough for his ears. Whispers at the door. Wolf was on his feet within seconds, his hands groping in the darkness of his room for his boots and outer clothes. Outside, the murmurings continued.
"Ssh fools! It'll hear us" one man said under his breath.
"Course it will. I'm no fool. Should'a done it the way we planned" said another.
"Too late now, for sure. They'll be at the Queen's door. Wouldn't put it past her to warn the creature" said yet another man, and this one's voice made Wolf's blood run cold at the venom in it. He felt his heart speeding up as his nose told him of the type and numbers of men at his door. More than we can kill, growled his wolf-mind. Wolf almost whined in sympathy with it, but it was true. Escape was the only solution now.
He went to the window, looking out. No one moved in the darkness of the courtyard, and glancing down at the narrow snow covered ledge that ran around underneath, no one obviously expected him to risk it. On an ordinary day, neither would he, but he was moments from being made into a permanent exhibition in Hooded City. The old frame creaked as he levered the window open. Frigid air poured across his face, sharpening his senses. He spent a moment tightening the straps on his pack secured on his back. It was a cumbersome thing, and he'd be better off running without it, but he knew he couldn't leave it behind.
As he eased himself over the edge of the sill, he wondered what was going on in the Castle tonight. They'll be at the Queen's door soon? Was it a revolt then? How strange would that be? A coup had not happened anywhere in the Kingdoms for generations. Wars, trickery and horrible curses, certainly, but never a people rising up against their rightful ruler. If that was what it was. The city was silent, most citizens asleep in their beds at this hour. Would they know, or even care that their Queen was about to be usurped?
Out on the ledge, Wolf looked over to where he knew Scarlett's rooms were. Someone had lighted a candle, a figure passed before it, back and forth in an agitated pacing. She must know by now, surely. Were they even now rattling on her door as they were on his? How would she react, fear or anger? Wolf looked down, judging the distance to the ground. It would be long drop, but he felt confident enough. Just jump, then across the yard and out to the safety of the city. Easy enough. But he clung on, indecisive now. Run, fool! his wolf-mind hissed. Oh, how he wanted to! Get out of here, away from this doomed, wolf hating Kingdom. Back to Virginia and his cubs. Virginia would understand wouldn't she? Across the compound, voices now raised in Scarlett's rooms. One of her maids cried out in fear.
Wolf sighed and cursed at the same time. He swung his arm out to grip the roof eaves, pulling himself up to the sloping shingles. They were mossy and slippery, but Wolf had good balance. He scuttled quietly away from his room, hearing the soldiers finally gain entry. He froze as one went to the window, staring out.
"Must have jumped, fool wolf! Quick, to the stables. He'll go that way for sure" the man shouted back to his companions. Wolf snorted at the man's lack of intelligence. Announce your next move to the whole city, stupid! He continued across the roof until he was just above Scarlett's private balcony. Laying himself flat against the tiles, he listened in on the conversation below.
"Don't fight this, daughter. It has been decided" spoke an old crone like voice. Auburn, for sure thought Wolf. The elder stepping up to the reins again.
"You cannot do this. I am your Queen!" Scarlett retorted, and Wolf heard the steel in her voice, as well as an underlying quaver that he hoped only he could hear. She was afraid, probably more so than angry.
"You ceased that role when you took up with the wolves and their lovers" spoke another, this belonging to Vermillion, Scarlett's younger brother. Next in line to the throne too, of course, thought Wolf coldly. Damn the humans and their endless ability to covet power. Wolf scented the air for the man. No, he had not nearly as much wolf in him as had his sister. In fact, he had a different father. Wolf wondered glibly if the Queen Auburn had simply gone from one lover to another in her efforts to rid the 'taint' from her family bloodline. There was a ring of metal in the air and Scarlett gasped.
"You would draw blade against me?" she all but shouted.
"Sister, it gives me no pleasure to do this" Vermillion began, though Wolf could hear otherwise, "but here are your choices. You can renounce the wolves and go into exile, to whatever land you wish. Or, if you remain, defiant, then we will have little choice but to confine you against your will. We will mourn your 'loss' of course, but believe me, no one will ever hear or see you again. The dungeons are deep, sister"
"You dare!" Scarlett hissed. Wolf heard the sound of a hand striking a face. "I will never, NEVER, give up what is rightfully mine! You are ten times the fool Vermillion, as you always have been. Think that you can just reach out and take the throne of this land unchallenged? Think that the other rulers will stand for this? What of Gretchen, my co-ruler? What will you say to her? And Wendell? Do you think I am entirely without allies?" she continued to shout. Even though Wolf knew she was just making things worse for herself, still he had to smile to hear her true voice suddenly find an outlet in her. He was probably the only person to hear the wolf's voice under her human tones, but it was still a revelation. Go on, girl, show them who you really are, he urged her in his mind. But he could hear her panting with exertion and fear, and he knew she'd run out of steam finally. As did her brother, apparently.
"Enough, wolf bitch sister"
"Let go of me! At once!"
Wolf knew his moment had come. Saying a silent prayer to Lucine, he dropped over the edge and onto the balcony. In the room, with her back to him, Scarlett stood, grappling with her brother, other men moving in but looking hestitant to lay hands on her. Across from them, the stooped old Auburn, a strange mixture of regret and triumph on her face.
Wolf kicked in the doors.
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Wendell's stallion skidded dangerously on the ice. The King cursed under his breath, but he gave the horse it's head, helping the beast regain it's footing. It would do no one any good if he fell and was crushed.
"Virginia!". The sound came from across the field. It was Tony's voice, cracked and frozen with cold, but still loud enough to rouse half the kingdom. Wendell watched as the older man slumped ever so slightly in his saddle. Once again, no reply, no response at all from the surrounding wilderness. They had been searching for nearly three days now.
Into thin air. That's what it seemed like to Wendell. Disappeared without a trace from his own castle. She had been taken, that much was clear. Flightly and headstrong she might be, Wendell knew Virginia would never just up and leave her child behind like that. One of the maids had found the cub three mornings ago, crying and whimpering in an empty bedroom. Caelum had been distraught beyond anyone's ability to calm him. It had taken only an hour or so to realise that Virginia was no where to be found in White Castle. Caelum had led them unerringly to the kitchens and thence to one of the rear service doors, but beyond that the clean snow fell to erase any tracks or scent of her.
Wendell had called on his best trackers, and even those wolf families who had come to live out the winter in the castle grounds, but no one could reliably find the trail that Virginia and her captor had taken. North, south, east and west, Wendell had sent out his soldiers within the hour. Now, as the sun set on the third day, he began to entertain the idea that she probably would not be found, though he refused to believe she was laying cold and still in some snow covered ditch.
Virginia would not be dead. She was too...important.
Tony's horse stepped wearily up to his side. Wendell avoided the bleakness in the other man's eyes. Tony had scarcely eaten or slept since finding his daughter missing. He had personally combed every square inch of the Castle and it's immediate grounds. He was a driven man, and Wendell found a moment to admire him despite the onerous task they were undertaking.
"Happily ever after! pah!" Tony spat. Wendell sighed and shook his head. It was no use trying to explain the complexities involved in that glib statement to Tony, an outsider. Only a true native of the Kingdoms understood the layers and layers of that deceptively simple sentence.
"Not today, Tony" he murmured, but he doubted the man heard him.
"Why don't you look again in those cursed Mirror's of yours?"
"I have, Tony, and I will look again, but you know as well as I that I have not the strength to control them. That sort of mastery takes years to accomplish" he replied bitterly. "Virginia herself destroyed the last remaining Mirror-mage, her own mother no less. Do not blame me for what I am unable to learn now" he continued, feeling the growing weight of helplessness on his young shoulders. I am a poor scion of my family, he thought. I will die, crushed and childless under the onslaught from the north, the last of my line.
Not the last.
Wendell started, unsettling his horse again. Who said that? Not the last of my line? He hated the whining hope in his own mind's voice, but he wanted to know.
No, silly. The Mirror-mage. Christine was not the last.
"But who then?" he asked aloud, drawing a strange look from Tony.
Think.
So he did, until finally, when Tony reached over to shake his shoulder, thinking he'd fallen asleep or something like that, the answer came to him. He turned a smile on Virginia's father.
"Tony, I have been a stupid man".
Tony clucked his teeth together. "No you're not Wendell. And I don't blame you, not for anything"
"I know that. Now, will you accompany me on a foolhardy and dangerous mission once more, my friend?" Wendell asked, turning his horses head in the direction he knew he should have gone before. He heard Tony mutter and curse under his breath, but the sound of following hooves filled the dense landscape behind him.
They rode hard through the long cold night, and when dawn found them they sat astride, looking down on a foetid land. Wendell gazed at the edges where ice and snow had frozen the slime filled bogs and he found it strangely satisfying to see that his was not the only kingdom so afflicted. As they dismounted to lead their horses forward, one of the steeds stepped awkwardly on an old wooden sign half buried by snow.
DEADLY SWAMP.