Disclaimer: Most characters herein are, naturally, not my own.
A Throne of One's Own
7. Death From Above
Amaranth was regretting wearing so much armor. The full panoply was fine for a wander through Dalriada, or for charging into battle aboard a chariot. Less so for traipsing up steep grassy hills, as she and rest of Queen Rouge's entourage presently were.
Shadow figuring out she was newly pregnancy wasn't helping matters. It had left her feeling acutely aware of overexerting herself, even though it was much too early to be worried about such things.
She wasn't the delicate rose her parents had raised her to be, and she had the scars to prove it. Unfortunately, three miscarriages and a stillborn daughter had left scars of their own.
She was walking at the rear of the party. Ahead of her, Lupe was carrying the black wolf cub Gelert on her hip like he was Susi. He seemed to be enjoying this dose of motherly attention, quietly chattering away to the she-wolf as he was.
Whether he'd known a mother's love before his enthrallment was anyone's guess. Amaranth had to remind herself she wasn't the only warrior in Rouge's service who treated their thralls with a shred of compassion.
"Almost there, my queen!" Thorn called down from the top of the hill.
Rouge blinked and looked at the white rabbit behind her.
"Bramble, remind your sister I do in fact know my way around my own kingdom," she said.
"Y-yes, my queen," said Bramble, stifling a snicker.
As she looked away, Rouge glimpsed her bodyguard Hunni's dour expression.
"Something bothering you?" asked the bat.
"No, my queen," replied the flaxen-furred feline.
"Come now, what is it?" Rouge persisted, "Sad to see your little plaything ride off this morning?"
"Blaze is…hardly my idea of an emissary, my queen," admitted Hunni.
"Oh? And who would you have sent in her place?" said Rouge, "Yourself? The general who walked out on her command because her new king preferring peace to carrying on an unwinnable war?"
Behind them, Bramble was amazed to see Hunni look just a little hurt.
"My queen…I hardly think—"
"I don't care what you think, Hunni. Not about this," Rouge cut in, "If Knuxahuatl showed up at Laputa's gates with you and Shadow, it would look like I'd already decided to attack. A waifish fire-worshipper, however — a royal one at that — I would be stunned if those dreadlocked pony riders perceive her as a threat."
Hunni frowned. "What if they know Blaze as the Hellcat, my queen?"
"Then those pony riders would be far better informed than I gave them credit for."
Conversation petered out as the party finally caught up to Thorn atop the hill. At the foot of the hill before them stood Valens's farmstead: a large roundhouse and handful of outbuildings, hemmed in by a low stone wall and surrounded by enough crops to feed a household twice its size. The farm itself was situated on more open ground a few hills over.
"Everything looks peaceful, my queen," remarked Thorn.
"It would do if everyone down there's dead," said Rouge flatly.
With that, she spread her wings and flew on down to the farmstead. Hunni grumbled and set off down the hill at a run. Thorn and Bramble followed close behind. Amaranth lingered on the hilltop.
"What is it, my lady?" asked Lupe.
The hedgehog wasn't sure what to say. As Thorn had said, it was just so, well, peaceful. Almost eerily so. Then again, she and Shadow had fought many a battle to make it that way.
She looked across at Lupe, catching the she-wolf's eye as she whispered something in young Gelert's ear. The two mothers exchanged smiles, then ambled off down the hill together.
In the meantime, Rouge had already reached the farmstead. She was perched on the low stone wall, impatiently waiting for her entourage to catch up. She hated it when this happened.
Sadly, gone were the days she could form an entourage of fellow flyers, such as other bats. The Broskosian warriors who hadn't left Dalriada after King Aero died were either retired, as Valens had been, or dead, as Valens now was.
"My queen!" called Hunni in salutation as she and the rabbits hurried across a turnip patch.
Rouge stood up. "That was almost quick!"
"We tried…our best…my queen," wheezed Bramble, panting under the weight of her iron armor.
"And it almost good enough," said Rouge, "You two stay here. Hunni, with me."
"What about Amaranth, my queen?" asked Thorn as Hunni nimbly hurdled the wall.
"Try and stop her if you like," replied Rouge.
The white rabbit looked puzzled as she removed her helmet. The bat smirked and turned away. She and her bodyguard walked in lockstep towards the roundhouse.
"Did the little mutt say where the other wolves went, my queen?" asked Hunni.
She looked about at the tiny doorless huts scattered around the yard. They were typical dwellings for household thralls. All stood empty.
"I'm surprised you feel the need to ask," said Rouge, "They woke up to find their master dead and no one to stop them running away. Why wouldn't they flee?"
"Why didn't the cub run?" said Hunni.
"Hunger? Fear? Misplaced sense of loyalty?" mused Rouge, "Maybe he hoped there would be a reward for delivering the news."
"Will there be, my queen?"
Rouge cast a glance over her shoulder. Amaranth, Lupe and young Gelert had finally reached the foot of the hill.
"We shall see," said the bat, "Amaranth can always be relied upon to take in another stray."
"What was he even doing up here?"
"Relaying some message about the cows, apparently," replied Rouge, "Seeing how he's hardly covered in blood, I think we can spare him your paranoia. Don't you?"
The cat hmphed as they approached the entrance to Valens's roundhouse. Hunni rammed the wooden door with the butt of her spear.
"Well, this is…decadent," remarked Rouge as she stepped inside.
The roundhouse's interior had more in common with her mead hall than the average Dalriadan residence. A sunken stone firepit dominated the floorspace. The mudbrick walls were adorned with articles of weaponry, armor, and other war trophies. A gleaming glaive hung on the wall above a large bed at the rear of the dwelling. Upon it lay the still form of a wizened black bat.
"Oh, Valens," sighed Rouge.
The queen strode over to the bat's bedside while Hunni lingered in the doorway. She went to touch his brow, hesitating as she saw the mess further down. His throat had been cut. Not artfully so.
"I see," she breathed.
"Might this explain the missing wolves, my queen?" said Hunni.
"Perhaps," said Rouge distractedly.
She wasn't ready to think about that just now. She'd just lost a friend. Not an especially close one — like her other farmsteaders, she'd only seen Valens at the lunar banquets in recent times — but still, she'd liked him a lot. He had always been nice to her, unlike most of the bats in her late husband's old warband.
Most of those old campaigners had been grouchy enough before they were expected to show deference to a miner's daughter. After Aero died, the holdouts had wasted little time in striking out on their own.
Not Valens, though, nor the sizeable contingent he'd talked into taking a chance on their newly-widowed young queen.
"I'll miss you, old friend," Rouge whispered, clasping one of the black bat's hands. It was already cold.
Just then, a shriek pierced the eerie calm outside.
"My queen!" yelled Bramble.
Rouge cocked her head towards the roundhouse's door. Hunni peered out.
Across the yard, Bramble was crouched by the low wall. Her round shield was raised, sheltering Lupe and young Gelert from the stones raining down around them. Nearby, the helmetless Thorn lay sprawled face down on the ground.
"She's dead," said Amaranth, pressed flat against the roundhouse's exterior.
Rouge flew over the roundhouse's firepit to the door.
"What's happening?" she demanded.
"Slingers, my queen," said Amaranth.
"Where?"
The hedgehog motioned towards the hillside they'd all just climbed down.
"Our missing wolves, my queen?" said Hunni.
"Not now!" the bat snapped.
There was a rustle of straw as two flaming bolases came tumbling through the roundhouse's thatched roof. One landed in the firepit. The other upon Valens's bed. More followed as Rouge and Hunni scrambled outdoors. Stones dinged relentlessly off their armor as Hunni took up Thorn's shield on their way to join Bramble.
"When did this start?" the cat demanded, sheltering Rouge with the shield.
"J-just now!"
"We were expected, then," Rouge mused aloud, flinching as a pebble grazed one of her folded wings, "But they weren't necessarily expecting us."
"My queen?" said Hunni questioningly.
Across the yard, the fire had finally forced Amaranth out into the open. Valens's roundhouse had become his funeral pyre.
"Kneel, Amaranth!" yelled Rouge.
Assuming she was being warned about a projectile, the hedgehog dropped to her knees.
"My queen!" yowled Hunni as Rouge broke cover.
Standing up amid the ongoing shower of stones, the bat pulled down her helmet's slitted visor, gripped her spear with both hands, and ran headlong at Amaranth.
The hedgehog hastily laid her war-hammer across her knees. The onrushing queen put one foot on the hammer's head and launched herself into the air. Spreading her wings wide, she vanished into the pillar of smoke rising from the roundhouse.
"My queen?" breathed Hunni.
Amaranth ran over to shelter beneath the cat's shield.
"Is she there?" asked the hedgehog frantically.
"I…can't see her."
Then she could.
Rouge burst out of the black smoke flying far higher than when she'd entered it. Higher than the hilltop even. Stones ceased dinging off Hunni and Bramble's shields as their queen swooped towards the company of slingers on the hillside.
Spooked, most of the dozen or so wolves began to scatter. Only the trio highest up stood their ground. Rouge was forced to bank repeatedly to avoid salvo upon salvo of pebbles.
"Oh no you don't," snarled Bramble.
The white rabbit jumped up and ran to intercept the wolves fleeing down the hill.
Watching the young warrior go, Hunni and Amaranth looked back up in time to see Rouge run her spear through a grizzled wolf atop the hill. The bat hit the dirt, rolled twice, then stood up with sword drawn. The wolf's younger companions dropped their thongs in surrender.
Hunni smiled approvingly as no mercy was shown.
"Gelly? Gelly!"
Lupe's shouts brought the cat and hedgehog's attention back to ground level. They saw young Gelert sprinting away through a patch of leeks.
"I knew it!" hissed Hunni.
She sprang up and took aim with her spear.
"Don't!"
Amaranth snapped the spear's haft with her hammer and took off after the cub herself. With adrenaline overriding any anxiety about overexertion, she tackled the youngster as he tried to traverse Valens's parsnips.
"Stop that!" hissed Amaranth as she stood up, holding the flailing cub like a rebellious toddler.
Gelert kept up his struggle as he was hauled back to the yard. Hunni stood waiting.
"Just stop, little one," whispered Amaranth, "It won't help."
He did stop, but not on Amaranth's account. The cub's demeanor changed the instant Rouge landed beside Hunni, bearing her bloodied spear. He clutched at something around his neck with both paws.
"What've you got there, mutt?" demanded Hunni, tearing away the front of the cub's tunic.
It took a warning glance from Rouge to keep Lupe from interfering as Hunni fought Gelert for his necklace. With a swipe of her claws, it came away in her hands. Her eyes widened as she beheld the prize.
"My queen," she breathed, holding the necklace out for inspection.
Its pendant was an uncut shard of ruby.
"Eternity," muttered Rouge, squinting at the fragment of gemstone, "You bitch."
Queen Eternity of Tantaragor and her brother Infinitum had been a periodic pain in Rouge's neck throughout her reign. The last time she'd such a ruby, it'd been around the necks of a gang of runaway thralls-turned-brigands captured by Shadow on the Tantari border.
The outlaws had been duped by the hollow promise that, because Eternity and Infinitum were jackals, they would naturally be kinder to their canine subjects. Never mind all the enthralled fennecs toiling away on Tantaragor's farms.
"What a sly little pup," sighed Rouge, taking the ruby pendant in hand, "See to him."
Amaranth tensed as the cat turned to face her and Gelert.
"Put him down," said Hunni, drawing the shortsword at her hip.
Amaranth struggled not to hold the cub tighter.
"Stop!" wailed Lupe, scrambling over to block Hunni's way, "He's only a chi—ugh!"
A gauntleted fist floored the she-wolf.
"Tell Bramble that," spat Hunni.
"I'm so sorry," whispered Amaranth.
She haltingly set Gelert down on the grass and backed slowly away.
"Please, my lady!" cried Lupe.
She threw herself at the hedgehog, hanging onto her plaited leather sword-belt
"You can't—"
Amaranth pushed the distraught thrall back onto the grass and turned away, just as Gelert's dying yelp rent the air.
жЖж
"Not that one, papa!" blurted Susi as her father went to pick up the wrong pile of diced vegetables.
She and Lobo were making a start on the stew that would later feed Dalriada's hungry pups. Her father hadn't cooked for their mistress in years, and it was showing.
"The one next to it," said the exasperated cub.
While Lobo tried his best to pick up the unwieldy pile of leaves, Susi glanced across the yard at Silver. The ten-year-old was moping on a woodpile. He had been since before her father came home. He'd only moved when they'd needed wood for the cooking fire.
She was desperate to ask for his help. Unlike her father, the hedgehog could cook. She'd only end up getting told off, though.
"Mistress?" said Lobo suddenly.
Silver's head snapped up.
"Ma!"
His mother was indeed making her way down the dusty path towards home. The albino hedgehog ran to the wicker fence that encircled the yard.
He tilted his head in puzzlement. She was walking with her visor down. Silver thought she hated doing that. She'd said so herself.
"Ma?"
The roseate hedgehog seemed not to hear him as she trudged past him en route to the gate.
"Ma?"
He went unacknowledged as she crossed the yard and ducked inside the roundhouse.
Bewilderment mingled with worry as he tiptoed after her, all the way to her bedchamber's drawn curtain. Holding her breath, he peeped through the tiny gap between the curtain and surrounding doorway.
Suddenly, Amaranth gave a visceral growl, grabbed her war-hammer off the bed, and smashed hers and Shadow's empty armor-stands. Dropping the weapon, she slumped to the floor, head in hands.
"Ma?" breathed Silver as he heard sobbing.
Still walking on tiptoes, he ventured past the curtain and gingerly approached the foot of his parents' bed.
"Ma?" he said softly, "What's wrong?"
Silver froze as the teary-eyed Amaranth looked up. For a fleeting moment, she silently held her son's gaze, then pulled him on onto her lap.
Holding him tight against her iron breastplate, she buried her face in his downy white quills and broke down completely.