Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.

10. Departures

The two sentries stood to attention as Honey set foot on the battlements of Dalriada's gatehouse. Ignoring the rigid guards, the flaxen-furred feline walked to the parapet and looked out at the column of forty mounted warriors marching down the sloping road away from the hillfort. It was a modest force, but ought to be sufficient to keep Gordian's slaves in line, and those mangy jackals on their side of the border.

Just then, something drew Honey's eye to the ox-drawn supply wagons at the rear of the column. In the dawn light, she couldn't be certain, but it appeared she was being mooned.

"Get her down from there, Lobo!" cried Lupe, watching her daughter Susi issue a posterior salute from atop a roped-down stack of mead kegs.

As her mate clambered up the barrels to retrieve their cub, the she-wolf looked towards the front of the wagon. She winced as her eyes met Amaranth's.

"Forgive her, my lady, she—"

The roseate hedgehog silenced the slave with a faint smirk.

Lupe dipped her head in gratitude, then turned her attention to disciplining Susi.

Amaranth turned away. She was tempted to invoke her right as the cub's owner to grant a reprieve, but Lupe's opportunities to be a true parent were so limited, it felt wrong to interfere. Maybe she would have if Silver had been up there as well, but that was wishful thinking right now.

The albino hedgehog was huddled beside his mother on the wagon's bench-seat, wrapped in a heavy wool cloak, his gaze seemingly fixed upon the draft ox's shifting shoulder-blades. Amaranth was fairly sure he was too tired to even be concentrating on those, what with all the nightmares last night.

Even sleeping in his parents' bed had failed to keep a certain dagger-wielding cat from haunting the few dreams he'd had. Queen Rouge's decision to see off the warband personally had felt plain spiteful. With Honey lurking nearby, Lobo had been forced to carry Silver to the wagon.

"Ma?"

Amaranth looked down in surprise. "Yes, Silver?"

"Do we have to go back to Dalriada?"

The roseate hedgehog frowned. "It's our home, Silver."

The ten-year-old peered up at her. "What about your home, Ma? Eri…Eridorado—"

"Erinia," said Amaranth.

Silver nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh. That place."

"Erinia isn't my home anymore, Silver. It hasn't been for a long time."

The albino hedgehog blinked. "Why, Ma?"

Amaranth paused. Falling back on 'I'll tell you when you're older' felt almost mean under the circumstances. She had to give him something to chew on for what would hopefully be a very dull three-day journey to Gordian's farmstead.

"Your father did something very brave," she said.

Silver's face brightened. "Like what, Ma?"

Amaranth struggled not to smile too broadly. That would only invite further questions.

"You could say…that he rescued me," she said carefully.

"Who did he rescue you from, Ma?"

жЖж

Prince Sonic of Erinia paused halfway across his bedchamber, struck by another wave of nausea.

"Trogg's balls," he grumbled, taking deep measured breaths. He was shocked there was any mead inside him left to puke. He'd thrown up twice out in the clearing, courtesy of Styx's infamous dandelion tincture.

Massaging his chest through his vermilion velvet tunic, he let out a sonorous mead-scented belch. The queasiness subsided and Sonic looked to his claymore, propped up in the corner of the bedchamber. The floor between him and the sword was strewn with open chests Fiona had raided in her rush to get ready.

This bedchamber, on the royal hunting lodge's second floor, was where he and Fiona should have slept last night. Where they had slept was, strictly speaking, reserved for King Furlong alone. However, in their mead-affected wisdom, one bed had been as good as another. Quite what they'd done in there, he couldn't remember, but Styx was already giving him hell about it.

Picking a path through the luggage, Sonic came face-to-face with his claymore. He eyed the sheath's shoulder-harness and grimaced. The muddle of straps and buckles was a puzzle at the best of times. In his current state, it presented as daunting a challenge as Miles's astrolabe.

"Need a hand, my prince?"

Startled, Sonic looked over his shoulder. Fiona stood in the bedchamber's doorway, dressed in a brigandine topped with black velvet. Her broadsword and round shield were slung over her back. Her dark-green cloak was secured with a tree-shaped brooch, crafted from Arkadian emerald.

The jewel marked her as Captain of the Jade Forest Company, the band of warriors King Furlong maintained at his court of Cilgarren to enforce his hard-won peace over Cambria.

"I'll manage," muttered Sonic.

"Not if you don't want Styx marching you out of here at arrowpoint," said Fiona, starting towards them.

The hedgehog's brow furrowed. "Is she that pissed off?"

"No thanks to us."

Sonic suddenly regretting that sixth keg of mead. It sounded like he'd missed out on a good time.

"How do you do that?" he asked as Fiona fastened on the final buckle on his claymore's shoulder-harness.

The vixen shrugged. "I've had a lot of practice taking it off."

The hedgehog grinned, then leaned in to kiss her. A hand covered his mouth.

"Not with that breath, my prince," cooed Fiona, kissing his cheek, "Maybe tonight."

"Are you two quite done?"

Sonic tilted his head to see over Fiona's shoulder. Princess Styx of Hibernia was glaring at them in the doorway, bow in hand.

"I should say so," said Fiona, slowly backing away from the hedgehog.

She stumbled as she kicked one of the scattered chests. Sonic lunged forward to catch her hand. Seeing them kiss, Styx grumbled aloud and stalked off downstairs, muttering oaths that would've been judged treasonous if spoken in Erinia.

To her surprise, the hedgehog and vixen soon joined in the hilltop clearing outside the royal hunting lodge.

"Where was this restraint last night?" remarked the badger.

Fiona sighed. "Shall we just go, my princess?"

Styx nodded stiffly and made for the path down to the lodge's stables.

"Wait, what about Miles?" asked Sonic, glancing at the squat log cabin across the clearing.

"Leave him to Errol," replied the badger, "You're the one who takes forever to mount up."

"She's got you there," murmured Fiona, goosing Sonic on her way to following Styx.

The hedgehog sighed and plodded along behind his companions.

Much as it wounded him, the women were annoyingly right. The so-called roads through the surrounding Jade Forest were utterly incompatible with chariots, and though he'd spent half his life in Cambria, he'd never conquered that most Erinian of aversions: he couldn't ride a horse alone.

It was why he had no right not to drink Styx's foul dandelion tincture. It was her horse he'd be riding on the back of, so it was only fair that he vomit now rather than in her quiver of arrows at full gallop.

As the trio neared the foot of the steeply sloping path, overshadowed on both sides by looming beeches, Styx suddenly stopped.

"Trogg's balls," she muttered, "What now?"

Down by the stables, a group of mostly adolescent foxes — the slaves who should've been feeding and watering the travelling party's horses — were loitering in the yard.

"Where is Zoë when we need her?" the badger huffed, marching ahead of her companions, "Don't you all have things you should be doing?"

The young foxes pivoted to look at the approaching princess. Like Styx herself, they were dressed in simple sackcloth tunics.

"Th-there's something in there, my princess," said a vixen with her arm around the smallest of the group. She pointed a tremorous finger towards the haybarn.

The badger frowned. "What kind of thing?"

"We don't know, my princess. We heard noises."

"Strange noises," added the cub clinging to the vixen.

The young foxes recoiled as Styx drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it to her bowstring.

"Move," she commanded, padding towards the haybarn.

She could only be so impatient with the slaves. Prior to entering the King's service, they would largely have been urchins in the castle-towns of east Cambria. Most probably couldn't tell a boar from a bear, let alone whatever beast she was about to confront.

Flattening herself against the haybarn's door, Styx pinched her bowstring and leaned back, pricking her ears as the door inched open. She immediately heard rustling. She tensed, drawing back her bowstring. Then, she heard panting.

"Some beast," she hissed, returning her arrow to its quiver.

Sonic and Fiona watched bemusedly as the badger strode their way across the yard.

"They're as bad as you two," growled Styx as she passed between them.

Seizing Sonic by his claymore's shoulder-harness, she dragged the prince stumbling towards the stables.

"Captain Fiona?" said a small voice.

Fiona looked down at the vixen Styx had spoken to. "Yes, Gessa?"

"Can you help us?" asked Gessa meekly.

"The horses will be hungry," added the cub by her side.

The Captain of the Jade Forest Company idly ruffled the fur between Gessa's ears and started towards the haybarn. She placed her hand on her broadsword's hilt — mostly to entertain the watching youngsters — and shouldered open the door.

The green tunic and maroon wool dress lying crumpled on the barn floor left no doubt as to who was making the amorous racket above her head. Fiona gathered the discarded garments and padded over to the foot of the ladder leading up to the hayloft.

"My prince?" she called up.

There was a startled gasp, followed by furious whispers amid a great deal more rustling as Fiona climbed the ladder.

"C-captain?" said Miles as the vixen's head rose into view.

He and the wide-eyed Zoë were huddled beneath his cloak. Both the fur between their ears and the three tails poking out from under the cloak were riddled with sprigs of hay.

"My prince," said the straight-faced Fiona, nodding deferentially, "Your commitment to courtly protocol is exemplary, but Trogg's balls, this isn't Cilgarren. Just bring Zoë with us."

Miles blinked. "But captain, Mount Scáthach…—"

"I hardly think it will take four of us to goad that crabby old vixen out of her den, my prince."

Zoë blenched at Fiona's brusqueness.

"You're welcome to…sojourn in Lethra while we handle Morain," the vixen went on, "I doubt your grandmother will mind the extra guest."

The prince gazed mutely at the warrior.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, my prince," said Fiona, tossing the entwined foxes their clothes.

As she descended the ladder, a whimper rent the air inside the barn. The rustling and accompanying exhalations resumed with gusto. Satisfied her sovereign wouldn't take much longer, the smirking Fiona hefted a hay bale over each shoulder and headed for the door.

жЖж

Gao gnawed on his furry brown knuckles as he peered out the doorway of the hillside shack. The sun was rising fast over the grasslands of southern Galderia. Ordinarily, there would be a flock of his master Gordian's sheep dotting the landscape. This morning, there wasn't a lamb nor any other creature in sight. That was why the fourteen-year-old wolf was worried.

"Hurry up, Whisp," he muttered, clutching the ruby shard dangling around his neck, "She won't wait forever."

Their overseer Macrina might be the nicest grownup Gao had ever known. Not that he remembered much of his parents anymore. In any case, even Macrina could only be so patient. They might even get her in trouble with Gordian if—

Just then, a flaxen-furred wolf crested a nearby knoll.

"Whisp!" blurted Gao, taking off across the grass.

He opened his arms wide, ready to embrace the other wolf now charging down the knoll. Rather than hug him, she tackled him.

"Gao, you idiot!" Whisp whined as they tumbled into the grass, "What if someone saw you?"

"Wouldn't they've already seen you?" wheezed the winded Gao.

Whisp narrowed her blue eyes at the pinned wolf.

"I wasn't the one yelling," she muttered, crawling off him.

"Where's Abundita?" asked Gao, sitting up, "Did you see Red Eye?"

Whisp looked at him silently, but not at his face.

"What're you wearing that for?" she demanded, eyeing the ruby shard around his neck.

Gao fingered the amulet sheepishly. "I was worried about you."

Whisp sighed. It seemed that everyone who accepted a ruby shard from Abundita formed their own ideas about what the amulets could do. For her, it was simply a symbol of her allegiance to Queen Eternita of Songhai. Gao seemed to think his had magical powers of some description.

"So, did you Red Eye?"

Whisp ignored the question and stalked off back to the shack, clutching the ruby amulets under her tunic. Where there had been one, there was now three. The new additions had come from the strongbox presented to her inside Infinite's tent.

According to Red Eye — she disliked the nickname, but Abundita encouraged it — the amulets been taken from around the necks of her parents, rebellious slaves killed by warriors under Shadow the Erinian's command.

Whisp wasn't sure if she believed the jackal's story, but she had scant reason to disbelieve it. Abundita hadn't let her down yet.

Inside the shack, the she-wolf dropped to her knees and lifted one of the rotting planks that passed for a floor in the lean-to. Beneath it lay a trove of trinkets, pretty stones, and other curios she and Gao had amassed in their years watching their master's flock on this hillside.

"What're doing, Whisp?" asked Gao breathlessly, stumbling into the shack.

Whisp removed her three amulets and consigned them to the trove. She looked over her shoulder, thrusting out a hand.

"Give me that. Quick!"

Gao hastily surrendered his ruby amulet. It joined the others in the hole. The rotting plank went back down. Whisp jumped up and whirled around.

"Move, Gao. We have to go."

The brown wolf lingered in the doorway, twirling his thumbs.

"Can I say 'bye first?" he asked meekly, "Please?"

Whisp bit her lip, then nodded. Haltingly, she lifted the front of her baggy sackcloth tunic, revealing her bulging belly. Gao dropped to his hands and knees. He gingerly touched Whisp's protruding belly button with his nose.

"I guess we're not going to see each other for a little while," he whispered, pressing his forehead against the tender bump, "I can't wait to meet you, though."

He closed his eyes and nuzzled the bulge. Suddenly, he felt wetness on his muzzle. He looked up. The bunched-up folds of Whisp's tunic were clamped between her teeth. Tears were streaming down her flaxen cheeks.

Gao kissed her belly button, stood up, and tentatively tugged the tunic out of Whisp's mouth. As the garment fell back into place, the sobbing she-wolf threw herself at him.

"I don't want to go, Gao," she sniffled, "I can't do this without you."

"But…you've got to, Whisp," he said shakily, tearing up.

Whisp wanted to make a rebuttal, but he was right. To not go to her master Gordian's house, like every slave of his expecting a cub, would mean breaking too many promises: to Infinite and Abundita, to her late parents, to Gao, and most of all, to their unborn cub.

When their overseer Macrina had explained to them why her belly was growing like it was, the fourteen-year-olds had made a vow: their cub would be born free, or not at all.