Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.
12. Four Fires
"Not so close, Susi!"
The grayish-brown wolf cub sprang back from the water's edge at the yell.
"Sorry, Silver," she said, peering meekly over her shoulder.
The albino hedgehog smiled sheepishly. He hadn't meant to frighten her. Standing up, he lifted off his turquoise tunic and stumbled down the shaly streambank.
"Here," he said, helping the cub out of her own tunic, "We can go in together."
Holding hands, the children stepped gingerly into the shallow stream. Both winced as the frigid water washed over their bare feet.
"Look, Silver!" gasped Susi, thrusting a finger towards the middle of the stream, "Moonstones!"
The hedgehog followed the cub's finger. The streambed was indeed peppered with smooth pearlescent pebbles.
"Can we get one?" the cub chirped, "Can we? Can we?"
Silver bit his lip. The water didn't look especially deep, but the current was quick enough to make him nervous. He hadn't imagined being in this position. They'd only come down here so Susi could see running water up close for the first time. The young slave had never been beyond the gates of Dalriada before.
Eventually, he dispatched the cub back to shore and waded in by himself. He snatched up the first moonstone that came within reach and splashed his way back to dry land. Reaching the streambank, he nearly toppled back into the shallows as Susi pounced on him.
"We better get back. It's getting dark," he said, gently detaching the cub from around his neck. In truth, twilight had barely begun to descend, but he was cold and Susi knew better than to argue.
With the slave's paw in one hand and their dry tunics in the other, Silver led the way back up the shaly bank. A surly-faced wolverine stood guard at the entrance to the camp Queen Rouge's warband had built beside the stream. Susi clutched the moonstone to her chest as they approached, but the grumpy sentry didn't so much as look at the children.
Nor did the off-duty warriors inside the camp. The majority were sitting around campfires, washing down food with gulps of mead, roaring with laughter at jokes Silver could only assume he was too young to understand.
A few enterprising hares from a nearby village mingled amongst the warriors, bartering their wares for whatever they could. Up ahead, Silver saw one young hare trying her spiel on his mother. Amaranth dismissed the aspiring peddler with a pat on the head as she spied the soggy youngsters.
"Uh-oh," Silver murmured to himself.
"Mama!" Susi called out, breaking away from Silver and rushing past her mistress to where Lupe and Lobo were tending a campfire, "Look what I found!"
The cub brandished the moonstone. Lupe's eyes widened. Lobo leapt up and snatched the pearlescent pebble out of his daughter's hands.
"Where did you get this?" he demanded.
The crestfallen Susi was too confused to speak.
"Never mind," he muttered.
Turning around, he drew back his hand gripping the confiscated moonstone.
"Papa, no!" wailed Susi, hugging one of his legs, "Wait!"
The brown wolf hurled the pebble regardless. A plop could be heard as it landed in the stream.
"Lobo?" said Amaranth as the distraught Susi ran into Lupe's arms, "What was that?"
"A moonstone, mistress," replied the slave, keeping his gruff voice low, "Sorry about the noise."
The roseate hedgehog merely nodded, handed Lobo his daughter's tunic, and turned away. Silver watched in stunned silence, utterly appalled at the injustice he'd just witnessed.
"Ma?" he said his mother approached, "Is that all—"
He stopped short as Amaranth pinched his ear. Pulling him towards two tents that had been pitched side-by-side, she pushed him inside the larger one. Silver landed on his bare backside.
"How could you let Lobo do that, Ma?" he demanded as his mother ducked inside the tent. His heart still burned with indignation on Susi's behalf.
"How could you be so careless?" countered Amaranth, "Going into the water for something like that?"
The ten-year-old blinked. "Did I do something bad, Ma?"
Holding his mystified golden gaze for a spell, Amaranth sighed and sank to her knees.
"Sorry, Silver. I forget how long it's been."
"Since what, Ma?"
Amaranth shifted to a sitting position and beckoned him over. Silver obediently crossed the tent on his hands and knees, crawling into her lap.
"Since Lobo came to live with us," said the roseate hedgehog, stroking his quills, "Did your father ever tell you what the wolves used to call Lupe?"
"Do you mean…Moon Wolf?"
"That's right. On the night of a full moon, wolves used to come from all over Galderia to seek Lupe's blessing. Many would bring her moonstones as tribute."
"Does Susi know that, Ma?"
"No, Silver, and right now, it's safer that she doesn't," said Amaranth sternly, "You mustn't tell her."
"I won't, Ma."
"Good boy."
Silver smiled, then his face quickly turned thoughtful.
"But Ma, if Susi doesn't know anything, why did Lobo throw her moonstone away?"
Amaranth sighed.
"I suspect he was just being careful. Maybe a little too careful. Fathers can be like that sometimes."
The reference to his absent parent seemed to have a chilling effect on Silver. He nestled closer to his mother, tucking his crest of head-quills under her chin.
"I miss Pa," he said quietly.
Amaranth wrapped her turquoise cloak around the albino hedgehog.
"I'm sure he's missing us, too."
жЖж
"Come on now," murmured Shadow, "That's enough."
The black hedgehog was trying to gently coax the dingo pup on his lap into giving up the fishbone in her mouth. Little Lenca had long since gnawed the bluegill's skeleton clean. Even so, she remained defiant.
Elsewhere in the compound's courtyard, Tikal sat quizzing Blaze about her homeland of Agnia. Xhade watched them jealously out the corner of her eye. As the one who'd fostered the young echidna's fascination with the cat kingdom, she would have much rather be listening in on the princesses' conversation. Alas, she had a friend in need of a hand to hold, if only figuratively.
Beside her, Knuxahuatl sat in silence, listening to his aunt Ayahuasca give her account of King Pachacamac's usurpation. The violent overthrow of one Arkadian king by his successor was hardly unique, but it was usually to the bards to spin such stories of naked ambition into tales of doomed romance. This story required no such embellishment.
King Pachacamac had lost his wife Queen Nazca — the only queen he was allowed, according to Arkadian custom — when Tikal was still an infant. With his heir decided by default, the patriarchs and matriarchs of Laputa's clans wasted no time in lobbying for the princess's hand. Iximche, keeper of the emerald mines, had been one such lobbyist.
Determined to see his son Emelec crowned king, Iximche paid off any rivals who could be bought, and paid others to undercut those who couldn't. The likenesses of King Emelec and Queen Tikal were as good as engraved on the walls of the Royal Enclosure, years before Itza arrived in Pachacamac's harem.
The rebellious daughter of a rebellious horse clan chief who'd dared to do business with dingoes, Itza was everything the average royal concubine wasn't, and Pachacamac was supposedly smitten. Whether or not one believed the bards who said Itza had named marriage as her price for sharing the king's bed, he had been quite serious about his intentions of marrying the maiden.
Seeing his hard work jeopardized by the prospect of one or more new heirs, Iximche acted swiftly in orphaning Tikal. Bitter memories of Pachacamac's three ruinous Dingo Wars — along with quiet gifts of yet more emeralds — ensured any clans capable of stopping the coup didn't interfere.
"What happened to Itza?" asked Knuxahuatl.
"She may be in the mines. She may be back on the prairies with her clan. She may be dead," said Ayahuasca flatly, "It is too dangerous to ask, my boy."
Her nephew nodded solemnly. Watching him wring his hands, Xhade frowned. She reached over to take hold on one. Knuxahuatl let her.
"Mistress! Mistress!" blurted Tikal, rushing over to the fire.
The sudden outburst surprised everyone including little Lenca. Shadow seized his moment, confiscating the fishbone.
"Hush, my girl," chided Ayahuasca, turning to the beaming echidna, "What is it?"
"Princess Blaze says she used to be apprenticed to the holy piranha!"
"Pyromancer," Xhade put in.
Tikal clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Why don't you go keep learning as much you can, my girl?" said Ayahuasca, stroking the deposed princess's plaited ochre quills, "You can tell me everything when our guests are gone."
Tikal's expression turned suddenly serious. She nodded and span on her heel, running back to resume Blaze's interrogation.
"Your queen has no idea how happy she's made that child, my boy," said Ayahuasca wistfully, "I haven't seen her like this in many moons."
With that, the matronly brown echidna stood up and heaved the pot of discarded fishbones under one arm. Xhade went to her help. Ayahuasca stopped her with a look before she'd let go of Knuxahuatl's hand. As his proud aunt plodded off, the rubicund echidna let slip a snicker.
"Shut up," muttered Xhade, barely suppressing a smirk.
Together, they watched Ayahuasca collect Shadow and Lenca's fishbones. The dingo pup didn't protest. She was curled up in the hedgehog's arms, sucking her thumb.
"Who is she?" asked Knuxahuatl quietly.
"Another princess," said Xhade, "We had some trouble with some raiders a little while before…well, Pachacamac demanded a hostage from Dharawal, and that's who the mutt sent."
"What's she doing here, though?"
"Iximche didn't want her and Dharawal hasn't sent anyone to take her home. Tikal was already the one looking after her, in any case."
"Have there been any more raids?"
"Not since the mutts first saw us in chainmail."
Knuxahuatl nodded. Amid this whirlwind of an afternoon, the subject of Xhade and the other Reavers' armor had slipped his mind. Like her, he'd since changed out of his armor in favor of a knee-length sarong. Their torsos were bare.
"Just when did—"
"Knuxahuatl?!"
The rubicund echidna stiffened, then looked over his shoulder. A broad-hipped beige echidna was striding their way.
"Huayna?" he said, not immediately recognizing Machupicchu's wife. He went to stand up.
"No-no, don't get up," she urged, flapping her hands, "Just seeing you children by the fire like that again…"
Choking up, she trailed off.
"I promise I tried to leave her at home, lad," said Machupicchu, drawing up alongside his wife.
"And I why would I suddenly start listening to you now?" said Huayna, swatting a hand at her stout purple spouse, "Hurry up and tell the boy what Tazumal said. I'll be with our little queen."
With a parting smile, she ambled off towards Tikal and Blaze. She didn't stop to coo over little Lenca. Shadow had joined the pup in sleep.
Meanwhile, Knuxahuatl and Xhade had perked up at the mention of Tazumal. He was the echidna who oversaw all comings and goings from the Royal Enclosure.
"What did he say, Gatekeeper?" asked Knuxahuatl.
"It'll likely be a couple of days, lad, but you and your…friends will have your audience."
Knuxahuatl nodded stiffly. "Thank you, Gatekeeper."
"My pleasure, lad," said Machupicchu warmly, turning his gaze to Xhade, "As you for, Reaver, I don't want to see you anywhere near my gatehouse until our guests depart here. Is that understood?"
The coral-furred echidna blinked. "I…I, uh, yes, Gatekeeper."
The stout purple echidna smiled, then wandered off in the same direction Huayna had gone, thumbs hooked in the sash of his sarong.
Xhade turned back to the fire as a smile slowly spread across her face. Tentatively, she leaned her head on Knuxahuatl's right shoulder. Then, she squeezed his hand. He squeezed back.
жЖж
Honey grunted as she thrust a sword into the ground. Its blade was still wet with Bramble's blood.
"I hope you're happier now," she muttered, setting the dead rabbit's helmet upon the sword's hilt.
The flaxen-furred feline was on the hilltop overlooking the late Valens' burned-out farmhouse. It had been Bramble's dying wish to be buried beside her sister Thorn. Now she was.
"May your smoke become fire again someday."
Honey almost scoffed at her own Iblisian platitude, if only for the irony. Fire had been Bramble's undoing, executed for burning down Shadow and Amaranth's roundhouse.
Shouldering the mattock she'd used to dig the grave, Honey started back to Dalriada in the waning daylight. The sentries were tactful enough to ignore her as she trudged through the hillfort's gates. Bramble had hardly been beloved among Queen Rouge's warriors, but they could sympathize with a superior forced to kill a hitherto loyal subordinate, and a bereaved one at that.
The cat quietly made her way up to the queen's longhouse. Inside, she found the throne with the carved wooden wings was empty. She found Rouge sitting in the sunken firepit in the middle of the airy hall. Draped in Loegrian silks, she was holding two chess pieces, both carved in the image of her late husband, King Aero.
Born the second son of a king who'd dedicated his reign to subduing his mountain realm, Prince Aero of Broskos had found himself banished from court by his brother Dynamo upon their father's death. Not content to spend his days sulking in comfort, the bat and his young bride rounded up his late father's restless veterans and invaded the wolfen kingdoms south of Broskos.
King Falke of Kalidia had been ready for them. His brother, King Hocke of Galderia, had not. Once established in Hocke's stronghold at Dalriada, King Aero's overeagerness to avenge the indignities suffered in Kalidia ended in Queen Rouge's widowhood.
The chess pieces, sculpted out of rock-salt, were gifts from the hyenas of Gish: a thank-you for Rouge's help in ridding themselves of their Songhai overlords. The disgruntled jackals had been out for Galderian blood ever since.
"It is done, my queen," said Honey eventually.
Rouge looked up. She quickly set aside the chessmen.
"I should hope so," she said, reaching for her goblet of wine, "Come sit."
Honey obediently climbed down into the firepit, perching on a bench adjacent to Rouge's.
"Would you like a game, my queen?" asked the cat, eyeing the statuettes of Aero.
The queen generally preferred to pit her warriors against each other, but she'd played her bodyguard irregularly over the years.
Rouge smirked. "I fear I would be even less of a challenge for you than usual, I'm afraid."
"May I ask…"
Honey trailed off, surprised to find the bat personally pouring her a goblet of wine. She glanced about the longhouse's main hall. There wasn't a wolf in sight. Highly unusual.
"Where're your slaves, my queen?" she asked.
"Dismissed for the day," said Rouge, handing Honey the goblet.
"Why? You don't think—"
"That jackal bitch has gotten to them?" the bat cut in, "No, I just wanted to see a smiling face in this dreary manse. Elora didn't disappoint."
Honey's brow furrowed as she tentatively sipped her wine. "What's wrong, my queen?"
"I miss him," said Rouge flatly.
Her bodyguard eyed the chessmen. "Aero?"
The queen chuckled.
"Most of the time? Certainly, but not in this instance," she said, "I needn't have sent him. Shadow and Blaze would've been perfectly capable of finding that pond without him."
She sighed, draining her goblet.
"What about you? Don't you miss having your little Hellcat to curl up with?"
Honey coolly sipped her wine. "I have…coped so far, my queen."
"Well, I'm glad one of us has," said Rouge, "Aero would laugh himself to death all over again, seeing me like this."
Putting aside her goblet, the queen reached for the jug of wine and upended it. She emptied the vessel in one gulp. Slamming it down on the bench, she snatched up the rock-salt chessmen, then handed Honey the lighter-colored of the two.
"Your queen has changed her mind. Let us play," said Rouge, "Show no mercy, not that that's ever been something you've struggled with."
жЖж
"Here, my prince," said Zoë, holding out the food she'd just prepared.
Feeling guilty about not being able to take a shift keeping watch — the King of Cambria wasn't in the habit of teaching his slaves to bear arms — the vixen had made overnight meals for her travelling companions.
Sonic looked up from the claymore whose blade he was idly scraping with a whetstone.
"Thank you," he said, reaching over the guttering campfire to accept the food parcel, "But, uh, aren't we a little past formalities by now?"
Zoë blinked. "Wh-what do you mean, my prince?"
The hedgehog grinned. "I mean my brother's girl shouldn't have to stand on ceremony. Just call me Sonic."
The vixen blenched.
"As…as you wish, my pri…—"
Faced with Sonic's wry smile, the flustered fox curtsied and bolted into the nearest of the four tents pitched around the campfire.
"Is there something out there?" asked Miles, sitting up.
"Only Sonic," replied Zoe, hastily tying the canvas tent's entrance shut.
The fox frowned. "Did he do something?"
"No, just…he surprised me is all."
The vixen sighed and lifted off her maroon dress. Pausing to pick a stray sprig of hay out of the fur on her shoulder, she went down on all fours and joined Miles in the cocoon of his heavy woolen cloak. They kissed and snuggled up to each other. After a while, Zoë felt Miles nibbling the tip of an ear. She instinctively shoulder his muzzle away.
"Oh…sorry," uttered the nonplussed prince.
"No, I'm sorry," muttered Zoë rolling onto her other side.
She hugged herself as Miles gently stroked between her shoulder blades.
"Is something wrong?" he asked tentatively, "If you're tired, we really don't have to—"
"That's not it," she said flatly.
Cursing herself for sounding so snappish, she reluctantly rolled over.
"Sorry to be like this, I just…none of this feels right to me. I should be helping Errol get the lodge ready for King Furlong. Not—"
"What did Sonic say exactly?" said Miles, narrowing his eyelids.
"He…he called me his 'brother's girl'."
"Is that all?" the fox snickered, "Aren't you, though?"
Zoë frowned. "Since when were you his brother?"
"He's been calling me that for a long time. Did you know he spent more time in Cilgarren than Tesiphon when we were growing up?"
"Is that the only reason?" asked the vixen.
She knew he and Fiona had all but grown up together as well, and they certainly didn't treat each other as surrogate siblings.
Miles gnawed the inside of one cheek. "There…was the time he saved my life."
Zoë's azure eyes widened. "When? Where?"
The prince sighed resignedly.
"It was when we were training with Morain, up on Mount Scathach. We had a morning free — you don't get many of those, studying under Morain — so me and Sonic agreed we'd visit the shrine to Cosmo out in the woods near Lethra."
"Did you?"
"I waited a while but Sonic didn't show, so I went on ahead."
"Where was Sonic?"
"…Fiona's room."
Zoë frowned. No wonder Styx was so brusque with him.
"Anyway, while I was walking in the woods, I bumped into a group of nine aspirants—"
"Aspirants?"
"Oh, it's what my grandmother calls the foxes who pass through Lethra wanting to train under Morain."
"Do they?"
"Almost never. Usually, she only takes one student at a time. She only took the three of us on because of father."
"Was there a student when you all—"
"Styx."
"What did the aspirants' in the woods do?"
"Attacked me. Pinned me down. Said something about cutting off one of my tails—"
Zoë inhaled sharply. "Why?"
"The usual 'kitsune' crap. You know all that."
The vixen nodded solemnly. It was a widely-held belief in Cambria that a fox born with two tails — a so-called 'kitsune' — possessed two souls, so should never be trusted as one could never be sure which soul was in control of the body.
"Then what happened?"
"Sonic found us."
"Did he chase them off?"
"He killed them."
"All of them?"
Miles nodded.
"But didn't you say they were only talking about cut—"
"They had swords in their hands and my face in the dirt. They could've done anything they wanted."
"But…nine foxes?"
"Sorry it couldn't be a happier story," muttered Miles, rolling over.
It wasn't long before he felt Zoë's muzzle on his shoulder.
"Thank you for telling me," she whispered.
The prince promptly rolled back over. He stroked her cheek.
"You deserved to know," he said, managing a smile, "After all, you're my girl."
Zoë smirked, touching her nose to his.
"I love you, Miles."
"And I you…my princess."