24. The Lady Ashura

"Well?" said Ashura imploringly, "Won't you say something?"

Sonic had been standing at the entrance to his apartments for several silent seconds, seemingly paralyzed by his wife's glassy blue gaze.

"Wasn't half a year long enough to think up an excuse?"

The blue hedgehog bit his lip.

"Say something!"

She took a step towards him. He stumbled back, trapping the hem of his amber cloak under his heel.

"Trogg's balls," muttered Miles as the cloak fell to the floor.

"And the rest," added Bunnestra.

"Really, Bunnie?" tutted Ashura, shooting a reproachful glance over her shoulder, "This is still the prince you serve."

"Sorry, my lady," murmured the rabbit, averting her eyes.

The black hedgehog looked back at Sonic. He was down on his haunches, retrieving his cloak. Over his quills, Ashura spied a furry brown face peeping out of a doorway across the room.

"That…that isn't Fiona!"

She looked down at Sonic.

"Is that what you were doing while our daughter was crying herself to sleep?" she demanded.

"Asha, I'm sorry—"

"No, you're not!" snapped Ashura, "Sorry would be…I don't know, a letter telling Bella some half-truth about a border skirmish. Something that would've spared poor Mina having to stay up all night before the ceremony, just in case you decided to show up after all!"

She kicked out at him. To her surprise, he didn't try to dodge.

"Letting me hit you won't make this right," she sighed, shedding her sable cloak.

Sonic's eyes widened at the sight of the sheathed shortsword on her hip.

"As if I would travel all this way unarmed," she muttered, stalking off across the anteroom.

"My lady?" an alarmed Bunnestra called after her.

Ashura ignored her. Coming to the bedchamber's open door, she found Tiara standing amid the scattered feathers from the bed's shredded mattress. Judging by the loose fit of her tunic, it was one of Sonic's.

"I'm sorry to have woken you," said the black hedgehog evenly, "But would you kindly excuse us?"

"Of course, my lady," mumbled the bobcat.

With a swift curtsy, Tiara hastened out of the bedchamber, trailing white feathers across the anteroom. She studiously avoided eye contact with Bunnestra and the princes on her way out the door. Meanwhile, Ashura closed the bedchamber's doors and turned around.

"Thank you for your assistance this evening, my prince," she said, locking eyes with Miles, "Would you kindly show Bunnie back to our room?"

"With pleasure," said the fox.

Bunnestra bridled. "My lady, I would sooner stand guard—"

"Don't be ridiculous, Bunnie," the black hedgehog cut in, "I am quite sure my husband can look after me for a night."

The rabbit bowed reluctantly. "Then…goodnight, my lady."

"Goodnight, Bunnie."

With that, Miles pulled the doors shut. Ashura sauntered over and slid the bolt into place.

"There," she sighed, looking over her shoulder, "Now will you talk?"

Sonic slowly got to his feet, wrapped in the amber cloak.

"I really am sorry, Asha—"

"Stop that!"

Flowing green-tipped quills swirled as she rounded on him.

"Don't try and pretend you would even be thinking of Bella right now if I wasn't here."

The chastened Sonic lowered his gaze. Ashura rolled her eyes.

"Who was that you had in there?"

"That was Tiara. She's, uh, Ambassador Ghazal's daughter."

"An ambassador's daughter?" said the black hedgehog, "Where is Fiona?"

"She stayed behind with Miles' grandmother. We…fell out."

"You 'fell out'? What are you? Teenagers?"

She sighed.

"Dare I ask what you 'fell out' over?"

"About Bella," said Sonic.

"I see," said Ashura evenly, "So, this falling out: it was bad enough to make you want to take up with some Agnian?"

"I was lonely," mumbled the blue hedgehog, "Miles and Styx wanted nothing to do with me after we left that inn."

"Well, you wouldn't have been lonely if you'd been where you were supposed to be."

With that, the black hedgehog glanced about at the half-dozen doors lining the walls.

"Do any of these rooms have a bed in them?" she asked.

"A bed?"

"I haven't slept on anything softer than grass in six days. I would like to be comfortable."

"Oh, uh, just over here," said Sonic, starting towards the nearest door.

The bedchamber beyond seemed intended for a slave's use. The walls were bare and the furniture sparse: a simple bed with a wooden chest at its foot. A small fire burned in the unornate hearth.

"That bed is smaller than Bella's," remarked Ashura as she entered.

"I could send for a replacement—"

"No, you won't," she cut in, unbuckling her sword-belt, "I've troubled these poor foxes quite enough for one day.

Propping her sheathed shortsword against the bed's footboard, she set about unlacing her violet kirtle. Halfway down, she suddenly paused and turned to Sonic, still lingering in the doorway.

"Are you just going to stand there?" she asked, "Are you waiting for something?"

"Asha, I just thought—"

"What? That I'd be too angry with you to want to share your bed?" said Ashura, stepping out of her dress, "If you won't act like a father, could you at least bring yourself to act like my husband while I'm here?"

With a sigh, Sonic dropped his amber cloak.

Ashura pulled back the covers and climbed in between the sheets. Lying on her side, she watched her husband plod around the bed and climb in beside her. Tentatively, he threaded an arm under her flowing quills and around her shoulders. She shuffled closer to him, resting her head on his solid chest.

"I really am sorry, Asha."

"I don't want an apology, Sonic. Just an explanation," said Ashura, too comfortable to summon her previous anger, "I had to carry Bella into that temple, she was so distraught. Why weren't you there?"

"It's that damned Seat."

His wife sighed heavily. She should've known.

The ceremony he'd avoided had been Decibella's Enseatment, a rite of passage every member of Erinian royalty underwent. The seven-year-old princess had sat upon the Mercy Seat — the hallowed throne of stone inside the House of Balance — for the very first time.

In doing so, she had affirmed her right to pass judgement on subjects accused of treason and crimes of similar magnitude. It was unheard of for anyone but the reigning King or Queen to perform that duty, but she now could if needed.

"Still, Sonic?" said Ashura, "It's been ten years."

"So?" muttered the blue hedgehog, "It might as well be yesterday."

"I've forgiven myself for what I did that day, bursting in on them like that."

Clutching a handful of his peachy belly fur, she peered up at him.

"When will you?"

"When I fix my father's mistake."

"But we've talked about this," said Ashura, "You'll be waiting until he dies."

"Then I'll wait," said Sonic grimly, "And once I'm done, I'll smash that damned Seat to pieces."

His wife lifted her head off his chest. "You'll do what?"

"No one deserves the kind of power that Seat gives them. Not my father. Not me. Not Bella. It's unnatural—"

"Would you stop and listen to yourself? You're talking about defiling a temple like you're replotting the castle's gardens!"

"Then maybe the wrong triplet survived, Asha," sneered Sonic.

He grunted as a black hand struck him across the face.

"How can you say such a thing?" hissed Ashura, shifting onto her knees, "You're the one who gave me this life. Bella, too."

She paused to compose herself, idly covering her breasts with her quills.

"Don't lie there and say the world would be better off without you. I know for a fact it wouldn't."

Sonic stared at the ceiling, pensively rubbing his slapped cheek.

"I hope that was worth spending four days on a horse for," he said eventually.

"Actually, it was six days."

"Six days?" echoed Sonic, lifting his head off his pillow, "What way did Bunnie take you?"

"We came from Montrose."

The blue hedgehog blinked. Montrose Castle was the home of Count Phlox and Countess Rhodanthe, and the former home of his erstwhile fiancée, Amaranth.

"Why were you there?" asked Sonic, sitting up.

"Rhodanthe came to the Enseatment," replied Ashura, joining him in reclining against the headboard, "She…wasn't at her best."

"What was wrong?"

"Count Phlox passed recently."

Sonic frowned. Amaranth's father had rarely been truly healthy. Indeed, he'd never once been well enough to make the journey to Tesiphon, not even for his daughter's betrothal ceremony.

"That was only part of it, though," continued Ashura, "Rhodanthe kept talking and talking about some story she claimed she heard from an Agnian merchant. About some Erinian warrior named Blackblade fighting ruby-eyed jackals in an eastern desert."

"Blackblade?"

Ashura nodded. "Rhodanthe's convinced it was really about Shadow."

Sonic grimaced. "Asha, it sounds like something a bard would sing."

"You mean like the Blue Prince?" countered Ashura, "Slain many dragons recently, have you?"

The blue hedgehog snorted softly. He tensed i as the black hedgehog straddled his lap.

"As far as everyone at court is concerned, I'm in Montrose helping Rhodanthe keep her castle in order," she said, fixing him with her glassy blue gaze, "As far as Rhodanthe's concerned, Bunnie and I are already somewhere in Agnia by now—"

Sonic squirmed slightly. "Asha, please don't say what I think you're about to—"

"Why not?" she snapped, seizing his shoulders, "What's the use in talking about what you'll after you pardon Shadow and Amie when you don't even know if they're alive?"

She leaned in until noses were almost touching.

"I'm not asking you to help me bring them home, Sonic. I just want to know if my big brother's alright. Please."

"But Asha…what about Bella?"

"She knows where I am."

Sonic's back stiffened. "She does?"

"I told her Ma was going on an adventure with the Blue Prince," said Ashura coolly, "She's a good girl. She knows not to tell Grandma. I just have to make sure I come back with an extra special bedtime story to tell."

The blue hedgehog smiled ruefully.

"This…won't be as simple as hitching up a chariot and riding off at first light, Asha. We'll need to speak to—"

Ashura interrupted him with a kiss.

"I understand that," she whispered, "I'll speak to half the castle if I have to…in a little while."

She kissed him a second time.

"I didn't ride all that way just to slap you."

жЖж

"Where are you, Kumiho?" muttered Miles, scouring the night sky through his telescope.

The constellation of the nine-tailed fox wasn't where it should be, or at least not where his star chart said it should.

The scroll on the table beside the telescope him wasn't infallible. The parchment was covered in scribbled annotations where he'd identified errors whilst stargazing. Still, it had never been this wrong before.

Some foxes would say the constellation was simply concealing itself from him. It was one of the more fantastical abilities that kitsunes were said to possess. Hearing such nonsense had partly fuelled Miles' cubhood interest in what his eccentric tutors called 'science'.

Someday, he hoped to debunk every single superstition that'd ever been uttered about foxes who happened to be born with more than one tail. Should his own cub turn out to be a kitsune, he was ready to renew his pursuit of that dream. Right now, though, he had a constellation to find.

The swivel on the telescope's stand squeaked as he continued his search. Really, he would've liked to have been curled up in bed with Zoë by now, but his mind refused to settle. Besides the excitement of Ashura's sudden arrival, there was the small matter of Fiona being his half-sister to mull over.

It might not be so bad if he could talk it over with someone, but love her as he did, telling Zoë didn't feel right. Not before he was sure Fiona knew herself. And besides, after today's disappointments, she deserved her rest.

Knock-knock!

"What now?" grumbled Miles, looking up from his telescope.

He turned around to find Zoë sitting up in bed.

"Miles? When did you get back?"

"A while ago. I, uh…didn't want to disturb you."

He stumbled midsentence as something dangling between Zoë's breasts caught his eye.

"What's that?" he asked, approaching the bed.

"Oh, this?" said the vixen, holding up a jade amulet carved in the shape of Cosmo, "Marjoram gave it to me with those old dresses. She said Queen Rosemary wore it when she was carrying you."

Miles blinked. "She did?"

"So Marjoram said," said Zoë, placing a hand on her belly, "She said the goddess watches over seeds of all kinds."

Knock-knock!

Miles eyed the round room's door and scowled. If he lived in the royal apartments like Sonic did, it would've been possible to ignore the banging, but here at the top of Cilgarren Castle's south tower — the highest point in the whole city — there was no escaping it.

"Would you like me to answer it?" asked Zoë.

"What? No, you stay there," replied Miles as he stalked towards the door, "This'll only take a second, I promise."

Yanking open the door, he found Styx standing on the narrow landing.

"Captain?"

"Did I wake you?"

"You woke Zoë."

The badger grimaced and peered over the prince's shoulder. The vixen waved shyly from under the bedclothes.

"Sorry," muttered Styx.

"Forget about it," said Miles, "Where did you and Morain disappear to earlier?"

"She decided she wanted me to show her the city, so I took her to a tavern by the south gate. A few of her old rejects recognized her and wouldn't back off. So I made them. The street wardens finally let us go after Errol came looking for us."

"I…see," said the fox, "Is that why you're banging on my door in the middle of the night?"

"Actually, no," said the badger, holding out her hand, "This is."

Miles looked down. A tree-shaped emerald brooch — the Captain of the Jade Forest Company's badge of office — rested in her russet palm.

"You're going to need to find someone else to fill in for Fiona."

The prince cocked a brow. "Why?"

"I've had two hedgehogs sitting in my room for the last hour talking my ear off about someone called Blackblade."

"Black…blade?"

"Something like that," said Styx, shrugging, "Whatever it is, they're talking about going to Agnia like their lives depend on it. I felt like I was being recruited for some sort of quest."

"You've agreed to go?"

The badger tossed the emerald brooch for the fox to catch.

"Someone has to stop that blue oaf pouncing on every cat who bats her eyelashes at him."

"But…won't Ashura be with you?"

Styx scoffed. "Since when has being married ever stopped him?"