TCoLG: The Royal Sisters. Chapter 3 The Chronicles of Lowerground – The Royal Sisters Chapter Three – Arrows Cloaks and Daggers Word Count – 4845 In which Mace has a Secret.
Age of Darkness 4116 - 8th Day of Thawing Viril moaned as light suddenly invaded his eyes. Someone had pulled back the leather flap that served as cheap shutters.
“Time to get up, lazy!” said a too-bright, too-cheerful voice.
“Rilly.” Viril pawed at his eyes and regarded his littermate. “What time is it?”
“A little before first meal.”
Viril flattened his ears against his head, and glared at his sister.
“So why are you walking me up, even though I said that I wouldn’t be partaking in first meal?”
“Because I want to know why you were out so late.” Rilly said cheerfully, toying with her black hair.
Viril fell back against the bed, throwing a black and white arm over his head, blocking his view of the stone walls of his sleeping chambers, with their brightly painted banners, and more importantly blocked his white furred, black haired sister from view.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Viril’s bed depressed as his sister sat on it.
“Try me.” Viril lifted his arm long enough for his brown eyes to meet his sister’s amber ones, before sighing and blocking the view again.
“What would you say if I told you that…a couple of rogue mages have enlisted my employment?”
“I’d say ‘Eww Mages, you know they are bad luck!’ You’d better make sure it doesn’t rub off on you.”
Viril bit off a laugh- he’d been expecting that.
“And don’t let Granddad find out.” Rilly added. “You don’t want to spoil your chances of leading the guild one day.”
This time, Viril did laugh.
“Rilly, I’m not going to be leader; your boyfriend is much more suited to the task.”
Rilly made a choking sound.
“That pompous, selfish, opinionated, egotistical jerk is not my boyfriend!” She shouted. “And if you want me to make sure no one knows that you’re working for mages, you had better not insinuate as much again.”
Viril grunted as Rilly punched him on the arm that wasn’t covering his face.
It was good to know that his sister didn’t mind him working for Tasha, too much. The day before, when, somehow he had agreed to work for the renegade princess, Kel’at had shown him what was going on under her house where the shrew and the rabbit had gone. They were giving out free food to the poorest of the people in exchange for labor, but that was only one side of it. They were building shelters, teaching non-mages how to use mage stones, teaching other people how to fight or heal, and they were even growing some food down there.
And the happy, teasing mood was a mask, the workers hiding their fears and morose thoughts behind teasing and false smiles.
Viril knew that they were preparing for war.
“You’d really keep Grandfather off my back?” Viril asked, sitting up.
“Of course.” Rilly smiled. “I’ll even make you a charm to ward off the bad luck, if you want.”
“That would be great.” Viril looked to the corner of his room, where his bow and quiver of bone arrows rested. “Rilly, I know your time is best spent making…err…what ever it is you make with the animals we bring back, but will you let me teach you how to defend yourself?”
Rilly blinked. “Why would I need to be able to defend myself?”
“Rilly, we’re cats, and in hunters clan at that! Just say I’m being paranoid.”
Rilly looked at Viril, and he knew she didn’t believe that he was just being paranoid.
“Okay, Viril, I’ll learn how to fight.”
Viril nodded. “Good. Well, since you got me up early, I had better go and get ready for work. I don’t want my new bosses to get angry- they might turn me into a rock or something.”
Rilly laughed as she turned to leave her brother’s room, with its animal skins on the walls and bone ornaments, some of which she had carved herself. She fingered the leather flap. There were no tin doors for the hunters’ home base; they had sold them to cover the cost of living between hunts. She turned back for a moment.
She really hoped her brother knew what he was getting into.
*****
In a run-down room, a princess was sleeping on a lumpy bed, clinging to the last vestiges of sleep.
Bang bang bang
Tasha opened her eyes, and then snapped them shut again. She had forgotten to close her window shutters, and the constant light from the Core Stone was trying to burn her eyes out.
Bang bang bang
“Wait a sec!” Tasha shouted, trying to untangle herself from her bed covers, only to fall out of the bed.
“Damn it to Olowedi!” She cursed.
Bang bang bang.
Finally finding her feet, Tasha stormed over to the door, pulling it wide open. “What!”
Kel’at blinked, an odd grin spreading on his face. “Your students are waiting for you.”
“Students?” Tasha blinked “What are you…wait a moment! I told Heg that I can’t be a teacher! Me? Look after a bunch of snot-nosed cubs and watch them try and singe the fur off the other cubs? No way! I told him as much before I left.”
Kel’at crossed his arms and waited for Tasha to finish her rant. The smirk was still on his lips.
“Where’s Heg? I’ll chew his ear off for this.”
“You don’t want to do that, Tasha.” Kel’at’s smile widened. “Not yet, anyway.”
“And why not?”
“Well. It's just a suggestion, but you might want to get dressed first.”
Tasha looked down at herself and let out a yelp slamming the door shut in male fox’s face. A muffled “Ow!” came from the other side.
She fell against the door and slid down to the floor.
Why had she come back again?
This was hardly an ideal start to the day, and as she stalked around her room seeking clean clothes, she made sure that Kel’at and Heg were going to pay the price for starting her day off like this.
*****
There was green grass under her feet, the city-cavern roof above her head, and before her was a wall that was half covered with names. Names of most of her family. Names of the dead.
Gale had found a patch of green in their prison of a palace to make her own, her garden and haven filled with pretty flowers pleasant smells and strong trees. This was no garden, but this was Midnight’s haven.
The bodies of the dead in this city were burned, the ashes spread over the growing fields. There was never a body to bury, and thus, to keep the memory of loved ones alive, the names were recorded in a book that was kept by the head of the family. This wall was the Royal Family’s book of the dead.
Save for within the four walls of her bedchambers, this was the only place she felt safe. Midnight sighed and turned at the sound of the quiet cough behind her. Even the wall of her ancestors was not as safe as it used to be.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, Your Majesty.”
Midnight sighed in relief; it was Achun Lat’Orrow, the head of the Trirail Clan, one of the Four Fox Clans. There was the Illialat family, the head of the ‘Daughters of Athertigh’ religion. They inherited their position from the Stag race, which vanished without a trace at the height of the Wolf/Bear wars, and inherited their name from the distinct black tear-track markings that they bore on their faces.
Then there was the Verennbah, the Gifted. The head of that family was the Archmage of Magehome. Verennbah mages were the strongest in the city, but they were pacifists locked up in the Magehome, hiding like a Runner dragon with its head under its wing.
The Tiraail clan, however, were a mystery. No one knew exactly how they had gotten into their position of power in the Royal Council, but now with only three members left, they had fared about as well as the fourth fox family, The Reganta Clan, her own family.
“It’s okay, Achun.” Midnight smiled. The head of the Tiraail clan was one council member she could trust. “What brings you here?”
“I’ve been given a message for you.” Achun held out a folded sheet of papyrus Midnight looked at the papyrus as if it was a dagger.
“A message? From whom?”
“I don’t rightly know the origin of the message, but I trust the person who gave it to me.” Midnight frowned at the slip of folded papyrus in Achun’s yellow fingers. A letter that had been passed from person to person until it reached her? Who would send her a message in such a way? Just because the messenger could be trusted didn’t mean that whoever wrote the letter could be.
The only clue she had was the badge of the Royal Guard painted on the part of the note she could see.
For the first time in a long time, the queen had a choice in what she could do. She could take the note, read it, and see what happened next.
Or she could leave it and carry on the way she had been since her twin’s name was added to the wall behind her.
She reached for the note.
*****
In the same room that the Uigat’o had tricked Viril into entering the day before, Princess Tasha faced off against Heg the clan-less. Between them stood the same table, but now it was covered in scattered maps of the city-cavern, rather than what lay beyond it.
The grizzly brown-grey hedgehog’s face was stern, and he looked like he was going to brook no arguments today.
This suited Tasha fine. She was feeling stubborn.
“I told you, I can’t teach! I don’t know how, and I don’t like children.” Tasha took the first step and started the argument. “Besides, don’t I do enough for you?”
“We only have two mages.” Heg answered. “Kel’at is teaching swordplay on top of his duties. Not only are you a more powerful mage than he, but you, unlike him, finished your training. How hard can it be to teach children something you already know?”
“I am a Mage, not a teacher!” Heg narrowed his eyes. “You’ve forgotten who took you in after you got thrown out of Magehome. Who taught you how to fight, giving you a chance to defend yourself and earn money? Whose network allowed you to build this resistance of yours, who keeps your secrets, all because you were a friend of-”
“Enough!” Tasha slammed her hands down on the table, causing the random pebble paperweights, ink pots, and other map-making and note-writing paraphernalia to rattle. Her green eyes glowed as the princess narrowed her eyes. “You want these brats taught? Fine, but I won’t be the one doing the teaching.”
Heg raised an eyebrow. He held one hand out, motioning for Tasha to continue speaking, as his other hand dropped down to his lap and out of Tasha’s view.
“You gave me the cubs, but no equipment. I want bleeders- I mean magestones, uncharged magestones, small enough to be used as a setting in a ring. I’d like ten rings for each child, I need at least six. I want candles, and beakers that are either unbreakable, or easy enough to replace that it doesn’t matter if they break. I want something for each cub to write with, and something for each cub to write on. I don’t care what- Paper, Papyrus, or Leather, and that is just for the first stage.” Tasha’s eyes lost their glow, but they were still narrowed in anger. “I think one of those cubs you dumped on me is a channeler. She’ll need special treatment, and there might be a second one in the class too; I can’t tell without the rings.”
Heg nodded, moving the magestone gilded dagger that was in his hand on his lap back up into his sleeve before Tasha could see it.
“That will be enough to start the class off?” Heg asked, his voice carefully even. Tasha pushed against the table as she straightened up. “That’s enough for now. I’ll see if I can recruit a real teacher for them. And don’t ever dump a bunch of brats on me again.”
“Do you really hate children that much?”
“Let’s just say I won’t be having any children of my own.” Tasha turned to leave.
“Tasha.”
“What Heg?”
“I’ll tell Kel’at to get some uncharged magestones for you as well as the students; your powers are getting away from you again.”
“The eyes again?” Tasha asked.
Heg nodded. Tasha sighed.
“I’m going up to the cave Heg, I’ll be back down by half meal.” Tasha toyed with her gold and purple head dress. “The smithy can wait, and I’ll go teacher-hunting this afternoon, as long as nothing else will get in the way.”
Heg held his hands up. “If anything does, it won’t be coming from my direction. You just keep a lid on your temper until Kel’at gets those uncharged magestones for you. We don’t need you blowing anything up like last time.”
Tasha nodded, and without another word, she closed the door and walked down the steps out of the derelict block of buildings. When she reached the city-cavern wall, she followed a broken, moss-covered path up to the failed growing cave. Green magestones glowed as she passed, and it was a bit of a climb up to the failed growing cave. It was an ugly scar against the side of the cave wall. On the other side of the rubble could be seen a perfect cave for growing food, if only people weren’t so scared of it. If only the Earth Magic from the nearby Mage home hadn’t weakened the rock so much.
The princess came up here as often as she could. No one ever bothered her, thinking she was paying remembrance to her father and brothers, when she was actually trying to fix the damage that hundreds of years had caused. Needless to say, she had not been very successful.
The best solution would be to simply remove the weakened rock, and ward against further damage with uncharged Mage stones to absorb the overflow of magic from the Mage Home. Or, even better, they could send someone over to Mage Home and smack some sense into the Arch-mage.
However, the disbanding of the miners’ guild meant that there was no chance of that, so she was stuck slowly leeching the magic out of the rock. Between herself and the many Earth Mage Stones she had left around the area, she’d be finished in about five or six lifetimes.
She was so used to being left alone in the cave that she almost jumped out of her fur when she heard the rocks shifting from the weight of someone behind her. She stood, twisting as she done so, many globes of light blinking into existance to hovering around her. The fingers of her right hand were bent like claws, the other hand was held flat and was glowing yellow like the light globes.
“You expect these little bubbles of light to hurt anyone?”
“Viril!?” Tasha relaxed but the globes were still floating around. “Don’t scare me like that!”
“I asked Kel’at where you were.” Viril stepped further into the cave. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s my own fault, I souldn’t let my guard slip like that.” Tasha shook her head. “But no one else ever comes up here.”
“Yes, so I was told. You know, it’s not healthy to grieve for so long.”
Tasha blinked.
“You’re worried about me? Yesterday you didn’t even seem to like me very much.”
“Cats don’t like being manipulated.” Viril’s tail twitched. “No hunter does.”
“Understandable, but I’m sure you, as a hunter, someone who tempts their prey into the best situation for you before revealing yourself, can appreciate why I needed to use such methods.” Tasha started brushing dust from the lower half of her cloak. “That is, if you still want to stay.”
“I said I would, didn’t I, until it’s time for me to go hunting of course.” “Of course.” Tasha nodded. “And to put your mind at ease about my health, I’m not up here mourning.”
“But…you wear green under that cloak, the colour of mourning, or does green mean something different to a Mage?”
“Well that depends on the mage, but I wear green for protection.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think, Viril, if you had noticed this cloak has a green belt, or if I had walked past a ventilation fan blowing open my cloak and showing my green dress, before you knew who I was, what would you think I was?”
Viril shrugged. “I don’t know, a Sister of Athertigh.”
“Exactly, and who would bother one of them? Most people are more scared of the Sisters of Athertigh than they are of Mages and Red-shirts combined. Yedart knows wh…” Tasha trailed off suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Viril asked, noticing the ‘light bubbles’ glowing brighter, as Tasha started looking past him.
“Unlike you, Viril, someone just disturbed one of my magestones.” Tasha said, walking past Viril to the cave entrance. “Someone who shouldn’t be here.”
“How can you tell?”
“I’m connected to each of my magestones. It helps me keep tabs on the state of this place, and lets me know if something is going wrong.”
“Like if someone is trespassing?” Viril asked, tying string to the bottom of his bow and bending it so he could tie the string to the top.
“That’s not exactly why I put them there, but yes, they can detect trespassers.”
Tasha agreed, not looking at him, but scanning the ruined rock and broken path leading to the cave. “Like that one.”
Just where the derelict buildings ended and the ruined path to the cave started, stood a yellow and red fox holding a glowing green stone, dressed in the red shirt and black trousers of a Enforcer.
“Mace… Does he work for you, Princess?”
“Not exactly.” Suddenly a bone arrow shot past Tasha’s year, aimed at Mace.
“Viril, no!”
Tasha’s little bubbles of light shot after the arrow, sparking blue as they came in contact with shaft of bone until it erupted in flames, so that when the metal mace hit the arrow it broke into powder saveing it’s owner. The fox, Mace, looked up at where the arrow had come from, then turned and walked away. She tossed the still glowing magestone to the wayside as a yellow tail vanished from view.
“My arrow!” Viril shouted. “What did you do that - Princess? Are you okay?” Tasha fell to her knees, with her hand over her heart. Her eyes were closed, and she took a few deep breaths before answering Viril.
“Viril, if Heg or Kel’at ask where I am, tell them I’ve gone to the Enforcers to make sure we don’t get a whole patrol of red-shirts on our backs.”
“What? You’re going after Mace? But…if you don’t want him dead, what are you going to do? You can’t talk to him! He’s a heartless killer.”
Only now did Tasha turn to face the hunter cat.
“Well, that ‘Heartless Killer’ came to talk to me.” Tasha sighed. “I really wish you hadn’t shot that arrow. Mace is not someone to be on the bad side of, I should know.”
With that, Tasha jumped out of the cave, running down the steep rocky path, with no fear of tripping as she followed the blond fox out of view.
*****
On the edge of the derelict part of the city, where a few of the houses were still occupied, although be it by some very poor families, a black and tan dog and an orange and yellow fox were fighting, A crowd of small cubs of various races were watching in awe as the dog’s broadsword and the fox’s twin blades crashed together.
“Come on, Trirail, you need to do better than that or your going to lose that pretty tail of yours!”
The Fox blocked the dog’s attack and kicked him.
“You’re just jealous because my tail is better than yours.” The fox smirked, flicking his orange yellow and white tail to emphasize his words.
“Ha! As if I would want that thing growing out of my butt! I personally think your tail is trying to make up for something you don’t have, Trirail.”
“You know, calling me by my blood name is starting to get annoying, Dog.”
“Why? Got something to be ashamed of, Councillor’s son?”
The Trirail Fox whipped the shorter of his swords before the dog’s face who, as he stepped back, tripped over one of the cubs that had been watching them.
“Ow…hey, you okay, little guy?” The dog asked the young rat he had tripped over.
“He will be as soon as you get off him Drectvor.” came a voice from the sidelines.
“Hey, Mace! So how did your ‘don’t even think of following me or I’ll cut your tails off’ Secret Mission go?”
Both the Trirail Fox and Mace rolled their eyes at Drectvor.
“Mace, what’s the white stuff on your shirt?” The Trirail Fox asked.
“Huh? Oh that.” Mace brushed a hand though the white powder. “That was a bone arrow.”
“You were attacked?” The Trirail fox frowned.
“The person I wanted to see had some half-cocked bodyguard. I’ll deal with them later.” Mace smirked at the other fox and dog. “Now, if you two have so much energy that you’re sparring in the middle of the street, let’s go back to base and get some assignments.”
Drectvor moaned, picking up his sword from where he had dropped it in his fall.
“Mace! You’re killing us here! Just because you never take a break doesn’t mean we don’t need a chance to unwind.”
Mace frowned. “I just gave you one. You spent it sparring and insulting each other. What started it this time?”
Drectvor picked at the red leather binding on the handle of his sword.
“Since when did we need a reason? I was bored. Needle Trirail long enough, and he’ll spar with me just to shut me up.”
Mace sighed, having been a victim of Drectvor’s boredom more than once.
“His name is Latover.” Mace growled. “You’ve known that for years, stop calling him by his blood name or I’ll spar with you.”
Drectvor gulped. “Okay, okay, Latover knows I’m only messing with him, don’t ya, color-tail.”
Latover Trirail sighed, shaking his head.
“If I didn’t, I would have chopped your head off by now.”
“Really. Well, if you think you could, Trirail, bring it on.” Mace growled and grabbed Drectvor’s long black and brown hair and walked off, dragging the dog behind her.
“Ow, Ow! Mace, let go!”
Mace smirked at Latover and tugged the Drectvor’s hair harder.
Once they reached the Enforcers’ base, a collection of barracks and other various buildings in the shadow of the palace, she let Drectvor’s hair go.
“If you two can avoid fight for long enough, go and grab some food. I’m going to talk with the Old Codger.”
Mace watched as the two friends walked off, elbowing each other as they went. Mace would be surprised if they managed to reach the canteen before they started fighting again.
The blonde and red fox turned and walked in the opposite direction. Everyone would be in the canteen, but the lone fox headed towards the barracks.
Suddenly, the second there was no one within sight or earshot, Mace turned and slammed one arm against the wall and pulled out a dagger.
There was something invisible between Mace’s arm and the wall. Something invisible, warm, and breathing.
“I knew you’d come.”
Narrowed green eyes were the first thing that Mace saw, followed by white and black locks of hair, a white face, and finally grey robes.
“You think you know me.” Princess Tasha hissed.
“You think I don’t?” Mace asked.
“I don’t know you. I almost believed you were dead.”
“You rejected me; I may as well have been dead to you.” Mace stepped away from the princess, but didn’t put the dagger away.
“I rejected you? We were children! I told you not to join Magehome, I never said I didn’t want anything to do with you. I never said that I didn’t want you as -”
“You didn’t care. I asked you for help and you turned me away -” The blonde and red solider was cut off by a slap to the face.
Princess Tasha blinked, looking at her hand; she had never meant to do that. Her green eyes met red and hardened. Whether she had meant to or not, she had made the first move, first by talking to Mace, and now by striking the first blow. She had to follow though or lose all respect in those red eyes.
She couldn’t afford to make an enemy of Mace. For more reasons than one.
“That black stone you wear under your shirt. The old codger gave you that, didn’t he?”
Mace’s eyes narrowed. Gloved fingers twitched as if they wanted to reach for the hidden pendent and toy with it. Either that or let that shiny dagger find a new home in Tasha’s chest.
Mace did not forgive easily, if at all.
“What of it?”
“Black isn’t just a royal color. For a mage it’s the color of a death mage stone.” Tasha smirked. “I know that there are no Mages in the Enforcers. How do you think he got that for you, who do you think made it for you?”
“You can’t be a Dasiden.” Mace muttered. “Why would death haunt your footsteps?”
“Not all Black Mages are Dasiden, but they are all treated the same. Do you know what kind of risk I took to make that, do you know what they do to anyone with the ability to make a stone like that?” Tasha asked. “You wouldn’t have lasted a week in Magehome, they would have thrown you out on the streets and - ”
“I ended up on the streets anyway!”
“But at least you’re still in the city! They would have thrown you out on the streets, and then made sure you were exiled as well. You would have been the one thrown out instead of the one doing the throwing out, that is if they didn’t just kill you. Remember, they tried to kill me once, and that was without knowing what I was.”
Mace just blinked and stared at her.
“You were protecting me?”
Of all the dense, rock headed, stubborn, red-shirts, Tasha had to get stuck trying to convince this one.
“Yes! Honestly, did you expect me to do anything less? I never should have opened my damn mouth back at the Exiles Gate. You!” Tasha pointed at Mace as if her finger was a weapon. “Are impossible to reason with, Dasiden.”
Red eyes flashed with anger, and a spark of something else. “Do not call me that within earshot of another.”
“You really think I would let anyone else hear us? If they could hear us, they would have already come to see who is tying to shout the city-cavern roof down.”
“Stupid Mages and their magic.”
“Indeed, Tell me, why hide here, in the very shadow of what you are hiding from?”
Mace smirked.
“Well if it took this long for you to find me, it means that it must have been a good idea.”
Tasha laughed. “Damned red shirts. I would hope to speak to you again Mace”
“Of course, Princess.”
Tasha inclined her head to the solider, turned to walk away.
“And I’m sorry for thinking the worse of you.”
Tasha turned back green eyes wide with shock.
“What?” Mace asked frowning.
“You apologised…I’ve never heard you apologise to anyone before…did it hurt?” With a roll of eyes and a flick of wrist a dagger shot though the air, pinning a corner of the Princess’ grey cloak to the ground.
“My cloak!” Tasha yelped kneeling to assess the damage, pulling the dagger out and poking a finger though the jagged hole. “Why you…you…”
Tasha trailed off as she heard Mace laughing. Tasha smirked. There was no way that Mace was going to get away with tearing holes in her cloak. Suddenly, Mace yelped and jumped back as flames erupted at the red-shirt’s feet.
Mace glared at Tasha, who was holding her stomach with laughter.
“Not the manliest of shrieks there, Mace.” She managed to gasp out.
“That wasn’t funny.”
“It was from my angle.” Tasha toyed with the dagger she still held in her hands. “I think I’ll hold on to this…see you around.”
“Oh don’t worry Uigat‘o, you will.”
“Good!” Tasha shouted back at Mace as she left, trying to have the last world. Mace was never going to allow that.