by Adam Browne
Madou grimaced, “I’m… not sure. I only know Nurka’s plan involves the black-imperium we stole.”
“Black-imperium!”
“Yes, my Prince. We’ve built up a huge stockpile from all the raids. That’s what we’ve been doing since you were taken. It’s been dangerous work, but so far we’ve had no accidents.”
A long pause ensued.
At last, and with a rub of the jaw, Noss grunted, “So what’s Nurka going to do, bomb the Summit with it?”
“Only he knows how it’s to be done, my Prince.”
“You don’t?”
Madou seethed in shame “No. If Nurka had trusted me with his plans I’d have given everything away to Vladimir by now and all would be lost. They… they racked me, then had hung me by my paws for days, I-I-I couldn’t bear it. I had to tell them as much as I knew. I had to. The pain was….”
Madou’s mighty chest heaved as he wept.
“It’s all right,” Noss said, grasping Madou’s shoulders and gently shaking him. “You’ve nothing to be ashamed of. They broke me too.”
“You?” Madou snuffled.
“I told Vladimir of Amael’s ambitions when he had me; he promised to protect Arjana if I did. Of course I didn’t know much back then, only that he planned to take over Lupa somehow, not that Nurka was going to help him. Besides, what good is the word of a mad hyena prince to the Den Fathers, eh?”
Madou let out a scoff. “You bear the affliction with great dignity, my Prince.”
Noss shrugged. “The strong imperium ambiance around here is something of a comfort, I find. My mind’s never been clearer.” He tapped Madou’s chest, “It’s also allowed me to pass undetected even by Red-mist’s senses. Besides, he thinks me dead and would never think it was me who passed him in the mines. But I’ve watched you and him. Yes. You two seem very friendly.”
Madou defended, “He’s a great wolf. His blood burns with imperium and yet he has time for me, for everyone.”
“I told you.”
“I think he’d join us, given a chance.”
“Rufus,” Noss almost chirped, “betray wolfkind?”
“Well they’ve betrayed him; sent him down on false charges! They’re afraid he’ll find a cure for the rot, he says.”
“Hah! Maybe he will.”
“He’s a noble wolf,” Madou insisted, “I… I would be dead months ago but for him.”
“Then I’m in his debt, again.”
“And I.”
Suddenly Noss grasped his head in both paws, “By the Wind, how can I face him after what I did? I never expected us to meet again. I expected to die that day. I expected us both to die and Arjana to go free and yet none of it came to be.”
Madou could but wait in silence.
The prince pondered matters. “Go back to Rufus, say nothing of me,” Noss instructed. “I’ll face him when the time is right.”
Madou bowed again. “As you say, Prince Noss,” he said, adding giddily, “And thank the Wind you’re alive. Nurka will be so happy, and Themba too!”
“I’ll see them again in this life,” Noss predicted cheerily.
Once Madou had bowed and scraped his way round the corner and disappeared, Noss collapsed against the hut wall and slipped down into the mud.
“Nurka you fool,” he growled, punching the ground, “you’ll destroy my whole people!”
Chapter 27
The citizens of the buzzing Common Ground looked up from their café tables and newspapers this fine Lupan morning as a monobike screeched by. To those in the know, the intermittent revving of the engine attested to an inexperienced rider, but he was still a Howler, and a Bloodfang at that. Even here in the Common Ground, safe from Bloodfang or any other jurisdiction save ALPHA’s, this fellow was to be avoided and by no means mocked, and the well-practised citizens of every race averted their eyes to their breakfasts and papers as ever.
The monobike and its stocky, red-cloaked wolfen rider rumbled and popped along the main road, past the cinema, pubs, restaurants and such, before coming to a juddering halt outside a nondescript town house. Kicking out the stand and swinging his armoured legs off the bike, the Bloodfang crunched across the pavement to the building, muscled, blonde-furred arms swinging gently, baby-blue eyes taking in the ash-stained bricks and tall windows from beneath his imposing helmet, round shield bobbing at his back.
The only indication that this address was one where a lonely Howler like him might find paid comfort was the red-imperium lantern eternally standing sentinel over the door – a code for those with eyes to see.
This was a Lupanar – a Howler brothel.
Climbing the steps, this next probable customer rapped on the hefty door and waited, paws cupped behind him. Time, citizens and cars, passed.
A flap slid to one side and a pair of large, eyeliner encircled pink eyes obviously belonging to the face of an older white wolfess scrutinised the soliciting wolf.
“It’s six in the morning, Howler,” she crackled, in an ember-checked voice. “We’re closed until sundown.”
“I-I-I know,” the Howler excused, “but may I see Rosa quickly?”
“Rosalina? Do you have an appointment?”
“No, marm, but tell her it’s Linus, Uther’s partner.”
“Uther Bloodfang Wild-heart?” the wolfess snorted. “Haven’t seen that rogue for months. Has he dropped dead?”
“Uh, no marm; he’s just… away.”
After a while the wolfess demanded, “Brooch, please.”
Linus grasped his brooch and induced the red-imperium fang to glow, proving as much as was possible from afar that the brooch was real and he was a Howler.
Satisfied, the wolfess unlocked the door and beckoned him in, confirming herself to be, as Linus had suspected even through the door flap, comfortably old enough to be his mother. Her smart purple petticoat and dress were of top quality and gilded with golden thread woven into images of various bugs – there was clearly lots of money to be made in an establishment where rich, drunken Howlers emptied their capacious cloak pockets for a night’s pleasure.
“I’m Lady Audrey,” the wolfess said, breaking an ember off in her mouth and speaking through clouds of vapour. “I look after the girls here.”
“Pleasure, marm,” Linus said nobly.
“Is it indeed?” Audrey woofed, one arm folded, the other holding her ember. She cast her pink eyes over the client before her, “You fill out your cloak don’t you, Howler? You’re like a little bear.”
Linus could but emit a worried scoff.
Winking mischievously, Audrey observed further, “I’ve never seen you in here before. I’d have remembered you.”
“N-nnn-no, marm. I’ve never, uh… well….”
Audrey brushed Linus with a bony paw, “Say no more, love. Rosa’s very good with your sort. Gentle lass, she is.”
‘My sort?’ Linus thought, but made only agreeable noises.
Laughing hoarsely, Audrey beckoned her plainly inexperienced client through the lobby to a perfectly respectable bar, with little round tables and a crackling fire. It looked a cosy place for a cup of tea and a newspaper, not at all what Linus had expected. In an hour or two, he supposed, Howlers would emerge from their rooms to partake of breakfast and catch up on the news, just like beasts staying at any other hotel.
“Wait here, Howler,” Audrey said, creaking upstairs.
Removing his helmet and nodding, Linus wandered aimlessly around the deserted bar, brushing the smooth tabletops with a paw. He pictured Uther in the far corner with Lorna draped over one shoulder, Rosalina the other, both hanging on his every word as he drank and smouldered, lightening his troubles and his wallet.
Turning over a crumpled edition of yesterday’s paper, Linus flicked through the usual propaganda to an article on the looming Pack Summit. Grainy photos of Everdor, with its rolling farmland and biscuit-box villages, caught his roving eyes; the City of Hummelton too, capital district of the Pack Hummel, complete with a ca
stle and tall town houses.
You’ll be there a week from now, his brain told him. You’ll see it for yourself. Fields of green plants, clean water, bugs at every turn. Everdor must be a marvellous place.
“Linus!”
That recognisable squeak brought Linus back to Erde, back to Lupa. “Rosa,” he beamed without knowing it.
The little brown wolfess scuttled downstairs in a modest green petticoat, modest compared to the frilly attire Linus was used to seeing her in at any rate, and waddled over to the Howler. Grasping Linus’s big arms in her delicate paws she kissed the bashful Howler on the cheek in the manner of a friend then drew back to look him over.
“How ya bin, handsome?” Rosa asked, looking all around and asking further, “Is Uther back, then?”
“Not yet, no,” the ‘handsome’ Linus replied, a little flustered by that unexpected kiss.
Squeezing Linus’s free paw in both of hers Rosa leant forward and chided playfully, “Well where’s the rogue gone? I thought you said he’d only be two months!”
Linus muddled through, “I-I-I know, but… well, one never knows with these secret missions. If it’s something to do with THORN then it must be a very tricky situation, and they’ll have to think on their feet, him and Ivan,” he said, as if he had the slightest inkling of what he was talking about.
Rosalina was convinced at any rate. “Oh, it sounds very daring, dun’ it?” she marvelled. “He’ll have some tall stories to tell when he gets back won’t he?”
“Some very tall ones, knowing Uther.”
Linus and Rosa shared a hearty laugh as Lorna moseyed down the stairs in a red petticoat.
“Howdy, Linus,” she greeted, when only halfway down.
“Lorna,” he replied, adding, “Uther’s not back yet.”
“Yeah, I heard ya’ll talking from upstairs. You two are like a walking barn party. You’re gonna wake our sleepy clients.”
“Sorry,” Linus excused.
As Lorna passed Rosalina she pinched her friend in the side. “Well it’s mostly Miss Foghorn here,” she tutted good-humouredly, before kissing Linus on the other cheek and saying, “not Lupa’s truest gentlebeast.”
Further flustered, Linus tugged at the neck of his red cloak and attempted to construct words with his lips, “Uhm, well uhm… I….”
Giving up, Linus reached into his cloak pocket and produced a rainbow wad of lupas.
“Here,” he said, pushing them at the wolfesses.
Feasting their eyes on the spectrum of money, the girls exchanged baffled glances, before Lorna spread a paw over the nape of her elegant blonde neck and conquered her shock to mount the power of speech. “Linus, honey,” she purred, brushing a paw on his mantle-clad chest, “you don’t have to pay us all up front, sweetheart. We know you’re good for it, if that’s what you want. Though, truth be told it is a little early in the day, we’ll need five minutes to spruce up.”
“What?” Linus gasped, eyes darting about. “Oh! No, no, no, it’s not that! I don’t want that!”
“Whatcha mean?” Rosa squeaked indignantly at Linus.
“Nothing. I just want you two to be all right, what without Uther around to, well… uh…. You see, he told me to look after you, but I won’t be here. I-I-I’m going away for a while and so… well, there it is.”
Lorna put Linus out of his misery, “You’re going on a secret mission as well?”
“No, just the Pack Summit,” Linus exhaled. “I’m going as Vladimir’s adjutant.”
“You mean, all the way out to Everdor?” Rosalina asked.
Linus nodded at her. “To my honour,” he said, with sudden resolve. “I never expected to do something this important so early in my Howlership. I just hope I don’t embarrass Grand Howler Vladimir.”
“Of course you won’t, silly!” Rosalina scolded, pushing Linus’s money away as if it were offensive to her eyes, “And put that away!”
“Please, I insist.”
“We won’t take it fer nothing, will we Lorna?”
Lorna eyed up the cash a while, before snapping from an apparent stupor. “Of course not!” she woofed, arms folded.
“See?” Rosalina piped, wagging a finger at Linus before placing her paws on her hips. “Payment is one thing, but we’ll not take no charity. We have our dignity, Linus.”
“Please, Rosa, it’s what Uther would want if he knew I was going away.”
“Well we’d turn him down too!”
Linus, eventually, let his paw of lupas flop down. “I’ve insulted you,” he guessed.
“Of course you ain’t, silly,” Rosalina sighed. “We appreciate your kindness, really, but me ‘n’ Lorna can look after ourselves. Us Beehive girls, we all stick together here, just like you ‘Owlers do over at your Dens.”
Linus wished that last statement were true.
Shuffling over to the stocky Howler, Rosalina hugged him tight, her little arms barely encompassing his robust form. Linus stood stiffly at first, unable to move, even breathe in the embrace of a wolfess. Slowly he relaxed in Rosalina’s hold and even returned her sweet hug.
This isn’t so bad.
“You’re too good a wolf to have the rot, Linus Bloodfang,” Rosalina cooed warmly, nuzzling into his thick neck. “Too good by half. Have fun in Everdor, handsome. We’ll be here when you get back, you ‘n’ that rogue Wild-heart and we’ll hear all about your adventures. All right?”
“Be careful out there on the streets,” Linus said. “Lupa’s a dangerous place.”
“We’ll manage, you daft beast.”
As they parted company, Rosa felt Linus tug on the back of her petticoat.
She thought nothing of it.
Once goodbyes were exchanged and Linus had donned his helmet and left the building, Lorna and Rosalina climbed the steps to return to their rooms.
Alighting upon the wooden landing, Rosalina noticed a lump in the back of her green petticoat, right between her shoulder blades. Squirming and tugging did nothing to shift the irritation.
“Lorna could you have a look round there?” Rosa said, turning around and jabbing at thumb at her shoulders. “I think me underclothes are snagged in me strings, love.”
With a gasp, Lorna plucked at Rosa’s petticoat, instantly relieving the tightness. “Well, you got something snagged,” she laughed, waving a crumpled wad of notes in front of Rosalina’s wide-eyes. “I think Linus dropped something.”
“Ooooh, that naughty wolf!” Rosalina growled, snatching the money and dashing downstairs. “Linus! Linuuus! Come back here!”
“Rosa, be quiet,” Lorna seethed, chasing her colleague.
The loud popping of a monobike engine coughing into life and thrumming away beat the wolfesses to the front door. By the time they made the dew-licked streets, Linus was whizzing down the golden, sunlit road, deaf to Rosa’s shouts by choice if not by circumstance.
Once the Howler had vanished over the hill, Rosa deftly counted the money. “It’s five hundred, Lorna!” she groaned, at once ashamed and delighted. “Why’d he do that?”
“Maybe he loves yer?” Lorna suggested with a wry smile.
“Don’t be daft.”
“Well, he ain’t no Uther Wild-heart, honey, he’s a different kind of wolf.”
Rosalina looked at the money, then pressed the lupas to her chest like a bunch of sweet flowers and sighed. “You dunno the half it, Lorna.”
*
Parking his Giacomo Springtail across the road, Linus walked to the florist opposite and ran his eye over the spring flowers festooning the stall. He supposed this was the done thing when meeting with a respectable wolfess.
A grey old doe rabbit in a floral-pattered headscarf and shawl emerged from behind the stall. “Fresh from Everdor, the finest blooms,” she said, in a warm, crackly voice. “Guaranteed to last a week, Howler.”
“They look wonderful,” Linus replied, lifting his helmet just enough to press his nose to a daffodil’s trumpet and take a sniff. It had a sweet,
yet musky scent that spoke of a wild world Linus had almost forgotten. “And smell even better,” he added, pushing his helmet back down.
“Buying a posy for your mother?” the doe asked him.
“No, no.”
“Ah, the girlfriend?”
Linus emitted a slight scoff of amusement and cupping his paws behind him said, “It’s not like that.”
The smiling doe made noises and gestures that indicated she didn’t quite believe Linus. “Where’s the lucky wolfess from?”
“Everdor, actually,” Linus replied.
“Ah, where my flowers are grown!” said the doe.
“Yes, I heard.”
“Then for you, Howler, a special price.”
“No need for that, citizen, I’m not of Eisbrand territory. I’ve no privileges here.”
“I noticed,” the doe cackled, fearlessly tapping Linus’s brooch with a bony finger.
The Howler noticed the imperium fang within brighten for a moment and felt a crackle in his bones.
Odd.
“But, I have a good feeling about you, Bloodfang,” the doe continued, “I can tell about someone straight away. It’s a gift. You’ve a good heart.”
Linus blurted, “Are you… afflicted, citizen?”
The citizen fussed with her shawl and flowers, fluffing the latter up like pillows. The rubbery stems squeaked as they jostled against one another. “Little beasts like us are not gifted like you,” the doe hummed. “We do not share in the blessings of the Howlers.”
“Not to the same degree perhaps, but I felt something.”
“Ah, well. Who knows?”
Leaving things at that, the doe took a bunch of little white droopy flowers from a bucket. They were rather sad-looking, their teardrop-shaped heads hanging low.
“I suggest these for your wolfess.”
“Snowdrops?” Linus chirped.
The doe was surprised, “You know your flowers?”
“Well, I-”
“A bright wolf like you would choose a discerning, intelligent wolfess, I think,” the doe interrupted wryly, “and the snowdrops carpet the woods in Everdor this time of year like, well… snow! She will appreciate your thoughtfulness if you choose them and let it be known why.”
