“Roe! You have no idea. This book is twelve hundred years old and talks about anti-bacterial medications. A breakthrough the Hantsa didn't have until a few decades ago. You stay here and I'll come back for you,” she said to the book as she slid it neatly back into its centuries old gap.
She looked at a few more, enthralled by the diversity of subjects. No attempt had been made to preserve any sort of order or system of cataloguing. Instead the books had been placed as quickly as possible in whatever order they arrived. Turning the pages of an over large book she giggled at the beautifully printed and coloured images from 'Fox Fashions from Ages Past'. Full feathered gowns and masks, strangely shaped skirts worn by foxes and sleek military armour made for vixens.
“This one looks useful,” she said down to Roe as she pulled out a small book. The words 'Gildings Guide to the Greater Burrow of London' were printed in gold along the spine.
Before she opened it a folded map fell out and landed on the floor at her feet. Carefully unfolding the vellum parchment she smiled at what was printed before her. A detailed map, in sharp black ink, had the words “The Greater Burrow of London” stamped in a cursive script above it. This was the Burrow in its entirety and at its glorious height.
Part of her wanted to cry and she sat for a moment. The Burrow was endless, it was massive. The City Burrow, which they had only just discovered and had seemed to be as large as any city could possibly be took up only a small portion of what was the Greater Burrow of London. The portion available to the foxes today, was nothing. It was small and insignificant compared to the endless system of streets, tunnels and tramways which had been closed or destroyed.
“So much lost,” she said, again, to herself. “Not any more,” she continued with a resolute sigh, “Today we have found it all. Today we bring the Burrow back to life.”
Refolding the tough map, she tucked it safely in one of her pack's inner pockets.
“Scarlett?” Roe called from further down the cavern below.
“Yeah? Is my time up?” she responded.
“I think you are going to want to see this one.”
Jumping quickly down from her alcove, she nearly fell as she slid across a series of decomposed pages. Running towards Roe, she saw his form in silhouette blocking her view from some source of light.
She set down Mercia's pack, reached his side and gasped at what she saw, a huge smile slowly growing across her face.
A glass dome housed a thick book and the stone it sat upon glowed slightly from an unknown source of light. What made her gasp, however, was not the book's housing, it was the title in gold letters painted across the simple leather cover.
'All Aspects of the Art' by Archibald Orb, Master Artisan of the Academy.'
Scarlett did nothing and Roe watched her impatiently.
“Well, aren't you going to take a look at it,” he asked her finally, shifting his weight uncomfortably as the pain in his ankles began to peek through the adrenaline.
“Roe, other than finding Able and having him tell us why the foxes of London are self-aware and born in the Light and, who knows, that answer may be contained within its pages as well, this book will answer the most important question any fox could possibly ask...'What is the 'Art?''.
“You are the vixen who deserves to find that answer,” Roe said placing a paw on her back and giving her a nudge.
“Okay...okay...here goes.”
Taking the glass between her paws as carefully as possible, she was surprised by how light it was as she set it on the floor beside her.
Hesitating only for a moment and glancing at Roe with a huff, she placed her paws on the book and lifted it away from the glowing stone. What was beneath took both of them by surprise. The stone was hollow, the book acting as a cover, and resting within the space a black box gilded and of the same size and shape as the relic revealed to them by Edward.
“Scarlett,” Roe said reaching into the hole. “It is the heart of Able. We've found it.”As he removed the box from its housing the light infusing the stone faded and was gone.
She looked at the box, and then at the book, and in the next moment they both found themselves flying through the air, with flames surrounding them on all sides.
With a hardened protective instinct they both twisted mid flight, clutched the treasures they were holding, and landed further down the tunnel on their paws.
Standing, with a pile of explosives dumped from Mercia's pack at his side, was Rinan.
“You two are troublesome,” the small fox said, picking out another explosive, “but not very clever. Sky, we have seen each other so many times. We have even spoken. The fact that I duped you for half the afternoon just shows how idiotic you are. Granted, it took you a long time to abandon this pack, but I have always been a young but patient fox and finally you did.”
Roe shook his head as he remembered the small innocent looking fox emerge from the Chairman’s Carriage after a long match in the pits and ask him with awed eyes for an inky paw-print. He had been only to happy to oblige the pup.
“What are you going to do? Blow us up together? Destroy all of this knowledge for all time?” Roe asked edging closer to Scarlett.
“From what father says, the Burrow is going to be cleansed soon anyway, and all of the foxes with it. Everything will be starting over according to father. So none of this stuff will matter any more. Father says after the cleansing the council will have control of the Light and that the past will be there to be written as we see fit.”
“Rinan, you are wrong. Your father means to destroy the Light forever. Even an invented past needs to be written. If the Light is gone, than there will be no foxes left to write it. We have the means to stop the cleansing and we could all return to the surface with this discovery. You would be the greatest fox of all the ages bringing a rebirth to the Burrow with the knowledge contained within this chamber,” Scarlett said, nervously looking at all of books already burning.
“Roe,” she whispered. “We need to get that pack back. It has a map of the entire Burrow and could show us the way out.”
“I don't believe you. You will die down here even if I have to join you. I will finish this; my father's execution.”
He threw another explosive directly at them, and Roe immediately ran to meet it, jumping into the air and kicking it deftly to the side into one of the alcoves further up.
Rinan was taken off guard and retreated slightly from the oncoming older fox.
The charge hissed and exploded above them, sending a rain of burning pages down from the alcove, spreading the growing fire deeper into the tunnel. Roe somersaulted as he landed and grasped the empty and discarded pack between his jaws.
Rinan barked angrily and tossed another two charges at them in succession. They fizzed and popped for a moment before exploding simultaneously in a sphere of flame. Roe retreated back to Scarlett and, as the fire built into an uncontrollable roar, licking and feeding ravenously upon the dried manuscripts, he pulled her away, tears streaking down her face.
“It's too late, Scarlett!” Roe yelled into her ear, taking the book and the box and carefully placing them in the pack. “The fire will reach the remainder of the explosives and the cavern is going to cave in. Look to the ceiling rocks are already coming loose.”
After one last cry of despair, she turned and joined Roe, running away from the pup behind them trapped by a wall of flames and howling in a high pitched rage.
*
Gremian was watching the sphere, seated heavily between the jaws of the vixen, when a slight tremor rocked the ground and sent more bits of mosaic raining down from above upon him.
“It begins Fox of the Light,” he said to himself, a calm satisfaction settling over his face. “The beginning of the end. What Bliss.”
*
Alodia felt the tremor shudder beneath the palace, dust settling on her nose from the lintel as she looked out the window. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she looked at the scene in the rotunda below.
She could see the shadowy forms of two foxes chained and locked within the sphere and was startled to see the two Hantsa being pulled by a gang of Shadow Foxes and canines out of a trapdoor set into the paving stones near the fountain.
*
Stones and bending metal moaned and gave way above by the energy of the blast, forcing Roe and Scarlett to dive into an alcove, the books still smouldering and red. Stratified layers, representing centuries of new architecture built upon the old, fell into the cavern in a mix of stone, brick, concrete and steel flowing within a liquid ooze of silt, dust and the long dead.
A small pocket of air wedged against the tile lined sealing of the alcove saved them and a rumbling crack above gave them the means to escape. Roe managed to pull himself through, dragging Scarlett out after him. Both were surprised to take a breath of fresh air from a clean breeze. None of the library remained. The collapsed ceiling had extinguished the fire and buried the great library with it. A pile of rubble lead up to another tunnel and to a dim light, which they followed.
Sparks were flicking into the air in front of them and a multitude of coloured wiring lead to a group of shattered light fittings. A pair of rails bent towards them from above, snapped off roughly like two pieces of string.
“This looks very un-fox like to me,” Scarlett said, looking at the modern rubble which surrounded them.
“Especially him,” Roe said, pointing with his snout toward a disoriented Hantsa, wearing a bright yellow jersey and struggling to climb the unstable slope of rubble.
“The blast reached one of their tunnels,” she concluded with foreboding. “Roe we should get out of here quickly. This place will be crawling with Hantsa in a few minutes.”
“What about him? Shall we help him?”
“There is nothing we can do for him.”
As they passed the Hantsa with a thick white beard on his face and a pair of glasses which kept sliding down his nose, they noticed he appeared to be unharmed.
“His own will be here soon enough to help him,” she added, “along with anyone else who was unfortunate enough to have been down here at this particular time.”
As if on cue, a great gust of wind belched from the undamaged portion of tunnel ahead.
“This is the Hantsa Underground. A fairly simple network of trains close to the surface that rests well above the Great Burrow. This must be one of their deepest lines.”
The wind began to pick up and in the distance, rapidly approaching, a pair of lights shone.
“That train doesn't look like it's slowing down,” Roe said, waiting for the vehicle to make an emergency stop.
“Of course it will stop. These things have breaks and they should be well aware of half their track being blown away.
But the train continued towards them and the crevasse.
His eyes growing wide, Roe gasped, “That Hantsa and everyone on that train will die if it comes off the track at that speed.”
“We have to get out of here now, Roe!” She yelled, the train now only moments away.
Roe faced the oncoming mass of machine without thinking. He was a tiny speck of red amongst the torn earth. The unstoppable force of the train hurtling towards him. His mind went blank and all fear drained into the ground beneath him. He slouched slightly then raised his head and out of some hibernating instinct willed the train to stop.
He did not bark this time and he realized it had never been the bark which created the power, but the focus of his mind.
A bolt of energy rippled across the ground and hit the centre of the train, causing it to shudder and skip on the tracks. It slowed and Roe could feel the force of it pushing him into the torn soft earth until he sank above knees. He relaxed more and the force of his control became fiercer. The front of the train began to glow red from the heat of the energy slowing it down and finally, like an asteroid into water it came to a gentle stop, touching the protruding whiskers of Roe with a singe.
*
The Hantsa with a beard reached the top of the pile of rubbish and let out a yelp at the sight of the train, with its exodus of passengers before him, not noticing the flick of red tails disappearing into the dark.
Chapter Seventeen
Formed by a master blacksmith, the rusted steel of the sphere containing the two foxes had heated itself clean. Nearly a millennium of grime had melted away, and now the silver embossed latticework of leaves blending into stems, flowers, and branches stood out boldly. Daegal put a paw through a gap in the metal and couldn't help but appreciate the incredible skill that had gone into the making of their prison.
“If I have to be a fox in a cage, there is no cage I'd rather be trapped in.” he said, passing a weak smile to Mercia, curled at his paws, a grizzly gash matted with blood cutting across her hind legs.
“I'd prefer one..,” she heaved gently, “one with a toilet.”
He smiled at her and could hardly believe that she had survived the incidents at the Well of Begging. Fitter and faster, she had caught up with and passed Daegal's charge towards small army. Before she entered the festering haze of poisonous gas she yelled, “Hey Tilian! I'd call this a special occasion! So meet a new friend of mine named 'Heavy Henry''! With a heave and a roar she rolled the heavy iron ball towards the soldiers, just before a sword would have cleaved her in two.
The last thing Mercia could remember was the eyes of Tilian growing wide as they were consumed by a sphere of fire.
The explosion was rigged to have a wedge of safety within it, one which barely covered herself and Daegal. Everything outside of this wedge was obliterated, but the range of the explosion itself was not enough to wipe out the opposing force. They were both knocked unconscious until eventually awakening to the marred grin of Gremian looking at them through this very beautiful latticework.
“As far as I can tell, Inari, this ancient device needs the blood of a fox born where the Light is strong,” Gremian said with a smile. “I think you were both born in Sunniva's Womb. How far you've fallen. Anyway, two is better than one. You will do one final service for your Council, your Burrow and your dear Inari. It will be your blood which gives birth to the cleansing.”
“You don't think the entire strength of the Inari will stop that from happening?” Daegal managed, mumbling from his half conscious state.
Gremian's face bent and twisted upon itself, the stained void of his missing eye looking at them more intensely than the living one. A gargling laugh bubbled up from the fox, a laugh Daegal found far more terrifying than the baring of teeth or the grind of a growl.
Mercia stirred and Daegal touched her, the contact settling her back to their woven iron floor.
“We've always known where your hideout was, Daegal. We've taken control of it and we've killed all of the Inari we found there.”
An imagined and horrific image of Cedd lying in a pool of his own blood passed through his mind and he let out a violent growl.
“But you don't have the Sky Fighter, do you Gremian? Not even your little brats were enough to capture him.”
A cloud passed across the Chairman’s face and he leaned in close to Daegal.
“No, my two eldest were never meant to succeed me. It is my youngest who is the artist. It is to him the future belongs.”
He turned and drew his sword from its scabbard.
“Alodia is close by, Daegal. She has a lovely room with a perfect view of this rotunda. You should feel privileged I have allowed the two of you to be together at the end. And while a select few remain safe from the cleansing, you will be among all the others washed away today.”
Daegal turned as he listened and looked towards the window he had spent many secret hours spying upon. There, in its centre, he could make out the smooth head of Alodia.
“Another hour together. That is what you have left, fox. That is what you all have left.”
“What about these Hantsa?” Daegal asked, indicating toward Edward and Gwen chained and collared to a metal spike set hard into the base of the fountain.<
br />
“These...well, these are an experiment.” Gremian said, pacing around Edward, rubbing the bottom of his jaw violently through the Hantsa's black mud-streaked hair. “After the cleansing those foxes who remain will leave the Burrow. We are moving to the surface and I want to see how easily these Hantsa die.”
*
The usual chaos of the burrow had been replaced with an unbridled rapturous ferocity. Foxes killing foxes while fighting Shadow Foxes and guardians alike, all amidst a trance-like joy. News had spread of the cleansing of the burrow, and the Light that it would bring. No longer would there be a need for branding, or bargaining for a birthing in the best burrow. As a result, their horribly oppressive system of government was collapsing along with the economics that drove it. Long held rivalries were brought to an abrupt and deadly conclusion, and the poor had broken through the bonds of the rich and were enacting their revenge.
Yet a steady stream of young and old, rich and poor, made their way through the chaos to the great fountain at the feet of the Palace of Collaring.
“Look Scarlett,” Roe said, pointing towards a red and black drooling stencil on the whitewashed wall of Sunniva's town hall.
“Traitor's Blood to Cleanse.” She read the chunky letters slowly, and scowled at the image of two foxes caged within a circle surrounded by the light of a star beneath them. “There is another over the exit arch. ”
“Gremian...he is leading the Burrow to the cleansing ground. Everyone thinks this is a new beginning.”
“It is of sorts,” she said, looking at a mother as she lead her very young pups towards the flow. “Just not for any of them. We have to stop him, Roe.”
“Traitor's...Scarlett, do you think?”
“Daegal and Mercia,” she said, sure of the sacrificial offering.
They didn't pause to admire the beauty of the Womb. The stucco ceiling, blown in waves and rivulets of glass, passed above them as they ran, reflecting the bold bands of colour created by the wall tiles and paving stones below
The Progeny of Able (The Burrow of London Series Book 1) Page 32
