Volle (22 page)

“Thanks,” Volle grinned, and got up.

“What’s that about?” Helfer asked. “Got him tied up or something?”

Volle patted the weasel on the head. “I have some secrets too.” He ruffled the fur, which he knew Helfer hated, and while the weasel was smoothing it down, he handed Tally five silver pieces and let himself in the back.

He slipped quickly into room seven, shut the door behind him, and looked around. Seir was in a chair, Sherr the porcupine was on the floor well away from everyone else, and Reese and Tella the weasel were sitting at opposite ends of the bed.

Volle made as if to take off his shirt. “So who’s first?”

“Ha ha.” Reese looked especially out of sorts.

“What, no hug for your old friend?”

“What’s the idea of sending me all the way back down to Vinton for a piece of paper? Ben could’ve done it.”

“What’s the idea of telling me they were all strict Orthodox here?”

Sherr and Tella sniggered, and even Seir smiled. Reese just grinned. “That was a good one, eh? I couldn’t have done it without Seir.”

“All right, all right.” Seir chuckled. “Derrik caught a coach to the border two days ago, but he left you this note.” She handed it to Volle. “You’re supposed to burn it after you read it.”

Volle unfolded it. It read, “Volle—if you should ever need to get out of the palace in a hurry, there are two spots. Between the two rear gardens there is a wall. You can climb up atop that and run across to the rear wall, where there are handholds to get over it. Jump over the other side into the river. That way is the easiest but is also the most exposed; use it only in emergencies. The other way is through the passage behind the Lion staircase on the first floor. Go into the baths, and in the privy second from the left, there’s a loose flagstone in the floor. You should be able to lift it. Underneath is a tunnel—don’t worry, it doesn’t go to the sewers—that leads into the basement of Andronico’s Butcher Shop. Andronico stores sausages down there, so you can hide without being smelled for a while. Good luck, and hope you never need these. –Derrik.”

He nodded. “Have you all read it?”

“We’re not supposed to,” Seir said. “We know that in an emergency we should stay posted along the river, and Andronico’s meat shop, but we don’t know where in the palace the passages lead.”

“Okay.” Volle crumpled the piece of paper and put it in his purse.

“So,” Sherr said. “You haven’t left any messages for us. What have you found out?”

Volle related the gist of his meetings with Lord Tistunish, and the history he’d learned. Seir nodded. “We know about Bucher. You were deliberately not told a lot of history so you could play the part of the innocent better. We didn’t know he was a fox, though. Our records have him as a Canida, but don’t specify which. I think we assumed he was a wolf because of his aggressive nature. Unusual for a fox.”

“Yeah, usually they like to make love, not war.” Reese smirked. “I mean, really, Volle, could you have picked a grosser place to frequent? The smells here must be making it hard to concentrate. Good thing some of us don’t like males, eh, Tella?”

The weasel ignored him frostily and went on picking her claws. Sherr spoke up. “But what else have you found out? You were supposed to be uncovering this plot.”

“Tish doesn’t even think there is a plot.”

“Marina thought there was. Haven’t you even checked Lord Ikinna’s chambers?”

“Well, you wanted me to be a long-term asset,” Volle snapped heatedly. “I can’t very well go sneaking around in people’s chambers if I’m going to be a respected Lord for years on end. What else do you want me to do, go around the palace asking the nobles, ‘Excuse me, but are you planning some sort of secret violent plot’?”

“You could do a sight more than you’re doing,” Sherr replied. “What kind of fish have they been serving? What spices do they use? These things tell us what countries they’re trading with and who they have good relations with. What is the current slang? How people speak tells us who they’re in contact with. What proclamations has the king issued?”

“None that I know of.” Volle pounced on the one he could answer quickly. “As for the meals…” He rattled off what he could remember. “All the food is really good. Oh, Fox. You have no idea.”

Reese looked sour. “Yeah, well, we’re eating pub food, so shut up about it.”

“But Sherr asked,” Volle said innocently.

“Enough, you two.” Seir smiled and walked over to Volle, and gave him a hug. “You’re doing great. Just try to keep in mind the things Sherr mentioned and jot notes. Leave them in one of the drop sites around town when you can.”

“I will.”Volle hugged her back.

“Anything else to report?”

“Well… I met Lord Tistunish, as I said, and his wife is trying to set me up with a vixen.” Reese snickered, and Volle grinned. “Apparently the lords have to have cubs to keep their lineage intact.”

“It’s the same in Ferrenis,” Sherr rumbled.

“He’s being facetious, Sherr,” Reese said. “Ignore him.”

Volle shrugged. “So now there’s all this pressure to have cubs. I’m trying to put it off as long as I can.”

Sherr grunted. “Might be good. It’d cement your standing.”

“But it’d ruin the vixen and her family if I’m ever found out.”

“So don’t get found out.”

Volle shut up. It was easy for the porcupine to be so cavalier about the situation, remote from it all. Having met Ilyana, he was not willing to risk her life against his spy skills, no matter what Sherr said.

“Anything else?” Seir asked.

Volle mulled over the events of the past week. “Nothing worth mentioning.”

“All right. You guys go on out. I want to talk to Volle privately for a minute.”

They filed out, and Reese gave Volle a pat on the shoulder and a smile as he left. Seir kept the door partly open, listening in the corridor, and then said, “Listen, Volle, I really admire your scruples in this matter of the cubs. I’ll leave it up to your discretion to decide what to do. Sherr doesn’t really have any idea of what it would do to a vixen to have her standing and her family wrenched away from her, and if we can avoid being cruel, we will. But at some point you are going to have to have cubs if you’re going to be a Lord there, and there’s no getting around it.”

He sighed. “I know. I want to wait until I’m better established. I mean, I’ve only been there a week. Maybe in a year I could figure out how to set aside some money for her, or something.”

She nodded. “I know. Don’t make excuses and put it off longer than necessary.”

“I won’t.”

“All right.” She patted his back. “Hang in there. It gets easier.”

“Oh, I’m getting used to it already.”

She smiled. “Attaboy. I’ll see you in two weeks.” And then she slipped out the door, closing it behind her.

Volle lay back on the bed and sighed, resting his head on the pillow. Life at the palace was hectic enough without him worrying about all the other little things he was supposed to be doing. And he was bothered by Sherr’s implication that he hadn’t done anything. Hadn’t he spent two weeks trying to convince everyone he was a Lord, and pretty much succeeded? But he hadn’t really done any spying, that was true. At most he’d identified some people who might possibly know something about the plot, if there was one, but he hadn’t approached them.

He was lost in thought, so he didn’t see the door open and shut silently. A paw touched his side, making him jump.

“Sorry.” Richy giggled. “I just wanted to know if this is a private party or if anyone can join.”

Volle grinned and motioned for him to sit down. The wolf was wearing his loincloth and a nice herbal scent. He sat with one leg on the bed and one on the floor, and petted Volle’s head between the ears. “You paid for me, so I thought you might as well get the benefits since all your friends left.” He mock-frowned. “They left so quickly, and you with your clothes on!”

“You know, they weren’t very attentive to my needs.”

“Aww, well, that’s what I’m for.” Richy smiled and kissed the top of Volle’s muzzle. “So what are your needs, my fox?”

Volle slid a paw gently up and down Richy’s leg, and thought. “I think,” he said slowly, his paw sliding under the loincloth to curl around the wolf’s warm sheath and sac, “that I would like to feel this inside me.” He felt the sheath expand under his paw, and kept rubbing it, enjoying the feeling.

“Very good, sir.” Richy smiled. “And what shall I do with this?” He rested his paw over the growing bulge in Volle’s trousers.

“Surprise me.” Volle grinned. His ears flicked and he looked up at the wolf. “Can you finish in me tonight?”

Richy patted his sheath gently. “Oh, I don’t know if I can. It’s still too early. I need to be careful. I have a long night ahead of me.”

Volle nodded. “All right.” An idea struck him, and his ears perked up. “Say…do you think you could tell me how you, um, enter someone but don’t finish? There’s a vixen who wants me to get her pregnant, and I thought maybe I could just pretend to be trying…”

Richy laughed. “You nobles have such interesting lives. Sure, I can tell you. Here, look.” He slipped his loincloth off, revealing his erection. He spanned a length about two inches down from the tip. “I’m most sensitive here. So when I’m going in and out, I try to make sure not to catch this section or rub it against anything. And I try to think of something else, but not so much that I lose it altogether. It takes some practice.”

Volle grinned. “How about you demonstrate?”

The wolf nuzzled him, smiling, and helped lift his shirt off, then gently removed his trousers. By this time, Volle’s erection was hard and full, and Richy spent a little time brushing it gently with the fur on his paws. He leaned over and nuzzled it, then slowly drew his tongue along it, bringing a shiver to Volle’s legs.

“That’s a nice surprise,” Volle murmured. He spread his legs and let Richy’s tongue work, closing his eyes as his sheath jumped slightly at every pass of the warm tongue. The wolf moved around on the bed, crouching between Volle’s legs, and his tongue curled down around the fox’s sac, lifting it and damping down the soft white fur. Volle clasped his paws behind his head when his paw fell away from the wolf’s sheath, and made soft murrs of pleasure.

Richy’s nose brushed below Volle’s sac, slightly chilly, and Volle squirmed. Richy grinned. “Mm, nice and clean.” He applied his tongue there, slowly licking down to the opening under the fox’s tail, pressing against and then inside it, over and over, while Volle panted with delight. The wolf’s slick tongue traced lines of pleasure along his rear, and the tip pressing into him sent a tingling down to his toes that made them curl.

After a blissful few minutes of this, Richy paused to lick his own erection. He smiled up at Volle as he straightened. “Is this okay, or do you want the stuff?”

“I’ll tell you if it’s not,” Volle panted, looking at the long pink length between the wolf’s legs. “Go ahead.”

Richy smiled, and brought his hips up to Volle’s rear. Volle felt the warmth of the wolf against him, and then the pressure under his tail again. Where Jonas had thrust into him, Richy took his time, working the tip gently in and then slowly feeding his whole length into Volle’s tail hole.

Volle moaned happily. Richy was wider than Jonas, but he was looser than he’d been the previous week, and the wolf’s shaft slid nicely into him with only a little stretching. The stretching felt good, and made it feel like Richy’s length was pushing his own further out of his sheath. He was painfully hard and automatically reached down to grasp himself, but Richy’s paw gently moved his aside.

He’d barely opened his eyes to look when he felt the wolf’s muzzle envelop his length in warmth. Richy looked up at him with a grin, and slowly started moving in and out, holding Volle in his muzzle and indicating his hips with his eyes.

Volle could feel the motion, and sensed how Richy stopped just short of the tip. He grinned and nodded, tongue lolling out of his muzzle. Every thrust made him shiver, and Richy seemed happy just licking the drops of fluid that leaked from the end of his shaft. He kept this up for several more minutes, until Volle felt his body was on fire with arousal. His moans became higher in pitch, and Richy responded by beginning to lick a bit more firmly. Volle thrust up into his muzzle, working his hips in time with the wolf’s, and closed his eyes as the sensations built and built in him.

Richy finally started to move his muzzle up and down Volle’s shaft, holding the fox’s thick knot in one paw, and that was enough to finish him. Volle’s body tensed and he felt his fur prickle all over, and then came the release, and Richy was lapping eagerly at him, swallowing everything that splashed on his tongue and coaxing still more out. Volle heard himself moaning, low and guttural, and felt his fingers clawing at the sheets, but seemed to be disconnected from it somehow.

And finally, it was over, and he lay back, panting. Richy slipped slowly out of him, making his body twitch, and then eased his muzzle off of Volle’s erection. He grinned and lay beside Volle. “Nice surprise?”

“Very…nice…” Volle panted. “You should do this professionally.”

Richy giggled and kissed him, and Volle could smell himself on the wolf’s tongue. He licked back and slid an arm around the wolf, holding him close. Richy returned the embrace, resting his head on Volle’s chest.