Volle (33 page)

Volle sprinted to catch up with him. “What?”

Helfer grinned. “Seen Dereath around lately?”

“No. But I sometimes go days without seeing him.” He hadn’t been around the whole time Xiller was with him, though, Volle recalled, and that seemed a bit odd now that he thought about it.

“You’ll go a few more. I heard from Caresh that he made quite a scene over Xiller leaving him, and Fardew told him that it would be better if he weren’t around the palace for the next few weeks. Practically fired him, but sadly didn’t go quite that far.”

“Really?” Volle grinned. He’d become used to thinking that Dereath would get away with whatever he tried or did. “Where’d he go?”

“Nobody knows. But Caresh says the chambermaid who overheard him said he didn’t stop cursing from the time he packed a bag to the time he rode out of the palace gates. For all we know, he still might be.”

Volle chuckled. “And the rest of us can finally stop.”

Helfer laughed. “Well, he’ll be back, but hopefully he’ll have cooled down a bit. I wonder why Fardew was so mad.”

“You remember Xiller was supposed to keep a low profile? I heard from Prewitt that Dereath was complaining to everyone that I stole him. Not exactly keeping his existence secret.”

“Ah, that would do it. Fardew likes his secrets. Now I’m surprised he didn’t fire him. Maybe he knows something about Fardew.”

“Maybe he threatened to come back if he were fired.”

Helfer grinned. “Maybe Fardew just doesn’t want to lose his best cock-sucker.”

Volle laughed. “Come on. This is Dereath we’re talking about, right?”

“How do you know he’s not really amazing in bed?”

“Wouldn’t be worth it.”

“No, you’re right.”

They jogged on a bit further. “Wonder where he went,” Volle mused.

“Don’t really care,” Helfer said cheerfully. “He’s out of our fur for another couple weeks, and hopefully he’ll be a bit calmer when he gets back.”

“Or else be worked up about something else.”

“Makes no difference to me.”

This time, when they passed the bush in the rear garden, Volle felt only a small pang, and smiled at the happy memories. Had that all really happened? He came so quickly and was gone so quickly, it felt like a dream now.

A good dream, anyway, and that was better than nothing.

Lord Oncit was back in the dining room over lunch, sitting near Ikinna but at a separate table. Volle sat down near him, but Oncit was so absorbed in his thoughts that it wasn’t until a servant brought Volle his food that he noticed the fox. “Oh. Hello, Volle.”

“Hello, Maron. Got a lot on your mind?” Volle started eating, keeping his ears politely turned toward the wolf.

“I suppose.” He was eating slowly, and certainly looked preoccupied.

“I was thinking about what you said, about taking back what is rightfully ours.” He kept his voice low, and though they were alone at the table, looked around somewhat anxiously. “Is it likely that we’ll go to war?”

The wolf chewed, and thought this over. “Not at the current time.”

Volle sighed. “If only there were something I could do. I just feel like I’m doing nothing here.”

“I know what you mean,” Oncit muttered.

“How do you deal with it?”

“Hm?”

“You want to get the fields back. Are you just waiting until something happens to bring them back?” He was talking almost in a whisper, but Oncit shushed him.

“I trust to Canis to bring me back what is mine,” he said, and turned back to his meal.

Volle thought that was all, but as the wolf finished and stood to leave, he patted Volle on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. All things come in time.” He was gone before Volle had a chance to ask him what he meant.

“I wish people would just say what they mean instead of talking cryptically,” he muttered. He spent the rest of the lunch listening to Ikinna’s loud dissertations on his family’s lands.

Arrin was in good spirits when he got to the conservatory, and gave him a short kiss. “Hi, Volle. I’ve been practicing. Listen.” He picked up the trumpet and ran through the royal ceremonial march, which was similar to most of the other royal marches but contained a couple extra notes that Arrin had always found difficult.

“That’s terrific! I haven’t been practicing, I’m afraid.” Volle picked up the pipes and blew experimentally into them. He played a quick scale, faltering over only one note.

“That’s not bad.” Arrin smiled. He picked up another set of pipes. “Want to play these today?”

“I think so.”

They played together, Arrin coaching him as they did. He enjoyed playing, and was getting better at it. He’d never studied music in the Academy, but the pipes were pretty easy to pick up and Arrin was teaching him simple tunes that he knew from his cubhood.

When they stopped, they sat back together. Volle put his arm around Arrin’s shoulders out of habit. The other fox sighed and leaned into the embrace. “So,” he said, “how are things going with Ilyana?”

“Good. I met her parents last night. They were nice. I think they’ll approve the courtship.”

“That’s good.” Arrin rested a paw on his knee.

“How’s your mother?”

“Oh, her leg’s bothering her, as always. The herbist was by last week and made her some tea, and she’s walking easier now.”

“Glad to hear that.” He nuzzled Arrin’s ear.

“It wasn’t serious. It never is.”

“I know, but it still worries you sometimes.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “She keeps saying she probably won’t be around much longer, but she seems pretty healthy.”

“I’m sure she’ll be around for a while.”

Arrin nodded. Volle rubbed his shoulder gently and tried not to think about Xiller. What did he really know about the cougar? Did they share any interests? Would he be as good a companion out of bed as in it? To his distress, he found that he didn’t care. He buried his nose in Arrin’s fur, inhaling the soft musky scent, and tried to relax against the fox. The scent was safe, familiar, and comforting, but it wasn’t exciting. It didn’t set his fur a-tingle as the cougar’s had.

Maybe that’s not good for me, he thought. Isn’t being a spy excitement enough?

The truth was that it hadn’t been very exciting yet. Xiller was the most excitement he’d seen at the palace, and now that he was gone, everything was falling back into the same normal routine he’d had for over a month. He knew how the rest of the evening would go. He and Arrin would go to dinner, talk about their lives over eating, repair to the loveseat, and spend the rest of the evening curled up together. He would get his paw up the fox’s shirt, ruffle his chest fur, slide down to his abdomen, and remain there. Arrin might be daring enough to mimic the action with his paw, or he might feel more restrained and restrict himself to stroking Volle’s tail. Either way, the evening would end chastely with a kiss, and Volle would end up alone in his bed with his paw for company.

Was that so bad? Arrin held the promise of future security, a bedmate who would always be there and not have to run off on secret missions. But is that what he wanted, when he couldn’t promise that in return? He didn’t know what he wanted, for sure. It would be nice to have a companion at the palace, but he couldn’t honestly say it was something he longed for, the way he longed to have the cougar’s arms around him one more time.

Arrin nuzzled him. “What are you thinking about?”

“Dinner,” he said, and strove to turn that lie into truth.

Over the next few days, Volle kept the memory of the cougar close by reaching under his pillow at night and finding the purse there. He often slept with his paw closed around it, and that made him feel that wherever he was, Xiller was thinking of him.

Apart from that, his life at the palace slowly returned to normal. The tribunal was busy again, so he didn’t get a chance to talk to Lord Oncit there, nor did his efforts to talk to him at lunch lead to anything more. He checked twice for notes from his team, but found nothing all week, so it was with some nervousness that he showed up at the Jackal’s Staff with Helfer the following Gaiaday. Had they not gotten his note? Had they misinterpreted it? Or had they just been busy acting on it?

“Richy’s waiting for you in back, dear.” Tally was done in green today, a mint green dress and green stripes around his muzzle, as though he were a jungle cat of some sort. His tail had one green stripe running from base to tip.

“You look like a sweet today, Tally,” Volle said as he walked by and handed the cougar the five gold. “Fitting, I guess.”

Tally laughed and patted his shoulder. “Aren’t you the adorable one!”

Volle wagged his tail and walked to the back. The Jackal’s Staff felt comfortable to him, more so than anywhere but his own rooms, and partially that was because there were no expectations of him here. He almost resented Seir’s intrusion on that world, but in fact he preferred it to be here than anywhere else, because he felt so comfortable.

They were seated around the room as usual, and Sherr barely waited for the door to close before barking, “What’s this about the fur pigment?”

“I saw a cougar painted to look like a jaguar. Yellow paint, black spots, and all.”

“How do you know it was the same pigment we use?”

Volle flicked his ears. “Ah, well, it did smear when…” They were all staring at him. He sighed. “When I used the paint, I noticed that it smeared when certain, um, fluids got spilled on it.”

“What fluids?” Sherr asked.

“You have to ask?” Reese snorted. “You obviously don’t know Volle.”

“Oh? Oh.”

Volle’s ears went back. “Anyway, the black spots smeared in the same way.”

A chuckle went around the room. Seir said, “How did you meet this cougar?”

“He was in the palace. This rat was hosting him for some secret mission and asked him to jump me and Lord Ikling, because he doesn’t like us. Not ‘jump’ the way you’re thinking, Reese. After we’d met, he confessed that he didn’t like the rat very much, and so he stayed with me for a few days until he left.”

“And of course you spilled some fluids on him by accident.”

Volle couldn’t quite bring himself to banter with Reese in front of the others. Luckily Sherr spoke up. “What mission?”

“I couldn’t find out exactly,” Volle said, “but they do run espionage down south, so I guessed that’s why he was painted as a jaguar. They’re not exactly common here.”

“Makes sense.”

“You couldn’t get any better information from sleeping with him?” Reese teased.

“Well, he didn’t get any information from sleeping with me,” Volle retorted.

“Touché.”

“We sent word immediately that there may be a spy in our alchemical laboratories,” Seir said. “We wanted to wait until we heard the whole story from you before issuing further instructions. So you have no idea who it was who did the painting, here?”

“I have a clue, at least. I think the Secretary, Prewitt, was involved. Xiller—the cougar—talked about meeting a golden bear, and Prewitt is the only one I know of. And he seemed to know about and be interested in Xiller even though he was supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

“Can you get closer to this Prewitt?” Sherr asked.

Volle shrugged. “I can try, but he’s very busy and our meetings are always brief. I’ve been trying to get more information on Oncit, too, but he’s been too quiet lately.”

“Do you think he might have been involved in the cougar?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“This is certainly interesting, and helpful. At least it will help us root out spies in our country. Good work, Volle.”

Volle’s ears came back up at the rare praise from Sherr. Reese added, with perhaps a touch of jealousy, “Good to see your libido might actually help you with your work.”

Heartened, Volle smiled. “It’s nice to mix work with pleasure. I’ll report more when the cougar comes back.”

“Oh, you’re expecting him back? This wasn’t just a two-night stand?” Seir arched her eyebrows.

Volle flicked his ears. He couldn’t keep himself from answering, even though he knew it wasn’t the right thing to say. “I think he’ll come back. He promised.”

The silence stretched out for a minute, until Seir walked over and placed a paw on his knee. “You know, Volle, that emotional commitments are something you can’t afford to make unless you know you can break them.”

“I know.” He sighed. “I can handle it.”

“All right. See that you do. What about that rat you mentioned? Could he make more trouble for you?”

“Not for a little while. He’s been sent away from the palace. Apparently the Minister of Intelligence wasn’t too happy with him using their soldier for a juvenile revenge prank.”

“All right. Try not to make too many enemies, okay?”

“Just the one.” Volle shrugged. “I couldn’t really help it.”

Seir nodded, and looked at Sherr and Tella. “Anything else for him?” They shook their heads, and stood. “Good use of the drop sites. Keep using them and we’ll do the same.”

The others filed out, Reese stopping to press his paw to Volle’s. Seir said, “I’ll be right out,” and closed the door behind them. She went to the bed and sat next to Volle.