Wolf could hardly wait to get out of the room and stare at the wonderful thing again. A royal pardon! For ALL wolves! He bounded out the door of the presentation chamber and stepped to one side to unroll and read it for the fifth time, half afraid that the wording had changed. No, it still said the unthinkable. A royal pardon. Wolves to be known as heroes.

People swirled around him but he didn't pay them any heed, not when Tony patted him on the back, not even when Virginia swept by, trailing her mesmerizing scent. No more shoot-on-sight laws. No more stabbing pitchforks and thrown rocks and mobs chasing with torches and ropes. Finally, all wolves to be treated with dignity. All wolves throughout the Fourth Kingdom.

The Fourth Kingdom.

But he had grown up... oh, cripes!

With a quick whimper Wolf looked up, sniffing. Where's Prince... no, KING! Wendell? Has he passed yet? Gotta find him, have to ask him... no, sniff, not there, not outside yet, sniff... There! Right in front of him.

"My King." Wolf carefully rolled the precious scroll before bowing, but Wendell only smiled at the delay.

"I'm glad to see I chose your reward wisely, Wolf. But if you still want a medal, I shall have one struck for you. All of the rulers of the Nine Kingdoms owe you a great debt, and I intend to pay it in their name. Anything you ask of me, I shall give it."

"A horse," Wolf blurted. "A very, very fast horse."

Wendell cocked his head, puzzled. "We are having a big banquet in honor of all of you tonight. You shall have any dish you wish for."

It was so silly, Wolf started to laugh. "Noooooo! I don't want to eat it!" The image caught his mind and ran away with his appetite. "I mean, unless it's a young, tender, succulent filly, prancing on long, luscious legs..." Get a grip on yourself! He cleared his throat, shook the image out of his imagination, and started over. "I have... a message, sir. For Queen Hood."

Wendell studied his face with eyes that looked surprisingly old and wise for a young man who used to be a dog. "You were born in the Second Kingdom, were you not? My advisors tell me that it was Queen Hood the Third who sentenced you to life in Snow White Memorial Prison."

Wolf's hand clamped on the scroll of pardon. "Yes, your majesty." I don't wanna talk about that. Not with you. Not with nobody. Not even Virginia. Never, ever.

Wendell sighed and put a hand on Wolf's shoulder. "We both know that all the royals owe you their lives. But I cannot tell them how to run their kingdoms. That pardon may not protect you in the Second Kingdom, and she is back there now. She left right after my coronation, you know, while you were still holding vigil over Virginia."

"Ohhhhrrooooww..." Wolf was so preoccupied he didn't even notice when his exhalation turned into a canine whine.

Wendell kept staring at him with those old eyes, making Wolf nervous. He found himself ducking his head and twitching his shoulder to get away from the hand still resting on it. "You're related to the original Hood Wolf, aren't you?" Wendell mused. "There were rumors, you know. All courts run on intrigue and rumors."

Wolf went from nervous to terrified. "Don't know what you mean," he muttered, looking away. "Huff, puff, I'm just a wolf. Just a half-wolf. I'm nobody."

Wendell said nothing. Eventually Wolf sneaked a sidelong glance at the King, who was still staring at him thoughtfully. "Come with me," Wendell finally announced, turning towards the stairs up to the royal chambers.

"The stables are that way... my horse?" Wolf said, pointing over his shoulder.

"I am not going to the stables. Come with me!" It was a royal command.

Oh, cripes! Wolf obeyed, running up the stairs to Wendell's side. What if he gets mad and takes the pardon away? He clasped the precious thing in both hands, then tried to surreptitiously slip it into the pocket farthest away from Wendell. He saw the King's mouth twitch, and knew that Wendell was aware of what he was doing. But when the King spoke, his voice was calm and distant, as if he was discussing the weather.

"When I changed back into my proper body and knew that the evil Queen had been killed, I thought that the worst was over. That I could live happily ever after, and nothing would be difficult again. I was wrong. I am a new king just barely on my throne. My lands have been ravaged by the troll wars, and my people are frightened. I must rebuild and regain their trust, and I must do so quickly, before any other ruler looks to my kingdom with the hopes of conquering it."

He paused, as if waiting for something. Wolf didn't know what else to do, so he just said "Oh," like the self-help books suggested. It must have been the right thing to say; Wendell nodded and continued.

"I also must be very diplomatic with all the other rulers. If I offend one, I may be caught in another war, and at the moment I have no protective alliances with another kingdom. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Wolf thought about it. "No."

Wendell stopped outside of an ornate door, sighed, and turned. "Queen Hood the Third is... very sensitive about her position. You know that her grandmother only became Queen because her woodsman husband was second cousin to the king? He was never even in the succession until that terrible accident."

"So I've heard." I know more about that family than you ever will.

"The other royals bring it up, now and then. Those without good diplomatic relations with the Second Kingdom inevitably make some comment about how she isn't really of royal blood."

They were doing it at your coronation. I heard them, as I passed out the drinks. So did she.

"Considering her feelings and the history of the Hood family, it would be considered an insult if I sent a wolf to the court of the Second Kingdom. Even if he were my emissary. Even a half-wolf who was a national hero. Now do you understand?"

Wolf's shoulders slumped, but then his temper kicked in. "Yeah. Thanks for nothin'."

He turned on his heel and was about to storm away, but stopped in his tracks as Wendell snapped "Wait!" Wolf glanced over his shoulder, but didn't turn.

Wendell was frowning. "This is the second time you have walked off from me today. I learned to trust you when I was a dog. You must learn to trust me now that I am a King." He pushed the gold and white door open. "You shall have your audience with Queen Hood. But you shall do it my way."

Wolf's hackles went up as he caught sight and scent of the room beyond. "This is the Queen's room."

"Now it is my room. I have dwarf experts examining many of the mirrors, but others I wish to keep. My truth mirror, which will hang in the throne room. Tony's travelling mirror. And the talking mirror."

Wolf trailed behind as Wendell strode through the room to the mirror chamber, eyeing the back of his head nervously. What if there was still some magic loose? Had Wendell turned evil too? Had the mirrors seduced him with some dark magic? The room beyond was bare except for two mirrors and a fat, aging courtier in a chair. Okay, not very seductive.

The courtier snapped to attention, and was waved away by Wendell, who walked calmly up to the talking mirror. "I wish to speak with the court of the Second Kingdom." The mirror snapped and crackled, then a shattered-looking image of a courtier in Second Kingdom livery appeared.

"Please tell Her Majesty Queen Hood the Third that there is an urgent personal message for her."

The courtier bowed and disappeared from view. Wolf stared at Wendell, who smirked at him. "I managed to convince the other royals that it would be handy to be able to transmit messages faster than the swiftest couriers. So they said I could use the mirror to talk to them so long as I did not contact them directly." Wendell turned back to the mirror. "I can't say as I blame them. I wouldn't want to feel that I had to jump every time someone wanted to talk to me."

The mirror showed a flash of red approaching from a distance. "I'll grant you your privacy, Wolf," Wendell muttered. "Please remember what I said about diplomacy." Wolf nodded, then bowed to the mirror and the woman approaching it. But he kept his ears pricked, reassured by the sound of retreating footsteps and the creak of the opening door. What he had to say he wanted no one else listening to.

"Well?" Her voice was imperious. It always had been, even when she was a little girl. "Who is this message from? And stand up, I can only see the top of your head."

"The message is from your cousin, your majesty," Wolf said as clearly as he could while bent over.

"You must be mistaken. I have no..." Wolf stood up and looked her straight in the eye. She faltered, but rallied. "I have no cousin. My mother was Red Riding Hood's only daughter."

"Red Riding Hood also had a son," Wolf said. "A tall, strong son with dark hair and dark eyes who thought he could further his mother's work by studying the ways of wolves." He was so busy trying to read her expression that he never heard the door snick shut across the room.

For a moment they glared angrily at each other. Queen Hood was no longer shrouded in the gauze hood and fancy riding outfit she wore to ceremonial occasions. Instead, she was dressed in her preferred clothing, a very severe, well-tailored dress in flaming scarlet. Her lipstick matched. She looks like she's eaten blood, but blames us for doing it.

She finally broke the stare down by quirking an eyebrow. "So it was you. I thought I saw you at the coronation, but there was so much going on, and then I thought it couldn't have been you because you were supposed to be in prison. Well. Have you called to thank me?"

"Thank YOU for WHAT?"

"For sending you to Snow White Memorial Prison."

The snarl came out before Wolf could stop it. Queen Hood flinched and rubbed her head. He couldn't seem to do anything about the growl in his voice either. "I spent twenty years locked in a cell because of you. Nowhere to run, no meat to eat, and no hope of freedom, ever. Just for being what I am. And I'm supposed to THANK you for THAT?"

"I saved your life! Don't you think that's worth a little pain? If I hadn't asked for clemency for you, you'd have been on the pyre right next to your parents. Why did you go back, Wolf? Why did you go back the morning after?"

Because I couldn't believe what the people had done. Because I wanted to see if I could help my parents. Because I wanted to smell my mother one more time. Because I couldn't believe they'd died and left me. Because ... "Because my father was a man and deserved a man's burial," Wolf finally said.

"It was one thing for Red Riding Hood's son to study wolves, it was quite another for him to study them so ... closely." Her voice dripped sarcasm, and Wolf's lip curled up to show his teeth. The Queen was unimpressed. "Not only did he have to pick a wolf for wife, he picked one of the family that killed his own great-grandmother! Queen Hood declared him a traitor to the house of Hood."

Wolf felt another snarl bubbling up, and didn't try to stop it. He even added a little volume when he saw her flinch again.

"Please stop making that noise." She managed to make it sound like an order instead of a request. The Queen put a scarlet-gloved hand up to each temple and started massaging. "I'm still sleeping off the effects of the Troll dust. Whatever possessed you to add it to alcohol? Everyone knows that drinking it makes the hangover worse and last longer."

"I saved your life," Wolf reminded her with deadly courtesy. "Don't you think that's worth a little pain?"

Her exact expression was covered by the massaging gloves, but he could detect an interesting mix of hauteur, guilt, and grudging respect. "Very well. Did you just call to yell at me then? Get a few digs in before he sends you back to prison? Or did you hope that I could have your sentence lifted?"

"I'm never going back." Wolf unrolled the pardon and held it up for her to read.

She dropped her hands from her head and sat up straight. "Good for you, then. Congratulations. Good-bye." She was so distant she could have been talking about the weather. She nodded to him and started to turn away.

"Please! Please... This wasn't how I wanted it to be. I wanted... I needed to ask you a favor."

She raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "You are out of prison with a royal pardon. What can I do for you that the grateful Wendell cannot?"

"My mother had three cubs."

"I remem... I mean, I may have heard something to the effect. So?"

"After my parents were..." He couldn't say it. Even thinking it brought up the horrible smell of charred meat and cloth, and the terror he'd felt when he'd been tied to the same stake."After. I came back, but the others ran back home. Back over the border to the Second Kingdom." He lifted the pardon a bit. "This is for all wolves. I want my brother and sister to hear about it, and have safe passage to Wendell's kingdom."

"Assuming they still live, how would I know where they are, or have any way of contacting them?"

"You do." Wolf stared at her steadily. "I know you do. You've always known where we were. I know you had us spied on."

"You think you know a great deal."

Wolf huffed softly. "The only thing I don't know is... why me? Why did you spare her and him and not me?"

For the first time, her voice and her eyes were kind. "They caught you. How could I say you couldn't be found in the woods when you were already sitting in their prison cell? What happened was a terrible thing, Wolf. Someone had to pay."

"My parents paid with their lives. And Mama hadn't even been out there."

"I know." She was barely whispering, looking down and tugging one of the gloves off. She lifted a bare hand to the mirror, and Wolf stepped forward and covered the image with his palm. "I will see it done," she breathed into the glass.

"Thank you," he murmured back.

She looked him over carefully as he huddled against the mirror. "You look different. Better. You had been... you were an..."

"An animal. I've changed. I won't be like that ever again."

She smiled, just the tiniest crook to the corner of her mouth, but he could see the happiness and relief in her eyes. "Good."

Then she stepped back and started pulling her glove on, tugging her formal persona back on at the same time. "I trust there will be no more problems."

"None." Wolf glanced over to the other mirror, quietly sitting in its corner. "I'm leaving soon. I don't know if I'll be back."

She nodded once. "Good luck to you." She started to turn away, but looked back over her shoulder. "Wolf? You might be interested to know that Uncle Warren and his... and your mother are buried in the royal crypt. Their urn is unmarked, but they are there."

And then she was gone, and Wolf was left staring at his own reflection through the tears in his eyes.

Wolf gave himself a little time to sniffle. His books had taught him the dangers of hiding his feelings, and he'd been through a lot recently. When he thought he could stay in control, he wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve and opened the door.

"There you are, Wolf. Everything go well?" Wendell was sitting at a desk, reading a book almost as large as he was.

"Yes. Thank you, your Majesty."

"I've been reading up on my history," the King said conversationally. "I always thought these books were the dullest things on earth, but they're full of fascinating stories. Like this one. It tells all about a terrible wolf attack on Little Lamb Village. Almost twenty years ago, now. It was so horrible that the Queen my stepmother ordered that all wolves be shot on sight."

Wolf was trying to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.

Wendell didn't pay the slightest attention anyway. "But it says here that Queen Hood's coronation was happening at the same time. She asked for clemency for the wolves. Can you imagine? They almost refused her the crown for that. But she gave a stirring little speech about how she didn't want her coronation ruined by executions. Two of the wolves had already died, but they sentenced the last one to prison without parole and decided that Queen Hood could be queen after all. Isn't that an interesting story?"

Wolf still couldn't get his mouth and brain to agree on a sound, so he just whined wordlessly.

Wendell was shaking his head over the book. "The story is very graphic. It really was quite a nasty attack." He looked up over the cover and lifted a meaningful eyebrow. "It's a good thing that nobody like that is still in my kingdom."

"Y-yuh-yes." Wolf cleared his throat and tried again. "I can assure you that no wolf like that lives in your kingdom. Well, that I know of."

With one quick motion Wendell ripped the pages out of the book and touched them to a candle.

"You listened. You listened to us!"

"No, I was busy getting this book," Wendell said, shifting his grip to keep his fingers from being burnt by the flaring paper. "Besides, I already knew. I told you I'd heard gossip." The pages were almost completely ash, so he dropped them in a fireplace, then crushed the flakes so they were unreadable. "Didn't you hear me tell everyone this morning that a noble wolf had saved the Nine Kingdoms?"

He ground the ash under heel one last time. "It is over, Wolf. What happened to the village, what happened to you, all your years in prison. It is all over, and can never come haunt you again. You will walk my streets and never be accused. This is my gift to you, for saving my kingdom. It is over, and will never come back to haunt you."

Wolf bowed low as the King exited, but couldn't stop the unvoiced thought. It will never be over. Not for me. So long as I sleep, I will remember in my nightmares. But at least my brother and sister will be free.