Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

Josiah spent the afternoon with Virginia and Wolf watching the children. However it was clear Josiah's mind was elsewhere. Baby Lazar climbed over his back and sucked on his tail, but received only a lick or two in response. Wolf wasn’t much better. He sat in the chair by the window and stared out as if in some deep trance. An occasional sniff at the air was the only sign of awareness from him.

Virginia decided it was up to her to entertain the children. Rose said she wanted a story. So, Virginia told them the one about Cinderella. Of the best known stories in the Nine Kingdoms, this one seemed the least fraught with bad feelings. Red Riding Hood and Snow White were too personally close. And Virginia didn't remember the one specifics about Hansel and Gretel.

Cinderella, though, turned out to be the right choice. Rose enjoyed it immensely. She sat next to her younger brother Wilhelm, absolutely entranced. Wilhelm was in a bad mood as usual. But he soon fell asleep on the floor.

“So, the prince married Cinderella even though she was a commoner?” Rose asked breathlessly at the end.

“Yes, he did,” Virginia said. “He married her because he loved her.”

“What other stories do you know? How about Sleeping Beauty?”

“That’s a good one. Yes, I know that.” And so Virginia went on. She figured she’d go to Rapunzel next if she had to. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to go past that.

Tony was still down by the creek enjoying his outing with young Warren. Like most boys, he loved squiggly slimy things and the creek bed had no shortage of them. They caught a green garter snake and let it slither over their hands. And then they watched tadpoles swimming. Warren even managed to catch a few. It wasn’t exactly what Tony had in mind for lunch. But he figured people ate frogs legs, so why not?

In the later part of the afternoon, they sat under a tree at the edge of the water and took a nap in the cool shade. Warren took off his shoes and trailed his feet in the water as he slept, leaning the rest of his body against Tony.

Once again, Tony had to remind himself that this sweet lad was a younger version of his full-grown son-in-law. There were similarities between them, yes. But there were a lot of differences too. What had the boy suffered between this time and the time he would become a man that would make him so hyper and nervous? What had his two wolf foster parents and the wolf hating populace of the Nine Kingdoms done to him? More than anything Warren just seemed to want to be loved and accepted.

Tony picked up his talisman and looked into it. He wanted very much to talk to Matilde right then. But even if she was there, he didn’t want to disturb little Warren. The boy’s whole world was about to fall apart. He deserved as much peace as he could get.

When Scarlet finally returned, Virginia, Wolf, and Josiah were all waiting outside for her. Tony and Warren still weren’t back. And the other children had fallen asleep and been put to bed by Virginia.

“What happened?” Josiah asked, getting up. “You were gone for such a long time.”

“She gave in,” Scarlet answered. “I threatened her a little and she’s going to rescind the order at once. We can send Warren to school tomorrow.”

“That’s wonderful!” Josiah said.

“I stopped on the way home to give the news to a couple of other sets of wolf parents. I didn’t tell them how I knew, of course. I just told them that I’d heard the Queen was rescinding the order and that we could send our children to school tomorrow. We should celebrate. We still have a little of that dried venison that Virginia and Wolf brought. I think we should finish it. Then, there’s a little porridge leftover from breakfast.”

“Wonderful! Tomorrow Wolf and I can go fishing again to get dinner. Right, Wolf?”

Wolf nodded and gave Josiah a half smile.

“Good, Josiah,” said. And he and his wife went inside.

Wolf started pacing nervously back and forth, scratching his head with every turn. “That’s not what happened,” he told Virginia. “That order didn’t get rescinded overnight. It’s going to happen soon. I know it. Why do we have to stay here?”

“Wolf!” Virginia said, taking his arm. “Calm down. You don’t remember exactly when your parents died. And we don’t know for sure that this school thing has anything to do with it directly.”

“Of course we do!” He pulled out of Virginia’s grasp and continued pacing, interspersing little growls as he went. “The ring told you to give your talisman to my mother so she could leave it with the Queen. So there must have been something important in their conversation and whatever happened afterward. The Queen must be planning something. Huff-puff, that’s it! She must be planning something. And we’ve got to warn them. We can’t just let them die!”

“Wolf!” Virginia latched onto his arm again and pulled him hard behind the pine tree. “You’ve got to get a hold of yourself. We can’t change anything here, you know that. I tried to help Topaz, but it didn’t do any good. I know what you’re feeling, but ...”

“No you don’t!” Wolf’s eyes flashed bright yellow. “I’ve got to do something.”

Josiah came out at that point with a blanket. He threw it on the ground in front of the pine tree and said, “Scarlet thinks we should have another picnic outside. The children are all still asleep and she plans to feed them later.” He spread the blanket out, using his snout and paws. “Oh, and Virginia, Scarlet says she has some money to return to you from the pelts you gave her.”

Virginia stepped out from behind the tree. She smoothed her dress and tried to act as casual as possible under the circumstances. “You don’t have to do that. You should keep it.”

“No. We’ll be all right. The fish run pretty well in the spring. Wolf can tell you that. And there’s money coming in from the dress that Scarlet’s making for Mrs. Palma. You may need the money yourselves.”

Scarlet came out with a load of plates in her arms. “The bread you brought is hard now,” she said to Virginia. “But I can make bread pudding out of it tomorrow. We’ll add herbs to it and it’ll be perfect.”

“You’ve got to leave!” Wolf said, jumping out from behind the tree. His eyes were a wild yellow and his hair disheveled.

“What?” Scarlet said, stepping back.

“Your sister Ruby isn’t going to rescind that school order like she said. Instead she’s going to send a bunch of farmers after you and they’re going to say you were poaching.”

“Wolf!” Virginia warned.

“How do you know this?” Josiah asked.

“Because . . . I’m a seer. I have the ability to see into the future sometimes. And I see great danger for you and your family. You’ve got to go away, right now.”

Scarlet and Josiah exchanged looks.

“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” Josiah said. After all, they lived in the Nine Kingdoms where magic and seers were common. “But the little ones are asleep and Warren’s not back with Tony yet.”

“Then leave as soon as they get back!” Wolf shouted.

“Wolf, please,” Virginia said. “You’re frightening them.”

“Better me than that crowd that’s coming here, with their torches and ropes.”

“What’s going on here?” Tony asked, following Warren around the corner of the house. “What’s all the shouting?”

“Wolf’s had a premonition,” Virginia said, trying to sound calm. “He’s told Scarlet and Josiah that the Queen is plotting against them.”

Tony’s eyebrows shot up. “Did he?”

“Are his predictions usually true?” Josiah asked.

Tony's answer was more emotional than sensible. He knew trying to change history probably wouldn’t work. But it was better than just standing by and letting it happen. “Yes," he said. "They’re always true. You should do exactly what he tells you.”

Virginia looked from her father to her husband. It was clear they’d both gone crazy.

"You've got to go now!” Wolf commanded. They’ll be here soon, before nightfall.”

“But how can we go with four little children?” Josiah asked. “They can't outrun a pack of humans.”

“You can’t just sit here and wait for them!” Wolf said.

“Maybe if they just found Scarlet and I. Maybe that would satisfy them. You three could take the children and run toward the river. Wolf, you know the way.”

“But what about you?” Wolf asked.

“We don’t have a chance of getting away with the children,” Josiah said. “We couldn't move fast enough. They’d just storm the woods and find us. But maybe at least we can save the children.”

“It’s worth a try,” Tony said.

“But what about you?” Wolf insisted.

Scarlet took Wolf’s hand tenderly in her own. “We’re touched that you’re so concerned for us. But the children come first.”

“Wolf,” Tony said. “They’re right. This is our best shot. Let’s at least try and save the children.”

Wolf’s eyes filled with tears as he squeezed his mother’s hand. “Yes,” he said. “At least we can try.”

The five adults immediately went to work packing up the four children. But before they could finish, Wolf and Josiah smelled the scent of the torches and the mass of sweating humans approaching, hungering for blood.

“They’re coming!” Wolf yelled. “Grab the children and run.”

“No,” Scarlet said. She could hear the crowd yelling and crashing through the underbrush already. “There isn’t time. Josiah and I will stand forward and meet them. You hide the children in the house.”

Tony and Virginia herded the four children into the nursery, determined to shield them from what was to come. But Wolf couldn’t tear himself away from the scene in front of the house. He stood at the door's entrance, watching as though in a trance.

It was at this point that Virginia’s ring started to sing and vibrate.

“And now it’s time for you to go,” it sang.
“You’ve shown them all they need to know.”

But Virginia didn’t hear its little voice or notice its vibrating. She was lost in the chaos that was now developing around them.

The angry mob of farmers and townspeople swarmed quickly around the house, surrounding their prey on all sides. At the head of the crowd was the mayor’s henchman, a disreputable fellow named Hannibal who always seemed to have more money than his non-working lifestyle should have been able to amass. People didn’t trust him generally. But it didn’t occur to them to question his story in this case because it involved wolves and a small flock of six lambs. A rancher named Bibek who’d owned the lambs was on one side of Hannibal and the young shepherdess named Aida who’d found their bloodied and butchered carcasses was on the other.

“That’s them!” Hannibal trumpeted. “I saw them.”

The crowd surrounded Scarlet and Josiah so they couldn’t escape.

“That wolf there killed the lambs,” Hannibal continued, pointing dramatically. “And then she moved in with this great big knife and butchered them. I would have done something but I was afraid they’d attack me too. It’s a good thing this little shepherdess wasn’t around. They’d have killed her or worse. You know how wolves are.”

The crowd yelled in the affirmative. They all knew about the bloodthirsty nature of wolves.

“Burn them!” one man shouted.

“Kill the animals!” screamed someone else.

“But we didn’t do anything?” Josiah said. “We have no lamb meat here. And no blood on our clothes.”

“They ate it already!” Hannibal announced. “I saw them eating as they cut. And they burned their clothes to cover what they did.”

“Burn them!” a woman screamed.

“Kill the dirty animals!” the crowd agreed. And they took hold of Scarlet and Josiah and tied ropes around their necks and bound their limbs together.

At this point, Wolf could take no more. He leapt on the crowd and fought back as his parents would not. “No!” he yelled. But of course, he was badly outnumbered. A group of men quickly surrounded him and hit him to the ground. As he went down, the crowd turned its attention to Scarlet and Josiah. They led them down the path and away from the house.

“Daddy!” Virginia screamed. “They’re attacking Wolf!”

Tony ran outside and threw himself into the center of the men who were assaulting Wolf.

“Ho! Wait a minute!” Tony yelled with authority. “Do you have any idea who you’re beating up here!”

“Yeah, it’s a dirty wolf-lover.”

Tony glanced down quickly at his son-in-law’s crumpled unconscious form. Good. His tail wasn’t out so they didn’t know he was half-wolf. Tony picked himself up to his full height and mustered all the bravado he could. “This young man here is a close personal friend of Queen Matilde. You all know who she is, don’t you?”

“Of course,” one of the men said. It was just after the Magic War and Matilde’s name carried a lot of recognition. She was one of the few to survive the final battle with Mazarin the Evil Wizard.

Tony remembered there had been a war and that Matilde had been involved in it. But he didn't remember the details. Happily, in this case, he didn't need to. “Well, Queen Matilde sent us here personally on a fact finding mission. She wants to know the effect the last war had on the people of the Second Kingdom. The new Council of the Nine Kingdoms is considering sending aide to people like you.”

“What’s that?” one of then men asked looking puzzled.

“You don’t what aide is? It means the Council is considering sending money to people like you, to help you make a new start and rebuild things.”

“Oh,” said one of the men. He seemed to like that idea.

“We’ve been traveling undercover,” Tony explained, “Queen Matilde doesn’t want anybody giving us special treatment. She wanted to know exactly how things are here. But if she finds out that one of her men has been hurt. Well, I don’t think she’ll be sending you any money.”

“Oh,” said the same man.

“So, why don’t you all go on and be about your business. Then I won’t have to report this to Queen Matilde.”

There were a couple of confused grumbles. But the men took Tony’s advice and started off in the direction in which the crowd had taken Scarlet and Josiah a few minutes before. There was still a crowd in the yard, but it was a different group of people. The bloodthirsty throng had gone. And the scavengers were just getting started. They poured into and around the house, taking anything of value.

Virginia had been standing watch at the door. Warren and Rose were on either side of her, Rose clinging tightly to her skirts. The youngest boys were still in the nursery. They seemed safer in there. Virginia didn’t try to stop the people who stripped the house of its contents. The herd instinct had taken over and she knew that to interfere would be dangerous. As soon as the men who’d been attacking her husband walked off, she ran to him. His face was bruised and battered. But he was breathing and starting to come around.

“What?” Wolf said, groggily.

“You almost got yourself killed,” Tony said angrily. “Did you see how outnumbered you were?”

“I didn’t care,” Wolf mumbled.

“No, evidently.”

“Wait a minute,” Virginia said, looking up. “Where’s Warren?” She got to her feet and started calling his name. “Warren! Warren, where are you?”

“He went down the road to follow his parents,” Wolf said weakly.

“You saw him?”

“No. I remember. Those wolves are going to catch him when he runs through the underbrush. We’ve got to stop them.” Wolf tried to get up but Tony knocked him back down.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Tony ordered. “Seeing you knocked around by that bunch of degenerates did it for me. They would have killed you here or dragged you to that bonfire they're planning for Scarlet and Josiah. We tried to stop this and it didn’t work. 'What has been done, cannot be undone.' That’s what Snow White said. But we can get caught up in everything and die here. Is that what you want? For you? For your child?”

“But I’ve got to stop them.”

Wolf tried to get up once more, but Tony pushed him down again.

“You don’t understand,” Wolf said, starting to cry.

“You think I don’t care?” Tony yelled. “You think I wouldn’t go right now and fight off those two wolves with my bare hands if I thought it would do any good? You think this isn’t breaking my heart? You think I wanted to see your parents dragged off like that? Being here and not being able to do anything STINKS!”

The crowd around them was buzzing loudly. Two women were fighting over the little kitchen table. Someone else was carrying off clothing. Another took blankets. A man in a green vest had the nursery chair hiked up over his head. There was clattering as things were grabbed and dropped and then grabbed up again. There were cries of "That's mine!" and "Get out of my way!"

Rose looked up from the folds of Virginia's skirt and surveyed the terrifying vision. To a tiny one like her, it was as if a land filled with giants had gone mad.

In the growing gloom, a new group had joined the scavengers. They were attired in bright reds and golds with multicolored scarves. Their faces were darker than some of the others, and their expressions more shrewd. There was one man carrying a mattress and another with some pots and pans. Behind them followed two women carrying Lazar and Wilhelm. The little boys looked confused, but placid as they were carried off to their new lives.

“The gypsies! They've got my brothers,” Wolf said, trying to get up again. "I've got to stop them."

"No!" Tony said, tackling him to the ground again.

“Please!” Wolf cried pitifully.

“You’ve got to let them go,” Tony said. “As hard as it is.”

Virginia was crying freely now. She hated seeing the boys carried off like they were part of a yard sale. There were so many people bustling about and so little humanity.

Suddenly a gentle voice spoke. “You’re a friend of Scarlet’s, aren’t you?”

Virginia looked up through her tears to see a graying matron in a purple dress. Tony let go of Wolf and stood up respectfully.

“I’m Mrs. Palma,” the woman said. “Scarlet worked for me sometimes.”

“Yes,” Virginia said wiping her face with her hands. “She mentioned you.”

“I saw you with Lydia and Scarlet the day the Queen came to town. But there was such a crowd, I didn’t get to meet you. I tried to stop this, really I did. No one would listen to me. It was like insanity had struck. I just came to see if there was anything I could do for the children.”

“All of them are gone, except Rose,” Virginia said.

“I see. I thought if I found any of them, I would bring them to Scarlet’s friend Lydia. But I guess you’ll be taking care of Rose.”

“No!” Wolf said, pulling himself off the ground. “You take her. Take her to Lydia. She’ll be safe there.”

“If you really want me to.”

“Yes,” Wolf said. “Just let me say good-bye.” He took his frightened sister’s hand and pulled her away from Virginia. She was trembling as he hugged her. “We’ll meet again,” he said. “And you’ll be all right with Lydia and Goffrey. I promise.”

Rose’s eyes were wide with fear as Mrs. Palma led her away. And Wolf’s were full of tears.

By that time the scavengers had picked the house clean. There was nothing left.

“Burn it!” one of the men said. “Burn it to the ground.”

So several of them set their torches to the roof and the lean-to, while others threw piles of firewood and pine needles inside the house and did the same. It had been a dry spring and it didn’t take long to catch.

As the flames rose up, Wolf watched them hypnotically. “They’ve got to see,” he said, as though in a dream. “They’ve got to see.”

Virginia wrapped her arms around herself. Somehow the flames made her feel cold.

Suddenly, Tony felt a stab of pain. He looked down and saw that the sleeve of his shirt had caught a spark from the burning house. “I’m on fire!” he yelled, waving his arm.It wasn’t a serious blaze. It took only seconds for Virginia to pat it out with her skirt. And there was no trace of a burn on Tony’s skin.

“You’re lucky,” Virginia said. “Maybe we should get away from here.”

“That’s exactly what we should do!” Tony agreed. “I just remembered. You ring hasn’t done any singing has it?”

“What? During this?”

"Snow White said that when it was time to leave the ring would let us know, but if we didn’t hear it, something else would happen to get my attention. She said, ‘You will know it’s time to leave, when the flame does touch your sleeve.’ That means it’s time to go. Now. Before anything else happens.”

Virginia turned around to get her husband’s input. But he wasn’t there. “Wolf?” she said. “Where’s Wolf?”