A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

Red, red, red, red! Her account books were starting to match her name-every time she looked, they were redder than before.

“Is there something, anything, we can sell?” Queen Red begged her remaining advisors. Many of her cabinet were still in jail, pending proof either way of the charges against them, but she was trying to stumble through with a skeleton government. And she didn’t dare confiscate the lands and property of the erstwhile conspirators in case they were eventually proved innocent.

“There is a new market opening up for mass quantities of lumber,” one Lord said cautiously. “However, I have to advise against doing business with that particular person.”

“Lord Watling, at this point, I’d kiss a troll to put money in the coffers,” Red hissed. “We’ve got forests to spare. Send everybody we’ve got out and have them start cutting wood down. Can we at least get a decent price for it? And is the buyer’s credit good?”

“I’d say so,” Watling quavered. “It’s King Wendell.”

“Wendell!” So there is something that brat doesn’t have! “He’s got forests, why does he need our wood-not that we’re going to be too proud to deal with him!” she added hastily.

“Since the wolves prefer to live in woodland, he has promised not to cut down the Disenchanted Forest. However, this mad construction project of his has taken up all his spare materials. He’s appealing to every kingdom except the Third for more.”

“Send a messenger as fast as one can ride to his castle. Tell him that we’ll undercut the price of anyone else’s wood if he’ll promise to buy lumber exclusively from us!”

At last, a break! He’ll get our wood-and something else beside!

“I don’t know about this,” Lucy fretted. “Wrentree, are you sure this is going to work?”

“Of course it will! Now put on your costume.” Red tossed a bundle of clothes at her secretary. “I told you, I need to see what Wendell is up to, and I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”

“But to dress as peasants and deliver wood? How degrading!”

“Don’t think of it as slumming. Think of it as having your own adventure. If that mutt Wendell can have an adventure, why can’t we? Don’t you want to have songs and stories told about you?” Despite her brave words, Red was starting to have second thoughts of her own. Talking about dressing as a peasant was one thing-it was quite another to scrape off her careful makeup, put away her silks, and don these crude clothes. People really dressed like this? It itched!

Worse humiliations waited.

Red looked dubiously at the ox, which ignored her. It was very big and very smelly, and for a weak moment, she wondered how her own brave grandmama had been able to bear a childhood surrounded by barnyard animals. It must have been a huge relief to turn into a heroine queen!

Still. If she, Red III, could run an entire kingdom, she was sure she could get one ox to obey her. It seemed very simple. Yank on one rein to make it turn that way, yank on both to make it stop, and click at it to make it go. Slowly. That was why she wanted an ox; it would be strong, dumb, and slow. Rather like her cabinet of advisors, come to think of it. Only she didn’t get to hit them with a little whip if they didn’t do what she wanted.

Now there was an idea!

Firmly suppressing the fond thought, Red climbed up on the board. Fortunately skirts were skirts were skirts; these might itch... and be thick... and a very unflattering color... but other than all that, they weren’t really all that different than her regular clothes. The ox, on the other hand, was as unlike her royal mount as one could get. She shook the reins and clicked.

The ox ripped up another facefull of grass from the side of the road. The farmer-who had no idea who he was talking to-snickered. Exasperated, Red hauled the ox’s head up, a manuver which required her to use her whole body as leverage, her tiny feet braced against the bar in front of the wagon. The ox’s head came up with the slow inevitability of the sunrise.

Encouraged, she clicked again. The huge animal blinked, then started to look at the grass speculatively again. Red smacked it with the rod. It looked at her. She hit it again, harder, and the stupid beast finally took a step forward. It was probably heading towards that tender young tree, but she threw her weight against the reins to head it off and smacked it again. Resigned, the ox plodded down the road.

Panting and exhausted, Red slumped in the seat. Really, this was quite easy. And if she just kept repeating that, maybe she’d grow to believe it.

Benjamin was waiting when the heavy ox cart rumbled by his cage. It hadn’t taken long for him to pack; he didn’t own much anyway. A few changes of clothes, a book or two. The queen was very big on literacy; she had even set up a little lending library so wolves could while away the hours they were supposed to be sitting tamely in their cages.

He’d never been big on sitting tamely anywhere. But keeping up the illusion had been worthwhile, very worthwhile indeed! The silly woman trusted him completely. That trust had given him many advantages over the years, and now it handed him the greatest opportunity of his life. She wanted him to accompany her as a “native guide” to the wolves on her little spying mission. Benjamin snorted in derision. How much did she expect him to know about wolves when his mother had been kicked out of her pack before he was born and then the queen kept him on the end of a leash for most of his life? Silly, stupid woman!

But his time would come. Oh, yes, it would come. Either he could feed her paranoia to breaking point, or he could escape into the Fourth Kingdom. Possibly both.

Either way, he won.

The closer they got to the border, the louder the howling became. Lucy shivered, but Red couldn’t help smiling. At last! Something familiar! The woods didn’t seem right when they were so silent. They didn’t seem like home at all.

“You can call back if you want,” Red magnanimously told Benjamin.

He barely looked up from the back of the cart. “They’re not saying anything. Just making noise.”

Lucy shivered again. “How rude!”

Red cocked her head. “Even if they aren’t saying anything, there’s a pattern. First we hear a faint series of howls from way over there, then it’s repeated a little louder and a little closer, and a little closer yet, and then it fades again. I bet it’s different stops on the network signaling each other-I bet you anything!”

“We’ll know soon enough,” Benjamin pointed out from the back. “Isn’t the first way station just over the border?”

It was. The walls around the garrison could be seen as soon as they broke out of the woods of the Second Kingdom. An hour’s slow plodding brought them to the newly built side road. A few minutes later, they were stopped in front of a huge portcullis with WELCOME TO WOLFS GATE painted on either side. The guard checked their load and invoices with quick efficiency, then waved them through.

Red had to secretly admit to herself, the town seemed to be planned very well. The other side of the gate led to an empty space and a subgate; if an enemy army penetrated the main wall, they still might be contained before they overran the town. Through that gate, the road ran smooth and straight (it was even paved!) to a tidy town center. At one side was the Wolf Gate Inn with an attached stable; on the other was a large open area that was currently serving as a market. On the other side of the inn was a large observation tower, slightly taller than the towers at every corner of the wall. A large, low building just beyond the tower was probably the main barracks; behind it and around it were smaller cottages with little kitchen gardens. One woman could be seen hoeing up weeds, her hair neatly tied up but her tail swinging free from the back of her skirts.

As they approached, a woman popped out the inn’s door, wiping a glass on her apron. “Welcome, welcome to Wolf’s Gate! Come on in-our boy will see to your wagon.”

With a shrug to the others, Red pulled the ox to a halt and jumped down.

The proprietress kept talking as they followed her into the taproom. “Are you just coming to trade, or are you coming to settle?”

“Just trade,” Red said warily.

“Oh. It’s just that we just got our own collar cutter.” She nodded towards the circle of silver around Benjamin’s neck, which he touched warily. “He’s the son of the cutter in New Sanctuary, just striking out on his own. He comes very highly recommended. He’ll give you a good deal on the silver, and he makes fine jewelry.” As proof she held out her arm, displaying the series of thin silver bracelets decorating her wrist.

Benjamin blanched, his fingertips still on the collar, his eyes on Queen Red. “Uh, I uh, I don’t think I want to...”

The proprietress shrugged, still chattering merrily. “That’s okay, dear, plenty of wolves don’t feel comfortable removing it until they’ve been here a while.” She winked. “Nothing to worry about, Queen Red hasn’t come after a single one of us.”

Red wasn’t comfortable with where this conversation was going. What if Benjamin wanted to defect? She’d never considered that possibility. She wanted him to be happy... but she also wanted him to stay with her! To cover her nerves and provide a distraction, she blurted, “What a unique town you have here.”

The proprietress shrugged. “Not really-all the garrisons are built along the same lines. I’m sure that some alleys and back ways will change as they grow, but everything else is standardized. That way the soldiers can move around and never get lost, even if they’re posted to a new place. And it’s going to absolutely revolutionize travel in this kingdom! Do you know that when the Four Who Saved the Nine Kingdoms were on their journey, they had to stay in lots of barns or sleep beside the road? Well, once our system is set up, there will be a garrison and inn within a day’s journey in any direction. Travelling will be easier than ever! And that will help the tourist industry, mark you!”

“But what about-” Lucy started to ask.

“Just a moment, dear, it’s time to check in,” the proprietress said, looking at the clock on the wall. As she went back out the door, Red could hear fading howls to the west. A minute later, someone-or some thing-up the main tower cried “Yap! Yap! Yap!” As the last yap died, it seemed like the entire town exploded into one long “YAAAHHHHWOOOOOOO!” Everywhere, everyone stopped and threw back their heads-in the streets, in the market; even up in the tower a muzzle pointed to the sky. As the echoes faded, the same howl could be heard to the east.

“Sorry about that.” The proprietress came bustling back in. “It’s part of the system. If a town doesn’t call on time, then the garrisons all around go on alert. We all give a shout once a day to make sure the network is unbroken.”

“Even at night?” Lucy gasped. “How do you sleep?”

“Oh, not all night, dear! At night there are signal fires. And if we can’t howl and we don’t want anyone to come, if there’s a plague or something, there’s a flag system too. After what happened with that evil queen, King Wendell is taking no chances. Well, I’m sure you’re tired and hungry. Come, sit down!”

She ushered them all to a table. Benjamin started to sit on the floor, as was proper, but Red stopped him, lest he give away their identities. Lucy was already sitting to her right, so Red patted the seat to her left.

For the first time in history, a wolf sat down to table with a member of the House of Red.