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It is always better to have our black boxes opened by friends than by enemies.
—Archemais, Treason and Truth
In the frosty dawn, Jubal stood by the barricade and waited. He felt intensely uneasy. What is she doing? Sharon-zool had consented to the conference without argument and with no objectionable stipulations. She wanted to meet at dawn in the place he had specified. She’d even agreed to stop hanging cliff fauns until they had completed their parlay. The only odd part of her request was that all of his fauns and at least a hundred of his cats be in attendance. Jubal knew, then, that she guessed the small number of his remaining fauns, but that was hardly avoidable, once she knew she was dealing with the palace guard. He had wondered if she meant to use the conference as a diversion while she attempted a flanking attack, but that seemed impossible. The whole length of the barricade could be seen from their conference point, and Jubal knew of no other entrance to the palace. He was sure that if Sharon did, she would have used it by now.
But she’s planning something. What? Jubal turned towards a flurry of trumpets. Sharon-zool certainly did not intend to sneak into the plaza. She came mounted with a glittering escort.
Jubal stepped forward to meet them. Tavaris and Loop came with him, along with a small guard of cats. The rest of the fauns and cats stood on or just in front of the barricade, watching.
Sharon-zool rode a milk-white goat, its twisted horns crusted with jewels, its green and silver livery flashing in the morning sun. Behind her rode perhaps thirty fauns, along with a handful of lizard riders. Jubal glanced around at Tavaris. “If anything goes wrong here,” he muttered, “I want you back inside the barricade. Don’t wait for me; just go.”
Tavaris raised an eyebrow, but Jubal continued. “There aren’t many fauns left who know how to command. If she can kill or cripple us—”
They were within hailing distance now, and one of the trumpeters began listing Sharon’s titles. Jubal hardly heard. She had dismounted and was striding towards him, followed by her retinue. She was closing the distance more rapidly than Jubal and his councilors—trying to get even closer to the barricade, Jubal realized. How can this be to her advantage?
Then Jubal saw her eyes, and he knew. He could not say how or when or where, but Sharon-zool had discovered his secret. This is not a parlay, thought Jubal. This is a trial—mine.
* * * *
“It’s my mother, isn’t it?” said Chance. “The wealthy patron Laylan suspected was helping your pack.”
Sham nodded. Fenrah had given her consent, but in the meantime Chance had begun to put things together on his own. “Your mother contacted us several years after Sardor-de-lor fell, when we were still children, living on the edges of Canisaria with an outlaw band still fighting the cats. She gave us money and food, contacts among sympathetic fauns, our first spy network. Without her, we might have been caught up in some hopeless plot by the old nobility to retake our city and died as symbols of a lost cause. Instead, we burrowed deep into wood faun territory and accepted our lives as outlaws. Because of her gifts, we were able to help other wolfling packs.”
Chance frowned. “But my mother hardly ever leaves the palace, and she’s something of a recluse. How did she orchestrate all this?”
Sham hesitated. “No one ever told us, but we think your mother handles our affairs through one main contact. They’ve set up an elaborate diversion to hide the arrangement.”
* * * *
Jubal glanced at Tavaris again. “What I said,” he whispered fiercely, “remember.”
“Filinians! Fauns of Danda-lay!” Sharon-zool did not even pretend to be speaking to Jubal. She projected her voice over his head at the crowd around the barricade. “You have all been deceived! I and my shelts are here to liberate you from a wolfling plot to take over your city and wreak revenge on the cats and their allies.”
A murmur broke out along the barricade—jeers and laughter, mostly, but she had their attention. Whatever they had expected, this wasn’t it. Tavaris glanced at Jubal and realized what was coming. Don’t be a fool, Jubal. After all these years, don’t be a fool.
Sharon-zool looked at Jubal, and her mouth twisted into a smile. “It was a clever plot. It almost succeeded. But now, at this barricade, before these witnesses, it ends. Tell them, Jubal: how you used a little scandal to cover a larger one. Tell them what you’ve really been doing with Queen Istra.
* * * *
“Jubal,” said Chance softly.
“Yes,” said Sham, “We think Jubal and Istra cultivated the rumor about their affair, because they rightly assumed Shadock would be too proud to acknowledge it. He would try to cover it up as long as they were discrete. His distaste would prevent him from looking too closely at their activities.”
Chance was quiet a long moment. “When I tried to hang you, Jubal was there. I was angry about it. I knew shelts would say he came to see my victory because he was my sire.”
Sham grinned. “He came to see me. He opened the gates for Fenny and Sevn and Xerous and told them where to find the materials for the scaffold. Hualien’s rats did the rest.”
* * * *
The barricade went silent at the mention of Istra’s name. “She disagreed with Shadock’s decision to leave Sardor-de-lor to its fate,” continued Sharon-zool. “She schemed to find and aid the heir to the Canisarian throne, but she knew she could never have any direct contact with wolflings, nor would she be able to contact the network of wolfling sympathizers among the fauns. Istra needed a footpad—a clever shelt with wolfling sympathies who could mingle with all classes of fauns without arousing suspicion. She found such a person in her palace guard. She raised him to Captain in spite of his low birth and young age, and they devised a ploy to keep their activities unsuspected. In order to justify the secret notes and the private meetings, which would certainly become known in time, they spread the rumor of Jubal’s affair with the queen.”
A low rumble swept the barricade. “You cats have lived and died to make Canisaria your own,” continued Sharon-zool. “You know very well the wolflings would like nothing better than to see you all shot. Yet now you blithely follow the orders of a faun sold heart and soul to Fenrah Ausla! You fauns, do you realize that this ‘defender’ of the city once opened the gates to the Raider pack so that it could humiliate Danda-lay?”
The noise from the barricade had swollen to a roar. Sharon-zool let them argue and shout, her dark eyes gleaming at Jubal’s tight-mouthed glare. Tavaris glanced at Loop. The Lynx was frowning from Jubal to Sharon-zool. They will not believe it, thought Tavaris, never. Unless... Oh, Jubal you’ve lied about this so flawlessly that not even Laylan or Chance suspects you. But, whispered a little voice in Tavaris’s head, not this way. He doesn’t know how to lie this way.
Sharon-zool let the clamor on the barricade die down.
Jubal spoke at last, “Who set fire to the library and scriptorium? Who took bread at our tables two days ago and then shed the blood of our soldiers in the streets last night? Who hung cliff faun children before their parents’ eyes? The only danger to Danda-lay in this plaza is you and your shelts. We did not come here to bandy accusations with you, Sharon-zool, but to arrange for your—” he spat out the word, “departure. Though it pains me to say so, we will let you walk out of here if you leave now. This offer will not come again.”
Sharon-zool only smiled at him. She did not answer a word until silence had returned to the plaza. “Do you deny that you have aided wolflings and their allies, Jubal? That you have pledged your services to Fenrah Ausla? Swear you have not. Swear it on your honor as a guard and defender of this city. Swear it on the Creator’s throne. Swear it, and I and all these shelts and cats will be content.” She swept the plaza with her arm as though to include herself with the watchers on the barricade.
Tavaris groaned inwardly. He watched Jubal’s mouth working in his pale face. We are lost. For five heartbeats, the barricade held its breath. When it became clear that Jubal was not going to answer, pandemonium broke loose.
