“I hear you have a badger,” Glais changed the subject.
I looked at him, confused, but his eyes were sparkling and he looked almost as excited as a child. “Yes?” I raised an eyebrow at his expression. “He’s injured, possibly permanently. I was actually looking at a medical book while I was here, just in case it would provide me some information about brains that I don’t know.”
For once, someone didn’t question the fact that I knew some amount of information about brains to begin with. Probably because he was a scholar himself, and he seemed to recognize that I was one as well, so he didn’t see it as out of the ordinary.
“Can I see?” He pleaded. “I love badgers, there used to be a bunch that lived in a field near my home when I was a child. I haven’t seen one in ages, though.”
I didn’t personally have a problem with this, but I did see a potential issue with having an adult man in my room. While we had fully innocent reasons, it was likely someone would think poorly of us just…for reasons. Because people preferred to think poorly than to accept someone’s word and believe the best.
I agreed on the condition that I could find someone else to accompany us. Thankfully, as we exited the library, I spotted Ancelote, the tall female knight, and immediately approached her.
“Would you mind accompanying us for a bit?” I asked. “Glais wishes to see a badger I am caring for, but I believe we will need a chaperone.”
She had been munching on a piece of bread, but she nodded and stood up from the bench she’d been sitting on, then my words seemed to sink in. “A…badger?”
“Yes!” Glais gave her an enthusiastic smile. “It’s injured, so Merlynn is caring for it. I’m very excited, I haven’t seen a badger in ages, and never really up close. I know it’s hurt so I’ll have to be careful and not upset it, but just being close will be special.”
Ancelote seemed amused, but nodded along as she followed us to my room.
When we got inside, Glais was entirely focused on the badger, whom I carefully lured out from under the bed, asking me questions about Nettle’s care and what his symptoms were. Ancelote, meanwhile, took a moment to look around, noticing the growing colony of pots and plants as well as the cats. Three cats, currently. Gilly, Phil, and a calico lady I hadn’t named yet.
“Well, this looks like a comfy room,” she murmured as she offered a hand to Gilly. When Gilly purred and Phil rolled over to display her belly, Ancelote seemed quietly delighted and began petting the cats, telling them how beautiful they were and how they deserved to take a break in a comfy bed after all their hard work hunting mice.
Glais, meanwhile, was totally in love with Nettle.
“Look at his claws!” He marveled. “Quite the digging ability. Yet he seems so gentle now! Is he happy?” He asked anxiously. “Does he seem in pain?”
I stroked Nettle, who was stretched out in my lap, seeming pretty content with his current situation. “He was quite grumpy when I first brought him in, I believe due to the pain. I’ve been treating him with medicinal herbs and caring for his wound. It’s closed up, but it’ll take a while for the fur to grow back there. I think the herbs are helping his pain, though. He seems much brighter in general. Still walks into things,” I allowed, “I think due to the injury he just struggles to walk in the direction he intends. I’ve tried to account for it in the room.”
“Ah.” Glais nodded, glancing at the bed and the couple of chairs. “That explains the pillows tied around things.”
“Yeah, I think Johfrit will have another fit when he finds out I asked for a bunch of pillows. I’m hoping they’re not permanent, though.” I carefully stroked Nettle’s back. “I think as he heals more, hopefully he’ll be able to navigate in familiar areas. I don’t think he’ll be able to go back into the wild, but I’m happy to care for him. I may also be able to convince the gardeners to let him run around in specific areas, where they won’t mind if he digs holes. I’d like for him to have some access to nature, just safely so.”
Glais offered Nettle some grapes which he had nabbed from the Great Hall as we passed. Nettle began exploring them and munching happily, while Glais beamed at him. “He’s quite cute, and seems very content here. I am happy to help care for him,” he offered almost pleadingly. “I can help take him out and watch him when he’s outside, make sure no one bothers him.”
Honestly, I thought his love for badgers was sweet. Not everyone appreciated animals, especially one that some people viewed as a pest, so I would happily accept his help.
“Yes, that would be nice.” I eyed Ancelote. “And do you want to visit the cats?”
She sat upright, looking a bit guilty. She’d almost been flopped out next to them, talking about how soft they were, and enjoying the cat purrs. “Um, I like – I like cats,” she explained sheepishly.
“So do I, obviously.” Although probably she thought it was less embarrassing for a teenage girl to admit that than an adult woman, let alone a knight. “Anyway, we might need to borrow you again when Glais visits Nettle, is that okay?”
She tried to look casual about it, but she seemed happy with the offer, not-so-subtly reaching over to pet the cats as she agreed.
Some more friends. They might be more fans of my animals than of me, but talking to Glais was interesting and Ancelote seemed nice, I just needed to talk to her some more. Hopefully eventually we could be friends enough that if – when – I asked her to help train Mora, she’d be willing to listen to the idea.
That night, however, things changed for me.
I woke abruptly from a deep sleep, my eyes instantly adjusting to the darkness as I lay there, alert.
Danger.
Something was wrong.
I took a moment to let my senses seep into the world around me. Gilly was sleeping on my bed, and Phil was curled up in a chair. Breone was attempting to convince Nettle to play, unsuccessfully. But it was quiet here.
The danger wasn’t here. The cats would have woken up if so.
I slipped out of my bed, taking care not to wake Gilly, and looked at the wall that contained the door. It was all stone, no coverings or decorations, so I’d taken advantage of it to write a series of runes all across it. They were invisible unless I lit them up, like now, awakening my magic with the slightest tap of my fingers to the stone.
The wall came alive, brilliant magenta magic forming lines and markings all over the entire wall. Most were still, but some were moving.
I’d taken the time during my wanderings as a cat to mark invisible runes in certain places so that I could keep an eye on the castle via magic, if necessary. I’d also used some for specific people, but I hadn’t marked the people – it was far too complicated to keep runes on people for longer than a few minutes. However, since I knew the people, my magic could recognize them easily enough to just know when they moved about the castle, so I could identify them on the map I’d made. I could also give my magic a basic idea of what a soldier was or a servant was – it wouldn’t know which one, but it would know someone who tended to wear the clothes of a soldier or servant was walking around and show that on the map.
Genevieve, Arthur, Olwen, and Mora were all in their rooms. Still, so likely sleeping. There were guards moving around in regular patterns, making their rounds to ensure the castle was safe. Not much activity in either the mages’ or the knights’ quarters, likely just someone up early or late, but nothing of concern. The kitchen had activity, but that was to be expected – people had to arrive early to start food for the castle. No, everything looked normal.
But something was wrong. There was danger here, it just wasn’t evident.
I closed my eyes, letting my magic seep out, trying to listen to the creatures of the castle. Even the mice and rats, anything, really – anything that would give me a hint that something was wrong.
I didn’t get a clue from the animals, but, in reaching for the animals to see if they would help, my magic touched the thing that was wrong.
My eyes snapped open.
Arthur was in danger.
I didn’t wait to consider why, or to call the guards, or anything like that. There wasn’t time to wait.
I was in my black cat form in an instant, but I didn’t bother to leap through the window to the sills and make my way to the king’s quarters via the outside of the castle. Instead, since I knew where his quarters were, I simply created a new pathway and then hopped through it, going from my room to the king’s room in another part of the castle in less than a second.
The danger, an extremely venomous snake, was already making its way up the bedpost to the king’s bed. It wouldn’t do to switch into my human form, or even to call a guard – there wasn’t time, plus it wasn’t exactly likely a guard would have a lot of success with a snake, not without getting hurt, anyway. Instead, I changed into another creature, one that was the sworn enemy of snakes. Not native to this land, but still, it would do the job even better than a cat.
Now a mongoose, I hissed loudly, drawing the viper’s attention. It seemed set on its target – controlled by magic, likely, but something to deal with later – but even that couldn’t counter the snake’s natural self-defense mechanisms. It might not recognize me as a species it knew preyed on even highly venomous snakes, but it did recognize that I was challenging it, and it knew, even if it didn’t know why, that it had to respond.
The snake dropped to the floor and hissed back, striking out at me. I danced backwards on incredibly fast, tiny paws, hissing again.
By now, a couple of the dogs had awakened at the noise and started barking, waking Arthur up, but once he realized there was a snake there, he starting moving very cautiously towards the other side of the bed to get a weapon, most likely. Really a pointless venture, because weapons were very difficult to use against small and quick-moving snakes, but perhaps he thought he could stab it with a sword. Actually, maybe he even could, for all I knew. He was supposed to be an extremely good knight, after all.
I, however, planned to not require the king’s assistance. When the snake started to notice the movement and turn its attention towards the bed, I hissed and then lept forward, briefly biting its lower body. It swung back, returning the hiss as it attempted to strike at me, but once again, I was too fast, out of its range before it could even fully strike.
But this time, I didn’t wait. As the snake started to recoil after its strike, I made my own – abruptly, and quickly, biting down hard on the snake’s neck. It started writhing, but I didn’t let go, my teeth biting harder and harder until suddenly, the head and the body were no longer connected.
I dropped the head, observed the snake for a moment, and then looked at the king, who was now standing with his sword, looking uncertain. He’d called for help, and couple of guards burst into the room, weapons drawn.
Looking rather silly, to be honest, with all the weaponry against a single, and now very dead, snake. Granted, a very venomous one, but still. Normal weapons wouldn’t work so well here. A gardening tool or even a spear might be better.
“Um, Sire?” One of the guards said faintly. “What is that?”
“I don’t know, but it killed the snake.” Arthur frowned and slowly started to move closer to me.
I hissed at him, a warning. Of course I was quite a small creature and no threat to an adult man, but he needed to be careful. Maybe he didn’t know that snakes could still bite after death – pure reflexes, but nonetheless, it was still a risk. He couldn’t come near this.
As if to prove my point, the head of the snake snapped at me as I brushed it, biting at my leg. I kicked it off, my mongoose fur and acetylcholine receptors ensuring that the venom wouldn’t bother me – well, even if my actual genetics also would have done that – but the point was made, and Arthur backed off a step.
“That’s a viper, Sire,” one of the guards offered unhelpfully. “They can take down a horse with ease.”
“Indeed.” Arthur’s brows furrowed and he attempted – without getting closer – to try to get a better look at the snake. “It looks like a water type – it shouldn’t be here.”
The words hung in the air for a moment. No, the snake shouldn’t be here. And yet here it was, and it was in the king’s room, and attempting to bite him.
100% not a coincidence.
Someone had tried to kill Arthur. Via a viper, using magic to control it.
I needed to know who. I could use magic to reveal what magic was on the snake, controlling it, but it would be decidedly odd if a mongoose started using magic. Maybe…make it look accidental? Or like the magic showed with the snake’s death?
I flicked my tail, moving swiftly as one of the dogs attempted to sniff me, hissing again and lunging at it to keep away. Only then did my aura of magic catch it and the dogs all started to back off, avoiding the still-lethal snake head in the process.
However, the action had achieved what I wanted. As I moved, I let my tail barely brush against the body of the snake and set a bit of magic through me, into it.
The snake’s head lit up with a magenta mark over its head, the symbol glowing for several seconds before fading.
“Sire?” One of the guards had left and now returned with a wooden box, apparently hoping to scoop up the snake’s remains. “That was magic, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” Arthur frowned. “But that isn’t necessarily a surprise. For this viper to be here, it has to have been placed.”
Another good point. And it meant there was someone helping on the inside.
It meant there was a traitor here in the castle.
However, I’d served my purpose, Arthur was now safe – as long as he was careful around the head still, which he seemed smart enough to figure out – and I was now concerned that the box wasn’t for the snake, it was for me. I was an animal they didn’t recognize, and while they knew I’d killed the snake, it wasn’t unreasonable of them to attempt to catch me.
Not that I was going to let them. With one more deliberate stomp on the snake’s head and a warning hiss at the king, I darted to the window, practically leaping into the darkness beyond.
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