The Vixen Trials

Punished

Keilah

The next morning began at first light with her grandmother fussing around her. "The Vixen Trials are in just a few weeks, my dear, so we have little time to get you ready. Of course the first priority is the dress for the opening ball. Fortunately I kept Vilva on, despite my lack of need for her these last years. I didn't want anyone else to have her." With that Keilah was measured and poked and discussed by a lady that looked as old as her grandmother but who moved twice as quick.

When Vilva had bustled away, it was time for history lessons which focused on the rival Houses. Keilah who had drifted away during the endless recitations of names and battles, perked up when the Prince was mentioned.

"It is all a bit mysterious." Her Baba lowered her brow. "He just left one day. The Queen-Priestess said she sent him away for his own good, but no one really knows why he left or where to. and now that she is weakening, he returns. Very handsome, they say, like a human embodiment of the Fox, though hardly anyone has spoken to him yet, according to my spies."

"So no one knows what he is like," said Keilah, her breath faltering for a moment. "No one knows if he is kind or good or gentle?"

"Kind or good or gentle?" sneered Baba as she wrinkled her age-spotted nose. "They are not the traits of the Fox. We prize strength and courage and cunning. He'll have been trained to have those. Tell me my dear, why do you want just your village, of all your mother's inheritance? You should seek to govern this House or do you despise the honor like your mother did?"

Keilah straightened in her chair. "Doesn't Lord Rustavan want his daughter to inherit?"

Her Baba waved her objection away. "It is not his place to choose. I'll be watching you, my dear, to see if you are worthy."

Keilah was not at all sure Lord Rustavan's opposition could be so easily waved away. "I'm sure I won't be. I don't know anything about running a House like this. I would like her library though, if that's possible. She always talked about the books she read here."

"She was forever in there reading. She probably missed her library more than she did us." Baba fingered the blue fabric at her sleeve.

"In a different way," said Keilah trying to be diplomatic.

Baba snorted. "She hated us in the end. No use pretending else."

"Not you. This life. But I don't hate it. I like it." She looked around the comfortable chairs, the fur rugs on the floor, even Alyssia by the door ready to serve her every whim. "She wanted to share her library with others. That's what's she asked me to do."

"Always a dreamer, a do-gooder, a rejecter of all the ways of the She-Fox. Your father, a lesser Wayvolkan in every way, abetted her. Now they are both dead and those of us of the Fox still reign supreme, despite our enemies." Baba shot her a suspicious glance. "You will join with the Fox? You must if you are to stay here."

Even her Baba who had so valued her bi-colored eyes, demanded she change. Keilah suppressed a shudder even as she nodded in agreement. Like Jagur said, a shared faith bridged people. The Wayvolkan were devoted to the Fox. She needed to be too. She would make this one small change to fit in with them.

Lord Rustavan poked his head in through the doorway. "Coming?"

Baba gave him a sly grin. "I wouldn't miss this."

"What's happening?" Keilah asked.

"Time to hear the Hattavah's punishment. I do hope my son's thought up something very good."

Fear raced through Keilah at her words. What would they do to him? She still couldn't quite believe he'd be punished for saving her.

Lord Rustavan bowed and kissed her hand. "I think you'll be impressed."