Chapter 203: Hold the fort a little longer.
Elias’s face flickered into view, his hair immaculate even from a distance. He looked well rested for a man hunting smugglers. Sienna thought he certainly looked better than her.
"When are you coming back?" She asked, her voice sharper than she intended.
He smiled faintly, though his eyes hid signs of fatigue. "Soon. We got most of the smugglers thanks to the information Mija provided. They need me to negotiate an acceptable conclusion to the chase before revealing the rest of the items they had sold over the years. You would be surprised to see their ledgers. For criminals, their books are very well kept."
Sienna blinked.
"How is Ali? Has the fever come down?" He asked.
Sienna nodded. "She is better, just lacking in energy. Your daughter needs you to return home as much as I do. I am falling apart at the seams like an old dress. Your mother challenges everything I do, the council is a bunch of useless old fogies who argue over everything and we have fifty confirmed plague cases. Also, half of the long grain rice available in the city currently was imported from Houndfang city two months ago and I am wondering if we should burn it all."
"Burn." He said decisively.
She exhaled in frustration. "Fine. But we need to source grain from somewhere because there will be a shortage."
He scratched the back of his head slowly. "I have spoken to the king, once a vaccine is available, we will be among the first tribes to receive it."
Sienna’s eyes almost widened. "I did not even think about that. I thought they would just distribute it evenly across the tribes. There is a hierarchy!"
Elias almost laughed at her. If he didn’t know that she was not the original Sienna, he would be amazed by her ignorance. "There is a hierarchy to everything in this world. The royal family will be prioritized first, followed by special endangered tribes whose population is low, then the tribes which contribute the most to the security of the empire and the rest follow. Don’t be surprised if Houndfang city is not even the first to see the vaccine."
She was so surprised this time, that she could not even hide it. "What!? But they are the ones most affected by the plague! That doesn’t make sense at all!"
He shrugged. It was the way things worked. She covered her mouth, hiding a very loud yawn.
"Where do we fall in the hierarchy?" She finally asked, dropping her hand.
"Contribution group." He replied quickly, craning his look to look to his right. His ears twitched, like he had heard something. Rapidly, he said, "I have to go. Stay safe and hold the fort down a little longer. Whatever my mother says, act deaf."
Sienna sighed in resignation. "Fine. Bye."
The call ended. Sienna fell back on the bed, arms spread wide like the wings of an eagle. Outside, the window, little flecks of snow melted upon touching the flying ship. Inside, warmth lingered, lulling her back into a few moments of more sleep.
Before she was completely taken in by slumber, the door slid open and her mother brought back a freshly showered cub. Eli followed slowly, dragging his feet as if he was being forced. Ali was placed beside her, while Eli climbed onto the bed by himself.
Both children changed to fox cub form, and curled close to their mother. Mrs. Miller covered them and backed slowly out of the room.
***
About two hours into Sienna’s peaceful nap, commotion visited the fully occupied VIP area at the hospital where the fox refugees were housed.
A bruised woman, her face mottled with purple and blue, knelt in the thin snow, beside the guard. A janitor that was carrying snow melting equipment looked on, half amused, half irritated because the drama was getting in the way of her job.
"Mother," the woman shouted, "please...let me in. If I go back, he is going to beat me to death. He swore it on the fox god." Her hands clutched at the flap of the tent, trembling, desperate. Inside, her mother’s silhouette remained rigid, unmoving. Her mother refused to respond, or acknowledge her daughter’s cries.
The fox guards exchanged uneasy glances. The matriarch’s orders had been clear, no commotion. But this was not simple commotion, it was a family matter and the woman was only crying. Her tears were not causing a riot. To intervene would be overstepping their bounds, but to look away was to condemn the woman to death.
They shifted uncomfortably, claws flexing, some weapons drawn, ears twitching, waiting for someone with authority to intervene. Every once in a while, they looked up at the matriarch’s ship, wondering when she would arrive.
Captain Fergie, the head of the guards protecting the hospital had already been called. He was now contemplating inviting Sienna or Lady Cadelaria. But first, he called Timothy.
Whispers spread among the small crowd of VIP refugees meanwhile, "That is Winona Cuthbert, her husband is Gentry Cuthbert, of Cuthbert and Gambit. They own the largest cleaning brand in the empire."
The janitor who was watching the snow gather looked at the equipment in her hand. It had a Cuthbert and Gambit logo! Her eyes widened, and she moved closer, to watch the drama without missing a single thing.
There was not much in the form of entertainment for the refugees. Anything to distract them from their fear was welcome.
"I have heard he beats her, but I always thought it was a rumor." Someone whispered.
"No wonder she wears so much make up all the time, her luxurious life is paid for with pain."
"What is her mother doing? Her daughter already looks likes this, can’t she let her in?"
More whispering went around, half of the spectators condemning the mother while others sneered at the woman who was still kneeling in the snow.
And the, cutting through the murmurs, came an entitled voice of a white snake beast woman that had been going around, proclaiming that she was the best friend of the matriarch.
Mija sashayed forward, the visible white scales on her arms gleaming under the natural light of the day. She carried herself with the confidence of someone who had no official authority bit infinite audacity. "Oh for heavens sake," she drawled, flicking her right hand with exaggerated annoyance. "Are you all just going to stand there watching a woman begging for her life, while you scratch your ears and asses, pretending that it is none of your damn business? Don’t tell me that Sienna must come personally to fix this?"
