The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 111: A Tragic Lack of Beheadings

"Just keep it away from me." Dropping me into Floridiana's hand and turning on her heel – which would have worked better on a polished marble floor than on coarse grass – Anthea flounced away.

"Are you okay?" Bobo whispered.

She inspected me all over, but I was fine. Anthea hadn't squeezed me hard enough to crush any internal organs. She knew she needed me to implement that kingdom-wide network of temples to the Kitchen God.

"Ssshould you go into the city to tell the Lady what happened? Ssshe must be very worried – "

No.

My answer came out so sharply that Bobo blinked.

Out of the corner of her mouth, Floridiana asked, "Why not? Thought you were friends."

No. I clenched my beak, remembering the Lady of the Lychee Tree's dispassionate tone as she threatened to take my friends hostage. She proved to be undeserving of trust.

"For real? What'd ssshe do?"

"Yes, for real, what could she do to make her undeserving of your trust?"

What was for real was that I didn't appreciate Floridiana's implication.

She hinted that if I didn't side with her, she would find the three of you and hold you prisoner. It's like she doesn't trust me.

"Really?!" gasped Bobo.

Floridiana, on the other hand, heaved a weary sigh. She didn't act nearly as upset about it as I had been, even though it would have been her neck on the line. "Why does that not surprise me at all...."

Hey! What's that supposed to mean?

"If you haven't figured it out on your own by now, I have better things to do than tell you what you have no intention of learning. Anyway, what's the plan now?"

Awwww, does that mean that you do trust me? Just to irritate her, I rubbed the crown of my head against her cheek.

"Cut that out!"

"Hey, who's that?" asked Dusty's voice.

Unnoticed, the horse spirit had ambled over, and now he nosed the other side of Floridiana's head.

"Ugh, don't slobber all over me!" She pushed his head away, but not hard.

Mission accomplished: One mage, thoroughly annoyed.

"Huh, who is that, Rosssie?"

Who is who – oh!

A procession was wending out of the city, humans and spirits clad in the green and gold of the Lychee Grove Earth Court. At their head were Missa and Ancemus, the Lady's foremost mage and top adviser, come to welcome their sovereign. Personally, I found it inappropriate that the Lady of the Lychee Tree hadn't come in person, but things were so topsy-turvy in South Serica that maybe it was simply the way of things.

Those are representatives of the spirit who threatened to take you hostage, but we're all best friends forever now.

Only Floridiana caught my sarcasm.

Bobo and Dusty just looked dazzled by the fancy clothing.

"Do I look all right? Are you sure I look all right?"

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh! You look ssso pretty!"

As I'd expected, Lodia and Bobo got along like a house that had not been set ablaze by exploding crossbow bolts.

My salvation of the city had won me (somewhat cool) official thanks, but my true reward had been Missa welcoming me back into her home, along with Bobo, Floridiana, and Dusty. Well, not literally in Dusty's case, but the horse was enjoying the Kohs' grass when he wasn't poking their neighbors' touch-me-not plants. The way the tiny leaves curled up and wilted fascinated him to no end.

We'd all been invited to a celebratory feast at the Earth Court, and Lodia, naturally, was dithering over what to wear.

"I can't believe the Queen wants to see me! Are you sure she said she wants to see me? Are you sure she wasn't thinking of someone else?" she asked for the ten-thousandth time.

I'd forgotten how tedious the girl could be. Yes. Yes, she did, I repeated for the ten-thousandth time.

It was true: After exchanging meaningless pleasantries with Missa, Jullia had asked out of nowhere, "How fares thy grandchild?"

"Both of them are faring well, Your Majesty. I thank you for my grandchildren's lives." And she'd bowed very deeply.

Jullia had looked flummoxed by the plural. "Both – yes, that is right, she did have a second babe, didn't she? How fares little Lodia?"

I'd told Lodia this story already. Many, many times. But she still refused to believe it.

"The Queen truly remembered my name?" she pressed. "On her own? 'Twasn't because an adviser whispered it to her?"

"Truly!" Bobo reassured her. "Really truly! And then ssshe said, 'I ssshould like to sssee the girl'."

"But did she really mean it? Maybe she was just being polite."

She's the queen, Lodia. She doesn't need to be polite. If she didn't want to see you, she wouldn't have mentioned you at all.

That made Lodia gulp and twist her hands together.

At the other end of the common room table, Floridiana glanced up from one of Missa's magic texts. "Don't worry, Lodia. The queen is simply curious about her old friend's daughter. Just be yourself and everything will be fine."

Her no-nonsense, schoolmistress-ly tone failed to comfort Lodia. "Be myself? Oh, but I never know the right thing to say – what if I mess up and offend her? What if I trip and fall when I greet her? What if – "

"You'll be fine," Floridiana repeated, closing the book with a great deal more gentleness than she ever used on me. "If you're so worried, why don't we rehearse your greetings? I'll play Queen Jullia."

She moved across the room and sat down in the chair that Lodia kept by the window for embroidering. As soon as the mage's hands touched the armrests, her demeanor changed. Her chin lifted at a haughty angle, her body draped against the chairback, and her eyes went distant, focusing somewhere in the middle distance. The transformation was impressive, but –

That's not how Jullia sits. Ignoring Lodia's gasp at my use of the queen's name without any kind of honorific, I corrected Floridiana. She doesn't lounge.

"Like this?" Floridiana's spine snapped straight, no longer touching the chairback at all.

Better.

"All right. Let's rehearse it, Lodia. Start on the other side of the room, by the stairs – yes, that's good. Now approach me. No, don't cringe. Shoulders back, head up. You're the granddaughter of the Lychee Grove Earth Court's most powerful mage and the daughter of the Queen's old friend. Try it again. Yes, that's better...."

As I watched Floridiana coach Lodia, I congratulated myself on introducing the two. I'd known that the mage would be a better mentor to the awkward teenager than I was, just like how she made a better schoolteacher than I did.

I'd been right to bring her to Lychee Grove.

A/N: Thanks to my awesome Patreon backers, Arif, Autocharth, BananaBobert, Blacklark57, Celia, Charlotte, Hookshyu, Lindsey, Michael, Pizzatiger, TheLunaticCo, and Anonymous!