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."
"Can I come too?" Keilah's voice sounded thin to her own ears. Her Grandmother and Uncle swiveled to look at her.
"You may." Her Baba's eyes flicked over her. "You care about him?"
Keilah's stomach cramped. "A little."
Her Baba came over to her and caressed her chin. "He is handsome and fascinating, but not for you, my kit, not now when you are preparing for the Vixen-Trials. One look at the Prince and you'll forget all about him."
Keilah murmured her agreement even as sudden doubt struck her. Could even a Prince make her forget Dakkoul? She followed her grandmother and her uncle to an open courtyard in the centre of the House. He seated himself on a throne-like chair covered in artic fox fur. Beside his chair was a wooden box. He leant over and got out two camo spiders that he let crawl over his hands.
Baba gave her son an indulgent look while settling herself onto a couch draped with a dull red cloth.
The walls of the courtyard were covered in colorful murals. Keilah stood beside one. A garishly dressed Lady with a huge sword was chopping off the head of a cowering slave. "That Lady looks like mother."
Baba snorted. "It is, my dear."
"But she didn't do that. She couldn't have."
Baba's thick white eyebrow arched. "How much did she tell you of her past? She did all that a Lady must."
Surely a Lady didn't need to kill. The idea was so absurd, Keilah thrust it from her, even as a girl about the age of fifteen appeared, her off-white hair pinned in an elaborate style on her head. Words gushed out of her. "Am I in time for the reckoning? I want to see the Hattavah again. I don't see why you have to keep him so busy Daddy, sending him away on such long trips."
Keilah stepped towards her. "You must be my cousin, Silsa."
Silsa flew towards her with a disarming friendliness, giving her a quick hug around her middle before standing back to assess her. "I'd hate you on sight if it wasn't so dull around here since the shunning. Did the Hattavah really fall in love with you the first time met you? You are so Fox-fair it must be true." She gave a noisy sigh. "Oh if only I looked like you and my nose wasn't so small and ugly and my eyes didn't match."
Lord Rustavan frowned. "You are quite beautiful as you are Silsa. Now shush, he has come."
Dakkoul stomped in. At the expression on his face, fear for him raced up and down Keilah's spine. He spat out, "Where is she? How could you take her while I was at first meal?"
A broad cruel smile stretched across Lord Rustavan's face. "An easy time to take her away without a scene. She's safe enough. She will be escorted to a place you won't find her."
Dakkoul gritted his teeth. "Is she with Tarryn?"
Lord Rustavan let the silence last for a full minute before answering, "Yes, for now."
A quick breath escaped Dakkoul's lips. His shoulders sagged. "When can I see her again?"
"Not before the conclusion of the Vixen Trials." Lord Rustavan pursed his lips. "There is more. I am also giving you a slave, to serve you at all times."
Dakkoul's face scrunched for a moment before smoothing. "I do not want a slave, Master."
"No, but my trust in you has thinned. The slave Malek will restore it." In the silence, Dakkoul's breathing sounded loud. He tucked his head in his chest and was staring at the ground.
"Hattavah," Lord Rustavan chided. "Look at him, Keilah, Silsa."
Keilah was already looking at him, trying to send him support with her eyes but he did not even glance her way. A maid thrust hot sweet tea in her hands and she sipped some although it scalded her tongue.
The smooth tones of Lord Rustavan seemed to boom in the otherwise quiet room. "When he came to me, he was just a raw boy, regretting his first kill. I turned him into the Hattavah. Everywhere he goes he is feared and no one is safe before him." Lord Rustavan put his hands on Dakkoul's shoulders. She saw a glint in Dakkoul's eyes when the hands landed. "I'm proud of what you have become Hattavah." Lord Rustavan let him go. "But you cannot expect me to reward the cat when he brings home the mouse to play with, no matter how desirable she is. When my trust in you is restored, which it will be, you will see your daughter again and that nursemaid of yours. Malek will help you with that."
"By spying on me."
"By reassuring me that you are still my Hattavah." He gave Dakkoul a slap on the arm.
"I am still your Hattavah." Dakkoul faced Lord Rustavan. "Malek is unnecessary."
"You should be pleased. He asked to serve you when he won the Fox Dance. He wants to learn from you, to become the next Hattavah and you will train him as a back-up. I will call him to you now."
A young man entered. There was something in the way he carried his head, in the slight swagger in his steps that made Keilah think he had not been enslaved long. His square chin was covered in dark hairs that although shaved flat looked like they longed to spring out into a beard.
"Here he is, Hattavah, a special gift, to assist you in whatever you require. There's a particular matter he is to help you with," said Lord Rustavan, picking up one of the camo spiders that had tried to shy away from him. "Take off that leather strap you wear."
Dakkoul sucked in his breath and for a moment, his eyes seemed to flick to her. Keilah thought he was going to refuse. Then he slowly took it off, exposing a very scared wrist. Her grandmother waved him towards her and stroked his scars, pausing over one that looked fresh. "This has to stop, Hattavah, it makes you weak."
Dakkoul's eyes were pinned to the ground and his voice lost its strength."I've tried to, but I can't. The Fox demands it."
"The Fox does not care whose blood it is, but I do. If you must spill blood, spill Malek's. And you Malek, he is not allowed to harm himself."
"I understand my Lord." Malek seemed to have shrunk in on himself, his confident air was gone.
"Don't let misplaced guilt or justified anger overwhelm you Hattavah. Express it like I do with Coleus." Lord Rustavan indicated a battered looking slave hunched behind his throne-like chair. "Physical blows cleanse the soul. It is the way of the Fox."
"Wise is the way of the Fox," Dakkoul, Malek, Coleus and even the tea-maid chorused.
"Nevertheless you should only kill under my direction."
Dakkoul raised his head. "Captain Tanaach deserved it. He threatened me."
"Then he deserved it, as you say, for being such a fool. But no more unauthorized deaths, Hattavah. I get complaints."
Dakkoul picked up the black leather strap from the ground and wrapped it back around his wrist. "You have punished me well, master," he said with a ragged edge to his voice. "There is one other matter you must know. The Sheradith has a spy in our household."
"Does she?" Lord Rustavan tilted his head, considering the words. "That is not so surprising. Do what is necessary to uncover them. Hurry now if you want to see your daughter. She might not have yet left, but if she has, you are not to chase after her."
"Yes Master," said Dakkoul, but instead of running out of the door as she expected, he went over to Lord Rustavan. How much taller Dakkoul was. Lord Rustavan held his ground, eying him with an amused expression.
Dakkoul spoke in a razor sharp tone. "If my daughter dies or is harmed, I will no longer serve as your Hattavah. I won't care what you do to me."
Lord Rustavan chuckled. "We shall see, Hattavah."
Dakkoul kept staring, then suddenly dropped his gaze, stepped backwards and left and Keilah felt his absence resound in her heart. How she longed to go after him. Instead she kept sipping her tea.