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The Price of Freedom

Chapter 54

Etienne felt less guilty about leaving the others behind when they were joined by Porter, Captain Shackley, and a handful of armed guards.

With the group had also come a fluffy old maid Etienne recognized from the manor. Her name was Milly, and she sat very quiet beside the fire with everyone, her front covered in dried blood. Her ears were flat and she stared at her feet. Every now and then, Charles reached over and stroked her shoulder.

When Brooke asked Milly what the matter was, one of the guards spoke up instead, explaining that Matson had died back in the tunnel and they'd had to leave him. Milly, who had been very good friends with Matson, had stayed behind instead of hiding just to save him and help him, only to have him bleed out in her arms later. As the guard was speaking, she suddenly began to cry, and Brooke came to her and held her.

"Curse the foxes!" Milly wailed hoarsely, and Brooke held her tighter. "Curse them all!"

The duke questioned Captain Shackley and Porter at length, asking who had survived and what had befallen Howlester. Estica answered dutifully, and Etienne thought her calm and professional compared to Porter, who kept blurting angry details about the battle, using swears, and gesticulating with her paws. The straight-backed captain would glance at her reproachfully, and she would fall silent, only to burst with yet another expletive a minute later.

Etienne was quick to notice the group had their own fox prisoner, a young red male with hateful narrow eyes. He sat in the dirt, at the foot of one of the soldiers with a belt around his neck to keep him docile. It was a makeshift choke chain, and the guard holding it tugged whenever the fox made the slightest move. Ah. So that was how they'd gotten out of the tunnel: the fox would've had magic.

The male fox was careful not to look at Mogethis, who was also careful to keep her eyes on the dirt as she sat bound foot and paw. So they knew each other. Etienne looked at them and silently struggled to make up his mind. It was safest to kill the two. Both had been active participants in the attack on the duchy and both were a danger to the group as they possessed magic. The moment they regained energy and strength, both foxes could attack them and escape. The only alternative was to keep them prisoners - which would put a strain on their food supplies and travel - or to let them go, which would mean allowing them to return to the enemy with knowledge of their movements and plans. Etienne pushed a paw back through his mane and reflected that he hated making such decisions. He hated having the lives of others in his paws. But if he was really going to be king . . . he knew it was something he had better get used to.

"Just can't get rid of you, can I?" Porter said to Mogethis and waved an irritated paw.

Etienne saw Captain Shackley glare at Mogethis as she adjusted the bloody bandage on her arm.

Mogethis looked at the two females with her pitiless eyes and slowly smiled.

Porter looked at Charles. "Why don't you kill her, Mr. Charlie?" she said, jerking her head at the vixen. "And be done with it?"

Charles shook his head in amazement. "Didn't you kill enough foxes at the manor? Good god. Why is everyone rallying for that poor creature's blood?" He waved an exasperated paw at Mogethis.

Captain Shackley shook her head darkly. "It isn't a matter of blood thirst, your grace. Porter and I _saw_her --" her breasts heaved angrily, "-- chasing young maids through the manor, terrorizing them. And for fun."

Mogethis was still smiling when everyone glanced at her. She lifted her chin, unapologetic. "It is no different," she purred, "than the dogs who run through our forests, shooting us down. And for fun."

Captain Shackley's breasts heaved again. "That doesn't make what you did right. Try to justify it all you want, creature. The young girl you tormented had probably never lifted a rifle a day in her life." The captain fell silent and glared at Mogethis, and Etienne was surprised when Mogethis didn't have a retort. The vixen glared back but said nothing.

"Captain," said Charles into the silence, "you seem to have your own prisoner there." He nodded at the male fox, who was still sitting in the dirt with a bloody lip, a belt around his throat, glaring at everyone.

"Not that we want 'im," Porter said with a snort. She waved a paw at the guard who was keeping the fox in custody. "Kesuk there decided he wanted a slave or something."

"No, your grace," said the apparent Kesuk to Charles. Etienne lifted his brows to notice he was a gray and white Malamute breed, from the clans of fluffy sleigh dogs that lived far to the north. "The fox surrendered to me. So I took him."

Captain Shackley nodded approvingly. "There was too much honor in him to conceive of anything else."

Porter rolled her eyes.

"Surrendered?" Mogethis hissed, drawing everyone's gaze. She glared at the male fox, then let loose a string of words in her language.

The male fox glared at her and growled something back.

Charles glanced at Judith, who was sitting quietly on a rock with her chin on her paws.

Judith sniffed. "The female cursed the male and called him an idiot. The male said he surrendered because he was trying to rescue her. He followed her scent down the hall. He was trying to find her . . . He's her brother."

Mogethis glared at Judith. "Very good, nosy dog."

Judith smiled from behind her long veil of black hair. "Thank you."

Charles sighed. "And now we've got to deal with them. We'll make a decision here, now. Before we set out for Athley Manor."

"We can't keep them, Mr. Charlie," Porter sat once. "They've gotta die."

"Oh . . ." said Mogethis, frowning and feigning hurt. Paws bound behind her back, she thrust her breasts out, which were still bare and poking through her torn deerskin dress. Etienne saw many of the guards staring unashamed at her hard nipples as her big breasts jiggled. "And here I thought you liked me, pretty thing. Such passionate kisses we shared . . . such caresses on my breasts . . ."

Captain Shackley tensed, and the guards glanced around and shifted uncomfortably.

". . . shut up," Porter said in a low voice.

"Ain't no shame in that, Porter," laughed one of the guards. Etienne recognized him. He was Floyd Crawley, the mastiff who so famously flunked out of the academy. Etienne had heard mastiffs laughing about him while on post, had seen him a few times himself in the capital. Crawley grinned at Porter. "I'dda popped those titties out myself --"

"Ahem," said Charles with a deep frown, and Crawley muttered an apology and fell silent.

"We could put it to a vote," Myles said, and Etienne knew he was trying to take the weight of the decision off of Charles. He sat leaning forward, knees wide and elbows resting on them as he twirled a broken blade of grass. "Seems only fair. Since whatever happens to them will effect us all."

"Agreed," said Captain Shackley with a firm nod. She looked at Charles. "Your grace?"

"Yes," agreed Charles unhappily, and Etienne knew exactly how he felt, having to make such a decision. "Let's put it to a vote. I vote they go with Etienne to Wychowl."

Everyone stared.

"They can be justly tried there, and executed if the law calls for it," Charles went on. "What's more, Etienne could use them to gain political standing. Either with the foxes or his own. Whichever he decides."

Etienne lifted his brows, surprised by his uncle's astute grasp of the game. If Etienne publicly executed the foxes for their crimes, he would gain the support of his subjects by proving that he did indeed care about protecting dog lives. But if he publicly allowed the foxes to serve a life sentence in prison, he would prove to the foxes attacking his subjects that he cared about their lives too and even sympathized enough not to kill them at the drop of a hat. It could go in his favor however he sliced it. So long as he sliced it carefully.

"I agree with Uncle Charles," Etienne said. "I vote they come with me."

Charles nodded approvingly. He looked at the captain. "Shackley? Porter?"

"They should go with his majesty the prince," Captain Shackley said with a polite nod in Etienne's direction.

Porter didn't even look at Etienne as she said abruptly, "Kill 'em."

"Never thought I'd say this, but Porter has more sense than the lot of you," Milly said derisively. "Kill those creatures. And do it now. Before they conjure fire from the sky --!"

"Milly . . ." Hadly said. She frowned sadly. "You're grieving, you're in shock --"

"Don't tell me what I am!" Milly burst and shoved Brooke off. Her wrinkled face was streaked with tears as she pointed an angry finger at Mogethis. "I saw the fire in the sky! The saw foxes at those gates, cutting down boys I'd known for years without blinking! I say we burn them as they burned those boys!" She dissolved to sobs again, and Brooke stroked her golden-brown mane.

"I vote we kill them," Myles said quietly, and Hadly gasped.

"Explain yourself!" Hadly cried.

Myles laughed softly. "I suppose we know what your vote is."

Hadly glowered. "If we kill them, then we're no better than them."

Myles shook his head. "I didn't think you were that naïve, honey," he said, and Hadly's glower deepened. "By killing them, we insure that they can hurt no one else. Including ourselves. Especially ourselves. And I don't like the idea of sending them off through a portal with the prince. They'll come out in another forest and he'll be isolated there with them."

Etienne blinked and felt stupid for not having thought of that. Hadly stared at her knees, and he knew she felt the same.

"I'll go with his majesty," said Kesuk calmly. He inclined his head to Etienne. "If the prince would have me."

Etienne smiled. "I would. In fact, I'll take about . . . four of you." Four was good. That left more than enough to escort the others to Athley Manor.

"I vote we kill them," Crawley said firmly.

Porter nodded. "You and me on the same page, Crawl? What is the world comin' to, I say."

Crawley chuckled.

Etienne was crestfallen when the other guards also voted that they kill the foxes - all of them except Kesuk, who voted that the foxes should live since both had surrendered. That only left Brooke and Judith, who still had yet to vote.

"The Great Ti'uu believes in mercy and second chances," Judith said calmly.

Mogethis smiled at Judith. "Oh, I like her," she said with a laugh.

Everyone looked at Brooke, who cast her eyes down. "I don't want to vote," she whispered, twisting her fingers.

"Well, too bad!" boomed Crawley. "Fucking vote, girl. A decision has to be made."

Myles slowly frowned, glaring at Crawley. "Hey, you big bitch. If she said she doesn't want to vote, then she doesn't have to vote."

Myles and Crawley glared at each other. Crawley was a huge mastiff and probably could have folded the Dalmatian like parchment, but Myles was hard-faced and unflinching. Etienne thought the cook's anger made him look damn handsome. And apparently, Hadly did too, as she glanced several times at Myles with fluttering lashes.

"Alright, let's bring in the dick measuring contest," Porter muttered under her breath.

"If the girl's not voting," said Crawley loudly, "that means we win. The creatures die."

Brooke frowned. "What? No!"

"They would have died whether you voted or not, Brookie," Myles said to her soothingly. "The guards overthrew the ballot with their almost unanimous decision."

Etienne didn't find it surprising. The guards had just come from a battle where they'd witnessed foxes killing their brothers left and right. That Captain Shackley and Kesuk - who both sat bloody and injured -- were willing to show them mercy said a great deal about them as individuals. Both had cool heads and fair hearts, and looking at the beautiful black captain, Etienne suddenly understood why she was in charge of the manor's guard.

Mogethis and her brother had just been sentenced to death, and both sat staring coldly into the distance. They weren't going to give anyone the satisfaction of their reaction.

Crawley lurched to his feet and put his paw on his sword, his vicious eyes bright and greedy as they looked at the vixen's breasts. "I'll take care of this then."

"So you can take her out into the trees and rape her?" Captain Shackley said at once. "Sit down."

Crawley glared at her but looked at Charles - who was watching him darkly - and sat without a word.

"They will die clean_and _dignified deaths," Captain Shackley said firmly. "They will not be tormented, skinned, or tortured. Kesuk?"

"Yes, Captain?" Kesuk said at once.

"You will execute them. Don't take long."

"Yes, Captain." Kesuk got to his feet, and everyone watched in silence as he went to Mogethis and slung her gently over his shoulder. She hung there, paws and ankles tied, breasts pouring free, as Kesuk grabbed the male fox by the belt around his throat and dragged him up. The male's wrists had also been tied, but his feet were free. Kesuk pulled his sword and made the male walk into the trees with a blade at his back, knowing he would never run and leave his sister to die.

"Well," said Charles unhappily to the fire and his voice cracked, "that's done."

***

They walked for what felt like hours. In reality, it was only ten or so minutes. Kesuk quietly told the fox to halt, and the male obeyed, turning to face the guard with a solemn face. Kesuk's eye passed over him. He was pretty, as all the foxes were pretty, with his red chest bare and his penis flapping behind that thin loincloth. Kesuk set the female on her feet beside her brother, and with her feet tied, she wobbled into male fox and almost fell. Her brother nudged her upright with his shoulder, for a moment betraying emotion as he frowned anxiously.

"Did the dogs hurt you badly?" he whispered to her, though Kesuk could not understand the words.

"Do not worry for me, my brother," Mogethis whispered back and smiled for his benefit.

Kesuk drew his sword and glanced around. It seemed like a good enough spot. But then he asked himself what a good enough spot to die really was. And did it matter? All the forest looked the same.

"On your knees," Kesuk said. "I'll make it quick."

The foxes obeyed. They knelt there, looking up at him, and both were so pretty: the male muscular, chest bare, and fit, his arms tight with muscles and bulging as they were forced behind his back; the female all softness and curves, her big breasts riding with her breathless gasps and hard with pink nipples, her long white mane, her slanted eyes.

The male noticed Kesuk eying his sister and smiled. "You don't have to do this," he said in common tongue.

Kesuk blinked at him, flabbergasted. The male had never spoken a word of common tongue before. Not even when he surrendered. Not even when the other guards grabbed his tail or cupped his sack to taunt him. Kesuk blinked away his desire and shook his head. "No. I do."

"No," said the female. "You don't."

"Let us live," added the male. "We won't return to our clan. We'll disappear into the forest."

Kesuk hesitated. "They'll want proof . . . I can't just . . ."

"Take our bloody clothes," the female said. She dropped her eyes. " . . . and our ears."

The male looked surprised by this development but nodded unhappily in agreement.

Kesuk swallowed hard. "No. I have to kill you . . ."

"We'll suck your dick," the male said flatly.

His sister nodded, her warm blue eyes smiling seductively.

Kesuk's mouth fell open. "If this is a trick --"

"Think about it," pressed the male. "You get your dick sucked. You don't have to kill anyone. We run away. Everyone wins."

"If they find out I didn't kill you . . ."

"They won't find out," the female said firmly. "Unless you tell them."

Kesuk sheathed his weapon. ". . . Alright." He asked himself what he was doing as he unbuttoned his pants. But the truth was, he had been raging in his trousers since first laying eyes on the vixen's great breasts. They were so plump and high, and they jiggled softly with her slightest movement. He looked at them with hungry eyes as his pink erection finally sprang free.

The siblings smiled and shuffled close on their knees. Kesuk watched their pink tongues extend, and then they were licking his hard penis, alternating up and down each side of the shaft. He closed his eyes, letting their tongues curl and explore. One tongue swirled wetly against the head of his erection, while another tongue dragged down his shaft to his sack, and then a hungry mouth was sucking his balls. He reached blindly and found the vixen's soft head, but what he wanted was the belt around the male's throat. After moment's fumbling, he found it, and whispered, "Suck my dick."

The male obeyed, taking Kesuk into his mouth in long, careful sucks that left him moaning. Kesuk pulled on the belt and heard the male choke, but he obediently sucked harder and faster, the sound of his slurping soon rising to the stars.

The sister hadn't stopped sucking Kesuk's sack. He opened his eyes to see her wet tongue curling with finesse to bathe him. She fluttered her lashes prettily, a silent appeal that he not betray them when it was over by killing them anyway. Because he could have easily done so.

"Don't worry, my lady," Kesuk said to the vixen and touched her head again. "I keep my promises . . . Don't stop with your pretty mouth . . . oh, that's good . . ." He looked at the male, who was struggling breathlessly to suck the monstrous thing that was his erection. His shaft was choking the male, throbbing as it was with veins, until his cheeks were mashed up in his eyes and he was crying. Kesuk pulled on the belt again anyway, choking the male as he whispered, "Deeper."

The male obeyed, taking Kesuk's throbbing penis as deeply as he could, until he was gagging on his on overflowing spit. Kesuk dragged the male's mouth off his shaft, pulling on the belt to force him off. The male collapsed gratefully on his back in the grass and lay there panting. The flap of his loincloth fell back, and Kesuk was surprised to see he was rock hard.

"It seems my brother likes you," the female whispered.

Kesuk grabbed her by the neck, forcing her to bend over, facedown. Her round backside was in the air, and he could see the pink lips of her sex, swollen beneath her deerskin dress. He pushed her dress back, smoothing his paws along her plump backside, over her hips, and up to her breasts. He squeezed them and massaged them. And it took him a moment to realize her brother was breathlessly watching him. The male's erection was dripping. . . . and his eyes were hungry.

Kesuk pulled his dagger, and the foxes tensed, but he only cut the vixen's legs free. He knocked her thighs wide apart, and she suddenly fell forward, her cheek hitting the dirt. He ignored her cry of pain and reached around to finger her clit. Her legs trembled and her tail flashed. He pushed it aside and split her buttocks apart, looking at all the tight pinkness between her legs.

They were both so small beside him. He could have flipped them around, done anything. Had he more time, he would have loved to fold the female up and screw her brains out until she screamed. He grabbed her by the tail . . . and sank his enormous shaft though the tight lips of her sex. Her eyes widened as he filled her and a line of drool escaped her mouth. He began to ride, slapping his hips until her buttocks jiggled. With her cheek in the dirt, her breasts flapped from every thrust, and she panted and wheezed, shrilly and weakly.

The male was still lying on his back, penis bare. And looking hungrily at that upright phallus, Kesuk grabbed him by the thigh and dragged him close. The fox cried out as his leg was lifted, and his hips were held aloft . . . like a fish on a hook. Kesuk hefted the fox's ankle higher, bringing his hard penis to his face. And as he rode the gasping female, he closed his mouth on the male and sucked him hungrily, ravenously, grunting and slurping, until the male was flinching and throbbing in his mouth.

Kesuk was very good at oral pleasure and knew it. As the female's juices oozed over his punching shaft, he sucked the male until he was wriggling uncontrollably, his muscular body flexing against a sudden climax. Kesuk sucked him until he came with a helpless cry and sagged, his hips in the air and his muscular leg held high, caught in the grasp of the bigger male. Kesuk let him fall to the dirt, and his hips collapsed again, his penis slapping his thigh.

"Ah . . . Ah . . . ah . . . ah!" shrilled the female. Kesuk hadn't stopped pounding her for a second. Her curvy body tensed, and he saw the deep line of her back tighten as she squirted and came. She sagged beneath him, but he was still hard and on the verge of coming. He pulled free of her with a soft squelch, then grabbed her brother by his thigh and flipped him onto his face. The male sputtered as Kesuk mounted him . . . and drove his hungry erection home between the hard cheeks of his backside.

"A-Ah!"

The female lay on her face in the grass, hindquarters in the air, paws still bound behind her back as she watched her brother taking it under his tail. The male twisted his arms as if he would free them, and Kesuk knew he wanted to escape. He grabbed the male by his bound wrists, and leaning back, he rode him, deep and hard, grunting, growing more aroused and more aggressive with every slam. He humped faster and faster, until he sighed in the fox's ear and squirted hot inside him. The fox moaned as he took it, and when Kesuk climbed off, he lay in the dirt, heaving for breath.

Tired and sagging from the vigorous endeavor, Kesuk panted on his knees as he buttoned his trousers. He pulled the dagger from his back again, and this time, he cut the clothes off the siblings, who lay in the grass, panting and disheveled from his aggressive domination. Then he straddled each sibling's back . . . and cut off one of their ears. They were silent as it happened and didn't even whimper, though he saw the tears in the male's eyes when he wrapped their bloody ears in the tattered clothes he'd taken.

"Now get up," he told them. "And run. Run far. I won't untie your paws. You're free. Run!" He slapped the female on her plump backside and she dragged herself up.

"Come, my brother!" she hissed, the blood running from the severed stump where her ear had been and into her eye.

The male pulled himself up, and Kesuk stepped back, watching as they steadied each other with their shoulders.

"Are you alright?" the female whispered. Kesuk couldn't understand the words, but he could tell by the tone of her voice what she was asking.

The male nodded breathlessly, though he didn't seem alright at all. Blood was running in his eyes from the ear Kesuk had taken. Both of them would be running with paws tied, blinded by blood. It seemed fair. There was always the chance that they were lying, that they would return to their clan and tell their own where the prince was. If they had a clan to return to. Owen's soldiers would have slaughtered the foxes at Howlester by now. Hopefully.

"Run," Kesuk repeated.

The foxes ran.

He stood and watched as they disappeared into the darkness. Then he returned to the camp and showed everyone their bloody clothes and severed ears as proof that they were dead and buried with his own paws. Everyone believed him, and Captain Shackley praised his sense of honor.

Yeah, Kesuk thought, honor. . . .