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Extra Chapter

I Loved You Once

LiAnh walked paw in paw with Mayipa through a patch of white, waist-height flowers. The palace in Miras Eii had a vast garden at its heart. The center of the garden was open to the sky, and a giant statue rose to the clouds, holding a crystal as if in exaltation. The crystal was stone, of course, while the statue itself was a vixen in long robes, the skirts and flared sleeves of which fluttered on a nonexistent breeze, along with her stone mane and ten tails.

"The statue is of Q'akital," Mayipa said pleasantly. She loved to show off her knowledge of fox history. Servants were not generally educated, but Mayipa had not started out a servant. She was from a fallen noble house, which had lost its good name when her father took Kitari's side in the war.

"She was a great explorer in her time and the first to discover the crystals," Mayipa went on. She frowned. "I fear her discovery should have remained a secret. It was for a long time," she said, glancing at LiAnh. "She knew how dangerous the magic was and theorized that it came from Vi'sune. She also believed the crystals were crystallized drops of unicorn blood . . . which hardened over time and grew."

"So crystal magic is unicorn magic," LiAnh said, watching as a blue butterfly drifted by.

"So the stories say," Mayipa answered with a nod. "Unicorns used to live down here with us. The Greater considered them pure beings and exalted them to the sky, gave them wings, and are said to have died up there with them. The unicorns supposedly left traces of their existence in the crystals."

"And that's why foxes are always trying to get to Vi'sune. Because unicorn blood is powerful."

"Yes."

"So . . . they'd what? Kill the unicorns for their blood!"

"I don't know," Mayipa whispered sadly. "The oldest texts in the library say the various doors that open to the gates of Vi'sune must be opened with star power. It's something only ancient Greater Foxes can harness. All the Greater are gone . . . so it would take someone with tremendous strength . . ."

A shemale could open them, LiAnh thought. He glanced at Mayipa, who was gazing off thoughtfully. It was odd to hear all this history coming from his wife, who hated books because she had been forced to study nonstop as a child. But Mayipa loved to show off her knowledge. She also loved to hear herself talk.

"I wonder why they would have left blood behind like that," LiAnh said at length. He happily swung Mayipa's paw, and she smiled. "Old Nitica only lets you in the back section of the library. Surely you would know."

Mayipa lifted her chin proudly. "Because Old Nitica loves me. I am the daughter he never had! But that information . . . it's in the book Nizhoni stole. She's in the dungeon. Why don't you ask her?"

LiAnh looked off, choosing to ignore the scathing tone in Mayipa's voice. Nizhoni had returned to Miras Eii a week ago, and LiAnh had gone to see her at once, inciting instant jealousy in his wife, who believed LiAnh still loved her. LiAnh swallowed hard. Maybe he did.

It was widely known throughout the kingdom that Nizhoni had killed foxes in order to escape the queen during the very conveniently timed "uprising" of the frost wolves. The trees that stood along the wall "saw" her kill the foxes who pursued her and reported every detail to the foxes of Miras Eii. LiAnh was surprised when, instead of calling for revenge, the council decided they wanted Nizhoni captured alive. The _moment_she returned, she was to be arrested. And she was.

LiAnh remembered standing to the side with Mayipa as the guards marched Nizhoni away. Her wrists were shackled behind her back and her head was down. She didn't dare look at anyone. The council members then spent several hours interrogating Nizhoni, and when they decided she was useless, it was announced that Nizhoni was going to be executed at the end of the week. LiAnh had then gone to see her.

And he was shocked with what he found. Nizhoni had been whipped across her back. Whipped for information. Any information. When he came to her, she was curled up and crying and wouldn't look at him. He reached through the bars to touch her mane, but she scrambled back and sat against the wall. Her lips were trembling and her eye was swollen and purple where they punched her. "Don't look at me," she whispered. He told her he couldn't bear to see her that way . . . all the blood on the floor of the cell. No one had dressed her lashes.

Nizhoni begged for his help and LiAnh agreed to try to help her. He then returned to the palace, where Mayipa seemed to be laboring under the delusion that he and Nizhoni had kissed or touched through the bars. He rolled his eyes.

"Is your sister doing anything to stop the execution?" Mayipa said grudgingly. She had waited a long time for LiAnh to respond to her anger, but he had learned long ago to just ignore her whenever she complained about Nizhoni.

"Wynn?" LiAnh avoided Mayipa's eye: in an attempt to aid him, Wynn had given him the book Nizhoni stole. The information he needed wasn't in it either.

"Yes, her highness Wynonna. The queen who sits back munching caviar as we suffer."

LiAnh scowled.

Mayipa didn't seem to understand it (which was incredible given that she was thousands of years old in a sixteen-year-old body), but Wynn and Sylas were as much prisoners in their own court as Nizhoni. They didn't have any real power. They pretended to be oblivious in public while working in private to make real changes: Wynn had been in contact with Aayan and had started an underground movement to get the foxes out of Miras Eii.

The council didn't want anyone going anywhere. Convinced the corruption was a lie, they were content to remain in Miras Eii until it collapsed around their fat heads - so long as they maintained the power of the crystals. Already, foxes were out on the ice trying to grow the crystals back. In the last sixteen years, the frost wolves taught the foxes everything they knew about caring for the crystals. They also began to venture out, take mates, and bring them home. More the fools they for trusting the foxes. LiAnh sighed: not that he had been so smart.

"Wynn is looking into it," LiAnh said, clearing his throat. He frowned. "And back off my sister. She's doing the best she can in this fucked up system of yours." _Not that the council system back home is any different. . . ._Wynn had tried to warn LiAnh about the politics in Miras Eii. He should have listened. But where could he have gone? He didn't want to be chief. Maybe he could have exiled to the sun village . . . he would have been with Roan.

Mayipa snatched her paw free of LiAnh's and folded her arms. "Bet you regret coming here now, don't you? You regret becoming a fox for the sake of Nizhoni's loose, dry pussy?"

LiAnh halted and glared at her. They were under a white tree with shimmering blue leaves. More white flowers rose to brush their tails and hips. In a nearby pond, a frog ribbited and leapt into the water with a soft splash, scattering the goldfish.

"I didn't become a fox for Nizhoni," LiAnh said, startling his wife. He went to a stone bench and sat down. Mayipa sat with him. Only feet away, foxes were strolling at their leisure through the gardens, rich nobles clad in rich robes with naked servants bearing platters of wine and long, thin golden pipes.

Mayipa placed her paws on her knees and regarded LiAnh curiously. Her ears were pricked forward in her red mane. ". . . then why come here? To be with your sister?"

LiAnh sighed heavily and pushed a tired paw back through his mane. "I told you about Ehawae."

Mayipa nodded sadly. "Yes."

"I came here running from her. Running from the memory of her."

"Did it work?"

LiAnh shook his head. "No. Nizhoni reminded me of Ehawae too much. Only . . . Ehawae loved to laugh. Her name meant something like that - 'she who laughs.'" He glanced at Mayipa happily as he thought of his first wife.

Mayipa frowned and smoothed her paw over LiAnh's. "I can't imagine how it feels to lose someone like that. I lost my father . . . but that's a different sort of loss."

LiAnh laughed dryly. "Your father's not dead, Mayipa. At least, he's likely alive."

Rather than face execution for his crimes against the crown, Mayipa's father went into exile, along with all his war buddies. He abandoned his wife and daughter to save his own neck and didn't even bother to take them with him. LiAnh knew Mayipa's anger had festered over the years. He knew what it was like to be bitter, so he tried to help her - even as she tried to help him grieve Ehawae.

Mayipa dropped her cheek on LiAnh's shoulder. He took her paw. They watched as the flowers swayed in the breeze, as the water trickled from the nearby fountain.

". . . purple dye in his mane!" said a vixen standing nearby with a group of other snooty nobles. They were all holding glasses of wine while a young female servant stood ready with a pitcher on a tray. They all laughed at the joke. One noble lifted his empty glass, and as the servant stepped forward to fill it, he mischievously smacked her backside and she squealed. More laughter.

"Finish what you were telling me about these unicorns," LiAnh said, rubbing his thumb over Mayipa's paw.

Mayipa made a face. "Why? It's all children's stories and fairy tales anyway. There are no Greater and there are no unicorns. Foxes have the only true power in this world - crystal power!"

"Then how do the crystals work? I mean, how long will it take for them to grow back?"

"To fully grow back? Decades. To grow big enough for us to harness their power? Months. If they don't grow back, you'll become a wolf again. It was crystal power that made you a fox."

"I don't care if I become a wolf again."

Mayipa was silent.

". . . do you care?"

"No," she whispered.

A lie. A damn lie. LiAnh was fully aware that Mayipa could only love him if he was a fox. Like most of the foxes in Miras Eii, she didn't think much of wolves. They were considered lower beings . . . unless they were shemale. Then they were higher beings. LiAnh was still trying to figure that one out.

"I need to be alone," LiAnh said after a while.

Mayipa looked at him anxiously. "Not because of . . . I meant what I said! I could love you if you were a wolf, LiAnh." She rubbed his chest, frowning at him sadly. "You believe me . . . don't you, honey?"

LiAnh didn't answer. He kissed her cheek. "I'll see you at supper." He glanced at the sky: the bright blue day was fading to dusk. It was almost time for supper in the grand palace. Wynn would be coming down the great stairs with Sylas on her arm, smiling at the servants who stood either side the hall with candles to guide her.

It was something of an event when the king and queen attended supper in the dinning hall. Wynn and Sylas were apt to order their meals straight from the kitchen and take them in their room - where they preferred to eat in the content of each other's company rather than with the council.

Tonight, however, Wynn and Sylas decided to make a grand gesture by attending a pleasant supper with the council - not just to keep up appearances that they were the oblivious boobs and figureheads of the kingdom, but also to give LiAnh a chance. A chance to see Nizhoni again uninterrupted.

"Alright . . ." Mayipa said sadly. Still watching LiAnh anxiously, she smoothed her little paw over his chest a last time, then rose from the bench and left the garden.

LiAnh didn't rise immediately - it would be too suspicious. Instead, he sat watching as Mayipa made her way back into the palace, then sat watching the nobles who passed arm in arm under the arched promenade, which was draped in vines. A serving girl brought him a wineglass and he took it, sipping and sitting for a long time. Eventually, he left. Not for the palace but for the dungeon.

The dungeons were clear across the kingdom from the palace, in an isolated, remote place on a hill surrounded by a lake. Fortunately, LiAnh knew about the secret sliding door that acted like a portal. The foxes called the dungeon Tornvall, and the only way to Tornvall was through the portal - or an hour's journey across the lake. The door was underneath the palace, and only the ruling king, queen, and council elders had keys. Wynn had given LiAnh her key. He used the key now and stepped through the portal.

The guards on the other side were in a small room that branched off the hall, cursing over a game of cards when LiAnh appeared. They snapped to their feet, then realizing who it was, went back to their game. They said not a word when he turned without explanation or greeting down the corridor of cells. Nizhoni's cell was at the end and had a small window that looked out over the lake.

Nizhoni sat up as LiAnh came to her. She hurried to the bars and clutched them. "What did you find out?"

"Damn Nitica wouldn't let me in the back section, and Mayipa couldn't tell me much," LiAnh said apologetically. "She only knew some theories about the crystals being crystallized unicorn blood."

Nizhoni blinked. "What did you say!"

". . . unicorn blood?" LiAnh repeated uncertainly. "What?" he said when Nizhoni took a shocked step back.

Nizhoni looked at LiAnh, her lips trembling. "You have to do something for me," she said. "Are you listening?"

"Ears pert and everything."

Nizhoni smiled at the teasing, and somehow, LiAnh knew she had missed it.

"I know who can help us," she said. "But I can't get to him in here. You have to tell Aayan to go to the Island of Iszel and ask the Greater to let him see King Eyrrothaz."

LiAnh studied her, confused. "King Aero-what? Who is that?"

"He can stop the crystals from growing back! Or he can tell you how. They will not be able to make the corruption worse if the crystals won't grow. Did you learn anything from the book?"

LiAnh shook his head. "Wynn gave it to me, but it wasn't much help. It just talked about the Gates of Vi'sune and how to use star power to open them. And it was called The Gates of Vi'sune. Fancy that shit."

Nizhoni laughed, her voice a girlish giggle. LiAnh's ears pricked forward: he had missed that laugh. He looked at her and hated to see her black eye. He wanted to reach out, to heal her . . . but he realized with a sad laugh that she wouldn't need his help if the crystals hadn't been destroyed: she could heal herself then.

"Is that where you've been all this time?" LiAnh said. "With King Arrow?" He couldn't understand it when her eyes flickered guilt. Then he realized . . . she had slept with him! LiAnh looked away, trying to keep his face from creasing in a scowl. "Why didn't you ask him for help before?" he said lightly, casually.

"I didn't know the crystals were made of unicorn blood. If the crystals are connected to the unicorns, then maybe they can help us."

Or maybe they don't want to, LiAnh thought darkly. Maybe their blood was left behind for a reason. A bad reason. LiAnh looked off with a frown. He would not put it past the foxes to have once attacked and slaughtered the unicorns. Pools of unicorn blood turning to crystals . . . crystals that eventually corrupted due to Kitari's dark magic.

"Will you remember to tell Wynn?" Nizhoni said, cutting through his thoughts. She clutched the bars, peering out at him with her good eye. "Tell Wynn so she can tell Aayan: King Eyrrothaz. At the Island of Iszel. The Greater might let Aayan through. He's a fox . . . but a different sort. He is cursed. And shemale blood runs in his veins. The Greater will sense it."

LiAnh didn't answer. He was looking not at her but at one of the torches in their wall sconces. His arms were folded. And he looked hurt.

"Oh, LiAnh," Nizhoni said heavily. "I wouldn't have slept with him, except Tala put me in that damn position --"

"Don't blame Tala for this," LiAnh said at once and waved a paw. "You put yourself right where you are, Nizhoni! When you worked with Wynn's conspirators! When you _fucked_my nephew and had his child!"

Nizhoni winced. "I'm sorry," she whispered in a small voice. "I thought I was protecting you . . ."

LiAnh's lip curled. "By offering my nephew's child as a political sacrifice?" He shook his head. "You didn't have faith in my sister. You didn't believe Wynn was politically savvy enough to outwit the council and protect her own! So you took matters into your own paws - and look what happened!"

Nizhoni clutched the bars and sadly dropped her forehead against them. Her white mane tumbled forward.

"And Wynn has proved you wrong, hasn't see?" LiAnh went on, almost triumphantly. "She was clever enough to figure out what you were up to, clever enough to find out about the child - she even found Aayan! They are now working together to move foxes out of the kingdom. After everything with the frost wolves, more are willing to believe the corruption is real - or that the crystals simply won't grow back. My sister saw every frost wolf buried. They were going to burn them - she ran out and stopped it just in time. And at this very moment, she is distracting the council so I can be here, talking to you."

"She did everything right and I did everything wrong," Nizhoni said miserably. "I get it, Li."

His rant finished, LiAnh's nostrils flared. "I loved you, Nizhoni. I never thought we'd be here, standing like this."

"I knew," Nizhoni whispered to the floor.

"What?"

"I knew things would fall apart. You shouldn't have married so soon. You were still mourning . . . You kept comparing me to Ehawae. I was never good enough. I was never her . . ."

"That's not true."

"It is." She looked at LiAnh sadly. "How can you love someone who doesn't even see who you really are? You never saw me. You saw Ehawae. You saw the one you lost and tried to resurrect her in me."

They fell silent and both of them stared at the floor. After a long pause, LiAnh whispered, "I'm sorry."

Nizhoni's ears flattened and a tear escaped over her cheek. LiAnh frowned. He reached through the bars and wiped her tear away with his thumb. She closed her eyes and tilted her head, and he caressed her cheek.

"Will you kiss me goodbye?" she whispered. "Before you go? Tonight might be my last night . . ."

"No."

Nizhoni nodded sadly, as if she had expected as much.

"I came to set you free."

Nizhoni looked up quickly.

"You can go back to this King Arrowhead and tell him yourself --"

"LiAnh," Nizhoni said happily and closed her paw over his.

He frowned. "I couldn't kiss you, though. It's too painful."

Nizhoni nodded. She closed her paw over his tighter. "It won't work with Mayipa, you know."

LiAnh grinned. "I know. But I like a warm, young body in my bed. And someone to suck my dick on occasion."

Nizhoni laughed. "That's about all Mayipa is good for."

They smiled at each other.

"I missed you," LiAnh said abruptly.

Nizhoni's lashes fluttered. Before she could answer, LiAnh called over one of the guards. Jingling with keys, he tromped up the long corridor - and LiAnh grabbed him, smacking his forehead lightning-quick against the cell. It was done so swiftly and so silently that the other guard at the end of the hall heard not a sound. LiAnh took the keys off him, jerked the right one free of the ring, and passed it to Nizhoni. He also passed her the golden key that opened the portal door.

"They'll change shifts for this floor because that bozo got hurt. I'll say you did it," LiAnh said with a half-smile, and Nizhoni laughed. "When they've gone upstairs, unlock your cell with the black key and use the gold one to leave the island. You'll still be in the kingdom, but I trust you can get out on your own."

"What will you do?"

"I've gotta take the long way back now. No portals for me. Wynn's got a boat waiting on the far side of the island, down in the reeds."

Nizhoni's eyes widened. "You planned this out . . . all of it. I wish I could thank the queen to her face."

"Wynn never wants to see you again," LiAnh said with a laugh. "She's pretty damn angry. She knows where the kid is, by the way."

Nizhoni bowed her head. "Good.

"And, Zhoni?"

"Yes?"

"If you see Aayan, you should know he's . . . moved on."

Nizhoni looked away. "Good to know - I mean, good for him," she said with difficulty, and LiAnh could tell she was trying to hide her hurt and disappointment. He surprised them both when took her paw, and lifting it through the bars, he kissed it.

"Goodbye, Zhoni."

Nizhoni smiled at him fondly. "Goodbye, Li."

LiAnh nodded and turned away up the corridor. "Yo!" he shouted to the other guard at the end. "Your friend got his head bashed in! She grabbed him by the neck and yanked him. You'd best take him upstairs to the barracks."

Nizhoni heard a chair scrape and scrambling as the other guard hurried down the hall to her cell. She backed away from the bars as he halted, glaring at her.

"The council will hear about this!" he snarled, slinging his unconscious friend's arm around his shoulders. "They will hear and you will scream for mercy as you are whipped!" He then started away up the corridor - at such a slow crawl that Nizhoni knew it was giving LiAnh plenty of time to leave the dungeon through the regular door, then creep out to the reeds on the edge of the lake and take his boat across.

The guard cursed when his friend slipped from his grasp and fell in a heap. "You will scream!" he shouted back to Nizhoni.

Nizhoni opened her paw and smiled at the little keys. Not tonight.