In the City of Cats

Part 03

	Sabia's visit spoiled the mood of the rest of the evening.  They managed to get through the rest of the marriage ceremony with something approaching the right sort of dignity, which was more than Ciara expected after the upset.  Afterward, a few of the rabbits stayed for the reception dinner, but memories of the war were still too fresh and most of them slipped away before the sky was dark.  Ciara didn't really blame them.  Her first impulse had been to run for home as well, and she'd only stayed because her love for Niamh was stronger than her fear of Sabia.  The band they'd hired slipped away with the rest of the crowd so she and Niamh danced, alone, to Fiachra's flute.  That he had stayed with them was as great a comfort to her as the feel of Niamh's arms around her.
	“Not quite the evening I had in mind,” Ciara said.
	“That's not your fault.  But it was kind of exciting, wasn't it?” Niamh said.
	“I wanted you to be happy and to start our new lives free of fear and doubt,” Ciara said.
	“I have you.  That's all that matters,” Niamh said.
	It was a warm evening, with a full moon overhead and the smell of flowers in the air.  Crickets sang in the tall grass outside the Rabbit Wall and their chirruping mixed pleasantly with the sound of the flute.  While they danced, Deirdre sat at one of the nearby tables with a magnum of wine clutched in her hands.  In spite of all her promises, she was well on her way to being drunk.  Ciara didn't like it, but it was hard to begrudge Deirdre her only defense against the world at a time like this.
	The whirl of their dance carried them past the place where Fiachra sat.  He had said much since Sabia's visit.  While Deirdre had reacted with her usual anger, Fiachra had withdrawn into himself in a way Ciara wouldn't have expected only a year ago.  That worried her more than anything her mother might do.  Fiachra was a sweet boy, but he took his responsibility for his family a bit too seriously for his own good.  He looked up as the last song ended and he gave Ciara a shy smile.
	“So now you're my little sister, too,” he said.
	“Lucky you,” Ciara said.
	“I'm glad.  I knew you were trouble the moment Niamh brought you home.  A fox in Oseille?  Ten years ago I'd have said no good could ever come of it.  But I know there's nobody in the world who can look after my sister like you can,” Fiachra said.
	“I hope that's true.  I haven't done a wonderful job of it so far,” Ciara said.
	“You were ready to fight the whole world to keep us safe.  You don't come across that kind of devotion every day,” Fiachra said.
	They sat down on either side of him and he took their hands in his own.  Ciara could feel him trembling a little still, though she didn't let on, to spare his pride.  Fiachra was brave, there was no question about that.  He'd followed them all the way to Blackpool without once looking back, then stayed behind to help Deirdre when she'd been trapped there.  Ciara knew he prided himself on being the one who kept his family together and he did a good job of it, too.  If he had a fault it was that he thought too much.  He let things get the better of him, and Ciara was afraid tonight had stretched him beyond what he could handle.
	“Nothing's going to happen,” she said.
	“You know better.  Sabia's up to something.  She's got it all planned out and we're not going to find out what she has in mind until she wants us to,” Deirdre said.
	Deirdre was unsteady on her feet as she walked over to them, and her hair was a mess.  It hurt Ciara to see her mother like that.  Deirdre had abandoned what was left her vanity some time ago, but she still took care of herself, for the most part.  It was only when she was drunk that Deirdre let the last of her standards slip, and Ciara knew she hated herself for it when she was sober.
	“We could be in a lot of trouble here,” Deirdre said.
	“You're loads of help,” Niamh said.
	“I'm just being realistic.  You know what she's like.  Did I mention that our Lady Sabia came in from the south?  Whatever she was doing, she wasn't just here to crash your party,” Deirdre said.
	“I think you forgot that little detail.  You were too eager to play with your old toys again,” Niamh said.
	Deirdre gave Niamh an uncertain look.  Ciara knew that her mother had never quite been able to figure Niamh out.  The young rabbit was quiet and rather shy, and she was afraid of most foxes, but she treated Deirdre with a familiarity that bordered on contempt.
	“Old habits die hard,” Ciara said.
	She saw Deirdre's ears go flat but, fortunately, she was the only one.  Deirdre had suffered enough embarrassment for one day.
	“It doesn't matter anyway.  We'll find out what the old bitch has in mind sooner than any of us want.  In the meantime, it's getting late.  Time for all of us to get some sleep,” Deirdre said.
	She gave Ciara a kiss on the cheek and, after only a moment's hesitation, she did the same for Niamh.
	“I know you don't like me much, but thank you for looking after my little girl all these years.  Everyone says how good she is, but I know she'd have been in real trouble without you,” Deirdre said.
	Niamh's blush was visible even in the dying light of the torches and Deirdre strutted off with a smile on her face.  Fiachra scrambled after her and held out his hand for her to take.
	“Oseille looks very different after dark.  Let me take you back to your lodgings,” he said.
	Deirdre started at him for a long moment, then she laughed and took his hand.
	“Very well.  I may just need your help talking Killian into letting me back up to my room, too.  He'll have gone to bed with his whiskey now, and he's even more stubborn when he's drunk,” she said.
	They vanished in the gloom, leaving Ciara and Niamh by themselves.  Most of the torches in the Market Square had burned themselves out and it was getting close to midnight.  Niamh yawned and put her head on Ciara's shoulder, but Ciara felt wide awake.
	“I think Sabia's lonely,” Ciara said.
	“That's her fault, isn't it?” Niamh said.
	“Is it?  I wonder if anyone but Alana has ever tried to love her.  If my father hadn't had Fithir, and Deirdre, would he have ended up where Sabia is?” Ciara said.
	“Your father was a decent person.  He didn't go around picking fights with everyone,” Niamh said.
	“He didn't go out of his way to avoid them, either.”
	“He thought he was doing what he had to.  Sabia just does what she wants.”
	“I wish I could be sure of that,” Ciara said.
	Niamh silenced her with a kiss.
	“Don't think about it anymore,” she said.
	Ciara returned Niamh's kiss and she felt the girl melt a little in her arms.  Rebuilding the city had kept them so busy they hadn't had much time to be alone together.  It had been better than three months since they'd made love.
	“Let's go to bed, bunny,” Ciara said.

	Ciara woke late the next morning with the sun shining in through her bedroom window and birds singing in the trees.  Niamh was still asleep beside her.  She'd kept the poor girl up much too late last night, though it had been Niamh's idea to go in for a tie-breaker.  The girl had always had a peculiar sort of competitive streak that way.  Ciara found her glasses on the bedside table and ran her fingers through her hair.  It was quite long now and hung all the way down to her butt, which made her mother grumble.  Most mornings she spent at least a half an hour getting the tangles out.  Today was her day off, though, and she was damned if she'd spent a single moment on vanity if she didn't have to.  Nobody was going to see her but Niamh, anyway.
	She shut the bedroom door and crept upstairs to find something to eat.  She couldn't have put into words why she felt it was necessary to be so quiet.  Rabbit houses were the best in Viridis, so that even some foxes in Cearnach hired rabbits to build houses for them.  Her house was brand new and there wasn't so much as a squeaky floorboard anywhere inside.  Still, there was something odd about the feel of the air this morning, which made her hackles rise and her ears lay flat.
	Her new kitchen was twice the size of her old one.  It was an extravagance she had insisted on, at the expense of a guest bedroom.  As fond of her as some of them might be, no rabbit but Niamh was ever going to want to stay the night in a house where a fox lived.  She'd put the table square in the middle of the room, with large, comfortable chairs all around it.  Deirdre sat in one of these chairs now, and she smiled when she saw Ciara frown.
	“You left the door unlocked,” Deirdre said.
	“It's not usually a problem.  The rabbits leave me alone, and everyone on the island knows whose daughter I am, now.  I wish you'd ask before you come waltzing in, just once,” Ciara said.
	“If it was just for my sake, I wouldn't have dreamed of disturbing you today.  You and Niamh deserve some time to enjoy each other,” Deirdre said.
	“But?” Ciara said.
	“You have a visitor.  She'll be in in just a moment, so you might want to go back downstairs and put on some clothes,” Deirdre said.
	The door to the upstairs bathroom opened on Deirdre's last word, and Fithir stepped into the kitchen.  Ciara was startled to see that Fithir was dressed in a suit of light leather armor and that she had a sword strapped to her hip.  The Queen of Cearnach was normally a sweet and rather shy vixen, to the point that it was hard to imagine her fighting anyone.  This morning, though, she looked as dangerous as Deirdre ever had, and the dark look on her face didn't help that impression.  The fur around Fithir's eyes was damp with tears and her ears were laid flat, but she smiled when she saw Ciara.
	“I am sorry to come in on you unannounced like this.  Your mother said you'd be awake by now,” Fithir said.
	“Why didn't you send a runner ahead?  You're welcome to anything in the house, but I'm afraid you've caught me quite unprepared.  I don't even have breakfast ready,” Ciara said.
	She started to curtsey to Fithir, even though she knew it was something that always embarrassed the elder vixen, and Deirdre grabbed her arm to stop her.  That was when Ciara remembered she was still stark naked.  She turned and ran for the stairs, where she collided with Niamh who had just reached the top.  The girl must not have heard them talking, because she wasn't much better dressed than Ciara, though she'd thought to bring the blanket with her.  Niamh blushed when she spotted Fithir, and she wrapped the blanket around both of them.
	“All this fuss, and before we've had breakfast, too.  It's very bad for you, my dear,” Niamh said.
	She smiled politely at Fithir, but she didn't curtsey as Ciara had.  Rabbits had done without kings and queens for almost as long as there had been foxes on the island, and they never bowed to anyone.
	“I meant to come to see you yesterday, for your wedding.  It's rude of me to come to you now, like this,” Fithir said.
	“You're welcome here any time.  I wouldn't have sent you an invitation if you weren't,” Ciara said  “But I know how busy you must be, and—”
	“It's Sabia,” Fithir said.
	Deirdre punched the wall next to the stove.  Niamh slipped her arms around Ciara's waist under the blanket and pressed her muzzled against Ciara's neck.
	“She dropped by last night.  On her way back north,” Ciara said.
	“She stopped here?  Of course she did.  If I'd just pushed on another hour!” Fithir said.
	“What did she do?” Niamh said.
	Fithir stood and turned away from them with her head bowed.  She didn't make a sound but Ciara knew from the way her shoulders shook that Fithir was crying.
	“Sabia has kidnapped my daughter,” Fithir said.
	Ciara felt suddenly sick and dizzy with anger, so much so that Niamh had to put both arms around her to hold her up.  Deirdre went over at once to take Fithir in her arms.  Fithir sobbed and buried her face against Deirdre's chest, where she stayed for a long time before she could speak again.
	“My Brigit.  She was Connor's last gift to me.  We lost so many children I didn't expect her to live, but she did,” Fithir said.
	“I should have guessed what happened when Sabia gave me the statue.  But I never dreamed she'd actually have the nerve to take my sister,” Ciara said.
	The child had been born nine months after Connor's death, and had come as a surprise to everyone but her mother.  She was, Ciara knew, the joy of nearly every fox on the island, and where the rest of Fithir's children had been sickly and weak, Brigit had her father's strength.
	When Fithir looked up the anger in her eyes made Ciara gasp.  It was a mistake to think that because Fithir wasn't a soldier she was soft.  She was the Queen of Cearnach and she was more dangerous than anyone Ciara had ever known.
	“I didn't wish to stop last night.  But how would it look for me to come to Oseille unannounced and in the middle of the night, dressed like this?” Fithir said.
	“We'll help you get Brigit back.  If we leave right now maybe we could catch up to Sabia before she reaches her city,” Niamh said.
	Fithir's ears drooped and she sobbed again.
	“It shames me to ask you for help after everything you girls have done.  If it hadn't been for you--”
	“I want to help.  What kind of sister would I be if I didn't?” Ciara said.
	“I'm going, too,” Deirdre said.
	Ciara was surprised at the fury in Deirdre's voice.  Her mother's ears were flat against her head, and Deirdre's hands were clenched in fists so tight they were trembling.
	“It's kind of you to offer, but I couldn't ask you to risk your life for a child who isn't even kin to you,” Fithir said.
	“She's Connor's daughter.  You know that's enough,” Deirdre said.
	Fithir hesitated.  Then she kissed Deirdre on both cheeks.
	“Connor never stopped loving you, you know.  I can't think of anything that would have made him happier than knowing she had your help,” Fithir said.
	Deirdre's ears colored with embarrassment and she gave Fithir a little smile.
	“I'm doing this for you, too.  I owe you something for all you've done for my daughter,” Deirdre said.