Alexius: The Ride

"Oh yes," said Harri, serenely. "But actually - for all they pretend to be indifferent toone another, I think Wolf will miss Father almost as much as I will."

She caressed his head gently.

"But I know we're going to have a perfectly splendid time!" she assured Alexius. "Where do you think we shall ride today?"

Alexius chuckles. "I am not sure, its up to the Twins, I think, this time." he says, turning to start to walk toward the stables with her and Wolf.

"I would guess we are going to avoid Arden, at a first approximation." He grinned. "Which suggests that we are going to go riding east, with the city bearing to our right.

"Plenty of nice country out there to ride in. Out along that way if you go far enough are holdings like the Bayles.

---

"Okay, okay! I think they went that way." Cori started down the hall she'd seen Wolf and Harri take.

She found them quickly enough, heading down the stables, Harri with Wolf at her side, Alexius next to her, a tied up parcel of food in his hands.

Crispin looked much cheered when he came upon them, the quiet resent completely gone. If Alexius didn't know better, he would think that the breakfast conversation had never happened.

"Well? Come on! Stables are this way, Harri. Did you bring a horse?"

"Of course!" returned Harri, as indignant as if Crispin had asked her if she had brought her underwear.

"Silkthain is used to Wolf though," she added thoughtfully. "Your horses might prove a little more skittish, you know."

"We'll think of something. A spell or something. Besides, Wolf wouldn't deliberately frighten them. Would you, Wolf?"

Cori held Wolf's gaze for a moment.

"Perhaps if we have Harri ride as an outlier, and Wolf on her side, and avoid Wolf from being too close to the other horses?" Alexius offered

He, too, looked at Wolf.

Wolf's ears pricked up as the Girl mentioned magic and he stared at her. He tossed his head, looking for all the world as if his fun were to be spoiled, as he loped along next to Cub. Fine then, he wouldn't tease the beasts. But it wouldn't be upon him if they took offense at his scent.

"They'll get used to you in time, Wolf. But they wouldn't be frightened of you if you weren't so magnificent," Cori said.

Crispin gave his sister a strange, but said nothing. "Come on-- Stables are this way, Harri. And if anyone asks, we're just taking a tour of the Marshes..."



Indeed, the hands were more than happy to bring Harri her horse, rather than her and Wolf going in to retrieve it. The dew was still fresh on the grass as they set out to the Marshes, Crispin keeping a careful eye on the castle behind them.

"Once we hit woodline we can turn south," he said.

Wolf whuffed at the Girl's complement, obviously pleased. He trotted alongside Cub to the stables, and stayed with her while the mounts were brought. Once the children started to ride, he loped alongside Cub's mount at a comfortable pace, avoiding the hooves of the other horses.

Harri rode with the ease of one who spent a good third of her life in the saddle. She kept a sharp watch of the countryside too - and twice pointed out plants that also grew in New Avalon, thanks to a long ago Nameday gift from Alexius. Being a stranger, she was quite happy to let the others take the lead, although she called out eventually, "Can we stop at some point and let Wolf hunt? There are rabbit warrens here - and he'd enjoy something to eat that wasn't too heavy."

"Just where *are* we headed, Crispin?" Alexius asked just after Harri's question.

"If the Marshes are our cover story?" A sinking feeling began to grow in his stomach.

Cori, who as usual was bringing up the rear, said, "Where do you *think* we're going, Alexius?"

Crispin brought his horse up to Alexius's other side, leaning over enough to give him a little, playful shove. "Not scared, are you?"

Harri looked at them all a little concerned. She was not frightened - after all, she had Wolf - but she was certainly struck by Crispin's tone. It was a challenge - only she was unsure why Alexius was being challenged - and what the nature of the challenge was.

"Frightened for myself, no." Alexius protested. "But I don't want to get Harri in danger." he blurted out, and then his light blue cheeks flushed as soon as he said it.

He then looked at Cori. "If I had a guess, it would be back to a certain Uncle's estate."

Cori nodded. "There's nothing to be scared of, though," she said to Harri. "It's just a place, and there's no one there. It's one thing to tell scary stories at night about it, but it's not really like that."

She shot a Look at her brother in the vain hope that he'd stop making trouble before Harri and Alexius decided to turn around and go home.

Crispin pushed his horse ahead a few paces, then did a fancy turn in the saddle so that he faced all of them. "Look," he said, suddenly the picture of cool and collected reason. "Uncle Brand's been dead for aeons. His magics are all frayed down to nothing. All that's left is some wicked cool weapons, some books, and some exeriements that probably stopped being dangerous a decade ago.

"Besides," he pointed out to Alexius. "If it was so dangerous, wouldn't your father have torn it down? He is king."

"I'm not scared," said Harri firmly. She wasn't sure who she was crosser with - Alexius for wanting to protect her whether she wanted it or not, or Cori for thinking it necessary to explain it wasn't really dangerous.

"Wolf and I have stood alone together against the Wyrr," she added.

"But I think you're wrong about the magics," she said thoughtfully. "Cori told me about the apple last night. That suggests there is some power there still."

"Faded," said Cori firmly. She looked at Alexius to see how he was taking all this.

"Perhaps" Alexius ventured. "On the other hand, Uncle Brand was probably, no offense to Uncle Bleys or Aunt Fiona, the most powerful sorcerer among our family."

"Albeit" Alexius adds. "far from the wisest."

He looked to Angharad. "I suppose that Harri out of all of us understands true danger, having been on the frontier. Dad has tried his best to keep me out of such."

"And I'll never live it down if he learns of this." Alexius adds.

"Then," said Cori, leaning forward and staring at Alexius intensely, "we don't *let* him."

"It'll be easy," added Crispin, smiling at his sister. "He'll be so concerned with Uncle Corwin being back, he won't think to interrogate you. And if he does, you can always tell him we just went riding!" Crispin pondered a moment, his eyes drifting skyward. "And if he catches on... tell him we did something else that's only mildly bad. That always catches them. Peice of cake." He stopped his horse, quite a feat when riding backward, and regarded Alexius levelly.

"Well? Are you in or not?"

Harri watched, not wishing to bring any pressure to bear on Alexius.

It was on Wolf, rather than either of her cousins, that Cori's gaze fell.

Wolf stopped as well, his gaze on Cub. He looked at each of the cubs, his gaze even, and then waited. Whatever he might have thought, he didn't even offer a soft bark of comment.

"All right" Alexius relents, looking at the Twins, and then Wolf, and then Harri.

He sighed and nodded.

"Let's continue. Carefully."



The back of the garden was just as they had left it, wild and thorny, with mis-shapen statuary poking out of overgrown rosebushes like some botanical torture mechanism. The board to the dining room was still off, leaving them free passage to go inside.

Alexius got off of his horse as they finally reached their destination, patting the steed to comfort it. Perhaps it was his imagination and his own personal feelings, but he felt that he could feel something awry here.

"Well, here we are" Alexius says, looking up at the entrance.

"This is how you got in the first time?" he inquired of Cori and Crispin

Cori nodded. "The garden's a little creepy," she said, "It'll be better once we get inside. We're going to have to give Wolf a boost to get in, though."

Wolf padded up to the house, nostrils flaring, seeking scents. At the missing board he leaned up, looking for all the world as if he were trying to scout in through the window.

There was something not right about the place... That Wolf could make out quickly enough. What exactly it was, though, was a more nebulous thing. For one, the scent of the flowers was dull, lack-luster, not like the gardens that the Queen of Avalon kept. And the smell of prey... There were no living things in this place, not even the smallest hints of mouse or squirell. All was dust and time running unimpeded.

Crispin peeked in over Wolf and smiled. "Same as yesterday. Harri, you want Wolf going in first? Lex and I can give him a boost in."

Wolf whuffed his discomfort.

Actually, he's pretty good at scrambling," said Harri. "I've seen him go up banks that would defeat me. If he's not going in now ... it's because ... "

She glanced around at the cousins. Alexius, she thought, looked troubled - but if she drew back now, Crispin would be bound to think Avalonians were cowards.

"I'll go first," she said decisively, and moved towards the window. "Wolf will follow me much more willingly than if you tried to make him go through while I'm outside."

"Crispin went first last time," Cori said. "Maybe he should again, and you and Wolf next. Alexius and I can lift Wolf up, can't we?"

"I think I'm strong enough. If Wolf cooperates of course." He looked at the lupine companion of Harri. "I'd hate to try and lift you if you really didn't want to be."

Wolf placed his paws on the upper sill, digging his claws in and worked to scramble up and through the window.

[OOC: Is there enough for him to get his back claws in and scramble through? Or will he need that push?]

Wolf lunged, barely making it up onto the windowsill. His back legs managed to grasp onto the ledge and give him the push he needed, without any help from the children.

Inside, dust rose up as his mass came down onto the carpeted floor, clogging his nose and drying his mouth. Crispin followed in right after, glancing about at the unmoved place setting and dried up breakfast.

"All clear!" he announced cheerfully.

"I'll bring up the rear." Alexius offered to Cori. "You go next."

"Let Harri go first. In these skirts, I'll take forever to get in, and Wolf won't like that." Cori gestured with vague disgust at her attire. The color didn't quite suit, and it wasn't anything like the riding outfit she'd worn yesterday--clearly it was on loan.

Harria flashed a quick grin at Cori and Alexius, and then she was scrambling easily over the sill and dropping into the room beyond. She padded softly over to Wolf - one of the things she had learned from him was how to move silently - and carressed his ruff.

"What is it, Wolf?" she asked. "What can you sense?"

With Harri safely inside, Cori turned to Alexius and spoke to him in a low voice.

"I saw Uncle Corwin reading a gossip rag this morning. There was something about you and Rebma in it. It's your business, but I thought you should know. And if there's anything you need help covering, let me know. I get lots of practice at that."

A soft whine, a general discomfort. Wolf leaned against Cub's hip, into her touch.

Be careful. Be careful.

This place was not right. Wolf stayed close to Cub, refusing to let her more than a few feet from him.

"Gossip rag?" Alexius furrowed his eyebrows for a moment in genuine confusion, but his voice was low.

"Do you have any idea what it said? Or what paper it was?" Alexius began thinking furiously, wondering what the article could be about.

Inside, Harri and Crispin were treated to a rather ordinary, if dusty, breakfast nook. There were glints of precious metal in the table setting on the table, and hints of etching in the champagne flute.

"It gets better," Crispin promises in a whisper, motioning to the door out of the room. "Come on."

"The Road Atlas," Cori said. "I didn't get a good look because Uncle Corwin put it away too quickly. But there was something about Rebma, and I was pretty sure I saw your name, too. It would be awful if you got in trouble and were grounded or something. Makes it difficult to have adventures."

She added, "We need to go on in now, or they'll wonder what's happened to us. Can you give me a boost?" Her hand found purchase on the windowsill, and she made to pull herself up and into the window where the board was missing.

Alexius nodded.

"Rebma. Well, I suppose it's just gossip. I've not done anything untoward...although these gossip rags will make Kolvir out of an anthill."

In response to his cousin's request, Alexius bent shallowly, giving Corisande a boost to push her up and into the window. He smiled in satisfaction and then mounted it himself to try and get in, in turn.

He followed, the jaunts up Kolvir's unstaired face being good for something other than a strange looking tan. Crispin and Harri were already at the door out of the breakfast room, Crispin peering out.

"About time," he whispered over his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." Alexius groused good naturedly. His eyes peered around in wonder. "So this is what Brand liked in interior design." Alexius quipped as he headed toward where the quartet (including Wolf) were gathered.

Wolf sniffed, sneezing at the dust. He stayed close on Cub's heels, refusing to leave her side.

"The paintings in the foyer are amazing," Cori said as the group went out. "Look up there." And she pointed toward the ceiling.

Even through the dim light, Alexius and Harri could see what Cori was pointing towards. There was a wonderful dome over the main entryway, a still intact chandelier swaying in the middle of it. Painted on the walls was a fantastic scene, where persepctive seemed nothing more than a whim, and colors were limited mostly to a black and white combination. Crispin craned his neck to study it again.

"I think it's somewhere Uncle Brand went in real--" He stopped. His eyes widened, and when Corisande followed his gaze, she could see why... In the midst of two mountains, there was a road painted in, a pale shimmering gold, snaking through black grasses.

It hadn't been there yesterday.

"Unicorn and Lir both." Alexius says softly. "You didn't tell us about *that* His neck craned upward and his eyes were riveted on the scene.

"Follow the Yellow brick road" he murmurs, still looking at it in wonder. His eyes do not leave it as he speaks.

"I wouldn't doubt that he did it himself." Alexius says. "Lunatic or not, Uncle Brand was talented at his art, or so even Dad will admit."

"Sometimes."

"It's wonderful," agreed Harri, looking at it carefully. "That road - you could almost follow it, couldn't you?"

All the same, she was a little surprised that the twins appeared to be so transfixed on that part of the illustration.

Cori shook herself as if waking from a dream. She turned to Harri and Alexius and said, "Well, you didn't expect us to tell everything, did you? Then there'd be no surprises, and that would hardly be any fun!"

She took her brother's hand and began to drag him toward the stairs. "Let's go up and we'll show you the trophy room."

Crispin shook himself, then motioned to Angharad and Crispin. "It's great! That's where we got your things..." He took the steps, two by two, now dragging his sister behind him... taking them as quickly as he could from the Entryway.



The trophy room, thankfully, was fully intact, and fully unchanged, save for the items liberated the day before. Crispin let out a sigh of relief just before Alexius and Angharad found their way to them.

Crispin turned in the center of the room, his eyes washing over the assortment of items fantastic.

"Oh my word," said Harri, following him in, awed. "I've never seen anything like this!"

As, however, Harri had spent her life so far growing up in a rambling and half-constructed castle, perhaps it would have been more astonishing if she had encountered anything like the trophy room before.

Alexius, still a little dazed from the dome, stumbled along with them to the soi disant Trophy Room. His eyes looked around at the objects d'art.

"Eclectic taste, too." Alexius said, his eyes glancing over things that seemed to run the gamut of art and shadow. "I mean" he walked to a glass case holding a perfect, shining, hand chisel-axe made of quartz "Who would have thought Uncle Brand would care about something like paleolithic tools."

"I bet more technological stuff would be here, too, if it worked in Amber." Alexius hypothesized.

Wolf wandered about, never too far from Cub, sniffing and exploring the strange place, and odd items.

"Probably," Cori said to Alexius.

She took on a tone not unlike that she'd heard her aunt use while showing people around Castle Amber. "And here we have a stone axe from the shadow of ... Lascaux." She gestured to the axe by Alexius with a showy flourish.

"Carved thousands of years ago by the first men to walk upright in this shadow, it is an antique beyond price. And only here, in the Brand Collection, can the select few see such treasures."

Crispin rolled his eyes at his sister's didacticism, but said nothing. Instead, he siddled up the Harri, pointing up to a brethtaking bow secured high on the wall. "That's the one I told you about..." It was white as marble, but there was an inner glow just beneath the surface, giving the thing its own light. The string was still on the bow, flying in the face of all that her father had told her about a bow's proper care. "Wouldn't that be great to hunt with?"

Wolf, sniffing around the baseboards, found the dusty air of a vent... and his ears pricked as he caught the distant sound of voices coming through it.

Alexius chuckled at Cori's stentorian approach and presentation, pointing his palms at the object as Cori spoke.

"Replicas are available in the Giftshop for ninety five Crowns, located on the lower level." Alexius added with a chuckle.

Wolf sat down next to the vent, whining softly to gain Cub's attention. Once he had that, he nosed the vent and whuffed oh so quietly.

Alexius turned from his presentation to look at Wolf and his attention-getting. "Now what is up with Wolf?" he asked Harri softly

Harri was standing, hands on hips, surveying the bow.

"You know," she said thoughtfully, "I bet I could climb up and get that. And it would be super to have!"

She glanced down at Wolf. "What is it, Wolf? You know I climb well - I won't fall ... "

She frowned, then dropped easily to her hands and knews beside him him. "What is ... " she began.

Then her eyes widened and she gestured for the others to be quiet.

The voices were distended, distant... She couldn't even tell if they were male or female.

"--Advances--"

"--Contact?"

"--o answer--"

Crispin had quieted and crouched down low next to Harri. He was trying to keep at least a pretense of calm about him.

Harri looked at him, her eyes wide. Wolf would read her question at once ... ~Do you recognise them?~

As it was, she thought it best to stay absolutely still and listening - apart from a gesture to Wolf.

~Silent now.~

Cori recognized at once from her brother's expression that something was seriously wrong. She cast about for weapons within easy reach that she could quietly remove from the display. The first of these, she handed to Alexius; the second, to her brother; the third, to Harri; the fourth, she reserved to herself.

Wolf, of course, came equipped with his own ferocious weapons, and Cori did not think of arming him.

Alexius took the serpentine sword that Cori handed him. He looked at the blade, not quite as seductively pretty as the dagger they had given him, but it looked a little more sturdy.

Alexius bit his lip, trying not to make a sound. Trouble was getting too close for comfort.

Crispin accepted the knife, trying to creep closer to the grating to get a better listen. His fingers touched the brass...

And that was when he found out the screws were gone.

It fell in with a clatter, reverberating through the ventillation. The voices stopped.

"--Hear something?"

[Deleted my last post. You're not imagining things.]

Harri had refused a weapon, instead sliding a servicable looking dagger from her boot.

When the voices spoke, she stiffened.

Her lips formed silent words. ~Run? Hide?~

She didn't appear to be considering bluffing it out as an option.

With Harri refusing the long, wicked knife, Cori kept it. She began looking for another way out of the trophy room, one that she might use to smuggle Alexius to safety. Harri was unknown, and she had faith in Wolf's ability to defend her, but Alexius' blue skin made him easy to recognize.

She and Crispin could not afford to let him be taken hostage.

Alexius came late to the thought that Cori had, his eyes watching the ladies scour for a method of escape. Silently, he pointed his sword back the way they came, an unspoken question to his three companions.

And, of course, Wolf.

Wolf sniffed again at the vent, sensitive nose straining to capture some hint of a scent of the other intruders.

Then he turned and nudged Cub with his nose, urging her to head back the way they came, as the boy suggested.

Harri nodded and turned at once, making for the window swiftly and silently padding across the room, turning to make sure her companions were coming too. She was careful to pause by the door, a little to one side of it, glancing down at Wolf to see if he would advise that all was clear.

The hallways were empty, but she could make out the sound of heavy foot falls coming up the stairs, growing closer and closer. Crispin motioned for Alexius to help, and amid much grunting and puffing of cheeks, they were able to get the window open.

"It's not so far down," said Crispin, trying to sound cheerful. "And there's a trellis."

Wolf wasn't able to pick up any smells... only the annoying, ever present layer of dust.

Cori stayed as far down the hall towards the stair as she dared, to give any needed warnings to her brother and the others while staying as far out of sight as possible of the intruders.

The footfalls on the stait could hardly compare to the thudding of her heart as she waited for either the all-clear from her brother and the others or the arrival of whoever was coming for them.

"You go first, and I'll help you get the ladies out." Alexius said, turning behind to watch the corridor and stairs. "Besides, I'm the one who is the most armed." he said. He looked at Cori and Harri. "Even if I am a target, I've got to watch our backs." he insisted.

"No arguments, we've got to get you two out of here." he said.

Harri's jaw set in determination - and there was a look of her father about her eyes.

"Not without Wolf," she stated definitively.

Cori glared back at the pair of them, applying a finger to her lips. She showed no sign of returning either.

Alexius gave a nod of his head in response to Harri's retort, and perhaps kept silent because of Cori's quiet rebuke.

He turned to look to see how Crispin was doing.

Crispin was resting on the sill, staring at Wolf as if the creature's fur patterns held the answer. "I'm betting you won't jump it..." He said to Wolf, his voice barely a whisper. He looked up. "The staircase! There's another one at the end of the hall. We can go down it and hide!"

The footsteps drew closer, but in the unlit hall, Corisande couldn't see if there were upstairs yet, or still on the stair.

Cori gestured to the others to get down the hall with some urgency. She tightened her grip on the hilt of her blade, remembering all the things her father had said over the course of her training about what you do when confronted with a real live enemy.

If the enemy were really alive, of course.

Alexius nodded. Still holding the sword in his hand, he followed Cori's gesture and began to move down the hall, turning his head back every so often, trying to see if and when their unseen and unknown pursuers would finally become seen and known.

Harri moved wiftly and silently beside Wolf. Of course, she was more used to moving surreptiously through forests than houses, but she and Wolf had crept into enough secret places and meetings in the Castle in New Avalon to be familiar with the principles of this. She gave a quick caress to his ruff, watching his ears carefully. As far as Harri was concerned, Wolf could say more with his ears than most people could say with their voices ...

Wolf's ears perked up, tilted slightly back to listen behind them as they moved away from the stairs. He nudged Cub forward, staying close to her hip. His ears were tuned to any change in the voices, any closer approach.

Cori gestured to her brother to go ahead, still listening for the approach of the intruders.

Once he moved down the hall, she followed, keeping an eye and an ear behind them for possible pursuit.

Alexius felt his heart pound in his chest as they continued to try to elude their pursuers. He followed Crispin in the effort to reach the staircase, his fear reflected in how the sword Cori had given him was clenched in his hand like a talisman.

And he kept swinging his head back in the direction of the way they came.

The steps grew closer, and Wolf was able to place them... they were almost at the hall.

Crispin came to the door leading down to the laboratory. He was as gentle as he could be with the knob, but still, there was a 'click' when it was turned. A 'click' that sounded like cannon fire in the ears of the anxious youngsters.

The footsteps stopped, and all could hear the drawing of swords.

GO! Wolf nudged Cub hard with his head, pushing her forward. Then he abruptly turned and loped back the way they had come, on ever so soft padded feet.

Harri pressed a hand over her mouth to cover a gasp of dismay, but her years with Wolf had taught her to trust his resourcefulness and obey his instructions. She moved quickly through the door and started down the stairs - but only the first three - until she saw what the others were doing.

Cori gestured to Alexius to go on. She moved as quietly as she could towards him. Her back was to the wall; she was both less visible in the dark hall and less of a target.

Alexius was surprised by Wolf's turn to face their targets, but he was shaken from a fatal pregnant pause by Cori's gesture.

"Greffet" he cursed and turned to head down the staircase before them, right behind Harri.

Crispin pulled everyone in the door, then eased it nearly shut. Through a slit, they could see Wolf wandering in the direction of the footsteps.

"He'll be alright," he whispered, though his voice was far from certain. "He'll scare whoever it is off." He shut the door, and motioned everyone down to the laboratory.

[and Wolf is off to his own super secret thread...]

Harri shot a worried look back along the hall and then began to stumble her way down the steps. After three steps she decided that - worried or not - this was not the best way of doing thing, and she drew a deep breath, gathering herself together. Then she carried on down the stairs with something much more like her usual stealthy tread.

Cori slipped her hand into Crispin's as they went down the stair, giving him a quick squeeze. By the time they were in the laboratory, she had relinquished it, lest her brother be embarrassed in front of their cousins.

Alexius creeps down the stairs, a sympathetic look to Harri once Wolf is seperated from the main group as they made their way down to the laboratory. He went still once he was clear of the staircase, pitching his hearing upward to listen for signs of what was happening upstairs.

The laboratory was still open from the Twin's last visit, books still spread out here and there where they had gone searching. Though Crispin's attention is up, like Alexius's, Cori does notice him nicking another volume off the shelf.

The silence settled in, a terrible thing.

Cori began looking around for another possible exit from the lab--a back door, or perhaps a window that they could remove and shatter the board, if need be.

Harri follows her example - also looking for cupboards and recesses where they might hide, should it prove necessary.

There were more than enough cupboards to look through, though Harri began to regret the search. There were jars upon jars there, some empty, some half-filled with a wreched looking fluid. But some contained things, or parts of things, that were once alive: a hand here, a head there, an eviscerated frog, an eyeball. Then the hand twitched, and the question of how many of them were fully dead came to mind...

Cori, set upon a much more pleasant search, found one boarded up window. It was at the top of the wall, probably level with the lower ground of the garden. She couldnt' tell, though. The board was still fairly secure on it.

"Think we can pry it loose?" Alexius asks Cori, as he comes up to where Cori is looking. "Maybe I can use the sword to do it" he speculated, experimentally trying to get the blade between the board and the window.

"Maybe," Cori replied. "A better question is whether we can do it quietly."

She was still listening for sounds of struggle or noises such as Wolf might make from above.

"I rally hope this is going to work," said Harri earnestly. "Because - believe me - we don't want to hide in the cupboards.

"There's ... things," she added with a shudder. "Crawling. And I don't mean bugs."

Alexius's blade was able to slip in easily enough, but as he began to lever it, he could see the problem... or rather hear it. The wood, aged as it was, was splintering, making an awful racket.

From upstairs, there was no noise, not even a lone bark from Wolf.

"Do I continue...noise or not?" Alexius said, stopping his levering of the wood.

His eyes looked back and forth between the two female cousins, still holding the sword in the leveraged position.

"Could you hold a cloak over it, and muffle the sound?" suggested Harri.

Then she padded back to the door again, placed her ear to it and listened, with all the concentration that Wolf had taught her.

Cori frowned, then doffed her cloak to see whether it would silence Alexius' effort or even reduce the noise coming from the window. She nodded to her cousin to tell him to go ahead.

She glanced around as she did so to see what her brother was up to.

Alexius nodded back, and continued to work at the boards with the blade, starting to sweat a bit, more from nervousness than exertion

Under Alexius's efforts, the blade began to do its work, the wood splintering out from the window, chunk by chunk. While it was muffled, it was fairly certain anyone coming down the stairs would be able to hear it.

At the other side of the lab, Crispin struggled with a small bookcase, trying to shove it in front of the only door in. "Cori! Help!" he whispered harshly. "Harri! You'll have to move!"

At the door, Harri couldn't hear anything at all... not a bark from Wolf, or the footsteps of the fellow trespassers.

Harri moved aside reluctantly, and then ran silently to Crispin, helping him to tug the bookcase.

"I couldn't hear anything," she told him quietly. "I think we have a few minutes ... "

She began to tug at the bookcase.

Alexius hissed and decided to forego worrying about the racket. Their position was pretty well known, and he threw himself fully into the effort to try and pry the boards loose with the sword.

Once she could tell the effect of her attempt to muffle the noice was minimal, Cori dropped the cloak and came to help her brother and Harri. Harri could see that Cori and Crispin were used to working together; their efforts were like a well-oiled machine.

"If we get out and you call, Wolf will come, won't he?" Cori asked as they slid the bookcase into place.

"If he can," said Harri grimly. Then she added, "And if he thinks it best."

Harri, it was clear, had perfect faith in Wolf's abilities to act independently.

The board chips fell and fell under Alexius's effort, revealing a grating, the glass long since gone. Across the room, the bookshelf finally was pushed and pulled and cursed into position. Crispin looked up at his sister, then at Harri. "Then I think we ought to get out. If you want a souvenier, grab it now."

"I've got it." Alexius said, looking at what the removal of the board revealed. "I think we can all squeeze through this and out." he said, experimentally sticking his board through the opening.

He turned his head to regard Harri and the Twins. "Come on. The bookcase should buy us enough time. I just hope." he bit his lip. "Wolf will find a way out."

Cori came over to the window and regarded the grill. Deciding that she could, indeed, get through it, she turned to her brother for a boost.

"I'll go first. Just in case," she said to Alexius and Harri.

And then there was a rattle at the door... and a shake as the knob shook. The door creaked open until it hit the bookshelf. Crispin cursed, putting his hands under his sister's foot, ready to shove her out the window if need be.

And then, Wolf barked.

"Come on" Alexius hissed to Harri, stepping back to allow the male twin room to aid his sister in getting into the window.

He kept staring at the door nervously, every rattle of the bookcase mirrored in the trembles and shudders of his own body.

There was a loud scratching noise at the door, and then whining as a paw snuck through the narrow opening.

Harri gave a gasp of relief and started to struggle to pull the bookcase clear.

"Help me!" she mouthed at the others.

They would just need to widen it enough for Wolf to get his shoulders through ...

She heaved again.

"It's Wolf?" Crispin was stuck, Cori's foot in his hand, his back supporting her weight. "Cori, hold on..." He let down his sister, then dashed across the room to help Harri pull the bookcase the rest of the way out.

Wolf came in, apparently unharmed from whatever encounter he had gone through. "See?" Crispin beamed. "I knew he'd be alright."

Cori was right behind Crispin as he came up to Harri and Wolf. She looked Wolf over to be sure he was, indeed, uninjured.

"I wonder what happened?" she said to no one in particular.

Wolf sniffed their hands, reassuring them, then leaned into Cub's leg.

A sensation of comfort, reassurance. Then a sudden desire... an order, perhaps?... to leave.

His nose turned to her pockets, snuffling for a moment, before he returned to leaning against her thigh.

Crispin looked back up at the window and sighed. "Another thing he can't get out of... Wolf, is it okay to go back up? Did you scare them off?"

Wolf whuffed loudly, and nudged Cub toward the door.

"Oh, well done!" said Harri warmly. "Much better than scrambling out."

Shje turned and looked thoughtfully at her companions.

"Look - I'll go first with Wolf and make sure all's clear. I can probably move more quietly than you people. And if everything is all right - then I'll signal you - all right?"

Cori looked at Crispin to see what he thought.

"I'll go, too," he said quickly. "Strength in numbers, and all that." He started up the stairs, waiting for Wolf and Harri at the top.

Cori took Alexius' hand. "You stay with me," she said. The prince could feel the tension in her somewhat overstrong grasp.

Wolf looked at Cub to make sure she was coming with him, and then loped easily after Crispin, his nose alert for any new surprises.

Alexius took Cori's hand, trying not to squeeze it over much. His own nervousness was evident through his own grasp. "All right" he said, turning to look at the door with a considered expression on his mien.

Standing side by side, he waited with Cori for the results of her brother, Harri, and Wolf's exploration of the other side.

Harri padded next to Wolf, her own senses on the alert, and also reading the tiny clues in his behaviour that her years with him in the forests had taught her.

At the top of the stairs, the hallway was empty. Better than that, it was perfectly still. At the stairs, Harri could make out two sets of large footprints in the dust... They came forward, stopped, then retreated. Crispin breathed a sigh of relief.

"I knew Wolf would scare them off. Come on. Let's get going before they decide to come back." He jogged back to the stairwell and hissed down to his sister. "All's clear! Get up here!"

"All right, we're coming." Alexius said reluctantly, waiting for Corisande to lead him out of the room and into the hallway, after her brother and their cousin.

Wolf's look down the hallway, towards OUT, was obvious. He waited for the others to join them, close by Harri, and nudging her towards the way out.

Harri moved swiftly, obedient to Wolf's instructions.

She wished she could share Crispin's calm confidence, but Wolf's urgency was worrying her.

Cori pulled Alexius along after Crispin and Harri and Wolf. She looked longingly over her shoulder at the bookshelves as she and Alexius went up the stairs, and sighed as they vanished behind her.

"Which way?" she asked as they joined the others.

Crispin glanced down at Wolf, who was trying to butt Harri towards the way out. "The way we came in, I think." He started down the stairs, the fear he had been showing moments before now disappated, like fog at sunrise. "After all, we have to get the horses."

"He's right" Alexius puts in, watching Wolf's insistence to his mistress that exiting is a really good concept right about now.

"Lead on, Crispin. Before Wolf becomes the leader of this party." Alexius tried to joke, to leaven the mood just a little. All of their nerves were on edge.

"We can check out books another day." he added, consolingly, to Cori

Or we can grab something of what we can as we go out," suggests Harri. "Not so nice as what you got yesterday but ... something. A token."

As she moves forward with Wolf, she looks about for something suitable.

"I don't need a token," Cori replied. It was a touch truculent, but she looked abashed immediately, as if she hadn't meant to sound so harsh.

Her gaze met Crispin's. "We have what we came for." Don't we?

At Cub's words, Wolf barked once, sharply, and moved forward at a faster pace.

Crispin met his sister's eyes and nodded once. "Yes." I think so...



Outside, their horses were still there, calmly chewing at grass and enjoying a fair morning...

Except the sun was rather low for morning...

A bell tolled four in the distance.

"Fewmets!" Cori cursed. "I've got to go home and get a dress for this thing tonight. Do we have enough time to all go, or do we have to split up?"

Harri looked worriedly at Alexius. "What do you think?" she asked. "Which would be better?"

Crispin looked over at Alexius, frowning. "We should probably split up. Cori and I don't have clothes at the castle, and Dad'd kill us if we showed up in our riding pants."

"Weren't we supposed to be taking them to the house? What's our cover story? How did we spend the day?" Cori asked. Her look took in Alexius and Harri as well as her brother.

It was clear she'd had a lot of experience coordinating her way out of scrapes and parental punishment.

"I thought we were going riding in the first place." Alexius said. "We lost track of time; they'll never believe us if we say we were actually lost."

He looked to Harri and then back to the twins. "Which means we need to stay together, or else our duplicity will surely be known. They'll smell a dead fish."

Cori nodded. That was her sense as well.

"At worst they'll think we were off, well, you know. And we'll all get lectures about that. But it's better than the lecture we'll get if they think we were where we were."

She looked to Harri and her brother to see if they agreed.

Crispin spared a look at the slowly lowering sun, then nodded. "Alright. To the Manor." He shot a smile at his sister as he untangled his horse and hopped upon its back. "And at least dad won't lecture us about some things."

Alexius nodded. "Let's go. Lead the way." he grinned. "wonder Twins."

He patted, checked, consoled and then mounted his own horse.



It wasn't a long ride to the Manor, even with a little bit of doubling back to alter their path trajectory.

The Manor was a large place, groomed and stylized, with square, geometric gardens that didn't quite take themselves seriously enough. Colors changed when seen in the periphery. There were giggles where no one was standing. Trees moved their branches to make way for them. Everything that was blooming was definately not supposed to be in season.

Wolf sniffed the air, then the nearest tree, then the next plant. He woofed at the plant in sharp surprise, then loped ahead of the cubs, sniffing and exploring, pausing to bark at the foliage for little reason whatsoever.

Cori ignored the unusual--to the others, at least--flora and rode right up to the house, where the stableboys met the group to take their horses.

Once she had dismounted, she ran into the house and up to her father's study, trusting Crispin and the others to follow behind.

"Father! Father! Look who we brought!" she called gleefully. If her father were preoccupied with the visitors and the upcoming banquet, perhaps he would overlook the unsuitable garb she'd acquired at the castle.

Bleys came out of his study, intrigued at the muddied and road worn children in his hall. He, of course, was shadows away from being muddied or road worn. He gave his son a long, careful look, but then let go of it to nod to Alexius and study Harri.

"I'd heard about your arrival. Angharad, is it? One of the esteemed guests at tonight's dinner?"

Harri dropped a little bob of a curtsey. She had heard something of Cori and Crispin's father from her own father, and was curious to see how he fitted the descriptions.

"Yes," she said sunnily, "I'm Angharad. And this is Wolf."

She reached out to caress Wolf's ruff as she gazed up at her uncle.

"And I don't know about esteemed," she adds, "but I'll certainly be there!"

Alexius waited patiently for Angharad and Wolf to be introduced before making his own greetings to his uncle.

"Hello Uncle Bleys" Alexius said warmly with a smile. "Not quite as unique and esteemed as my cousin of course." he inclined his head toward Angharad and grinned.

"I'm going to clean up and change. Harri, I'm sure I have something that will suit if you want to change now."

Cori extended her hand to her guest, glad to be in the position of graciously returning Harri's favor of last night.

Wolf walked stiffly into the house a few beats after Cub and the others went inside. He moved to join Cub, sitting close to her, almost on top of her feet, growling fainly under his breath. Cub's hands in his ruff did not serve to settle him.

At the introduction, Wolf sniffed several times before sneezing loudly. He sat back on his haunches and glared balefully at the tall redhead.

It looked as if he would not leave Cub's side. But he didn't look happy to be there. Or for her to be there, either.

"Well, I'd love to," said Harri. "If Wolf will let me past, that is!"

She looked down at her companion a little doubtfully.

"Let's go with Cori, Wolf."

Wolf growled, leaning hard against Cub's hip as he glared at the Man. Finally he came back to his feet and with one final growl, allowed Cub to move to follow Cori.

Harri directed an apologetic grin at Bleys.

"I'm sorry, Uncle," she said politely. "All this is very new to Wolf - and he sometimes gets upset in strange places."

A gentle caress of his ruff was meant to comfort Wolf.

"Oh, it's no bother," Bleys said, looking down at the distrustful Wolf, amused. "I have siblings that react the very same way..."

As the girls, Wolf going along, trailed away to the twin's suite, they could hear Bleys talking to his son.

"So, where did this sudden dislike of pigeons come from...?"