The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 170: The Most Unreasonable Sea Spirits

"Out of my way!" Sphaera shouted at the baby horse spirit as he staggered down the furrow right in front of her.

Then she took a closer look at him. His head hung low, saltwater streamed off his soggy mane, and so many gashes crisscrossed his withers that he looked more red than gold. There was a bundle of wet cotton slung over his back. Spoils of war? Why would you bother retrieving cotton? Then the bundle groaned.

Sphaera recoiled at the sight of bluish skin, eyes so bloodshot that the whites were solid red, and lips peeled back in a rictus. "Is that you, mage?"

The mage croaked something. Sphaera couldn't understand a word, not that she wanted to.

"Get out of my way, fox, or I'll blow you out of the way," said the baby horse spirit tiredly.

Sphaera heard the panicky clamor of the villagers back on the beach. They weren't coming to help, not any time soon, and probably not ever. "Rosefinches! You and you, help them. The rest of you are with me." Magnanimous empress that she was, she deviated from her path to curve around the baby horse spirit and kept running.

She could see them now. The mini dragon was attacking the oystragon, trying to force him to release the human girl, who was in bad shape, and Lady Piri's representative, who was in even worse shape.

Then Lady Piri's representative whispered something. It was so soft and so choked that even Sphaera's spirit hearing couldn't make it out. But the oystragon flinched. The mini dragon punched him straight in the throat.

Sphaera laughed. What a delightful fight! It was like being back in the Wilds, watching her courtiers vie for her praise!

"Mistress, shall we continue?" asked one of her handmaidens, and she recalled where she was and why.

"Freshen my appearance," she commanded.

The rosefinches fluttered about her, tucking loose wisps of hair back in place and straightening her skirts. She wafted her tails a few times, fluffing out her fur. Perfect.

It was even more perfect because the oystragon had stopped fighting. "Truce," he was saying to Lady Piri's representative. "How do you know any of this? Who are you? What are you? What liege do you serve?"

Ah. And here was the perfect moment. Sphaera glided forward, careful not to stumble over any bits of coral. "The greatest liege of all!" she cried, pitching her voice so any spirits in the vicinity and possibly even the humans on the beach could hear. She raised an arm – not too fast, not too slow, angled so the wind swept back her long sleeve – and pointed a single elegant forefinger at the oystragon. "Captain White Lip! I am Sphaera Algarum, Empress of all Serica! Unhand them at once!"

There. Inside, she applauded herself for striking the perfect pose. Now the oystragon would release Lady Piri's representative and the human girl, fall to his knobby knees, and prostrate himself. Lady Piri's representative would be so awed that she would report back to her lady, and in no time, the Great Lady Herself would summon Sphaera for an audience! Sphaera would glide in serenely and humbly, and the Great Lady would offer her rewards and riches untold, but Sphaera would lower her eyes and murmur that she wanted for nothing but to be of use to Her Ladyship, and then the Great Lady would drop her own eyes in awe and respect and offer Sphaera a place by her side –

"There is no empress of Serica," came the oystragon's coarse voice. He was denying it! Denying her! Before she could find the proper words to express her outrage, he added, "I don't know whom you serve or what you're playing it, but I am here on direct orders from the Dragon King of the Western Sea."

Sphaera was so indignant that she nearly stamped one foot, which would have spoiled both her regal image as well as her slipper. "And I am here on direct orders from the greatest fox of all! The Empire will rise again. Decide now whether you will rise along with it or be crushed underfoot like the oyster you are!"