The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 189: What Would Piri Do?

If only they were so lucky.

The hundred-grass elixir eased Cornelius' fever and headaches, but tumors the size of crabapples erupted all over his body. Sphaera reported the disease progression to Floridiana and Den on her increasingly frequent visits, the main goal of which was probably to escape the sight of the dying boy and Steelfang's distress. Floridiana and Den could hear the wolf's howling all the way across the forest in their campsite.

And then, in the middle of this terrible wait, she came down with a fever. At first, the chills were so mild that she half-convinced herself that the mountain breeze was just particularly nippy. She didn't mention it to Den, who was already glued to her side.

Eventually, however, he brushed up against her forehead and yelped. "You're running a fever! For how long?"

"Not very," she croaked. Her head pounded from all the noise. "Just a couple days. Probably just a cold."

"You'd better be right. Tell me immediately if you grow any tumors."

"Why?" she snapped back. "There's nothing you can do."

There was nothing anyone could do at this point, except wait and hope. And pray, perhaps. If you dared draw the attention of the gods.

Den had no response, and for the rest of the day, she endured not only the fever and the headache and her own increasing dread, but also his brooding silence.

Maybe it's really just a cold, she told herself. It's cold here in the mountains. She'd gotten plenty of colds before, and she'd gotten over all of them. (She wouldn't be here if she hadn't.)

If she were lucky, she'd get over this too.

She did not get lucky either.

"You have a tumor!" Sphaera's screech woke Floridiana from a fretful sleep filled with strange dreams.

"She just fell asleep! She had a terrible night, she finally fell asleep, and now you've woken her again, you selfish, self-centered, egotistical fox!" Den's voice lashed out with all the frustration he didn't dare vent on the gods.

Sphaera's injured voice answered from across the clearing, "I was just making an observation."

"And have you ever thought about the effect your 'observation' would have?" Den roared. "Have you ever thought about anyone else a day of your life?"

"Of course I have!" the fox shrilled back. "I am the Empress of Serica! I think about my people every minute of every day!"

"Then Heaven help us all! If this is what you think passes for thinking about other people, we might as well have the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas drown the land and wipe out all life on Earth, because that would be better than living under your rule!"

Even if Floridiana had slept through Sphaera's first screech, she certainly wouldn't have slept through Den's bellow. Which was supposedly over the fox waking her up. Floridiana reached out for her sense of humor, but a bout of chills rattled her teeth, and she moaned and tucked herself into a tighter ball against him. Cold. His scales were so cold. Den shifted and mounded his coils over her to block the breeze.

A mound, like the mound of earth over a fresh grave.

"How...Cornelius?" she forced out.

Den was so busy ripping Sphaera apart (figuratively, although Floridiana thought he was on the brink of taking it literal) that he didn't hear. With an effort, she stretched out a finger and tapped his side.