Beasts of New York

Chapter 9 - Epilogue

‘So few,’ Patch said, aghast. ‘So few.’

He and White stood near the entrance to Silver’s drey and looked around. The new queen of the Center Kingdom had called all of her subjects to her, and they had come. They were barely enough to occupy the medium-sized spruce tree that was home to their queen’s drey.

‘More than fifty,’ Queen Silver said, emerging from her drey with its adornments of glittering glass. ‘It is said the Forever Winter reduced us to fewer than twenty. We have enough to prosper, to thrive. The crows are gone, and the rats will not bother us again, not with the cats as our allies. Ten years, a few generations, and we will be a proper kingdom again.’

‘How many dead?’ Patch asked.

Silver shook her head and would not answer.

Patch looked back to the squirrels of the Center Kingdom. Most were scarred, or limping, or both – but their eyes were stony with resilience. These were survivors, every one of them; battered, wounded, but also hardened strong as metal. Standing there, surrounded by his tribe, it seemed to Patch that he was in the presence of something great and terrible, as if he had just sworn a moon-oath, as if all of them had. He felt like the lives of those around him were part of his own, and his own was part of theirs. It made him feel stronger and more vulnerable at the same time.

He looked at one-eyed Twitch, and winced. The war seemed to have burned away almost everything in Twitch that could enjoy the world. He seemed almost to have been replaced by another squirrel, one whose words were mostly grim prophecies of disaster, one filled with despair. But the last time they had met, Patch had brought him a tulip bulb to eat; and when he had seen the momentary flicker in Twitch’s eye when he first saw the treat, Patch had dared to hope that even though his oncejoyous friend had been burned by war and buried within his scarred and one-eyed body, the old Twitch still stood some chance of being one day unearthed.

Patch looked back to Silver, who was observing him closely.

‘What is it?’ The careful intensity of her gaze made him feel like he had done something wrong.

After a moment she said to him, thoughtfully, ‘You will be king one day, Patch, when I am gone.’

Patch stared at her. He didn’t want to think about Silver ever being gone, and he couldn’t imagine ever being king. But there was no trace of humor in her voice.

‘You should go back to your drey now,’ she said. ‘I believe you have a visitor.’

Patch wondered how she knew, but did not doubt her. Silver seemed different now that she was queen: more remote, and yet aware of everything happening in her kingdom.

White led the way from Silver’s spruce to Patch’s oak. He was still getting used to running the sky-road without his tail-weight for balance. He already had a vague idea of who his visitor might be; and to his delight, when he saw the figure waiting beneath his oak tree, he was proved right.

‘Zelina!’ Patch cried out.

‘Patch! Oh, I’m so very glad to see you. And White, a pleasure as always. Am I to understand that you’re officially mated? Congratulations!’ exclaimed the Queen of All Cats.

Patch looked around. ‘No Alabast?’

‘No. Just me. No other cat knows where I am. If they did, they would come to me and draw me back to the court. It isn’t all sushi and cream being the Queen of All Cats, you know. I have so many duties, so many worries – lately, it’s the humans, it seems there’s something terribly wrong with them – and so many affairs of state, little dignitaries to entertain, so many little treacheries and rivalries and territorial turf wars to deal with, you have no idea how byzantine and backstabbing the cats of my court can be. And all the protocol, the titles, the ceremonies – oh, sometimes they’re wonderful, but honestly, Patch, sometimes I think of those days we went wandering through the Ocean Kingdom, nothing to us but our names, not knowing what we’d eat or where we’d sleep next, and I wish I could be there again. And so. You told me once to visit you in the Center Kingdom. And there was the small matter of a poisoning, and a war, and an attempt to exterminate your entire people, and an underworld quest, and a tiger – and before you ask, no, I don’t know what happened to Siva and his attendant – but the point I am trying to attain is, finally, here I am. Would you like to show me around?’

Patch looked at White; and his mate smiled back at him; and Patch said, ‘Zelina, I’d be delighted.’

A long time ago, on a glorious mid-spring day, a young squirrel named Patch led his new mate, White, and his best friend, Zelina, on a tour of discovery, an exploration of the delights of the Center Kingdom, in which he lived. They paused often for laughter and stories and reminiscences. The sky above was blue, and the wind was clear and rich with life, and the trees and bushes were thick with flowers and berries, and the days of blood and terror seemed already long forgotten, and this day and all days beyond seemed to stretch into a warm and golden forever.