Royal Crown Commision: Long Awaited Departure

[Jim Roberts]

[Jan 30 PM – Fort Resolute]

> Blackswallow just shook her head again. Not like she hadn’t seen
> gender reversed performances at times, and Majali were hardly in a
> position to critique unusual naming conventions.

“Now, have I got your attention,” the Flying Tiger laughed. “Or do I
have to reach for a bigger

stick? A
mutual friend said getting your attention should be thought of much like
training a mule.”

“Touche,” the Madame smirked. “Could we perhaps put aside the macho
pretensions?”

“Kinda obligatory for me I’m afraid,” Sully sighed. “Gotta keep up with
the guys, ya know how it is.”

“I certainly do, though I got past it,” Blackswallow announced with an
air of authority. “Eventually I got them hammered down enough I can
ignore that nonsense. So let’s.”

“That certainly gives me something to look forward to,” the weretiger
leader nodded amiably. “So, I take it we have a deal?”

“I was hoping you would forget about that in all the excitement,” the
Madame sighed. “But really, it does seem as if our goals are to some
degree aligned.”

“That is certainly the conclusion I’ve drawn,” Sully nodded.

“So nice to know you approve,” Blackswallow noted a touch sourly.

“Hey, we were here first,” the weretiger pointed out with some justice.
“Though I am also supposed to relay to you that our mutual friend
suggested we play nice.”

“I am new enough to the area I am left wondering who that might be,” the
Madame mused coolly. “Though I suppose you will insist on leaving me in
the dark.”

“What, and ruin all the fun? But it is always tacky to use *names* in
this biz,” Sully smirked. “Ya never know who might be listening. They
just told me to remind you of the agreement you made after telling them
about some of your college hijinks, whatever THAT means.” She gazed at
the Madame a moment intently, clearly hoping for details, but
Blackswallow remained poker-faced until Sully went on. “Said that would
be enough to assure you it’s safe to pretend we have a temporary
alignment of interests until one of us felt ready for a sudden but
inevitable betrayal. I got the impression they’re planning to just pop
corn and watch while they laugh. Kinda how they seem to roll a lotta the
time.”

Blackswallow stared at the weretiger for a long moment. She really
should have expected that the Flying Tigers had arrangements of some
sort with the Sisterhood, given how long both of them had operated in
this howling wilderness. That comment so cryptic to this impertinent
young wildcat was an unmistakable message; given the implications of the
full story there was no way the Vowsisters would have been casually
dropping hints to just anyone. That put a whole new light on this
meeting; no less daunting, perhaps, but reassuring so far as it went.
“Well, if THEY think we should play nice, I suppose we should.”

“They won’t mind if we scuffle a little and have some dominance
skirmishes and all,” Sully suggested hopefully. “The gang would enjoy
that as much as our friends.”

“Let’s not,” the Madame sighed. “I do not think the girls outside would
enjoy anything of the sort. You must know by now they are exactly what
they seem.”

“Oh, we’ll be gentle! Delightful ladies, but they might surprise even
you. Whether they enjoyed themselves depends heavily on the rules of
engagement,” the Flying Tiger grinned. “I’ll play fair if you will. But
you’re right, it would be a waste of everyone’s energy, fun as it would
be. I’ll try to drop in any time there’s something you should be telling
me about.”

“I quiver with anticipation for your return,” Blackswallow grumbled,
rolling her eyes. The implication that Sully would know without being
told when she needed to show up to share any ‘take’ the Madame’s network
might yield was galling. Especially since the Majali kurva had no way to
judge yet whether that arrogant confidence was justified or not. She had
a sinking feeling it might well be.

“Weretigers are like that,” Sully nodded agreeably. “I miss you, too,
and I haven’t even left.”

“Now,” Blackswallow grumbled, even as she reflected that as annoyed as
she was, she was actually beginning to *enjoy* the encounter. “If there
is nothing else?”

Sully stretched luxuriously on the vardo’s master bed. “I dunno,” the
Flying Tigress mused insouciantly, “I kinda *like* it here.”

“You *do* know,” the Madame pointed out, “That people usually pay good
gold to be where you are right now.”

“I wanted to keep our first meeting professional, just not THAT
profession,” Sully agreed cheerfully. “At least on our first date. But I
suppose I *should* be moving on. Things to see, people to do, and all
that. See ya when you least expect me!” With that, Sully eased out of
the little hatch leading up to the driver’s seat. Blackswallow watched
carefully to see that when the hatch closed, Sully was on the outside.

And then rechecked. Twice.

The Madame reflected that she was going to need to do some serious
rethinking about nearly every aspect of events since she arrived in the
Gelmir Vale. Though perhaps not. She had already agreed to work with the
people who lived here. In for a penny, in for an imperial.

At least it appeared some of her potential colleagues - or rivals, if
there was a difference - were worthy of her talents. She had gotten
sloppy and assumed that because there was no visible opposition to her
plans, that meant none existed. Rather foolish, when she stopped to
remind herself that the Sisterhood if nobody else had been out here for
centuries at least.

Off in the woods not so far away but well away from any chance of being
overheard, the weretiger Streak Leader Sully was having a low-voiced
parallel conversation somewhat mirroring Blackswallow’s thoughts. “All
in all, I rather like her,” she concluded her brief summation to
Hammarstyn. “IF I was reading her right, it would appear nobody we don’t
know about is reporting to her, and at least until tonight she hadn’t
realized how many of the Forest People she worked into her web are
keeping us in the loop. So the big picture; she’s a slippery one. Even I
have to work to get inside her head, but as far as I could tell she got
the message as planned.”

“Let’s hope. You need anything else from me tonight,” the big Flying
Tiger distinguished senior warrior asked?

“Naw, the rest of this should be pretty routine stakeout shit, now that
we rattled the cage of the big bad wolf,” his boss shrugged. “You get
back and tell Jarmila what happened so far. You at least may as well
spend the night with your family. Not really your kinda show now anyway,
and the team knows what to do. Tell Jarmila no sense in sharing a report
tonight. We might well have more to pass on by tomorrow anyway,
depending on whether our new Majali bestie tries anything exciting. I’ll
get somebody down to get you an update hopefully by noon. Ish.”

Hammarstyn nodded, and without another word his form blurred and flowed
until a huge tiger stood in his place blinking at the unconcerned tribal
woman a moment. The tiger noiselessly padded off toward the ford across
the river. A fast horse awaited him in a secret camp on the other side.
He had a long ride into the gathering night to reach the Drowning Lord
tribe’s winter camp. Even with the help of some of the tribal druids
waiting across the river using the spells to aid his horse to move as
swiftly as possible it would be well into the night before he arrived.

Sully also blurred into a different shape to move away from their
meeting spot, though she shifted into her hybrid form. Part of remaining
undetected in an operation like this was to never use the same locations
in any predictable pattern. She had a good team, and access to more
magical resources than usual even for the Flying Tigers. Those settler
druids who had arranged to set up this new sacred grove across the river
and south a couple of miles had done her a big favor without ever
knowing it.

At least she hoped they had no idea. Unless, of course, her putative
allies the Sisterhood had somehow put them up to the whole notion in the
first place just to put a lot more tribal druids down near the Fort and
amenable to her schemes in the first place? Anything was possible with
the ladies in green. They played a deep game even by Sulifan’s high
standards, and some of them had been weaving their webs longer than any
bard’s tale could tell.

Much of what she had learned about what they called ‘the game of
mirrors’ she had learned from Sisters over the years. Sully was
absolutely certain they had not shared anywhere near everything they
knew. That was not even paranoia speaking. Both they and the teachers
among the tribes who had sent her to learn at their feet had told her
from the beginning that experience was the best teacher. All her hard
won lessons over the intervening seasons had driven home how right they
were.

Once Sully reached the spot where her people expected her to be watching
until the moon reached a certain spot in the sky, she settled in with
the patience that was one of her best tools to keep watch. She had
people stationed in hopefully all the best spots to see what they would
see. Now all they could do was wait for some of the people they were
interested in to do something worth reporting.