Free Nightpool by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

could rest her paws there,
and she stood looking up into his eyes, sniffing his scent
delicately, quietly studying his face.
    “You are Tebriel. You have grown so tall.
The first time I saw you, you were only a baby in the arms of your
mother. . . . I am so sorry about your mother, and
your father, Tebriel.
    “But come, you must be tired. All that
crawling and hunching. Will you rest?”
    “No, but I’d like to wash,” Teb said,
looking with longing at the pool.
    The two foxes left him, and he stripped down
and jumped in, shocking himself with the cold. But in a few minutes
he was tingling warm. He scrubbed and splashed and was so enjoying
himself he didn’t see the cubs until they were all around the pool,
patting and slapping at the water, yipping and laughing at him.
Then the bravest one dove in and had a fine swim, and by the time
Pixen and Renata returned, Teb had dried himself and the cubs on
the soft rabbit skin Renata had left him. The cubs were asleep
again in a tangle near the pool, underneath the ferns. Renata
licked them lightly, then touched Teb’s hand with her nose.
    “Would you like to see the rest of the
den?”
    She led him behind the sleeping alcove and
through a small arch, and they were in a dim corridor with six
small caves opening from it. “Two are escape entrances,” she said.
“They lead to other clusters of dens and out a secret way.”
    There were two storage dens for food. In
one, little carcasses of rabbits and mice and squirrels, none of
them speaking animals, had been laid to dry, and there were mounds
of hazelnuts. In the other were stores of blueberries and
bayberries and sweet nettle leaves, and heaps of dried mushrooms
and wild apples and plums. Beyond these rooms was a room for curing
hides, and then a latrine room, with a pit that could be covered
with earth, and another dug. When they returned to the central
cave, the cubs were awake and playing again. They raced at Teb and
circled him, yapping sharply, nipping at his legs and toes. He
knelt and gathered them in, furry and squirming, and in their
delight they toppled him so he lay sprawled with them on top.
    Renata drove them off, scolding, and they
sat in a row, obedient to her but with sly little grins on their
faces. “Go play in the common,” she said at last, shaking her head
at them. And then they were gone, flicking their tails. “Now come,
Tebriel, we will make a meal, and then we will take you on through
the warrens, to the secret portal.”
    She lowered her glance and nosed the chain
on his leg. “There is no way we can help you with that. It must be
terrible to have a chain on your leg.”
    “It’s better than two chains, the way they
did it in my cell. If—when I get to Bleven, to the cottage of
Merlther Brish, I expect he can get it off.”
    There were apples and plums and hazelnuts
for supper, blueberries and nettle leaves, and a dried pheasant.
Teb added his bread and cheese and the rest of the mutton, and the
foxes enjoyed the new foods as much as Teb enjoyed the fresh
fruits, which he had seen little of in the palace.
    “Will Merlther Brish take good care of you,
Tebriel?” Renata’s ears were back, as if she would challenge poor
Merlther to do just that. “Will he feed you well, and
. . . will he love you?”
    “I expect he will feed me well. And hide me.
I don’t know about the love, though,” Teb said, embarrassed. “I
think I would settle for just being safe from Sivich for a
while.”
    Renata laid her head against Teb’s arm. “It
is ugly not to be loved. Your mother loved you very much, as did
your father.” Then she looked up at him. “And what of Camery? Where
is your sister, Camery?”
    “She is in the tower, and captive,” Teb
said, and before he knew it he was telling her about the talk in
the hall, all about the sighting of the dragon, though, of course,
Pixen had heard it all before, and how Sivich meant to use him as
bait to trap the dragon and meant to use Camery to