#pg 3

“Chickens!” The fae king said. “By a loophole in your wording.lever, I’ll admit it. But against us, Valko? Who have employed you and cared for you all of these years? When all we asked for was one, tiny, little thing in return? Something we have tried so hard, longed for? You could have stolen one.”

“We have shown you every kindness, my Valko, my wolf,” Queen Liita said, her voice nestling again in his brain like lips on skin.

“You have, my lieges.”

His mouth was dry. They had given him a home. They had given him a name. They had let him choose what to do, who to be, when he had been lost and wandering. He had chosen to serve them, surely of his own free will even with their eyes aglow and their mind powers at work. He had chosen to be beside them. And he had treated them like this.

“And you give us chickens?” Queen Liita’s voice grated on his ears now. Like fingernails digging into flesh. 

He quaked. There had been a reason, but here, wanting to serve them, he could not remember it. “I did,” he whispered.

The susurration of the court rose. He had admitted his guilt twice before all of their unworthy eyes, all of their shameless countenances. He hated them. They had made each step of his journey to serve the royals worse, from dogging his steps to mocking what he was. He wanted to rip them apart as the susurration became jeers. 

“And you cannot walk away from this unpunished. I am so, so angry with you, Valko.” King Mifispectuus said, his voice booming across the crowd. “You have hurt me. This wound needs time to fester, to heal, for me to figure out what to do with you.”

Queen Liita drifted down closer. Her knee was within reach. Valko did not move. “But we can’t let you walk away right now scott-free. Not after leaving. Not after tricking us, abusing our trust. Which is why you deserve this one punishment now, as part of your overall punishment.”

“They say,” Mifispectuus said, his voice quieter, more somber. Like he was talking straight to Valko, right in the ear. “That you can tell a liar by his nose.”

Valko’s ears lay back. His nose. It was only fair, but his nose? His nose-

Both royals raised their hands, and with their index fingers pointed forward and filled with life, with light, with change- it hit. Right in the muzzle, warm and hot and stinging.

It stung. It itched.

It swelled.

Valko whined. His nose! His muzzle.

“For your crimes against us, you will carry the mark of a liar on your nose!” King Mifispectuus cried, his arms outspun to the roaring crowd. “Your nose will tell everyone where you go that you are a liar, that you cannot be trusted.”

“I did not-” His voice sounded tinny in his ears. His hands moved up, touching the bloated thing on his face. His muzzle was round, puffed out like he had been stung by too many bees. He frowned, aching. “I do not lie-”

Queen Liita spun on him, her eyes glowing so bright they were like suns. “You have lied to us! To us, Valko! You have lied. And you will escort yourself to the dungeons to await further decisions on what we do with you.”

Unbidden by himself, he stood with his nose stinging and felt his legs turn him around. They lead him down, down through the tree with only one thought in his mind.

He had to get to the dungeons. He had to await his fate. His King and Queen were wonderful to punish him so.