Chapter 5 Medicine for mother

Jojo

My mother is hot on her bed, so I pour cold water into a bowl, soak a towel in it and bring it up to massage her feverish forehead.

I suppose she's sick from stress. "You should close your eyes and get some sleep, Madam Mia."

"What I need," she replies from a dry throat, "is medicine, Jojo."

Medicine? She should know better. Slaves like us dont get medicine. The foxes can afford to lose as much slaves as they want since our population keeps rising. If they cannot kill us through unnecessarily difficult labor at the wall construction site, then they can do it by not giving us medicine.

"You'll find healing herbs in the valley at the foot of the palace," Madam Mia says and blinks weakly. "Watch out for a plant whose flowers have pink petals and purple stalks. Pluck the leaves from the plant and bring them to me."

"That portion of the field belongs to the queen," I object. "I dont have access."

"Most of the guards are out at the wall construction site," says Madam Mia. "Try not to get caught.'

At once, without further ado, I pick up a cloth and hang it over my head to serve as cover. Then I pick a little basket and make to leave. But Madam Mia holds my fingers and says, "Be careful, Jojo. Come back to me in one piece."

I bend to kiss her and start walking out of the palace underground, which is a wide space with lots of double bunks arranged in rows and columns like we're in prison. Only Madam Mia and I are currently here though-every other slaves are out at the construction site working.

I wander out into quite a few dimly lit corridors. Out of the blues, I sight three fox guards approaching from a hallway so I step aside and duck safely behind the shadow of a thick pillar. Even though I'm a slave in it, this palace has been my home for seventeen years, so I know its nooks and crannies as if they are the lines of my open palms. I remain behind the pillar until the guards have passed along, then I step out onto the corridor to continue my quest. At the exit that leads out into the open, a fat lazy fox sits on a wobbly chair, his bald head corked forward while he sleeps on duty. So I take off my slippers and tiptoe on bare toes in an attempt to ghost-walk past him.

Eventually, I'm at the exit and stroll into a bright sunlight.

The garden is a minute walk from here. Already, I can see it in the valley before me, just behind the palace. If one looks up well enough, you'll be able to see the balcony of the fox prince's apartment. I am not sure he'll be home now. We left him at the building site.

I focus on the valley ahead. Truth be told, what Madam Mia needs aren't those herbs.

What she needs are her powers. She shouldn't be sick in the first place. White witches like Madam Mia are meant to self-heal. Even if you pierce them with an arrow, their wounds close up in nanoseconds. But Madam Mia can no longer do all of these because the queens supreme power has rendered us useless.

It is simple.

To get our powers back, the fox queen has to die.

But how?

I've asked Madam Mia multiple times. How do we kill the queen?

Of course, we've all accepted that she's powerful and invincible. But she's gotta have one weakness somewhere, a tiny fault we can exploit. What's the queen's Achilles' heels, Madam Mia?

Madam Mia said. "The queen doesn't necessarily have to die. She only needs to be absent from the fox realm and we'll regain our powers."

"That simple? I asked but remembered another fact. "The queen," I objected to Madam Mia, "has actually been absent several times from the fox realm!"

It is generally known that the fox queen takes frequent trips to earth because she has a cult of human worshippers there. They build edifices and raise images to her honor, organizing religious services in her name, bowing down to worship her molded statue. So the fox queen herself descends from the spirit fox realm wearing mortal flesh, taking whatever shape she wants and visiting her worshippers individually in their times of need.

"You didn't allow me finish," said Madam Mia. "We don't regain our powers in her absence because the queen has a golden rod which she has infused her powers into. This rod stands on her behalf when she isn't around. Its simply a wand with a scary-shaped fox head and is securely hidden in the innermost chambers of the palace, just behind the Queen's own living chambers so that only she has access. If this rod is stolen and buried in the sand when the queen is away on her earthly duties, every slave will regain their strength well enough to bring the entire fox kingdom on its knees before the queen returns. Then perhaps we can all gather as a warring unit to face the queen squarely. I doubt she can suppress our magic under such unity of purpose."

After a minute of walking, finally I'm at the valley of flowers.

There are fox maids sitting under the shades of tall shrubs. I avoid them by going around.

Without wasting too much time, I spot the plant that has pink petals and purple stalk, and I bend to start plucking the leaves into my little basket.

All the while though, my sixth sense tells me I'm being watched. But then I am well hidden from the gossiping field workers. Something tells to perhaps to look up, and I listened to that thing.

My heart skips a beat and starts racing to compensate for the skip.

Up there on the fox prince's balcony is the prince himself, Prince Vaughn, staring down at me.

For how long has he been doing that?

Without thinking, I kneel on the wet grass beneath me in reverence, eventually raising my head to look up at him. But he gestures with both his hands that I should get up.

I'm not sure the leaves in my basket are enough for Madam Mia, yet I decide it is time to leave.

Without giving the prince a final look, I shuffle away quickly out of the valley, not minding if anyone else sees me this time around. I mean, if the fox prince himself has caught me plucking leaves from the queen's garden and has done nothing, then I could just tell that to anyone else that catches me with the leaves in the basket, although at the end of the day, no one does catch me. The fat fox at the entrance, as expected, is snoring on his seat.

I enter the entrance and pace through the dimly lit corridors till I get to the double doors leading straight to the underground. I heave a sigh of relief and stroll in to see Madam Mia very much asleep on her bed, and I drop the basket beside her and breathe out.

It has been a long day.