Hero thought his heart would pop out of his chest as each student was taken into the room they shared and placed next to their bunks. Then Head Mistress had her agents rip the bunks apart. When nothing was found they went into the next room and the process repeated.

                     "Hero," Awash said behind the leopard prince.

                     "I know," Hero said when they next came to their room. "Don't worry about me, just look after Maringa."

                     "Quiet!" One of the agents, a silver fox barked.

                     Hero and Awash and the others stood at their bunks and the search began. The mattresses and sheets were thrown onto the floor and the pillows were torn open. Hero looked at Siloam standing in the doorway. He was starting to regret trusting her. Just how much of the letters had she seen the other night?

                     Cotton danced around his paws as his pillow was slit open and his mattress turned over. The silver fox agent even got down on his belly and searched the underside of the bunk. He got up and shook his head at the Head Mistress. "This room is clear."

                     Hero was suddenly aware that he was breathing as the agents kicked though the piles of cotton and left the room.

                     "Clean this mess up," Head Mistress said and moved on to the next room.

                     Awash and the other students picked up their things and started straightening the room. Hero felt under the bunk and behind the bed at the wall. Where were his letters? Awash was suddenly at his side.

                     "They're not here," Hero said to him

                     Awash picked up what remained of his pillow. The girls would have a lot of sewing cut out for them. "You've got angels watching over you, pal."

/

                     Lessons did not resume for the rest of the day and Hero went into the library. He seldom found anything to read but today it was the warmest room in the house. He was surprised to find Siloam there reading a book.

                     "Hero," She gasped when she saw him. "I'm so sorry about your letters."

                     Hero joined her at the table. "She didn't find them," Hero said. "And now nor can I."

                     "I know," Siloam said and Hero frowned. "I stole them."

                     "You what?"

                     "Hear me out," Siloam said. "Head Mistress made that up about the notepad. I was there when she and another teacher hatched the plan. They just wanted to weed out any last minutes flaws before auction. I remembered seeing the letters on your bed that night. I stole them, Hero and I burned them. You have no idea what she would have done to you...and maybe your whole room if she had known."

                     Hero looked down, once again feeling reckless. "Well...thank you, Siloam."

                     "You're welcome, Hero, but no more writing letters. They want us to forget our lives before we came here. I've learned to only show it in here." She tapped her temple. "And you should too." She smiled. "Though Head Mistress has her compliments about you. She says you are a model student."

                     "Yuck." Hero gagged and Siloam laughed.

                     "This may work out in your favor someday," Siloam said. "I'm waiting for mine to come just the same." She lowered her voice. "When this empire falls and the right order is restored, I plan to be here and I plan to be on the right side. Long live King Heilong."

                     "And long live King Saber," Hero said then felt a stab of pain.

                     "Are you alright?" the young goat asked.

                     "Yes." Hero said quickly. "It's just my..fa...I mean my king. He was captured by the Mounts some months ago. We don't know what happened to him."

                     "Oh," Siloam said, "I see. Well odds are he ended up in the mines or quarries. That's what they do with most prisoners of war. I only hope he didn't end up in the..."

                     "But what if he did?" Hero asked through his pain. "Nagorins are nothing but savages to the Mounts. What if he was...selected."

                     Siloam looked down. "Gosh Hero, I'm sorry. There's no way of knowing unless you went there yourself." She reached across the table and touched his spotted paw. "If it's any consolation, all of us are alone here."

                     Hero looked into her violet eyes and smiled when she did. He would have to accept that his life would never be as it was again.

/

                     Munich Kassel looked through the smoke at his cousin who sat at the other end of the table. He could hear his daughters running up and down the hall as their eldest sister tried on her new robes for the winter gala.

                     "Something is on your mind?" Roman Kasper said after taking a long drag on his cigarette. "Really cousin," He shook his head, "Why didn't you welcome me in the Imperial City?"

                     "No one informed me you were coming," Munich said then coughed violently. "Roman, please, my lungs."

                     Roman causally stamped out his cigarette as his wife entered the room. She had a pinto coat as well did her two youngest daughters. The oldest entering with her now, had her father's coloring but her mother's brown eyes.

                     "Roman, look at your girl, isn't she beautiful?" Lady Kasper exclaimed.

                     Their daughter danced into the room in her lilac sash and ribbons. Her flaxen mane was done up. "At the gala, I'm going to put jasmine in it!" The filly said.

                     "You look like a princess!" Her youngest sister, only eight years said. She was holding a puma doll that her father had only recently given her.

                     "I can't wait for my turn." The thirteen year old added.

                     "Isca you will be the envy of the ball." Roman said and kissed his daughter.

                     "Thanks, Daddy!" Isca grinned. "What do you think Cousin Munich?"

                     Munich smiled. "You look nice," he said.

                     "Will you be at the gala?" Lady Kasper asked him. "You could use the fun. All of high society will be there."

                     "You forget My Lady, I am not high society, I'm just a country boy."

                     Roman laughed. "Really, Munny, you are hopeless." He put his arm around his wife.

                      "What you need is a girl who knows how to party, that ought to livin' you up," Isca said.

                     "I don't see what's wrong with my niece." Lady Kasper said. "She's well grounded and not at all spacey like this one here."  She nodded to her daughter.

                     "Last I heard she had her eyes on someone else," Munich said and was thankful that this was the truth.

                     "I don't believe you think I'm spacey," Isca protested.

                     "Here's an idea." Roman Kasper chimed in. "You come with us to the gala and meet some of Isca's friends."

                     "Daddy!"

                     "Isca's friends?" Munich frowned. "You mean the girls I used to babysit?"

                     "Well, they've grown up, Munny," Roman said putting his free arm around his daughter. "And you should think about carrying on your name as the son of my father's half brother."

                     His wife and daughter laughed.

                     "But really father, Cousin Munich won't like any of my friends and they'll say he's boring."

                     "I'm afraid Isca is right," Munich said. "Besides I have too much to do, I'll never be free."

                     "What business exactly?" Lady Kasper asked.

                     "Affairs with the camps." Munich said. "Someone has to hold down the fort while the great Roman Kasper is away."

                     Lady Kasper laughed. "Well that's too bad Munich because I for one think you would enjoy it." She left the table and exited into the living room.

                     "Well I'm going to get undressed before I ruin my clothes," Isca said and skipped from the room calling for her servants and little sisters to help her.

                     Munich Kassel looked over at his cousin who watched his daughter with admiration.

                      "I'll miss her when she moves away," he said.

                     Munich forced a smile. His Cousin was a cruel General. Isca coming of age had calmed him considerably. "Well I need to get going." He got up from the table. "Thanks for dinner."

                     "Sure," Roman said, "Try not to work yourself to death Munny, you're my only cousin after all."

                     "Yes, Sir." Munich said nodding his head deeply. He left the house as quickly as he could. Despite his devotion to the Empire, General Roman Kasper had built his home outside the Imperial City. Many animals had since built their dwellings nearby and the Kasper mansion stood out like a small palace among them, aglow in the evening.

                     It was hours before Munich reached his quiet country home. He was happy to be back; away from the camps for the time being. He checked the mail and flipped through it before depositing it on the small round kitchen table. The house was completely dark and quiet. Unlike his cousin's house there was no wife to greet him or children to pull on him and asks for gifts from afar.

                     "Is that you, Master?" a small voice interrupted his thoughts.

                     Munich turned around and faced the door leading out of the kitchen and saw Ortensia.

                     "Welcome home, master. Shall I run you a bath?"

                     "Thank you that would be nice," he said and the little leopard girl dismissed herself. That was it. That was the closest thing he had to a welcome home. His father had died in Carn and his mother long walked out on them when he was a colt. All he had was a slave girl his cousin had forced on him and all she ever did was what she was told.

                     After a few minutes he went into the bathroom where she was humming a tune and stirring hot water in with the cold.

                     "What are you singing?" he asked and she spun around.

                     "I am sorry, Master." Ortensia said. "I forget it is against the rules to sing foreign tunes." She lowered her head and her voice. "I am sorry."

                     "It's alright." Munich said removing his muddy shipping boots. This time of year though the river was nearly frozen its road was muddy and dipped and rose in all places. One would be in trouble trying to pull a wagon on the river road so they walked.

                     "Shall I take your coat?" Ortensia asked, suddenly in front of him. She slowly helped him out of it and he had to smile at how it dragged on the floor from her small height. "I'll clean this," she said indicating the traces of mud on the hem.

                     When she had gone Munich sunk into his bath and stayed there in deep thought until the water turned cold. When he had dressed for the night he was surprised to find a light on up the hall as it was late.

                      Entering into the small room that Ortensia occupied he found her slumped against the wall on her mat. That too had been provided by his cousin who, when he brought Ortensia to him, had told him: here is where it sleeps there is where it will eat and when it gets testy, beat it.

                     Seeing her against the wall made him feel guilty as she was most likely waiting up for him to give her further orders. He laid her down on the mat and put the blanket over her. Watching her sleep he wondered where she went in her dreams. Back home perhaps, with her family who was slain by his countrymen. Feeling a terrible stab of remorse he shut out the light and the thoughts from his mind.