extracted information from you. Then, you see, as my lions haven't the time or resources for prisoners, we will eventually have to find some way to get rid of you both . . . '

Bamoma gave such a growl that had never been heard from his lips and he took a step towards Obbler. The Emperor, however, gave a single sweep of his tail and the captives, including Lagiza's lioness follower, were beatne back.

'Take them away.'

Bamoma and Rileigh were hauled away to imprisonment, along with Lagiza's warrior.


'Obbler, dear,' said Safi, when all but Romy and Emillia had left the cave. The Queen's voice was heavy and serious, her eyes narrowed. 'I am bothered by Lagiza's attack.'

'As I am,' Romy put in. She'd been standing with Emillia by the cave entrance, watching as the traitors Bamoma and Rileigh were taken away - the sisters felt a mixture of sadness, shock and a heavy pang anger at the treachery. Part of them wondered if it were possible. The bard and his mate had seemed perfectly innocent. However, the two Princesses were experienced in the horrors of war; they knew there were always traitors. Romy shook her head and turned away. She crept up to her wounded father and putting a paw over his maned neck, nuzzled into that mass of majestic silver, just like she used to do as a cub when in need of comfort; it was something she seldom did now. 

'Father, the attack . . . It was foolish thing for them to do. They were outnumbered ten to one, even before you arrived. Wouldn't they know the camp would be full of us?'

Emillia came up and nodded. 'Yes. Wasn't it all a bit . . . wild?'

'Of course it was,' growled Obbler, flinching as speaking wrinkled the wound on his head and made it sting. 'They're barbarians - what would you expect? They're thoughtless fools who don't understand the might of the Stone Lions and made an foolish move.' Obbler gave a laugh. 'If Jafiya has them on his side, I wish him luck!'

'So you don't think there was anything behind it?' Safi asked, looking very doubtful. 'You don't think it was a distraction, my love, used to take our attention away from something else?'

'It was an idiotic scheme devised by Lagiza for no reason whatsoever!' snapped Obbler. Rage sparked in his yellow eyes as he rose to his feet. The spark was stubborness, stubborness of a King who was confident and whose words were not to be doubted. With that same glimmer came the threat of terrible rage. 'If anything the act completely blew their spies' cover! Bamoma and Rileigh have been found out. Oh, we won't be defeated. We have the Whitebacks on our side, and the Pridelanders have had a change of heart - isn't that so, Romy?' Obbler wheeled upon his daughter.

'Yes, father, Kari promised to - '

'Then we are undefeatable!' growled Obbler. 'We many not have as many fighters as we used to but our forces are uncountable compared to Jafiya and Jet's titchy few, even if they have trash like Lagiza's barbarians on their side. We will not be defeated,' repeated Obbler. 'I have good news. One my patrol I questioned the lookout parties along all borders. There have been no attacks form the rogues!'

Romy had forgotten the rogues. She looked surprised. 'None?'

'Not since the Whitebacks agreed to help,' said Obbler triumphantly. 'See, they were scared off! Hah! That or they've chosen to pick fights with Jafiya's hoards. Fools, we're up against fools. Jafiya makes idiotic decisions . . . . We will not be defeated!'

CHAPTER V

'No, no, no!' Ukula's voice held a terribly tired note. She hung her grey head, shaking it at the three young lionesses who stood, all dirty with mud and some bleeding scratches, before her. . . 

There was Sula, Jafiya and Jet's eldest daughter, the very picture of her mother save having pure golden eyes and no silver markings - she also had an unusually bushy end to her long tail, which twitched back and forth irately; there was Olea, with her chestnut, dark-spotted fur, her worried green eyes and huge ears that now seemed to flop with disappointment at herself; and there was little, round, pale brown Kabi, standing awkwardly with her slightly-oversized paws turned in and biting her lip at her adoptive mother's exasperation.

'Sorry, Ukula,' mumbled the trio.

'Clean yourselves up,' Ukula ordered with a sigh and, as the three young ladies set to following her demand, licking the grime off their fur, she continued to berate them.

'Hunting and battle tactics are not to be muddled!' she said in very pompous tone. 'There's a huge difference between the hunting pounce and that used in fighting! You - '

'What is the difference?' Sula chimed, her tongue sticking out, mid-lick. She got a glare from Ukula for interrupting; but the young black lioness wasn't arguing. She was genuinely baffled and eager to learn, for no-one in Jafiya and Jet's little pride was a keen on hunting as Sula. Battle technique was just an extension of hunting - or so she'd thought. According to Ukula, attacking en mass as you might an antelope was not the way to handle an enemy lion.

'There's a huge difference,' repeated Ukula huffily. 'Now, just look at Rin!'  She gestured to a ginger-furred lioness with a white ruff of white about her neck, who was standing a little way off, covered in bites and claw marks and dirt. 'Look, just look, at what you three did to her, ambushing her like that.'

'I'm alright!' said Rin, grinning ruefully and showing a cut lip. 'My brother Ave and I played rougher than that when we were younger . . .'

'You must tackle your chosen enemy one-on-one!' went on Ukula, ignoring Rin reassurances. 'For in war - oh, wash behind your ears, Kabi, there's about a ton of mud there - for in a war, there's no point if many go for one target! Your foe will always have friends to get them out of their plight! They won't be like wildebeest or antelope, who care only for themselves and won't help a herd-mate who is being attacked! No, no, no, no, NO! Don't waste your energy all going for one adversary, because there's always another . . .' 

'Is everything alright, Ukula?'  Queen Jet, walking up to the five lionesses, waited for a gap in Ukula's speech to make herself heard. The black lioness, heavily pregnant, stood smiling at the dejected expressions on Sula, Olea and Kabi's faces. She then looked a little bewildered at Rin's bedraggled appearance. 

'I'm alright!' said Rin, before Jet could ask.

'Is anything right, you mean.' Ukula sighed. 'Oh, your highness, I don't know what to do with these three! I mean I give up! I don't think they'll be ready for the war when it starts. If you ask me, Sula's been filling the other girls' heads with her obsession of hunting, so there's no room for anything else!'

'Leave them to me, Ukula,' soothed Jet. 'I just came to ask you if you would be so good as to welcome the rogues, as you promised - they've come to be organized into battle groups. I hope they won't be too unruly for you.'

'Hmmph. There's few that that are more unruly than these girls,' said Ukula, eyeing Sula and the other young lionesses. 'The rogues will be a dream to deal with in comparision . . .  on;t overstrain yourself, Jet!' Ukula stalked off, muttering.

'Ukula doesn't really mean it,' said Kabi softly.

'No, she doesn't,' agreed Jet, nuzzling her daughter Sula. 'Her bark's worse than her bite, but that's simply the way she is. She cares for you all, really.'

'I'm just confused, Mama!' Sula wailed. 'Hunting and fighting - is there a difference?'

'In ways there's no difference,' said Jet softly. 'But Ukula's right - in other ways, it's very different. Very different indeed.'

'We're rubbish,' sighed Olea. 'Else we'd be with Sula's siblings Jot and Kyra, spying out the Stone Lands!'

'They weren't sent because they were any better than you,' said Jet, frowning. She recalled Jot's mistake with the markers, his eagerness to please and his tendency to take blame upon himself. Kyra, his sister, was also prone to acting spoiled. 'They went because they were given a chance to prove themselves, and to learn something.' 

Rin sat down with a huff, flexing one of her front legs, which was riddled with healed scars. 'That's right, girls! Don't. Glorify. Spying!' she said. 'If you remember, I had to be sent back from my mission with Ave, after Obbler's allies the Whiteback's mauled my leg!' She snorted. 'War's not as cool as you think.'

Sula frowned thoughtfully. 'Then what can we do here, Mama?' she asked. 'What do you think we can do?'

'Prepare and train,' replied Jet. ' You girls will do your bit when the real war comes. Ukula's got a lot on her mind and paws, and at her age her patience runs dry quickly on rumbuncious young ladies like you . . . I'll teach to fight.  Come on. No, don't worry about me, the cub's not due for a while. Let's train . . . '

For two hours, Jet drilled all the young lionesses, teaching them what she knew. She was a expert at fighting, shown by her alacrity and skill, which was only a little encumbered by her pregnant state. She grappled one-to-one with each of her trainees in