Raising Beast Cubs to Find a Husband-Chapter 111: The Moon Gate

Day two of the Journey.

The Sleigh finally skidded to a halt.

They had reached the end of the line. Quite literally.

The path through the Whispering Mountains simply... stopped. There was no valley, no winding road, and certainly no magical Fox Sanctuary. There was only a sheer, vertical drop into a cloudy abyss that looked bottomless.

Lord Rurik, having shifted back into his human form, collapsed into a snowbank, panting steam like a locomotive.

"I am..." Rurik wheezed, "deceased. My legs... are jelly. I demand steak. I demand a massage. I demand to know why the road ended!"

Archduke Cassian stepped out of the driver’s seat, adjusting his wind-blown robes. He walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He dropped a pebble.

They waited.

And waited.

And waited.

They never heard it hit the bottom.

"Terminal velocity achieved," Cassian noted dryly. "If we proceed, the result is splat."

Primrose helped Caspian out of the sleigh. The King was worse today. His eyes were unfocused, darting around at things that weren’t there. He gripped Primrose’s arm so tightly his knuckles were white.

"The Void..." Caspian whispered, staring at a harmless rock. "It has teeth."

"It’s just a rock, Caspian," Primrose soothed, rubbing his back. "Just a rock."

General Rajah paced the edge of the cliff, his hand on his sword hilt.

"This is incorrect," Rajah growled. "The map says the Sanctuary is here. Foxes are tricksters, but they cannot delete a mountain."

"Perhaps it is invisible?" Duke Lucien suggested, stepping out of the shadows. "Like my patience for this cold."

Rurik stood up. "If it is hidden, I will reveal it!"

He marched up to the solid rock wall on their left.

"OPEN!" Rurik roared. He punched the mountain.

THWACK.

The mountain did not open. Rurik’s hand, however, made a crunchy sound.

"Ow," Rurik whispered, clutching his fist. "The mountain is very hard."

"Inefficient," Cassian sighed. "Jasper could have calculated the density for you. We are at a deadlock."

Primrose looked at the dead end. She felt a heavy weight in her pocket.

The Key.

She pulled out the rusted, skull-shaped iron key that Jax had given her. It didn’t look like a key that opened a door; it looked like a key that opened a crypt.

"Jax said the Foxes don’t like visitors," Primrose murmured. "He said this opens the Moon Gate."

She held the key up.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe you turn it?" Rurik suggested, nursing his hand.

Primrose held the key up to her eye, peering through the empty eye socket of the skull like a lens.

The world shifted.

Through the iron ring, the grey sky turned a vibrant, twilight purple. The clouds below the cliff vanished. And stretching out from the ledge—straight into the empty air—was a bridge.

It wasn’t made of wood or stone. It was made of floating, translucent blue fire, weaving together like a complex illusion.

"I see it," Primrose gasped. "It’s a bridge. But... it’s invisible."

She lowered the key. The bridge vanished. She raised it. The bridge appeared.

"Where?" Rajah asked, squinting.

"Right there," Primrose pointed at the empty air over the drop. "We have to walk off the cliff."

The Four Warlords stared at the empty space. Then they stared at Primrose.

"No," Cassian said immediately. "That violates the laws of gravity. I am a man of science and magic. Gravity is not a suggestion; it is a law. I refuse to plummet."

"It’s an illusion!" Primrose argued. "The cliff is the lie. The bridge is the truth. You have to trust me."

"Primrose," Rajah said gently, as if speaking to a confused child. "You want us to step into a bottomless pit based on a Fox’s prank?"

"I am not walking on air," Rurik crossed his arms. "I am heavy. I will fall fast."

"We don’t have a choice!" Primrose shouted, pointing at Caspian.

The King had collapsed into the snow again. He was shivering, his breath coming in shallow gasps.

"He’s fading," Primrose said, her voice cracking. "If we stay here debating physics, he dies. We walk. Now."

She grabbed the terrified Warlords by their sleeves.

"Form a line!" she ordered, channeling her inner Nanny. "Hold hands! We are doing the Buddy System!"

The Warlords looked at each other with pure horror.

"I do not hold hands," Lucien hissed.

"Hold the hand or fall into the abyss, Duke," Primrose snapped.

It was the most ridiculous procession in Imperial history.

Primrose took the lead, holding the Key in one hand and Caspian’s hand in the other.

Caspian held onto Rajah.

Rajah held onto Cassian.

Cassian held onto Lucien (barely touching fingertips).

And Rurik brought up the rear, gripping Lucien’s coat like a lifeline.

"Okay," Primrose took a deep breath. "On three. One. Two. Three."

She stepped off the ledge.

The Warlords screamed. (Well, Rurik screamed. Cassian made a dignified squeak. Rajah swore. Lucien was silent.)

Her foot didn’t hit empty air. It hit something solid, cold, and humming with energy.

She stood there, hovering over the abyss.

"See?" she called back. "It’s solid!"

"It feels like jelly!" Rurik yelled from the back. "I hate jelly!"

"Keep moving!" Primrose ordered.

They shuffled forward.

For Primrose, looking through the key, the path was clear. A glowing blue road.

But for the Warlords, who didn’t have the key, they were literally walking on nothing. Below their boots was a thousand-foot drop.

"Do not look down," Cassian chanted to himself. "Looking down alters the equilibrium. Look at the General’s cape. It is orange. Orange is a solid color."

"Stop breathing on my neck, Snake," Rajah growled, though his grip on Caspian was iron-tight.

For Caspian, the walk was different.

He wasn’t seeing the cliff. He wasn’t seeing the bridge.

The Void corruption was twisting his vision. The empty air was filled with writhing, black tentacles. The sky was bleeding red. And the people holding him... they looked like skeletons.

"Primrose..." Caspian whimpered, stopping in the middle of the bridge. "There are... monsters."

"No monsters," Primrose squeezed his hand. "Just us. Just the Pack."

"The darkness," Caspian stared into the abyss. "It wants me to jump."

He swayed. He leaned toward the edge.

"WOAH!" Rurik yelled, as the whole line wobbled.

"Caspian, look at me!" Primrose shouted. She stopped and turned, grabbing his face with both hands.

"Don’t look at the dark," she commanded, forcing his teal eyes to meet hers. "Look at me. Remember the snow? Remember the dance?"

Caspian blinked. The red sky faded slightly. He saw her brown eyes. He saw the glittery mug she had strapped to her belt.

"The dance," he rasped. "You stepped on my foot."

"Focus on that," Primrose smiled weakly. "Focus on how clumsy I am. Just follow me."

Caspian nodded slowly. "I follow... the Nanny."

They shuffled the last ten yards.

"Almost there!" Primrose called. "Rurik, stop whimpering!"

"It is a manly battle cry!" Rurik argued, his voice an octave higher than usual.

Finally, Primrose stepped onto the ledge on the other side. She pulled Caspian up. Then Rajah. Then the rest of the dominoes tumbled onto solid ground.

They collapsed in a heap of tangled limbs and heavy coats.

"Solid ground," Cassian kissed the rock. "I love you, dirt. I love you, geology."

"Never again," Lucien dusted himself off. "Shadows should remain on walls, not in the sky."

Primrose stood up and walked to the rock face. Now that they had crossed the illusion, the Moon Gate was visible.

It was a massive, circular stone door, carved with hundreds of laughing foxes. There was no handle. Just a single, skull-shaped indentation in the center.

Primrose inserted the key.

CLICK.

The ground rumbled. The stone foxes seemed to wink. The massive door groaned and began to roll aside, revealing a tunnel lit by soft, bioluminescent moss.

Warm air rushed out, smelling of sulfur, cherry blossoms, and magic.

"Welcome," Primrose said, turning to her traumatized team, "to the Fox Sanctuary."

General Rajah stood up and sheathed his sword. He looked at the tunnel, then back at the invisible bridge they had just crossed.

"If we have to go back that way," Rajah muttered, "I am buying a parachute."

"Agreed," the other three Warlords said in unison.

Caspian leaned against the wall, a faint color returning to his cheeks. "The Void is quieter here," he whispered.

"That’s because we’re safe," Primrose said, hoping it was true.

She pocketed the key.

"Let’s go meet the folks."