Feline Wizards - To Visit The Queen Part 2

aItas old here,a Arhu said. His ears went forward, and then back again, and kept doing that, as if he was was trying to listen to a lot of things at once ... things that made him nervous.

aItas old in New York, too,a Urruah said.

aYeah, but not like this ... a aItas the ehhif,a Rhiow said. aTheyave been here so long ... first thousands, then hundreds of thousands of them, then millions, all denning on the two sides of this river. A thousand years now, and more ... a aThereas more to it than that,a Arhu said. He was staring at the Tower. aI smell blood ... a aYes,a said a big deep voice behind them. aSo do we ... a They turned in some surprise, for he had come up behind them very quietly, even for a Person. Rhiow, taking him in at first glance, decided that she should revise her ideas about bigger cats being needed in the world: they were already here. This was without any question one of the biggest cats she had ever seen, not to mention the fluffiest. His fur, mostly black on his back, shaded to a blended silver-brown and then to white on his underparts, with four white feet and a white bib making the dark colors more striking. He had a broad, slightly tabby-striped face with surprisingly delicate-looking slanted green eyes in it, and a nose with a smudge: the splendid plume of gray-black tail held up confidently behind him looked a third the thickness of his body, which was considerable. If this Person was lacking for anything, it wasnat food.

aWe are on errantry,a Rhiow said, aand we greet you.a aWell met on the errand,a said the Person. aIam Huff: I lead the London gating team. And you would be Rhiow?a aSo I would. Huntas luck to you, cousin.a They b.u.mped noses in meeting-courtesy. aAnd here is Urruah, my older teammate: and Arhu, whoas just joined us.a Noses were b.u.mped all around: Arhu was a little hesitant about it at first. aI wonat bite,a Huff said, and indeed it seemed unlikely. Rhiow got an almost immediate impression from him that this was one of those jovial and easy-going souls who regret biting even mice.

aIam sorry to meet you without the rest of the team,a Huff said, abut we had another emergency this morning, and theyare in the middle of handling it. Iall bring you down to them, if youall come with me. Anyway, I thought you might like to see something of the aoutsidea of the gating complex before we got down into the heart of the trouble.a aItas good of you,a Urruah said, falling into step on one side of him, Rhiow pacing along on the other: Arhu brought up the rear, still looking thoughtfully at the Tower. aDid I see right from the history in the Whispering, that the gates actually used to be above ground here, and were relocated?a aThatas right,a Huff said as he plodded along. He led Rhiow and her team through an iron gate in a nearby hedge, and down onto a sunken paved walk which made its way behind that hedge around the busy-street side of the Tower, and into an underpa.s.s leading away under that street. aSee this gra.s.sy area over to the right, the other side of the railings? That was the moat ... but much earlier, before the Imperial people were here, it was a swamp with a cave nearby that led into the old hillside. That was where the first gate formed, when this was just a village of a few mud-and-wattle huts.a aHow come a gate sp.a.w.ned here, then,a Arhu said, aif there were so few ehhif around?a aBecause they were around for two thousand years before the Imperials turned up,a Huff said, aor maybe three. Thereas some argument about the dates. Itas not certain what kept them here at first: some people think the fis.h.i.+ng was good.a Huff put his whiskers forward, and Rhiow got, with some amus.e.m.e.nt, the immediate sense that Huff approved of fish. aWhatever the reason, they stayed, and a gate came, as they tended to do near permanent settlements when the Earth was younger.a He flicked his ears thoughtfully as they all stepped to one side to avoid a crowd of ehhif making their way up to the admission counters near the gateway theyad come in.

aItas had a rocky history, though,a Rhiow said, athis gating complex. So Urruah tells me.a aThatas right,a Huff said, as they turned the corner and now walked parallel to the main street with all the traffic. aThis has always been the heart of London, this hill ... not that thereas that much left of the hill any more. And the heart has had its share of seizures and arrests, I fear, and nearly stopped once or twice. Nonetheless ... everything is still functioning.a aWhat exactly is the problem with the gates at the moment?a Rhiow said.

Huff got a pained look. aOne of them is intermittently converting itself into an unstable timeslide,a he said. aThe other end seems to be anchoring somewhere nearby in the pasta"it has to, after all, you canat have a slide without an anchora"but the times at which itas anchoring seem to be changing without any cause that we can understand.a aHow long has it been doing this?a Urruah said. His eyes had gone rather wide at the mention of the timeslide.

aWeare not absolutely sure,a Huff said. aPossibly for a long time, though only for micro-periods too small to allow anyone to pa.s.s through. In any case, none of the normal monitoring spells caught the gate at it. We only found out last week when Auhlae, thatas my mate, was working on one of the neighboring gates ... and something came out.a aSomething?a Arhu said, looking scared.

aSomeone, actually,a Huff said, glancing over at the Tower as a shriek of childrenas laughter came from somewhere inside it. aIt was an ehhif ... and not a wizardly one. Very frightened ... very confused. He ran through the gate and up and out into the Tube stationa"thatas where our number-four gate is anch.o.r.ed, in the Tower Hill Underground stationa"and out into the night. Right over the turnstiles he went,a Huff added, aand the Queen only knows what the poor ehhif who work there made of it all.a aHave you made any more headway in understanding why this is happening since our meeting was set up?a Rhiow said. She very much hoped so: this all sounded completely bizarre.

But Huff flirted his tail anoa, a slightly annoyed gesture. aNothing would please me better than to tell you that that was the case,a he said.

Rhiow licked her nose. aHuff,a she said, abelieve me when I tell you that weare sorry for your trouble, and we wish we didnat need to be here in the first place.a aThatas very kindly said,a Huff said, turning those green eyes on her: they were somber. aMy team area"well, theyare annoyed, as you might imagine. I appreciate your concern a great deal, indeed I do.a Huff and Rhiowas team turned leftwards into the underpa.s.s, which was full of ehhif heading in various directions, and one ehhif who was tending a small mobile installation festooned with colored scarves and T-s.h.i.+rts: numerous prints of the Tower and other pictures of what Rhiow a.s.sumed were tourist attractions were taped to the walls, and some of what Rhiow a.s.sumed were tourists were studying them. aHuff,a Urruah said, awhat did the gateas logs look like after this ingress?a aMuddled,a Huff said, as they walked through the underpa.s.s, up the ramp on its for side, and fumed toward a set of stairs leading downwards into what Rhiow saw was the ticketing area of the Underground station: above the stairway was the circle-and-bar Underground logo, emblazoned with the words tower hill. aWe found evidence of multiple ingresses of this kind, from different times into ours ... and egresses from ours back to those times. The worst part of it is that only one of those egresses was a areturna: all the others were asinglesa. The ehhif went through, in one direction or another, but they never made it back to their home times ... a Urruahas eyes went wide. aThis way,a Huff said, and led them under one of the turnstiles and off to the right.

Rhiow followed him closely, but Urruahas shocked look was on her mind. aWhat?a she said to him, as Huff leaped up onto the stainless-steel divider between two stairways.

aSingle trips,a Urruah said, following her up. aYou know what that meansa"a Rhiow flirted her tail in acquiescence. It was an uncomfortable image, the poor ehhif trapped in a time not their own, confused, possibly driven mad by the awful turn of events, and certainly thought mad by anyone who ran into thema"But then she started having other things to think about as she followed Huff steeply down. The steel was slippery: the only way you could control your descent was by jumping from one to another of the upthrust steel wedges fastened at intervals to the middle of the divider, almost certainly to keep ehhif in a hurry from using the thing as a slide. Rhiow started to get into the rhythm of this, then almost lost it again as Arhu came down past her, yelling in delight. Various ehhif walking up on one side and down on the other looked curiously for the source of the happy yowling in the middle of the air.

aArhu, look out,a Rhiow said, aoh, look out, for the Queenas sake looka"a It was too late: Arhu had jumped right over the surprised Huff, but had built up so much speed that he couldnat stop himself at the next wedge: he hit it, shot into the air, fell and rolled for several yards, and shot off the end of the divider to fall to the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Rhiow sighed. He was so good there, she thought: ... for about ten minutes ...

She caught up with Huff as he jumped down. aHuff, Iam sorry,a Rhiow said, watching Arhu do an impromptu dance as he tried to avoid crowds of ehhif stepping on him. It was something of a challenge: they were coming at him and making for the stairs from three directions at once. aHeas a little new to all this, and as for being part of a teama"a aOh, itas all right,a Huff said, unconcerned. aOur team has one his age: younger, even. Sheas left us all wondering whether we arenat too old for this kind of work. With any luck, theyall run each other down and give us some peace. Come on, over this way ... a Huff led them from one hallway into another, where several stainless-steel doors were let into the tiled wall. aIn here,a said Huff, and vanished through the door: athrough ita in the literal sense, pa.s.sing straight into the metal with a casual whisk of his tail.

It was a spell that any feline wizard knew, and even some non-wizardly People could do the trick under extreme stress. Rhiow drew the spell-circle in her mind, knotted it closed. Then inside it she sketched out the graphic form of her name, and the temporary set of parameters which reminded her body that it was mostly empty s.p.a.ce, and so was the door, and requested them to avoid one another. Then she walked through after Huff. It was an odd sensation, like feeling the wind ruffling your fur the wrong way: except the fur seemed to be on the insidea"

and she was through, into what looked like a much older area, a brick-lined hallway on the far side of the door, lit by bare bulbs hanging .from the ceiling, all very much different from the clean s.h.i.+ning fluorescent-lit station platform outside.

Rhiow looked over her shoulder, and Urruah came through after her. From the far side of the door, there were a couple of soft b.u.mping noises.

Urruah put his whiskers forward and looked ahead of them at Huff, who had paused to see where they were. aHe has a little trouble with this one sometimes,a Urruah said. b.u.mp, and Arhu abruptly came blooming through the metal, spitting and growling softly to himself. aVhaiad stuff, why doesnat it get out of the way when I tell ita"a aLanguage,a Rhiow said, rather hopelessly: but for the moment, Urruah just laughed. aTelling it wonat help,a he said: ayouave got to ask nicely. Most things in the Universe react positively to that. Sa.s.s them, and they get stubborn.a Arhu threw Urruah an unconvinced look as he padded by him in Huffas wake. Old wooden doors opened into side rooms off this hallway: storerooms, Rhiow thoughta"a smell of electrical equipment and tools hung about the place. aThere are workshops down here,a Huff said: aand thereas an access to the tunnel junction where the Tower Hill stationas tracks run near the access stairs to the Fenchurch Street railway station. Thatas where the number-four gate isa"a He led them down one more stairway, a spiral one this time. It let out onto a small, dimly-lit platform which ran for maybe ten yards along a double line of track, the track stretching away into darkness on both sides. Above the platform hung the faintly glimmering oval of an active gate matrix. In front of it sat three People, one of them up on his haunches and working with the gateas control strings: a youngish tabby torn who, except that his tabbying was marmalade rather than silver and gray, would have reminded Rhiow somewhat of Urruah.

One of the other two turned their heads to look at the new arrivals. She was a slender gray shorthair queen, about Rhiowas own size but slimmer, with the most beautiful eyes Rhiow thought she had ever seen: they were a blue as deep as the skies on one of those perfect autumn days you sometimes got in the City, and the set of them was both indolent and kind. As she looked at Huff, the expression got kinder, and Rhiow knew immediately that the two of them were mates. The fourth Person, apparently concentrating on what the young tabby was doing, didnat move.

aHas it failed again?a Huff said, as they walked toward the others.

aIt tiling well has not,a said the tabby, sounding very annoyed. aBut thatas what youad expect, isnat it, since People are coming to look at it?a Well, so much for any concerns about Arhuas language, Rhiow thought with resignation.

The handsome queen chuckled. aHuff, you werenat really expecting this gate to oblige you, were you? The cranky thing.a aNo, I suppose not ... Rhiow,a Huff said over his shoulder, acome meet Auhlae, my mate.a aYouare very welcome,a Auhlae said, touching noses delicately with Rhiow, aand well met on the errand. And this isa"a aMy older partner Urruah,a Rhiow said: amy younger partner Arhu.a Noses were b.u.mped all round: Rhiow was privately amused to note how shyly Arhu did it. He was apparently not immune to physical beauty in a queen. aAnd this is Fhrioa"a Auhlae said.

aRrrrh,a Fhrio said, a sound of general disgust, and dropped back down to all fours again, turning to the others. aYeah, huntas luck to you, h.e.l.lo there, well met.a He b.u.mped noses peremptorily, then sat down and started in on a serious bout of composure-was.h.i.+ng, the action of a Person so annoyed that he didnat trust his reactions with others for the moment.

aAnd Siffhaah,a said Auhlae.

The smallest of the London team got up, turned away from her single-minded concentration on the gate, and looked at Rhiow and the others. This little queen was maybe a couple of months younger than Arhu, Rhiow thought, and like him, was a huw-rhiw, though a paler one: her coat had much more white than black, and two black aeyebrowa marks over her eyes gave her a humorous look. Her eyes were large, golden and thoughtful, and the look she gave Rhiow was surprisingly mature and measuring for someone who still had most of her milk teeth.

aI greet you,a Rhiow said, aand huntas luck to you.a aYou too,a said Siffhaah, and stepped over to touch noses, first with Rhiow, then with Urruah. Arhu, coming back from nosing Fhrio, met her last: they b.u.mped noses cordially enough, and then, slightly to Rhiowas surprise, Siffhaah repeated the touch. She looked up at Arhu and said, aWhatas that?a aUh, chilli pickle,a Arhu said.

aHhehhh,a Siffhaah said scornfully, nose wrinkled and lips pulled backa"the feline equivalent of an ehhif of tender years saying Euuuu. She turned away, leaving Arhu looking rather stricken.

aI had wondered,a Huff said genially to Arhu. aRemind me to take you along some night when I do Indian.a aHuff has been telling us about your problem,a Rhiow said to Auhlae. aI take it thereas been no improvement.a Fhrio looked up from his heaihh. aIave been trying to get it to fail all morning,a he said, aand I might as well have saved my time. The logs donat give us enough data about what the strictly physical conditions were doing when the last failures occurred. Iam going to have to sit down with the Whisperer and get Her to make me a list.a aThat wonat stop the problem, though,a Siffhaah said. aYouare going to have to shut the gate.a aI would rather not do that,a Fhrio said, and began was.h.i.+ng furiously again.

Auhlae looked over at Rhiow and Urruah with a sympathetic expression. aFhrio is our gating specialist,a she said softly. aHe tends to take these things rather personally.a aI know the feeling,a Urruah said. aWell, do you have any specific recommendations for us? Or should we just start running some diagnostics and see if thereas any data we can add to what youave got already?a aThe only recommendation we have on which weare all in agreement,a said Huff, ais that the gate has to stop functioning as a timeslide: and probably the simplest way to make it do that is to shut it down. But since we donat know how the gateas failing in the first place, we canat guarantee that this will work. It might make our problem worse, by forcing the malfunction to amigratea to another gate in the cl.u.s.ter ... you know how they get asympathetica malfunctions, like organs in a body ... That would be pretty serious, if it happened. Weare having enough trouble with just one of these gates presently out of use for transit: a lot of the Northern European wizards depend on transfers through our cl.u.s.ter for access to the big long-range facilities in Rome and Tokyo. If the difficulty should spread by contagion to one of the othersa"a Rhiow nodded. aI see your problem. Well, probably diagnostics are the way to go at the moment. Any help you might want to give us would be welcome: or if you prefer to leave us to get on with ita"a Fhrio looked up from his was.h.i.+ng. aNo one messes with my gates unless Iam here,a he said, and there was a touch of growl in his voice.

aI would hope youad stay and clue us in on the fine points,a Urruah said. aGates have a lot more personality than a lot of wizards would give them credit for ... and no one knows a gate like its own technician.a aYou sound just like Fhrio,a Siffhaah said, sounding amused. aAre you the best in the business, too?a Urruah was purring, and trying not to do it too loudly. Rhiow and Auhlae exchanged a look of amus.e.m.e.nt of their own.

aThis is the point at which Urruah makes noises of shy agreement,a Rhiow said, aand the safest thing to do under the circ.u.mstances is to make him get to work. Huff, weare entirely at your disposal. Tell us where you want us to start.a aThe diagnostics sound like a good idea,a Huff said, and then yawned, a prodigious yawn that showed every one of his teeth and made Rhiow rea.s.sess her idea that Urruah had the biggest ones shead ever seen. aIam sorry ... itas late for me. Fhrio, if you want to stay with them and keep them from duplicating routines youave already runa"a Fhrio straightened up from his was.h.i.+ng again. aAbsolutely. Maybe the gateall surprise us by failing in the middle of something. At this point, I wouldnat care if it did it in mid-transit.a aOh yes you would,a Siffhaah said. aYou should try it and see. You want me to stay and put the claw in it for you?a aSure. Sheas our power source,a Fhrio said to Rhiow and the others. aThe best in the businessa. a aThis I want to see,a Urruah said mildly. Rhiow shot him a sidewise glance, trying to keep it from being too obviously a warning look. True, queens rarely worked as power sources in team spelling, but there was nothing s.e.x-linked about ita"it seemed to be a preference grounded in the basic nature of the work, which (Urruah had occasionally admitted to Rhiow) was boring by comparison with building the spells themselves. There was a general tendency among People for the females to show more initiative than the males, and to go out of their way to get their paws on the most interesting work.

aYouall excuse me for a moment, then,a Huff said, and headed up the stairs.

Urruah padded over and started examining the gate matrix in detail, with Fhrio looking over his shoulder and making mostly monosyllabic comments. Rhiow watched them, and watched Arhu watching them: being, for the moment, excessively well behaved. It was hard to believe the same youngster had been busy falling down the stairs not twenty minutes ago.

Auhlae came over to sit down beside Rhiow. aWhen it comes to diagnostics,a Auhlae said, sounding weary, athereas no point in me watching whatas happening. I spent all yesterday morning at them, with my teeth clenched so full of strings that they buzzed for the rest of the day ... a She shook her head.

Rhiow waved her tail in agreement. aI feel a bit like a sixth claw myself, at the moment,a she said, and strolled over to the edge of the platform, looking down the tracks into the darkness. From here she could still keep a general eye on what was going on, as Huff headed up the stairs again, and Fhrio turned his attentions back to the gatea"Urruah and Arhu looking over his shoulder, and Siffhaah slipping one foreleg shoulder-deep into the gate matrix to hook her claws into the strings and the spell, supplying the power it would need. aAre most of you denned near here?a Rhiow said, noticing the interested looks that Arhu was throwing in Siffhaahas direction, which Siffhaah was ignoring.

aNot all of us,a Auhlae said, following Rhiowas glance. She put her whiskers forward in a smile. aBut when youare a gating team, there are certain prerequisites ... the Whisperer is hardly going to cavil if we need to use the gates to get to work. Anyway, it keeps us alert to their condition: itas hard to miss something wrong with them, when you use them every day.a Rhiow did not say out loud that someone seemed to have missed something about the anumber-foura gate, repeatedly, no matter how often it was used. But then, if the failure was happening a fraction of a second here, another fraction there, and nothing was actually pa.s.sing through the gate, how was anyone going to notice? It would have taken an obsessively thorough review of the logs to find the occurrencesa"

Which there should have been. That was something else Rhiow was not going to say out loud. Saash had routinely reviewed the complete logs for each of the Grand Central gates once every week, and Rhiow had gotten used to that kind of thoroughness from her teammates. Still, she thought, different teams, different management techniques ... And Huff seemed to run his team more casually than Rhiow did hers. She was in no position to complain: if the Powers that Be didnat care for the way his team was working, Huff would have been relieved long ago.

aI see your point,a Rhiow said after a moment, and lifted one paw to lick at it reflectively. aDo you have a long way to come?a aNot I, thank the Dam,a Auhlae said. aFhrio commutes in from Haling, some miles awaya"heas with a family pride there, one that lives on gardening land that some ehhif keep, whatas called an aallotmenta. Siffhaah, on the other hand, is local, very local in facta"she was born just across the river, in an outdoor den not far from HMS Belfast, that big s.h.i.+p anch.o.r.ed there. Sheas nonaligned, and undenned so far. Huff and I arenat so close, but weare nowhere near as far as Fhrio is. Huff has a den with an ehhif who owns a pub in the City and lives in a flat above it: Iam denned just around the corner with a futures trader who works at the Securities Exchange. Huffas ehhif is used to him coming and going as he pleases, and that kind of thing isnat a problem for me either, fortunately. My Rrhalf keeps such weird hours that he hardly notices that Iam there.a Then why on Earth do you stay with him! Rhiow was tempted to ask, and didnat. She couldnat imagine a Person who was also a wizard going through the inconvenience of denning with an ehhif if it wasnat because you liked him or her. aDid you two meet locally, then?a Rhiow said.

aOh, yes, the usual thing. A friend of his is one of the big hauissh players in the area: we ran into each other during a tournament, got friendly. Then I went into heat, and ... a She waved her tail, a graceful and amused gesture.

aKittens?a aOh, plenty. My ehhif is very good about finding them good places to live: otherwise I wouldnat let the heat happen.a That brought Rhiowas ears forward. aI used to wonder how a wizard managed when she was in heat,a she said. aI never had the chance, myself: my ehhif took me and had me unqueened before I started.a aOh, how terrible for you!a Auhlae said.

aOh, no, it wasnat that bad ... Afterwards I tended to see it as an advantage. No interruptions ... no toms fighting over me. It looked like a release.a Auhlae was silent for a moment, and started to wash one ear. aWell,a she said, aI suppose I can see your point of view. But truly, I havenat found it to be all that much of a problem. You can always use wizardry to adjust your own hormones a little, and delay the onset. But of course itas not too good to do much of that kind of thing ... Fortunately, it doesnat seem to be necessary very often. Only very rarely have I had to be on call while I was in heat ... and never while I was kittening. The Whisperer seems to keep track of such things.a Auhlae put her whiskers forward, a demure smile with a slightly wicked edge to it. aI suppose we should be grateful that itas the Queen running the Universe, and not the Tom: who knows if wead ever get any rest?a Rhiow chuckled. aI think youare right there ... in all possible senses of the word.a aBut anyway,a Auhlae said, aHuff and I usually come down in the early evenings and troubleshoot the gates. Thereas always trouble,a she said, sounding very resigned. aYou know how even inanimate objects can start betraying evidence of personalities, over timea"a aOh, yes,a Rhiow said.

aWell, the gates have been here a lot longer than we have ... and believe me, they have personalities. Mostly annoyed and suspicious ones. I think it may have had to do with their aupbringinga, their history. Populations would rise here and then be swept away without warning ... and to a certain extent, the gate alearnsa to adapt to the pressure of the population around it. Take that population away suddenly, and it must be like suddenly being thrown off something that youave always slept on safely before. The shock makes you stop trusting ... you donat know whether things will be the same from one day to the next. So the gates act fairly acalmlya for a period of timea"a week, a montha"and thena"pfft! Auhlae made a soft spitting hiss of the kind that an annoyed Person would use to warn another away. aIt can take endless time to calm them down. Do you have the same problem?a Rhiow flicked her tail anoa. aOh, theyare alive enough, all right,a she said. aAaurh Herself made them, after all: Iam not sure anything with that level of wizardry incorporated into it could avoid being alive, to some degree. But fortunately New York grew very steadily, and our gates behave themselves ... Except when they donat,a she added, wry. aOften enough ... a Auhlae purred in amus.e.m.e.nt. aYou must run into the personality problem with other things, though. You sounded pretty definite aWell, it crops up from time to time ... a And glancing over at Arhu again (who was still gazing thoughtfully at Siffhaah, apparently without effect) and at Urruah and Fhrio (now leaning right into the gateas matrix structure again, with their heads bent close together and almost invisible among the tangle of strings), Rhiow began to tell Auhlae about the diesel locomotives that ran the trains in and out of Grand Central. Theoretically they should have been just great complex hunks of metal and wiring. But they were not, as the ehhif who drove them and took care of them loudly attested. The engines had noticeable personalities which manifested in the ways they worked (or didnat): some good-natured and easy-going, some spiteful and annoying, some lazy, some overtly hostile. Rhiow had wondered whether she and the engineers and mechanics were all projecting the traits of life onto dead things for which, admittedly, they all felt affection. But finally she had realized that that wasnat it. She started wondering whether this acquisition of personality might be caused by something specific about the way the locomotivesa complicated shapes and structures affected the local shape of s.p.a.cetimea"the way the atomic and molecular structure of water, for example, manifested itself as wetness. The Whisperer had no answers for her, or none that made sense: and when Rhiow had taken the problem casually to the ehhif Advisory wizards for New York, Tom and Carl, they had shaken their heads and confessed an ignorance on which even their wizardsa Manuals could not shed light. Finally Rhiow had simply given up and started talking to the locomotives in the course of her rounds, despite being unable to tell whether it was making any difference. But certainly something with a personality, no matter how undeveloped, deserves to be talked to as if it exists ...

Auhlae looked bemused at that, for a moment. aNow thereas something I hadnat given much thought to,a she said. aThe Underground trains ... you get a faint sense of personality off them, but nothing like that. Or is it just because I havenat been looking ... ?a aHard to say,a Rhiow said. aBut beware. Do you really need another area of interest? The one we share is trouble enough ... a Auhlae laughed softly. aTell me about it,a she said, as Huff came back down the stairs again.

He came padding toward them. aProblems, hrrat?a she said.

aOh, I wanted a look at number three,a Huff said, asince this oneas being worked on.a He sat down beside Auhlae and leaned against her slightly. aYou know how they tend to interfere with each othera"their catenary links are close together in the power-feed abundlea from their linkage to your gatesa"a he waved his tail at Rhiowa"aand to the Downside.a He paused a moment, then said, aIs it true that you were there? Down deep, right at the roots of things?a aWe were there,a Rhiow said, abut itas not a memory Iad call up willingly just now. For one thing, we lost a partner of my age there: if we had her here now, Iad bet wead have solved your problem already. As it is, weare all learning new jobs, and everything is so confused ... a aIam sorry for your trouble,a said Huff: and Auhlae blinked somber agreement, stirring her tail slowly.

aOh, it wasnat all sad,a Rhiow said: anot at all. A great many things changed for the better; and the Downside has new guardians ... a aThe great cats live there,a Auhlae said, adonat they? ... our ancestors, our ancient selves. The Old People ... a aYes,a Rhiow said, aand nothing will remove them from where they have been since the Beginning. But there are two Peoples there now.a Maybe this was not the time to start that particular story: but the facts still made Rhiow wake up in the middle of the night, wondering. For all the years there had been dry-land creatures in this world, cat and serpent had expressed in a specific symbolism the two sides of an ancient enmity: creatures of the sun and light against creatures of earth and the dark beneath the earth, warm blood against cold blood, the Powers that Be against the Lone Power that went rogue, both sides battling for the world. But suddenly Rhiow found herself running across new concepts, in which at least some of the great saurians were warm-blooded, and images in which serpent was born of cat (despite the older mythologies which suggested that cat had been born of serpent) -- all too predictable a development, since Arhu had become afathera to the Father of the new serpent-kind, the great saurians who had become the new guardians of the Old Downside.

Of course the Universe was full of these jokes and ironies, mostly born of the misapprehension, native to beings living serially in time, that time itself was serial. Naturally, it was not. Time was at least Riemannian, and tended to run both in circles and cycles: outwarda"reaching spirals which repeated previous tendencies and archetypes reminiscent of earlier ones, but the repet.i.tions came in abiggera forms, and with unexpected ramifications. Now time bit its own tail one more time, and in the process of that biting pulled off the old skin, revealing the new s.h.i.+ny skin and the bigger body underneath: more beautifully scaled and intricately patterned, more muscular, and, as usual, harder to understand. Rhiow had seen these hints before the last monthsa troubles began, but hadnat been able to make much of them at the time. Now, with the events and the history behind her, the myth was easier to understand. But it still made her blink, sometimes, and wonder what happened to the good old days, when things were simpler: when cats were cats, and snakes were snakes, and never the twain would meet ...

Of course, for most cats, they never would. But as a wizard, Rhiow came of a bigger worldview, one which held that cats were equal, under the One, to any other sentient speciesa"say, whales, or humans, or some dogs or birds of prey, or various other creatures intelligent enough to have emotional lives and to understand the existence of a world outside their own selves. Most People would have trouble with the idea that ehhif were equal to them. And dogs? Birds? They would hiss with indignation at the very idea. Rhiow knew better ... but was glad she did not often have to indulge in explanations to her less tolerant kindred.

aItas been a very strange time,a Rhiow said at last, aand I look forward to telling you about it in detail: for, truly, there are parts of it I donat understand myself. Ruah ... any news?a Urruah had strolled over to where they sat, and now threw a look over his shoulder at the gate. aI really hate to admit it,a he said, abut at first glance, Iam stumped. Rhi, Huff, Iall want to examine the logs in detail, of coursea"a He looked over his shoulder at Fhrio for approval: Fhrio waved his tail in a adonat-carea way. aGood. Iall do that later this evening. I need a break.a Urruah did sound tired, but that was no surprise: even though the gates had their diagnostic procedures built in, there were other more sophisticated ones that Rhiowas team routinely used to make sure that a given gateas own diagnostics were ahonesta. It had always seemed a wise precaution to Rhiow, since a deranged gate might conceivably lose the ability to diagnose itself correctly.

aYouall want to sort your schedule out with Fhrio, perhaps,a Huff said.

aYes,a said Urruah, aIall do that.a He headed back over to the gate, where Fhrio and Siffhaah were withdrawing themselves from the gate matrix and letting the strings snap back into place.

Huff sighed. aWeall leave it shut down for another day,a he said, aand come and tackle it afresh tomorrow. Rhiow, I think weave made a good start.a aI hope so too,a she said. aI have a feeling that this wonat be one of those quickly solved problems, but we wonat be out of your fur until itas handled.a aThen weall see Urruah later this evening,a said Auhlae: aand you tomorrow?a aTomorrow let it be,a Rhiow said, and b.u.mped noses with their hosts ... though she threw a look over her shoulder first. Urruah and Fhrio had their heads together again: but Arhu was looking in one direction, and Siffhaah in another, as if they were on opposite sides of the same planet.

Rhiow smiled slightly. aDai stih,a she said, the non-species-specific greeting- and parting-words of one wizard to another: go well. aCome on, Arhu, Ruah,a she said, getting up, aletas call it a day ... a aVery nice People,a Urruah said, as they came out on the Grand Central side of their own gate. aCompetent.a That a.s.sessment surprised Rhiow slightly. aYouare satisfied with their inspection routines?a she said.

aTheyare much like what Iad be doing if I were stuck with their gate complex,a Urruah said. aI mean, Rhi, look at their transit figures. Three or maybe four times the number of wizards and unaffiliated outworlders use their gates every day as use ours, or the ones at Perm. London is a major on-planet transit center for western Europe, and if you tried to read all the gate logs here once a week, the way Saash did for ours, youad never have time to do anything else ... such as fix the gates when they broke. Iam going to take some time to read those logs in more detail, as I said. But I donat know what Iam looking for as yet, and Iam hoping the tracers weave left in place will pick something up to give me a hint. Without a specific event track to follow, a signature attached to the kind of access weare looking for, weare walking in the dark without whiskers.a Rhiow waved her tail slowly in agreement. aAll right,a she said.

aBut one thing, Rhi ... and this may be more important, even, than the problem with the gate itself. Remember when Huff was telling us about the asinglea egresses?a aUh, yesa"a She paused. aHe was telling us that people were going one way, not around tripa.a aThatas right. Rhi, do you realize how big a problem that is? Times can get imbalanced, just as s.p.a.ces can: the apressurea of times against one another has to be kept equal. Those people from other times have to be recovered and put back where they belong, or the gates will become more unstable than they are already. Not just Huffas gates: all the gates.a aOurs too,a Rhiow said under her breath.

aOurs would take longest to imbalance,a Urruah said. Theyare aseniora, and their connection to the Old Downside and the power sources there is direct: that lends them some immunity. But, inevitably, the imbalance will spread. Gating around the planet will start failing without warning and without reason. The rapid-transit system that wizards use so as not to have to waste their powers on minor business like travel spells will go down. The Universe will start dying faster ... I just thought Iad mention it.a aThank you,a Rhiow said, and her stomach turned over inside her. aWhatas your estimate of the time when these imbalances will begin to affect other gates?a aIf there have been only a few imbalanced egresses,a Urruah said, ait would take some weeks. If there have been, say, as many as ten or more, I would expect them within ten to fourteen days. Twenty or soa"well, we would already be seeing random failures. So itas not that bad. But we have to help the London team track down the ehhif from backtime and restore them to their proper periods.a aAnd how much diagnosis is that going to take?a aA fair amount, the longer the ehhif have been loose in a non-native time. Thereas a temporal signature you can search for, like a target scent, in someone out of their proper time ... but first you need to know exactly which time theyare native to, and the longer theyare in a non-native period, the less detectable it is. A fresh ingress through the malfunctioning gate would be the best thing we could hope for. All ingresses through a given gate would have a similar asignaturea, like DNA from different members of the same family, and others could be tracked using it.a Oh G.o.ds, Rhiow thought: and I thought things were going fairly well ... aAll right,a she said: aweall take it up with Huff tomorrow.a"Arhu? You?a aHuh?a He was walking along in an unusual state of self-absorption. aMe what?a aWhat do you think of the London team,a Rhiow said, aand their gates?a It wasnat as if he was likely to have a terribly sophisticated a.s.sessment at this point, but Rhiow was always careful to make sure everyone had their say after coming back from an aoutcalla job.

aHuff and Auhlae are nice,a Arhu said, still looking somewhat distracted. aFhrioas a snot: he thinks he knows everything.a And there Arhu fell silent.

Aha, Urruah said privately to Rhiow.

She was inclined to agree. aAnd Siffhaah?a Rhiow said.

There was a long pause. aI think maybe she doesnat like me,a Arhu said, aand I donat know why.a aWell,a Rhiow said, aitas early to tell that, yet. You canat have exchanged more than ten words the whole time we were there.a aI know,a Arhu said, dejected. Thatas the trouble ... a aGive it time,a Urruah said. aItall come right in the end. You canat rush the queens, Arhu, especially the young ones: they have their whole lives ahead of them, maybe as many as nine of them, and they donat impress easily. Take your time, talk to them ... a aThatas just the problem. She wonat talk to me.a aSo let actions say what words wonat. She probably hears all kinds of bragging these days, if sheas just coming into her day ... isnat she?a Arhu looked up at Urruah with a kind of heartsick hope that made Rhiowas heart turn over at the sight of it. aI think so,a Arhu said. aThatas how it smells ... a Rhiow turned her attention away from the conversation and let the toms gain some walking-s.p.a.ce in front of her. It was at times like this that she missed Saash most ... her slightly sardonic turn of phrase that could make anything, even something as serious as non-round-trip time travel, seem less crucial until you were actually able to get around to handling it. But Saash was out on the Oneas errantry now: Rhiow would just have to manage without her, and hold her own against the boys as well as she could. Fortunately, she said to the Whisperer with a pride-queenas arrogance, it isnat hard ...

From the depths of reality came the feeling of divine whiskers being put forward, and the sound of tolerant laughter.

The whole team made the commute to London the next morning to check the diagnostics and the logs, and found nothing: and they did so the next morning, and the morning after that ... with no sign of any unusual ingresses or egresses at all. On the fourth day of this, Rhiow began to wonder whether the Powers had sent her team on one of those useful but temper-fraying jobs which her old mentor and teacher Ffairh would have described as atrying to herd mice at a crossroadsa: a lot of trouble to very little effect for a long, long time ... until you lost patience and started eating the mice, which might be what the Powers had in mind in the first place. Urruah was beginning to feel the strain, and was getting short with everybody, especially Arhu. Arhu, for his own part, was getting bored.

aHe wonat let me do anything,a he said to Rhiow one morning as they went in to work together.

aThatas possibly because heas not sure of your level of mastery as such,a Rhiow said, aand possibly because itas other Peopleas gates weare working with, not our own. No, Arhu, listen: donat look that way. If you want to get a job donea"that being the whole reason we have to keep going to Londona"sometimes you have to do it a little more slowly, a little more cautiously, than you otherwise would. At home, with our own gates, itas usually no big deal. If one of us makes a mistake, she gets her head smacked, we clean up the mess, and the matter stays in the family. But when youare dealing with other Peopleas territory, things slow down. And this is their territory ... be sure of that.a aI thought you told me awe are guardians and nothing morea,a Arhu said with some annoyance.

aThatas as true of the London team as it is of us. But itas Her business to tell them that, not ours.a They paused in front of the number-three gate, which was anch.o.r.ed over by the Waldorf Yard again because of track maintenance going on near its usual location. aTerritory,a Rhiow said, aitas a problem ... a aYeah. Oh, Urruah said he might be late this morning. Something about the dumpster.a aI wish head tell me these things,a Rhiow said, and sat down in front of the gate. aHow late did he think?a aHe didnat say.a She waved her tail, resigned. Toms ... aYouad better take care of the gating, then,a she said. aTheyare going to be wondering where we are.a aProbably not,a Arhu said, sitting up and slipping his forepaws into the control weave. aI donat think Fhrio cares one way or the other.a aOh, I wouldnat be so sure,a Rhiow said. aHeas likely enough to care ... but not to show it ... a Arhu was busy with the weave, pulling strings out and hooking them under and through one another with his claws. He was getting quick at this work, whatever Urruah might think: after a few daysa practice with the London configuration, the pattern had become second nature to him. Or else the gate itself was beginning to answer his requirements, falling into aheart-configurationa with Arhua"a development very much to be hoped for. It was the kind of sympathy, not quite a symbiosis, which Saash had had with the Grand Central gates: a sort of mutual understanding of what needed to be done, based to be sure on a sound theoretical knowledge, but on something much more in execution. It was as if the gates had liked Saash, and wanted to cooperate with her because she liked them. If Arhu was acquiring that kind of almost-affection, Rhiow thought, there would be little limit to what he could do as a gate technician later in life, or in other lives to come, if the wizardry followed him.

And we could use someone with that kind of basic affinity, she thought. For all my theoretical work, I donat have it: and for all Urruahas, heas more an engineer than a technician. Probably it comes of being a power source: of seeing the gate as something to be done to, rather than someone to be done with ...

Arhu stopped. aDoes that look right?a he said suddenly, sounding rather confused.

Rhiow looked over the gate-weft. The colors were running correctly, the hyperstrings all seemed to be making the correct aitcha in the air, the resonances of sound and texture were all in place. aIt looks finea"a aIt doesnat feel fine. It feels like somethingas come unsnagged.a Arhu was blinking, looking a little vague. Rhiow had learned to recognize that particular danger sign. aNow,a Rhiow said, aor later?a aI thinka"a Arhuas eyes narrowed, a look of abrupt and uncomfortable concentration. This was always the most difficult part of the work for a visionary, the matter of learning to aridea the vision rather than simply being ridden by it: though the question of which was finally master, the seer or the seen, was always one which caused most seers a certain amount of unease over their careers. aI think later. But not much later. Short term ... a Oh wonderful, Rhiow thought. aToday? Tomorrow?a aWhat am I, some ehhif weather forecaster?a Arhu said, still squinting, with his paws all tangled up with hyperstrings. aDo you want percentages of probability too?a aWhatever you can come up with,a Rhiow said. aAnd whatever idiom works for you. Iam not picky.a aI can see the sun,a Arhu said after a moment, abut Iam not sure which one it is, which day. Just a sense of things ... unraveling. Something unsnags, and then everything sorts itself out. Though it smells really bad at firsta"a He blinked again, shook his ears until they rattled, and looked at Rhiow. aGone. I hate it when it does that!a aCalm down, Arhu, take it easy, donat let the strings goa"a aI wasnat going to, do you think I want the whole place to jump off into s.p.a.ce ... ?a But his ears were flat back, and he hissed softly. aRhiow,a Arhu said, sitting up still with that unkittenish perfect balance of his, aI can hear Her. I can see what She sees ... just for a second. Everything together: images, thoughts in minds, lots of minds all together, a hundred pawsa worth of places all at once ... But all broken, like light in water when the wind blows. My brains wonat hold a whiskeras worth of it ... and then itas gone. Whatas the use, this becoming one of the Powers, but not enough of one to be any good to anybody, or for long enough to figure it out, long enough to make a difference -- !a Rhiow sighed and paced over to him, balanced on her hindquarters just long enough to b.u.mp her head against his. aYou know itas going to be hard at first,a she said, settling down again. aItas going to take so much practice, and itas going to be hard for a long time yet. The seeras talent is one of the worst ones in its way ... tough to manage. But if you can stay with it ... a aDo I have a choice?a Arhu said, and the edge of bitterness and sadness was impossible to miss. aIf I donat learn it, Iall lose it ... a He sat back on his haunches then and said, aNever mind. At least I can still gate.a He gave one sidewise glance at Rhiow, and gave the strings a quick pull.

The other side of the gate flickered abruptly into black night over a white landa"pale silver-and-white dust and stone with every stoneas shadow laid out long and black and razorlike behind it. Over everything hung a shape that burned at first so blue that the eye refused it: then you saw the white swirls, and the shades of green and haze-brown, but the main color was blue, s.h.i.+ning down pale on that white desolation, and Rhiowas abrupt first thought was of the shade of Auhlaeas eyes.

She gave Arhu a look. aVery cute,a she said. aIf youare demonstrating that youave learned to keep a gate patent when thereas vacuum on the other side, I take your point. Otherwise ... you know what I told you.a aAnd what Urruah keeps telling me,a Arhu says. aYeah, I know ... a Rhiow opened her mouth, then shut it again, remembering what Urruah had said about Arhuas early morning gate work the other day. And slowly she put her whiskers forward. If he was going to go, she thought, how would we stop him? And: Not so long ago, this was the kitling we were worried wasnat doing enough wizardry. Heas finding his way. Let him be ...

aWeave no business there today,a Rhiow said, working to sound lazy about it. aMaybe later this week, weall go. Iall see you off, in fact, if youad rather do it on your own. Meanwhile, letas get going: theyall be waiting for us. Urruah will catch up.a The look Arhu threw her was a little odd: but very featly he flipped his paws and changed the configuration of the strings again, and the view through the gate s.h.i.+fted to that of darkness again, but this time it was the unstarred darkness of the Underground tunnels near Tower Bridge.

aIall let it snap back into its default settings afterwards,a Arhu said. aUrruahall be able to pull this setting out of memory and alter it for changed time with no problem.a aRight,a Rhiow said, and stepped through: Arhu followed her.

They made their way over to the platform where the malfunctioning London gate hung, s.h.i.+mmering dully in a non-patient configuration. Only Fhrio was with it at the moment, sitting by it and yawning.

aLuck, Fhrio,a Rhiow said. aHave you been waiting long?a aHalf the night, but donat let that bother you,a the orange tabby said, and tucked himself down into what Rhiowas ehhif called the ameat loaf shape.

Rhiow threw an amused glance at Arhu, who was looking off into the darkness to avoid having Fhrio see him rolling his eyes. She felt a little sorry for him on his first outcall, having half the team they were working with turn out to be such difficult cases: but this kind of thing happened occasionally. She still thought often of one of the Brasilia team who, though a wizard of tremendous talent, was also so scarred by some old trauma that he would jump up in the air hissing any time you spoke to him before he could see you, and would come down with claws out and fur standing on end, ready to murder anyone who was standing too close. Working with him had driven her nearly insane, and as for Urruah, it had been all Rhiow could do to keep him from walking off that job every day, at the occurrence of the first jump-and-hiss. At least Fhrio wasnat quite so unnerving to work with, but Rhiow was increasingly wondering what his problem was, or, if there was no problem, why he was this way all the time.

aNo incursions, I take it,a Rhiow said, sitting down in front of the gate and eyeing it thoughtfully.

aNothing,a Fhrio said. aI almost wish for one: at least it would make sitting here a little less boring.a She twitched her tail in agreement. aHave Auhlae or Huff been along yet today?a aAuhlaeas home with her ehhif,a Fhrio said. aHeas sick or something. Huff was here earlier and then went off.a Fhrio yawned. aI think probably to take a nap: he was up watching the gate all night.a Arhu was standing behind Rhiow now, looking over her shoulder at the s.h.i.+mmer of light in the gate-web. She wasnat sure how much he was able to make out of its function as yet just from the configuration of the light-patterns and the juxtaposition of the various braids and bundles of hyperstrings. Reading a gate that way took time to learn.

aItas changed since yesterday,a Arhu said.

aOf course itas changed,a Fhrio said, and yawned again. aThe Earthas not where it was yesterday, is it? Basic changes in s.p.a.cetime coordinates show in the web as a matter of coursea"a aI donat mean that. I mean the sideslip and tesseral string bundles in the control weft have changed position slightly. And one of the sideslip sub-arrays has a string loose.a aWhat?a Fhrio sat up, looked at the part of the gate-web that Arhu was staring at. aWhere are youa"oh. No, thatas all right, this gate does that sometimes. Itas a locational thinga"I think it has to do with the gravitational anomaly in the substrate under the Hill. The loose ends always weave themselves back in after a few minutes: this isnat a static construct, after all, it abreathesa a little.a aI know, our gates do that too. But look at the way the sideslip bundle is interweaving with the hyperextensor braida"a Fhrio was beginning to look confused. aYes, as I say, it does that. I donat see what thea"a aWell, look,a Arhu said, padding forward, and Rhiow gave him a Now-you-be-careful look, which he ignored. aSee the way this is hanging outa"shouldnat it be tucked in? I mean, it has no anchor. If you justa"a aNo, donat pull that!a It was too late. Arhu had already snagged a claw around the string in question, and pulled.

The gate s.h.i.+mmered: a brief storm of many-colored light ran down ita"

and someone stumbled out of it. An ehhif.

The two teams sprang back in horror as the man crashed to the concrete almost on top of them. He lay there moaning, then grew quiet.

aWell,a Arhu said, his eyes big with surprise and his voice full of badly hidden satisfaction, ayou wanted it to fail the same way? There you go.a Fhrio gave Arhu a look suggesting that he would be seeing him later, outside the line of business.

aHeas got a point, Fhrio,a Rhiow said hurriedly. aYou said you wished for an incursion ... and a wizard has to watch what he wishes for. The Universe is listening ... a Fhrio gave her an annoyed look, but then almost visibly let the mood go, aware that they had more important issues to deal with. They all bent down together over the sprawled ehhif: Fhrio patted him gently on the face with one paw. There was no response. aUnconscious ... a aNot for long, I think.a aBut, great Queen of us all, where did he spring from?a Fhrio said.

aFrom his clothes, Iad say not our time, that much is certain,a Rhiow said. aAnd no time close to it. Iam no expert on ehhif styles, but this looks more like what tom-ehhif wear for formal wear in our time. It used to be everyday clothing once, though, so Urruah told mea"a The ehhif was mostly in black: long narrow trousers, a white s.h.i.+rt with a peculiar cloth wrapped around the neck and tucked into the s.h.i.+rtas collar: then a sort of short close coat that came down only to the waist, and over that a bigger coat, dark again. The ehhif himself was tall, and fair-furred, and had a lot more fur around the face than was popular these days: he might have been in middle age.

aHeas stopped breathinga"a Fhrio said suddenly.

Rhiow looked at him more closely. aIt might just be a sigh,a she said. aBut just in case, wead better spell-fence him. Heas going to need support spelling anyway when he wakes upa"a She started walking the beginning of a wizardas circle around the ehhif and the gate together. Arhu had dropped the string he had pulled and was looking off down the old train runnel. aNow what in the Damas name,a said a voice from a little distance down the tunnel, and a second later Auhlae jumped up onto the platform, with Siffhaah in tow. Arhu looked at her, then turned and sat down hurriedly and began to wash.

aAuhlae,a Fhrio said, awhereas Huff?a aHeall be along shortly,a she said, walking along to the ehhif and peering at him. aIauas name,a Auhlae said, aitas another one.a aYes,a Fhrio said, and said nothing more for the moment: but Rhiow could hear trouble in his voice. She ignored it for the moment. aHas he started breathing again?a Auhlae looked closely at him, and put her face down close to the ehhif s, feeling for breath. aNone at the moment. Siffhaah,a she said. aWhen Rhiow finishes, put some power into her circle, this poor ehhif is going to need it. I think heas in shock.a aDoesnat surprise me,a Siffhaah said, coming over to look at the circle Rhiow was building as she paced and a.s.sembled the spell in her mind. aPretty standard,a she said. aWhich part do you want me to fuel first?a aThe main strand and the life-support part,a Rhiow said. aI want to feel if thereas anything actually wrong with his body before we start interfering.a She completed the circle, tying the awizardas knota in the air with a flirt of her tail: pale fire followed it briefly and died awaya"normally she would have preferred to see her guidelines in visible light, but the appearance of strange fires from nowhere was not likely to do this poor ehhif any good when he became conscious.

aNow thena"a she said. The basic spell-circle lay traced in ghost lines on the concrete around the ehhif. Rhiow now made one more turn around it, her paws pressing into the circle the graphic forms of those words of the Speech which Rhiow was a.s.sembling in her mind, the words which would control the function of the spell. One by one they appeared in graceful ghost curves and arabesques interwoven around the main curve of the circle, like vines twining around a support, until the last few words rooted themselves into the wizardas knot and became one with it.

aReady,a she said. Siffhaah looked the circle over, found the power-supply access point and stood on it: the circle flared for just a second with power, then damped down again.

Rhiow, still standing on the control point of the circle at the wizardas knot, nearly jumped off it at the abrupt access of power into the spell, and secondarily, into her. It was partly the suddenness of its inrush, and partly the sheer volume of it, and the unusual taste of it when it camea"mostly the taste of Siffhaahas mind: young and fierce and bold, surprisingly so for such a young queen, with a great sense of potential unused and potential still developing, and behind everything, driving it all, some huge and dimly-perceived desire. Rhiow s.h.i.+ed away from any attempt to look more closely at thata"it was none of her businessa"but was impressed by it all the same. This young queen was going to be quite something as she grew into more certainty about her work and her life.

aThat enough to work with for the moment?a Siffhaah said.

aFor several hours, if you ask me,a Rhiow said, impressed: aThanks, cousin!a She turned her attention to the spell. She had no proper name for the ehhif, and so had used one of the species-generic terms and an indicator for his gender: now her mind ran down through that connection to his, and felt about gingerly in the ehhifas mind. The part of his brain that ran breathing and blood pressure and other functions was undamaged: but the emotional shock had thrown his blood chemistry badly out of kilter, and left him in a asigha that was much more prolonged than the usual fifteen seconds. That chemistry was getting worse as she watched, but fortunately the problem was a simple one, already partially rectified. Rhiow cured it by increasing the acidity of his blood ever so slightly, a process already under way, and the automatic response to such an increase took over, so that the ehhif gasped, and then started to breathe normally again.

aNothing too serious, then,a Auhlae said, putting her ears forward in relief.

aNo, just the kind of thing that causes hiccups, but a little more severe,a Rhiow said, relieved, and shook herself a little to get rid of the peculiar cramped narrow feeling of an ehhifas mind. aItas his emotional state that Iam more worried about, when he becomes conscious again. He may need quieting. Letas see how he does ... a The ehhif was stirring a little already. aHey, sorry Iam late,a said another voice from down the tunnel, and Urruah leapt up onto the platform. aThere were some things I had to take carea"a He broke off, going wide-eyed as he took in the whole scene in a second. aHey,a he said then. aSo wis.h.i.+ng works after all.a aWhether it does or not, wead better shut this gate down,a Fhrio said. aThe last thing we need at the moment is another access, especially one into a spell-circle when whoever might come through isnat named in the spella"a Urruah stared at him. aAre you kidding? Lock it open!a aWhat?a aIf we donat lock it open I wonat be able to get a reading on where the other end is anch.o.r.ed,a Urruah said, aand thatas information we badly need. Are you set up to do it? Then let me.a Fhrio bristled at that, but Auhlae b.u.mped him from one side, distracting him. aHeas right,a she said. aRhiow, youall want to put his personal information into the spell so that he can step through. Just make sure you lock it in nonpatent configuration, Urruah. Come on, Fhrio, we have other things to attend to. Poor ehhif, look at him, heas in a state.a The ehhifas eyes were open now. He lay there staring around him at the darkness, and tried to sit up once: failed, and slumped back again.

aWherea"a he said, and then trailed off at the sound of his own voice in the close darkness of the tunnel.

The wizards exchanged glances. aIf this isnat errantry,a Auhlae said, awhat is?a She padded over to the edge of the circle and sat down where the ehhif could see her. Once again he tried to sit up, and did a little better this time, managing at least to hitch himself up one elbow and look around. The light here was not good, even by feline standards: it was questionable how much he could see.

aDonat be afraid,a Auhlae said to him in the Speech. aYouave had a fall. Are you hurt?a aNo, I-I mean, I think not, but wherea"where is this?a He tried to sit up again. aWhere are you?a aHere in front of you,a Auhlae said, with a look at Rhiow.

She was ready. The ehhif looked around him, and saw Auhlae ... then looked past her. aWhere?a aRight here, in front of you,a she said, and even in the rather dire circ.u.mstances, Rhiow could hear the sound of slight amus.e.m.e.nt in Auhlaeas voice. aThe cat,a she added, and this time the amus.e.m.e.nt was genuine.