Feline Wizards - To Visit The Queen Part 4

aIt looks fine. At least, it looks the way it looks in our gate at home.a aThe way it did yesterday?a aYeah.a aGood. Always check it frequently. Lives change without warning: names change the same way.a aYeah.a He licked his nose. aAuhlae, is Siffhaah going to be here today?a aNo, Arhu, sheas off with Huff making an adjustment to one of the other gates,a Auhlae said. aFhrio and I will be standing guard over this end of your timeslide while youare downtime.a She craned her neck a little to look at it. aDoes he do this often?a Auhlae said to Rhiow. aHeas very good at it.a aHeas never done it before, to the best of my knowledge,a Rhiow said, glancing over that way too as Urruah sat down, apparently to take one last overview of the whole structure. T have a feeling heas been waiting for the chance, though.a The intricacy and tightness of the spell-structure suggested to Rhiow that he had been working on this spell, or something like it, for a long time. There was no disputing its elegance: Urruah was an artist at this kind of thing. Unfortunately, there was also no disputing its dangerousness. Itas a good thing we finally have an excuse to do something like this, Rhiow thought. Otherwise who knows what he might have done some day ...

Then she dismissed the thought. He might sometimes be impatient and reckless, by a queenas standards anyway, but Urruah was a professional. He would not tamper with time unless and until the Powers sanctioned it ... and then when he does, she thought, as Urruah looked up from the spell with an extremely self-satisfied expression, heall have the time of his life ...

aNice work, huh?a Urruah said, getting up.

aBeautiful as always,a Rhiow said. aDid you get your name right?a He put one ear back, not quite having an excuse to comment. aUh, yes, I checked.a aThat being the case,a she said, ahadnat we better get going? You wouldnat want to leave a spell like this just sitting around for long: it wants to work. Waste of energy, otherwise ... a Urruah grinned at her, then turned to Auhlae and Fhrio, who had finished checking the catenary and had strolled over to them.

aIave structured this so that, once we pa.s.s through, itall seal behind us,a Urruah said: aif this is some kind of trap, I donat want whatever might be waiting on the other side jumping straight back down your throats. The spell will continue running on this side, though, as usual, while sealed. Afterwards, say as soon as ten minutes after opening, there are three ways it can be activated. From this side, by either of you waking up this linkagea"a he patted one outside-twining branch of the ahedgea with one pawa"awhich will make the slide bilaterally patent. Youall be able to see through, or to pa.s.s through if you need to. Youall see Iave left a couple of stems unoccupied on the apersonalitya stratum for you to add names to. It can also be activated from our side by one of us pulling a atripwirea strand of the spell which will extend back along the timeline tracea"thatas in case we need an early return. Otherwise, itas programmed to reopen to bilateral patency again in two hours: thatas as long as I prefer to stay, for a first ascoutinga visit.a Auhlae and Fhrio both examined the linkages which Urruah had indicated. aAll right,a Auhlae said, athatas straightforward enough. If youare not back in two hours -- ?a aIntervention at that point will have to be your decision,a Urruah said. aMyself, Iad say wait an extra hour before letting anyone come after us. But you may decide against that ... and if you do, I wouldnat blame you. The slide will remain workable for a full sunas day, in any case. If we donat return by thena"a He shrugged his tail. aBetter check with the European Supervisory wizard for advice, because my guess is youall need to.a Auhlae and Fhrio nodded.

aThen letas do it,a Urruah said to Rhiow. She flicked her tail in agreement and leapt into the circle, found the spot which Urruah had marked out for her to occupy in lines of wizardly fire: behind her, Arhu jumped too, a little more clumsily, and found his spot. Nerves. Poor kitting ... she thought: but Rhiowas fur was not lying entirely smooth, either. She licked her nose, and tried to keep her composure in place.

Urruah jumped into the circle, dead onto his spot, as if he had been practicing for this for years. His whiskers were forward, his tail was straight up with confidence. Disgusting, Rhiow thought, and resisted the urge to lick her nose again.

Urruah reached out for one of the traceries of words and fire laced through the ahedgea, hooked it in both his front paws, and pulled it down to the spellas activation point, standing on it.

The sensation came instantly: not of pa.s.sage, as in a normal gating, but of being squeezed. Claudication is right, Rhiow thought, as a feeling of intolerable pressure settled in all around her, seeming to compress her from every direction at once. It was as if giant paws were trying to press her right out of existence. And perhaps they were. This existence, anywaya"

She could not swallow, or breathe, or lick her nose, or move any part of her in the slightest. The world reduced itself to that terrible pressurea"

which suddenly was gone, and she fell down.

Into the muda"

Rhiow struggled to her feet, opened her eyes enough to register that they were in some kind of street: buildings stood up on either side. Off to one side, Arhu was pulling himself to his feet as well. Beside her, Urruah was standing up, and swearing.

aWhat?a Rhiow said, awhatas the matter?a aIs your nose broken?a he said. aSweet Dam of Everything, this smells like saaRrahhas own litterbox. The mud!a Rhiowas face was trying to contort itself right out of shape at the smell: she could only agree. The street was at least four inches deep in a thick black mud that, to judge by the smell, was mostly horse dung: but there was rotten straw in it too, and soot, and garbage of every kind, and a smell that suggested the ehhifas sewers had discovered a way to back up so thoroughly that they ran uphill. The air was not much better. It was brown, a brown such as Rhiow had not seen since she last visited Los Angeles during a smog alert: but this was far, far worsea"the concentrated, inversion-confined smoke from ten thousand chimneys, most of them burning coal. You could see this air in the street with you: it billowed faintly, like smoke from a burning building in the next block. But nothing was burninga"or rather, everything was: wood, coal, c.o.ke, trash ...

aIs the tripwire here?a Arhu said.

aOf course itas here,a Urruah said, a little crossly. aI can feel it even through this stuff. Everythingas going according to plan ... so far.a He looked around at the mud. aThough I have to admit my plans did not include this.a aItas going to take a while for our noses to get used to this,a Rhiow said, looking around her with some concern. aMeanwhile, thereas no point in standing around waiting for it to happen.a aYou mentioned playing in traffic,a Arhu said, looking across the street as horse carriages plunged by, big drays pulled by huge horses, smaller gigs with neat-looking ponies between the shafts, or tall slender beasts apparently bred for the hackney trade. aIad give a lot for a nice taxi to run underneath at the moment.a aI wish you had one too,a Urruah growled, glancing up the road and unwilling to put a paw in the loathsome mud. aI will never complain about New York being dirty again. Never!a aYes you will,a Arhu said, more in a tone of resignation than foresight: but he knew Urruah well enough by now to be able to make the statement without resource to prophecy.

Urruah was so disgusted that he didnat even bother taking a swipe at Arhu. aFor someone who lives in a dumpster,a Rhiow said, unable to resist the chance to tease him, ayouare awfully fastidious.a aMy dumpster is cleaner than this,a Urruah said. aA sewage-treatment facility is cleaner than this! Ifa"a aI get the message,a Rhiow said. aCome on, Ruah, we donat have a choice. Letas do it.a They ran across the street together, ... and Arhu was completely unprepared for the motor roar that came from down the side street. In a cloud of smoke, a four-wheeled vehicle on thin-tired, spindly wheels came charging around the corner and straight at them.

There was no time to jump. Arhuas eyes rolled in terror, but it was informed terror. He threw himself flat under the vehicleas cha.s.sis: it pa.s.sed over him and roared on down the street, the ehhif sitting in the contraption either completely unaware that theyad almost run over a cat, or completely unconcerned about it.

Urruah, who had been further into the middle of the road, now ran over to Arhu as he picked himself up and shook himself to get the worst of the muck off. aYou have to start being more careful about what you ask for,a Urruah growled. aClearly someoneas listening ... Are you all right?a aAs long as I donat have to wash and find out what I taste like,a Arhu muttered, ayes.a He trotted hurriedly for the sidewalk, or what pa.s.sed for it: in this neighborhood, this meant awhere the mud was only an inch thick instead of three or foura.

They crouched against the brick building there and looked up and down the road. It was plainly George Street, running into Great Tower Hill as usual: but the traffic was mostly pulled by horsesa"not that that made it any slower than modern London traffic: if anything, it looked to be moving a little faster.

People walked past them, some well dressed, some seemingly poor but clean though somewhat threadbare, some practically in rags: and no one seemed to notice the mud. A few heads turned when one of the motor vehicles pa.s.sed, though. Rhiow couldnat tell whether it was because they were unusual, or simply because of the noise they made. Apparently the m.u.f.fler had not yet been invented.

aNow what are those doing here?a Urruah said. aInternal combustion engines arenat until the turn of the century.a aNeither is the word for smog,a Rhiow said, looking up at the dingy, near-opaque sky, abut that doesnat seem to have stopped these people: theyave got that, too.a aWhat time would you say this is?a Rhiow said. aThe light is so peculiar ... a Urruah shook his head. aLate afternoon? Not even smog could make it this dim.a aI wouldnat be too sure,a Rhiow said.

aEverything here feels wrong,a Arhu said. aAll of it.a His face had lost the disgusted expression it had worn a moment before: his eyes looked slightly unfocused.

aYouare not kidding,a Urruah said. aSomethingas happened to history ... and I donat like the look of it. Or the smell of it.a Rhiow curled her lip at the smell from the street. aThis would have been here anyway,a she said, picking one forefoot up out of the mud. aThe kind of sanitation we take for granted in our own time was something these ehhif were only beginning to see the need for. And their technologyas not up to it, even if they did see the need. There are more people in this city than in almost any other in the world, and all theyave got are brooms and dustpans ... and four million ehhif and a quarter million horses inside the City limits.a She smiled grimly. aWork it out for yourself. How many cubic miles ofa"a aPlease,a Urruah said, and sneezed.

They started to walk, looking for somewhere clean. They found no such place, at least in the public roads. Only the moat surrounding the Tower led up to patches of green gra.s.s beneath the old stone walls. Their structure was unchanged from what Rhiow had seen in modern London: but they were stained black by who knew how many years of air pollution. Slowly the three of them made their way around toward the river, looking down it from a spot which would have been close to where Rhiow and Arhu had stood only a few hours before.

aThis is all wrong,a Arhu whispered. Across the river was a great palisade of buildings, all of which were taller than architecture of the ehhif-Queen Victoriaas time could possibly have been.

This stuff shouldnat be here,a Arhu said. aAnd look at thata"a They looked at the great bridge, crowned with its pyramidal towers and boasting its high cross-walkway, which appeared on so many of the postcards and T-s.h.i.+rts which the ehhif sold near Tower Hill Underground station. aThatas wrong too,a Arhu said.

Rhiow looked at him. aAre you sure? Even in our world, itas pretty olda"a Urruah stared off into the distance for a moment as he c.o.c.ked an ear to listen to the Whisperer. aHeas right, though,a he said presently. aShe says that in our world, this wasnat built until 1886. No matter what year this is in the aspreada weare heading for, thatas still too soon.a aInteresting,a Rhiow said, and shook herself to abort a beginning s.h.i.+ver ... aSomething to do with the technology, maybe ... ?a aTheyave got a whole lot too much of it, if you ask me,a Urruah said.

aOf technology?a Rhiow said, and looked around her. Overhead, something very like a helicopter went by in a loud chatter of rotors. What she couldnat understand was why a helicopter needed wings as well ...

aOf the wrong kind of technology,a Urruah said. aRhi, this timeline has been contaminated ... seriously contaminated.a aAnd you donat think itas an accident.a aDo you? Really?a She looked around her at the vista down the river, of cranes standing up and erecting new buildings of steel and plate gla.s.s, but still somehow in a style that was essentially Victorian, complicated and (to her eye) over-decorated. She looked down the face of the river, which was full of s.h.i.+ppinga"not sail, as at least some of that s.h.i.+pping still should have been, but metal s.h.i.+ps, running on internal combustion or (in just a very few cases, as in a technology that was rapidly being left behind) steam. She saw the design of many of those s.h.i.+ps which were making their way to and from the Pool of London: lean, low, forward-thrust, angular shapes such as she had seen often enough in New York Harbora"battles.h.i.+ps and cruisers in the modern mold, all fanged with guns and other weapons she couldnat recognize. There were a lot of those wars.h.i.+ps: they came and went as regularly, it seemed, as the tour s.h.i.+ps that ran up and down the Thames in Rhiowas own native time. For all its bustle of business and its aura of ehhif success and power, this London also had a grim air about it.

aNo,a Rhiow said. aThis contamination is purposeful. The Lone One has been busy here.a aVery busy, Iad say,a said Urruah. aAnd the contamination has to have happened a good while ago: not even ehhif can make changes like this overnight. Weave got to find out when this alternate timeline was aseededa.a Rhiow looked around her and lashed her tail in frustration. aWeare going to have a good time finding that out,a she said. aWe canat just ask the ehhif.a aWe can ask People,a Arhu said.

aYes,a said Rhiow, abut which ones? We could waste a lot of time talking to the wrong sources ... and I have a feeling time isnat something we dare waste here.a They walked down to the edge of the river, looking up and down its length. The water was olive-colored and filthy, and it stank. A few desultory seabirds floated on it, or fished optimistically among the weeds and garbage for something to eat. Above it all, the dirty air billowed, unpleasantly visible.

aFor all their technology, theyave been oddly selective about how they use it,a Urruah said. aThey obviously have electricity, but why are they still burning coal in their dens? Thereas internal combustion being used out on the water, but why so little in the streetsa"why all the horses and dirt?a aIt looks like some of the ehhif have access to this technology, but not all that many,a Rhiow said. It was a problem that their own world shared, though not quite in this way.

aYou were right,a Arhu said suddenly, aabout it being late afternoon.a aOh?a Rhiow said.

aYeah. Look, the Moonas coming up.a They looked eastward down the river. Through the dirty haze, a dim round source of light had managed to rise above the buildings cluttering that end of the Thames basin. She looked at it, irrationally relieved that at least something was performing as expected around here ...

... but then she heard Urruah gulp. Rhiow took another look, as the Moon lifted a little higher above the thickest of the murk.

aThatas not our Moon,a Urruah said softly.

The shape was right. The phase was gibbous. But the face ... the face was blotted with darkness, its surface scarred: not with the usual dark maria, but with ma.s.sive craters and fissures, and great plumes and patches of dark dust.

Urruah sat down. Rhiow was too shocked to move at all.

aWhat in lawas name has happened here?a she whispered.

aItas sure not the Moon we started with,a Urruah said.

Rhiow couldnat take her eyes off it. aWell ... even our Moon at home isnat the one we started with. Things happened to it after it was born ... a aBut there are stories about that,a Urruah said. aNot the things you mean. It was clean once, they say ... pure white, without a mark. Then the story says that the Lone Power in her feline form came, and saw it, and hated it. SaaRrahh blotted it with Her paw that was all newly stained with nighta"with the death she had invented. She could never bear that anything should remain the way the One made it, if She had anything to say about the matter ... a aI thought the Moon was supposed to be the Old Tomas eye,a Arhu said.

aOf course it is,a Rhiow said. aAnd itas also just a big piece of rock splashed out of the Earth in its formative stages. Itad be a poor kind of world where there was just one explanation for things.a Urruah looked away from that terrible Moon to give Rhiow a wry look. aThink of it as a conditional hyper-quadratic equation,a he said to Arhu. aDepending on conditions and context, the same equation gives you different answers at different times. But all the answers are correct. Mythology, philosophy and science are just three different modalities used to a.s.sess the same data, and they can coexist just fine, if you let them. In fact, theyall do it just fine whether you let them or not: they have other business than sitting around waiting to see whether you approve.a Arhu looked up at the smudged Moon and s.h.i.+vered. aI donat like it,a he said.

aBelieve me, youare not alone there,a Rhiow said softly. Written there dark above them was a blunt nasty restatement of the reason why there were wizards. The world, which should have been perfect, was marred: marred with and by malice long aforethought. The shadow-smudged, crater-scarred Moon of their own world was evidence enough of the Lone Poweras effect in both symbolic and areala modes. The terrible destructive force which had struck the Earth very young, in what looked like one of the earliest attempts by the Lone One to prevent the rise of life and intelligence there, had not missed. Rhiow still wondered sometimes whether It had slightly miscalculated Its aim, or whether the Powers that Be had Themselves interfered, interposing Their power just enough to help the huge ma.s.s of magma splashed out of the planetas still-molten body to draw itself together and congeal in near orbit. Even when mending the marred, They never overexerted Themselves, all too aware of the energy needed for the long battle lying ahead of them through this universeas lifetime. No attempt would have been made to fly in the face of natural law and try to get life to arise on the second world. It would have been left to cool at its own pace, its low ma.s.s mandating the loss of the spa.r.s.e store of atmospheric elements which arose from it during the cooling: and all the while the fury of the frustrated Lone One would have been allowed to mark itself on the barren Moon in storm after storm of meteoric impacts, eons of merciless cratering, and the punctured crust flooding the Moonas surface with the last flows of lifeblood-lava that hardened dark into the great maria, the lighter elements at last all boiled away into the freezing dark of s.p.a.ce. A dead world, now, with the mark of the Devastatrixas dark paw pressed on it, livid and chilla"a clear message: I missed, this time. But I will never rest until I finish what I began.

The message had plainly been more forcefully stated in this universe, though. I am much closer to finis.h.i.+ng, it said: and the technique was a favorite one of the Lone Oneas ... tricking life into undoing itselfa"a mockery of the tendency of the Powers to let life, by and large, take care of itself.

aI think going home would be a good idea,a Arhu said.

aBelieve me, Iam with you,a Urruah said, abut we have a few things to do first. We need to find out what year this is, if we cana"a aNo,a Rhiow said. aNo, I think Arhuas idea is a good one.a aWhat?a aListen to me,a Rhiow said. aEvery minute we stay here makes it worse. Potentially, anyway. No, listen! Urruah, thereas no question that this contamination has happened. Our being here has confirmed it ... has made it real for us. And you know what that means. Whatas happened at our end of time?a She watched Urruah start to look a lot more concerned. There was a variant of what some ehhif called the Heisenberg auncertaintya principle which pertained to alternate universes. While you might postulate the existence of an alternate universe, even be faced by evidence of its existencea"as Rhiowas team and the London team had beena"that universe did not really aexista for you until you visited it. Once you did, and its reality had become part of your own, not by consensus, but by direct experience, your own universe also then began to change as a result. This was one of the principles that made wizards so chary of indulging in pleasure trips outside their own universe. For one thing, there was usually plenty of pleasure to be found locally ... and for another, once you came back from an alternate-universe jaunt, there might be no alocallya left: or not one you would recognize ...

Arhu was looking from Rhiow to Urruah and back again with some confusion. aWhatas the matter? Is something wrong back home?a aSheas saying there might be no more home,a Urruah said, glancing around him, athe longer we stay here ... Fortunately, timelines donat wipe themselves out in a matter of seconds, the way people think, when thereas a change. Causality is robust, and it tries hard to stay the way it is to begin with: the variables in the equation will slosh around for a good while before an alternate universe settles fully into place. As a rule,a Urruah said. aUnless the change is so big that causality just canat resist it at all ... a They all looked up at the scarred Moon again. Rhiow shuddered: then she said, aRemember when we were talking about gating off-planet?a Arhu looked at Rhiow.

aI think this would be a good time for you to go ahead and do it,a she said to Arhu. aMind the radiation: thereas a fair amount of it, once youare out of the atmosphereas protection. All you need is a standard forcefield spell, the one we were working with last month. You can build the defense against the ionizing radiation into the forcefield at the same time youare loading in enough air to last you for the visit.a Arhu looked at her and licked his nose. aYou have to wonder,a Urruah said, looking away from the Moon with difficulty, awhat could cause that kind of effect. I think we need to find out.a There was a long silence. aWould you come with me?a Arhu said.

Urruah glanced at Rhiow. aIam sure he could handle it himself,a he said. aBut just this once ... a And he glanced up at the Moon again. aThat is so bizarre ... a They walked a little further down the riverbank to find a place where there was less mud, just under the shadow of the Toweras walls. There was an old disused dock there, leading a little way out into the water. Gratefully enough they stepped up onto it, and Arhu headed down toward the end of it, where recent weather or wavewash had mostly scoured the rotting planks clean. Here he started to walk the circle they would need, leaving the pale tracery of graphics in the Speech behind him as he walked and muttered.

Urruah watched him with an expertas eye. aHeas been practicing that one for a while,a he said.

Rattled as she was, Rhiow couldnat help but smile. aThe way youave been practicing that timeslide?a aUh, well.a Urruah sat down and started to wash his face, then made a face at the taste of his paw, and stopped. aRhi, you know I wouldnat step out of bounds. Not on this kind of stuff. It scares me.a aItas sure scaring me,a Rhiow said. aI canat wait to get back ... itas like fleas under the skin, the fear. But it canat be helped ... we need to do this first.a Arhu had finished the first layer of his circle and had tied the wizardas knot: now he was laying in the coordinates for the Moon and the apocketsa which would trap and hold adequate air inside the spell for the three of them. aIt was a nice piece of work, regardless,a Rhiow said. aThat slide.a aThanks,a Urruah said. aIt didnat get much approval in some quarters, though.a aOh?a aFhrio.a aJust what the Snake is his problem?a Rhiow muttered.

aI donat know. Just generalized jealousy, I think. Or else he just really is territorial about anything to do with ahisa gates. I never thought Iad see a Person so territorial. I swear, heas like an ehhif that way.a aMaybe he was one in his last life,a Rhiow said, putting her whiskers forward. There were numerous jokes among People about how such an accident might happen, mostly suggesting that it was a step up in the scale of things for the ehhif.

aPlease,a Urruah said. aIt makes my head hurt just thinking about it.a Arhu stopped, looked up at them. aYou want to come check your names?a They walked over to the circle and jumped into it. Rhiow examined her name and found everything represented as it should be ... but there was something odd about one of the symbols that was normally a constant. It was a personality factor, something to do with relations.h.i.+ps: it was suggesting a change in the future, though whether near or far, Rhiow couldnat tell.

aWhere did you get this?a she said, prodding the symbol with one paw.

Arhu shrugged. aIt came out of the Knowledge: ask the Whisperer.a Rhiow waved her tail gently at that. Sometimes such things happened to a wizard who routinely did a lot of spelling: you saw a change in the symbology before it had reflected itself in your own person, or before it seemed to have so reflected itself. Then you were faced with the question of changing it back to a more familiar forma"and wondering whether you were thereby keeping yourself stuck in some situation which was meant to change graduallya"or leaving it the way it was, and wondering what in the worlds it might mean. Rhiow took a long breath, looking at it, and left it alone.

Urruah straightened up, apparently having found nothing untoward in his own name, and said, aIt looks fine. Is everything else ready?a Arhu stared at him. aYouare not going to check it?a aWhy should I?a Urruah said. aYou pa.s.sed your Ordeal: youare a wizard. Youare not going to get us killed.a He sat down and started was.h.i.+ng again, making faces again, but this time persisting.

Rhiow sat down too, there being no reason to stand. aGo on,a she said to Arhu: aLetas see what we see.a Arhu looked around him a little nervously, then stepped to the center of the spell and half-closed his eyes, a concentrating look. Rhiow watched with some interest. Spelling styles varied widely among wizards of whatever species: there were some who simply areada the words of a spell out of the Whispering, and others who liked to memorize large chunks: some who preferred the sound of the words of the Speech spoken aloud, and some who felt embarra.s.sed to be talking out loud to the universe and preferred to keep their contracts with it silent. Arhu was apparently one of these, for without a word spokena"though Rhiow could feel, as if through her fur, that words in the Speech were being thoughta"she felt the spell starting to take: checking for her presence and Urruahas, sealing the air in around them, and then the transita"

abrupt, quicker than she was used to: but that was very much in Arhuas style. One moment they were looking at the dirty river flowing between its sludgy banks, and the foul air snuggling down against it: then everything went black and white.

And brown. She had not been prepared for the brown: it was a strange note. They were standing on a high place, one of the Lunar Carpathians, she thought, a fairly level spot scattered with small grainy rocks and the powdery pumice dust typical of even this area, which had suffered its share of meteoric impacts, exclusive of impacts of other types. The sphere of air held around them by the spell shed frozen oxygen and nitrogen snow around them at the interface between it and vacuum: the snow sifted out and down a little harder, sliding down the outside of the invisible sphere invoked by the spell, when any of them moved slightly and changed the way the wizardry compensated for their presence.

The brown lay streaked over the white and gray-black of the craters around them. It was ejecta from another impact, a much larger one, some miles away if Rhiow was any judge. She looked all around them for its source, but the crater was well over the short lunar horizon.

More than six miles away, anyway, she thought, glancing over at Arhu. He was licking his nose repeatedly. aAre you all right?a Rhiow said.

aYeah,a he said, abut the spellas not. Radiation.a aThe problem wonat be the Van Allen belts,a Rhiow said. aWeare well away from them. Solar flare, possiblya"a Urruah gave Rhiow a look. You are an optimist, he said silently.

aI donat think so,a Arhu said. aI need a better look. Come ona"a He started to walk upwards as if on a stairway: a good trick, Rhiow thought, if he was using the air trapped with them to do it. She got up and carefully went up after him, none too concerned about the actual instrumentality at the momenta"and much more concerned that the bubble of air should follow them all up, as Urruah came stepping carefully up behind her. She also took some care with how she went in the low gravity. Falling off Arhuas invisible stairway, and down and out of the spell, would be unfortunate.

The spell followed them with no problems: its diameter was at least ten meters, and Arhu had apparently designated himself as its center. They walked upward for perhaps a quarter mile before Arhu stopped, standing there in the middle of nothing and looking down on the desolate landscape. Rhiow looked down too, and drew in a long painful breath. The crater off to the northward, the one which had produced the brown ejecta, lay plain before them. It was at least five miles in diameter, and ran all the way to the far horizon northward. Great fissures ran from it, in all directions but mostly toward the north. The bottom of the crater was glazed as if with ice, but it was not ice: it shone with a bitter, brittle gleam under the slanting light of the sun.

aSo what would you make it?a Urruah said after a momentas silence. aA megaton or so? And there are a lot more of these. Some particularly big impacts up in the northern hemisphere ... a Rhiowas tail lashed furiously. aThe only good thing about this,a she said, ais that they did this up here and not on Earth. But stilla"what a message.a aYes indeed,a Urruah said. aFor every other pride of ehhif in the world to see, every time the Moon comes up. aLook what we could do to you, if we wanted to.a The question isa"which ehhif down there are doing it?a He glanced at the gibbous-waning Earth hanging above the horizon.

aWhen we come back,a Rhiow said, aweare going to have to find out. The Lone One has seen to it somehow that these people have been given the most dangerous technology that they could possibly get their hands on. With the a.s.sumption, Iam sure, that theyall certainly destroy themselves. What weare going to have to do is fly in the face of that certainty and stop it.a aIf we can,a Urruah said. He sounded rather muted: even his supreme self-confidence was having trouble dealing with this.

as.p.a.ce travel as well,a Arhu said. aThey can come up here and see whatas here ... and then they do this.a He was bristling.

aIf weare very lucky, we may be able to keep them from doing worse,a Rhiow said. aBut even here, I donat want to linger. The longer we stay in this universe ... the more we endanger our own.a aLetas get back down then,a Urruah said. The timeslide wonat have self-activated yet, but that doesnat matter. It functioned: that part of our test is a success. We can come back when we need to. And as for thisa"a He too was fluffed up as he looked down around him.

aArhu,a he said after a moment, aIam sorry. You shouldnat have seen it this way, you first time out.a aNo, itas all right,a Arhu said. aWe needed to do it: you were right. But letas go home.a He paused, standing there on nothing, and narrowed his eyes. A second later they were standing on the old dock by the Thames again, and Rhiowas ears were ringing with the bang! of displaced air which accompanied their appearance. There were ehhif walking by the river, further eastward, but they paid no attention to the sound at all.

aThey probably think itas a car backfiring or something,a Urruah muttered.

aMaybe so,a Rhiow said, aand Iall be glad to get back where that kind of perception is normal for its time. Come on!a They made their way as quickly as they dared, sidled, back to Old Jewry, the street where the other end of the timeslide was sited. It was hard to avoid the ehhif, sometimes, they were so crowded together, and Rhiow was bruised or kicked more than once as the team made its way toward the timeslide.

They were about to break into a run across the noise and muck of George Street again, making for Old Jewry, when to Rhiowas complete astonishment, Arhu, ahead of her, suddenly darted through a thicket of walking legs and westward down George Street. aArhu!a she cried. aWhat are youa"a aJust two blinks -- !a he said, and dodged around a corner. Rhiow and Urruah crowded against a nearby building, staring after him. Not quite two blinks latera"more like two blinks and a quick scruba"he reappeared, dodging among the ehhif. He was unsidled, and had something large and white in his mouth: it flapped as he came. Ehhif pointed and laughed at Arhu as he ran.

He ran straight past Urruah and Rhiow, and straight across George Street, weaving expertly to avoid the traffic. Rhiow and Urruah threw each other a look and went after him at speed. All three made it to the far side together, as more horse carriages and a few more of the antique cars came splas.h.i.+ng and rattling down through the mud at them.

Arhu was spattered but triumphant. aI saw an ehhif drop it,a he said, and dropped it himself, going sidled again.

aHow could you see him around the corner?a Urruah said, while Rhiow peered curiously at the thing. It said, THE TIMES, AUGUST 18, 1875, and everywhere else it was covered with small fine print in ehhif English. It would hardly have pa.s.sed for a newspaper in New York: it seemed to have only three pages, no pictures, and no ads.

Arhu wrinkled his nose up. aI mean, I see him,a he said. aI still see him now, even though he did it already. Au, Rhiow, the way we talk about time doesnat work right for talking about vision. I need new words or something ... a aOne last check,a Urruah said, and held his head up as if sniffing for something. Rhiow looked at him, bemused.

aWhat?a she said.

aIave been feeling around me with a detector spell ever since we got here,a Urruah said. aBut to no effect. You remember Mr.. Illingworth? Well, thereas no sign of him.a aYou mean, after all this, heas not from here?a aI donat know what it means,a Urruah said, aand at the moment, Iam not going to hang around to find out. Come on!a Arhu picked up the paper again, coming unsidled as he did so, and they headed down the little street together, keeping to one side, for there were some ehhif pa.s.sing up and down it together. Urruah stopped at one point and felt around with his paw in the mud. aAll right,a he said, athereas the atripwirea. Now if these vhaiad ehhif will just go awaya"a It took some minutes: there were several false starts in which the street would look like it was going to be clear, and then another ehhif or two or three would come along from one end or the other. This left Rhiow with nothing to do but watch her own tension increase, and try to reduce it. Oh, please let the world still be there when we get back, our own world, please -- ! Meanwhile, Arhu had to keep dropping the paper and picking it up, to avoid being seen by the ehhif. aItas all right, isnat it?a he said suddenly. aBringing things back?a aOr forward in this case?a Rhiow said. aYes. Things are all right. Anything alive, thatas where the complications start ... a aQuick,a said Urruah. The street was empty, and he had pulled the atripwirea. The circle of the timeslide spell sprang into being around them. aReady? Brace yourselvesa"a Rhiow tried, but against that awful pressure there was no way you could brace, nothing you could do but endure as everything, light and breath and almost life, was squeezed out of you. Hang on, she thought, it canat last much longer, hang ona"

and suddenly things were dark again, and Auhlae and Fhrio were looking at them, bemused, from outside the circle.

aWhatas the matter?a Auhlae said. aDidnat it work?a aPerfect!a Urruah said. aRight to the tenth of a second.a The rest of his pleasure in the accuracy of his spelling got lost for Rhiow in a rush of astonishment and delight that the world seemed, by and large, to be the way they had left it. But the delight didnat last. She couldnat get rid of the image of that other worldas Moon, and of the certainty that, unless they could work out what had gone wrong and what to do about it, their own Moon would look that way before long. Urruah was right: reality resisted being changed. But it could not resist such change indefinitely: and the rumbling dark of the Underground tunnels almost immediately looked a lot less welcome, and started to look rather like a trap.

aWe should get everyone together,a she said to Auhlae. aIf you thought you had trouble with random temporal accesses ... when we show you what weave found, youall wish a few stray pastlings were all you had ... a

FOUR.

aThey have nuclear weapons??a Huff said.

aWhether theyare exactly weapons the way we would define them, I donat know,a Rhiow said. aWe were hardly there long enough to guess anything about their delivery systems. Do they have missiles? I havenat a clue. But do they know how to produce large nuclear explosions? Youad best believe it.a Relative silence fell in the corner of the pub where the London and New York gating teams sat that evening: the only other sound was the occasional dinging and idiot music played by what the London team referred to as the afruit machinesa. Rhiow much wished the machines, ranged around the back wall of this room of the pub, would emit something as innocent as fruit, instead of the deafening shower and clatter of one-pound coins that came out of them every now and then when ehhif played with them. As evening drew on and The Mint started to fill up, the hope of a pile of those coins was starting to keep the machines busy with ehhif who drifted in, fed the machines money, and then shook and banged them when they didnat give it back again, with dividends. It was, in its way, a charming ill.u.s.tration of some ehhif faith in the truism that what you gave the universe, it would give back: but they were plainly a little confused about the timing of such returns, or the percentages involved.

aBut just the idea of them blowing up the Moon,a Siffhaah said. aItas awful. Itall be themselves, next ... a Rhiow, tucked down in the ameatloaf configurationa, twitched her tail in agreement. aIt was always a favorite tactic of the Lone Oneas,a she said. aTricking life into undoing itself. And so doing, mocking the Powers, which tend to let life take care of itself, by and large.a aThey were lucky not to bring the whole thing down on top of them,a Fhrio said. aImagine if they had hit one of those deep lunar amantle faultsa and blown it apart. Just think of the tidal effects on the Earth ... and then the fragment impacts later.a aIam sure saaRrahh would have been delighted,a Huff said. He was lying on his side, finis.h.i.+ng one more wash after acting as courier for yet another round of snacks for the a.s.sembled group. aI wouldnat say that was her main intent in this case, as Lone Power, but it would have been entirely acceptable. As it is, it looks like the poor ehhif back then have been given the quickest way for an unprepared or immature species to kill itself off ... tried and tested in other parts of this Galaxy and others. And if that universe settles fully into place before we can dislodge it, weall find ourselves living on the Earth thatas a direct ahistorical successor to that one. If alivinga is the word Iam looking for ... because weall be in the middle of the nuclear winter.a aWell, all we have to do now,a Siffhaah said, ais figure out what to do about this.a aOh, yes, thatas all,a Fhrio said.

Rhiow paid no more attention to this remark than the others seemed to be doing, instead glancing over toward the corner. Half-hidden by the arrangement of a couple of the fruit machines, Arhuas newspaper was spread out on the floor, and he was bent over it, carefully puzzling out the words. Rhiow had always found it useful that understanding of the Speech let a wizard understand other written languages as well as all spoken ones. Normally she didnat get too carried away by this advantage: but Arhu had been turning into a voracious reader of ehhif printed material of all kinds, everything from the big advertis.e.m.e.nts posted up here and there in Grand Central to sc.r.a.ps of newspaper and magazines that people dropped on the platforms, or the complete papers that Urruah fished out of the garbage bins at regular intervals. Urruah had claimed, with some pride, that Arhu was taking after him in his erudition. Rhiow agreed, but was clearer about the reasons for it. Arhu was nosy ... nearly as nosy as Urruah, and with a taste for gossip and scandal nearly as profound. She couldnat really complain: that insatiable curiosity was part of what made them good at being wizards. At the same time, sometimes the habit drove Rhiow nearly crazy. Urruahas endlessly relayed tales about the s.e.xual peculiarities and mishaps of ehhif made her wish very much that Urruah would read more of the kind of newspapers which did not feature headlines like HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR.

What had become immediately plain was that, in 1875 at least, The Times of London was not that kind of newspaper. There was hardly anything to it. A front page which was almost entirely cla.s.sified ads, both commercial and private: then interior pages which reported what seemed to the publishers to be important newsa"most of it having to do with ehhif from the pride-of-prides aBritaina, or other prides closely a.s.sociated with ita"and then long reports about what was going on in the place where the pride-rulers sat, the aHouses of Parliamenta.

aThis is mostly a lot of small stuff,a Arhu said, glancing up at the others in the momentary quiet. aEhhif buying and selling dens to live in, and renting them out: or asking other ehhif to come and work with them: or buying and selling little things, or asking other ehhif to help them find things theyave lost. Some other news about shows and plays they want ehhif to go to: and then news about the pride-ruler and what he does all day. Thatas the interesting part: itas not a Queen. Itas a King.a Huff breathed out heavily. aThen the old Queen is dead in that eighteen seventy-five,a he said. aThereas a major change. In our world she lived on almost into the next century.a aBut the worldas different, thatas for sure,a Arhu said. aThey have all kinds of things that the Whispering says werenat there in our worldas eighteen seventy-five. A lot of machines like our timeas ehhif have: even computers, though I donat think theyare as smart as the ones in our time. And theyave definitely got s.p.a.ce travel, though itas as it is in our world: only the pride-rulers use it. I think itas for weapons too, mostly.a aOrbital?a Fhrio said.

aI donat know,a Arhu said. aThey donat seem eager to talk about it in here. They talk a lot about war, though ... a He ran one paw down the page. aSee. Hereas the bombing that the Illingworth ehhif was talking about.

a aThe Continental powers have once again defied the King-Emperoras edict by using mechanical flying bombs based at Calais and Dieppe to strike at civilian targets in the south of Suss.e.x and Ess.e.x. The Royal Air Force, led by units of His Majestyas 8th Flying Hussars, succeeded in destroying nearly all elements of the attack, but several flying bombs were knocked off course by the defending forces and exploded in suburban areas of Brighton and Hove, causing civilian casualties and destruction to a large area. The Ministry of War has announced that these attacks will be the cause of the most severe reprisal at a time of the Governmentas choosinga"aa Arhu stopped, his tail twitching slowly. Fhrio was growling under his breath. aThis island has not been bombed since the second of the great ehhif wars in this century,a Huff said. aThat they should have been doing such things then ... Does it say what they mean by athe Continental powersa?a Arhu looked at the paper, reached out and carefully turned the middle leaf of it over with his paw. aI donat see any specific pride names,a he said. aMaybe they expect everybody to know what theyare talking about.a Huff sighed. aThereas no question that this is useful,a he said, abut itas not nearly enough to base an intervention on. How I wish the Whispering could throw some light on this ... a Rhiow shook her head. aShe seems unable to discuss whatas happening in an alternate universe,a she said. aIs it possibly outside the Whispereras brief? Would it be speculation, even for her? -- which as we know is something she wonat indulge in. Or is this simply something weare supposed to have to find out for ourselves ... ?a aWhichever,a Urruah said, stretching, athe result is the same. But I wouldnat take too long about it. That other universe has abecome reala ... and now it and ours are going to be starting to fight it out for primacy between them, though we canat feel the effects at the moment.a aWe will soon enough,a Fhrio growled. aThe gates will be the first symptom. When something starts going wrong with thema"a aYou mean, besides whatas going wrong already,a Arhu said.

Fhrio sat up, glaring at Arhu, and lifted one paw. Urruah looked over at Fhrio.

aI wouldnat,a he said. aAnybody gets to shred his ears for tactlessness, itas me. Arhu, donat you think your tone was a little snide?a aSorry,a Arhu said, not sounding very much so. Rhiow sighed.

Arhu had gone back to reading the back page of his paper. Rhiow watched this process with amus.e.m.e.nt that she hoped was well concealed. Besides being useful, the paper had given him an excuse not to try to speak or even to look at Siffhaah for the whole early evening so far. aHey, listen to this,a he said, and began reading aloud with some difficulty: not so much because of the words themselves, as because of how odd some of them seemed in context. aIf its what Mr.. Illingworth was talking about.a aWhat?a Rhiow said. Even Siffhaah sat up at that.

aI think it is, anyway.

a aMaskelyne and Cooka"Dark Seance. The latest novelty and most startling performance ever presented to the public ... the seance includes the floating of Luminous Instruments, distribution of flowers with dew, appearance of materialized spirit forms, spirit hands, spirit arms, strange and apparently unearthly voices, music extraordinary, the inexplicable Coat Feat, all accomplished by Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook while bound hand and foot, the ropes secured with knots executed by the most perfect adepts in the art of rope-tying, elected by the audience.a a He paused and looked up. aBut that doesnat sound like such a big deal.a aIt does if youare an ehhif and not a wizard,a Urruah said. aWe have ehhif like that at home: they do shows where they pretend to be wizards. Without the ethical element, anyway. Itas amagica rather than wizardry: mostly they pretend to do things that would normally kill them, and make things disappear.a Fhrio muttered something under his breath. Rhiow, having occasionally shared what she suspected was Fhrioas sentiment, had to put her whiskers forward just a little. a aIn addition to the great sensation the Dark Seance and exposes of so-called spiritualism,a a Arhu said, a athe following leading features amuse the audience at the present program: Mr.. Maskelyneas extraordinary comical illusions, extraordinary Chinese plate-spinning, lady floating in air, the animated walking-stick, the Tell Tale Hat, etc. The original and inexplicable Corded Box Feat is performed at every representation. Every afternoon at three, every evening at eight.a a Arhu looked up again. a aSpiritualism?a a Rhiow shook her head and started to tilt her head sideways to listen to what the Whisperer might have to say: but Siffhaah said suddenly, aItas where ehhif used to think that their dead still stayed around to speak to them after they were gone. The live ehhif would try to get advice from their dead ones, and ask them what was going to happen in the world ... things like that.a aBut it doesnat work that way for ehhif, surely,a Auhlae said, sounding dubious. aWhen they go, theyare gone, arenat they?a A pang went through Rhiow. She stared at the floor for a moment while trying to manage it, aware of Urruah looking at her but not saying anything, just being there.

aAnd no matter what happens to them, I wouldnat think the advice of the dead would do the living much good in any case,a Auhlae said. aSurely that must have occurred to even ehhif. Their priorities would be very much different ... a aNonetheless, some of them wouldnat care,a Rhiow said. aSome of them miss each other very much, and they donat have the kind of knowledge we have, it would seem, about what happens to them afterwards. All they have are a lot of different stories that mostly disagree with one another.a She swallowed. aIt makes them feel very afraid, and very alone ... a Auhlae was looking at her. aIam sorry,a she said. aMy apologies, Rhiow. I hadnat realized ... a aItas all right,a Rhiow said, though how long this statement would stay true, she wasnat sure: she tried to keep a grip on herself. aSheas somewhere safe, my ehhif: though I havenat any idea of what she does there, how she is or what she knows ... probably any more than she would normally have had of what awaited me after any given life. Maybe itas a privacy thing that the Powers preserve between species. Our paths cross, we live together, we part ... is it really our business where ehhif go? Or theirs, what happens to us?a Auhlae said nothing, merely looked at Rhiow with eyes thoughtful and a little sad. Rhiow sat still for a moment and did her best to master herself, while the back of her mind shouted Yes it is, yes! She held very still and concentrated on her breathing, and on not looking like an idiot in front of the others.