Feline Wizards - To Visit The Queen Part 5

aWell,a Huff said after a moment, awe still have a fair number of problems to deal with.a aYouare not kidding,a Urruah said. aIam still trying to work out what in the worlds aThe Tell Tale Hata might be.a aBesides that,a said Huff. aMr. Illingworth, who has been to see Maskelyne and Cook, is one of them. You said you didnat find any trace of him in that universe.a aNo,a Urruah said, aand Iam at a loss to know why. The most likely possibility that occurs to me is that that wasnat the universe we were heading for, but a close congener.a aAn alternate alternate universe?a Siffhaah said.

aYou might as well call it that,a Urruah said. aWhen you start messing with timelines, altering them, whole sheaves of new universes are created from each branching pointa"some of them very likely, some of them less likely, some of them hardly there at all. The more likely they are, the more likely you are to come across them. Think of them as awavesa in a wave tank which is chiefly populated by the two universes which are trying to achieve equilibrium. You get troughs and crests of probability and possibility as the two universes attempt to absorb one anotheras energya"and matter, though thatas a more problematic process. The sheaves of alternates donat persist for long. As one universe or the other starts winning the argument, the otheras aalternatesa vanish. Then, last of all, the universe that sp.a.w.ned them vanishes too: dissolves into the other one, all its energy absorbed. I think Illingworth came from the sheaf of apossiblesa surrounding the main one.a aSo youare going to have to alter your timeslideas settings to find the acore universea, the one which engendered all these others,a Fhrio said.

aYes,a Urruah said, aand as yet, I donat know how theyare going to have to be altered, or how to construct a spell to tell it how to manage the alteration. Also, I donat understand why the asettingsa I saved from Illingworthas gating didnat lead us straight back to his home universe. Add that to your list of problems ... a aYou seem to know more about timeslide theory than the rest of us,a Huff said to Urruah. aDo you have any sense of how much time we might have to work in, at this end of things, before that other reality starts to supersede ours?a aMaybe as long as a month ... but I wouldnat care to bet on it,a Urruah said. aMy guess would be more like days ... at least, I think itad be safest to play it that way.a aBut, but itas just dumb!a Siffhaah burst out. aThe Powers wouldnat just let an entire reality be wiped out! Theyad send some kind of help!a aThey did,a Rhiow said. aThey sent us.a Siffhaah opened her mouth and shut it again. aBut if we canat do anything about it, Theyall help: They have toa"a aDo they?a Huff said. aWhere does it say that in the Whispering? Listen hard.a She did ... and her mouth dropped open one more time.

aYou need to understand it,a Rhiow said. aWe are all the help there is. The seven of us are, apparently, the best answer which the Powers that Be can offer up to this particular problem. If we fail, we fail, and our timeline fails with us. It would be nice to a.s.sume that if something goes wrong, one of the Powers will drop down out of the depths of reality to pull us up out of trouble by the tail. But such things donat normally happen: the Powers have too little power to waste. There is nothing particularly special about our timeline, except to us, because we live in it: it has no particular primacy among the millions or billions of others. For all we know, other timelines have been wiped out because of such attacks, and because their native wizards couldnat act correctly to save them. Myself, I wouldnat much care to ask the Whisperer about that at the moment: the answer might depress me. Letas just a.s.sume we must do the job ourselves, and get it right. Huff ... ?a He thumped his tail once or twice on the floor in disturbed agreement. aThereas nothing I can add to that.a For a few moments everyone looked in every possible direction but at each other, unnerved. Then Arhu sat upright and stared toward the front room of the pub. aOh, no, here he comesa"a Rhiow looked around to see what he was talking about: but no one but their own two groups was anywhere near them. aWhat?a she said.

aI see him a few minutes ago,a Arhu said, sounding slightly put out. aI was hoping he might change his mind, or the seeing might turn out to be inaccurate ... but no such luck. Get sidleda"a They all did but Huff, who looked curiously at Arhu, then turned his head, distracted. A young ehhif was heading over toward the fruit machines. He was one of a type which seemed common in that part of the City, a suit-and-tie sort with a loud voice and his tie thrown over his shoulder. As he came, he was suddenly distracted by the presence on the floor of a sheet of paper ... The Times. He bent down to pick it up.

aOh, for Iauas sake,a Arhu growled, and put one invisible paw down on the paper. Rhiow watched with interest as the ehhif failed to get the paper to come up off the floor: tried to pick it up again, and failed, and failed again. He got really frustrated about it, trying to get even just a fingernail under one of the newspaperas corners and peel it up, and failed at that as well, managing only to break a couple of nails. The ehhif straightened up again and walked off swearing softly to himself.

aNice one,a Auhlae said. aHowad you do that?a aMade it heavy for a moment, thatas all,a Arhu said. aIt was part of a tree once, after all. I just suggested that it was actually the whole tree.a He put his whiskers forward. aPaper fantasizes pretty well.a aYouad better make it invisible as well,a Huff said mildly: aheall be back here with my ehhif in a moment. I know what that kind gets like when theyare confused, or balked.a Arhu shrugged his tail. A moment later, when Huffas tall dark-haired ehhif came back, there was no paper there, or seemed to be none, and only Huff, lying at his ease and finis.h.i.+ng his wash. Huffas ehhif took one look at the floor, and saw nothing there but his cat lying there and looking at him with big innocent green eyes. Huff blinked, then threw his rear right leg over his shoulder and began to wash. His ehhif raised his eyebrows, and headed back to the bar.

Huff finished the second bit of was.h.i.+ng, which had been purely for effect, and glanced over at Arhu. aDoes that happen to you often?a Huff said.

aYou mean, seeing? Once a day or so ... sometimes more. I wish it was always about important things,a Arhu said, looking rather annoyed, abut usually itas not. Or I canat tell if theyare important, anyway, till they happen. The trouble is, they all feel important ... until it turns out theyare not.a aHow very appropriate,a Siffhaah murmured, and looked away.

Arhu gave her a look that had precious little lovesickness about it: it smelled more of claws in someoneas ears. He opened his mouth, probably to emit something unforgivable, and Rhiow, concerned, opened her mouth to interrupt him: but at the same moment, Huff said, aArhu, have you thought of going to see the Ravens?a aWho?a The Ravens over at the Tower. They have a problem rather similar to yours.a aAre they wizards?a Rhiow said, curious.

aNo,a Huff said, abut they have abilities of their own which are related to wizardry, though Iad be lying if I said I understood the details. They are visionaries of a kind ... though I wouldnat know if they describe the talent to themselves in precisely those terms. In any case, the few times Iave talked to them, theyave sounded very like Arhu. Rather confused about their tenses.a He put his whiskers forward to show he didnat mean the remark to be insulting. aThey might be of use to you ... or to us, possibly, with this problem.a Arhu looked thoughtful. aOK,a he said. aIt canat hurt.a aNo, I would think not. Now, Urruah will be working on resetting his timeslide, recalibrating ita"a aItall take me a day or so,a Urruah said. aI want to explore as many of the possibilities as I can, as many of the universes in the asheafa, when we do our next run.a aAnd meanwhile there are a couple of other things weare going to need to find out,a Rhiow said. aFirst, if thereas any way to manage it at all, we must find the original contaminating event or events. If it happened using your gates, the logs may give us some hints ... if we can ever get them to yield that data, which Urruah hasnat yet been able to do. If we canat find evidence from the gates, then weare going to have to go back to that alternate time again, much as I dislike the prospect, and search for information there. The other thing we must discover is the nature of this attack on the ehhif-Queen, Victoriaa"a Rhiow went out of her way to try to get her p.r.o.nunciation as close to the ehhif word as she coulda"aand also discover whether this great change in the past-world we saw would have happened anyway, or has something specific to do with her death or life.a aIt very well could,a Auhlae said. aShe was a tremendous power in her time, though she had very little direct powera"compared to some of the pride-leaders who went before her, anyway. Certainly they would have gone to war had she been a.s.sa.s.sinated, and if they were able to prove that some other pride they knew of had been involved. There was fierce rivalry between them for a long time: the shadows of it remain, though most of the ehhif powers in Europe are supposed to be working together now ... a aHuff,a Rhiow said, ahow much do you know about ehhif history of that time? The eighteen seventies, say?a aVery little,a he said. aItas hardly my speciality: like most of us, if I need to know something I go to the Whispering.a He looked thoughtful for a moment. aBut you know,a he said, athere are People for whom it is a speciality. And they donat live far from here. In fact, thereas one in particular whoas famous for it. He used to live at Whitehall, but now heas out in the suburbs. You should go to see him. Iall show you the coordinates, and you can lay them into one of the other gates.a aThat sounds like a good idea,a Rhiow said. aWould he be available today, do you think?a aMore than likely. Probably your best bet is simply to go out there and meet with him.a aAll right. Whatas his name?a aHumphrey.a Rhiow blinked. aThatas not a Personas name ... a aIt is now,a Huff said, amused. aWait till you meet him.a aMeanwhile, I think the rest of us will be minding the other gates,a Fhrio said, aand watching to see if they start betraying any sign of instability. If they start acting up, weall know we have less time to deal with our troubles than we thought.a Rhiow nodded. aAnd as for the rest of it,a she said, aweall meet again when itas dark, and see whoas best sharpened their claws on the problem before us.a The others agreed, then got up and shook themselves, preparatory to heading off in their various directions.

aNow look at this,a Arhu said, crouched down again, and oblivious. a aPrincess Christiana of Schleswig-Holstein visited His Majesty and remained to luncha"a a Urruah looked up. aDoes it say what they had?a he said, coming to gaze at the paper over Arhuas shoulder.

Rhiow glanced over at Huff and wandered over to him. aYou look tired,a she said. aAre you all right?a aOh, Iam well enough,a he said. aRhiow, weare all too old for this! Except for thema"a and he indicated Arhu, and off on the other side of the room, already heading for the back door, Siffhaah. aBut no matter ... weall cope.a He sighed, looked at her, as Auhlae came wandering over and laid her tail gently over his back. aItas just hard, sometimes, discovering that after a long period of steady and not terribly dangerous work, your reward for getting it right is that you get to save the universe ... a His look was dry.

aItas always dangerous to demonstrate talent,a Auhlae said. aLeast of all to Them. But thatas our job: we accepted it when it was offered us ... and what can we do now?a aDo it the best we can,a Rhiow said. aThereas nothing else.a She rubbed cheeks with Huff, when he offered, and did the same, a little more tentatively, with Auhlae. The two of them headed off toward the front of the pub: and Rhiow made her way out toward the back, and the cat-door, thinking thoughts of quiet desperation ... but determined not to give in to them.

Half an hour or so later, Rhiow was padding down a street in one of the northern suburbs of London, looking for a specific house in one small street. She had a description of the house, and a name for a Person: or rather, that peculiar ehhif nickname which Huff had given her. According to the Knowledge, the nickname (bizarrely) came from an ehhif television show, and was a reference to an astute but extremely twisty-minded politician. Rhiow was uncertain whether any Person, no matter how jovial, would really want to be called by such a name.

She found the house, at last. It was actually b.u.mped sideways into another house, in a configuration which the ehhif here called asemidetached.a There was a narrow wall of decorative concrete blocks about four feet high separating the two housesa front yards and driveways. Rhiow jumped up onto this and made her way back to where it met another wall, taller, one which divided the housesa two back gardens from one another. This was actually less a wall than a series of screens of interwoven wood, fastened end to end. Rhiow jumped up onto the nearest of them and paced along it and the subsequent screens carefully, looking down on the left-hand side, as she had been instructed.

The right-hand garden was less a garden than a tangle of weeds and rosebushes run amuck. The left-hand one, though, had a lawn with stepping-stones in it, and carefully trimmed shrubs, and small trees making a shady place down at the far end. There was a birdbath standing in the shade, but no bird was fool enough to use it: for lying near the birdbath, upside down in the sun, was a black-and-white Person with long fluffy fur.

Rhiow paused there for a moment looking at him as he dozed, wondering how to proceed. From a tree nearby, a small bird appeared, perched on a nearby branch, and began yelling, aCat! Cat! Cat!a at Rhiow.

She rolled her eyes. One of the great annoyances a.s.sociated with becoming a wizard was, oddly, identical with one of its great joys: learning enough of the Speech to readily understand the creatures around her. It was very hard to eat, with a clean conscience, anything you could talk to and get an intelligible answer back. aIn your case, though,a she said to the small bird, aIam willing to make an exception ... a Except that she wasnat, really. Rhiow sighed and turned her attention away from the bird, to find that the black-and-white Personas eyes had opened, at least partially, and he was looking at her, upside down.

aHuntas luck to you!a she said. aIam on errantry, and I greet you.a He looked at her curiously, and rolled over so that he was right side up again. aYouare a long way from home, by your accent,a he said. aCome on down, make yourself comfortable.a Rhiow jumped down form the wall and walked over to the respectable-looking Person, breathed breaths with him, and then said, aPlease forgive me: I donat know quite what to call you ... a aWhich means you know the nickname,a he said, and put his whiskers forward. aGo ahead and use it: everyone else does, at this point, and thereas no real point in me trying to avoid it.a aHhuhmahri, then. Iam Rhiow.a aHuntas luck to you, Rhiow, and welcome to London. What brings you all this way?a She sat down and explained, trying to keep the explanation brief and non-technical. But Hhuhmahri was nodding a long time before she finished, and Rhiow realized that this was one of the more acute People she had met in a while, with a quick and deep grasp of issues for all his slightly ditzy, wide-eyed looks.

aWell, thatas certainly a different sort of problem,a Hhuhmahri said. aAt first Iad thought perhaps you were one of the People whoas just been added to the standing committee on rat control.a Rhiow restrained herself from laughing. aNo, the problemas a little different from that ... a aCertainly a little more interesting. I must say I wouldnat want our timeline to be wiped out, either, so Iam at your disposal. Though I must admit that the temptation to alter just one piece here or there, with an eye to improving things, must be very strong ... a aBy and large it doesnat work,a Rhiow said. aThere are conservation laws for history as well as for energy. Remove one pivotal event without due consideration, and another is likely to slip in to take its placea"often one thatas worse than the one you were trying to prevent.a aConservation of history ... a Hhuhmahri mused for a moment. aThatas the only odd thing about this, to me: if such a principle exists, why isnat it protecting you in this case?a aBecause of the nature of the Power which has intervened to cause the change,a Rhiow said. aMostly time heals itself over without a scar if the change is small, or made by a mortal. But when the Powers that Be become directly involved ... and in this case, one of the oldest and greatest of thema"the fabric of time is entirely too amenable to Their will. Itas unavoidable: They built time, after all ... a Hhuhmahri blinked. aYes,a he said. And then he added, aYouall forgive me a secondas skepticism, I hope. One doesnat often expect to run into one of Them, or Their direct deeds, in the normal course of the business day.a aOf course,a Rhiow said, at the same time thinking that, from the wizardas point of view, that was all anyone ever ran into: but this was not the moment for abstract philosophy.

aSaaRrahh, eh,a Hhuhmahri said after a moment. aSo the bad-tempered old queenas at it again. Well, Iall help you any way I can: weall play the Old Tom to her Great Serpent, and put a knife or two into her coils before weare done. I may not be walking the corridors of power any more, but all my contacts are still live ... in fact, I have rather more of them since I came out to the green leafy confines of suburbia.a Rhiow c.o.c.ked her head. aIad heard something about your retirement,a she said, afrom the Knowledge: but even the ehhif in New York noticed it. A lot of talk about you being thrown out of Downing Streeta"and then maybe murdereda"a Hhuhmahri put his whiskers right forward and sprawled out, blinking at Rhiow like a politician after a three-mouse lunch followed by unlimited cream: and he smiled like someone who could say a lot more on the subject than he was willing to. aIt wasnat that bad,a he said. aAt least, as far as political scandals go ... a Though a lot of ehhif had thought it was. The new Prime Ministeras wife, a suspected ailurophobe, had dropped a few remarks on moving into Number Ten which indicated that she thought cats were, of all things, aunsanitarya. The remarks had provoked so ma.s.sive an outbreak of ehhif public concern for aHumphreya that an official statement from the government had been required to put matters righta"making it plain that Humphreyas normal abeata was the Cabinet Office and Number Eleven, and his position was not threatened. Shortly after that had come the photo opportunity. Rhiow had been looking over Iaehhas shoulder at the television one night and had chanced to catch some of those images: the lady in question looking conciliatory, but also rather as if she very much wished she was elsewhere, or holding something besides a cat: while aHumphreya gazed out at the cameras, as big-eyed in the storm of strobe-flashes as a kitten seeing a ball of yarn for the first time. aGlad it wasnat me,a Rhiow said. aI wouldnat have known what to do in a situation like that.a aYou hold still and pray you wonat walk into anything when she finally puts you down,a Hhuhmahri said, amused. aSweet Queen above us, ten minutes straight of flash photography ... ! I was half-blind at the end of it. But other than that, I did what I had to. I shed on her.a He put his whiskers forward in a good-natured way. aWhat else could I do? What kind of PR advice was she getting, to take a photo call with a black and white cat in a black suit? Did they expect me to stop shedding in one color? She should have worn a print, or tweed ... Well, she was only new to the job. Sheas learned better since. While I stayed there, I steered clear of the children, by and large, which is mostly what she was worried about. No point in tormenting the poor woman. Then my kidneys began to kick up, and I thought, why should I hang about and distract these poor ehhif? Theyave got enough problems, and my replacementas trained. So I took early retirementa"and there was a press scandal about that too, unavoidable I supposea"but I was happy enough to let aHarolda move in at Number Ten, and go off to get the kidneys sorted out and settle into domestic life. I still have more than enough to do.a aNot just the rats, in other words.a aOh, dear me, no. As I said, now that Iam quartered out here, People who might otherwise attract notice if they came to see me in Downing Street donat feel shy about it any more. No more cameramen hanging about all hours of the day and night ... a He yawned. aSorry, I was up late this morning. Tell me what kind of help you need from me, specifically.a aAdvice on personalities,a Rhiow said. aI need to know what People can best help us in that time, in the eighteen seventies ... ideally, in the target year itself, where their intervention will do most good. We think itas eighteen seventy-five. The possible error, my colleague thinks, is a couple of years on either side.a aEighteen seventy-five,a Hhuhmahri said. aOr between eighteen seventy-three and eighteen seventy-six. Not a quiet time ... a He mostly-closed his eyes, thinking, and for a few minutes he lay there in the warm dappled shade and said nothing. Rhiow waited, while above a growing chorus of small birds scolded at them, and her mouth began to water slightly at the thought of foreign food, whether she could talk to it or not.

aWell,a Hhuhmahri said suddenly, as Rhiow was beginning to concentrate on one small bird in particular, a greenish-yellow creature with banded dark wings and a bright blue cap which was hanging temptingly close on a branch of a dwarf willow. There are certainly a fair number of resources: though the Old Catsa Network was really only getting started, then. One in particular should be of best use to you, though. aWilberforcea told me about something that had come down to him from aGeorgea, or maybe it was aTiddlesa, the one who owned Nelson ... something concerning the British Museumas cat at that point. aBlack Jacka, the ehhif called him. An outstanding character: he worked at the Museum for something like twenty years, and what he didnat know about the place, or about things going on in the Capital in general, wasnat worth knowing. He pa.s.sed everything he knew down to his replacement, ayoung Jackaa"and itas through that youngster that a lot of information about that time comes down to us. Either one of them would be the one youad want to talk to: but I can give you a fair amount of the information which has come down from them, so that youall start to get a sense of what questions you need to ask. How much background do you need?a aAll you can give me.a aIs your memory that good?a Hhuhmahri said, looking thoughtful.

aIt can be when it has to be,a Rhiow said. aI can emplace everything you say to me in the Whispering, as I hear it. I wonat be much good for conversation while youare at it, but itall be accessible to me and the rest of my team afterwards, and any other wizards who need the information.a aThatas very convenient.a aIt is,a Rhiow said, though privately she thought that what would not be convenient was the headache she would have afterwards. aIf youall give me a moment to set up the spell, we can get started.a It was nearly five hours later that she made her way out of Hhuhmahrias back garden: the sun was going down, and even the dimming sunset light made Rhiowas eyes hurt. Her whole head was clanging inside as if someone was banging a cat-food can with a spoon. And Iam ravenous, too, she thought, heading back to the vacant lot into which she had originally gated. Parts or no parts, if I go straight home after this, Iam eating whatever Iaehh gives me.

It had been worth it, though. Her brains felt so crammed full of ehhif political and non-political history of the 1870s that she could barely think: and after a sleep, she would be able to access it through the Knowledge, as if taking counsel with the Whisperer, and sort it for the specific threads and personalities they needed. It helped, too, that Hhuhmahrias point of view was such a lucid one, carefully kept clear of uninformed opinion or personal agendas. It had apparently been an article of honor for the long line of Downing Street cats to make sure that the information they pa.s.sed down the line was reliable and as free from bias as it could be, while still having an essentially feline point of view. They counted themselves as chroniclers, both of public information and of the words spoken in silence behind the closed doors of power, in Downing Street and elsewhere: and they suffered the amused way that ehhif treated them, put up with the cute names and the often condescending attention, for the sake of making sure someone knew the truth about what was going on, and preserved it. Not that there hadnat been affection involved, as well: Hhuhmahri had been quite close to the Prime Minister before the present one, and Churchillas affection for the People he lived with had been famousa"Rhiow could not get rid of the image of the great ehhif sitting up in bed with a brandy and a cigar, dictating his memoirs and pausing occasionally to growl, aIsnat that right, Cat Darling?a to the redoubtable orange-striped aCata, veteran of the Blitz, who had worked so hard to keep his ehhifas emotions stable through that terrible time.

They were an unusual group, the Downing Street cats: genuine civil servants, and talented ones. Over the many, many years they had been in residence, they had learned to understand clearly ehhif speech of various kindsa"the first acabineta cats, dating back to the pride-ruler Henry VI, had been ehhif-bilingual in English and Frencha"and they were a.s.siduous about training their replacements to make sure the talent wasnat lost in this most special of the branches of the Civil Service. Not quite wizards, Rhiow thought: though there may be wizardly blood in their line somewhere, or occasional infusions of it from outside -for not all the Downing Street group were related. They were a rraiatheh, a working pride without blood affinities, part of the much larger pride which referred to itself as athe Old Catsa Networka. Rhiow wondered if, as in other non-wizardly cats, another talent to aspill overa from wizardly stock had been the one for pa.s.sing through closed doors unnoticed. She suspected it had: in their line of work, such an ability would have been invaluable.

She made her way down to the Tower Hill Underground station with her head still buzzing with Hhuhmahrias briefing. It was unnerving, the way thinking about ehhif affairs for four or five hours straight could make you start looking at the world the way they did. Rhiow wasnat sure she liked it. Oh well ... an occupational hazard. But the one word which seemed to have come up most frequently in Hhuhmahrias reminiscences was awara. Try as she might, Rhiow could not understand why ehhif could kill each other in such large numbers for what seemed to her completely useless purposes. Fighting for land to live on, for a territory that would provide food to eat, that she could understand. All People who ran in prides, from the microfelids to the great cats of this world, did the same. But they usually didnat kill each other: a fight that resulted in the other pride running away was more than sufficient. If they tried to come back, you just drove them away again.

Ehhif, though, seemed not to find this kind of fighting sufficient. What troubled Rhiow most severely was tales of ehhif killing one another in large numbers for the sake of land that was nearly worthlessa"going to war simply because they had said that a given piece of land was theirs, and some other ehhif had disputed the claim. Or when they went to war for the sake of prestige or injured pride: that was strangest to her of all. And it seemed to her, from what Hhuhmahri had told her, that the pride-of-prides, which its ehhif called Britain, had gone to war for all these reasons, and for numerous other ones, over the past couple of centuries. Granted, they had done so genuinely to preserve their own people from being killed as well: the second of the great conflicts of this century had been one of that kind, and the British had defended themselves with courage and cleverness at least equal to their enemiesa. Nevertheless, Rhiow was beginning to think she knew who most likely would have blown up atomic weapons on the Moon in 1875, if theyad had access to them.

And how did they get them? And how can we undo it?

It was going to take time to work that out. At least they had a little time to work with ... but not much.

She made her way among the ehhif at the Underground ticket machines and past them, under the gates and down to the platform where the malfunctioning gate and its power source were being held. Hhuhmahri had told Rhiow that thousands of ehhif had hidden in tunnels and bas.e.m.e.nts near here during the bombings of London in that second great war. That had resolved, for Rhiow, the question of something she had been feeling since she came down here firsta"a faint buzzing in the walls, as if at the edge of hearing: the ghost-memory in the tunnels and the stones of ehhif not just pa.s.sing through here, but staying, and sleeping near here in the faintly electric-lit darkness. Their troubled and frightened dreams still saturated the bricks and mortar and tile of the tunnelsa"and abehinda them, if you were sensitive to such things and you listened very hard, you could just catch the faintest sound of the shudder and rumble of falling bombs. That un-sound, intruding at the very edge of a sensitiveas consciousness, could easily get lost in or confused with the rumble of present-day trains through the stone.

At least I know what it is now, Rhiow thought, making her way to the platform, and jumping up. A relief. I thought I was going a little strange ...

Only Urruah and Arhu were there just now. aLuck,a Rhiow said, going over to breathe breaths with Urruah, who was sitting and looking at his timeslide-spell, apparently taking a break after having doing an afternoonas worth of troubleshooting. The timeslide was presently lying quiescent on the platform floor, in a tangle of barely-seen lines. aHowas it going?a aSlow,a he said. aI wanted to have another look at the disconnected gateas logs before I started changing my own settings around.a aFind anything useful?a Rhiow said, glancing over at Arhu. He was tucked down in ameatloafa configuration with his eyes half-closed, unmoving.

aNo,a Urruah said, following her glance and looking thoughtful. aBut, Rhi, I think the logs are being tampered with.a She sat down, surprised. aBy whom?a aOr what,a Urruah said. aI canat say. Normally when a gateas offline, its logs are afrozena in the state they were in when the gate was taken off. I hooked the gate up again briefly to the catenary to have a look at the way the source has been feeding it powera"and found that some of the logs werenat the way I remembered them. In particular, the logs pertaining to Mr. Illingworthas access were in a different state than they were when I left them. Specifically, temporal coordinates were not the same.a Rhiow looked around her and then said privately, Fhrio?

I donat think so. For one of us to tamper with a gateas logs would normally leave amarksa that an expert can see ... alterations in the relations.h.i.+ps between the hyperstrings of the gate. Now, Iam an expert ... and I canat find any amarksa.

The Lone Power ... Rhiow thought.

Urruah hissed softly. Rhi, I know Itas been meddling in the larger sense. The contamination of the 1875-or-thereabouts timeline is certainly Its doing. But by and large Itas not going to do something like this. Itas still one of the Powers that Be, and has Their tendency not to waste effort Itself when It can get someone closer to the problem to do the dirty work.

She had to agree with him there. aSo what are you going to do?a He shrugged his tail. aTry the altered coordinates,a he said. aOr at least lay them into my timeslide and see what happens when we try to access them.a aIt could very well be a trap of some kind ... a Rhiow said.

aYes, but we donat have to put our foot right into it,a Urruah said. aWe can look before we jump. A habit of mine.a Rhiow put her whiskers forward. aAll right. Anything else?a aWell, one other possibility,a Urruah said. aI think our problem in finding Mr. Illingworthas home universe, or not finding it, may have to do with the timeslide still being powered out of the malfunctioning gateas power source. We noted from what few logs were left from the amicrotransitsa earlier that the far end of the gate-timeslide was las.h.i.+ng around in backtime, like the end of some ehhifas garden hose when they let it go with the water running at full pressure. The end whiplashes around, coming down first here, then there ... never the same place twice. I think the fault for that could possibly lie in the power source rather than the gate.a Rhiow blinked at that. aI canat see how. The power source isnat supposed to have any coordinate information in it, or anything like that ... a aIam not sure how either,a Urruah said, abut what else am I supposed to think at this point? The gate itself wasnat connected to the power source, but we still had a failure in my timeslide, although it was a small one. Big enough, though, in terms of what we were trying to do.a He sighed. aI think the next time we try this, we should keep the timeslide off the gateas power source and power it ourselves.a aThatas going to be hard on you,a Rhiow said.

aYeah, well, I donat see that we have the option,a Urruah said.

aExcuse me,a someone said pointedly from behind them.

They both looked over their shoulders. Siffhaah was sitting there behind them.

aI couldnat help overhearing,a she said. aBut you do have a power source. What about me?a Urruah blinked. aUh. I hadnata"a aa"thought about it? Or maybe you just donat trust me, because Iam young yet.a Her tone was very annoyed.

aSiffhaah,a Rhiow said, agive us the benefit of the doubt, please. Weare very aware that our being here at all imposes on your team somewhat. Weare unwilling to impose further when thereas any way thata"a aLook,a Siffhaah said, aour whole reality is going to be rubbed out if we canat stop whatas happening, and youare telling me you donat want to impose? Come on.a Rhiow glanced at Urruah, rueful but still somewhat amused. aWell,a she said, ayouave got a point there. Ruah?a He looked at her with his tail twitching slowly. aYou are unquestionably hot stuff,a he said, aand any time you want to power a timeslide of mine, youare welcome.a aYou build it,a Siffhaah said, aand Iall see that it takes you where you want to go. Whenall you be ready?a aTomorrow afternoon, I think.a aGood. Iall be here.a She strolled off, tail in the air. Rhiow glanced over at Urruah. She really does remind me of Arhu sometimes.

Yeah, Urruah said. In the tact department as well.

Rhiow put her whiskers forward. You know how it is when youare young, she said. Life seems short, and all the other lives a long way away ... You want to be doing things.

So do I, Urruah said. Preferably things thatall solve this problem. He looked rather glumly at the spell diagram for the timeslide.

aAll right,a Rhiow said. aAnything else that needs to be handled?a aHe said he wanted you to see what he saw,a Urruah said, glancing over at Arhu, who was still crouched down in meditative mode. aIam going to look at it later: right now this is more of a priority.a aRight ... a Rhiow went softly over to Arhu: then, as he didnat react, she sat down by him and began to washa"not only because she didnat want to interrupt him in whatever he was doing, but because she felt she badly needed it. She was tired, and needed to do something to keep herself from falling asleep. Rhiow had just finished her face and was starting on one ear when she felt something thumping against her tail. It was Arhuas tail: he had come out of his study and had rolled over on his side to look up at her.

aYou wash more than anybody I know,a he said. aAre you nervous or something?a She looked at him, then laughed. aNervous? Iam terrified. If you had a fleaas brainas worth of sense, you would be too.a aIam scared enough for all of us,a he said. aEspecially after what I saw today.a aYou went to see the ravens,a Rhiow said. aHow was it?a aWeird.a He put his ears back. aIam not sure I understood most of it ... but I put it all in the Whispering, the way you showed me.a aGood,a Rhiow said. aIall have a listen, then.a She crouched down, tucking her paws under her in the position which Arhu had been using: comfortable enough to let go of the world around and concentrate on the inner one, not so comfortable that she would fall asleep. Well, she said silently to the Whisperer, what has he got for me?

This ...

Normally the voice you heard whispering was Hers, the familiar, steady, quiet persona, ageless, deathless and serene. But material the source of which was a mortal being would come to you strongly flavored with the taste of its originatoras mind. Knowing Arhu as well as Rhiow did, this was a taste with which she was also familiar. But now, as the point of view changed to early afternoon on the riverbank, suddenly Rhiow found herself immersed in the full-strength version of ita"a quick, excitable, excited turn of mind, by turns cheerful and annoyed at a momentas notice, interested in everything and with a taste for mischief ... though also with a very serious side that would come out without warning. Rhiow actually had to gasp for a moment to catch her breath as she bounded, with Arhu, down the walkway that led to the main gateway to the Tower: past the ehhif who were lined up at the gate, letting the security guards there check their bags and parcels: through the gateway, looking up at the old, old stones of the arch, and through into a cobbled astreeta which Arhuas memory identified as aWater Lanea.

This little street ran parallel to the river inside the main outer wall. To the left, as Arhu went, was another wall studded down its length with several broad circular towers: this ran on for about an eighth of a mile, to where the outer wall came to a corner and bent leftwards. The stones in the left-hand wall were mostly rounded, as if they had come out of a river, but some had been cut down roughly into squarish shape, and they looked and smelled ancient. From them, as Rhiow had from the bricks and stones of the Underground, Arhu caught a faint sense of much contact with ehhif, but the flavor was strange, a compendium of old, faded triumph, and equally old abject fear. Arhu paused for a moment, feeling it on his fur, feeling it especially strongly from the right side where he pa.s.sed a latticework gateway of metal that let out onto an archway leading down to the river. Traitoras Gate, the Whispering said in his mind: and just briefly, as he did then, Rhiow saw, in a flicker, the way Arhu saw with the Eye.

A flicker, there and gone. Ehhif standing up, ehhif lying down and being brought up to the gate in boats, ehhif dying and in fear of dying coming in, ehhif dead going out: queen-ehhif and tom-ehhif, proud, dejected, defiant, afraid, bitter, reluctant, confident, desperate: plots and schemes, offended innocence, furious determination, all rolled together in a moment of vision, all spread out over long years of history, circ.u.mstance, and confusion; the conflicting needs and desires, the long-planned machinations of the powerful and the requirements of the moment, terror-horror-resignation-life-death-brightness-sickness-cold-blood-release-darknessa"

gone. The Eye closed, and Arhu stood and shook his head, trying to clear it: and an ehhif, not seeing him since he was sidled, tripped over Arhu, caught himself, and went on, looking behind him to try to see the cobblestone he thought he had stumbled on.

aOw ow ow ow,a Arhu spat, and took himself over to the left-hand wall to recover himself a little. From inside the left-hand wall came a harsh cawing, a little like ehhif laughter, as if someone thought it was funny.

While he stood there and panted, Rhiow s.h.i.+vered all over at the thought of the burden Arhu was bearing. Better him than me, she said, somewhat ungraciously, to the Whisperer. The vision Arhu had been trying to describe to her turned out to be more like half-vision, and all the more maddening for it. For Arhu was looking, just briefly, through the eyes of Someone Who saw everything in the world as whole and seamless: thoughts, actions, past causes and present effects, the concrete and the abstract all welded into a single staggering completion. Rhiow understood a little of Arhuas confusion and anger now, for trying to extract one piece of information from the all-surrounding vastness of the Whispereras perception seemed impossible, like trying to fish one drop of water out of your water bowl with your claw. You would always get a little bit of something else along with it: or a lot of something else. Rhiow thought with embarra.s.sment of the facile way she had been telling him to concentrate, and grab hold of one part of it ...

More, she now understood much better his confusion about tenses: for in the Whispereras mind, the world was finished, a made thing, a completed thing ... though one that was constantly changing. It was a harrowing point of view for a Person to try to a.s.similate, or for any mortal being who lived in linear time and generally thought that one thing happened after another, and that the future was still indeterminate. It was not, to Her. The Whisperer, in Her mastery, saw it all laid out. The only place where Her uncertainties lay was in what you would do to change the future ... in which case everything you did also became part of the ongoing completion, a law of the universe, as if it had been laid down so from the very beginning. The two visions of the future did not exclude one another, from Her point of view: they actually complemented one another, and made sense. To Rhiow, that was the most frightening concept of all.

She breathed out, wondering how she would apologize to Arhu for so completely misunderstanding what he had been dealing with, while Arhu got back his breath and his composure, and headed on down Water Lane again. Just across from Traitoras Gate was an opening into the central part of the Tower complex, through a building called the b.l.o.o.d.y Tower. He went under this archway as well, and turned immediately left.

Built into the wall here was a house with many long peaked roofs, the Queenas House: and in front of it were arches with iron bars set in them. Behind those arches were some low, wizened trees and shrubs ... and in the trees, and under at least one of the shrubs, sat the ravens.

Arhu had known they would be large, but he hadnat thought they would be as large as a Person. Most of them were, though, and at least one of them which perched on that stone wall, above the bars, was as big as Huff: as big as a small houff. They were all resplendently glossy black, and they looked down at him and, to Arhuas astonishment, saw him perfectly well, even though he was sidled.

aLook,a one of them said. aA kitty.a aOh, shut up, Cedric,a said another of them. aYou had breakfast.a Arhu licked his nose and sat down, trying to preserve some dignity in the face of so many small, black, intelligent, completely unafraid eyes staring at him. aI, uh, Iam on errantry. Hi,a Arhu said.

aAnd we greet you too, young wizard,a said one of the ravens. There was a m.u.f.fled noise of cawing from the far side of Tower Green: Arhu looked over his shoulder.

aHow many of you are there here?a he said. aShould I go over and say hi to them too?a aNo, theyare minding their territories at the moment,a said the raven. aAfter all, the place is full of tourists. Later in the day, when the warders chuck them all out and lock the place up, we can all get together in the quiet and the dark and have a chat. Meanwhile, anything you say to me, theyall know. They can see it, after all.a aIam sorry,a Arhu said, abut I donat know what to call you. There are ehhif names on the sign over there, buta"a aNo, itas all right: we use their names,a said the biggest of the ravens. aItas a courtesy to them, and from them: theyave made us officers in their army, after all.a She chuckled. aEven if weare only noncoms. So Iam aHugina, and thatas aHardya.a She pointed with her beak at the raven sitting below her. aWe have other names that we tell to no one, that come down from the Old Ones ... but we canat give you those. Sorry.a aUh, itas OK. But look, is it right what the sign says, over there? That the ehhif think this place would afalla without you? Fall down?a aCease to exist,a said Hugin.

aOf course the place would fall without us,a said another of the ravens. aWeave always been here. It doesnat know how to be here without us.a aHow long is always?a Arhu said.

aHow long does it have to be?a Hardy said. He was a little thinner than the others, a little smaller, which might have been deceptive: but the eye, that black, wise eye, seemed to say that this was the eldest of them. aSince there were buildings. And before that: since there were humans, what you call ehhif. We saw your People come, too: we saw them go, when the city first was burned ... We stayed, and the dead ... no others.a Arhu controlled his desire to shudder. With their great ax-like beaks, there was no mistaking these birds for anything but what they werea"meat-eatersa"and there was no mistaking what they would have eaten, from time to time, in this city where there had so often been large numbers of dead ehhif. Or People, for that matter ... Arhu thought.

aItas all right,a another of the ravens said. aBy the time we eat somebody, they donat mind any more. And these days we mostly donat, anyway. The Wingless Raven gives us chicken breast.a The raven clattered its beak with pleasure. aVery nice ... a aIf youave been here that long,a Arhu said, ayou must have seen a lot ... a aEven if we hadnat been,a Hugin said, awe would still be seeing it now. William the Conqueror: I see him walk by a puddle, right over there, and a cart goes through it and gets his hose wet, and he swears at the man driving the cart and pulls him out of his seat ... throws him down into the water, too. The Romans: I see them walking their city wall, looking at the cloud of dust as Boudicca and her chariots come riding. Over there.a She gestured with her beak at the remains of the wall, like a b.u.mpy sidewalk, that stretched from past the Wardrobe Tower to the Lanthorn Tower, along the green that had once been the site of the Great Hall. aAnd poor Ann Boleyn. There she goes, over to the block. Over there.a She turned and pointed with her beak in the other direction, over toward Tower Green. aVery dignified, she was. That used to be a great concern for them. And there he goes running by, one of them who didnat care about dignity so much.a She pointed over to the little corner building which was presently the Tower gift shop, but which once was the home of the Keeper of the Jewels. aColonel Blood, with the Crown stomped flat and hidden under his wig, and the Rod with the Dove down one boot. He almost gets away with that, too ... a aAnd it was you saw that then?a Arhu said. aYou must be pretty old.a He let the skepticism show in his voice a little.

aOh, not us,a said Hardy. aOur ancestors. Though we see what they see: thatas our job. And eventually the humans noticed that we were always here, and for once they came to the right conclusion, that the place needed us. They started trying to protect us ... very self-enlightened, that. Though there have been times when the population has dropped very low.a He glanced up at the sky. aDuring the wara"the last big one herea"almost all of us died except old Grip. The humans got very worried. And well they might have, with the V2s and the buzz-bombs coming down all around them. But we knew it would be all right. We saw it then, as we see it now ... a aThatas why Iave come,a Arhu said. aIt may not be all right, soon, in a very large-scale sort of way. We need help to find out how to stop what we thing is happening from happening.a He looked around him. aAll this could be gone ... a aNo,a said Hardy, aof course it wonat. This will still be here.a He squinted up at the pale stones of the Tower. aIt will be dead, of course. No people ... and eventually, even no ravens. No nothing, just the dark and the cold, and the thin black cloud high up that the Sun canat come through. The wind crying out for loneliness ... and nothing else.a aYou mean itas going to happen,a Arhu whispered, shocked.

aI mean it already has happened,a said Hardy. aNow itas just a matter of seeing how it happens otherwise. You know that: for you have the Eye too, donat you?a aYes. Iam not very good at it yet,a Arhu said, suddenly feeling a little humble in the face of what was plainly another kind of mastery than his own.

aOh, you will be, if you live,a said another of the ravens. aGive it time.a aIam not so sure Iam going to have a lot of time to give it,a Arhu said.

aOf course you will,a Hardy said. aWeare here in strength now, after all. Nothing will fall that we donat see fall first. And the more of us there are, the more certain the vision. When there was only one to see ... that was a dangerous time.a aBut there are a lot of you now.a aOh, after this centuryas second war, all fortunes turned, if slowly,a said Hardy. aCertainties returned. Also, we felt like breeding again. Itas not like it is with your People ... we donat do it unless we feel like it. And also, some of us came from other places to live here. The humans thought they brought us, of course: but we knew where we were going. We chose to come: we chose to stay.a Arhu wondered if this wasnat possibly slightly self-deluding. aBut your wings are clipped,a he said, rather diffidently, not knowing whether they might be insulted. aYou couldnat fly away if you wanted to.a The ravens looked at each other in silence for a fraction of a second ... then burst out in loud, cawing laughter, so that some of the tourists on the other side of the Tower grounds turned to stare. aOh, come on now,a said Hugin, asurely you donat believe that, do you?a aUh,a Arhu said. aIam not sure I know what to believe.a aThen youare a wise young wizard,a said another of the ravens. aWhy, youngster, we can go anywhere we please. Weare the amessengers of the G.o.dsa, of the Powers that Be, donat you know that? Even the humans know it. Theyare confused about which G.o.d, of course: theyare confused about most things. But they still managed to give us use-names that are the same as the ravens they think served one of their G.o.ds, and went between heaven and Earth carrying messages. Hugina"a That raven pointed at Hugin with its beak. aActually sheas Hugin II, after another one who went before her. And thereas Munin II over there.a The raven speaking pointed at a third one.

aWe go where we please,a said Hugin. aYouave been working with the People who manage the gate under the Tower, so you must know how we do it.a aYou worldgate?a Arhu said.

aWe transit. And we donat need spells for it, if thatas what you mean,a said another of the ravens. aWe donat need to use a gate thatas been woven ahead of time and put in place, either. We see where to go ... and we go. We find out whatas happened ... and we bring the news back. Thatas all.a Arhu sat down and licked his nose. aA long time now we have served Them,a said Hardy. aWe come and go at Their behest. That would be why you are here: for youare Their messenger, as we are.a aUh,a Arhu said.

Cawing came from further up the wall: a noise of laughter. aOh, come on, Hardy,a said another raven-voice, aless of the oracular c.r.a.p. Cut him some slack.a One more raven flapped down beside Arhu, rustled his wings back into place, and paced calmly over to Arhu, looking him up and down. aNo rest for the weary,a it said. aBut itas about time you got here. I got tired of waiting.a Arhu wasnat sure what to make of this, or of the amused way the other ravens looked at the newcomer. aOdin,a said Hardy, ahave you been in the pub again?a Odin snapped his beak. aThe Guinness over there is improving,a he said. Theyave cleaned out the pipes since last month.a There was much m.u.f.fled caw-laughter from some of the other ravens. aOdin,a said Hardy a little wearily, ais our local representative of the forces of chaos.a aYou mean the Lone Power?a Arhu said, looking at Odin rather dubiously.

aNo, just chaos.a Hardy sighed. aWell, we all act up while weare still in our first decade, I suppose. Odin thinks itas fun to upset the Wingless Raven by getting up on the outer wall and gliding off across the road to The Queenas Head, when everybody knows perfectly well that none of us should be able to fly or glide that far at all. He walks in there and scares the landlordas dog into fits, and then the humans feed him hamburgers and try to get him drunk.a Arhu looked at Odin with new respect: any bird that could scare a houff was worth knowing. aHey, listen,a Odin said, asometimes the Yeoman Ravenmaster needs to have his world shaken up a little. This way thereas more to his life than just checking us over every morning and handing out chicken fillets. This way, he wakes up in the middle of the night, every now and then, and thinks, aNow how in the worlds did he do that?a a The raven chuckled, a rough gravelly arh arh arh sound. aAnd it keeps him on good terms with the locals, because he has to keep coming over to the pub to get me back. After all, I canat fly or anything ... a He roused his wings and waved them in the air, managing to make the gesture look rather pitiful and helpless. The other ravens all laughed, though some of them sounded a little annoyed as well as amused.

aYou saw me coming here? I mean, you See me coming?a Arhu said.

aHow would I not?a Odin said. aYouave been busy. Worldgating of any kind attracts our attention: itas our business. Maybe itas why weare here. As for you, you were on the Moon recently,a Odin said. aI See you there. Took you a while to manage that, too. I could get there quicker than you could, puss. And without needing spells.a aOh yeah,a Arhu said. aWell, maybe you could, birdie. In fact, maybe youall show me how right now, because timeas running out of things while we sit here and talk.a aHeas right,a said Hardy. aWell, Odin, will you make good your boast?a aOf course I will,a said Odin, sounding genuinely annoyed. aI Saw me doing it this morning, and so did you.a aYou, though, werenat sure,a said Hardy, aand you said as much at the time. You owe me a chicken breast.a Odin clattered his beak, and then said, aIam going to get a bite out of it first ... you see that too, donat you.a Hardy dropped the lower half of his beak, a gesture that looked to Arhu like a smile. He certainly hoped it was.

The place I need to See,a Arhu said, aitas an alternate universe. You do know that?a Odin laughed. aOf course. So was the place where you went to the Moon. Itas not a problem.a Itas not? thought Arhu. Iau, I hope heas right ... because it would sure make things a lot easier.

aI can tell you the coordinates for the world Iam trying to See,a Arhu said. aIf thatas any help to you.a aYou donat need to,a Odin said. aI know where youare going, because I can see that weave been. All I was waiting for is you.a Time paradoxes, Arhu thought. I thought they were kinda neat, but these guys donat seem to think any other way. I hope to Iau I donat get like this ... I like keeping the past and future separate.

aCan you ride me?a said Odin.

aHuh? I think I might fall off,a Arhu said.

aNot that way, puss. In mind.a aSince you ask, yes I can,a Arhu said, somewhat annoyed. aAnd my name is Arhu.a aI knew that,a Odin said. aBut I couldnat know until you told me. Ready?a The raven huddled down under a nearby bush with his wings slightly spread outa"a peculiar-looking pose. Hugin came soaring down from the stone wall, flapping her wings, and came to rest in the bush just above him. aJust a precaution,a she said. aThe tourists will come along while youare in the middle of something and tell their babies to go pet the pretty birdie.a She snapped her beak suggestively. aSometimes we have to disabuse them of the notion.a Arhu stepped through the bars and hunkered down not too far from Odin: closed his eyes, and felt around him in mind for the otheras presencea"

and was caught, like a mouse, in a razory beak and claws. He struggled for a moment as something bit his neck, hard: he yowled, turned to get his claws into ita"

and everything settled into a kind of silvery darkness: no more discomforta"he was on the inside of the beak and claws now. He was soaring through what looked like cloud, faintly lit as if with twilight: the sense of day about to dawn, but in no hurry about it. The feeling was unlike skywalking, which Arhu enjoyed well enough: but this was less pa.s.sive. He had wings, and the wind was in a dialog with them.

Nicely done, something said in his head. We could probably make a raven of you, with about fifty yearsa work. Now show me the place you were in. Not the Moon, but the streeta"

Arhu tried to see it again in mind as he had seen it in reality: but most of what he remembered was the smell. Peopleas noses are wonderfully accurate and delicate. They can tell where another Person has been, or where an ehhif or houff has pa.s.sed, for months afterward. But the blunting, smas.h.i.+ng, awful weight of the smell in the London they had visited had ruined Arhuas ability to taste or smell most things for the better part of a day. Now he recalled that smell better than any other part of the experience: sickening, disgusting, like a shout inside your head, horse-bird-houff-ehhif-smoke-soot-garbage-s.h.i.+t-of-every-description ... Sorry, Arhu gasped from inside the wings, inside the beak and claws.

Donat apologize, itas perfect, said the one who shared the inside-beak-and-claws with him. A tolerant young mind, wry, dry, somewhat disrespectful of form but respectful of talent and wisdom and wit, a fearless seeker of strange new experience like the inside of a catas mind, or half a pint of Guinness poured into an ashtray: that was Odin. Arhu put his whiskers forward, or tried to and then discovered he had no whiskers: he dropped the lower half of his beak instead. As he did so, he got the faintest whiff of another name ... and carefully turned his nose away from it. At least he still had a nose of sorts.

Now then, said the other, either missing all this, or ignoring it. The pathas clear.

They soared for a good while, circling. Every now and then Arhu would get a glimpse, through the silvery twilight, of a landscape below them: always the features were the samea"the oxbowed bends of the river, the great loop of the Thames that held the Isle of Dogs, not quite an isle but a fat and noticeable peninsula. Then the cloud would close in again. Probability, Odin said. Or the lack of it ...

And suddenly the cloud cleared, and they dropped from the heavens together like a stone. The city below them was filthy. The Moon above them was scarred.

Keep your eyes open, Odin said then. We canat stay long. Is this it?

Arhu looked down, trying to find the street in which they had appeared. He found the Tower quickly enough, and the street that ran by it: and there, just visible to a feline wizardas eye, the tangle of half-seen strings that meant a sidled Person running across the mud, followed by two others. One of them fell as a motorcar rolled toward and over hima"

This is it?

This is it!

All right, then. Now we start work. Let us See togethera"

Rhiow felt the raven close his wings and drop like a stone: and the tense of the vision changed, just that quickly, so that Rhiow found herself wanting to shake her head in confusion. Until this moment, everything happening to Arhu had been in a clearly discernible then. Suddenly, though, it was now, all now: single threads of that seamless whole that the Whisperer saw. But changeda"the Eye a birdas instead of a Personas, seeing with a more direct and concentrated kind of vision, as if from one side of a brain rather than with the binocular vision of a predator. She was not sure she was seeing everything Arhu had, it all came so quickly. All now, all here, glimpse after glimpse tumbling one after another as the feline/raven mind fell through the cloud of probabilitya"

one of the London streets opening out below them, suddenly: in the middle of it, being driven along at a sedate pace, a queen-ehhif out for a ride in a coach pulled by horses. Men ride in front of her, and behind her, riding on other horses as guards. The queen-ehhif is a little stocky, plainly dressed in dark clothes. Her face is one which could have smiled, but does not. The coach turns a corner into one of those broad tree-lined avenues. People pa.s.sing by pause, and bow, as the coach pa.s.ses. The queen-ehhif waves occasionally, a very reserved gesture. The coach drives ona"

An ehhif is standing at a corner nearby. As the coach pa.s.ses he pulls out a gun, points it at the queen-ehhif in the coach. Shoots.

Heads turn at the sudden crack of sound. In the coach, the queen-ehhif looks over her shoulder, bemused, as the ehhif driving the coach whips up the horses. They clatter away. Others run or ride toward the ehhif who fired the gun. The queen-ehhif, unharmed, looks back, her white face sharply contrasted against the dark bonnet. This has happened to her before, but she can never quite bring herself to believe it when it does.

Now the same coach again, driving in through gates surrounding a wide green park in the countryside outside London: and then into the courtyard in front of a ma.s.sive house, turreted with the same kind of great round towers as are found inside the double walls where the Ravens live. The coach drives up to the doors, and the queen-ehhif gets out, with a younger queen-ehhif, her daughter perhaps, beside her. The two of them go in together, through the great front gate, in the broad low sunset light.

Close, Odin thought, but not quite. Now we find the corea"