Feline Wizards - To Visit The Queen Part 9

Fifty-nine steps, and he hears the change in the sound. Sixty. His toe b.u.mps against the bottom step. Five stairs up to the landing: turn right: three steps. He puts his hand out, and feels the door.

Gently, gently he pulls it open. From up the winding stair comes a faint light: it seems astonis.h.i.+ngly bright to him after the dead blackness. Softly he goes up the stairs, taking them near the outer side of the steps: the inner sides creak. One makes a tiny sound, crack: he freezes in place. A minute, two minutes, he stands there. No one has noticed. A great old house like this has a thousand creaks and moans, the sound of compressed wood relaxing itself overnight, and no one pays them any mind.

Up the remaining fifteen steps. They are steep, but he is careful. At the door at the top he halts and looks out of the crack in it where it has been left open. In the hallway onto which this stairway gives, next to a door with a gilded frame, a footman is sitting in a chair under a single candle-sconce with a dim electric bulb burning in it. The chair is tilted back against the wall. The footman is snoring.

Down the hallway, now, in utmost silence.

Half a minute later, the footman has stopped snoring ... not to mention breathing.

Swiftly now, but also silently. Reach up and undo the bulb from its socket. Wait a few seconds for night vision to return. Then, silently, lift the doorlatch. The door swings open. This is the only part of his nightas work, other than the hallway outside, which he has not been able to pace out in advance. Here sight alone must guide him, and the description he has been given of the layout of the room.

The outer room is where the lady-in-waiting has a bed. She is in it, sleeping sweetly, breathing tiny small breaths into the night.

Half a minute later, her sleep has become much deeper, and the sound of breathing has stopped. The nightwalker makes his way toward what he cannot see yet in this more total darkness, the inner door. He feels for the handle: finds it.

Turns the handle. The door swings inward.

Darkness and silence. Not quite silence: a faint rustle of bedlinens, off to his left, and ahead.

Now, only now, the excitement strikes him, and his heart begins to pound. Ten steps, they told him. A rather wide bed. Her maids say she still favors the left side of it, leaving the right side open for someone who sleeps there no more.

Ten steps. He takes them. He listens for the sound of breathing ...

... then reaches for the left side.

One m.u.f.fled cry of surprise, under his hand ... and no more. He holds her until she stops struggling, for fear an arm or leg should flail and knock something down. He wipes the wetness off on the bedclothes, unseen, and pauses by the end of the ma.s.sive bed to tie the slim silken rope around one leg. Then he makes for the windows.

Quietly he slips behind the drapes: softly he pushes the window up in its sash, wider than need bea"no need to give anyone the idea that he is a small man. He goes down the rope like a spider, rotating gently as he goes. Without a sound he comes down on the North Terrace again and makes straight off across the Home Park in the direction of the Datchet Road. Where the little road crosses the Broad Water, a brougham is waiting for him. He will be in it in five minutes, and in Calais by morning.

A quiet nightas work ... and the pay is good. He will never need to see the inside of a potting shed again ... or a merchant bank or a high-cla.s.s jeweleras after dark. That part is over. The new part of his life begins.

And at least sheas happy now. Sheas with Albert ...

and then the vision snapped back. A momentas confusiona"

and the vision was centering, bizarrely, on Siffhaah. Herself, she moaned and sank down, covering her eyes with her paws, and Rhiow could understand why: the mirroring must be disorienting in the extreme, self seeming to look at self seeming to look at self, infinitely reflecteda"

Except that it was not Siffhaah moaning that Rhiow heard. It was Arhu. Crying in a small frightened voice: crying like a kitten. aOh, no,a he moaned. aItas you. I didnat know ... I couldnat help it ... How could I help it?a an image of blackness. The rustling of a plastic bag as small frightened bodies thrashed and scrabbled for purchase, for any way to stay above what inexorably rose around them. Cold water, black as death. Underneath him, all around him, the sound of water bubbling in ... of breath bubbling out ...

Arhu fled from the platform, up the hallway: he was gone.

Both the teams and Artie looked after him in astonishmenta"all but Siffhaah. In her eyes was nothing but implacable hatred.

aI wonat have anything further to do with him,a she said. aDonat ask me to. I will kill him if he touches my mind again. And why shouldnat I?a she said. aSince he killed me first ... a

SEVEN.

Rhiow went out after Arhu at a run, and found him gone. He had done a private transit, not bothering to take long enough to get to one of the gates: she could smell the spell of it in the air of the hallway, and she thought she knew where Arhu had gone, within about ten feet.

Rhiow turned once, quickly, where she stood, and drew the circle with her tail, tying the wizardas knot with one last flirt of it. Then she instructed the wizardry to lay in identical coordinates to the last transit from this spot, and to execute them. And donat forget the air! she added hurriedly.

There was a loud clap as she displaced a considerable cubic volume of air from the tunnel, taking it with her. The sound of the clap had barely faded from her ears before she was standing on the cold white pumice-dust of the Moon, looking around.

He was no more than ten feet away.

Arhu looked at Rhiow and opened his mouth to speak the words of another spell, ready to run again.

aDonat do it,a she said.

Arhu sagged and let the breath go out of him, standing there looking cold and scared and very alone. It was an expression Rhiow had not seen on him since he first came to her and the other members of the team: and she had forgotten how much it hurt to see it.

Tell me whatas happening,a Rhiow said. aArhu, please.a aI canat.a aYou can,a Rhiow said, aor Iall pull your ears off and wear them as collar jinglies.a Arhu stared at her in complete misery. aWho needs ears?a aArhu,a Rhiow said, athis isnat the time for self-indulgence. If youave seen something that threatens the team, or youa"a aThe team?a he said, and laughed bitterly. aItas a little more personal this time.a aItas nota"you didnat see anything like your own death, did you?a aOh, no, not mine. Someone elseas.a aWell, for Iauas sake, tell me! Maybe we can do something to stop ita"a aYou donat understand,a Arhu said. aItas already happened,a He laughed again, that bitter sound. aListen to me, Iam sounding like the ravens already.a Rhiow shook her head in frustration. aWhat in Iauas name are you talking about?a Arhu flopped down on the powdery moondust. aRhiow,a he said very softly, aSiffhaah is my sister.a aWhat?a aI saw her,a he said. aI saw her in the bag ... with me and the others, when the ehhif threw us in to drown. And she saw it too, through me, just now. She saw it all ... But dying didnat stop her, then. She came straight back. She must have been reincarnated within days of when she died. Maybe hours. And it took me this long to see it. She was my twin, Rhiow, she had my same spots! And she was the one I climbed on top of to keep breathing ... a He was utterly devastated. For her own part, Rhiow could only stand there and look at him in complete astonishment. There always had been that resemblance between Siffhaah and Arhu ... it really had been fairly striking. And the way Arhu had been drawn to Siffhaah. And then, Rhiow thought, with the suddenness of a blow, there was the simple matter of her name. Why didnat I ever think to take it apart, Rhiow thought. But then, who thinks to take aRhiowa apart for adark-as-nighta ... ? For in Ailurin, Siffhaah simply meant aSif-againa, or, by a pun in Ailurin, aone more time ... a the end of a feline phrase similar to the ehhif aif at first you donat succeed, try, try again.a aWhat do I do now?a Arhu said hopelessly. aHow can I go back? And ... I thought it was an accident. Did I maybe kill her on purpose? My own twin? And more importantly ... does she think I killed her on purpose?a He laughed again bitterly. aI couldnat figure out why she didnat like me. Now it makes perfect sense. How else would you treat the brother who climbed on top of your body, possibly even pushed you further down into the water, to keep on breathing?a His despair and grief was awful to hear: the sound of it made it difficult for her to think how best to help him. Rhiow was also acutely aware that, to some extent, Arhuas was the most unusual talent of the team, and the one which the Lone Power was most likely to attempt to directly undermine. In some ways, she and Urruah were simply support for Arhu ... the youngest of them, and therefore the most powerful.

But Siffhaah was even younger, and her power might potentially be greater still. Was the Lone One working to impair her effectiveness as well? And why did she reincarnate so quickly? Was it specifically for this job, to do something that had to be done for wizardryas sake ... or was it for revenge?

She had no answers ... and she didnat think she was going to get them by sitting here. Certainly Arhu wasnat. aWell,a Rhiow said, awhat will you do about all this? Are you going to stay here on the Moon? You wonat be making your team responsibilities any easier to fulfill.a aYouare not taking this very seriously,a Arhu snarled.

aOn the contrary,a Rhiow said, aIam taking it more seriously then you are. Thereas a small matter of our home reality being chucked out of the scheme of things like litter-box cleanings if we donat do something to stop it. You are a key to the solution of this problem, just as Artie is, in his way; just as Siffhaah is in hers. We need to get back down there and handle it.a She glanced up at the gibbous earth hanging above the pristine white surface. aOtherwise, that is going to wind up looking like that other Moon.a He looked at Rhiow pitifully. aI canat face her.a aYou already have faced her,a Rhiow said. aIt just didnat last long enough. Come back and have another try.a Arhu looked up at the glowing blue earth. He breathed in, breathed out.

aBesides,a Rhiow said, anow we know how the a.s.sa.s.sination takes place. Weave got to lay our plans for how to stop it. Weall need you for that as well. And then weave got to execute those plans ... and without you, thatas impossible.a Arhu sighed and looked at Rhiow again. aYou can be a real pain in the tail sometimes,a he said. He was s.h.i.+vering all over, as if someone had thrown him in water.

Rhiow put her whiskers forward and walked over to the boundaries of his spell: let his spell and hers get familiar, and then walked through into his bubble of air. He looked at her fearfully.

She went gently up to him and began to wash his ear. aCome on,a she said between licks. aYouave had it out with the Lone One before. You thought it had done the worst to you that It could manage: It tried to kill your spirit, and It failed. Now Itas having another try ... and Itas trying to steal your sister from you as well, if it can. It would love nothing better to alienate you from one another at this time when, if you can work together, you can defeat It one more time ... and Itas depending on your pain doing Its work for it.a She stopped was.h.i.+ng for a moment and bent down and around to look Arhu in the eye. aAre you listening to me?a He looked back at her, still full of grief, and a pang struck through her again, for his pain looked much like hers must have looked when Hhuha died.

aIt was so awful,a he whispered.

aOf course it was awful,a Rhiow whispered back. aIts wretched gift, death, that It tricked our People into accepting: how should it not be an awful thing? That was never what the Powers had in mind for us when they built the worlds. Now we have to deal with it as a matter of course. But at least in your case youave got a second chance. How many of us get a chance to meet a friend again in another life, let alone a relative? It happens, but not that often. Donat let It trick you into throwing that away as well!a Arhu was silent for a little, staring at the ground. Rhiow sat beside him, waiting.

a ... All right,a he said at last. He lifted a face to Rhiow that was full of fear. aBut she said she was going to kill me.a aI think that would take some doing,a Rhiow said. aBut that small matter aside, no one kills one of my team without coming through me first. Power source she may be, but sheas not the only one with a claw to her name. Letas go back.a Ten minutes later they were back on the derelict platform under Tower Hill station. Huff stood looking forlorn as they came: Arhu looking a little defiant, Rhiow trying to keep her composure in the face of the storm of fury she expected from Siffhaah.

But Siffhaah was not there.

aShe ran off,a Huff said, ajust after Arhu did ... a Huff looked profoundly disturbed, and Rhiow for one knew how he felt, and was sorry for him. It was unnerving to see so steady and stolid a personality suddenly at loose ends, embarra.s.sed by the behavior of one of his team, upset by what he had glimpsed through Arhuas vision: and there was something else going on with him as well, Rhiow thought, though she couldnat easily tell what it was.

aSheall be back,a Rhiow said, profoundly hoping that this would prove true. aMeanwhile we must start laying our plans ... a Everyone gathered together and sprawled out comfortably on the platform, including Artie, who was acquiring a grimy look, but becoming more cheerful all the time at all the exposure to amagica. When he understood what the two teams were discussing, he immediately cried, aI want to come with you!a The People glanced at one another, concerned. aI donat know,a Huff said. aIf something happened to you, Artie, and we werenat able to return you to the time where you belong after all thisa"a aHuff, if the timeslideas to be powered successfully,a Rhiow said, aas it was the last time, he may have to come with us on the intervention run. We may very well have no choice in the matter.a aIf it can be powered successfully,a Fhrio muttered, awith Siffhaah missing ... a aWeall deal with that issue a little later,a Huff said. To take care of any uncertainty about the dates, we must have someone guarding the Queen from at least a couple of nights before the date of the attack. Iam concerned that the Lone One might somehow get wind of what weare trying to do, and attempt to forestall us by striking earlier. But meanwhile, for planning purposes, letas a.s.sume that the slide goes well, and those of us not on guard duty find ourselves in the grounds of Windsor Castle on the evening of the ninth of July.a aWhat time was the attack?a Auhlae said. aI couldnat tell.a aI saw the Moon,a said Rhiow. For her, that was the one image that haunted her most persistently about that whole year: every time she looked at the sky, she searched for the Moon to see what it looked like. aIt was waning, and just rising then, which would have made the time about midnight, as ehhif reckon it, or at most half an hour past that. The Whispering can help us pin down the exact timing.a aNow, as for the murderer ... a aThe Mouse,a Fhrio said, and his jaw chattered. aAppropriate name, considering whatas going to happen to him.a aItas not going to happen to him,a Huff said forcefully. aMurdering a murderer will do nothing but play straight into the Lone Poweras paws. The action would rebound in Iau only knows what kind of horrible way. Whatever else happens to him, his life has to be spared.a aAt the same time,a Rhiow said, awhen he disappearsa"I a.s.sume thatas something like what will happen to him, one way or anothera"that disappearance should be such that it raises as few questions as possible. An elegant intervention is one which leaves saaRrahh scratching her fleas and wondering what in the worlds happened.a aIad be less concerned about elegance and more concerned about simply making sure the a.s.sa.s.sination doesnat happen,a Fhrio growled.

aYes,a Rhiow agreed, aif necessary. No argument there. But the less wizardry is obvious about whatever goes on, the better.a aWhat started it all,a Auhlae said, awas the Mouse getting that letter.a Arhu shook his head. aNo. There was another one.a Rhiow looked at him in surprise. aWhat? Another letter?a aYou didnat see it?a She shook her head. Arhu tucked himself down into athinkinga position and said, aThereas another letter, sent the day before. I see the desk itas being written on, all s.h.i.+ny wood and leather: and the design on top of the paper. Itas a kind of gateway, and on top of it thereas a picture of what the ehhif-Queen wears on her head.a Auhlae looked shocked. aThe crowned portcullis,a she said. Thatas the stationery used by the ehhif in the House of Commons. Youare telling me that the person starting this plot off is a Member of Parliament?!a Arhu squinted. aThe House of Commons. Is that one of the buildings in that big spiky place by the river? The one with the big clock?a aYes,a Huff said. aThe whole thing together is the Palace of Westminster.a aThatas it, then. I see the river out his window as heas writing,a Arhu said, still squinting slightly, and rocking back and forth a little, an odd motion, as if he was on wings. aItas getting late ... the Sun is going down. He folds the letter up and puts it in an envelope, and he takes a pen and starts writing something up in the corner ... No, he stopped. Heas just writing in the middle of the envelope now.a aThe address,a Rhiow said.

aI guess.a aWhat does it say?a aHis handwritingas hard to read.a Arhu was silent for a moment. a aEdinburgha? Whereas that?a aIn the north of the country,a Fhrio said.

aThen he looks around in his desk drawer for something,a Arhu said, still rocking slightly. aA little piece of paper. He sticks it onto the letter, in the corner.a aStamping it rather than afrankinga it,a Auhlae said. That way it wonat look any different from other ehhifas letters, at least on the outside.a aI see. All right. Then he puts the letter in a box on a bookcase by the door, and goes out,a Arhu says. aHe goes down to the big room where we saw the people shouting, before.a He blinked. There are already a lot of ehhif there, all shouting and waving papers around. Theyare loud, down there.a aThey do that,a Huff said. aDonat ask me why. Itas traditional.a aAnd these are the people who run the country?a Rhiow said. aWhy do the ehhif here let them carry on like that?a aMaybe they like to watch a good fight?a Urruah said.

aTheyare not allowed actually to fight with each other,a Huff said. The two sides are kept a swordas length and three feet apart on purpose.a aSo all they do is yell at each other all night? All those toms?a Urruah twitched his tail in bemus.e.m.e.nt. aNo singing?a aNot in there,a Huff said. aWhat can I tell you ... theyare ehhif.a He put his whiskers forward. aBut the letter?a aI donat see it go out,a Arhu said, abut I could hear him thinking that thatas what would happen to it. That would be the evening of the seventh, for a letter to get up north and an answer to come back on the ninth.a aIf we were to steal that letter,a Auhlae said, awhile he was downstairs in the House shouting at the other MPs, when he came back, he would think that whoever picks up the post had already come to take it away. Then he would think that everything was going according to plan, and he wouldnat do anything which would stop the plan until it was already too late: we would have stopped it. The Mouse wouldnat run ... a aAnd in the meantime, we can do something about him,a Huff said. aThe ehhif plotting this must have planted him in the Queenas household a good while before, for him to be able to get out when he wanted and sneak around like that. They would have come to trust him ... a aThen letas ruin that trust,a Rhiow said. aLetas transit him to somewhere in that great castle that he has absolutely no business being, and leave him trapped there. When the staff find him, theyall throw him out of the place themselves, and never let him back in again.a aItas not a bad idea,a Auhlae said, waving her tail approvingly. There are plenty of such placesa"a Then she stopped and put her whiskers so far forward that Rhiow thought they might take leave of her face. aLetas lock him up in the Albert Chapel,a Auhlae said. aItas old, with lots of gates and bars: Henry the Seventh built it as a tomb for himself. But the Queen turned the place into a memorial for her poor mate when he died, and now itas all full of gold and jewels and precious things that she had put there in his memory. Let the Mouse sit in there all one night, with no way to get out, and let the castle staff find him in the morning ... a There was general laughter and approval at the idea, and Artie clapped his hands. aOne thing, Arhu,a said Huff. aWho was it that wrote the first letter ... the one which caused the second one to be sent?a Arhu squinted again. aLet me watch him for a moment,a he said. aThere was something on his door. When he goes out again ... a There was a little silence while everyone let him work. Artie looked up, then, and said, aWhoas going to do guard duty on the Queen?a Rhiow glanced at Huff. They both turned and looked at Arhu.

He went wide-eyed. aOh no!a he said.

aItas the best bet,a Huff said. aShe was known to have a soft spot for little kittens.a aIall alittle kittena you, you biga"a aArhu,a Rhiow said, slightly exasperated. aItas useful being cute. Exploit it a little. You can take the poor ehhifas mind off her troubles for a while.a aWhat am I supposed to do? Play with string?a Arhu looked scornful.

aIf necessary, yes,a Huff said. aMake sure you ingratiate yourself sufficiently with her, and she wonat want to let you out of her sight ... which, for our purposes, would be absolutely perfect.a Arhu was opening his mouth to disagree again. aYou will also probably eat like royalty,a Urruah said.

Arhu shut his mouth and looked thoughtful.

aI hate to mention it,a Rhiow said, abut the other one who is probably going to be perfect for this job is Siffhaah. Another acutea one.a Arhu straightened up again. aNo way!a aWeall discuss it later,a Rhiow said, in a tone of voice meant to suggest that the discussion would have only one possible ending. aWhat about that door, Arhu? Whatas on it?a He breathed out in annoyance and squinted at nothing again. aItas not coming.a aThe vhai itas not,a Urruah said, and gave him a look.

Arhu made the disgusted face again, then went slightly vague in the eyes, as if trying harder.

aMcClaren,a he said suddenly. aDoes that make sense?a aIs that whatas on the door?a Fhrio said.

Arhu twitched his tail ayesa.

aBad,a Fhrio said. aThe only ones who get their names on their doors are Government ministers ... a Auhlae and Huff looked grim. aRhi, who was he?a Urruah said.

aFrom what Hhuhmahri told me, probably the Chanceller of the Exchequer,a she said, listening anew to the material she had read into the Whispering. aThey changed these jobs around every now and then, though not as often as they do now. I would probably need to talk to Ouhish to get a more accurate date.a aIam not sure we need it,a Huff said. aWe know heas involved. I would love to find some way to betray his part in the conspiracy as well ... but it may not be possible. Almost certainly the letter he writes to the third party in Edinburgh isnat going to contain anything which would incriminate him: he wouldnat be so stupid, even in those less investigative days, as to commit something of that kind to House stationery. He probably used that more as a guaranteed form of identification to his contact than anything else.a They all lay and thought for a moment. aNo,a Huff said, aunless someone comes up with a brilliant idea on how to reveal him, weare going to have to be satisfied with stopping the attempt itself and removing the a.s.sa.s.sin permanently from the Queenas ambit. Any other thoughts?a If there were any, they were briefly derailed as the air down at the end of the platform tore softly, and a taloned shape stepped through.

aIth!a Artie cried, jumped up and ran to him, and shook Ithas claw in a manner so suddenly and incongruously ehhif-adult that Rhiow burst out laughing, and had immediately to pretend to have a hairball. While this was going on, Ith greeted Artie and came pacing over to the teams. He crouched down on those long back legs, the great-claw of each foot grating on the stone.

aHow did you do?a aIth hissed, a most satisfied sound. The spell is complete,a he said. aI did not stop with the Museum in London. New York and Berlin, also, I visited, and the new Egyptian wing of the museum in Mnchen, apparently the biggest such collection in the world now. I am afraid a security camera might have caught me in Berlin: I was in a hurry.a That toothed jaw dropped in a slight smile. aI will be interested to see how they explain what the videotape may show. But first tell me how you fare.a They told him: and Arhu, finally, looked at Ith for a long moment in which he seemed to say nothing. Ith listened, with his head on one side, and then knitted his foreclaws together in that gesture which could mean contemplation or distressa"in Rhiowas experience, Ithas claws were more to be trusted as an indicator than his face or his eyes, which did not work like a Personas.

aSo our old Enemy puts Its fang into your heart again, brother,a Ith said, working the claws together so that they sc.r.a.ped softly against one another. aIt is folly. The same venom will not work twicea"you will begin to develop an immunity.a aIam glad you think so,a Arhu said bleakly.

aGladness is far from you just now,a Ith said, abut we will see. Meanwhile, Huff, Rhiow, tell me what we must now do to save the Queen.a They outlined the plan to him, and Ith listened to it all, his foreclaws working gently at each other the while. At last, when they were done, he bowed agreement to what they had said.

aIt all sounds well,a said Ith. aBut there is another possibility for which you must also prepare. Your plan, no matter how well laid, may nonetheless fail. If you do not get it right the first time, there is little chance that the Lone Power will let you into that timeline again. It will erect such barriers against you that half the worldas wizards brought to bear against them at once would not prevail. Then the Queen will die, and the consequences will begin ... a The People, and Artie, all looked at one another. aThat possibility must be prepared for,a Ith said. aIf nothing else, the Winter must be prevented. That at least. No matter if our timelines die, and all of us, and all the ehhif and all the People, and even all my peoplea"if we can only keep the Winter from happening, then there will be survivors, and the world will eventually grow green again.a aHeas right,a Huff said, looking over at Auhlae. She waved her tail in agreement.

aWell, you have the complete spell,a Urruah said. aSo weare all right in that regard ... a He caught the look in Ithas eye. aArenat we?a aThe spell is indeed complete,a Ith said. aBut I am less certain than I was when I started that it will function.a aWhat?a Rhiow said. aWhy?a aHere,a Ith said, and moved a little aside to make a clear s.p.a.ce on the floor.

He constructed the spell for them as Urruah had constructed the timeslide, as a three-dimensional diagram in the Speech. It was more than just six-parted as he had suggested. It was a fourth-dimensional expression of a truncated icosahedron; a near-spherical array of hexagons, each one surrounded by five pentagons. Arhu was not the only one squinting, now: everyone was having trouble grasping the spatial relations.h.i.+ps of the thing.

aIau, it makes my head hurt just looking at it,a Fhrio said, though with a certain amount of admiration.

aTo achieve this construct,a Ith said, aI unwrapped four hundred and thirty-eight mummies, and extracted spell fragments from some sixty or seventy amulets. It is a great help to be able to use oneas wizardry to see into the mummy first before you must unwrap it: otherwise I would be claw-deep in bandages yet.a He tilted his head this way and that, bird-like, admiring his handiwork. aIt is, as you see, something of a power-trap. Fives and sixes ... That structure traps wizardly energy within it, confining and concentrating it for use. But there is a problem.a The claws began to fret gently at one another again. aThe recitation parameters of the spella"you see them there, reflected in each awinga of the constructa"require the physical presence of a threshold number of mummies: a ma.s.sive, strictly physical reinforcement. Originally, that would have been the main cat-mummy burial site at Bubastis. But that is now gone, as we know.a aAre you saying that this wonat work?a Fhrio said, peering at the spell.

aNo. I am saying that it may work, but if it does, I will not understand how. And you may be right: it may not function at all ... in which case there is no protection against the Winter. And in that case, you must succeed.a Silence fell among the gathered People. Arhu kept studying the spell-construct, and his gaze went vague ... but Rhiow, looking over at him, became less sure that it was the construct on which he had his eye, or Eye.

He turned to her all of a sudden. aEight hundred thousand People, you said, was the threshold number for gating to start in an area,a Arhu said. aHow big an area? And do those eight hundred thousand People have to be alive ... ?a Rhiow didnat know what to make of that one. But, Three hundred thousand cat-mummies at Beni-Ha.s.san alone, Budge had said. And there were probably many more ...

aI donat know,a Rhiow said at last. aNormally, you would think so. But the Egyptiansa relations.h.i.+p with their cats plainly didnat stop when the cats were dead. Indeed, they didnat think they were dead, not in the sense that ehhif use the word now: the whole idea of preserving the body itself indicates that someone thinks you might need it again,a Rhiow fell silent and thought about that for a moment. Until now she had been holding this particular ehhif belief as somewhat barbaric, almost funny, the result of a misunderstandinga"for indeed People had told the ehhif of those long-past days how their own lives went: nine lives, nine deaths, and if you had done more good in your life than evil, there followed a tenth life in a body immune to the more cra.s.s aspects of physicality, like injury, decay and agea"the fully-realized Life of which the previous nine had been rough sketches. The ehhif, as so often happened, had gotten some of the details of this story muddled, and thought atheira cats were telling them about immortality after life in a physical body. With this understanding, the ehhif of Egypt, an endlessly practical people, had started working on ways to preserve the bodies of the deada"human as well as felinea"with an eye to making sure those bodies would last until they were needed again. Over nearly a millennium of practice, mummification had become a science (as these ehhif regarded such things), elaborate, involved ... and here and there, with a touch of wizardry about it.

Now, though, this set of circ.u.mstances seemed less silly to Rhiow ... and much more intriguing. The One, and Her daughters the Powers that Be, rarely did anything without a purpose. Could it be that all the magnificent sarcophagi and paintings, all the riches piled and buried in all the tombs, the folly and the glory of it, were all a blind ... a distraction, meant for the one Power which was less than kindly disposed toward life? A feint, a misdirection, a behavior which externally seemed humorously typical of the stupidities of ehhif ... but one concealing something far more important? The mummified bodies of hundreds of thousands of People, lying in the sand, forgotten: a resource, a well of potential ...

... a weapon.

Rhiow did not have the kind of confusion about bodies which ehhif all too often had. Once you were out of it for good, a body was meat: whatever happened to it, you didnat care, and those around you were expected to do no more (if it was convenient) than try to drag it off somewhere a little private, where the elements of the world would dispose of it in their own fas.h.i.+on. Rhiow knew that the People who had once inhabited those now-mummified bodies would be far beyond caring what happened to their mortal remains. Either they would have run their nine livesa term and ended so, subsumed back into the endless purr which lay behind the merely physical Universe, as was the way of most of the People; or they would be ten lives along now, in bodies so much better suited to their needs that they would laugh at the mere thought of the old ones. If their two-thousand-year-old remains had to be used somehow as a weapon against the Lone One, not one of them would object.

But those bodies were ground up, now, and spread over half the counties of this island. Certainly they were too far scattered for the kind of intervention which this spell construct would require.

Rhiow looked at the construct. Well, she said to the Whisperer, ... will it work?

A long, long pause.

Maybe ...

She got up and stretched. aThe only thing we havenat decided,a she said to Huff, ais when weare going to do this.a aItas been rather a long day,a Huff said, and glanced over at Auhlae, who was giving him a thoughtful look. To this particular piece of work, Iad like to come well rested. Tomorrow night?a The others all nodded.

aShall I come with you?a Ith said.

Rhiow looked at him with some unease. The concern about the Father of his People risking himself comes up again,a she said. aYouad better take it up with Them. But I for one would value your company.a She glanced at Huff. He twitched his tail ayesa. aSee where your responsibilities lie, cousin,a he said to Ith, aand then join us if you can. But this work alone, I think, is likely to be of great use.a He glanced at the hexaract.

Ith got up. aI will go to my own, then,a he said, aand consult with the Powers.a He bowed to the group, and laid his tail over Arhuas for a moment: then he stepped into the air again, and was gone.

aWhat about Siffhaah?a Arhu said.

aWhat about her?a said Fhrio. The growl was missing ... just.

aNothing,a Arhu said, and sighed, and got up. aAbsolutely nothing at all.a aCome on, Ruah,a Rhiow said. aLetas get home and take a look around. Huff, Auhlae ... a She touched cheeks with them: after doing so with Huff, she paused a second, seeing something in his eyes that she couldnat quite cla.s.sify.

aItall be all right,a Rhiow said.

aOf course it will,a Huff said: and his whiskers went forward ever so slightly. aTill tomorrow night, cousin: dai stih.a They made their way home together, Rhiow and Urruah and Arhu, and stepped out with some relief from the long station platforms, out into the echo and bustle of the Main Concourse. Sidled, they walked through it without too much concern for the ehhif. It was getting late on a Sat.u.r.day evening, and growing quiet. Above them, the astarsa burned backwards in the zodiac of a feigned Mediterranean sky: but the breezes that blew by under the great arched ceiling bore mostly the scents of the last fresh-ground coffee of the day, and a lingering aroma of pizza and cold cuts.

Urruah breathed deeply. aYou know,a he said, atheir gating complex is very historic and all, all those old buildings and castles and whatnot ... but I like ours better.a aYou just prefer the food,a Rhiow said.

aYeah, well, I intend to have a seriously big dinner tonight,a Urruah said, aand then a whole nightas sleep in my dumpster. Who knows if Iall ever see it again?a Rhiow glanced over at him. aYouare really worried, arenat you,a she said.

aI think I have reason. Donat you?a There was little evidence to suggest otherwise. There was no question that the situation was dangerous. But having granted that, Rhiow saw no advantage in dwelling on it. aIf worrying would help,a she said, aIad be right in there with you. But Iave no evidence that it makes any difference.a aOptimist,a Urruah said.

aPessimist,a Rhiow said.

aAnd which side do you come down on?a Urruah said to Arhu, who was walking between them, silent.

aNeither,a Arhu said. aIad sooner wait to see which way to jump.a He looked a little dubious. aBut you know, Rhiow, Ruah, itas all just probabilities. I see things ... but thereas always that little warning hovering at the edge of them. aIt may not turn out this waya.a He sighed. aVery annoying ... a aI donat know,a Rhiow said. aIad think it might be worse if what you saw always happened, and there was no escape. That would be depressing. As well as boring: nothing would ever surprise you ... a aGive me no surprises,a Urruah said definitely. aGive me certainty over uncertainty any time. Iall take the boredom and be grateful.a Rhiow laughed at him ... but the laughter was slightly hollow. aSo letas postulate best case for a moment,a she said. aSay the Queen is a.s.sa.s.sinated. Is there any slightest chance, do you think, that the war might not happen, despite what Arhu Saw? As he says, itas still only probability ... a Urruah flirted his tail sideways in a gesture of complete uncertainty as they walked past the s.h.i.+ning bra.s.s central information booth. aEven in our own world,a he said, athe only reason ehhif managed to keep the Winter from falling for so long was that there were two great powers that had atomic weapons ... and everyone was sure that, no matter which one of them started the fight, everyoneas throat would be ripped out before it was finished. And even then there were close calls. That one ehhif President who got lucky, for example ... because spies and wizards were in the right places at the right time, to help him covertly or tell him what he needed to know to maneuver properly in that nasty little game of hauissh that he and his enemy were playing. Luck, yes, and the Powersa intervention ... and not much else ... that saved them. But in that alternate eighteen seventy-four, thereas just one power that has the bomb. There is no great counterbalance against the British power to keep them from using it. The only thing that could save them is if their great politicians suddenly became cautious ... and what do you think the odds are on that?a aWith the ehhif Disraeli as the Queenas main minister at that point?a Rhiow shook her head. aFrom what Hhuhmahri told me, the chances are slim and none. If the Queen dies, heall use the excuse to sweep all the lesser atroublemakinga nations away before him. Heas been looking for an excuse to do that, Iad say, for a long time: certainly in our own world he was not exactly a cautious ehhif, or one to back down when provoked. At this time-period, in our own world, he was busy trying to get the Queen to take another t.i.tle, as a kind of over-Queen of another pridesa-pride of ehhif. aEmpressa, they called it. She finally let him talk her into it, or flatter her, rather. Granted, that turned out to be a less destructive act of aggression ... but the act was dam to a litter of results, later on, that cost many ehhif their lives. Itas still doing so, in fact.a Rhiow twitched her tail, troubled.

aIn other words,a Urruah said, aif given the excuse, heall bomb the rebellious prides right back into the Stone Age.a aAnd his own pride as well,a Arhu said. aJust what the Lone One wants.a aThe warning is written on the Moon,a Rhiow said, aas we saw. Thatas what It intends the Earth to look like after Itas done.a aAnd the situation might get still worse,a Urruah said. aIt seems that these ehhif lose their positions, or change them, without warning and at short notice. What if someone comes in as Prime Minister whoas less tolerant than the ehhif holding the position now?a aPlease,a Rhiow said. It was an uncomfortable enough situation as it was. aOur problem is that, whoever rules that world, the period is not one that likes to refrain from technology, once it gets its hands on it. The Victorians like technology, the more aggressive the better. They like mastering and dominating their world ... and each other. They have done some great works that have lasted into our own time, itas true ... but they also did a great deal of evil. They routinely acted without due consideration of the effects.a aI Saw a lot of things that looked like that,a Arhu said, awith Odin. The ehhif took what they got from the book and mostly kept it for themselves. There are a lot of ehhif on this planet, in that time, but the ones with the technology werenat in a sharing mood. They wanted to keep themselves the top of the aprides-of-pridesa. Every now and then they would give a little of the information to some of the other prides, the acountriesa, as a present. A way to prove how powerful they were. But the best of it, the parts that really mattered, or were really dangerous, they kept to themselves.a His ears were flat back. aItas like caching food. I donat understand how they can do that.a aIt would probably be pretty foolish of us to expect them not to treat nuclear technology the way they treated all the others ... a Urruah said. aSo ... does that answer your question?a Rhiow sighed. aI just hope Ith can get that spell working,a she said.

They walked to the Forty-Second Street entrance and looked out through the bra.s.s doors. Forty-Second was in full flower, streams of traffic flowing by in both directions, and ehhif walking past, running, chatting, shouting, taking their time in the soft evening air. Rhiow glanced up leftward, a little over her shoulder, to see the light-accented, graceful curves of the Chrysler Building rearing up s.h.i.+nning into the evening sky, the city-light gilding it from underneath. Even at the best of times, she thought, even when life seems normal, who among us can say with certainty that weall see this world again tomorrow? Entropy stalks the world in all its usual shapes, and some less usual than others. Iall meet them, the strange and the deadly, but I donat need to crouch in fear or bristle at them in show of defiance. I know my job. My commission comes from Those Who Are. We stand together, They and I, in protection of the world They made and I keep. We may lose: there is always that chance. But meanwhile We keep watch at the borders, and contest the Lone Oneas pa.s.sage. We will not let it be easy. We will not fall without selling ourselves dearly. And when in the worldsa evening we fall at last, and finally come home, We will find that we have brought with us what we love, bound to us forever by blood and intention: and the Lone One will stand with Its claws empty, and howl Her anger at the night. Then we will say, That was a good fight that we won: and come the dawn, We will make another world, and play the play again ...

She swallowed, and glanced around her. Urruah was looking at her thoughtfully. He leaned over, b.u.mped noses with her, and said, aSee you tomorrow evening ... a Urruah walked off down Forty-Second to the corner of Vanderbilt, and dodged around it and out of sight. Rhiow looked away from him, over to Arhu, and said, aAnd what about you?a aI think I have an appointment,a he said, and b.u.mped noses with her too, laying his tail briefly over his back. aSee you later ... a He walked off toward the corner of Lexington, slipped around it, and was gone.

Rhiow stood there by the doors and watched her city go by: then, sidled, she lifted her head high, stepped up into the air, and skywalked home.

Iaehh was there, and in quiet mood, when she got in. He fed her, and afterwards sat in the reading chair, and Rhiow made herself comfortable in his lap and tried to doze.