Feline Wizards - To Visit The Queen Part 11

For he was not supposed to be here. He should have been up in his officea"writing a lettera"

SaaRrdhh in a five-gallon bucket, Urruah thought, noa"

He bolted toward the Government benches, ignoring the surprised or shocked faces turned toward him, and jumped up on the back of the first front bench, almost getting into the beard of the surprised minister sitting nearest. Urruah jumped with great speed from there to the first of the back benches, and to the next and the next, going up them like steps in a staircase and not particularly caring whose leg, shoulder or head he stepped on in the process. The laughter became deafening. There was a door at the back of the last of the benches, at the very top. Urruah jumped down and went straight through it, this time without the slightest concern for the grain of the wood.

He raced out through the West Division lobby, through it into the little hallway at the corner of the Lobby and up the staircase two floors. He knew well enough where McClarenas office was. Through that wooden door, too, he went, sidled again this time.

There was no one in the office.

Urruah stood very still for a moment and licked his nose three times in rapid succession. Then he glanced around him, and looked up into the box on the bookcase.

No letter.

He jumped up onto the desk, covered with the same leather and paper blotter that Arhu had seen. There were no writings on it, but there were faint depressions as of writing.

Urruah looked across to the small narrow fireplace at the other side of the office. Perfect, he thought.

He did a very small wizardry in his mind and put his paws down on the blotter, electrostatically charging it. Then he glanced over at the fireplace, and spoke courteously in the Speech to the soot up in the chimney.

Tidily, in a thin stream, it made its way across the room to him. Urruah guided it down onto the blotter, then levitated the blotter a little way up on its edge to let the soot slide down it.

It adhered here and there on the blotter, mostly to signatures. But one recent piece of writing showed up most clearly where the soot clung.

MR JAMES FLEMING.

14 KENNISHEAD AVENUE.

EDINBURGH.

Dear Mr. Fleming, Thank you for yours inst. the 6th of July regarding pa.s.ses to the Speakeras gallery. Such may only be granted by the Speaker after introduction by the applicantas own member of Parliament. In your case this woulda"

Oh, no, Urruah thought.

Itas gone. Itas gone already. How can it be gone?

He ran out of the office again, through the door, his heart pounding and his mouth dry with terror.

Everybody! Everybody! Windsor, now, hurry, now!

... He unlatches the door with one gloved hand, slips in through it, shuts it gently behind him. Stands still in the darkness, and listens. A faint hiss from the hot-water boiler behind the coal stove: the tick of cinders s.h.i.+fting in the box: no other sound.

He takes his twelve steps across the kitchen, reaches out his hand ... finds the shut door. He eases its latch open, slips through this door too, pulls it gently to behind him. Six stairs up to the hallway. Two steps out into the middle of the carpet in the hall; turn left. Sixty steps down to the second landing, and out onto the carpet. In the darkness he pa.s.ses by the doorways he knows are there, to the Picture Gallery, the Queenas Ball Room, the Queenas Audience Chamber. Silently past the Guard Chamber: no guards are there any morea"the place is full of suits of armor, some of them those of children, and silken banners and old swords and s.h.i.+elds, the gifts of kings. No more kings after tonight, he thinks, with the slightest smile in the dark. No more queens ...

Fifty-nine steps, and there is 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.

Something brushes against his leg. A gasp catches in his throat: he freezes in place. A minute, two minutes, he stands there.

Nothing. A cobweb. Even a place like this, with a hundred servants, canat keep all the stairwells free of the little toilers, the spinners of webs. Softly he goes on up again, one step at a time, at the edges, with care.

The remaining fifteen steps 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, is a chair under a single candle sconce with a dim electric bulb burning in it. There should be a footman in it, but thereas no sign of him. The chair is tilted back against the wall, and down by the foot of the chair is a stoneware mug: empty. The footman has gone to relieve himself. And the door in the gilded frame is slightly open.

Perfect. Down the hallway, now, in utmost silence.

Swiftly now, but also silently. Reach up and undo the bulb from its socket. No one will think a thing of it: these newfangled things burn out without warning all the time. Wait a few seconds for night vision to return. Then, silently, push the door open and step in.

The outer room is where the lady-in-waiting has a bed. She is not in it. Now the footmanas absence suddenly completely makes sense, and in the darkness, he smiles. 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. A little rasp of noise, soft. A snore? She will sleep more quietly in a moment ...

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, as the knives pierce his hand, and other knives catch him from behind, on the neck and the back of the head, a flurry of abrupt, terrible, slicing pain. He staggers back, his arms windmilling, the knife trying to find a target in the darkness. Only the training of many years, the usual number of accidentsa"broken gla.s.s, banged s.h.i.+nsa"keeps him quiet now as he stumbles back to find his balance again. For just a moment his hand is free of the pain, but now the front of his neck is pierced by furious jaws that bite him in the throat, claws that seize and kick. He fumbles at his throat to grab something furry and throw it away with all his mighta"

and suddenly he simply canat move: heas frozen, as if he were a stick of wood or one of the carved statues downstairs. Like a statue with its pedestal pulled out from under it, he topples, unable even to catch himself, or to turn so that he falls face down and not on his back.

Yet at the last minute he doesnat fall. Some force far stronger than he is stops him, holds him suspended in air. He canat breathe, canat move, can only lie here gripped by something he canat begin to understand, and by the terror that follows.

The pain, at least, drops away from the back of his head. But suddenly there is a pressure on his chest. His eyes, wide already in the dark, go as wide as they can with shock as a face, grinning, like the face of a demon, becomes just barely visible before him.

It is the face of a black-and-white cat. From the very end of its tail, held up behind it, comes the faintest glimmer of light, like a will-aoa-the-wisp. It looks at him with a face of unutterable evil, a devil come to claim him: and, impossibly, in a whisper, it speaks.

aBoy,a it says, ahave you ever picked the wrong bedroom.a It sits there on his chest while invisible hands lift him. A brief whirl of that ever-so-faint light surrounds him, going around the back of his field of vision, coming up to the front again, tying itself in a tidy bow-knot. For a second or so that light fills everything.

Then it is gone again, and he falls again, coming down on the floor with a thump. His head cracks down hard, and he almost swears, but restrains himself.

But thereas no carpet on this floor. This is hard stone. Slowly, when he discovers that he can sit up again, he feels the floor around him. Marble, and old smooth tilea"Hesitantly he gets to his feet, begins to feel his way around.

What he feels makes no sense. A stone figure, lying on its back, raised above the floora"Much other carving reveals itself under his hands, but nothing else. He would swear out loud, except that he may still be able to get out, and someone might hear him.

It is a long while before the tarnished, waning Moon rises enough for its light to stream through the stained-gla.s.s windows surrounding him with their ill.u.s.trations of Biblical texts, and for him to realize whose the reclining figure is. There, entombed in marble, Prince Albert lies in the moonlight, hands folded, at rest, on his face a slight grave smile which, in this lighting, takes on an unbearably sinister aspect.

The memory of the demon face comes back to him. He swallows, feels for his knife. Itas gone. Dropped upstairs in the bedroom. Thereas nothing he can use on the locked, barred ornamental gate to get out. Thereas no way he can get rid of the silken rope. They will find it on him in the morning, when they call the police. There is a specific name for the charge of being found with tools which might be used for burglary: itas called agoing forth equippeda. Itas good for about twenty years, these days, on a second offense.

This is his fifth.

He sits down on the green marble bench under the scriptural bas-reliefs with their thirty kinds of inlaid marble, and begins, very quietly, to weep.

Just outside the bars, the darkness smiles and walks away on little cat feet.

Out in the Home Park, a black brougham waits until two a.m. precisely: then, slowly, quietly, moves off into the night.

There was a tremendous fuss the next morning when the burglar was found downstairs. There was less certainty about his status as a burglar when the lady-in-waiting found, dropped next to the Queenas bed, a switchblade knife of terrible length and keenness. The police came, and the police commissioner with them: he questioned the Queen with the utmost respect. No, she had seen nothing, heard nothing. Her dear little kitties had been sleeping with her all night: she woke up and went to her toilette ... and then all these horrible discoveries began to make themselves plain. The policemen took time to stroke the cats, which lay about on the white linen coverlet with the greatest possible ease and indolence, and a fairly smug look on their faces. The cat scratches present on the burglaras face and head made it fairly plain where he had been, and (probably) what he had been up to. As a result, all that morning, the cats were petted and fussed and made much of. Instead of running away, as anyone might have expected with such young creatures, they stood it with astonis.h.i.+ng stolidity.

It was nearly ten in the morning before the Queen finally saw the final visitors out of her apartment, sent her lady-in-waiting away, and shut the door to have a few momentsa peace. She slipped back into her bedroom, where the two young black-and-white cats had been asleep on the bed. One of them was lying on her back with her feet in the air, utterly indolent: the other had rolled over on his side and was watching her come with an air of tremendous intelligence.

aAh, my dears,a she said, and sat down on the bed beside them. aHow I wish you could speak and tell me what it is that happened last night.a The slightly larger one, the male, gave her that unutterably wise look. The Queen turned her head to look out at the bright summer morning, which she might not have lived to see. The other cat rolled off her back and blinked at her lazily.

aMadam,a she said, ado you think this life is a rehearsal? Itas not.a The Queenas mouth dropped right open.

aSheas right, Queen,a Arhu said, getting up and sauntering toward her. aYouare acting like youave got as many lives as we have ... and you donat. Donat you think itas time you stopped hiding in herea"time you got out there and started making some use of yourself? Honestly, Iam sorry you lost your big tom with all the fur on his face. He sounds like he was nicer than the usual run of ehhif. But as far as I know, heas with the One now, Whoall certainly know how to treat him right: and if what I hear is anything to go by, he wouldnat like you sitting here grieving for him while you have all this work to do.a aButa"a the Queen finally managed to say. aBut, oh, my dear little puss, how can you possibly know anything of the kind of pain I suffer when I think ofa"a aIall tell you what I know,a Arhu said. aSif, letas show her.a They showed her ... the pain they knew all too well, and shared.

The Queen sank back into the chair beside the bed, a few seconds later, staggered. Tears began to roll down her face.

aBeat that, if you can,a said Siffhaah at last.

The Queen hid her face in her hands.

aSo donat think you have a corner on the suffering market,a said Arhu. aOr on being lonely. Or that other people acanat knowa. When the sun comes up at last, weare all stuck in our own heads by ourselves. Everyone around you feels the pain of it, sooner or latera"the Lone Oneas claw in their heart. Some feel it a lot worse than you, even if you are the dam to a pride of millions. So stop acting as if youare so special.a Even through the Queenas tears, her jaw dropped open again at that. aAnd stop s.h.i.+rking your work,a said Siffhaah. aBad things will happen to your pride if you donat come out and do the things you were reared to do. Theyave started happening already. If you act now, you can stop the process.a aOh,a Arhu added. aAnd by the way, lay off the nuclear weapons. I know Dizzy likes them ... but this is what will happen if you donat.a He showed her.

The Queen went ashen at the sight of the Winter.

For several long minutes she was speechless: possibly a record. At the end of it, all she could whisper was, aYou are little angels of G.o.d.a aPlease, madam,a Arhu said, adonat get confused. Weare cats. If you mean weare messengers of the One, well, so is everybody: itas hardly an exclusive position. But this is the word. No nukes. You really ought to get rid of them, lest someone later be tempted to use them who isnat as morally upright as you are.a Flatterer.

Sheas susceptible. A good wizard uses the tools which are available. aAnd make sure you donat let them get out of control while youare having them destroyed,a Siffhaah said. aSome people might be tempted to get light-fingered ... try to sell a few to somebody else on the grounds that no one will notice since theyare being destroyed anyway.a The Queen looked suddenly determined. aI have never liked them,a she said softly. aI will begin work at once, if you say so.a aIt would be a project,a Arhu said, awhich would probably be productive of some good.a The Queen looked around with some surprise, for suddenly the bedroom seemed to have a lot more cats in it, and she had no idea where they might have come from. A huge gray tabby: a small neat black cat with golden-green eyes: a ma.s.sive gray-and-tan tabby with astonis.h.i.+ng fluffy fur: a small tidy marmalade cat with a slightly sardonic expression. All of them looked at her with interest.

aOur colleagues,a said Arhu. aWe have been here on errantry on your behalf: the errandas over. They just wanted to look at you before we all left.a Arhu smiled slightly. aItas in the job description.a aBut, but my dear kitties,a the Queen said, ayou cannot go now, you must stay!a Perhaps she already read the answer in their eyes. aI command it!a aMajesty,a said the black cat, with a nod of what might have been respect, aour People have their own Queen, to whom we answer: a higher authority, I believe, than even yours. We cannot stay: we have other errands to perform for Her. But She wishes you well, by us. Do well by your people: and farewell.a And then they were all gone.

The Queen wept a little, as was her habit, and then started to put herself right after the events of the morning. She did not get around to reading The Times until almost bedtime. When she did, it took her a while to get to the parliamentary report, which she was about to skip, since for some days it had contained an interminable report about the Public Wors.h.i.+p Regulation Bill. But suddenly, in the middle of the dry, dry text, she began to smile.

The right Honorable Gentleman was at this moment startled by a burst of laughter from the crowded house, caused by the appearance of a large gray tabby cat, which, after descending the Opposition gangway, proceeded leisurely to cross the floor. Being frightened by the noise, the cat made a sudden spring from the floor over the shoulder of the members sitting on the front Ministerial bench below the gangway, and, amid shouts of laughter, bounded over the heads of members on the back benches until it reached a side door, when it vanished. This sudden apparition, the catas still more sudden disappearance, and the astonishment of the members who found it vaulting so close to their faces and beards, almost convulsed the House.

The Queen folded up the newspaper, put it aside, and went to sleep ... determined to start making some changes the next day.

aThe only thing about this that still bothers me,a Urruah was saying, ais where that letter went. I canat imagine how he got it out of there so fast.a aBut thatas the problem,a said Hwallis to the London and New York teams, earlier that afternoon. aA day for a letter to get to and from Edinburgh? A whole day? You must be joking.a The New York team looked at each other. aItas easy for us to forget,a Huff said, athat once upon a time, when this country had a rail network it could be proud of, and before there were telephones, the mail could come seven times a daya"in London, in some parts, as many as twelve times a day. And pickups were much more frequent than they are now.a aThe Houses of Parliament have a pickup for members at midnight,a Ouhish said. aThat letter would have been on the train to Scotland half an hour later. It would have been in Edinburgh, and delivered, with the first post ... some time after five in the morning. No later than seven, anyway. If a reply was pa.s.sed directly back to the postman, that letter would also have gone on a train within an hour or so, and the reply would have been in Londona"Windsor, in this casea"by the two oaclock post at the latest.a Rhiow shook her head. aAnd we think our ehhif have technology,a she said softly. aSometimes retrotech has its points.a They spent the afternoon at the Museum, and said their farewells to Ouhish and Hwallis around four: then went for one last meeting, in Green Park. Artie was out for one last afternoon in London: the next morning he was due to catch the train back to Edinburgh, and after that he would be heading off to a school on the Continent. He was sorrowful, but his basic good cheer would not let the affair be entirely a sad one.

aBut will I never see you again,a Artie said, aor Ith?a aFor out own part, it seems unlikely,a Rhiow said. aMostly wizards donat do time-work without permission from the Powers. There are too many things that can go wrong. But you will remember us for a long time.a Probably not forever ... she thought, but didnat say. One of the factors which protected wizardry from revelation was the tendency of humans minds to censor themselves over time, forgetting the aimpossiblea, recasting the improbable into more acceptable forms. Childhood memories, in particular, were liable to this kind of editing, as the adult mind decided retroactively what things could have happened in the areal worlda, and which were dreams. Yet Artie was a little unusual. There was something about him which suggested that he would not easily let go of a memory, and that no matter how impossible something was, if it was true, he would cope with it ... and hang on.

aBut Ith is another story,a Urruah said. aHis time isnat precisely our time: the universe where he lives is closer to the heart of things ... and so a little easier to get in and out of, for him. Also, he outranks us.a Urruah smiled. aHeas a Senior now ... and Seniors have more lat.i.tude.a aNo matter what else happens,a Fhrio said, aremember that you helped save the Queen, and many millions of people youall never know. Youall never be able to prove it to anybody. But without you, we would not have been guaranteed entry into this timeline ... and we couldnat have been sure to save the others. You did that. It might have been an accident at first ... but afterwards, you did it willingly. We wonat forget that, or you ... and neither will the Powers.a Artie smiled at that. aI guess itas better than nothing.a aImmeasurably,a Rhiow said.

They parted as sunset drew on, and made their way back to the Mark Lane Underground, where they had lodged the timeslide. As they went underground for the last time in this period, Rhiow looked up into the dirty sky. There was no Moon there, tarnished or otherwise. Depending on whether or not they managed to track back the aseeda event of this chain, it might always wear those terrible scars. But at least now there was a good chance that the world would not.

aSo whatas next?a she said to Huff, as they made their way down to the aderelicta platform.

aThat book,a he said. aFhrio, think weall be able to wring what we need out of the gate logs when we get back?a aI feel certain of it,a he said. aAnd with Siffhaah to power the gating, the way sheas doing now, there shouldnat be anything that can interfere.a He sounded positively cheerful, Rhiow thought. She found herself wondering, a little ironically, whether this was because of how well the mission had gone, or whether it was because soon Urruah and Arhu would be leaving.

An unworthy thought. Never mind. Itas all worked out nicely. How good itas going to be to get home to Iaehh, and let life go back to normal: our own gates to take care of, no commuting ...

And Rhiow smiled at herself then. Entropy was not about to stop running. Almost certainly something would go wrong with one of their own gates as soon as they got home, something finicky and pointless that would take weeks to put right ...

To her horror, the thought was delightful.

They came down to the dark and quiet of the platform, and Urruah woke up the timeslide: its wizardry blazed up into the familiar ahedgea around them as everyone took their appointed places. Rhiow looked around her as Siffhaah stepped into the power point and Fhrio hooked one claw into the wizardry. aReady?a he said. aAnybody forget anything? Nowas your last chance.a Tails were flirted anoa all around. aAll right, Siffhaah,a he said. aOn standbya"a aNow!a she said: reared up, and came down.

The pressure came. Rhiow surrendered herself to it for a change, familiar as it was. For home was on the other side ...

NINE.

They came out into darkness: darkness so black that not even a Personas eyes could make anything of it.

For a few moments there was nothing but silence. Then Urruah said, aWhat in the Queenas name -- ?a The timeslide wizardry collapsed around them, as if something had stomped it flat. All of them looked around them in shock.

aWhat is it?a said Arhu. aWhereas the light? Whatas gone wrong down here?a aNothing,a said a soft voice from away off in the darkness. aBut something is finally about to go right.a aUh oh,a Arhu said, and fell very abruptly silent.

aAuhlae?a Huff said. He stepped forward carefully out of the circle: Rhiow could feel him brush past her. aAre you all right? Whatas happened down here?a aNothing that hasnat been promised for a long time,a came the soft voice. Rhiow strained to hear it better. It was Auhlae ... but it wasnat.

aWhatas the matter?a Huff said. aHas something gone wrong with the gates?a Laughter came out of the dark. aThatas always your first question, isnat it? No, of course not. The gates are fine.a aOh ... good.a Huff stopped, unable to see where he was going. aThen maybe you can help us find our way out of here, itas kind of dark ... a aYes,a Auhlae said ... or something using Auhlaeas voice. aA refres.h.i.+ng change, isnat it? This is the way it should always have been from the beginning. No garish stars, no dirty little life-infested planets, nothing but the cold and the night.a And indeed it was feeling rather cold down here: much more so than it should have even in London in September. aAnd shortly this is what it will be like on Earth as well. Perhaps not this dark. But no Sun, no heat. Peace and quiet on this worthless little mudball at last.a A faint spark of light came up from behind them: Arhu making a light. Before them, away off in the darkness, they could see two blue eyes looking at them, gleaming green in the light Arhu made. Those eyes were further away than it should have been possible for them to be, in a direction that should have been solid wall. And the sound of the place had gone all wrong. The close, underground feeling of it was gone: or rather, pushed back a long way ... much further than should have been possible, as if someone had scooped out a great cavern here to replace the tunnels.

aAuhlae,a Rhiow said, feeling the fur stand up all over her at the look in those eyes. aAre you sure youare all right?a aYou,a said the voice. aThat you should ask. How very glad I am that you made it back. We have business to settle.a aWhat are you talking about?a There was bitter laughter in the darkness. aYou think I havenat noticed you trying to steal him from me? Poor simple Huff. He never was able to tell when someone was making a play for him.a Arhuas light was still dim, though Rhiow could feel him trying, vainly, to make it brighter. She could not see Huff clearly, or the look in his eyes. aAuhlae,a Rhiow said, ayouare completely mistaken. No one has ever had a better mate than Huff is to you, or a more faithful one. And as for me, what possible good would he do me even if I did want him? Iam spayed!a The laughter again. aAs if that matters,a Auhlae snarled. aDo you think Iam such a fool as to think someoneas affections canat be stolen without a uterus? How coy you were about it. Oh so sweet and n.o.ble and intelligent, and then when that starts to work, then the weak little queen act, oh-dear-Iave-fallen-and-I-canat-get-up ... and all of a sudden Huff is was.h.i.+ng your ears and whispering sweet nothings in them. Thereall be precious little left of them to whisper in when Iam through.a Rhiow actually took a step backwards in the blast of raw jealousy: it burned like a winter wind howling down Park Avenue.

You, she thought. The Lone Power always hated love, in whatever form. It would try to destroy it whenever It could, as saaRrahh had rebelled against her divine Damas love in the beginning of things. That love was still waiting: but saaRrahh, for the most part, was unconcerned.

aIt was you then,a Rhiow said. aYou were the one who let the first few microgatings through. You saw them, and you didnat do anything to stop them.a aI didnat see them!a the enraged voice yowled. aWhat kind of obsessive would read gating logs so carefully? Do you think Iam the kind of sad case you and your team are: do you think I donat have a life? By the time I noticed them, there had already been three or four. And I didnat think much of it. All gates have these sporadic faults; they go away if you donat try to micromanage them. But then it started happening regularly. The problem went chronic. Even then it still wouldnat really have been a problem: I could have explained it, we could have cleared it up. But then the Ravens noticeda"what business was it of theirs? -- and they told the Powers, and the Powers called you in. As if it was any of your business either! And after that, how could I let Huff see the gate logs, or let him know I knew anything about what had been going on? He wouldnat have understood why I didnat do anything sooner. You have no idea the kind of fuss he would make. And I couldnat let him know that Iad seen the earlier onesa"a Huff was still standing there silent and astonished at all this. aSo you tampered with the logs,a Urruah said. aRight down to the end. And I thought I was an expert.a He put his whiskers forward, ironic. aMy compliments.a aYou think youare such a great one, you,a Auhlae sneered. The voice in the darkness was getting softer, more venemous: but the eyes seemed larger, somehow. aUrruah, the conqueror of every heart. I didnat want you!a aI didnat want you,a he said, rather mildly.

There was a breathas pause of sheer disbelief, and then a scream. aYou did! You did!! How could you not want me, when Huff did!a aAuhlae,a Rhiow said softly, aHuff didnat care whether other toms wanted you or not. He wanted you. That was more than enough for him. Donat you see that even now?a aAs if you know anything about him, or me,a Auhlae hissed. aI know why you came. One failure and thatas it, isnat it? And They were glad enough to give you an excuse to move in. No forgiveness from Their high and mighty quarter, oh no! They were all too glad for you to lever me out of my place with my team, and take my spot. And take Huff. Well, itas not going to happen. I found help where I least expected it.a The eyes were larger. He will never find out, the voice said now, Auhlaeas voice ... but not quite so much so any more. Everything will be the way it was again. When all of you are dead, or gone, or lost in backtime ... everything will be fine here.

aFor a while, Auhlae,a said Rhiow desperately. There may still be a chance to call her back, just a chance ... aOnly for a while. All you can imagine is you and Huff, happy together ... no matter what the price. But saaRrahh will brook no rivals. Her only love is destruction ... like the one sheas planning now. You can still oust her if you try: she cannot live in the unwilling heart, any more than wizardry cana"a The laughter from away down in the darkness was deafening.

Rhiow stood up straight, though she was shaking. aFairest and Fallen,a she said, agreeting and defiance, now and always!a It was the language which the protocol required: there was no need to be rude to the Lone One, no matter what might follow. aState your intentions: and then beware, for we are on the Queenas errantry, and you meddle with Her worlds at your peril!a The laughter came again. I meddle with them as I please, said the Lone Power, said saaRrahh, out of the middle of the darkness and Auhlaeas surrendered body. It is when others meddle that the peril begins. You have deprived Me of My darkness, long planned, and of the cold that would have fallen a hundred years ago. Very well: you have chosen. Instead that darkness shall fall now.

It was not so much that the blackness around them began to break: it was more that something was advancing toward the gating teams, slowly and pleasurably, which made the darkness look horribly less dark by comparison. There was fire in it, but not the kind that gave any light: and many sorts of night which had at one time or another fallen over London, but not the kind with stars. The smoke of the Great Fire was there, and the blackness of the Plague: the fire-shot smoke of the destruction which had fallen from the sky in the second World War, and the eye-smarting thick gray smoke from the burning thatch of the most ancient settlement by the already-oxbowed river. But most of all Rhiow was reminded of the billowing blackness in the uprising mushroom cloud of an atomic explosion ... and it occurred to her that, even now, there were atomic weapons stationed in a few places within the ring of the M25 in London. They were supposed to be safe at defense establishments ... but when the Lone Power Itself was walking, how safe could anything be?

Slowly the dark shape stalked toward them. It was feline: it was saaRrahh indeed, in the fullness of Her fury, the Mistress of the Unmastered Fire, intent on their destruction. And they were totally unprepared. Defiance indeed, Rhiow thought. What now?

The light from behind her was at least getting a little stronger. The Lone Oneas influence was damping down every other wizardly power but Its own as It advanced slowly on them: but Siffhaahas new-found strength had not yet settled into channels where even saaRrahh could easily muzzle them. She was feeding Arhu power, and Arhu was making light, if nothing else: and in that light, Rhiow looked over at Huff, and said, Itas now or never, cousin. Do what you cana"

He looked at Rhiow, and stepped forward. aAuhlae,a Huff cried, aI donat want her! Do you hear me? I never wanted her. Youare all I want. This is all for nothing. Cast it out, or everything weave worked for all this time will be destroyed!a Rhiow was desperately trying to a.s.semble wizardry after wizardry in her mind, but it was no use: they were all being damped, every structure collapsing as she began to build ita"and saaRrahh drew closer, the terrible feline shape towering over them in the darkness now, the size of a house, growing seemingly bigger by the second, filling the whole field of vision with that deadly dark burning. aWeave worked for? Laughter again.

It hasnat been worth anything anyway. When this is all over, the gates will be destroyed, and we wonat have to do that kind of work any more. We can settle down and just be wizards againa"

Huff took a long breath. aI will not be the kind of wizard that serves what you serve,a he cried: aand I will not be the mate to that kind of wizard either!a And he launched himself straight at saaRrahhas throat.

One great paw lifted and slapped him aside as if he were nothing. Rhiow, flinching, heard the bones crack: saw the body fly past her to come down hard on the seamed concrete which was all that was left of the real world.

SaaRrahh looked down at Huffas body, put her whiskers forward, and smiled ...