All of a sudden her body went rigid and her face froze into a mask of horror. She clutched once at her chest and then fell to the floor, eyes staring-almost accusingly, Jamas thought-in his direction.
"She's dead, I think."
The guards waited only long enough to come to the same conclusion before they bolted out the door, yelling at the top of their lungs. Jamas didn't know if they screamed from relief, for salvation, or just for someone in authority to come and take over.
"Now, where is the release mechanism?" he asked as Mavron reached across him and pressed something.
A section of the wall swung open.
"Niffy?" Jamas called, concerned until her face appeared over the top of the bed hangings.
"Meh!" she said with great satisfaction and, reversing her body, lowered herself, tail first, by clever claws to the point where she could make an easy leap to the floor without bruising her paw pads.
"Such a good cat! Such a clever cat!" Jamas tried to take her up in his arms but she eluded him. She made for the washstand and looked imperiously over her shoulder at him.
"She needs to wash her paws, I suspect," Willow said and hastened to pour water in the over-decorated and gilded porcelain basin.
Neatly Niffy jumped up to the stand and then into the water, where she walked around and around, her claws scraping the china. Just then Mavron and the Moxtell sons and brothers, filing into the bedchamber, exclaimed in surprise at seeing a cat deliberately immersing itself.
"She's always played with water," Jamas said, half-amused and half-annoyed at their reaction.
Willow found a clean towel and spread it on the floor for Niffy to dry her feet on. Niffy spent a good time in the water until she was satisfied that she had rinsed off whatever it was she had put on her claws.
With a face devoid of expression, Mavron stripped the embroidered satin cover from the bed and flipped it negligently over the corpse of his stepmother. Then he brushed his hands together, straightened his shoulders and turned to the assembled, every inch the royal personage he was.
"As my first official duty as King of Mauritia, let me thank my loyal allies and subjects for their assistance throughout this… ah…"
"Regrettable hiatus?" Jamas suggested, grinning.
"Long live King Mavron!" one of the Mauritians said in a loud and penetrating voice.
"Long live King Mavron!" Salinah echoed as they all heard a commotion in the hall.
The group that paused on the threshold just stared, some briefly, before they turned to flee down the hall as fast as their legs could carry them. Others remained, relief showing in their pale faces as they turned with hopeful expressions to Mavron.
IT TOOK THE REST of the morning to restore order to the palace and city. Mavron evidently had had time to consider the most necessary steps to be taken. Firmly ushering everyone out of the death chamber, he led all to his own apartments. There, installed in his office, he barked out orders, wrote more, called for messengers, and generally organized the start of his reign.
By dinnertime, elation had dissolved into fatigue, and it was a weary group who joined Mavron for an informal meal. King Mavron installed Niffy on her own chair with a table just the right height for her to eat from a dish of livers and other tender morsels which he himself had interviewed the chef to provide.
"I never thought I'd be so grateful to a cat," he told Jamas and Willow with a fond smile at Niffy. The effects of his incarceration were still etched on his face. He had chosen a coat with sufficient lace on the cuff to cover the bandages. "However did you train her to do such things, Jamas? She was magnificent."
"Mrraow?" Niffy looked up from her plate, her almond-shaped green eyes wide.
Jamas cleared his throat hastily, lest Mavron inadvertently speak her private name.
"Actually, she's extremely intelligent and not just for a cat."
"Meh!" Niffy said.
"Special breeding, you see," Jamas went on in the most indolent tone, turning his wineglass and leaving red semi-circles on the white table linen. "My regent bred her. And trained her, for that matter." He cleared his throat again. "She's been a great help to me, I can assure you. Warning me now and then, and always to my advantage."
"Ah, yes," Mavron said, indulgently, "forewarned is forearmed, isn't it."
"Meh!"
As it was then, so it is now!