“Sorry, sorry!” Helen said as everyone, particularly Hwaith, stared at her. “That’s my room – “ She pulled her phone out of her bathrobe pocket, and the singing stopped. “Hello? Yes, good morning! No, not at all. – Well, this wouldn’t be the best moment. An hour from now would be better.” She glanced over at Rhiow: Rhiow waved her tail in assent. “…Yes, I needed to sleep in this morning a little, I don’t normally do such late nights! Not at parties, anyway.” That wicked smile popped out again, as if she was imagining the effect of the last line on whoever was on the other end of the phone. “…Really? That’s a lovely thought. Well, assuming they’re willing to back it up with some nice numbers in the contract. …Yes, that would be fine. …How about in the lobby? Perfect. In an hour, then. Thanks so much! Goodbye…”
Helen hung up.“I’m sorry,” Hwaith said, staring at the phone, “but that’s… unusual.”
“There are moments in our time when we wish it was unusual,” Rhiow said. “Enjoy the relative telephonic peace and quiet of your era while it lasts.”
“Paramount and MGM have been after Freddie already this morning,” Helen said. “I have two meetings before lunch… after which I’ll have some leisure to pump him, so very casually, for more information about Dagenham.”
“That sounds fine to me,” Rhiow said. “But the other thing that’s bothering me now is that Arhu found a charm working in that house this morning when we missed it last night. Assuming we did miss it.”
“I would have smelled anything like that a mile away,” Siffha’h said, and now it was her turn to bristle. “It’s something new.”
“Sif, please,” Rhiow said. “It’s just that its presence changes the context a little. An ehhif might stumble onto the mechanics of a charm by itself. But it also might have been given such a thing to use by a wizard.”
Everyone stared, particularly Aufwi.“What kind of wizard would–”
“An overshadowed one,” Arhu said with a growl.
Rhiow waved her tail in agreement.“We might be about to find ourselves dealing with something of the sort,” she said. “Which is why I want to make sure we’re careful about covering our own tracks when we go back there: leaving no traces of wizardry that we can’t avoid. And let’s take the idea a little further. That weird spot you found in the library…” She glanced at Hwaith and Urruah. “Cousins, could what we were seeing there not have been just some old remnant of a gate’s casual presence? Could it have been a portal that was purposely emplaced there by a wizard with minimal gate management experience, then later purposely removed again — and then someone attempted to cover up that it had ever been there at all?”
“Hence the weird way the residue looked,” Urruah said. His tail was lashing. “Could be. I wasn’t thinking that way at the time–” His tail lashed harder. “And you know what? I’m an idiot. I want another look at that right now –”
“Ruah –”
“Saash would have seen that right away –”
Rhiow reached up and cuffed him upside the nearest ear, though with the claws in.“Maybe she would, but she’s not here to ask. You are!” she said. “And I’m betting you’d have thought of that yourself pretty soon. So stop chastising yourself! And we’ll all go have a look… but not right this second.” She waited a few moments for Urruah to settle down again.
“So this list of dates,” Hwaith said. “If this is somebody’s appointment calendar we’re looking at – “
“I suspect it is,” Helen said, “though thinking about the kind of appointments that may be involved frankly gives me the creeps.” She pulled her phone out, put it on silent, and pocketed it again. “We need to decipher the dates and see what they point to. The Dark Lady seemed to be hinting at something that was supposed to happen soon, and my money says the dates on those pages are going to be germane.”
“’Ruah will work on it,” Rhiow said. “He’s best at working with ehhif symbology.”
“The Whisperer will be able to guide you in regards to how the Mayan and Azteca calendars were structured,” Helen said. “But just so you know: one way they organized dates was to group them in thirteen-day segments called trecena, and Tepeyollotl ruled one of those in particular. It was mazatl, the time of hunting one’s prey. If you see any references to that — ”
“Noted,” Urruah said. “I’ll see what I find.”
“You know a lot about this,” Siffha’h said.
Helen smiled.“I came late to my heritage,” she said, “but I made up for lost time when I got there. Meanwhile…” She stretched. “I’d better go get my meetings dealt with, and see what I can find out about Mr. Dagenham along the way. Where shall we meet later?”
“Back here makes most sense,” Rhiow said.
Off to one side a door opened, and a moment later Sheba and the Silent Man came through it. Sheba waved her tail in greeting at everyone and headed for the food dishes, but the Silent Man paused in the doorway, looking around at everybody a little oddly.
Did I hear music out here? Someone singing? It wasn’t the radio, either.
“I’m sorry,” Rhiow said, “yes, you did. That was Helen’s phone.”
Her phone. He looked at Helen. You have a telephone that you carry around?
She smiled and held it out to him. The Silent Man took it, turned it over in his hands, shook his head.“It’s fairly common where we come from,” she said.
And they can all play music like that?
“They can do all kinds of sounds,” Helen said.
The Silent Man raised his eyebrows. Amazing, he said, handing Helen back the phone. Merman just premiered in that show on Broadway. I thought it might have some staying power—
“You’d be right,” Urruah said. “That song pretty much became the national anthem of Hollywood.”
The Silent Man nodded, then turned toward Rhiow and gave her a strange look. I had some weird dreams last night, he said, looking from her to Hwaith.
“I can understand that you might have,” Rhiow said. “How are you feeling?”
He looked thoughtful. Better than usual. You had something to do with that, did you?
“I did,” Rhiow said. “I’m sorry to have interfered.”
The Silent Man stretched experimentally, then grinned– a most unusual expression to see on him, for there was no emotion associated with it besides pure pleasure. Blackie, he said, you interfere as much as you want.
Rhiow bowed her head to him, while wondering when and how she would be able to tell him what she’d found and what she had not been able to do. Meanwhile, he said, what’s our order of business for today?
‘Our,’ Urruah said silently to Rhiow. I like this ehhif more and more. Though I also keep getting more scared for him…
“I’ll fill you in, cousin,” Hwaith said.
“But in short, we’ll be going back to Dagenham’s this evening,” Urruah said. “There’s dirty work going on up there, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
The Silent Man nodded. I have some business to take care of today. In the meantime, my house is your house… and when you’re ready to move, let me know how I can help.
He headed back toward the kitchen, probably to start the first of the endless pots of coffee, and Hwaith went with him.“Cousins, I’m away,” Helen said. “Call me if you need me. I’ll be back after lunch with whatever news I can find.”
“Dai,” the People in the room said to her. Helen vanished.
“Let’s finish eating and be about our business,” Rhiow said. “Aufwi, I was going to ask you about the gate – “
“It’s acting up again,” he said, sounding almost resigned. “It jumped a quarter mile from its last location… and maybe with reason. Did you feel the little earthquake this morning?”
Rhiow shivered.“No. And maybe that troubles me more than feeling it would have. The thought that I might actually get used to such a thing — !” She licked her nose. “No matter – you and Hwaith and I should go look at it, since ‘Ruah is going to be busy with the data Arhu brought back.”