“Yes,” Urruah said. “Rraah’s going to arrange some kind of accident for him—have him ‘accidentally’ cut loose from the building site, late one night. Apparently he’s got a home waiting for him already.”
“Good,” Rhiow said. They turned the corner into Fifty-sixth, and down the street Rhiow saw Saash sitting outside the garage, a little to one side of the door, through which light poured out into the evening. She wasn’t even sidled, and her fur looked somewhat ruffled, as if she was too annoyed to put it in order. Cars were going in and out at the usual rate, and Saash was ignoring them, which was unusual; she was normally very traffic-shy, but right now she just sat there and glared.
Saash looked at Rhiow and Urruah as they came up to her, and as the saying goes, if looks were claws, their ears would have been in rags.“What kept you?” she said.
“Where’s the wonder child?” Urraah said.
“He’s inside,” Saash said, “playing hide-and-seek with the staff. Abha’h’s going out of his mind; he can’t understand why one minute he can see the new kitten and the next minute he can’t. Fortunately he thinks it’s funny, and he just assumes that Arhu is hiding under one car or another. However, he’s also decided that the new kitten should have flea powder put on him, and needless to say, that’s the moment Arhu chooses to disappear andnotcome visible again, which means I got the flea powder instead of him—”
Urruah began to laugh. Saash gave him a sour look and said,“Oh yes, it’s just hilarious. You should have heard the littlesswiasslaughing. I hope I get to hear him laugh atyoulike that.”
Rhiow suppressed her smile.“Who knows, you may get your chance. Did you get some sleep, finally?”
“Some. How about you?’
“I’ve slept better,” Rhiow said. “I had odd dreams…”
“After having been in the real Downside,” Saash said, relaxing enough to scratch, “that’s hardly a surprise. Just think of the last time…”
“I know.” Rhiow preferred not to. “But I’m not sure I noticed everything I should have there: I want to go talk to Ehef this evening.”
“About the gate?”
“Not entirely.” Rhiow twitched an ear back toward the depths of the garage. “The circumstances, our involvement with him… the situation isn’t strictly unusual, but it’s always good to get a second opinion.”
Saash flicked her tail in somewhat sardonic agreement.“Should be interesting. Come on,” she said, “let’s go see if Abha’h’s caught him yet.”
They waited for a break in the traffic, then slipped in through the door and made their way down into the garage and among the racks of parked cars. They passed Abad, who was looking under some of the cars racked up front in a resigned sort of way; he was holding a can of flea powder. Saash gave it a dirty look as they passed.
They found Arhu crouching under a car near the back of the garage, snickering to himself as he watched Abad’s feet going back and forth under the racks. He looked up as they came, with an expression that was much less alarmed than any Rhiow had seen on him yet, but the edge of hostility on his amusement was one that she didn’t care for much. “Well, hunt’s luck to you, Arhu,” she said, politelyenough, “though it looks like you’re doing all right in that department … if you consider this a hunt and not mere mouse-play.” She and the others hunkered down by him.
“Might as well be,” Arhu said after a moment. He watched Abad go off. “They’re real easy to fool,ehhif.”
“If you couldn’t sidle, you’d be singing another song,” said Urruah.
“But I can. I’m a wizard!”
Rhiow smiled a slight, tart smile.“Weare wizards,” she said. “Youare still only a probationer-wizard, on Ordeal.”
“But I can do stuff already!” Arhu said. “I went through the doors last night! And I’m sidling!” He got up and did it while they watched, strolling to and fro under the metal ramp-framework, and weaving in and out among the strings: there one moment and gone the next, and then briefly occluded in stripes of visibility and nonvisibility, as if strutting behind a set of invisible, vertical Venetian blinds. He looked ineffably smug, as only a new wizard can when he first feels the power sizzling under his skin.
“Not a bad start,” Saash said.
Urruah snorted.“You kidding? That’s one of the most basic wizardries there is. Even some cats whoaren’twizards can do it. Don’t flatter him, Saash. He’ll think he really might amount to something.” His slow smile began. “Then again, go ahead,lethim think that. He’ll just try some dumb stunt and get killed sooner. One less thing to worry about.”
Rhiow turned and clouted Urruah on the top of his head, with her claws out, though not hard enough to really addle him. He crouched down a very little, eyeing her, his ears a bit flat.When I want your assessment of his talents,she said silently,I’ll ask you for it, Mister Couldn’t-keep-a-dog-from-eating-his-mouse-earlier.Aloud she said,“You know as well as I do that the Oath requires the protection ofalllife, including life that annoys you. So just stuff your tail in it”
Urruah glared at her, turned his head away. Rhiow looked back at Arhu.“Tell me something to start with. Whatdoyou know about wizards? I don’t mean what Saash has been telling you, though it’s plain she hasn’t been able to get much through your thick little skull. I want to hear what you know from before we met you.”
He squirmed a little, scowling.“Wizards can do stuff.”
“What stuff? How?”
“Good stuff, I guess. I never saw any. But People talk about them.”
“And what do they say?” Urruah said.
Arhu glared back at him.“That they’re stuck up, that they think they’re important because they can do things.”
Urruah started slowly to stand up. Rhiow glanced at him; he settled back again.“And probably,” Rhiow said just a touch wearily to Arhu, “you’ve heard People say that wizards are using their power somehow to helpehhifcontrol People. Or that they’re just trying to make all the other People around be their servants somehow. And somebody has to have told you that it’s not real wizardry at all, just some kind of trick used to get power or advantage, some kind ofhauisshor power game.”
Arhu looked at her.“Yeah,” he said. “All that.”
“Well.” Rhiow sat down. “ ‘Just tricks’; do you think that? After you went through the doors?”
She watched him struggle a little, inwardly, before speaking. He desperately did not want to admit that he didn’t understand something, or (on the other side) admit to feeling more than cool and blase about anything … especially not in front of Urruah. Yet at the same time, helikedthe feel of what he’d done the night before: Rhiow recognized the reaction immediately … knowing it very well herself. And she knew that the thought that there might bemoreof that was tantalizing him. It was the Queen’s greatest recruitment tool, the one that was the most effective, and the most unfair, for any living being—but especially for cats: curiosity.You are unscrupulous,she said privately to the Powers That Be.But then You can’t afford to be otherwise…
“That happened,” Arhu said finally. He looked, not at Rhiow, but at Urruah, as if for confirmation: Urruah simply closed his eyes … assent, though low-key. “I felt it. It was real.”
“Urruah’s right, you know,” Rhiow said. “Even nonwizardly cats can sometimes walk through things … though usually only in moments of crisis: if you’re not a wizard, the act can’t be performed at will.You’llbe able to, though … if you live through what follows.”
“Whatever it is, I can take it,” Arhu said fiercely. “I’m a survivor.”
Saash shook herself all over, then sat down and scratched.“That’s nice,” she said, very soft-voiced. “We get a lot of ‘survivors’ in wizardry. Mostly they die.”