To Visit the Queen (36 page)

"She hates me," Arhu said.

Urruah reappeared, sat down beside them, and started to wash as well. "But she has no reason to," Rhiow said.

"
She
seems to think she does."

Rhiow blinked at that. "How do you know?"

"I See it."

Urruah glanced up briefly at that. "This is new," he said.

"I'm Seeing a lot of things since I went flying with Odin," Arhu said. "It's as if discovering a new way to See has made some kind of difference. It's happening more often, for one thing."

"So what did you See about her?"

"It's nothing specific. In fact, once I tried to See, on purpose, and— " He shrugged his tail. "Just nothing. Like she was blocking me somehow."

"How would she do that?" Urruah said, mystified. "I wouldn't have thought there was any way to block vision."

"I wonder if she'd discuss it," Rhiow said.

"Oh, try that by all means," Urruah said. "But bring a new pair of ears."

Rhiow sighed. It would have to wait. Auhlae jumped back up onto the platform, followed by Huff. "Are we ready?" Huff said.

"Absolutely," said Rhiow, and got up to meet him by the timeslide. "I take it our first priority is the pastlings— sweeping them up, if we can, and confining them all safe in one place."

"That's Fhrio's plan," said Huff. "Where is he?"

"Here, Huff," said Fhrio, and came up from the end of the platform to join them.

"Arhu? Urruah? Let's go," said Huff.

They paced over and leaped into the timeslide-circle, taking their positions. Siffha'h put herself down on the power point and glanced up at Fhrio.

He hooked a claw into the spell-tracery that would handle the "sweep" routine. "Half a breath," he said. And then, "It's ready. Standing by..."

"Now," said Siffha'h, and reared up, and put her forepaws down hard.

Rhiow blinked... or thought she had. Then she realized it was the spell doing it for her. There was no physical sensation to this transit any more than there usually was from crossing through a gate, but the view flickered and flickered again, showing brief vistas of fluorescent-lit rooms, shocked
ehhif
faces, and assorted machinery scattered about. Every now and then, the spell would pause a little longer as it tried to determine whether some particularly ancient
ehhif
fit the criteria for which it had been instructed to search; then it would move on, almost hurriedly, as if to make up for lost time.
Blink, blink, blink,
the vistas of people in white came and went—— And suddenly, there was someone with them in the circle. He was a sorry-looking
ehhif
indeed, with longish black hair and a hospital gown, and he was looking at them all with dopey astonishment while he rubbed his wrists, which were suddenly no longer restrained. He opened his mouth, possibly to shout for help at the sight of seven cats in a circle of light, but Fhrio slipped one paw under one of the control lines of the spell, and the
ehhif
froze just that way, staring, with his mouth open.

"It's going to start getting crowded in here," Rhiow said, unable to resist being at least a little amused.
Blink, blink, blink, blink
went the spell, and she had to start keeping her eyes closed; the effect was rather disturbing, for it was starting to go faster and faster.
How many hospitals does this city have, anyway?
Rhiow thought.

It had quite a few, and they got to visit about eight more of them before yet another
ehhif
, a tall, handsome woman in a borrowed nightshirt, found herself standing in the circle. Rhiow could tell that the nightgown was borrowed because no one from the last century was really that likely to own a nightshirt featuring a picture of a famous gorilla climbing up the Empire State Building. The woman took one look at the cats in the circle and opened her mouth to scream.

She too froze, and outside the timeslide, the
blink, blink, blink
started again. The center of the circle began filling with
ehhif
, all still as statuary by some eccentric artist, some dressed, some not very, all looking like people who have been through a great deal in a short time.

And on and on the blinking went, until Rhiow had to squeeze her eyes shut again, and even when they were shut, she could still sense the timeslide flickering from place to place, until the mere thought of it made her queasy. Then there came a surprised shout, and suddenly Artie was standing in the circle with them, looking in astonishment at the other
ehhif
who were already there.

"No," Huff said quickly, "not
him!"

Artie vanished again, and the flickering went on. Rhiow was slightly reassured by this proof of the spell's ability to sort for the right people. But meantime she closed her eyes again and just concentrated on standing where she was and not falling over.

After a few moments, someone poked her. She opened her eyes again, swallowing, and trying to command her stomach not to do anything rash. Auhlae patted her again with the paw and said, "Are you all right?"

"If we're done with the hospital sweep," Rhiow said, "then yes."

"Is that all of them?" Arhu said.

Huff looked at Fhrio, and Fhrio waved his tail in acknowledgment. "That's all the spell could find," Fhrio said. "It's more than we had ten minutes ago, anyway."

Rhiow gulped. "Fhrio, a beautiful job. Can we leave them here safely awhile? We still have one more thing to try to do. We've got to get at the contaminated timeline and get that assassination date."

"No problem," Fhrio said. He reached into the glowing hedge of the timeslide and hooked out another line of light; the whole timeslide slipped sideways, with the people in it, but leading the
ehhif
off by themselves at one side of the platform. "I've thrown a nonpermeable shield around them. No one will be able to see them, hear them, or get at them."

"Then let's go. One more time!"

And once more the pressure built and built, and Rhiow closed her eyes against it, sure that it was going to push them straight back in through their sockets. She waited for the release of pressure that would let them all know that the slide had been successful, but it didn't come. It just built, and built, and got worse and worse—

—
Can't,
said Siffha'h. On the other side of the circle was a terrible feeling of strain, counterbalanced with the sense of some massive force planted in their way, not to be moved.

Don't bother,
said someone's voice, Huff's voice, from inside the spell.
Let it go, we'll try again later!

I— will not— let It—
Siffha'h gasped.
There may not be a chance later. We're wizards— what else are we for?

Not for killing ourselves!
Rhiow cried.
Siffha'h, let it go!

Silence, and that unbearable strain, getting worse every moment.
It won't give,
Siffha'h said between straining breaths, almost in a grunt.
It won't give. It won't—

Let it go! Siffha'h, let it go!
That was Fhrio now.
Don't try —

Yes— it
will— And silence for a moment... and then the cry.

Everything fell apart. Once again Rhiow caught that odd and terrible sound, like a roar of some frustrated beast at the very edge of things: then it was gone.

Everything was black. Rhiow lay in the blackness, content to let it be that way.
I'm so tired... just let me rest a little.

She slowly became aware that Huff was standing over her. "Rhiow, are you all right? Rhiow!"

She tried to struggle to her feet, almost made it, fell down again.

"No, lie still," Huff said, and started to wash her ear.

It was such a sweet gesture, and so completely useless at the moment, that Rhiow could have moaned out loud. But she held her peace. Just for a flash the thought went through her mind:
How lucky Auhlae is. How wonderful it would be to have a tom like this to be with... not just in friendship, but
that
way as well....
But she put it aside. "That way" was no longer a possibility for her: and Huff was spoken for.

Rhiow was conscious of wanting to lie there and let the kindly washing continue, but at the same time it made her profoundly uncomfortable, and she could think of no way to get it to stop but to produce evidence that she was all right: so she pushed herself to her feet, no matter how wobbly she felt, and bumped Huff in the shoulder with her head in a friendly way. "Come on, cousin, it's not that bad," she said. "I'll do well enough. What about the others?"

The others were by and large in no worse shape, though Siffha'h could not get up yet no matter what she did, and had to be content to lie there on the concrete while the others sat around her. "Well," Huff said, "there's no question now that eighteen seventy-four is the right year. The Lone One is actively blocking that year, and not even bothering to hide what It's doing anymore."

"Which suggests that It's getting more certain that there's nothing we can do to keep the two universes from achieving congruency," Auhlae said.

Siffha'h was trying to sit up again: Auhlae pushed her down, forcefully, with one paw. "We have to try again," Siffha'h said weakly.

"You will try nothing whatever," Auhlae said sternly. "You are going to your den and you are going to lie there and sleep until you've recovered yourself."

"But we can't just leave it like this," Siffha'h pleaded. "We can't
wait.
The Lone One is going to block the access even more thoroughly if we don't try again right away. We won't
ever
be able to get through. And then it will kill the Queen, and everything... everything will die...." She had to put her head down on the concrete again: she couldn't hold it up any longer.

"We
have
to wait," Fhrio said to her. "We don't have any chance of getting through at all with you in your present state. You've got to rest. There's a chance...." He looked over at Urruah, unwillingly. "If you and Urruah tried it together, tomorrow morning: powering the slide..."

"That's going to be our best chance," Huff said, looking over at Urruah to see if he was willing: Urruah waved his tail yes. "It's not like we need to be idle in the meantime. Some of these
ehhif
don't come from the blocked year: we can concentrate on getting as many of them back to their proper times as we can. But as for eighteen seventy-four, we'll have to try again tomorrow." He looked over at Rhiow. "Do you concur?"

"It seems the best plan," Rhiow said. "We'll head back to our home ground and make sure things are secure there... then be back in the morning."

And there was nothing much more they could do about it than that. Home Rhiow and her team went, not in the best of moods, despite the recovery of the
ehhif
pastlings. Rhiow was feeling emotionally and physically bruised, and still guilty and upset over what she had said to Fhrio, especially in view of how successful his strategy to pick up the time-stranded
ehhif
had proven. Urruah was silent as only a tom can be who secretly feels he's been upstaged, and is determined not to acknowledge it since the realization would be beneath him. Arhu looked abstracted and grim, his thoughts turned inward, possibly to thoughts of what he had Seen or might yet See, but Rhiow was more willing to bet that his attention was bent mostly on Siffha'h at the moment. And she seriously doubted that tomorrow would turn out any better.

When they parted company and she finally got home, Iaehh was nowhere to be found, though he had filled Rhiow's bowls for her again. It was unusual for him to be out late at night by himself.
Though perhaps he's not by himself,
Rhiow thought. And why would that be so terrible a thing? It's not like he doesn't need the company of other
ehhif. Even, perhaps, one to be close to the way he was close to Hhuha.

Yet at the same time she shied away from the idea. They had been so
very
close. There was no question of Hhuha ever being replaced in Iaehh's affections. Rhiow thought he would always love her, even though she was gone. Though why should that mean that he should have no new mate to draw close to?
It's not as if he had been spayed or anything,
she thought: and for the first time, Rhiow actually found herself feeling slightly bitter about it.
It's not as if there was an option that he might have had, which is now forever closed to him.

She sat in the dark kitchen and stared at the food bowl and the water bowl.
Listen to me,
Rhiow thought.
My blood sugar must be in a terrible state.
Dutifully she went over to the food bowl and tried to eat, but she had no appetite, and the food tasted like mud.

She sighed and walked into the bedroom, and jumped on the bed; curled up on the pillow and got as comfortable as she could when there was no one else in the bed to snuggle up to. Sleep came quickly, but not quickly enough for Rhiow to escape the images of Siffha'h's fear and Arhu's pain, Fhrio's anger, Urruah's discomfort: and for the first time in a long while, she had no taste for the Meditations, but simply put her head down and waited for oblivion to descend, however briefly.