On Her Majesty's Wizardly Service fw-2

by Diane Duane

  Rhiow shook her head. “In some ways, he’s become a gate himself,” she said. “Otherwise … I don’t understand it. Ask Her. Meanwhile—what about that timeslide?”

  It took several more hours to get it working to both Urruah’s and Fhrio’s liking. Rhiow tried to catch a nap while this was going on, but her anxiety kept waking her up, so that when Urruah finally came to rouse her, she was awake anyway.

  “Is the slide ready?” Rhiow said, stretching fore and aft.

  “As far as I can tell. For all Fhrio’s rotten temper,” he added very softly, “he’s a good gating tech, and there’s nothing wrong with his understanding of timeslide spells. He rearranged some subroutines I’d thought looked pretty good, and I have to admit that now they look better.”

  “Annoyed?” Rhiow said.

  “Me? Nothing wrong with me that a pizza won’t cure,” Urruah said. ” … And the end of this job. We can jump again in fifteen or twenty minutes. Fhrio is doing the last fine-tuning: Siffha’h says she’s ready to go again, and Auhlae concurs.”

  “Good.” She glanced around. “Where are they?”

  “They’ve gone off to relieve themselves first. Huff went off too, just for a snack of something.”

  “Right.”

  They went over together to look at the timeslide. Rhiow walked around it thoughtfully, trying to see what Fhrio had done. He was sitting, gazing at the whole structure with his eyes half-shut, a little unfocused: a technique Rhiow used herself, sometimes, to see the one bit of a spell or a routine that was out of place.

  She stopped at one point and looked to see where a whole group of subroutines had been added, a thick tangle of interwoven branchings in the “hedge”. There were numerous calls on spatial locations which were not far from this one, as far as Rhiow could tell, and all of which were in this time. “What are these?” Rhiow said curiously.

  Fhrio glanced up. “I found myself wondering,” he said, “whether we were sending a lion to kill a mouse … I mean, by looking for our pastlings one at a time by tracing specific accesses one at a time. I thought, since the ehhif here have support systems that are supposed to be picking up their lost and sick people from the City area, at least … why don’t we let it work for us? So this set of routines visits every ehhif-hospital in the Greater London area, and scans it for a few seconds for anyone in that facility who wasn’t born within the last hundred years. If it finds anyone like that, it picks them up and brings them along with us, in stasis. Then we get back here and analyze their temporal tendencies in situ, with the gate to help, if we can get the online gate logs to cooperate.”

  Rhiow looked the construction over. It was elegant, compact, and looked like it ought to work … but many constructs of this kind looked like they should, and the only way you could find out was by testing them live. “Fhrio,” she said, “It is handsome-looking, and beautifully made. Let’s run it and see what it does.” She paced around to the other side of the timeslide, checked her name in passing, then leapt into the circle and looked thoughtfully at the other sets of coordinates stacked up in the routines to be examined: mostly derived from microtransits of the malfunctioning gate. “If Siffha’h can push us through to all of these,” Rhiow said, “we’re going to be in great shape.”

  “I hoped you’d think so,” Fhrio said. And he looked over at Urruah, and bared his teeth in amusement. “Pity you weren’t smart enough to manage something like this, ‘oh expert one’. Even your own team leader admits it.”

  Urruah blinked and opened his mouth.

  “Urruah,” Rhiow said softly, “would you excuse us?”

  His eyes went wide. “Uh, sure,” he said.

  He went away with great speed, Rhiow didn’t know where: nor did she care at the moment. “All right, Fhrio,” Rhiow said. “I’m tired of hearing it in the background, or unsaid. Get on with it and say what you have to say.”

  He stared at her, his ears back. “I don’t like him around here,” Fhrio said after a moment. “Or the other one. There are too many toms around here as it is. Huff and I have about worked things out. We’re all right together, if not precisely in-pride. But those two! Him, with his big balls hanging out, leering at Auhlae. And him, with his little balls hanging out, just a furry little bundle of drool and hope and hormones, leering at Siffha’h. They both give me the pip … and the sooner they’re out of here the better I’ll like it.”

  “Well,” Rhiow said, and nearly bit her tongue, she could think of so many things to say, and so few of them appropriate. “Thank you for letting me know. In Urruah’s case, he’s always been one for appreciating the queens, though in Auhlae’s case, he knows she’s mated and happily so, and you’re completely mistaken about his intentions toward her. If you don’t believe another wizard telling you so, then you’ll have to go have it out with him … after I finish with you. For the second time, that is, after I extract from your hide the price of calling the competence of one of my teammates into question, and for suggesting that I might agree with you in your assessment. And as for Arhu, whatever business he has with Siffha’h is theirs to determine, not yours or mine: she’s her own queen now, no matter what your opinions on the matter may be. What you think of that stance is your business … but if you meddle with a young wizard under my protection, I will shred your hide myself, and see if you have the nerve to do anything about it. So beware how you conduct yourself.”

  Fhrio stared at her as if she had suddenly appeared out of the air from another planet. “Meanwhile,” Rhiow said, “I intend to do my job to the best of my ability, no matter how pointlessly annoying I find you. You seem to be doing your job … marginally. But if you can’t manage your reactions to my team a little more completely, I’ll require Huff to remove you from this intervention … which is within my rights as leader of a senior gating team sent on consultation. Then we’ll bring in as a replacement someone less talented, perhaps, but a little more committed to not damaging the other wizards whom the Powers have sent to save this situation … and, entirely incidentally, you. Now take yourself away until Huff comes back, and be glad I’ve left your ears where Iau put them, instead of so far down your throat they’ll make bumps in your tail.”

  He stared at her without a word, and after a long moment he turned away.

  Rhiow sat down and licked her nose four times in a row, feeling hot under her fur: furious with herself, furious with Fhrio, and just generally very upset. She was bristling, and her claws itched, and she was mortified. I hate being this way, she thought. I hate having to be this way. I hate having to pull rank. Oh, Iau, did I do wrong?

  The Queen was silent on this subject, as on so many others. Rhiow breathed out and tried to get control of herself again. She was so busy concentrating on this that she didn’t notice when Siffha’h came in and jumped into the circle beside her.

  “I said, are you all right?” Siffha’h said.

  “Oh. I will be shortly,” Rhiow said. “Thanks for checking.” Siffha’h had straightened up and was now staring across the platform. Rhiow glanced that way to see what was there. It was Arhu. He was staring back. For a long few moments it held: then, to Rhiow’s surprise, it was Arhu who lowered his eyes first and looked away.

  Rhiow jumped out of the circle and meandered over to where Arhu was, and sat down by him, and started composure-washing with a vengeance. Under cover of this, she said very quietly to Arhu, a little exasperated, “What is it with you two?”

  “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 seeing a new way to See has made some kind of difference. It’s happening more often, for on
e 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 leapt 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 which 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 dopy astonishment while he rubbed the 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, since 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 a while? 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 leaving 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 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 th
e 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 any more …”

  “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,” she 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 below 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.