Kingdoms of Light

by Alan Dean Foster

  "If anyone can do that, a cat can." Pushing past him, a determined Cocoa followed Mamakitty down into the bushes that lined the canyon. Lilting fragrances from the flowers they disturbed rose up toward the road. Color might have vanished from the world, but there was still sweet fragrance aplenty.

  Oskar clapped Cezer on the back. "Come on, fuzzball. Let's see if you can keep your dainty costume spotless while slogging and sliding down through soggy vegetation and muddy hillsides."

  Tugging at first one lace-trimmed sleeve and then the other, the younger man sniffed haughtily. "With the greatest of ease, my rough-hewn friend. Watch, and marvel at natural grace at work."

  Samm and Taj followed behind them. "Those two have always argued, no matter what kind of body they happened to be occupying. Up in my cage, I was able to see and hear everything."

  "Lucky you, living in a penthouse." Unable to fit between two trees, Samm simply shoved one aside. Upturned roots bled mud and worms as it crashed to the ground. "As for myself, I find I quite like this new perspective."

  "We're all going to have get used to these new forms if we're going to fulfill Master Evyndd's last wish." Taj hopped nimbly over a small stream. "And stop staring at me like that! You're making the back of my neck burn."

  "Sorry." The giant contritely shifted his gaze.

  It was not an easy descent, but by relying on their natural instincts they crossed obstacles and surmounted barriers that would have given even very agile humans pause. By nightfall they had reached the base of the cataract. While the perpetual mist that rose from the water-worn rocks at the bottom of the falls did not bother Samm—much less Taj and Oskar, who reveled in it—the other members of their party were adamant about finding a drier place to spend the night. A small rocky overhang surrounded by dense vegetation provided the shelter they were looking for. Close at hand, falling water plunged earthward behind the diffuse arc of muted color that was the rainbow they had come to find.

  Somewhat to everyone's surprise but to Cocoa's especial delight, Oskar proceeded to make a fire. Their amazement surprised him. "If you'd watched as many of these being built as I have, you'd understand." While he tended to the comforting blaze, the rest of them set about gathering the driest plant matter they could find with which to fashion temporary bedding.

  "In the morning," Mamakitty announced, "we'll start working on how we're going to capture some of that colored light to bring back home with us. If empty water bags won't serve, we'll think of something else. Once we've gathered our fill of color, we can seek out other masters like our Evyndd. They will know best how to spread it through the Gowdlands and beat back this hex of the invaders."

  "I don't think the water bags will work. I still think we need a special kind of container. Something that will hold anything." For once, Cezer was not being sarcastic.

  "I wonder if we could make something?" Taj mused.

  "Too bad we're not bringing back sound." Cezer's serious mien had not lasted long. "Then we could just grab it and shove it down your throat. You being the master of song, and all."

  Having come so far, and participated in at least one fight (even if it was among friends), Taj was no longer so easily intimidated. "I'm composing a special song just for you, tyrant of baby mice."

  As Cezer's expression tightened, Oskar stepped in front of him. "Since you're so full of suggestions and energy, why don't you help me gather some more fuel for the fire?" He indicated the cheerful but modest blaze. "That is, unless you fancy waking up cold sometime before dawn."

  "No, that doesn't appeal to me." Joining his companion, Cezer added, "The Master knew what he was doing. Ordinary humans would have difficulty spending the night in a place like this, but not us. We're all used to sleeping on the ground."

  "Speak for yourself." As the other men disappeared into the bushes, Taj started looking for a comfortable tree in which to make his bed.

  The relentless rumble of the falls served to hasten everyone's sleep. Not that help was needed. The difficult descent down the mountainside to the river below had exhausted everyone. A short evening meal was followed by rapid dispersion to individual beds.

  Oskar was the last to allow himself to relax. By the time he had finished thinking, and planning, everyone else was already asleep around the fire. Samm had gone off by himself, to find a separate clearing where he would have enough room to make himself comfortable—and also so that he would not roll over in the middle of the night and crush one of his more fragile companions.

  With a sigh, Oskar rose and walked over to the berth he had fashioned for himself out of leaves, smashed twigs, and other forest floor detritus. It was not his soft, padded bed back home in the Master's house, but it was better than the bare, rocky ground. Nearby and not far below the site of their campsite, the river Shalouan foamed its way eastward, toward Zelevin and Sibrastkou and the other mountain communities that had so far largely escaped the most devastating effects of the Totumakk invasion. Eventually, he knew, the Horde would extend its hand here as well, to these peaceful hillside towns and river communities, to pillage and despoil. Before that happened he hoped he and his companions could furnish the means for forestalling any further abominations.

  Stepping into the center of his bed, he paced his ever-tightening circles before finally sitting down and curling into a sleeping position, his head resting on his hands, legs stretched out away from him. The resounding music of the cataract overwhelmed all but an occasional crack of burning wood from the fire, and lulled him into a deep and unforced sleep.

  When he awoke, it was still dark out. Not the dark induced by the Mundurucu hex, but true middle-of-the-night dark. A sound had disturbed him. As he rolled over onto all fours preparatory to rising, he saw Mamakitty standing protectively alongside Cocoa, with Taj and Cezer hovering nearby.

  Confronting them were a pair of tall, slender shapes clad in black capes and matching caps. Each held a crossbow trained on his friends. Reaching down and behind him, Oskar silently felt for his sword, which he had removed for sleeping. It was not where he had laid it, nor was his dagger in its sheath on his belt. Both, he quickly saw, lay in the heap of confiscated weapons piled beside the two caped figures.

  In front of them, twirling a small but nasty-looking mace like a conductor warming up with his baton before a concert, stood a slightly shorter but far more muscular individual. His long jaw and nose combined to create an extraordinary silhouette. But it was his eyes that drew Oskar. Even in the reduced light at the bottom of the gorge, they burned with a maniacal fury.

  As he rose, that gaze turned to confront him. "Ah, the last drowsy wayfarer awakes. Please to come forward and join your friends, Mister—?"

  "Oskar." Walking slowly over to stand next to his companions, he considered making a jump for his sword.

  His unspoken intention amused the leader of their captors. "Please to try it." The mace ceased rotating. "I can crack your skull three times before you reach your weapons. I would very much enjoy doing so, to hear your bones break and see your blood gush. But I am constrained by those whom I serve."

  "No need to ask whom that might be," a disconsolate Cezer muttered.

  "How did you find us?" an angry Mamakitty wanted to know.

  It was Ruut who replied, the cocked crossbow held easily in his exceptionally long, limber fingers. "Did you really think anything of note could escape the attention of the Khaxan Mundurucu? They are alert to even so insignificant a threat that such as you might pose. Quoll speaks the truth when he says he would like to break your bones. But we are commanded to bring you back with us to Kyll-Bar-Bennid. The Mundurucu wish to know what you intended to do, you who mouth the names of a dead wizard."

  "We're not doing anything." Taj took a step forward. "When we heard that our master had died, we felt free to leave his house. We travel together to seek gainful employment in Zelevin."

  "Really?" Ratha's lips hooked upward in a humorless smile. "That's all?"

  "That is all." Taj nodded
and smiled back.

  The crossbow bolt grazed his left side, slicing through the flesh and bringing forth a swift flow of blood. Clutching at his ribs, Taj looked down uncomprehendingly. Warm redness oozed out between his fingers.

  "You—you shot me," he mumbled in stunned disbelief.

  "No." Ratha was already reloading her weapon. "I almost shot you. That was just a tickle, to show you how we treat those who think us stupid. If I'd really shot you, you'd be lying on the ground now, with a metal shaft sticking out of your guts, squealing like a pig on the killing hook."

  "Why?" Mamakitty trembled with anger.

  "We want to move quickly. That means we don't have time to waste on foolish lies. Personally, I don't care what your real intentions were." Sharp teeth flashed briefly in Quoll's mouth. "It is not our business to find out. Only to bring you back." Red-gray eyes burned. "So long as one or two of you survives to answer the Mundurucu's questions, they will be content. I don't care which two." He jiggled the heavy, spiked end of the mace, bouncing it up and down against his open palm. "Come to think of it, five is an unwieldy number. It cries out to be reduced." He spoke without looking back at his companions. "Please to tell me what you think?"

  "I think six is even more unwieldy," hissed an unexpectedly sonorous voice.

  Samm did not burst from the woods so much as throw himself into the clearing. One massive foot landed in the fire, sending a whirlwind of orange-red sparks flying. The iron-tipped bolt that caught him in the right shoulder, he ignored. Swiping downward, he snatched the other crossbow away from Ruut. Fingers contracted tightly, and the sound of snapping wood and tortured metal rose above the roar of the falls.

  Oskar made a dive for his sword. As he did so, Quoll darted with astonishing speed to intercept him, the lethal business end of the mace rising high above his head. He let out a stiff, startled squeal when Cezer slammed into him from the side. Its trajectory altered, the mace struck only bare ground. Snatching up his blade, Oskar rolled quickly onto his feet, ready to thrust and hack with abandon.

  But the fight was already over. Capes flashing briefly in the glow from the fire, their extraordinary assailants had vanished into the undergrowth. Contorting his body with incredible abandon, their leader freed himself from Cezer's grasp and rushed after his companions, moving through the dense brush faster than even a rearmed Mamakitty and Cocoa could follow.

  By the time the two women returned, Oskar and Cezer had already extracted the crossbow bolt from Samm's shoulder and were applying a makeshift patch to Taj's side.

  "That was brave of you, to try and dissuade them with a lie." Cezer tugged the bandage tighter around Taj's injured flank. For once, the cat-man spoke without sarcasm.

  The smaller man shrugged, then winced. "I wish I had spent less time singing and more listening to Master Evyndd. Who knows? Perhaps I might have picked up a useful spell or two."

  "Foul creatures." Mamakitty put her sword aside and wiped sweat from her forehead. "So the Mundurucu are aware of us. That's not a good thing."

  "But they don't know our intentions." Finishing up the bandage, Cezer gave it a little pull to make sure it would hold. Taj winced at the contact, but did not cry out.

  "Small comfort." Oskar found himself gazing intently into the dark woods. "They know enough to want to stop us." He glanced back at the largest of his comrades. "Your arrival was timely, Samm. You probably saved us all."

  The giant tried to shrug, but his bandaged shoulder would not permit it. "Not timely enough." A cumbersome finger pointed. "Taj was almost killed."

  "But he wasn't," Cezer announced brightly. "Just got a scratch."

  "Scratch you," the songster muttered in pain.

  "We can't stay here." In the darkness, Mamakitty had begun gathering up her few belongings. "We have to go."

  "What—now?" Cezer eyed her uncertainly. "In the middle of the night? You really think they'll be back, and so soon?"

  She met his gaze. "If you had been given a task by this Mundurucu, would you return and confess to failure? I don't want to be shot at in my sleep, or surprised by whatever other skills these empowered predators may possess. Or did you think they were regular people?"

  "No," Cezer admitted. "They are transformed, like us. The smells of the caped ones I recognized. The other—his scent is new to me. As new as it is unpleasant."

  Mamakitty nodded knowingly. "I sniffed the same. We move now."

  While Cocoa and Oskar kept watch, they hastily loaded up their supplies—with Samm, as usual, hefting the bulk of them. When all was in readiness, Mamakitty led the way through the moonlight while Oskar and Samm guarded the party's rear. Several times Oskar thought he sensed movement in the sodden brush, but when he looked in the appropriate direction, he saw nothing. Nor did Samm, whose eyesight was sharper still. Unfortunately, the giant could not also make use of his exceptional sense of smell, or his unique ability to sense the heat given off by living things. At the bottom of the gorge, individual odors and temperatures were masked by the omnipresent mist generated by the falls.

  The air grew steadily damper as they forced their way through the thick vegetation and approached the base of the cataract. Trees and bushes gave way to expanses of bare, slick rock, and the revealed moon brightened their surroundings. Cocoa hissed with delight when their objective finally came into view from behind a quartet of blooming mistberry trees.

  "You were right, Mamakitty! It is permanent! I never would have thought you could see a rainbow at night."

  The older woman surveyed the band of color, subdued but unmistakable, that arched across the roaring river. With her humanized eyes, she could for the first time see all of it. In so doing, she could at last understand why humans always stopped to marvel at the sight.

  "At night it would more properly be called a moonbow, I should think, but they are one and the same thing. Don't credit me with overmuch knowledge. If you had spent more time in the company of Master Evyndd, you would know as much as I do."

  "He was always pushing me off his lap," Cocoa replied regretfully. Using caution, she approached the edge of the ledge onto which they had emerged.

  "Same with me." Cezer was equally entranced by the nocturnal spectacle, though he tried hard not to show it. "I was always too busy with more important matters. Chasing dust motes or hunting vermin, for example." He leered good-naturedly at the fine young woman beside him. "Bet he wouldn't push you off his lap now."

  "Cezer, you are incorrigible!" She edged sideways, beyond his reach.

  "Actually, I'm a tabby, but what's a whisker or two between friends?"

  "What do we do now?" Oskar found that he could approach the rainbow quite closely. It seemed to him that this was an unusual quality for a rainbow, which he had thought tended to retreat whenever a person drew near. This one, though, remained fixed in place as if cemented to the rocks, the muted colors growing brighter and more intense the closer he came.

  Unslinging her collapsed water bag, Mamakitty advanced to join him. "This is empty. Let's try making use of it and see what happens." Holding open the spout, she encouraged him with a nod.

  Nothing to lose, he thought as he reached out with both hands. Holding them tightly together in the manner of someone preparing to scoop water from a stream, he pushed them forward into the moonbow. Something might have tickled his fingers, but he couldn't be sure. As he drew back his cupped hands, the movement seemed to stretch the edge of the glowing arch ever so slightly, as if the diffuse, colored light possessed some slight viscosity of its own.

  His curving palms, however, were empty of light or color, and contained nothing to place in the waiting water bag.

  "Well, that didn't work," he murmured. "I thought I could feel something when my hands were inside, though."

  "Feel what?" Though still dubious of the enterprise, Cezer was intrigued.

  Oskar considered. "Hard to say. A kind of stickiness. It was barely perceptible. I don't think an ordinary human would have noticed it. We dogs have
a more sensitive touch."

  "Now there's a contradiction," Cezer sniffed. "A sensitive dog."

  "There's something there." Mamakitty studied the nearby band of coloration. "We just have to figure out how to draw out some of it."

  "Here, let me try." Hands extended, Cocoa pushed past both of them.

  "No more time for experimenting, I'm afraid." At Samm's unexpected warning, everyone turned to follow his gaze.

  Something was dropping out of the moonlit sky. A pair of massive winged shapes had wheeled around above the northern horizon and were now diving straight toward them. Identifying the specters from a picture he had seen in one of the Master's open books, Taj went cold in his belly.

  Morggunts. With riders. Riders he recognized.

  The two caped assassins sat just behind the long necks of the morggunts, feet pointed forward, bodies arched over the heads of their mounts. Long silvery teeth protruded above and below the lip line from narrow, crooked jaws. Membranous wings caught the rising air of the gorge, imparting profound maneuverability to the nocturnal fliers. Tripartite black tails whipped the clouds, and nostrils flared. Like all morggunts, they had no eyes.

  Clinging more tightly to the third monster was the quoll. No flier he, the airborne assault was less to his liking than that of his companions. Nevertheless, he clung gamely to his terrible steed, relying on its teeth and claws to do all necessary work.

  The morggunts were big enough to pose a real threat even to Samm, Oskar reflected as he fought to unsheathe his sword. Assuming a defensive pose, he found himself lamenting the absence of an archer among them. Not that arrows or bolts would have done much more than irritate a diving morggunt. What they really needed was a cannon.

  In lieu of artillery, Taj shouted at them from behind. "Here, this way! I think I've found something!"

  Ordinarily, Cezer would never have been so quick to follow the songster's lead. But with only seconds to go before the morggunts and their riders were in among them, Taj's disdainful companion was the first to follow his suggestion. Mamakitty and Cocoa followed close behind. Samm unleashed one swing of his colossal axe, forcing the morggunt carrying Quoll to back air. The eyeless demon struck with its snakelike neck, and teeth ripped the giant's cloak. A sound testimonial, the frantic Oskar reflected, for wearing loose-fitting attire in time of battle.