The Big Meow

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.