The Big Meow

“The next time I see you scratching, I’ll remind you,” Rhiow said, “and we’ll see what you do.” She paused where the slope before them started to get steeper, and the grass longer. “Where’ve those two gotten to now?”

We found the water, Arhu said. There’s a waterfall up higher. But that’s not important. We found a cave, up the hillside about forty leaps, in between two big stones. And somebody’s been doing wizardry in here!

“Oh really,” Rhiow said. “How recently?”

A week or so ago, Siffha’h said. Maybe a little longer, but not much.

“What kind of wizardry?” Rhiow said.

“Uh oh,” Urruah said then, looking behind them.

Someone had come out of the low round hut, and was standing there looking around: a queen-ehhif in dark pants and a short-sleeved blue shirt. “Doesn’t matter,” Rhiow said, looking uphill again as the ehhif walked off around the hut, “we’re sidled. Sif?”

Rhiow heard her hesitating. Not sure I like the look of this, Siffha’h said.

“Why? What’s the matter?”

I can feel what’s left of the spell in the stone, Siffha’h said. It’s full of geological constants– local ones, with really fine adjustments on them. And there were three or four power conduits leading out of the spell and sunk into the rock underneath the mountain.

“A diagnostic?” Rhiow said.

I don’t think so, Siffha’h said, and she was beginning to sound angry. This doesn’t look like someone trying to find out what the earth’s been doing. This looks like someone trying to make it do something–

Rhiow went chilly inside. It wasn’t as if wizards never made mistakes, or did stupid things: but messing around with the earth’s structure in a place where it was already unstable enough struck her as foolhardy. “That’s really odd,” Rhiow said. “Let’s see what you’ve got. ‘Ruah–” She started up the hill.

“Rhi,” Urruah said from behind her, “while we’re on the subject of ‘odd’, you might want to have a look–”

Rhiow turned around. The she-ehhif who’d come out of the hut was heading straight toward them through the grass.

Rhiow glanced over her shoulder to see what the ehhif might be looking at instead of her — but there was nothing there but more of the long grass. Rhiow looked back at the queen-ehhif, ready to run or vanish if necessary, but it was hard to imagine why it would be necessary. The ehhif didn’t look particularly dangerous: she was very small as humans went, with long dark hair tied back, a low belt hanging down over her trousers to one side–

And, hanging holstered from that belt, a gun. Rhiow opened her mouth, prepared to say a single word in the Speech, the trigger for the run-and-hide spell that lay, as usual, ready at the back of her brain. As she did, the ehhif stopped and gazed up the hill, as if seeing something there that she hadn’t expected. Then she looked down at Rhiow.

“Excuse me,” the ehhif said, “but are you People looking for something, or are you lost?” And she said it in the Speech.

Rhiow and Urruah stared at each other. Then Rhiow put her whiskers forward. “Lost!” she said. “Hardly! But looking for something, yes: though until a few moments ago, we weren’t expecting to find another wizard here. Is that your spell up there?”

“Yes,” the ehhif said. “Sorry if it looks alarming at first glance: it’s specialized stuff. Anyway, I’m on errantry: haku, cousins!” She sat down in the grass. “In fact, I suspect you’re why I was sent here. I’m called Helen: Helen Walks Softly.”

Urruah sat down, his whiskers forward too. “You could have fooled me,” he said.

“Wouldn’t have been polite to sneak up on you,” Helen said. “You might’ve gotten the wrong idea. May I ask names?”

“My colleague here is Urruah,” Rhiow said. “The youngsters up the hill are Arhu and Siffha’h. : I’m Rhiow– I lead the New York worldgating teams.”

Helen blinked at that. “Worldgating?” she said. “Were you sent here by assignment?”

“We were in L.A. on a consult,” Rhiow said, “but when was a wizard’s casual business ever completely casual? The Powers find ways not to waste our efforts.”

Helen gave Rhiow a wry look. “I hear you there, sister,” she said. “I was going to come by to check the parking lot before I turned in. There’s been a wave of burglaries the past couple of weeks: people breaking into parked cars, or trying to vandalize the interpretive center or the ap.” She nodded back toward the hut. “Nothing going on today, fortunately. But then the Earth moved. What a relief! I checked the center and the ap to make sure they were all right in the aftermath…and then I smelled power passing through. Thought I’d better take a look.”

What are you talking to down there? Arhu’s thought came, sounding a little spooked.

She’s a wizard, Rhiow said silently. Get yourselves down here and greet her properly. “Probably you felt Siffha’h,” she said. “She’s been doing powersource work with us lately, and she’s still running at post-Ordeal levels. So is Arhu, for that matter…so I suppose it could have been either of them.”