Jonas and Smoke Cat Watching's wedding is carried out with the minimum possible fuss and commotion attendant upon the marriage of a shaman. In other words, virtually everyone who hears any mention of the event feels that they absolutely must come, and whether or not they are invited is trivial.
Smoke Cat receives more bride gifts than she knows what to do with, even after declining those she felt she could escape with any grace at all and passing on to her clan in general those that might be construed as of communal benefit. She sorts the rest into two categories: those she wants to keep or must keep lest the lack be noticed, and those she feels may be safely sold at the great bazaar to the south. For, after a few weeks on the plains, the couple still plan to visit the Arcane Academy.
Summer Wind has indeed arranged for it, and now, with the instant door magic, the trio can come and go in no time at all. Blue Turtle Dreaming, however, is the only other person to whom the existence and secrets of operation of the portal are disclosed. Also, there is such a threshold available in Jonas's village on the Yimle coast, since being an inventor does have some perks, and he has told Smoke Cat how much his family wants to meet her. They will embrace her immediately, his parents, six older siblings, numerous cousins...
Just before the wedding, Jonas is gazing out at the amassed horses of the guests. Not turning to look across the low fence that for now separates him from his bride, he says to Smoke Cat, "You know, we'll have to do all this over again, only differently. My mother has her heart set on it."
"More gifts?" the shaman asks with dread.
Her groom struggles not to laugh at Smoke’s consternation. "Oh yes. And a traditional Murrechi dress. I'll take you shopping when we get to the Jailuha city marketplace."
"ANOTHER new dress? What's wrong with this one?" she demands.
"It wouldn't go very well with the pearl and seashell crown, and the white veil. Those have been passed down from my mother's mother's mother, and so on." Now Jonas tentatively glances at her. Smoke Cat Watching is so impassive that even her groom has no idea what she's thinking. "You look lovely in white," he says reminiscently after several moments.
"Fond memories of those revealing clothes that the genie gem automatically outfitted me in?" she comments dryly.
"Yes, extremely!" and he grins.
"That's fine, Jonas, but I am notcalling you Master!" And, with that, he does laugh.
After Mourning Cloak both deigns to be found and agrees to meet, Pretty Girl prepares for this occasion by calling in all the favors owed to her by the sorcerous community. By the time she lays eyes on Mourning Cloak, she is so enmeshed in defensive spells and protective magic, she nearly glows in the dark.
"If all you can tell me is that the wand is at the Arcane Academy," he forestalls her, "you waste my time. Of course it's there. Why else bring it to this barbaric land?"
She smiles smugly, "I can further inform you of the wand's exact location and the security measures guarding it... If you make it worth my time."
"How much?" and the sorcerer begins to count out gold coins with scorn.
"Mere money isn't going to be enough. I want to be Queen of the World," she states reasonably.
"How sad for you." Mourning Cloak sneers slightly in her direction.
Pretty Girl's face falls into a petulant, but still fetching, moue. "Rumor told me that you were extremely interested in power!"
"Power, yes, but much of the world does not seem to be worth having. Nor, when I have conquered all that I desire, do I want you, courtesan, as my wife!" the evil magician snaps.
"You wouldn't be my first choice, either," she says, with just a hint less charm than normal, "but I hear that you have a son who is both biddable and unwed. He will do nicely."
"Ah, if that is all… Agreed!" Mourning Cloak’s word is worthless, but since she is clearly an idiot, it’s probable that the doxy doesn’t realize that.
Nevertheless, he continues to make promises. "Before my son can become of value to you, however, I require my wand... and another pair of items, of which you may have heard."
The girls? Your daughters?" Pretty Girl yawns cutely. "Let them look out for themselves."
His opinion of the courtesan improves marginally. ‘Surprisingly astute for a moron,’ the sorcerer thinks. "I must have them to breed an elite cadre strong in magic."
"That's your plan?" Pretty Girl allows a faint shadow of doubt to creep into her luscious voice. "Won't it take a very long time?"
"I," says Morning Cloak, "shall, of course, live forever. Time is immaterial."
Clearly the man is delusional. But it never hurts to ask, "Can I?"
"No," the sorcerer says flatly. Losing interest, Pretty Girl turns to go. "But I believe a new and much faster method has fallen into my hands. Using it, I could perhaps dominate the Central Kingdom in a few months. I still, however, need the girls to be... my armies."
"But," says the courtesan, intrigued again, "they hate you."
"However, they love each other; if one fails to comply, I shall merely torture her sister." All the best strategies are simple.
"So, you must acquire both of them at once for that ploy to work," muses Pretty Girl.
"They are together now, in Sun Horse clan territory," Mourning Cloak boasts, although this is half magic and half deduction.
"For Shaman Smoke Cat's wedding; they say the plains have emptied to attend," states Pretty Girl, not to be outdone.
"Smoke Cat Watching?" purrs the sorcerer, and something in his voice tells Pretty Girl she has stayed too long. "The younger is called Summer Wind. You will find her!"
Summer Wind is tremendously happy for her first friend Jonas, and her sister, and those dearest among the family. As the large hollow near the stream fills with more and more strange people, however, her level of pure elation declines. She is homesick for school: walls, books, schedules, etc.
As much as she loves the wildness of the steppes and the folk who ride them, Summer Wind is considering using her next leave of absence to explore the high northern Paleyit hills where her mother was Princess, and perhaps from there, journey on to the Central Kingdom to visit her brother. Both sisters have scried for Silver Fox, and while he knows that Silver Dagger has left the area and Mourning Cloak's castle was demolished, he is not skilled enough in magic to scry for them to see how they are.
The young girl is not sure whether she is comforted or chagrined that Wolf Calling also finds the pressure of so many bodies in such an enclosed space irksome, at best. Often when Summer Wind goes to leap on her horse and escape the crowd, Song will already be there throwing a saddle over her favorite mount. The older woman is still wearing Star Hawk's vest, although it no longer quite closes at the bottom; her pregnancy is just beginning to show. Yet she continues to ride long and swiftly.
Rarely do they speak on these outings, but one morning after the girls dismount, Song tells Summer, "Being a younger sister is like this; folk will always chortle that you'll be next... to marry, to have a child, to do whatever. Don't let it bother you too much."
Summer Wind absorbs this. "I am not ready to wed."
Blue Turtle Dreaming, who has heard the conversation, says, "Don't worry, the next marriage will be mine; I have foreseen it."
"Who?" the young women ask in tandem.
"I'll know when we meet," he says placidly.
The wedding day arrives and promises to be clear and sunny. Everyone looks beautiful in their finery, most cry a little during the ceremony, and a few insist on touching some part of Smoke Cat Watching for good luck. The bride pelts all celebrants impartially with flowers, and the newlyweds retire to their tent. No one even tries to disturb them, much less attempt murder. Still, the very fact that these thoughts have occurred to plague Summer Wind is a minor bad sign. She is... disquieted.
Summer Wind forgets her uneasy feeling as soon as Jonas and Smoke Cat return with her to the Arcane Academy. She must show them, in immense detail, why she loves the place. The shaman is more interested than the reformed trickster, but both are happy to view the tight security around the wand.
Smoke Cat, oddly enough, seems to have contracted her sister's misgivings. It is more than just the change of environment, she believes. However, it is equally likely to be her knowledge of the proximity of the wand. She smiles, therefore, while her new husband and sister show her the tourist attractions, and some things worth seeing that most visitors never hear about, within the fabulous city of Jailuha. They take the shaman shopping together, and each alone, trying to coax her into making purchases.
Once, in the marketplace, a divan conveyed by a heavily curtained litter is carried by, and Smoke Cat Watching thinks she might have recognized the shapely expanse of leg so artfully revealed. Pretty Girl has a small, but distinctive, birthmark on the back of one heel. Still, it is no business of the shaman's what Pretty Girl has chosen to do with her life; after she was cleansed and punished, the nameless girl was free to make her own decisions, provided that she cause no further trouble.
Another morning, Jonas and Summer Wind, who also collaborated on the portal project, are summoned to discuss a breach in protocol which might have resulted in the tiniest jeopardy to the secret at large. The shaman has a bad feeling about this ‘tiny chance’, but as it fails to combine or associate itself with her overall bad feeling… of being watched?... the new bride refocuses her mind on more joyful things. Maybe it's time that she teaches Summer Wind how important it is to dance, not just read.
That morning, while both her escorts are busy, Smoke Cat strolls north along the border of the lake and ventures into the city alone. She goes nowhere but places she has already visited numerous times, and her body language projects confidence, as she was shown. Still, though, there are so many people, and they are all talking and yelling and shouting at once. She likes the cool white stone of the walls, or even the homelier mud brick, but they loom and constrict, and even imprison, in ways she was not conscious of before. She buys nothing.
When she returns to the open greenswards of the Academy, then, she will clear her head by sitting quietly for a few moments, and then the shaman will dance. Hopefully, Summer Wind can be found and detached from her regularly scheduled lessons to learn something quite different. Smoke Cat Watching feels very strongly that the young girl is involved in this... wrongness... as well. Their own formidable magic should be preventing Silver Dagger from scrying them, but that is what this is reminiscent of.
Summer is thrilled at this prospective broadening of her skills, and several of her fellow pupils follow her out onto the lawn, promising to stay silent and out of the way. They, of course, still make her nervous, but not as nervous as that intense, primal, feral look on Smoke Cat Watching's face.
"When you begin dancing, there is you, and the movement, and the drum should you be lucky enough to have one. Then, there is only the movement and the rhythm, as you begin to sublimate into the dance. Finally, all that exists is movement; you are the dance completely," the shaman explains. She smiles at the overwhelmed Summer Wind. "You may chant if that helps you."
"It might, I don't... I understand in theory, but to actually do it myself... scares me... and I don't know how to begin..." the Academy student says, tongue-tied, but fairly coherent.
"You will not stop being you, my sister, don't worry. It is just that you will also and mainly be... other. And that's a good thing," Smoke Cat comforts the girl. "As for how to start, you just start. Sometimes it takes longer than others. If so, you'll get very tired. You may mimic me initially, but then move into steps and patterns that feel right and comfortable for you." The shaman looks around. "Can any of your admirers keep a beat?
Summer Wind gulps. "I guess we'll find out."
Summer Wind is inherently graceful, so for the first few minutes her imitation of her sister is flawless, yet that's all it is, an echo without emotion. Then the dance becomes a prowl, unmistakably feline, and while the young magic student can saunter, immersing herself in this doesn't feel right; it is for Smoke Cat alone. Therefore, her dancing becomes lighter, airier, more full of leaping and spinning and gesturing with her arms extended to the side and back, yet still driven by the beat.
The young girl is unaware of when Smoke Cat collapses onto the grass, and begins to survey the progress of her pupil, she does not notice Jonas's return to join her fellow Academe attendees under the shade tree, and she certainly doesn't feel her sore feet. All she cares about are the butterflies. They have come. And they are greeting her, speaking to her, welcoming her. There is a sense of great danger.
"The wand is not your problem," one says, swirling around her head.
"Your problem is instead the wand," another mythical Blue Monarch agrees.
"Are they always so ambiguous with advice?" she asks her sister, still buoyant from discovering her spirit animal.
"Usually. This communication is relatively clear," Smoke Cat Watching answers her, “all things considered.”
"I think we should recheck to make sure that the wand guarded by the Arcane Academy is in fact the one we entrusted to them," Jonas says.
"Agreed," replies his bride.
"But what wisdom did you gain from your dancing?" the girl wants to know.
"There remains something here, besides us, that he needs,” her sister responds.
The inspection of the wand is duly performed, and it is found to have been substituted only that morning, during all the fuss over the possible door magic leak. There are traces of a subtle sleep spell on the guard/student who was on watch then. He is called Kanu and comes from the deepest south, somewhere in or near the Dzubah Empire.
It now becomes Kanu's duty to recover the wand if he wants to regain his place on the Sultan of Jailuha’s guard and as a part time pupil at the Academy. He immediately takes to following Smoke Cat, Jonas, and Summer Wind around because, as he says, "Kanu means intelligent in the language of my people," and who else is more likely to find the wand than those who wrested it from the evil sorcerer to begin with? Besides, I have seen you dance... er... both of you," Kanu includes Smoke Cat kindly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Summer Wind hisses to her sister at an opportune moment.
"Presumably that he likes the way you dance, dear one, that you strike him as a young woman who moves with power." Being a good and patient sister, the shaman refrains from saying that she did mention not all answers were to be found in books. What Smoke Cat actually speaks aloud is: "What are your skills, Kanu? If you are going to assist us, how is it that you can help?"
"I am a trained guard of the city-state,” he declares, and his posture is indeed that of a warrior. "In addition, I have thoroughly mastered the look-at-something-else incantation that would not render one invisible on the savannas where there is less to see but is an effective cloaking spell here in the city. People simply don't look at you, or if they do, they think they see something else expected and familiar, like a piece of furniture or a vegetable stall."
"Not an easy spell," Summer Wind sounds impressed. "Do you work on enchantments one at a time, then, between your guard duties?"
"Pretty much, yes, m'lady, that's the way it works with my work-study program," Kanu explains.
Although it is virtually guaranteed that Mourning Cloak is the one who stole the wand, it could possibly be some other sorcerer wanting to advance in rank. Therefore, it is necessary to at least ascertain whether Silver Dagger is indeed in the capital city of the Jailuha Confederation, and what those rumors that haunt the shadows say.
While Jonas isn't a thief, he can use a set of lockpicks. Although he isn't a murderer, he owns an assassin's dagger. He has... a diverse and intriguing variety of acquaintances. These he goes to visit now, some of whom even know him as "Jonas", and all of them wish to commiserate... er, congratulate him on his nuptials. This takes him through some rather dark alleys and exposes him to whispers that would otherwise not come to his ears.
They say Mourning Cloak is odd and actively avoided. The consensus is overwhelming that the Seo Hán Nì magician is somewhere in the city, but no one knows exactly where, and no one in their right mind would want to know where. He pops up here and there, and then vanishes. Jonas is cautioned that the man is a lunatic, a sorcerer, and one of those stupid crackpots who come along periodically, wanting to rule the world. It is not until near dawn that Jonas sees a dark figure in a white cloak dash down a hidden stair, leading to a corridor, accessing the catacombs.
"I know it was Silver Dagger," Jonas reports later to his wife, "but I very much doubt that he recognized me. I was with a group of very drunk men, acting as intoxicated as they were, and you don't examine the faces of such roving revelers too closely."
Smoke Cat closes her eyes in resignation as her surmises have been confirmed. "You don't suppose he'll be happy with the wand and whatever else, and then just leave us alone?" she asks to have it said aloud.
"No, my Catkin. It's a matter of pride for him now," Jonas assents.
"What are the odds," asks Summer Wind, hearing voices, ducking her head into the room, and looking wide awake," that the other thing Mourning Cloak needs is NOT related to the doorway innovation?"
"Slim," the newlyweds reply simultaneously.
"The timing is too convenient," Jonas says.
"Also, if he knows the secret or can piece it together, he can stay in his cave while casting magic far afield," Smoke Cat adds grimly.
Kanu, who has been filled in on the doorway spell as pertinent, joins them then. "He would need at least one mage as an accomplice, would he not?" asks Kanu.
"Yes, that's where my sister and I come in," Smoke Cat Watching explains.
"We're his daughters and he wants us back," adds Summer Wind, "for several reasons."
Jonas contributes, "We think he does not know the whole apparatus required to make the tunnel function, or he would have either attempted to entrap his children by now or have left here for the return journey to his mountain cave in the far north and east."
It is only slightly past noon and the courtesan known as Pretty Girl is already awake and as dressed as she plans to get today. The occasion is a meeting with one of her new love slaves and potential informers. He is without a doubt crazy for her, but whether he can provide that missing data...?
"Ah, Kanu," she says, tripping lightly across the floor to greet him, "what have you brought me today?"
"I can confirm that the girl who is the Arcane Academy's newest rising star is indeed the same Summer Wind who was just recently at her sister Shaman Smoke Cat Watching's wedding in the steppes." The dark warrior with his unique scalp-lock is unmistakable.
Pretty Girl hovers between petulant and coaxing, "But we knew that already, my lover, my sweet."
"I know which rooms in the Arcane Academy they occupy, but they are in the most secure wing," the cocoa skinned young man reports, almost apologetically.
"No, these are not women who can be caught napping," she says, biting one elegant fingertip. "But we knew Smoke Cat and a Seo Hán Nì girl, at least, were in the marketplace days ago because I saw them." Suddenly, the thought that has been attempting to work through the mire of her brain for the intervening days finds its way to the surface. "And they arrived much too soon to have come on horseback, didn't they? They have a portal-thingy."
"Yes," Kanu must validate her deduction.
"So, all we have is one task. Get the girl. You see how brilliant it is?" Pretty Girl is like a crow who has found something shiny. "Either the man or the girl must have brought a portal-thing to the wedding, and since the man, Jonas, has no magic, it has to be the girl, Summer Wind." Pretty Girl spins happily around the room. "Get the girl, get the secret to the thingy, and if we still want her, the sister will come as well, to rescue the girl. It's so amazingly clear!"
"You don't think," Kanu remarks, "that this might be difficult?"
"But she trusts you, my Kanu. It will be so easy for you to bring her to my pleasant home in its beautiful neighborhood," Pretty Girl almost frowns, and carefully smooths the wrinkle with a finger before continuing. "You will think of some excuse, I'm sure. I don't need to know the details." Granting a great boon, she adds, "You may even come in the late morning when I am sure to be at home. Then you will go away, and she and I will drink spiked tea. What would such a child know of drugs?"
Jonas, who has been out all night, is sleeping in the couple's bed, and although he promised to be good and not snore, Smoke Cat is watching him from a reclining chair with a footrest that she finds to be a wonderful invention. Periodically she snoozes a bit as well, since she was quite worried and slept fitfully.
Most recently Summer Wind has come to visit her, to ask if she needs to include her spirit animal, Butterfly, in her full name, and if so, what order sounds best. Smoke Cat Watching tells her that her own mother, Bronze Mirror did not, although her spirit animal was perfectly respectable, the golden hare. It is up to the individual's choice. The young girl decides that she will only use it with the honorific "Princess" during very formal occasions. The Princess Silver Butterfly Summer Wind.
Now Kanu comes to the shaman, looking troubled. "Is there someplace else we can talk?" he asks. "I don't want to disturb your husband."
"Oh, you won't, and I doubt you'd prefer to move to Summer's room to be private there..." Smoke says, smiling.
"No," Kanu says quickly, "this will be fine. I've come because... well, there's a confession that I need to make."
"That you're a spy for the courtesan Pretty Girl?" Smoke Cat gently inquires of the guardsman. "Did you tell her the final pieces of doorway magic?"
"I... How did you know? And of course I didn't!" the young man retorts.
"She has a distinctive ankle, and you have a distinctive hairstyle, even when one can't see your face." Smoke gives him a deceptively mild suggestion, “Perhaps you shouldn’t sit at her feet.”
"I might as well tell you the whole, since you seem to know so much already," says Kanu, sounding pleased rather than disgruntled. "There is an oath-breaker among the guards or the mages. Word of things that ought to be kept secret has been getting out since long before the minor slip-ups such disclosures are being blamed on. But I can't continue."
"You were assigned to find that leak, one method being by cozying up to Pretty Girl, and feeding her just enough morsels to keep her mildly interested, in the hopes that she'd reveal the major player," the shaman quickly summarizes for Jonas, who rouses up enough to take an interest. "Why can't you continue?" she asks.
Kanu looks diffident. "My next task is to trick Summer Wind into entering Pretty Girl's house, and I won't do that. Not after having seen her dance. The girl must be free."
Jonas says, "There could be merit in going through with the plan, warned as we are. But, of course, we'd need to discuss that with Summer Wind."
"There's also the possibility that Mourning Cloak is manipulating Pretty Girl into making this clumsy attempt as a blind for a larger trap to ensnare us all," considers Smoke Cat, as she crosses the room to admit her sister and perch next to her husband.
"He has the wand already; that's very important. It brings out the worst in him," Summer adds.
It is decided that they will not blow Kanu's cover, just in case, and that Summer will walk into the house of Pretty Girl like a meek mouse. Kanu will be outside, practicing his invisibility, and her sister Smoke Cat and Brother-in-law Jonas will be coincidentally strolling by, should need arise.
"Allow me to introduce to you, Lady Summer Wind, a fashionable acquaintance who has a great desire to meet you," Kanu says graciously. "This is our own Pretty Girl," and he then makes himself scarce, as he was told.
Chat is light and vivacious to amuse the shy schoolgirl until tea is served. After one sip, Summer identifies at least three different drugs, two of which would be more potent if not used together. Then, the soon to be 16-year-old proceeds to drink the courtesan under the table.
Once her hostess has fallen face first into the cakes intended for nibbling with tea, Summer Wind signals to Kanu. "If she becomes loquacious, you may learn many things. I'm going to ransack her sleeping place, her workspace, and the rest of the upstairs for anything relevant."
This pronouncement immediately sends Kanu to the window to request the presence of the girl's older, and married, sister to aid in her search. Jonas comes along, too, of course, and his assistance with the inebriated woman is valuable.
Between them, the men are able to revive Pretty Girl back into a talkative state, even though her speech is inane and slurred. For the first few minutes this consists of ranking various young lovers that she has kept over time, of whom Kanu is one. He blushes more crimson than Jonas has ever seen a man turn.
On the second floor, Smoke Cat Watching has taken command of the area near the bed and set Summer Wind to rummage through clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry. They divide up her few letters.
"Hey," says Summer Wind, reaching below the padded make up bench, "look what..." She goes quiet. Smoke Cat is stealthily closing the door. Both sisters know, to the second, when Mourning Cloak enters the house.
Downstairs, Kanu thinks he is just about to get the courtesan to reveal the identity of the informant he needs when the door bangs open and a sorcerer in black, with a white cape, strides into the room. "I don't know you," muses Mourning Cloak. "One of this parakeet's pretty boys, I assume. Be gone." And with that, an arctic wind blows Kanu off his feet, picks him up and tosses him bodily out of the front door. It is much to his credit that his first thought is to wonder how he can slip back in and aid his companions.
Next Mourning Cloak moves on to Jonas, who has just come from the kitchen after being unable to find any nonalcoholic beverage besides water. "You, I do know," Mourning Cloak purrs. "We absolutely must, and will, increase our intimacy. Soon. Still, for now, a lesson."
"This," Mourning Cloak says for his audience, whom he has no doubt includes his daughters, trapped on the second floor, "is a parakeet." His tone is carefully modulated to insinuate itself under locked doors and around corners, so Kanu, struggling through a solarium skylight, hears perfectly fine. "Pretty. And she has a pleasant song," Mourning Cloak continues urbanely, chilling spines and rendering Pretty Girl into a weeping mass of terror.
"I gave you one task, did I not?" he finally asks her directly. She nods. "It was to locate my daughter Summer Wind and then pass on all knowledge of her." Again, the miserable bowed head. "It was not to attempt to abduct the girl, which you have so terribly bungled." Pretty Girl sniffles. "There is but one good to have come of this colossal fiasco."
"That being the case, you may live long enough to watch me recover my treasured daughters. They are together, in this house, and no sounds of descent have been made. Therefore, they are in hiding, possibly concocting some feeble plot to break free and escape once more. But they know, now, that I shall never give up hunting for them, not as long as I live; and I, of course, will live forever. "The rest of you, stay where I put you!" Jonas and Pretty Girl have no choice; they are paralyzed.
Surveying the scene from three roofs back and two to the left, their father's fine speeches are wasted, as Smoke Cat Watching and Summer Wind cannot hear what is going on. But it doesn't look good. Upon sensing Mourning Cloak invading the house, the sisters immediately left it through the large bedroom window. The nearest trees are of a good size, but much too far for a woman to jump. A smoke cat, however, can manage the distance with ease. As for Summer, what matter flights under an hour?
Silver Dagger, despite the comfort of his wand, is grumpy. Things are not going his way. The girls, and he looked everywhere for them twice, even checking the top of the canopy bed, are nowhere to be found. The man will come to his underground home, of course, where things are much more serene, and no one will disturb their conversations. As for the courtesan, she really is too stupid to live. That will have to be dealt with before leaving her spacious house in its affluent surroundings.
"Can't we get the wand away from Mourning Cloak somehow, like we did last time?" asks Summer Wind, knowing the answer already, but hoping desperately that she won't have to watch her father murder Pretty Girl.
"Maybe, if his hand was partially severed, he would drop it, Summer, but that's the best theory I have," replies the shaman. Still, they have not yet counted out Kanu; the guardsman is roaming freely about the house unlimbering his bow and nocking two arrows. Silver Dagger looks awful.
"Summer Wind, I'm going to need a diversion. Anything you can think of will do, just so long as it makes Mourning Cloak glance away from Jonas and Pretty Girl, for a few... No, let's say several... seconds. Weasel Has Two Tails will have to gloat a while before the actual kill... I hope."
Kanu, meanwhile, has had the sense to become invisible; he's not sure if that will fool this caliber of sorcerer, but it's worth a try. Sure enough, Mourning Cloak does not feel his victory to be complete without humiliating the victim as much as possible. Accordingly, he releases Jonas and Pretty Girl, provided that their feet don't stray an inch.
Outside, gigantic, indigo-scaled butterfly wings flap, flap, flap, beautiful but enormous, battering wind against the first and second floors at once. It is a tremendously successful illusion, and not easy to cast from so far away.
Smoke Cat is proud of her little sister, even as she chants the litany that will once again reunite her with the genie gem. Whoosh, she is gone and inside the jewel before Morning Cloak has a chance to reorient himself. Kanu has used the time to find a clear field of fire where his arrows won't ricochet and accidentally hurt his friends. Pretty Girl's attention is, understandably, focused on her own mortality.
The sorcerer turns again to business. Pretty Girl is on her knees begging for another chance to prove herself valuable. Jonas is rubbing the blue stone, Summer Wind is disobeying orders and is flying on her way to sneak in through the solarium skylight although she is still a couple of houses away, and Kanu is, as yet, undetected and is waiting for the perfect shot. Silver Dagger sighs. "I'm afraid you must receive a quick death, little parakeet, for I don't have much time to linger. It's so cold!"
Semi-genie Smoke Catkin boils out of the gem and moves to stand between Mourning Cloak and Pretty Girl. "I'm afraid, Father, that you'll have to go through me, first. Or you could just take your obscenely pale skin and leave."
There is nothing in Silver Dagger's voice but avarice, not even malice, as he says, "Daughter mine! A pleasure!" Then shifting slightly to face Jonas, "And you have just given me the perfect means of controlling her. Again. Unless there's a hidden knife somewhere?"
There is, however, a hidden archer and, in raising his wand to smite Pretty Girl right through Smoke Catkin’s semi-material self, the sorcerer has presented the target Kanu has awaited. Zing. Zing. The first arrow hits the wand and is deflected downward into Mourning Cloak's palm. The other neatly bisects his wrist horizontally, severing many tendons. Unable to close his hand about the wand, it falls from Mourning Cloak's fingers and rolls across the floor. Swiftly, the shaman kicks it back towards Jonas.
"You idiot, I am immortal, I cannot be killed!" the evil magician shrieks and, indeed, after the arrows are removed, wet with viscous, syrupy blood, the tissue is revealed to be granular and crystalline; it realigns itself appallingly swiftly. However, his wounds and the loss of his wand have clearly devastated the sorcerer.
Unable to either dispose of the courtesan completely or take her with him for interrogation, Mourning Cloak does the next best thing. He feints throwing lightning at Kanu to distract Smoke Cat and, leaning forward, touches Pretty Girl on the forehead with his bloody palm. "Forget!" he commands her, activating a previously cast hypnosis-based spell that will wipe clean the last three years of her memory. She will have no idea why she is here or who Mourning Cloak is, much less what he wants.
With that, Silver Dagger swirls out of the room and disappears somewhere down the street. Jonas has picked up the wand, "lost" this time rather than "thrown away", and is telling Summer Wind the details she missed. Pretty Girl is now sobbing with joy and clinging like a limpet to Smoke Cat's legs. Seeing Kanu with nothing to do, the shaman turns the courtesan over to the guardsman for the attempted kidnapping of Summer Wind. "A jail cell is the safest place for her now," says the shaman.
"And after that?" Kanu asks.
"I'm probably the closest thing to a person responsible for her that she has," says Smoke Cat Watching, "but I don't truly want her; let me think a while." Then the shaman turns to the lively conversation between her husband and her sister.
"No, Mourning Cloak won't try for it again tonight. The wand should be safe here at least until tomorrow... with some new security," Jonas is saying.
"But…" Summer objects.
"No! We are lucky to be alive! You may not search the catacombs." In this, Jonas is heartily reinforced by his bride.
Jonas leans his head close to his wife's and whispers, "Why red, my Catkin?"
"The genie costume, you mean? Probably because your names for me are now more important than ‘Silver’, the one Father gave me, and the dress I married you in is red. Also, I have learned that a person can only wish themselves into that jewel three times; are we done yet?" Smoke is feeling anxious. Her husband, thinking of the way Mourning Cloak coveted that gem, immediately wishes the shaman free.
The mission is only a qualified success: the wand is returned, temporarily, to the Arcane Academy; yet the name of the high-ranking mage or guard officer cannot be revealed by a woman who has no memory. No one is hurt or killed; but disquieting new information about Mourning Cloak's physical composition is disclosed. And, of course, Silver Dagger will never cease trying to obtain the wand.
Unfortunately, everyone seems to be out of good ideas. Just searching the catacombs is not a viable choice for a variety of reasons, the most salient being that they are simply too extensive, and prone to collapse in places. "We could dance on it," suggests Smoke Cat Watching, although she doesn’t want that to become her default answer in any crisis. However, when there is nothing else...
"Or we could try reading this book that I found in Pretty Girl's bedroom; it's in code or something, and I can't decipher it," offers Summer Wind.
This is immediately snatched out of her hands by Kanu. "It's a diary!"
While the book continues to be illegible to the two sisters, despite their excellent translation spells, Jonas and the guardsman have no problems figuring it out. Like Pretty Girl, they actually had to learn the commerce language spoken in the city. The courtesan has very organized lists: who gives information voluntarily and when, and who does so involuntarily due to talking in their sleep or when too intoxicated to remember. Scrawled at the top of the page is the name of the Director of Security for the Arcane Academy, with "tickle feet to induce" noted beside his title.
Potentially more valuable still, are the times, dates, and places of Pretty Girl's meetings with Mourning Cloak, signals for contacting him in case of success, and her commentary on his level of derangement. Apparently, in return for her participation in his grand scheme, Pretty Girl had sealed a bargain with Mourning Cloak for the hand in marriage of his son, Silver Fox. Afraid of being swindled, however, the courtesan had demanded that the youth be produced for inspection. And he had been!
The only question then becomes: do we wait for Morning Cloak to contact us, or do we use Pretty Girl's method to contact him, or do we skip all that and use his charted points of appearance to try to locate his lair? There is much argument in favor of each strategy and tempers flare repeatedly, but no decision is made. "I am now going to dance," Smoke Cat announces. "Summer Wind, Kanu, you are both invited to join me. Jonas, you can keep a beat. Will you drum? We need a good war dance."
"This will be a different kind of dancing from what you have seen in the clan, and even from what you have just learned yourself," Smoke Cat Watching tells Summer Wind as she grabs items of her sister’s clothing, feels the fabric, assesses the cut, tosses it away. "We will dance not as men or women, not as hunters or growers, but as warriors."
"Are we going to war, then? Going to confront Mourning Cloak in his underground den? I thought nothing had been decided," says the young girl, rescuing garments from hither and yon.
"It has not been. We have been fighting each other instead of the enemy, and our energy needs to be refocused. And as for being at war, Silver Dagger will bring it to us again and again until it is finished; it is better that we prepare ourselves now," explains her sister, and her garb is finally judged to be fierce enough.
When they come out onto the grass again, everyone is amazed at the transformation each has made, and this is still before the dancing. Summer Wind is a bit uncomfortable, since the shaman rejected the vast majority of her wardrobe. "That's all?" squeaked the girl.
"This is especially important for you, my dear one, or I wouldn't be making such a fuss over our outfits." Smoke Cat hugs her sister. "You look fine; you'll be fine." Jonas is sitting quietly with the drum in his lap and no shirt.
Kanu has on a breastplate of boiled leather strips, not woven too close together to inhibit movement, with no padding underneath, and fringed suede leg coverings a little like chaps over a loincloth. He does not appear foolish. "You invited me," he says, "Thank you. I am here."
"I assume your people dance quite similarly to my own," the shaman acknowledges, bowing her head. "If not, it will not matter; you will learn," she makes a sign to her husband and the drum pounds. "Let us begin. Normally there would be shouting, perhaps gesturing with weapons. We will have to do without that as we are guests of the Academy. But I think this should suffice anyway."
Shaman Smoke Cat Watching leads the others in a circle, sometimes stalking, sometimes stomping, occasionally jumping or ducking down; the pattern seems random, but as the rhythm increases, so does the complexity of steps, spinning, doubling back, leaping. Once Kanu picks up Summer Wind, tossing her high into the air and catching her.
They have time to dance to repletion, if not exhaustion, before the summons comes. An item, heavily enchanted, has passed through the security in the room that used to house the wand, and has come to rest exactly where the wand would have been had it not been instantly relocated. It is a conch shell. And it contains a voice which one does not even have to hold to one's ear in order to hear. The words are a message recently recorded by Silver Fox for his sisters and will repeat infinitely.
Although it has been a while, both sisters immediately recognize the voice as that of Silver Fox. It could still be a trick of course, and is undoubtedly a trap, but they must listen anyway. "My sisters, how glad I am that you were able to escape and to stay free from Mourning Cloak!" he begins.
"I beg of you, do not jeopardize that freedom for me or any other ploy of Father's. The sorcerer tells me I must relay certain demands and instructions, but DO NOT COME, please! Obviously, I am his bargaining chip. Mourning Cloak claims that he will release me if you comply with his commands. As for what he wants, for now Silver Dagger says he is willing to forgo your company and content his heart with the return of his wand, and knowledge of the complete process of magical door creation."
Silver Fox continues, "Father says this family has proven to be unsatisfactory, but because he will live forever, he has time to wait and produce a new one or two. You are directed to leave the wand and a working door along with complete notes on its function in the center of a certain square at midnight. Naturally there must be an anti-theft spell, but Mourning Cloak can overcome such deterrents. The exact address is inscribed on the bottom of this shell, so that I cannot reveal my own location."
"Perhaps, if you have scried for me, you are confused," Silver Fox says. "I have been given permission to explain that. You may have noticed that whenever you see my body, I am always in armor. The armor is magical and keeps my body doing normal things. However, there is no spirit in that body; it is empty. Father removed my spirit and transferred it into a silver statuette of a fox that I was shaping. He tells me that this was to prevent me from injuring or killing myself while he was away."
"Mourning Cloak has made plans for both my body and my spirit, although never with my spirit inhabiting my body again. Yet he promises that, if you accede to his wishes, you may have the fox figurine, and that I can even temporarily walk about as a human boy, almost, if I am transferred to a simulacrum made of enchanted wood, wax, or clay. Then I can be reunited with my real body once I am conveyed back to the Central Kingdom. Again, I plead with you, my sisters, do not worry about me and consent to obey!"
They all listen to Silver Fox's message twice more, hoping for clues left by the lad, or for inadvertently included characteristic sounds that might help pinpoint the location of Mourning Cloak's lair. From the echoes, it seems as though the speaker is in a moderately large, but not enormous, space.
Summer Wind looks up at the faces of her companions, and she is the first to respond. "Mourning Cloak cannot be trusted, but I believe that my brother told the truth about being alive and captive." She pauses. "The sorcerer must be hunted down and killed. We have no other choice."
"Agreed," says Smoke Cat Watching and Jonas in tandem. Kanu senses an incipient family squabble and remains silent.
"Then why wouldn't you allow me to search the catacombs when I first suggested it?" Summer demands.
"We weren't ready yet. By waiting, we have forced Silver Dagger into revealing a secret, our brother's whereabouts, that he was not previously prepared to risk," says Smoke Cat.
"Also, we have gained time to plan, and to obtain more help," Jonas adds. "Star Hawk and Grey Owl are coming and should be here soon."
"But we haven't done any planning; all we've done is argue... and dance!" objects Summer Wind, though less accusingly.
"You'd be surprised what we managed to hash out," Jonas grins.
"And do not underestimate the power of the dance," Kanu gently tells the irate girl.
"We do need to decide what to do regarding Mourning Cloak's ultimatum, however, since I don't believe we will have enough time to close in on his den before midnight," says the shaman, bringing the focus of conversation back to delineating their strategy.
"Clearly we cannot give him either item, but perhaps we can make it look as though we have, or we are willing to if granted more time," muses Jonas slyly. "We can restore Mourning Cloak's wand to him, and state with perfect honesty that it is his, if we give him back the decoy he crafted," says Jonas. "Is there any way we could trick him into thinking that it is the evil wand from the cave?"
"We could freeze it," suggests Summer Wind, "chill it down so cold that it is impossible to handle without causing frostbite. Father wouldn't be able to touch it, and at that temperature, it would be naturally inert, so he wouldn't expect to feel it much."
"I see that your Academy education is a wise investment," Smoke Cat remarks proudly. "If we just do that, though, Silver Dagger will be wary of a substitution. We must provide some means of verification. Father does not know yet that you can fly, and he's used to seeing genie-daughters come out of Jonas's blue gem."
"And supernatural beings must, no matter how reluctantly, tell the absolute truth. That's good!" Kanu interjects. “She can vouch for anything we want him to believe.”
"Regarding the doorway, we'll stall for time," approves Jonas.
"We won't have much time, after Silver Dagger discovers the wand we've given him is merely a pretty stick, before he retaliates. Therefore, we must enter the catacombs as soon as we are done making the midnight exchange. If the full groups are here, we should review the whole plan now," says Jonas.
"Before we introduce everyone, Kanu, do you think you could extend your invisibility to stretch over someone behind you or leaning against you?" asks Smoke Cat Watching.
He grins, and replies, "I think so; we should practice first, though." And, fortunately, he can make Summer Wind disappear with him if he holds her close. Star Hawk and Grey Owl, recently arrived through the magic portal, are not sure how they feel about this young man who is so obviously infatuated with their own Summer Wind.
From Pretty Girl's diary of his points of appearance, the companions have been able to narrow down a relatively manageable search area which should contain Mourning Cloak's lair. It is decided that Smoke Cat Watching, Jonas, and Star Hawk will enter the catacombs from the southeast, while Summer Wind, Grey Owl, Kanu, and if he is freed, Silver Fox explore beginning in the northwest. The daughters of Silver Dagger must lead, for it is their blood that will draw them towards the sorcerer's den.
Grey Owl and Star Hawk Burning, however, have one huge question: once we find the sorcerer, how do we kill this unnatural thing Weasel Has Two Tails has turned himself into? There is a long and uncomfortable silence.
"I don't know," says Kanu, "but at least Mourning Cloak still bleeds and is temporarily incapacitated by cut tendons."
"There is more than that to remember. Father is powerful even without his wand; he will not just stand there and let you hack away at him," contributes Summer.
"I have given it much thought," says Shaman Smoke Cat, "and I believe that decapitation would even now prove an effective means of killing my father. It is the best plan that I have been able to concoct."
Jonas sighs. "I'm afraid you may be right, my Catkin. We'll need swords then, up close and personal. As it happens, I'm... fair with one. Kanu, as a guardsman, is probably much better."
"And we archers will harry the prey, aim to maim: eyes, joints, throat..." conclude the two plainsmen.
Time rolls towards midnight, and the replica wand is frozen to the point that tongs must be used to place it in a screenless portable door-hole, which is then rolled and folded. Jonas, wearing the genie gem prominently on his belt, takes this bundle and the original company of four again sets out.
Smoke Cat Watching is walking at her husband's side, Summer Wind in genie garb is flying low just above his head, and Kanu paces invisibly behind them. Upon reaching the designated city square, they leave the package in its center and then retreat to the edge, but do not depart. Midnight comes and goes; Mourning Cloak is late. Finally, he billows around the end of a building and stares at his daughters and son-in-law. "Why are you still here?" he snaps. Silver Dagger does not look good.
"We have remained, honorably, to explain certain things," says Jonas. "And to ensure that you keep your end of the bargain. Where is Silver Fox?" In the dark, Mourning Cloak's hand holds up something shiny, but no detail is visible this far away.
"I see only a pile of cloth. Where is my wand?" counters the sorcerer.
"It has been placed inside the magical device that externally seems a mere pile of cloth. We have frozen it beyond ice to prevent it from being immediately usable against us."
"How then do I know that it is really my wand? And for that matter, that this cloth bundle is not a trap?" says Silver Dagger suspiciously.
"You have only to ask your daughter," replies Smoke Cat. "Genies cannot lie, as I know well."
As always, Mourning Cloak's laugh is an unpleasant thing. He is quiescent for a while, and apparently, upon consideration, accepts this, since he finally demands of Summer Wind, "Girl, have they lied to me?"
"Must I answer him, Master?" she inquires of Jonas.
"For now, yes," Jonas replies.
The young girl gazes at her father with faint scorn. "No, they have not lied. Your wand is inside the bundle, and the enchanted cloth will not harm or imprison you."
"It is the portal, then?" asks the sorcerer incredulously, now dealing directly with Summer Wind.
"It is a portion of the portal. This piece is a door frame shaped hole embedded into canvas,” she temporizes.
"Is that all?" bellows Mourning Cloak.
"This is all we have had time to prepare," Jonas explains. "Those we have ready at the moment all lead to the center of the Arcane Academy, which we assumed would be of no use to you," continues Jonas.
"Is this true?" Silver Dagger asks Summer Wind.
"Yes," she confirms.
"That is not enough! You may not have the boy!" snarls Mourning Cloak.
"We want proof that he is alive and in the statue that you brought," says Smoke Cat.
"Very well," the sorcerer agrees, quickly thinking up a new plan. Slowly he walks towards the couple on the ground, palm extended upwards.
Ignoring Jonas, Mourning Cloak shows Smoke Cat Watching an amazingly lifelike figurine of a fox. She reaches out to cup her hands over it. "Don't touch!" orders her father.
"I don't need to; I recognize his aura. It is strong, vital, and clearly contained within this artifact," she pronounces.
"Good, then since you have no further need of Summer Wind..." Jonas motions to her protectively, as if to cue her back into the jewel. "Yes, Master," she says, and dives close to him. At the same time her sister, who has an affinity for smoke of all kinds, produces a masking cloud that lasts just long enough for the girl to reach the ground where Kanu catches her and spins them both, invisible now, to the side. This suits Mourning Cloak perfectly, for a genie in a stone is easier to steal.
Snatching back the hand with the fox statue, Mourning Cloak emits a heavy fog of his own, dark, choking, and poisonous. Everyone is coughing except Silver Dagger, who grabs the genie pin, runs to the center of the square to reclaim his wand, and disappears, all according to his stroke of genius. Except that, as he nears the bundle, suddenly the hand with the silver figurine contains instead a vicious ball of fur, claws, and teeth. The sorcerer is bitten to the bone and the creature slithers free and bolts.
Silver Dagger, once again having retreated to the safety of the catacombs, reflects that he wouldn't have expected the shaman to be able to cast such a powerful transformation spell. However, the loss of the boy is not terribly important, since he had no magic. Already the sorcerer thinks of him as dead. But his wand! And the girl, Summer Wind, as an obedient genie, no less! What a triumph! For obviously his daughter knows the secret of magical door formation, and now she must speak truly!
In the square, Smoke Cat cancels the toxic fumes as quickly as she can, and the companions assess each other for possible damages. Jonas has lost the brooch and has a dry, raspy sound to his voice as he was the closest to Mourning Cloak's deadly vapor. Summer Wind has a banged elbow from colliding with a paving stone during her dive and roll. Her brother Silver Fox, for undoubtedly the happily cavorting grey fox who has joined the group is he, has a chilblain on one gum from his father's frigid flesh.
Although as a fox he is unable to speak, Silver Fox understands perfectly well and is able to nod or shake his head. Therefore, on the short trip back to the plaza where Star Hawk and Grey Owl are awaiting them, the boy's sisters learn a bit more about his captivity and current capabilities.
As a natural shape-shifter, Silver Fox could have transformed out of the figurine he was trapped in at any time, but only as far as a fox; without his human body back in the Central Kingdom, he needs a puppet of some kind to assume boy shape. During most of the journey, he was kept in a padded box, so he cannot lead them directly to Mourning Cloak's lair except by the use of his nose. However, when he is shown the map of the search area in the catacombs, the lad is able to indicate a much tighter circle.
Within that circumference, there is only one room recorded which is both large enough and stable enough to suit the sorcerer's needs. It is an abandoned cistern. They decide that they will still divide up, as there are two good entrances. As for Silver Fox, he will accompany Summer Wind's team, for the boy insists on aiding them to kill Mourning Cloak. The catacombs prove to be dryer than expected, and although the men have to duck quite often, it is high enough in places to walk upright.
The two sisters lead, each providing conjured firelight for her group. Next are the bowmen, since they must strike fast and hard, then fade back, or risk shooting their own people. If it comes to knife work, it is agreed that they should retreat if they can and devise a different strategy. Lastly Jonas and Kanu bring up the rear, as the little grey fox has disappeared into the shadows ahead, led by both blood and scent. Each company finds the cistern at approximately the same time. Empty.
Or at least the space is empty of Mourning Cloak, although there are many signs that he has been living here, practicing more than a little alchemy, and has recently had a monstrous temper tantrum. Debris is everywhere: broken glass, twisted metal, blasted stone, and charred bits of what were probably pillow feathers settling gently to the floor. The only areas spared have been Silver Dagger's luxurious bed, and a small table near it. Even the ceiling has streaks of lightning damage.
‘So, what now?’ thinks everyone, but no one says aloud for fear that the sorcerer might be close enough to hear even a whisper. Smoke Cat Watching clears her mind, just as she did when searching for her errant father the first time in the Central Kingdom. She feels him most strongly from the north.
Accordingly, the shaman points in that direction, touches Summer Wind's hand, and cocks her head in question. The younger girl nods agreement. Silently they direct Jonas and Kanu to either side of that opening; the sisters send the archers to guard the other archway, just in case, and so they will have a chance to fill Mourning Cloak full of arrows as soon as he comes through the northern door. No one is quite sure where Silver Fox has gone, although they are certain he reached the cistern.
Smoke Cat Watching and Summer Wind instinctively space themselves about ten feet apart with their backs toward each other, facing east and west, in the center of the room. The first thing to enter, though, is not Mourning Cloak himself. Preceding the sorcerer rolls a massive confusion. Jonas and Kanu stand blinking, stupefied for the moment. Yet the insidious spell hasn't quite reached Star Hawk and Grey Owl yet, for their enemy sprouts arrows through the left eye, right knee, and shoulder.
Grey Owl has just loosed his second arrow when Mourning Cloak snaps his fingers and the two plainsmen crumple like dolls to the ground. The missile still hits the sorcerer in one hip joint, however. "My precious daughters," croons Silver Dagger, posed as if to embrace them, and seemingly unaware of his wounds except that the right arm does not do more than swing uselessly from his shoulder. "You have come to me!" Mourning Cloak is just as intelligent, just as dangerous as ever, but obviously unhinged.
This confusion has been carefully crafted by Mourning Cloak with the minds of his two daughters as a primary target. So, Smoke Cat's head hurts, she's dazed from a spell, but she has something important to do, something she's desperately trying to remember... And Summer Wind's head hurts, she's dazed from the same spell, but there's something important she must do, something she's struggling to remember... In case of uttermost emergency, the two sisters have agreed to call out for, to invoke...
"Mother!" they yell, rich with entreaty and magic. Silver Dagger is pathologically afraid of the vengeful ghosts of his wives. Once again, he makes the sign against evil or angry spirits, and just as he did in his own fortress, dives beneath the bedclothes. However, this time there is no comforting wand of power to be found there. While he is cowering, no one notices a small grey fox carefully lift a vial in his mouth and pour its entire contents into a glass on the bedside table.
Unfortunately, nothing obviously supernatural happens immediately, so the sorcerer crawls back out of bed, limps horribly over to Smoke Cat Watching and growls, "I told you once that you were too smart for your own good!" As he draws back his good arm to slap her though, Jonas slips up behind him.
The two swordsmen by the door have been gradually throwing off the confusion to the extent that now they can move under their own volition but lack any kind of motivation that permeates their lassitude. Mourning Cloak's words, however, invigorate Jonas, and he says in a distant and detached manner, "No one talks that way to my wife!" while methodically drawing his sword across Silver Dagger's throat and severing his windpipe. The sorcerer gurgles hideously and turns to reduce Jonas to ashes.
A soft warm breeze blows between the two men, intercepting the blast of flame and dissipating it as sparkling fireworks high up against the domed ceiling. "I'm afraid I can't do much more than that on the physical plane, my darling daughter," says Bronze Mirror for Smoke Cat Watching's ears alone, "since this... man... only wronged me. But keep fighting; I'm so proud of you! And another is coming..." Then the sense of a ghost in the room subsides so that only the shaman can perceive it.
Jonas's attack on Morning Cloak seems to have broken enough of the enchantment still holding Kanu inert so that, before the sorcerer who has been plucking arrows from himself and crying from his good eye as though making an offering of his pain would pacify a spirit, can think of finishing the job of incinerating Jonas, Kanu's sword thrust from the back enters, although does not go completely through, the heart. This, of course, makes Kanu the next target of Silver Dagger's lightning spell.
Something must be done, and very soon, or Kanu will be electrocuted and possibly also blown apart like a dead tree. Smoke Cat Watching cannot see Summer Wind. Hopefully the girl is well, but she has received no reassuring maternal message so far. No, the shaman must act, protect, defend.
Out of the corner of her eye, Smoke Cat sees fox ears and a tail going to the south door, maybe to try to help revive Star Hawk and Grey Owl. Silver Fox can still think; the confusion does not affect his nonhuman brain. Swiftly the shaman transforms into her own spirit animal and the situation becomes clear. With one mighty swipe of her claws she hamstrings Mourning Cloak, and leaps away before the sorcerer can muster a reprisal. These hit and run tactics are the delaying action she needs.
Meanwhile, Mourning Cloak's wounds have been healing after their own fashion, but much less rapidly than before because there are simply so many of them. Therefore, between attacks by the huge cat that is now his elder daughter, the sorcerer spews out just enough magic to hold the other mortals at bay and drags himself towards his bedside table. He must have that glass of fluid, his preservative and restorative potion, which will enable him to live forever. The devil he called up said so. It was stipulated in their contract, wasn’t it?
Silver Dagger was desperately afraid, after the fall of his castle that, without his wand, something fatal might happen to his body, either by accident or design. He had always planned to live forever; once his son was in his prime, the sorcerer had only to swap bodies with his progeny, and then kill or imprison Silver Fox, whichever seemed more prudent and convenient. Yet this travel promised many dangers, so a second way had to be found. Mourning Cloak then did something crazy; he summoned a devil.
Of course, devils eat souls, so it was necessary to pledge Silver Fox's to the creature, but in return it provided the recipe for a tonic that would make Mourning Cloak immortal. And devils, like demons, or genies, must tell the absolute truth. If only he had known that it would make him so cold! However, the results are more than worth it, and now, having reached the table and taken a swallow so that his voice box has healed, Silver Dagger laughs. "Morons! Didn't I tell you? I CANNOT be KILLED!"
Taking another sip restores Mourning Cloak sufficiently to stand, and threaten, "Even without my wand, I have beaten you all! It is over now. Except for the screaming!" The sorcerer drinks once more, and then sets the glass back on the table. However, he is already beginning to chill further and stiffen from the overdose his son has arranged. And then, with the chiming of sweet bells, Princess Frost Flower appears. "NO!" shrieks Silver Dagger, and quite deliberately drains the glass.
Silver Dagger doesn't even have time to put down the glass. The sorcerer freezes completely into an icy statue, his metabolism not merely slowed, but stopped entirely. Everyone is instantly freed from the spells of Mourning Cloak, except for Silver Fox who is still far distant from his real body.
The children of Princess Frost Flower flock to her, communing silently with her presence. The others, though, gather around the motionless sorcerer drawn by morbid curiosity. "Is he dead?” is the question on everyone’s mind.
But no, devils have wicked senses of humor; Silver Dagger will continue in this state indefinitely, technically alive. "Do you think he's aware in there?" another member of the adventure party asks, turning to the shaman for answers.
"I neither know, nor care," replies Smoke Cat Watching, suddenly very weary. Why does her husband not hold her? "Jonas, what are you doing?" she asks, although the answer is obvious. He is attempting to pry loose the genie gem from Mourning Cloak's stiffened clothing.
"He stole it, it's mine, and I want it back," Jonas says stubbornly. Then, in a softer tone, "I was going to have the inclusions and flaws faceted away, mostly, to make a ring for you out of the best part of the stone. The wizard I spoke with said that it would actually increase the potency of the enchantment slightly to do this."
Finally victorious, the brooch comes free and into Jonas's palm almost with a pop. The recoil from that motion rocks the Silver Dagger statue slightly, he tips, he overbalances, he falls with a tremendous crash, and he... shatters. Some of the interior chunks, although frozen, are definitely disgusting. Summer Wind blenches and turns immediately to rest her forehead against something cool. Smoke Cat stares in horrified fascination for a few moments, then resolutely turns her back as well.
It is then that the devil that Mourning Cloak had dealt with arrives. He is also definitely disgusting to look at. "My part of the bargain is concluded. The mortal known as Silver Dagger achieved immortality. His subsequent death is due entirely to his own negligence. I have come for the boy's soul."
"You cannot have my son's soul, now or ever. Begone!" announces Princess Frost Flower.
"I am owed a soul!" snarls the devil.
"The soul of that murderer there is fair game for you. Now be content," orders the late Princess of the Dawn Gate.
The devil, naturally, tries to pretend to believe she meant Jonas, but the angry ghost mother grows to twice her normal size and the expression of forbidding on her face is formidable. "Take the soul of the sorcerer and go!" Frost Flower commands. And grumbling about evil magicians having tough, nasty, bitter souls, the devil vanishes, accompanied by a terrible lingering wail in Silver Dagger's disembodied voice. "I must go, too, now, my loves; it was only to accomplish the sorcerer’s utter and complete downfall that was I allowed to stay this long," she says sweetly.
After the departure of Princess Frost Flower, Silver Fox and especially Summer Wind are briefly heartbroken, which is why such summonings of departed spirits are reserved for the direst of circumstances. Soon, however, they recover their youthful buoyancy. After all, loved ones are always near and dear to one's heart.
It is time that the small company disperse: Kanu is reinstated at the Academy and also must resume his guard duties; Star Hawk and Grey Owl return to their clans, and more importantly, their wives; a porcelain doll is found which Silver Fox can temporarily inhabit in order to be debriefed regarding his experiences in this adventure; and Summer Wind reluctantly begins attending classes regularly once again, although she will be released on the actual wedding day to enjoy Smoke’s union ceremony with Jonas's family.
Smoke Cat Watching and Jonas depart the next day, after a full 24 hours of rest, for his home village. They have decided to travel there the nonmagical way since the journey is not too long, but quite lovely. After the wedding they will return via Jonas's portals, and still have more than enough time for the arrival of Star Hawk and Wolf Calling's baby. During the trip, the shaman practices keeping a white veil on her head, although not over her face, as it is actually functional in the sunny climate.
Jonas's birthplace is not just near but truly on the shore of the easternmost inland sea of Yimle, and Smoke Cat Watching has never seen so much water. Wild and untamed water, like the winds of the plains; she is entranced. Her husband tells her that the sea can be moody and treacherous, but more often it is bright and open and as clear as crystal where he comes from. The shaman is surprised by the fondness in his voice when he speaks of it.
"Will you be melancholy or marginally content to leave it so far behind?" she asks carefully.
"I love it more for loving you," he says. "Besides, we can visit." Then Jonas winks at his bride. "I can sail a small boat; we don't even have to tell my parents where we're going." For Smoke Cat, meeting Jonas's family is like... like... there is nothing else like it, really. There are dozens of relatives to greet and they all want nothing more than to love her, preferably with hugging and kissing. Her in-laws, Nathan and Rachel especially, are shocked that she is now orphaned, and insist on being called Papa and Mama.
The day of her second wedding dawns clear and sunny, and Smoke Cat Watching feels that she is truly blessed that it should refrain from raining twice in a row. Jonas looks very handsome in his blue and gold, but no one except "Katya" as she is officially named for the ceremony, has eyes for anyone but the bride herself. Katya is really set off well by the white veil and pearls, seeming almost to glow. Then there is feasting and dancing, different but similar enough, and then just togetherness.
Jonas and Smoke Cat do indeed arrive home in plenty of time for the delivery of Wolf Calling's baby, even though the boy decides to come a week early. He is called Red Feather after the white-speckled, red-tipped black Star Hawk feather the proud father gave Song when he learned she was expecting.
Red Feather and Little Dove delight their grandfather White Bear, and for a time, no one at all in the family is pregnant. Everyone stares at Smoke Cat Watching and she stares back with a "nature knows best" look in her eye. Summer Wind's sixteenth birthday comes and goes with less fanfare than her fifteenth, but she considers discovering her spirit animal an early birthday gift and is very happy. She doesn't talk about Kanu much, but when she does, the Academy student has a thoughtful tone.
In the midst of all this joy, the shaman is almost tempted to forget about the dilemma of amnesiac Pretty Girl. She cannot stay in prison. However, once word of her diary leaks, it will be just too dangerous for her to remain in the city under that name. But neither can she return to Rolling Thunder, as the clan adamantly will not have her back. It is decided that she will travel with Summer Wind and Silver Fox to the east, free to leave whenever, and with the only name she has earned: Parakeet.
So, near the end of winter, when the weather will soon be tolerable for caravans, Jonas asks Smoke Cat, half teasingly, half serious, "Would you like to go with your siblings, then, Catkin? I hear brides wear gold in the Central Kingdom..."
His wife snuggles into him, "No, I think Blue Turtle Dreaming wishes to go this time. And perhaps I should not be undertaking an extensive journey just now."
"Because... our child might not like it?" Jonas softly whispers.
Her "yes" is lost in his kiss.
Smoke Cat and Jonas name their first child Willow, since Willows have Catkins, even though in this case it was the other way around. White Bear pats both parents on the head kindly, tells them that their reasoning makes perfect sense, and continues playing with the raven-tressed baby girl. Next come Jason and Sinjin, who, although they are not twins, are always together and even share the same ash-blonde hair, hazel eyes, and lively curiosity. The shaman balks at calling a child of hers Suj, however, even dancing on it, so her fourth child and second daughter Tiger Lily gets a fierce girl's name.
