Kingdoms of Light

FOUR

They crowded around Mamakitty and the revelatory note, Rather than try to read it himself, Oskar waited for her to explain. Strange, he mused, how perfectly her human speaking voice mimicked the serious tone of her erstwhile meows.

" 'If you are reading this,' it says, 'then it means that I am dead, and will not be coming back to you, my closest and dearest companions.'" Mamakitty paused, but no one could think of anything to say—though Oskar thought a small chirp might have escaped Taj's lips, and Cocoa was visibly choked. To cover the naked emotion, she licked the back of her right hand and began wiping at her eyes with it.

" 'I have always felt there was more truth, honesty, love, and common sense in what are commonly misidentified as the lower orders of animal than in a highly conflicted and combative humanity. That is why I never married, but instead surrounded myself with your kind. But now that I am gone, I regrettably must ask you to don human shape for a while, until you have hopefully accomplished that which I could not.

"'The Gowdlands that are home to us all have been invaded by a most dreadful menagerie of creatures human and otherwise known collectively as the Totumakk Horde. They are led, I ascertain, by a necromancer I do not know and whose identity I cannot perceive. Such cloaking power signifies a sorcerer of uncommon strength and ability. I believe that when the ultimate moment of confrontation comes (as it must) that I will be able to defeat him. If you are reading this letter, then it means that I was wrong in the most profound manner imaginable. Though I am loath to transform you into that for which I have sympathy but little love, I have no choice. In your original and natural form there is no way you can successfully do that which I must now ask of you.'"

"And what might that be?" wondered Taj, who despite his slender build seemed more at ease in the room than any of his companions.

Mamakitty glanced over at him, then read on. " 'Should I fail, it will mean that this Khaxan Mundurucu and the Horde that he leads will perforce have overrun the Gowdlands and taken from it all color, for such was the terrible consequence the runes predicted would come to pass in the event of my possible defeat. The tint of Truth, the brilliance of Righteousness, the panoply of the spectrum itself: all will be stolen away. To throw back the Horde into the dark depths from which they have come, color must first be restored to the civilized lands. Somehow, you must find the pure light of true coloration, wherever it survives, and bring it back.'"

Gray-green eyes flashing, expression solemn, Mamakitty carefully folded the letter. She started to put it into her mouth for safekeeping, then realized that her new fingers would do just as well. "That's it, then. That's our obligation."

"Old dead Master doesn't want much, does he?" Oskar snapped at hovering dust motes, scattering them in the light from above. "Bring back some color, is all. As if we could catch such a thing with our bare hands and stick it in a bottle, like milk. Now, if it was a bone—"

"Regardless," the dusky woman growled, "it is our departed master's last wish. We have an obligation."

"Obligation? That's a human word." Sniffing pointedly, Cezer spun around to take a playful slap at Taj, who ducked instinctively and slapped back. "What 'obligation' do we have to humans? None! Don't get me wrong—Evyndd was a good master, as masters go. But remember some of the other humans who came to visit! They would push us away from them, and when the Master wasn't looking, sometimes they kicked and cursed. We all know that there are other humans who do even worse than that to our kind." Spreading his hands wide, he executed a perfect experimental back flip for the sheer joy of trying it on only two feet.

"Let this Horde keep its grayness! I myself can still see and enjoy all that I need to. So can you," he told Cocoa and Mamakitty, "and you," he added with a nod upward in the direction of silently watching Samm. "And you well enough," he told Oskar. "Believe me, all this business about 'color' is overrated. We can see enough of it to get along. Obligation to help humans? I don't think so!" He threw the powerfully built older woman who had read the letter a challenging glance—while keeping prudently out of reach. Though somewhat reduced, she still had claws. "What about it, Mamakitty? How many of our remaining lives do we owe a dead master?"

"We owe him the fact that there will no longer be a master over us." All eyes turned to Oskar. Cezer frowned and wrinkled his nose.

"But you were just saying—"

The other man cut him off. "I was decrying the difficulty of the task Master Evyndd has set before us—not saying we shouldn't do it. Look at us." He gestured meaningfully.

"I'd rather not, if you don't mind." Taj gave a slight shiver. "I miss my feathers."

"We all need human clothing," Mamakitty observed. "Not only for warmth and protection, but simply so we can move about in the world of humans without drawing attention to ourselves. You've all seen how they 'dress.'"

"Clothes!" Cezer shuddered, and not from the cold that afflicted Taj. "Human things."

"Like it or not, we are human now. Maybe we'll be human forever," Oskar pointed out. "It all depends on the Master's spell, about which we still know very little. The sooner we get used to the idea, the easier it will be for us. Think of it. No masters anymore."

"Except for this Khaxan Mundurucu," Mamakitty reminded them.

Oskar nodded, his thick gray mustache bobbing. "Think of all the bad masters who visited here. Now imagine them multiplied a thousandfold and set over not only animals such as ourselves, but over all humans as well."

"Masters above masters?" Cezer muttered. "I admit that's not a very appealing notion."

Oskar nodded somberly. "If we do what Master Evyndd wishes, maybe we can prevent that from happening. All we have to do is bring color back to the Gowdlands." He eyed each of them in turn. "Myself, I wouldn't think we could do such a thing—except for the fact that Master Evyndd apparently believes that we can. We must at least try." He looked to Taj. "You see color better than any of us, so you know best what is missing and needs to be recovered."

The songster nodded slowly. "I wish I could make you all understand what the full range of color is like. Then you'd know why it's so important that it be restored to the world."

Hopping up on a table, Cezer performed a swift pirouette, rendering himself delightfully dizzy in the process. "If you say so. Never having taken anything too seriously, I guess I can't do so even with my own objections. But I warn you now: at the first sign of serioustrouble, i'm taking my leave. for all i care, the Gowdlands can stay forever dark and gray. I can see just fine."

"Seeing without color is seeing without joy. I wish I could explain it to you," Taj responded. "There's no joy without color to dance with. Remember the day that orchestra of humans came to play for the Master on his birthday? Each instrument makes a sound like a different color."

"I would so like to dance to all the colors and not just the ones that we can see," Cocoa murmured dreamily.

"I can always dance in your eyes, my little mouse." Cezer's twinkled.

"It's settled, then." Oskar scanned the study. "We need to prepare. First, as Mamakitty has pointed out, we need human clothes to hide our furlessness."

A rumbling hiss of uncertainty commanded his attention. "What about me?" wondered Samm.

"We'll put something together for you." Mamakitty contemplated the problem of the man-snake's size with her usual confidence. "All of us are going to have to learn how to adapt." Her tone turned disapproving. "For one thing, we will have to learn how to avoid distractions. Cocoa, stop wasting time at that mousehole."

Looking abashed, the exquisite young woman rose from where she had been crouching beside a dark spot in the baseboard. "Sorry." She waved a hand. "I just thought that with this longer reach I might finally get my claws on the tricky little blood pouch."

"Weapons." Oskar's heavy eyebrows furrowed. "We'll need weapons as well as clothes. I've watched humans play-fight. They don't bite each other. At least, the adults don't. I wonder if that means that younger human children are more like cats and dogs."

Cezer was trying, with little success, to lick the end of his nose. "I'm not flattered. Human infants pee wherever they feel like it. No discipline."

Ignoring the other man's comment, Oskar indicated a second door set in the rear wall of the study, behind the Master's desk. "Let's have a look in the storeroom. I always liked to lie in there, especially on hot days. Now it seems I'll have to dig through it to find what we need."

"I'll lend you a paw, Oskar." In a single effortless bound few humans could have equaled, Cezer was off the table and standing alongside his old roughhousing playmate. No one in the room thought the prodigious leap anything remarkable. "Maybe while we're searching for 'clothes' we can find a container that will hold color."

"I'll settle for one that will hold water." Muttering thoughtfully to himself as he followed in the wake of his companions, a dejected Taj resumed his examination of his new hands. "No feathers, no wings—no flying. Maybe the Master's magic has empowered the rest of you for the better, but I feel downright clipped."

A mass of muscle nudged him from behind. "And I feel—liberated," Samm told him. "Don't complain until you've lived all your life as a virtual quadriplegic, and then somebody suddenly gifts you with useful hands and feet. For me, just walking and being able to pick things up with something besides my mouth is a miracle that never ends." He gazed down at the songster. "Perspective is better from up here, too."

"Don't be so sure humanness is such a great present," the songster snapped. "We've only possessed it for a few minutes." He swatted at the pinkish appendage the giant flicked in his direction. "And keep that tongue away from me! Yuck!"

"Sorry." Samm was apologetic. "Old habits, you know." He looked thoughtful. "Just as I've always thought, though. You do taste good."

Not that he felt there was really anything to worry about, but a wary Taj nonetheless edged a little farther away from his lowering companion, putting Mamakitty between himself and the giant.

The storeroom of Susnam Evyndd was no afterthought; no cramped closet space filled up with old books, forgotten furniture, and discarded memories. The spacious, windowless chamber was lined with deep shelves and tall cabinets stuffed with incomprehensible arcana. Cocoa shuddered as she passed uncomfortably close to something gray-green and ichorous floating within a translucent, badly scuffed glass globe. The marks, she noted uneasily, were on the inside of the glass. Even the intrepid Cezer shied away from a tapering cone of dark wood from whose interior faint, insistent scratching sounds could be heard.

Scattered among the intimidating were more familiar and less frightening shapes and objects. Having spent more time in the cool depths of the storeroom than any of them, Oskar led the way. Radically altered his appearance might be, but he retained his memories intact. Sure enough, in the very back they found racks of clothing: the majority intended to be worn by the wizard, but also some items that had been maintained for guests, or left behind by previous visitors. The women's attire would require some minor modifications, but Cocoa and Mamakitty would be well garbed. As for the rest of them, while Taj found himself lamenting the absence of style, there was enough that would be suitable.

The notion of donning artificial skin caused them more grief than the finding of it. As she slipped into traveling pants and jerkin, Mamakitty writhed as if being subjected to a soapy bath.

"This is too tight."

"It's all too tight." Oskar was having trouble with the belt he had chosen until he thought to think of it as a leash on his pants instead of his collar. That narrow band of leather still encircled his neck. The idea of removing it was still somehow—obscene. "If it was loose enough to be comfortable, it would all fall off." Gingerly, he placed a loose velvet cap on his head, forgetting that there was no longer any need to be concerned about objects pressing down on his ears now that they protruded from the side of his head instead of the top. He found they no longer rotated very well, either.

"I don't see what you're all so aggravated about." Hunkering ponderously down before a tall antique mirror, Samm admired the cloak and hood he had cleverly improvised from a huge blanket. "I am enjoying this."

"Why should it aggravate you?" Mamakitty wrestled awkward new body parts into constricting silk. "You're used to shedding old skins in favor of new. We're not."

"You will find that the habit grows on you. Personally, I feel quite refreshed." Pulling the makeshift hood over his head, the giant resembled a marble sculpture that had somehow broken free from a castle portico.

"Weapons?" Making a face, Cezer gave one last desultory tug on the bottom of his shirt. Oskar thought the cat-man looked quite fine. He, on the other hand, felt as disheveled as he had in his wiry gray fur. That was just the way things were, he sighed. Some creatures were destined to look sleek and handsome no matter their circumstances. Then there were those like himself to whom the term well-groomed would never apply.

He put the thought aside. They were not going to a fancy dress ball. "Over this way," he told them.

An offshoot of the storeroom, the wizard's armory was small, befitting Evyndd's reliance on abilities that did not require the application of muscle. But there was enough gear to outfit them all, albeit not always to their individual tastes. Cezer immediately laid claim to a bejeweled, high-pommeled sword that had been a gift to the sorcerer from a grateful client. Cocoa settled for a similarly well-decorated rapier and matching stiletto, while Mamakitty was content with a far less flashy sword. Satisfied with the leavings, Oskar struggled to buckle on the remaining blade. He was still having trouble learning how to use fingers.

They had to cajole Taj to carry any weapon at all. "I'm a singer and a thinker, not a fighter," he kept protesting. In vain, it turned out, as Oskar and Mamakitty outfitted him with a brace of small throwing knives. As for Samm, spears and swords looked like toothpicks in his massive hands, and might have proven as effective.

"These are too small." He laid them aside. "I will improvise something suitable for my size and appropriate to my nature." But with the tiny armory all but gleaned, there was little left to choose from. "I have an idea," he announced cryptically. Exiting the storeroom, he left them to proceed with the next step in their search.

Though they examined every corner, even searching behind the tall wooden vessel from which emanated threatening scratching sounds, they found nothing that looked like a suitable vessel for the capturing and holding of color.

"Would we even know one if we saw it?" A weary Cocoa wiped sweat from her forehead and proceeded to lick the moisture from the back of her hand, lamenting the much reduced reach of her new tongue. "We're nothing but a wizard's pets, and have little of his knowledge."

"I should have paid more attention to the things he was doing and slept less." Mouth set, Mamakitty rested hands on hips and surveyed the chamber. "We'll just have to find something appropriate to store this color in after we've collected it."

"Then that's how we'll deal with it. The next thing we have to do is choose a leader." Pausing in the doorway that led back to the rest of the house, Cezer struck an aristocratic pose, head up, one hand on the pommel of his magnificent jeweled sword, ears pointed as far forward as he could force them. "I hereby nominate myself. Who votes for me?" When not one hand or voice was raised in support, his expression changed to an irritated pout. For a moment, he thought about spraying the lot of them, but somehow that no longer seemed an appropriate response. "All right, then—if not me, who? Who is better qualified as a fighter?"

"Better in this instance to ask who is better qualified as a thinker?" Turning, Mamakitty indicated the scruffy individual standing by her side. "I propose that we confer the distinction on Oskar."

"Him? The living doorstop? The dust mop that eats?" Cezer almost broke out laughing. "You can't be serious! Who ever heard of a leader of a desperate adventure named 'Oskar'?"

"Why not you, Mamakitty?" proffered Cocoa shyly.

"Because I can be too impatient," the older woman replied. "I suspect there will be times ahead of us when calm and reflection are more important than sheer brain power. Oskar is by far the most even-tempered of us all. The most mellow, if you will."

"Also the ugliest," Cezer put in, "though I don't see that as a qualification."

Glaring at the younger male, Mamakitty concluded, "I cast my vote for Oskar."

"If you think he's the right one—" Cocoa shrugged. "Very well. I'll vote for him as well."

"Thank you—I think." Running fingers through his thick, undisciplined patch of remaining fur, Oskar came to a decision and tossed the cap aside. Though light enough, even the slight weight on his head irritated him. So his scalp would get wet—he had never minded it before. "If this is what you all want"—Cezer held his tongue—"then I will do the best I am able. What say you in this matter, Taj?"

"I don't care." The singer was not happy. "We're probably all going to die anyway, so what difference does it make who leads us?"

"Thanks for that vote of confidence." Gazing past the slim-bodied cynic, Oskar squinted. "Where's Samm? His opinion counts in this as much as anyone's."

"He said he was going to try and find something to arm himself with," Cocoa reminded them. "I wonder if he's had any luck?"

Still miffed by his rejection, Cezer snorted derisively. "Probably trying to figure out how to make a dirk out of a fork. His kind aren't too bright, you know."

They located the giant behind the house, by the guest stables. Cowl pushed back to expose his bald head, he proudly displayed his handiwork. The impressive appliance he had fashioned for himself consisted of a single massive granite wedge wrenched from the foundation of the stable. A hole ran through the center of the wedge-shaped stone. Using the tough leather straps of old unicorn tack, the man-mountain had fastened the block securely to a thick pole chosen from a pile of cut logs stored by the side of the stable. Water dripped from the imposing apparatus. Several such soakings, Mamakitty knew, would cause the leather straps to tighten even more securely around the rock.

"That's quite an axe," she told the giant admiringly. "It suits you."

Cezer could still not quite bring himself to compliment his newly limbed companion. "Simple is as simple does," he sniffed. "There's no elegance in it."

Samm hefted the immense adze in both hands. "I did not fashion it for beauty, meower of meticulous complaints."

Mamakitty stepped in before Cezer could respond. "That's enough, you two. We're likely to have to fight some of this Horde, and maybe an evil necromancer or two. Save your belligerence for that." She turned to Oskar. "Time to go."

"Go?" A baffled Oskar scratched absently at his hip. "Go where?"

"Yes, where!" Cezer snickered gleefully. "Lead on, O stalwart and intrepid leader! I hereby knight thee Oskar the Oaf. Lead us—if you can even pick a direction!" Leaning forward, he lowered his voice to an acerbic whisper. "Why not use your great oversize nose, and simply smell us a path? You always were good at ferreting out the most remarkable stinks."

"Though rude as always, Cezer has a point." Looking ravishing (to another human, at least) in her riding pants, boots, and long-sleeved tunic, Cocoa eyed Mamakitty questioningly as they returned to the house. "Do we even have an idea where to go to find this color we're supposed to bring back?"

"Yes, and once we've found it—" Samm began.

"If we can find it," Taj interjected.

"—how do we 'catch' it, what do we put it in, and how do we bring it back?" the giant finished concernedly.

Everyone's attention swung to Mamakitty. She considered silently, then shrugged her broad shoulders. "Hey-ho, pssst —we'll catch each fish when it swims past. Cocoa's right. First we have to figure out where to find this batch of color. After that, everything will follow naturally."

"Unnaturally, you mean."

"Don't be so pessimistic, Taj," Oskar chided his friend. He had always enjoyed Taj's singing, but now was not the time for coddling. "If Master Evyndd believed we could do this thing, then do it we will."

"Boldly spoken!" Drawing his sword in a single supple motion, Cezer thrust it skyward. "Onward, masters of an empty house! Onward to—" He gazed pointedly at Oskar. "Excuse me, dear Leader, but you still haven't said where we're going?"

His brows drawing together, the other man pushed out his lower lip defiantly as he engaged in a momentary orgy of contemplation—after which he turned helplessly to Mamakitty. "We have to have a destination. What kind of color might be immune to this world-spanning incantation of the invaders?"

"How should I know, dog?" Troubled, she walked over to the kitchen window and gazed out at the creek. The rippling water was gray, the trees thrusting up from its banks gray-green, the grass dim and dingy, the wildflowers different shades of dusky gray. Nowhere was there a hint, a suggestion, of the color that had been stolen from the world. Natural light would bring back that color, she knew. To have color you had to have the right light. But in the absence of color there was—

She let out an abrupt, unexpected yowl so loud that it stiffened the hairs on Oskar's neck, caused Cezer to drop to a fighting stance on all fours, and made Cocoa leap instinctively onto the table. Samm did not stir, but Taj took immediate refuge behind the giant's bulk.

"I know!" Mamakitty's gray-green eyes flashed, and her face was flushed with eureka. "There is a place where there is always color. Always! So if the color is still there, then the light that contains it will be also, and we can try to capture it."

Sheathing his sword, a still dour Cezer could not restrain his curiosity—a characteristic retained from his previous state. "There is no such place. Certainly not around here, and where else have we ever been?"

"Speak to your own experience, youngling." Mamakitty was reaching now into the depths of a maturity he did not possess. "I have often gone with the Master, to keep him company on his travels."

"As have I," observed Oskar.

She turned to him. "Then you might remember this place as well." As everyone crowded around, Samm having to bend low to avoid the ceiling, she explained. "I remember it clearly. It was sometime last year, when Master Evyndd went to visit the minor wizard Matthias Seifert in the town of Zelevin."

"Yes, I remember that trip," Oskar commented thoughtfully. "I rode on top of the coach. The footman was very nice." He rubbed the back of his head in remembrance.

Mamakitty nodded and continued. "It took more than a week even by fast coach just to get to Zelevin. But that town is of no importance in this. What matters is the place where the river Shalouan spills into the beginnings of the Eusebian Gorge. Do you remember that place, Oskar?"

"Of course. The road became very steep there, where it winds its way down the canyon. The river was loud, and there were many new fresh smells."

"Where the river plunges into the abyss there is a great waterfall, and always in attendance to the waterfall, or so the Master said when he was admiring it as we passed, there is—"

"A rainbow!" Oskar barked eagerly. "A grand, gorge-spanning, gorgeous, permanent rainbow! Colors, such bright colors, I remember, and"—he met her gaze enthusiastically—"the light that contained the colors. Or at least, those few that I could see."

"Is that all?" Cezer sniffed and wiped his face with the back of his left hand. "There can be no rainbows in light of this hex, and if by chance there is one at that place, it's gone all gray by now, like everything else."

Mamakitty refused to be dissuaded. "I recall the Master murmuring to himself that so long as the river leaped into the canyon, there would always be a wonderful rainbow in that place."

The other cat was not persuaded. "This is the same Master Evyndd, mind, who also wrote that he expected to defeat the Horde and Khaxan Mundurucu."

"Not even wizards are perfect," Oskar reminded him. "You have a better notion?"

"What—who, me?" Mock-startled, the younger man put a hand to his chest. "Who am I—the leader of this misbegotten outing? No, I haven't a better idea. Because there are no better ideas." He looked to Mamakitty, unable to keep the respectful tone entirely from his voice. "So we might as well pursue yours."

She nodded. "I'm glad you feel that way. Let's find some sacks in which to carry provisions, take what we can carry, and be off. The sooner we return with this light of color, the better the world will be for it."

"We should look for one other thing to take with us that we may need in the world of humans." Tongue hanging out, Oskar looked thoughtful.

"Like what?" Cocoa wondered aloud.

"The Master did not speak of it often, but his visitors did. It is called money."

"Yes, we'll certainly need some of that!" The top of his head now being too high for her to reach, Mamakitty settled for patting him on the back. "Good that you remembered it, Oskar."

"We have to have money," he remarked diffidently. "Apparently all humans have some. I wonder how it's used?"

"In trade, and I'm sure we can manage to work out the details." Bending, Taj began searching the drawers of the wizard's desk. "I know what it looks like, and I think I remember where the Master Evyndd kept some. The rest of you, get the food and water together."

Though they thought themselves prepared, it was still something of a shock when, as well equipped as they could manage, they stopped beyond the main gate to look back at the only home any of them had ever known. Now utterly empty of life, in the diffuse gray light the many-gabled house wore an unmistakable air of loneliness.

"This feels so strange." Cocoa uneasily eyed the narrow forest path that stretched out in front of them. "I keep waiting for someone to tell me what to do next."

"Like get back to the house?" Wearing cockiness like an embroidered cap, Cezer started resolutely forward. "We don't have to worry about that anymore. We can go where we please and do as we want. From now on, that's exactly what I'm going to do!"

"So long as you do it on the road to the Shalouan Falls," Mamakitty reminded him. She took an admonishing swing at his head, which, as he had so often done in the past, he nimbly avoided.