"No, but I won't help you if you eat him."
"And what exactly are you going to do if I do eat him?" asked the wildcat. He was very cavalier about the whole situation.
"Uh...not help you. I'm actually a very powerful knight. When I return to my true form, I promise you a place in my castle as a mouser. Then you can eat all the mice you want."
The wildcat's eyes widened. He licked his chops. "A tempting offer."
"In comparison to all the mice you could eat, one rat isn't much of a tradeoff. Besides, look at him...he's barely worth eating."
The wildcat peered under his paw again. Switch had returned to his shocked, waiting-to-die position of not moving at all. "Fine. I expect you to keep your promise," he said. "Swear an oath as a knight that you will honor your word."
I gulped. "I do so swear, on my honor as a knight."
"Good," said the wildcat. "I'll be watching you."
Satisfied, the wildcat released Switch. And then just as quickly as he had come, the wildcat bounded back off into the wilderness.
When Switch had finally recovered from his shock, the first words he telepathically shared were, "You were a knight?"
I didn't answer. I liked to think I was.
* * *
Eventually, the forest gave way to fields. We kept walking, serenaded by birds above and surrounded by a dazzling variety of flowers—blue and white, purple and yellow. Suddenly Switch came up short.
"What now?"
"There.” Switch nodded towards a dark purple flower, so dark that it appeared black. "The violet lotus.”
As we traveled further into the field, there were more and more of the big purple flowers, and fewer and fewer of any other.
Soon, we were in the midst of a great meadow of violet lotus flowers, a sea of dark purple. Switch blended in with them.
"This is my home," he said. "It's where I was born."
"Really?" It made sense.
Switch was nearly invisible with the dark flowers all around him.
"Why here?'
"The violet lotus makes creatures sleep," he said. And indeed, I was feeling very relaxed. "It doesn't work on rats. But it works on other creatures. Come, see..."
He skittered up one of the flowers.
I climbed one of my own to get a better look and before me, lying out across the field, were body after body of every animal imaginable: birds and lizards and toads and other things. There were also a lot of bones.
"It's true!" I exclaimed. "They're all asleep?"
Switch nodded. "Yes. And they stay that way until they die."
"Of starvation?"
Switch didn't seem to know or care. "Or until we eat them."
I shuddered at the thought as I clambered back down to the ground.
"So where is this Rat Queen?"
"Underground," said Switch.
A large hill covered in the violet lotus loomed before us. Switch made his way to a barely perceptible opening at the root of one of the lotus flowers. "In here."
"Do we have to request an audience or something?" I asked, delving into the darkness behind him. "There are no guards? No trumpets?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Switch.
"She's a queen, right? Doesn't she have subjects?"
The passageway wound in a multitude of directions. I could smell other rats, many of them, in the area. But we had yet to see any.
"Subjects? No. Children. Yes."
"Children? You're her child?"
"Yes," said Switch.
"Just how many kids does she have to make her Queen?"
"Many," said Switch.
The tunnel ended abruptly in an enormous antechamber of sorts, where rats scurried about on various missions. Some carried food, others nesting material, and still others ran to and fro from the center of a raised platform of dirt. And there, on top the earth dais, squatted an enormous, disgusting thing.
Calling the thing a rat was a kindness. Its eyes were narrow slits. It had large teeth protruding over its mouth, thin legs and no hair whatsoever. It had pinkish-yellow skin.
"What in Sikkar's name IS that?" I asked, aghast.
"That's Durga, the Rat Queen," said Switch.
"Did that thing eat her?"
Switch gave me what could only be described as a rat's glare. "Don't talk about my mother like that."
My curiosity piqued, I followed Switch into the antechamber to meet her Highness.
* * *
"Who is this non-kaba that enters my domain?" boomed Durga.
Switch inclined his head, the rat-equivalent of a bow. "This is Scrap. He rescued me from Black."
All the other rats stopped what they were doing to stare at us. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable.
"You?" The Rat Queen snorted and sniffed. "There is something...wrong, about you."
"Nice to meet you too," I said. Could she even see me?
"And why have you come here?" she asked.
Why had we come there? I wasn't really sure what to ask her.
"I uh...well, we stole a key from Piper's house—"
"That name!" shrieked Durga. "That name! That accursed, foul, wretched name! Slaughterer of rats! Murderer! The piping flutist that would lead us all to our doom!"
I waited until she was finished ranting. "Yeah, him. I stole this key. And I think this key will lead us to—"
Switch cut me off. "Others who were wronged by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named."
Durga was not fooled. "Others? What kind of others?"
"Children," I said.
The Rat Queen sniffed. "You try to deceive me. You mean human children."
This was getting uncomfortable. "I meant no disrespect. Yes, human children. So you know of them?"
"I do know of them. You encountered many traps in His house, yes?"
I nodded, then remembered she probably couldn't see me. "Yes."
"And a cat?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever wonder why there were so many anti-kaba measures taken in a house such as his?"
I took it that kaba meant her rat progeny. "I assumed that Black had tried using rats before to get the key..."
"No, foolish non-child!" Durga snorted again. Maybe it was a laugh. "He was trying to protect his flute from us!"
"His flute?" I blinked.
"So the flute is the source of Pi—I mean, His, power?"
"Yessss," she slurred. "Yesss, it is. We spied on him often, looking for a means of defeating him after the Great Massacre."
"Great Massacre?"
"He nearly destroyed all the kaba," wailed Durga. "In another city, another time, with that infernal flute of his. Led them right into the river."
"He did the same to the Stromgate rats," said Switch softly. "We were the only survivors. Scrap saved me from certain death."
At that point we had saved each other from certain death so many times that I'd lost count. "You never were able to capture the flute?"
"Noooo," said Durga.
"And Black never intended for you to steal from…uh, Him."
"He leaves that to his Pisachas."
"You mean goblins?"
"Pisachas," she said again. "You were to be food for them, and yet my kaba persevered!" There was more snort-laughter. "And why do you wish to rescue these human children that are locked away?"
I hesitated. Should I tell her the truth? "I think they were my friends, once. I'm sure as a mother, you would understand the loss of your children. For every child that has been missing, there is a parent who is grieving."
"Bah! Humans, what do they know?" She ambled slightly forward, shuffling her great bulk. "And what would happen then? Would they go on to be kaba-killers too? I know of this. Those children worked for him. What good would come of it?"
"It would give Whatshisname competition," I said. "If Black can get his children back, then He will be severely inconvenienced." I hoped that revenge was a sufficient motivation for a hairless, blind rat queen.
&
nbsp; "You make a compelling point, non-kaba. I shall consider this." She turned her head. "You are welcome to stay until I make my decision."
I backed away. "Thanks."
The rats, who up until that point were watching attentively, suddenly went back to their duties and the whole nest was buzzing again.
"That went well," said Switch.
"Did it? I can't tell with her."
"She didn't eat you," said Switch. "It went well."
"That makes me feel better."
He led me to a chamber that was just the perfect rat size, with some bedding and even a piece of cheese. I curled up, exhausted.
Switch's chamber was across the way in a smaller tunnel. He retreated to it.
"Switch?"
"Yes?"
"Is there a Rat King?"
"Pray you never meet him," was all he said.
I thought about that as I dozed off.
* * *
It was the pungent scent of alarm that awakened me. That was how Durga spoke with her children all across the hive, through smells.
The rats were scrambling. Several bounded past my tunnel.
"What's going on?" I asked, groggy.
"The hive is under attack." Switch ducked out of his resting cave, back into it, and out of it again in a panic.
"Under attack? What in the world could possibly attack us here?"
Switch didn't seem like he was going to be much help, so I wiggled past him and followed some of the other rats to an exit.
The place was so full of twists and turns that it was difficult to find my way out. I relied primarily on scent and my whiskers, brushing along both sides of the tunnels, until I smelled fresh air and the sickeningly sweet tang of the violet lotus.
A few other rats had popped their heads up, staring at something in the distance. The field of lotuses made it difficult to see anything.
But I heard them. Gears winding. Click-click-click, whirr.
It repeated. Click-click-click, whirr.
Switch popped up in a hole nearby. We exchanged confused glances.
The lotuses moved and swayed. Something larger than a rat was moving through it, but not so large that we could see it over the flowers.
"What do we do?"
Switch looked at me in confusion. "Do?'
"Do we attack? Do we run?"
"We defend the Queen," said Switch. "There is nothing else."
"How about a strategy? Tactics? Do we have weapons?"
The other rats scampered about, sniffing the air. None of them seemed to be of much help.
"One," said Switch. "But let’s hope we don't have to use it."
I couldn't take it anymore. I scampered out of the hole and through the lotus blossoms. I wasn't going to wait for the thing to show up.
Click-click-click, whirr, came the sound.
Then I saw it. It was made of wood. Painted white, it marched stiffly and mechanically. Its head was a sphere. Wide, staring eyes were painted on it. Two features broke the spherical surface: its protruding nose and animated lower jaw, which opened and closed with a gnashing of white teeth. Red cheeks were painted on the thing, which did nothing to make it look friendlier. One arm swung in cadence with its clicking. The other held a miniature musket. All of this was at a scale of no more than two feet.
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK, went its march. WHIRR went its head as it scanned from side to side. It was definitely searching for something.
CLICK-CLICK. The clicking stopped. The thing was looking at me.
I crouched behind one of the lotuses. It couldn't actually see me, could it?
The clockwork soldier lifted its rifle and aimed. I ran for my life.
KA-BLAM!
The lotus where I was standing exploded, petals flying in all directions. A puff of violet dust sailed through the air, but it had no effect on a soldier made of clockworks.
I ran around it, trying to get behind the clockwork soldier. I could see a keyhole in its back. It was the source of all the clicking. The polished metal gears inside sparkled in the sunlight.
WHIRR. The head turned completely around in a fashion no human head ever could.
It swiveled its body to match its head and took aim again. I ran in the direction of the nest.
KA-BLAM!
The dirt behind me exploded, a powerful reminder that the clockwork soldier's rifle was no toy. It also apparently didn't need to reload. Magic was definitely at work, but even magic has its own logic...
"The key!" I shouted, hopping left and right, "get the key!"
The other rats were scurrying to and fro in confusion. It was mass chaos, and the strange sounds and smells of oiled gears had thrown the nest into a frenzy.
Switch popped out of the ground. Or at least, Switch's rear-end.
"What are you DOING?"
Click-click-click. The soldier had followed me.
Great. I just led an unstoppable enemy right to the nest. Stupid, stupid!
Switch popped the rest of the way out of the ground, key in tow.
"Get behind him!" I shouted. "Behind him!"
Switch looked at me in confusion as I pounced on him, shoving my fellow rat back into the nest and down the hall with the key.
KA-BLAM! The earth above us exploded, filling in the tunnel.
"We need a tunnel that comes out of the ground behind it!" I said to Switch. "Do you know where to find one?"
"Follow me!" Switch took off.
I grabbed the key in my mouth and ran forward...
Only to get stuck in the caved-in tunnel. I released my grip on the key and hurled myself at the freshly fallen earth until it gave way. Then I dragged the key backwards through the tunnel, one inch at a time.
I could hear rats shrieking and the clockwork soldier firing. They were keeping him from entering the nest, at least.
"What good will the key do?" asked Switch.
"It's a clockwork," I said. There was no time to explain further. Switch stopped short and looked up at an opening.
Sunlight streamed through the hole. "Up there," he said.
I shoved the key up through the hole with my nose. It flopped out and over onto the ground—hardly a stealthy entrance. The clockwork soldier didn't seem to notice, though, because I wasn't fired on immediately.
I popped out after the key.
Whirr. Whirr. Whirr. The clockwork soldier stood in a clearing, no doubt cleared from the blasts of its rifle. Its head moved in a full circle, scanning the area.
I could see its back. The gears continued to click away inside it. And sure enough, the key looked like it was just about the right size.
Switch's head popped up. "Now what?"
"We have to get the key into the hole in that thing's back," I said.
To Switch's credit, he didn't stare agog at me like he usually did. Nor did he say, "WHAT?" He just charged straight at the clockwork.
He was going to get himself killed! I dragged the key as fast as I could behind Switch.
The soldier spotted Switch. Its lower body turned to match up with the direction of its head, which was now facing us. It lifted its rifle...
And Switch was flying through the air. Before the clockwork soldier could react, the little rat slammed into it.
Dirt kicked up. With a whirr-click! The clockwork soldier toppled over.
"Wrong way!" I shouted. The clockwork soldier had landed on his back.
KA-BLAM! The rifle fired into the air.
"It's over a hole," said Switch. And he disappeared down into a hidden hole.
That just left me. And the soldier.
WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR.
The upper torso turned and pointed the rifle into the ground, trying to right itself. I had to keep that from happening.
I hopped up on top of it. The clockwork soldier's head spun.
WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR.
It was facing me. I wasn't sure what else to do. So I bit it on the nose.
That distracted it. I looked around. The key was gone!
I hopped up and down on the soldier as it turned back to face me. It lifted a fist, which wasn't a fist at all but another round sphere.
I bit it on the arm. I was making a lot of gnaw marks but not doing much damage otherwise.
The soldier batted me aside. Although it looked goofy, it sure did pack a punch.
The clockwork soldier changed tactics. It just moved its arms straight backwards. After all, it didn't have a spine.
It slowly winched itself up with a CLICK-CLICK-CLICK.
I struggled, still stunned from the blow.
The soldier loomed over me. There was something odd about its shadow...there was a cylinder with a heart-shaped handle sticking out of it.
The key! Switch had done it. He had shoved the key into the soldier's back, but not turned it.
I was jolted into action.
KA-BLAM!
More dirt kicked up behind me as I dashed around the clockwork soldier's back.
There was the key! I hurled through the air.
WHIRR.
The clockwork spherical head turned all the way around to face me. I landed on the key and twisted.
The soldier's body winked out of existence. One moment it was there, the next it was gone.
The spherical head landed on the ground with a plop. There was a moment of stunned silence. Then the rats erupted in squeaks and squeals, the rodent equivalent of cheering.
"We did it!" Even the characteristically dour Switch was excited.
WHIRR-WHIRR-WHIRR.
"What's making that sound?" I asked.
We both looked down. The head was rotating on its nose.
"What's it doing?" asked Switch.
I shoved Switch aside. "Get back!"
The nose fired a blast of flames, launching the head into the air. It rocketed up, up, up...
And exploded in a shower of fireworks.
"Pretty," said Switch.
"No," I said, panic rising in my throat. "Not pretty. That was a signal."
"A signal? For what?"
We had our answer a moment later as the thunderous roar of clicks and whirrs reached our ears.
"An army," I said.
* * *
"That's it then," said Switch.
"You're remarkably calm about this."
"We have to bring out our weapon."
"Your weapon?" I peered at Switch. "You've had a weapon all this time and you didn't use it?"
"You don't understand. But you will. We have to wake Him. Follow me."
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