Kat Among The Pigeons

by Lazette Gifford

  "You don't think we should keep moving?" I saw worry in his eyes, and fear he had not shown before.

  I reached across the little table and took both his hands in mine. "I'll protect you," I promised softly. "In the ways only I can. Aletta won't get past me. I trusted her before, but never again."

  He gave a tentative smile -- not disbelief in my promise, but trying to accept there could be safety in the world. This place was the best I could do for the moment and Adrian must have understood. He moved his hands a little, his finger wrapping around mine. I leaned forward.

  And Gaylord made a loud cockatiel kissy sound.

  "Gaylord!" I had started to laugh.

  "I don't know what he said --"

  "A kissing sound. The bird is incorrigible."

  But he had lightened the mood. I gave Gaylord more food and made a place for him and Shakespeare to sleep for a while. Adrian and I wandered through the store and I grabbed more cat food. We discussed favorite vegetables. The way my life was going, this was as close to a date as I was likely to get.

  Cato returned after a couple hours -- long enough for me to start worrying. He hurried in with two strays at his back -- a young gray tom and an almost pure white blue-eyed female with a notched ear, a spot of black on her forehead, and a regal attitude.

  "I was worried about you, Cato," I said as the three walked over to the table.

  "Things are getting rough out there. The snow is a mountain high in some places, and the riders are starting to do more than ride aimlessly around. They chased me twice. I think they're searching for you." He flicked a bit of snow off his tail and leapt onto the table, putting him above the other two cats and on level with the humans. "But there's a good side. The more real they become, the more trouble they have with the snow, too. The horses don't like it much at all."

  "Good! And these two are?"

  "Smoke and Snow," Cato introduced the two with a quick nod of his head.

  "We've been trying to find you," Snow said. She sounded a bit annoyed. "Smoke and I live by the big house. The one on the hill where all the people come and go."

  "Stanley Hotel," I guessed.

  "Yes, whatever the humans call the place. But it turned strange today."

  "Strange?"

  "Everything -- changed," Smoke whispered and gave a little shiver. He had a softer voice than Snow. "The building glowed and things changed, and people moving who didn't belong there, who weren't real."

  "Sounds as though this is more than the illusions we've been seeing," Adrian noted.

  Both cats started, leaping backward with their backs arched and their ears back as they hissed.

  "Sorry." Adrian lifted his hands in apology.

  "He speaks." Snow's eyes narrowed in mistrust. "How is it he speaks?"

  "A bit of my magic slipped into him."

  "Humans should not speak." She glared at Adrian, and still kept her distance. Adrian bowed his head and didn't say anything more, though his silence might have annoyed her as well. Sometimes you can't please cats no matter what you do.

  "He is right, though," Cato intervened. "This does sound more serious."

  "I suppose we should go take a look," I said, though going out didn't appeal to me. I'd finally decided to stay put for a while. I should have known better.

  Adrian got his jacket. Cato muttered something about fae who never take enough naps.

  Shakespeare blinked, half asleep. Gaylord didn't even wake. I decided to risk leaving them here for a while and covered the two birds with a magical blanket to keep them safe from any cats wandering in from the cold.

  I put two plates of food on the floor. Even Snow showed a little wonder at the feast.

  "You two should sleep here tonight, where you'll stay warm. If humans arrive before we return, go out the magic cat door. We don't want to give our secrets away."

  "We will." Snow's eyes moved from the food and then to me. "I'll tell anyone else who shows up as well."

  "Good." I believed they'd obey her, too. She had that kind of I am in charge attitude. I trusted her. Cats are surprisingly good about keeping their word, once you pry it out of them. I didn't worry about those two. I did block off the rest of the store, though.

  Adrian draped Cato across his shoulders. The cat appeared to be quite comfortable, and Adrian looked warm.

  "You're going to spoil him, you know," I said.

  "I know," they chorused.

  I shook my head as they both laughed and glanced at the clock as we slipped out of the building. Nearly midnight, the point where magic would be strongest. Well fine; I could use the power, too.

  The glittering shells around the buildings appeared almost real. I could sometimes make out windows and doors. The riders were more real too, and I could hear them speak to each other sometimes, though not in a language I knew. The horses even left prints in the snow.

  The three of us moved silently through town. The snow had stopped falling, but clouds obscured the sky and I suspected the storm would turn worse before sunrise. Because the riders had become more real they actually proved easier to avoid. We could hear them coming, and while we had a couple close calls, we did manage to avoid getting caught. We carefully worked our way around the curve of Highway 34 toward the hotel --

  And there we stopped.

  "You know, they might have mentioned the problem with the riders," I said -- and very, very softly.

  The riders we'd seen in town were obviously doing their rounds, but now we found the full army encampment. They covered the hillside leading up to the distant hotel -- or where the hotel should have been. Instead, I saw a tall building with graceful arches and even a minaret rose into the snow filled sky. I could still see the concert hall, looking normal, but the hotel had disappeared behind the eastern facade. Even desert sand had replaced snow around it.

  Adrian and I backed away to a stand of pines, and Cato tried to bury himself in Adrian's jacket collar to go unnoticed.

  "What are we going to do?" Adrian whispered.

  I peeked out from our cover. Snow and Smoke had been right: whatever building had morphed itself over the hotel appeared to be nearly solid. The walls didn't even glow as much as the others had -- more real, less magic.

  I also noted the riders -- some of them off their horses -- did not go inside. In fact, they seemed to have made a wide corridor between their encampment and the building.

  "We need to get in there," I decided. Both Cato and Adrian made sounds of distress, but they didn't argue the point. "I could use magic, but I'm afraid too much will draw attention. No flying."

  "Praise the Bast and Sekhmet," Cato replied. "I've flown with Kat before and it is not something you want to do unless you have absolutely no choice."

  "Disguise, I think," I said, ignoring him. "I can make them see us as two more of the soldiers. We won't see the change, but they'll see what they expect us to be."

  "So, as long as they don't expect you to walk in the front door, we should be fine, right?" Adrian said. He looked towards the building again. "But if they expect you to try and get in, they'll probably have some sort of spell to detect you."

  "True."

  "We might as well try."

  "You two are crazy. All two legs are crazy. I knew this, but I didn't realize how much so --"

  "You could stay here." I patted Cato on the head. "I understand. You don't have to go with us."

  "Oh, let's just go," he said, but he buried his head in the collar of Adrian's jacket again.

  Adrian trusted me too much. I feared I would do something wrong -- no, I would not. This wasn't much magic, I told myself. Child's play, in a literal sense -- we learned this trick to play hide and seek when we were kids. A fae could see through the spells if she knew where to look, but these were not fae. The more solid they became, the more human as well.

  I cast the spell, tapped Adrian on the arm, and headed for road and the men on guard there. Cato made mewing noises until I tapped him on the head.

&nb
sp; Snow crunched beneath our feet. Too loud, I thought. The riders weren't this loud, they weren't this real, they weren't --

  The guards bowed their head and we walked in.

  Horses with riders moved along the road, going past us with shouts and salutes. I wish I knew what they were saying. No one stopped us. I had started to feel giddy by the time we reached the open area by the building, but I fought the feeling away for fear the mood would make me lose the spell.

  All three of the hotel's vans sat at the top of the road, incongruous with the army of horse soldiers and the ancient building settling itself nearby. Too much technology in them still, and they were holding out against the encroaching magic. They provided cover. We reached the side of the building without incident. I feared we wouldn't have as much luck slipping back out, but I didn't say so.

  I reached out and felt sun-baked brick, still warm from the desert day, where there should have been winter-cold wood siding.

  I headed for the door and Adrian moved with me as we walked into the building -- and into someplace else. The interior had not fully materialized but it was still more than we'd seen in other buildings. I could barely see through parts of the illusion.

  A woman clad in veils walked around a corner and came towards us. Adrian and I both froze, and she walked through me as though I didn't exist.

  Which I didn't, in her world -- even less so than she existed in mine.

  "We can talk," I said aloud. Adrian glanced around, frantic and expecting trouble to leap out at my words. Cato buried his head a little farther into the jacket. "They can't see or hear us. They're not fully here yet. We're seeing myths coming to life, and they have enough trouble maintaining shape and form."

  "I wish I knew how this worked." Adrian watched with worry when two men appeared at the end of the corridor, but they didn't turn to us.

  "I'm not entirely sure how this works either," I admitted. "This doesn't happen every day. In fact, I've never heard of it before. We're watching both whispers of history and the overlaying of a myth mixed with fae magic. It won't matter which is which if this becomes real."

  "Let's see what we can find out."

  We hurried down the corridor. The place seemed to be a labyrinth of passages and I carefully kept track of our path. The people continued to pass through us -- odd how you could get used to something so quickly. However, the walls had become almost solid as we walked farther into the building. I think maybe buildings were easier to make real than people. At any rate, I didn't intend to stay here too long and study the process.

  Adrian nodded to one of the side corridors. "It looks dark that way, almost as though there isn't anything there."

  "I don't think there is anything yet. The building is still in the act of becoming real."

  I saw a group of men pass at the next intersection. A few moments later another group went past. We headed the same way.

  Cato finally uncurled from Adrian's neck and got down, walking a few steps ahead of us, staying well in sight. Like most cats, he let his curiosity overcome his worries. He seemed to find the place more interesting than I did.

  The moment we entered another corridor I could sense a difference as well as see one. Mosaics with intricate patterns lined the walls and sconces with bright flames lit the way at every few feet. The light flickered and cast shadows, even of the shadow people. I could almost hear the murmur of voices, like the distant drone of bees.

  We didn't have far to go before the corridor opened into a huge room, blazing with the light of a thousand candles, and scented with incense so nearly real I almost sneezed. Cato had stopped at the entrance to the room, his tail twitching.

  On a raised dais at the far end sat a man on a throne, veiled women at his feet, and a great, golden-eyed tiger chained to the left of the throne. The tiger turned her head and stared at us -- oh yes, she could see us, even if the humans could not. I bowed my head to her, and silently wished her well, wherever and whatever she might really be.

  The man on the throne was Timur the Lame -- Tamerlane of the poem. The few portraits I'd seen in the books at the library had been true enough likenesses so I didn't doubt his identity. He had the eyes of a tiger, darting everywhere, noting, no doubt, who stood with whom, who bowed their heads quickly and who did not.

  A man knelt close by, scribbling away at things I would love to have read. I wanted to understand everything here and to find answers before we headed back into the snowy night to run like rabbits. This might be a place of answers, if I could discern them from the ghosts and the myths.

  I glanced around at the men. Some of them might be commanders in the army Timur had used to sweep through the Muslim world in the late 1300's and conquer everything in sight.

  The women, I noted, were less substantial than the men, and apparently even less important than the tiger. Only one seemed to have any substance, and I wondered what unrecorded part she had played in history. More men passed through us and into the room. I didn't even notice until a brief film came over my eyes and disappeared as they stepped by. This group proved to be guards and a prisoner -- and behind them came more guards carrying trunks.

  The prisoner knelt before Timur, though not willingly. I couldn't guess who he might be, but Timur appeared pleased. Timur spoke -- not long, but the words struck the prisoner like a blow. The guards took him away, and he fought more than he had before. I didn't want to know what had become of him.

  Timur stood from the throne. The others in the room bowed their heads, and I found myself half bowing as well. Power gathered in this man -- not magic, but strength of a human kind.

  He crossed to the first trunk and the guard opened the lid. His eyes gleamed and he smiled with a brief flash of white behind a mustache. Timur lifted something glittering from the trunk.

  I leaned closer to Adrian, speaking softly despite knowing they couldn't hear us. "I saw a picture of the golden bowl he's holding. It's part of the exhibit from Denver. It belonged to the Golden Horde."

  The glitter of the golden bowl drew my attention. I could clearly see the shape of the handles, made into intricate water dragons. Before I could see more, the golden light filled the room and I lifted my hand to shield my eyes. The glitter died away slowly.

  And then the guards brought in the prisoner, and the scene started over again.

  "This is important," I said aloud. The tiger moved and her head tilted a little. I stayed and watched a second time, and a third. Cato had backed up until he pressed against me, and he watched the tiger with both fascination and worry.

  "The bowl is important?" Adrian asked as we watched him lift it once more.

  "I think so. I still think he needs to have the real one -- or something else he owned -- to help become real. Maybe he needs to touch what he had touched once."

  And the cycle started once more. I backed away this time, the other two coming with me. The tiger watched us go, and I knew how a mouse must feel, slipping quietly into the shadows.

  "Can we get the bowl from Denver?" Adrian asked when we finally hurried away through the corridors.

  "We can't even find Denver right now, let alone the treasure. I think this part will come after everything here is settled, but whoever is trying to make it real is ingraining the scene into this reality. I wish I could find a way to disrupt this place." I put a hand on the wall and whispered a trickle of magic --

  Not a good idea. My power sent a tiny charge of lightning through the wall, a flash of power as I yelped. We hurried away before anyone arrived to find out what had happened.

  Adrian and I came to a gasping stop, only a turn from the exit. I had not dropped our disguise yet, but I reinforced the spell again. He had already grabbed Cato and held him in his arms this time rather than over his shoulders.

  "I wanted to change something here," I said softly. I feared even my voice might bring trouble. "This is the center of the spell. The conquering of the Golden Horde probably really began the myth part of his life, even though he had alread
y gained mortal power."

  "We can't do anything here?"

  I shook my head. "I fear anything I do would be spectacular and messy, and might not help."

  "Could he send Aletta to get the bowl?"

  "Maybe -- but maybe not wise to do so yet, before his power base is set. Being real before he is ready to take over would make him vulnerable."

  "Why don't the riders come in here?" Cato asked. We had reached the door and could see them outside still.

  "Commoners? They wouldn't be allowed into the presence of their ruler," Adrian explained.

  "True. And besides, they're also working with a delicate balance here. What's inside this shell is what they want to be real and creating reality from a myth will take more power. Things kind of work the same way in fae when a legend comes over, though they don't usually have to contend with real world stuff as well. Graceland took quite a while to settle, though --"

  "Graceland? Elvis?" Adrian eyes had gone wide.

  "Yes, Elvis."

  "I want to hear more. Later."

  We moved away from the building, skirting along the cars, staying mostly out of direct sight until we were well away from the door.

  I started to tremble from exertion. The spell wasn't difficult, but the stress had started to play havoc with my nerves. I wanted to take hold of Adrian's hand, and I barely refrained when I thought about how holding hands might look to the others.

  We had a long, silent walk toward the road. Only a few yards left to go --

  And then I saw Aletta riding in with Timur the Lame. Damn. I hadn't expected two of them. The one in the building was historical, and this one mythical. You could see it. This one was a bit taller, a bit stronger and plainly tied to magic, where the historical one could not be. The two would merge at some point -- but not yet.

  "Oh hell," Adrian whispered.

  I glanced around, frantic for somewhere to hide --