The Feline Wizard

CHAPTER 14

“Take him, maiden!” the white-clad soldier snapped.

“Yes, take him, for we cannot!” said another soldier, coming right behind her.

“Aye!” said the first. “He is no use to us, that's certain!”

Balkis was on her feet and clinging to Anthony's arm, afraid he would fall, for he blinked around at the room, not seeming to understand where he was. “What have you done to him!”

“Everything we could short of rape. ” Another soldier followed the first through the door with two more behind her, all clad like the first with their flowing hair unbound. “Stripped him naked and stripped ourselves, slowly and with every enticement we knew—and it did some good, as anyone could see, but not enough. Again and again he stammered that he had to refuse our kind invitation, saying he must be loyal to you.”

“We accused him of being virgin, and therefore afraid of the power of the pleasures we would give him,” another soldier said, “and he told us there might be truth to that, but still must he be loyal to his traveling companion.”

“We assured him there was nothing to fear and every pleasure to gain, that we would ease him gently from his virgin state,” the fourth soldier said, “and he thanked us, did you not, pale lad?”

That brought Anthony a little out of his daze. “Aye! How else could I respond to so kind an offer?”

“Aye, how could you?” the soldier said in disgust. “And you did not, to be sure!”

“As though we stood to gain nothing by our generosity” the first said with sarcasm.

“We danced for him, we offered him wine, we caressed and kissed him,” the second said, fuming, “but still he stood rigid and protested he must refuse our kind offer.”

“In the end, we dressed him and brought him back to you,” said the first, lip curling in a sneer. She rounded on Balkis. “Why did you not tell us you are betrothed?”

“Why… because we are not!” Balkis gasped.

“In love, then—so deeply in love you might as well be engaged,” the first soldier said. “Why, when we pressed him to take advantage of the opportunity he turned red-faced and stammered that he had to be faithful to his little cat.” She wrinkled her nose. “He calls you endearments, and you do not know he loves you?”

“Well… perhaps I suspected …” Balkis didn't think it was time to explain that “little cat” was only a statement of fact, not an endearment—or was it?

“Take him and go.” Alantha rose to her feet.

“Aye, take him, for he will surely be no use to us!” one of the soldiers said.

“We must respect such loyalty—it is a quality soldiers understand,” Illior said, though she looked disappointed. “He has won you safe passage through our land, maiden, and so shall we tell the queens. It has been fifty years and more since a man so refused us through loyalty to his love.”

Alantha stepped close. “If he is so much in love with you, you are a fool if you remain a maiden much longer.”

“Per-Perhaps …” Balkis said, but her face flamed scarlet at the thought.

“If you do not realize the worth of what you have in him, you are truly a fool,” Alantha said bluntly. “If you do not bind him to you with every tie you know of, you are a greater fool still.”

“I … I shall ponder what you say.” Balkis lowered her gaze, then looked up again at Anthony's face, anxious at his numbness, the trance in which he seemed to stand.

“You may stay the night.” Alantha stepped aside from the inner doorway. “You will find the bed wide and soft, and if you have any sense about you, you will put it to good use.”

“Thank—Thank you. But… we …” Balkis glanced again at Anthony, and saw that she would have to do the thinking for both of them. “You … are very kind, but I think … yes, I think that we had better go while we may. You have been very hospitable, but we have many miles yet to walk and must use every minute of daylight left.”

“Go, then.” Alantha nodded at the white-clad soldiers, who stepped aside from the outer doorway. “Go in peace, but go quickly, for though we respect his loyalty, there is something within us that must believe it is an insult.”

Balkis took her Anthony, and went—and as she steered him down the road and out of the village, she marveled that he did indeed seem to have become her Anthony—for if the soldiers spoke truly, he most certainly was that.

The thought made her a little afraid. Afraid, but also excited-—and that excitement made her even more afraid.

Matt and Stegoman came flying over the roadway, noticing how the desert had bloomed and turned from rock to scrub growth to verdant pasture and luxurious woodland. “We seem to be coming to a water source,” Matt opined.

“Perhaps it is the drainage from that range of mountains we passed some days ago,” Stegoman offered.

“That would make double sense—why this side is green and the northern side is desert,” Matt said. “I have to say this for Prester John—at least he keeps communications open. The road just keeps going, straight through the mountains and the desert, even here hundreds of miles south of Maracanda.”

“It is wise for merchants as well as soldiers,” Stegoman pointed out.

Dimmed by distance, Matt heard something thudding. He looked up and stared. “Friend, that ain't no caravan!”

Stegoman lifted his neck, gaining a higher view of the sparkling mass that had come in sight over the horizon. “Indeed not. It fills the roadway and twinkles as it goes.”

“I suspect that twinkling comes from the movement of marching—of the marching of armored soldiers,” Matt said. “The only organism I know of that moves to the beat of a drum is an army! Let's get a little more altitude, Stegoman— say, out of crossbow range.”

Stegoman felt for a thermal and tilted upward. “Ought we not avoid them completely?”

“An army marching northward, toward Prester John's territory? I think we owe it to him to take a quick survey, don't you?”

“We owe him nothing,” Stegoman grumbled, but flew south toward the army anyway.

Before they could reach it, however, the soldiers turned west onto a side road—a very wide side road; if Matt hadn't known better, he would have suspected it had been made specifically for moving troops. Come to think of it, he didn't know better. “Follow those soldiers,” he directed.

Stegoman glided over the marchers. Matt frowned down at them. “This isn't what I've been thinking of when I said I wanted to stop and ask anybody I saw, but hey, they could have seen Balkis as easily as the next man.”

“I doubt it,” Stegoman said dryly. “One sight of them and the lass would have hidden, if she had any sense.”

“Don't worry—I'll just ask them if they've seen a cat.”

“Pardon me if I think they may have ignored her,” Stegoman told him. “Cats can scarcely be a rare occurrence in so fruitful a land.”

“Well, it's worth a try, anyway,” Matt sighed. “Just land on the other side of that grove up there ahead, will you? I'll walk back to the road.”

“And if they decide to shoot you with their crossbows before you can come near them?”

Matt considered. “I'll sing the finale of Iolanthe. Meet me in midair.”

“That would not be much of a change,” the dragon grunted, but he landed as asked.

Matt clambered down. “Okay, back into the skies, soarian. If they get mean, I'll just start singing 'Up in the air, sky high, sky high…'”

“And I shall meet you on a zephyr. Aye, I know. How if they welcome you?”

“Well then, when I'm done talking, I'll hike back behind the grove again.”

“I shall hope to land before I meet you again, then,” Stego-man told him, “but I shall be watching you, never fear.” He leaped into the air in a thunder of wing-beats.

“I'd say something about Big Brother, if he were only my species,” Matt said to himself, then plunged into the grove, heading for the road.

He emerged while the soldiers were still five minutes away, so they had time to get used to the sight of him. It turned out to be a better plan than Matt had expected because he needed time to get used to them. Admittedly, for a man married to a queen who led her own troops into battle, the sight of female armor wasn't a surprise, but the sheer numbers were. He hadn't counted, but he was sure this army had to number more than a thousand—maybe more than three or four thousand.

He stood waiting. When they were close enough, he waved; after a pause, the leader raised her spear in salute. When she was ten paces from Matt, she called a halt, and the company stamped to a standstill. She bawled another command, and they all leaned on their spears—gratefully, Matt thought.

The officer paced up to him, junior officers flanking her. “Hail, wanderer!”

Matt understood her, of course—his translation spell seemed to have made a permanent change to his nervous system— but he hadn't expected to hear her speaking the language of Maracanda. Mind you, it was so heavily accented that he might not have recognized it without the spell, but it was Maracandese nonetheless.

“Hail,” he said. “My name is Matthew Mantrell.”

“I am ten-thousand-leader Liharl,” the officer replied.

Ten-thousand-leader? Matt allowed for exaggeration and mentally converted her rank to colonel. He wouldn't ask about troop strength, though. There was such a thing as bad manners in the military.

“Why have you come to the Grand Feminie?” Colonel Liharl demanded.

Now, that was a surprise—but if Prester John was real in this universe, there was no reason why the places he described in his letter to the Pope shouldn't be real, too. “I'm sorry to interrupt your progress, officer, but I'm looking for a young woman who's been kidnapped, and I was hoping you had seen her.”

“A woman kidnapped to the Grand Feminie?” The officer frowned. “Scarcely likely. Women who have been badly used come to us of their own accord.”

“Actually, this young woman might have escaped from her captors and be trying to walk home,” Matt said. “She's young, about eighteen, dark-haired, golden-skinned—”

“You describe all the young women of Maracanda!”

“Yeah, that's her, Maracandese. Haven't seen any of them this far south, have you?”

“There are several in our army,” the officer told him, “but none newly come, nor have we met any on the road.”

“I was afraid of that,” Matt sighed. “You do have cats here, don't you?”

“Thousands of them.” The woman frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“She, ah, has an affinity for the beasts,” Matt said, “and if they were rare here, and you'd seen only one…”

“That would have been a sign of her?” The officer smiled. “Clever—but in this country it would mean little.”

“Oh, well, it was worth a try.” Matt bowed. “Thank you for your time, officer. Sorry to hold you up.” He started back to the grove.

The colonel snapped out a command, and her two subordinates caught Matt by the arms. He looked up, startled. “No reason to arrest me, officer. I realize you're on campaign, but I don't know your opponents.” He hoped she didn't want him to prove that.

“How did you know we march to war?” the officer asked, frowning.

Matt glanced back at rank upon rank of soldiers. “Just an assumption I make when I see a few thousand soldiers on the march. Hey, I promise I won't tell.”

“There is no harm in your knowing, since you will not be going before us,” Colonel Liharl said. “We march ten thousand strong to overawe the barbarians on our western border, and ten more armies like ours go to the battlefield by other routes.”

Matt felt a chill down his back; the only time officers gave away military information was when they were sure the spies weren't going loose to take it anywhere. “Very interesting, but my business lies to the south, so if you'll excuse me …”

“We will not,” the colonel told him. “Our rule is that no man may enter the Grand Feminie for longer than nine days, and no matter your questions, there is only one reason why men come here. Soldiers!” She rattled off a list of names; Matt managed to make out Adonitay as a single word, but the others ran together in unfamiliar syllables. Half a dozen young women stepped forward, striking their spears against their shields in what he assumed was a salute.

“Take him back to Asusu City,” the colonel said, “and accord him every hospitality. See that all his wishes are granted.”

The young women looked annoyed, but the one with extra horsehair in her crest stepped up to take Matt by the arm, and her companions surrounded him.

“About face,” the extra-crest soldier—Matt assumed she was a corporal—told him.

Matt sighed and turned, deciding he would go along since they didn't seem to be planning any particular mayhem. He'd get a good night's sleep in a civilized bed, at least, have a good breakfast, bid them a good morning, and be on his way.

The corporal led her little troupe off to the side of the road and marched them back the way the army had come. Matt was surprised to see envy on the faces of the soldiers as they passed—he'd thought they were gung ho military, eager for battle, but it looked as though every one of them wished she were going back to Asusu with them.

There were a lot of them. He had assumed the officer was exaggerating when she said her force was ten thousand strong, but he began to think she might not have been so far off at that. Each rank had five women, and he stopped counting ranks after five hundred. They went on and on, and after the soldiers themselves, there were teenage girls steering rank upon rank of carts, horses, and elephants loaded with equipment and provisions. The army seemed to go on forever.

Of course, he couldn't wait that long to go after a little information, so he asked, “Is this, uh, a regular custom of yours, to welcome male visitors?”

“Aye,” the corporal said, “the few who have the courage to come.”

Considering all the well-armed women he was passing, Matt could understand that the occasional male visitor might feel a little outnumbered. “Might as well get acquainted, if we're going to be road companions. My name is Matt.”

“I am Adonitay.” The corporal inclined her head in polite greeting. “Be welcome in the Grand Feminie—for nine days. Ladies, greet him.”

“Welcome, stranger,” the privates chorused. Matt glanced back, saw them nodding, and inclined his head in return. He noticed then a strange suppressed excitement about them; they fairly seemed to glow.

“You will have to pardon us if we seem short with you,” Adonitay said.

“Oh, I understand,” Matt assured her. “I'm making you miss out on the action. Sorry about that.”

Adonizeb gave a mirthless bark of laughter. “We regret missing action, truly enough, but not in battle, and it is certainly not your fault, but that of the stranger who was here two nights ago and was too much the fool to take advantage of his good fortune.”

“Oh. A bad guest, huh?”

“Very bad,” Adonitay said, seething, “though we could scarcely condemn him for loyalty to the woman who traveled with him and her need to speed their journey.”

Mart's mental ears pricked up. “Woman? His mother, maybe?”

The privates laughed, and Adonitay smiled, choking down glee. “Only if a mother could be a year or two younger than her son.”

“Oh? A young couple, setting out in life?”

“On their way to Maracanda, so she said,” Adonitay answered.

“So she could have rested for nine days, by your law?”

“As long as she wished, but of course she was as loyal to her traveling companion as he to her, and we do not allow men to stay longer than nine days.” She glanced at Matt sidelong and hinted, “A day to Asusu and a day back to the border.”

Matt took the hint; it left him an even week of hospitality, not that he was about to take advantage of it. He hated to eat and run, especially after they'd apparently just had a case of such rudeness—poor things must be hungry for news of the outside world. Well, he'd tell them what he could before he went to bed. “So you didn't even let them stay the full week?”

“We sent them on their way that very night,” Adonitay said. “They could have stayed till morning, mind you, but they chose to leave directly—she was in a great hurry to reach Maracanda.”

A very great hurry, no doubt, and Matt was sure that the young woman was Balkis. So she was traveling with a young man, was she? He could only think of one reason, and hoped he was right—Balkis in love with somebody her own age would certainly save him the embarrassment and difficulty of having to quietly discourage her interest in himself. And what could it be but love, when she could travel more safely as a cat than as a beautiful young woman, attaching herself to a caravan as resident mouser instead of road companion to a lone young man?

He must have been very trustworthy for her to take the chance—and from what Adonitay said, he was certainly faithful. Matt wished him all the best.

Matt resolutely put the young couple out of his mind. He'd stay the night, he told himself, then sneak out in the false dawn and call Stegoman—he was sure the dragon would be following him and would hide near Asusu and wait. There was the outside chance that Stegoman might attack Adonitay and her soldiers, thinking he was a prisoner—a reasonable assumption, after all—but Matt didn't think so. Stegoman was the soul of discretion. Total surprise made his attacks all the more terrifying.

No, no reason to worry about the dragon. Matt decided to concentrate on being a good guest, and wondered why Balkis' boyfriend hadn't taken advantage of his good fortune.

He found out in Asusu, when the fortune turned out to be a little too good.

Adonitay and her soldiers led him into a military compound right inside the main gate—but they went past the barracks to a smaller, circular house.

“This is the house for male guests,” Adonitay told him. “Will you enter?”

“Why, thanks,” Matt said, and stepped through the door into a sybarite's' dream.

The circular room had to take up most of the house, and the floor was one giant mattress, covered with soft rose-colored fabric, firm, but yielding enough under his step so that he stopped, afraid to damage it. Islands of cushions cropped up here and there, mostly around a low table that held a hookah, which Matt suspected did not hold tobacco. But the most outstanding feature of the room was the dozen young women kneeling on the floor, who stood up in a single sinuous movement and advanced upon him with low-voiced, throaty words ofwelcome.