“More than a hundred years in the future,” he said. “The questions I could ask you …”
“It might take us a while to work out which ones we could safely answer,” Rhiow said. “But maybe you’d let us ask first, since then we’ll have more leisure to deal with your problem. Have there been any attempts on the life of the Queen of late?”
Ouhish looked surprised.“You mean theehhifQueen?Nothing recent. Someone tried a couple of years ago.”
“Did they try shooting her?” Arhu said.
“That’s right. She was out driving—a madman came out and took a shot at her with a pistol. He missed, thank Iau. It’s happened before, too, a few times: usually where there are crowds.”
“Do theehhifhere not like her, then?” Siffha’h said, sounding intrigued.
“Oh, she’s been greatly loved, in the past. But things change.” Ouhish looked a little uncomfortable. “You know that her mate died some while back? They were very much attached. She was miserable, poor thing, and she withdrew almost entirely from public life after her mate’s death. That’s not something a Queen ofehhif can do, you understand. She has duties she must perform. And theehhif she rules saw that she wasn’t doing those duties, or only doing them marginally: and thoseehhifwho’ve been saying for a long time that there should be no Queens any more, but just the pride-toms to lead everything, and decide everything—their way of thinking has been gaining ground.” Ouhish looked embarrassed. “I wouldn’t like to give offense, cousin,” he said to Rhiow, “but I think I know your accent—and it’s a government like yourehhif’sat home that some of these people want, and the Queen got rid of as well. A lot of theehhifseem to think that it will happen in the next ten years or so: or at least by the turn of the century. It’s no matter to them that the Queen has been showing signs of breaking out of her withdrawal, at last. It may be too late for her now.”
Rhiow’s tail twitched slowly while she thought that Ouhish’s turn of phrase was unfortunate.
“Well,” Rhiow said. “That’s all rather sad. There are other dangers lying in wait for her as welclass="underline" perhaps another assassination attempt … we don’t know for sure. One of the things we came for was to try to find out a date on which the attempt might happen, so that we might prevent it.”
Ouhish looked shocked.“Do you have any clues at all?”
“We saw them burying her on the fourteenth of July,” said Arhu, “in a universe close to this one. We don’t know how long might have elapsed between her funeral and whatever happened to her …”
“I would doubt it would have been as far back as the first of the month, if they were burying her on the fourteenth,” Ouhish said. “But it could be almost any time between, say, the fifth and the eleventh. For surely they would let her lie in state for a little time—” His tail was lashing. “Cousins, this is terrible news!”
“If you can spread it where it will do some good,” Rhiow said, “you may be able to help prevent the attempt from succeeding. We may be able to help as well, but we also have other business to attend to, which, believe it or not, may be even more important. One thing I have to ask you: have there been any strange occurrences in London lately?”
“Strange occurrences?”
He looked confused, but Rhiow was unwilling to help him, and possibly lead him in a direction that wouldn’t be fruitful. Ouhish thought for a moment, then said, “You know … there have been a lot of madmen about.”
“Madmen?” Siffha’h said.
“Ehhifroaming the streets and raving,” Ouhish said. “I remember one of ourehhifhere in the museum mentioning a story in one of the newspapers. One of the story-writers attributed it to the full of the Moon just being past …”
“I wonder if some of those might beehhif who stumbled through our gate and into this time,” Urruah said softly. “That’s something that’s going to have to be looked into.”
“Onemoreproblem,” Arhu muttered.
“Yes,” Rhiow said.
Ouhish’s tail was lashing. “It’s all hard to believe,” he said. “But youarewizards … But still, what could be more important than the Queen dying?”
“What might follow it,” Arhu said, “in another universe. A war, fought with weapons you can’t imagine … one which would cause a terrible winter to fall over the whole world. A winter that might never end …”
Ouhish’s head snapped up: he stared at Arhu. “Youweresent,” he said. “Youarethe wizards I sent for!”
“We are?” Arhu said. “Why?”
“Come on,” Ouhish said, and jumped up. “Come on, quickly. It’s not me you need to be talking to: it’s Hwallis.”
“Hwallis?” Rhiow said, now completely bemused.
“That’s right. He’s anehhif.Come on, I’ll take you upstairs and introduce you. He won’t have gone off for his midday feed yet. Not that it’s ever easy to get him to go. He hates leaving this place—”
Ouhish practically ran out of the New Library: they all had to trot to keep up with him. Hurriedly Ouhish led them back out the way they had come into the Vestibule, then off to the right and up the main staircase to the second floor. They came out into a splendid great space roofed over with glass and with a high gallery or balcony around it, all filled with ancient bas-reliefs of wingedehhifwith high crowns, beautifully carved lions, and big-shouldered bulls.
“Down this way,” Ouhish said, and led them down a long wide hallway to the right, skylit by more glass roofing above. Both sides of this hall were lined with statues and sarcophagi of the firstehhifwho had really conversed easily with People, the Egyptians: artwork and carving and papyrus were everywhere, in astonishing profusion, so that even Urruah, who wasn’t much of a fan of the plastic arts, stopped to stare at some of the jewelry, gems and gold glinting, in that subdued light, like a Person’s eyes in the dark.
Despite her curiosity to find out what Ouhish was carrying on about, Rhiow herself had to stop and admire what was simply a most splendid statuary group of Queen Iau and her daughters, only slightly marred by the tendency ofehhifof the period to put human bodies under the feline faces, as a symbol for human-like intelligence but feline nature. Aaurh the Mighty stood there, the Destroyer by Flame, the Queen’s champion, wearing the horned sun, the terrible fire with which she warred on the Queen’s enemies: and Hrau’f the Silent beside her, the Whisperer, with a roll of papyrus to show that she kept the records of the universe, and passed them on to those who needed them. By them was her brother,the Queen’s lover, the Old Tom, Urrau-who-Scars, Urrau Lightning-Claw: and a little separate from the others, her body turned from them but her face toward them, ambivalent as always, sa’Rrahh, mistress of the Unmastered Fire, lioness-headed lady of the stillbirth and the birth that kills the queen in labor, but also mistress of the Tenth Life: the Lone Power in Its feline recension, deadly, but never to be scorned, for some day she would be forgiven and rejoin the Pride. Paramount among them all stood Queen Iau, a Person’s head set rather incongruously on the human shoulders, but wearing a look of indomitable wisdom, power and compassion: and Rhiow put her whiskers forward. “Ehhifthe artist might have been,” she said, “but whoever made this, he or sheknewThem. Blessings on him or her, wherever that one might be in the worlds …”
Ouhish had stopped to let them catch up: he put his whiskers forward at Rhiow.“Interesting,” he said, “but Hwallis says something very like that. Come on: I want you to meet.”