Jinx lay curled up on his bed, wishing he’d made more chairs.
The room was crammed full of his friends, even after he’d thrown all the extra people out. Hugo was the first to go, after he’d made a scene and forbidden Sean to sit in Jinx’s chair, claiming it was the nearest thing to a throne available. Jinx had lost his temper and chased everybody out, and then had to order his friends to stay, except for Sean, who’d simply stayed in the chair.
Peter and Julia sat on the floor, petting Elanor who lay between them. Mick also sat on the floor, seemingly amused at the way things had turned out. The King’s Page, Michael, sat beside him very quietly, nervous about the remaining friends: the ferret Astral Guard, one of the owl Astral Guards, and Vernon, who contributed the most to the feeling of crowdedness.
Vernon, of course, was not actually in Jinx’s house: he was nearly the size of Jinx’s house. He was, however, able to fit his head through the door with a bit of maneuvering, and laid it in the middle of the floor, taking up most of the room. “Tell me more about Elanor’s being pregnant, Jinx.” he said.
“Elanor’s pregnant?” exclaimed Julia.
“I’m going to have Jinx’s kitten!” replied Elanor proudly.
“Why, that’s wonderful, Elanor!” said Peter, but Jinx cut him off with “What happened to the bear Astral Guard?”
“Oh, Jinx!” wailed Elanor. “I don’t want to talk about him!”
“What? Why not?”
Elanor didn’t respond, and Sean volunteered, “I think I know which one you mean. It was making for the woods when I showed up, I don’t know why.”
“Him.” said Elanor. “His name was Bobo. I was staying in the Lonely Place to try and talk to him. He went crazy when the fire burned him. He didn’t make any sense.”
“You could talk to him? Can you talk to this owl and ferret, too?” asked Michael, wide-eyed.
“No, not any more.” said Elanor sadly. “We’re not in the Lonely Place any more.”
“Oh.” said Michael, confused.
“Does that bother you, Elanor? Not being able to talk to them?” asked Jinx.
“No, except for Bobo. My friends are safe. They’re here with me now.”
Jinx could understand that. He’d never before had so many friends together in one place, and it was a new and wonderful experience. Although his weary body, curled up on the bed, wished to go to sleep, he still stayed up and stretched the experience out a little longer.
“By the way,” remarked Vernon to Mick, “what is your name, anyhow? I never asked, largely because I was busy plotting your demise, but any friend of Monster’s is a friend of mine…”
“Mick. Who’s this Monster fellow? You talking about Peter?”
“Just our little joke, Mick.” said Peter. “My, it’s good to see you again!”
“And you.” replied Mick cheerfully. “And you. It’s been a terrible long time. You been keeping up your practice, now?”
“Oh, fairly well. I wish you could have seen my place in Rainmoor, Mick. I nearly wept to see it collapsing, it was a work of art…”
“You know each other?” asked Jinx, fascinated.
“This here fellow,” stated Mick, “came from Full Hollow. Wouldn’t think it to look at him, would you? Look at them clothes! Anyhow, he studied under me when I was younger.”
“Mick taught me most of what I know.” said Peter. “Rainmoor just put the polish on.”
“You don’t say!” remarked Sean, gazing at Mick with great interest. “So you taught Peter, eh? Did you teach Jinx that spell he saved us with?”
“Now, Sean,” said Peter, “it wasn’t Jinx doing that, no matter what Hugo might think. I’d recognize a Mick hex miles away. There was no mistaking it.”
“Don’t be critical,” said Mick sternly. “Jinx can focus better than anybody I’ve ever known, when he sets his mind to it. I may have been handling the teleport, but Jinx did most of the locating and fixing, and you saw the results. He must have gotten every last person he’d ever seen in Rainmoor. Between him and the dragon I ain’t sure anybody was missed.”
“What else would I do?” said Jinx, fighting back a huge yawn. Peter noticed this, and declared, “Come on, everyone, let’s clear out of here. Jinx deserves some sleep and privacy, after all he’s done. Tomorrow he’ll likely have to deal with Hugo again.”
Vernon agreed and carefully extricated his head from Jinx’s house, coming close to pulling the wall down but managing to get clear without damaging anything, accompanied by cheerful encouragements from Peter and Sean who were the least afraid of him. The rest filed out, and even the owl and ferret left, perhaps in response to some subtle non-verbal communication by Elanor (she nudged them firmly in the direction of the door.) Elanor climbed onto the bed, embraced Jinx, and they fell asleep.
“My liege!”
Somehow Hugo had gotten in, and was standing at the foot of the bed, averting his eyes. Jinx thought that a foolish thing to do: he and Elanor were not doing anything actively shocking. In fairness to Hugo, they were in a position that would allow such activity at a moment’s notice, and perhaps he dared not look closely. “What do you want?” muttered Jinx, trying to wake up.
“My liege, what do you wish us to do?”
Elanor stirred crankily, woken by Hugo’s resonant tones. “Go away!” she snarled.
He flushed. “Yes, Queen Elanor.” he said, and hastened out the door. She blinked, and looked at Jinx curiously. “Did I do that?”
“I think so.”
“Oooh! That’s nice! I can order people around now!”
“Well, don’t do it too much.”
“How much is too much?”
“I don’t know. We might as well get up now.”
“Right now?” said Elanor, wriggling her feline bottom against him. “Without even…”
“Elanor, behave!” snapped Jinx. “Yes, right now. All the people are out there, and I don’t know what they’re doing. Where did they sleep? Are they still there, even?”
“Oh, all right.” grumbled Elanor, getting out of bed. “They slept on the ground, of course. Wouldn’t you? Where else would they sleep?”
“They’re all humans, remember, except for Vernon. Humans hate to sleep on the ground…”
Jinx looked out the window, and there they were, spread out all over the lawn. They looked terribly uncomfortable, crammed together as close as possible to Jinx’s house, as if hoping he would protect them.
He noticed a man standing off at a distance, somebody he didn’t recognize, who seemed to be talking with Mick, or arguing. Jinx was out of his house and heading for them right away, with Elanor tagging along behind him. He wasn’t about to let Mick be hassled. The man became nervous as Jinx approached, but stood his ground.
“Jinx, meet Tim,” said Mick. “Tim, meet Jinx. Jinx is King, and Tim is Mayor of Full Hollow…”
“Damn it, Mick!” said Tim, alarmed.
“It’s all right, Tim, he ain’t going to come through levying taxes and such things. Fact is, he needs Rob to make him a new sword.”
“But how come he brought all his people out here? I got a bad feeling about this…”
“I told you, Tim, them’s refugees. Rainmoor went chaotic on ‘em, and they’re lucky to be alive. We got to be hospitable to them, it’s only right.”
“Well, I can see that. But, Mick, you can see my side, can’t you? We don’t have room for them. Ain’t houses to hold them for a hundred miles. Where are they going to go when it rains? They’re lucky it hasn’t rained so far. And who’s going to feed them?”
“I was hoping you could help out with that.”
“Mick! My farm covers a few acres. Ain’t no way it can support all these people. Tell me you’re kidding! You’re either kidding or even crazier than usual.”
“Neither one.” said Mick. “Neither one. I said ‘help out’, remember? There’s other things they can do. They can hunt…”
“Like hell! They’ll wipe out the whole forest! Mick, you can’t let them do this!”
“I mean hunt in other planes. These are Rainmoor people, remember, Tim? My guess is there are at least five of ‘em who can learn to tap this plane for power, instead of Rainmoor. Would be more, but Rainmoor spoils ‘em. It’s entirely too easy to be a mage in Rainmoor.”
“Can’t say as I’m all that surprised. Which five are you thinking of?”
“Peter, Victor, Aaron, Rebecca, and Vernon.”
“I never heard of an Aaron or a Rebecca.” said Jinx. “How did they get here?”
“I figure Vernon must know ‘em. I knew all of ‘em except Vernon.” replied Mick.
“How? Did you go into Rainmoor yourself?”
“No, but I keep track of rumor and I keep an eye out in other ways as well. Peter grew up here, so my knowing him isn’t surprising. Victor once tried to reach across the planes for my power tap. Wasn’t hard to stop him, but the sheer nerve of it was impressive. Aaron is the Aaron who did the basic work on the King’s Library, and I helped him with some of the details. He gave me a book for my trouble.”
“What sort of book?” asked Jinx.
“Any sort you like. Rebecca’s a special case, she’s been coming out here to visit every year or so for quite some time now. You’ve met her, Tim.”
“Aye. She’s welcome here.” said Tim. “Hell, I guess they’re all welcome here, it’s just a shock. They’ll be wanting houses. You’re sure they’re not fixing to set up estates?”
“I figure they mostly want to go home. It might be a while before they can do that.”
“Can they?” asked Tim. “Isn’t Rainmoor pretty wrecked right now? And if it isn’t, then what are they doing here?”
“No, Tim, you don’t understand. Rainmoor is perfectly fine. It happens to be in some sort of perfectly fine state that involves having its caves and walls shift and change in a way that would kill people. Therefore, the people had to get out. However, Rainmoor itself is unharmed. The trick is to somehow get Rainmoor back to a formation that people can live in…”
“How?” asked Jinx.
“If I knew that, I would have done it.”
Elanor had gotten bored and had wandered off during the explanations. Tim was staring past Jinx with a puzzled look, and suddenly he blanched and groaned “It couldn’t be…”
“What, Tim?” said Mick.
“They wouldn’t… It is! They did!” shouted Tim, and he rushed off toward a small group of Rainmoor people which Jinx didn’t recognize. The people were carrying a dead cow. Mick ran after Tim, and Jinx ran after Mick. When he arrived at the scene, Mick was trying to restrain Tim from attacking the Rainmoor people. One of them seemed to be a leader of some sort, and he ignored the outraged Tim, addressing Jinx.
“My liege, I am Andrew, and I represent the Rovers. As a token of our goodwill, and as a move toward future cooperation, we have found you fresh steak!”
“You’ve killed my bloody cow, you bastard! What am I going to do for milk?” cried Tim.
Andrew glared coldly at the unfortunate Tim, then returned his steady gaze to Jinx. “May I quell this peasant, my liege? His squeakings annoy.”
“May you what?” asked Jinx, at which Mick responded “No! Tell him no, Jinx, he’s asking if he can kill Tim now!”
“No!” said Jinx, shocked. “No, you may not kill him!”
Andrew’s gaze did not waver. “Am I to understand that you take orders from peasants, my liege?”
“I don’t want you killing anybody!”
“Ah. I had wondered what sort of King we’d ended up with, indeed was pleased at the news that the King was a savage tiger creature who went to roam the planes. I had thought this boded well for myself and my followers. Instead I find a peasant-sparing creature without any grasp of what it means to be a King…”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” said Mick, offended.
“A King must be powerful.”
“Oh? Compassion doesn’t count for as much? What do you mean, powerful?”
“My dear peasant, I carry on my person at all times the key to an abandoned museum in the depths of Rainmoor. If this museum survives, or can be restored by magical means, the key opens a chest in which is the armor of King Adrian, armor which, if worn by a King of Rainmoor, will defend against the severest physical attacks. This, combined with the existing protections against hostile magic, can make the King invulnerable. King Adrian had just finished constructing it, when he was stabbed in the back by a cowardly noble who did not wish to see Adrian attain his full Kingly status.”
“Get to the point!”
“By all means. I thought that, if King Jinx were worthy of this honor, I might present him with this gift, in exchange for a position as a trusted advisor. As King Jinx seems not entirely suited for the gift, I suppose I must consider other possibilities. After all, at the moment there are no First Lords, so he who slays the King…”
“Get back, Jinx!” yelled Mick. Sean appeared out of nowhere, between Jinx and Andrew. Jinx moved back one step, and walked into a large, scaly wall. Vernon had moved quietly up behind him, quite a feat for a dragon weighing several tons.
“I don’t think you ought to do anything rash, Andrew.” said Vernon. “In particular, don’t even think about drawing your sword against Jinx. I’d burn you to a cinder, with utter gratification. You’ve harassed me before.”
“He who slays the King, huh?” said Sean. “You’ve got some bloody nerve. Just try it. Go on.”
Andrew had not moved an inch. “I did not draw steel.” he said. “I was thinking of a duel of honor.”
“Go ahead and think.” said Sean. “Better still, go away and think. And don’t come back.”
“No. I shall not leave. I challenge King Jinx to a duel of honor.”
“Or stay and get killed.” continued Sean. “Honor? It’s nothing but bloody vanity, and you know it. What has Jinx done to lessen his honor, compared to you?”
“I will not serve a ruler who takes orders from peasants. This one here,” said Andrew, pointing to Mick, “seems to have the King’s ear. Until this is rectified, I refuse to leave this spot.”
Mick stared back with distaste. “Oh?” he said, and made a small gesture in the air, speaking a word in a strange tongue. Andrew stiffened, began to shudder as if fighting some overwhelming urge, and then proceeded to march unwillingly off through the crowd that had gathered to watch.
Mick watched him go, then turned back, shaking his head. “Peasant!” he muttered.
“That one makes the toadies look good.” commented Sean.
“What am I going to do about my poor cow?” said Tim.
“Ah!” said Mick. “Rebecca!”
A small woman with brown curly hair heard him and came over, saying “Mick! It’s so good to see you. I knew you were around here somewhere, since that teleport was your hex…”
“Rebecca, we need your help. Have you tapped into the powers of this plane yet?”
Rebecca wrinkled up her nose. “Yes, except for it almost doesn’t have any. Are you kidding? What else would I do? I’m probably going to have my work cut out for me, with all this upheaval. People who are thrust into a strange situation usually react either by getting hurt from carelessness or by starting fights. At least, the people I’m always dealing with do.”
“Are you ready to do a raise?”
“Oh, god! Don’t tell me they’re killing each other off already! Do you have a power sink I can tap? Yours ought to be solider than mine, it’s your plane.”
“Uh, I do have a tap but I can’t let you use it without a lot of practice. It’s too unstable. But you won’t be needing it. It wasn’t a person that got killed. This is what we need raised.”
“Oh!” said Rebecca, noticing the cow. “The poor thing! Who did that?”
“Andrew.” replied Sean.
“No, honestly? How typical! When in doubt, kill it. Certainly I’ll raise this poor cow. Hm! It hasn’t been dead long, that will help. Just leave me to it. It shouldn’t take more than a half hour.”
As they walked away, Mick confided in Jinx, “Half an hour, hell. She’ll have it up and around in five minutes. That woman is the most powerful healer in Rainmoor, she specializes at it. She don’t need my power tap.” He headed off in the direction of his house.
Sean said “Jinx, we need to get your friends together and do something about this emergency.”
“What, the cow?”
“No! Andrew. Those ‘rovers’ of his are dangerous, and he’s even more dangerous. I’m sure he’d love to be King. He gave it away, but that’s normal for him. He’ll let you know he’s going to do something, and then he’ll do it. I’m not going to just sit by and let him kill you.”
“Who are you getting together?”
“Me, Peter, and definitely Vernon. I heard him say they’d tangled before. Maybe Julia and that little page boy, what’s his name?”
“Michael.”
“Michael, right. I know he can’t fight, but he does like you and we mustn’t waste that. Hell, let’s even include Hugo. He’s frothing at the mouth to prove himself to you. I know how his mind works. When he looks at you, he doesn’t see a lot of stripey fur, he sees the crown, even though you’re not wearing it. He’s probably holding the crown for you. If you told him all loyal subjects had to walk on their hands, he’d be walking on his hands in a flash. Well, actually, he’d be falling on his silly head constantly, but you get the idea…”
“Is that why he left when Elanor told him to go away? She didn’t really mean it…”
“Did he? I mean, did she? Or is that ‘didn’t she’? I’m sorry I missed that. I’d have liked to see his face. Does Elanor realize she’s a Queen of sorts now?”
“I think so. What do you mean, of sorts?”
“Well, have you married her?”
“No, but she is pregnant. Does that count?”
“If word’s got out, yes. Somebody must have told Hugo. Everyone knew she was your consort, but if she’s carrying your child that adds weight to her claim.”
“What if it isn’t…” said Jinx, and left off, awkwardly.
“Isn’t what? Isn’t yours?”
“No, no! What if it isn’t a child?”
“I’m not sure I follow you, mate. Would you mind explaining that a bit?”
Jinx sighed. “Elanor was born a black panther, and I got sort of made by magic, but I’m mostly a tiger. I’m happy that Elanor is having my kitten, but what if he ends up being just a dumb animal? How could that count?”
“Huh? What do you mean, a dumb animal?”
“It depends on whether I’m a real person or just a sort of fake person.”
“Eh?”
Jinx tried to explain. It was a relief to finally say these things. “If I’m really just a big cat and not really a person, the kitten will be nothing but an animal. Vernon could put spells on him, but he’ll still show what Elanor and I really am. I’m scared of that. Elanor doesn’t understand. She keeps asking whether he’s going to have black fur or stripey fur, whether he’s going to have hands or paws. She doesn’t ask whether he’s going to be dumb or not, because she doesn’t think of that.”
Sean looked quizzical. “How is it that you don’t know these things, but you do know the gender of the kid?”
“Elanor got badly hurt, and Mick fixed her up. When he did that, he found out that she was going to have one kitten, which was a boy. We’re going to call him ‘Mick’.”
“Fair enough. Why don’t you go back and ask him? He might know.”
That sounded like such a good idea to Jinx that he immediately went looking for Mick. Sean, his curiosity aroused, came along. They found Mick in his house, and Jinx questioned him.
“I couldn’t tell you, Jinx,” said Mick, “I couldn’t tell you.”
“Please?”
“No, I mean that I don’t know myself. The sensings I did told me of the health of the child, and there’s an overtone that relates to the gender, which people like to hear about so they know what color to knit the booties. That I’m sure of. What you’re asking is harder. Her womb wasn’t damaged, so I couldn’t peek in and see the color of the little bugger’s fur, which might be purple and green for all I know. And your question about intelligence is even worse. Jinx, there ain’t that much difference between an animal mind and a person mind at that stage. You simply have to let it develop for a while. How could it be anything but blank? Ain’t nothing happening. Give it time. And try not to fret about it…”
“While we’re here, Mick, what do you think of that Andrew character?” asked Sean.
“Just ignore him.”
“You must not know him very well.”
“Well, as it happens I don’t know you very well either. You know him? Why is it I shouldn’t ignore him? I dislike to pay attention to annoying people.”
“He’s challenged Jinx to honorable combat. Then you forced him to walk off. I don’t know whether he’d consider that a breach of honor,” said Sean, “but I do know that he doesn’t make idle boasts. He’ll tell you what he’s going to do, and then he generally does it, no matter what stands in the way. Some of his people, particularly Gordon, are seriously dangerous…”
“Meaning they’re going to ambush Jinx somewhere?”
“He never said he was going to, and he probably would say so if he was. It’s that ‘probably’ that worries me. Andrew knows that if he kills Jinx he’ll become King, and that’s bound to put a strain on his honor. I still think he probably won’t kill Jinx treacherously…”
“Why are you talking like that?” said Jinx, offended. “I can fight!”
“No, Jinx, listen.” said Sean earnestly. “This one’s good. The Rovers are deadly fighters, and Andrew is possibly the best of the lot: him and Gordon. He normally isn’t interested in politics, but he’s thinking about it now. He apparently has Adrian’s Mail, or knows where it is. I thought that was a fable, but apparently it was true. Only a King of Rainmoor can wear it, and the only way he can become King is by killing you…”
“…and Elanor and the kitten.” finished Mick. Sean looked aghast.
“I forgot about that. He’s right, Andrew would have to get rid of the whole bloodline. Hell! We’ve got to find Elanor and convince her to keep her pregnancy secret.”
Julia appeared at the door, with Elanor. “Why would she want to do that, Mick?”
“Julia! You’ve got Elanor, good. Where have you been?”
“Showing off Elanor’s baby. All the consorts are in love with her now.”
Sean and Jinx just stared at each other.
