Kingdoms of Light

between them.

'Always the complainer.' Nearby, Cocoa had risen and was using her right paw to inspect a freshly fallen meatfruit. 'Who's for breakfast?'

Gathering around a pile of suitable eats, they fell to discoursing freely among themselves while dining at their leisure. Smegden joined them, in no hurry to rush off before eating. Indeed, Oskar mused, there seemed to be no reason for animal folk to hurry anywhere in this relative paradise. What real work there was to be done fell within the province of the much more active enchanted ones.

'You know,' mouthed Cezer, his cheeks bulging with the meatfruit of the moment as he ruminated reflectively, 'this is a pretty nice place.'

'Very nice,' agreed Samm from somewhere within his coils.

'Exceedingly nice,' Cocoa added unnecessarily.

'It's so nice,' Cezer continued, 'that we might consider staying here.'

Oskar eyed his companion narrowly. 'You mean, you might consider returning after we've carried the white light back to the Gowdlands.'

Instead of meeting the dog's eyes, the golden feline contemplated the sky through branches heavy with lavender-tinged leaves and fruit. 'Not exactly. I was thinking that this might be the most propitious possible ending to our journey.'

'What about the inhabitants of the Gowdlands?' Mamakitty's tone was accusing, but Cezer refused to back down.

'What about them? I know all of this was discussed earlier, but that was before we had risked our lives ten times over, and long before we knew a land such as the Kingdom of Purple existed outside the country of wishful thinking. What if our luck is running out? How many narrow escapes can we reasonably be expected to survive? This place has everything we could want: free food that falls from trees, clean air, pure water, and industrious enchanted folk to keep everything running smoothly. It's more than a refuge; it's a kind of heaven. A singularly purple heaven, to be sure, but a heaven nonetheless.

'As for the people of the Gowdlands, what did they ever do for us? I'm sorry they're suffering—I don't like to see anyone suffer. But to tell the truth, I feel no especial affection for them. They're humans; we're not.'

'You were once,' Oskar reminded him, 'and can be again.'

'Why?' This time Cezer raised his gaze to meet those of his friends. 'From everything we've experienced and everything I remember from my life as a cat, humans have a tough time of it.' He spread both forelegs as wide as his quadrupedal shape would allow. 'I'm more used to being a cat than I am to being a man. This isn't such a bad way to spend one's life. Of course,' he added thoughtfully, 'if I was forced to spend it as a dog…'

Mamakitty stepped between them. 'That isn't the point.

We swore to carry out Master Evyndd's last wish, which was to aid those in need. What about that, Cezer?'

The tomcat looked uncomfortable. 'Master Evyndd was a good person, even if he wasn't cat. But Master Evyndd is dead. We're not.'

'So you think that cancels out the debt?' Oskar challenged him.

Cezer held his ground. 'Spoken like a true dog. A fawning, slavishly affectionate, drool-dripping dog who'll cut off his left ear in return for a pat on the head.'

Mamakitty spoke before an increasingly angry Oskar could reply. 'There are among cats those for whom the word loyalty is not only for dogs.'

Cocoa joined the discussion. 'By my count, you owe Master Evyndd for about two thousand bowls of milk, a hundred and fifty pounds of meat, uncounted table scraps, assorted chunks of cheese, and enough catnip to stun a cougar. Have you no gratitude, no sense of honor?'

'I couldn't turn my back on the Master's last wish,' Samm announced with finality.

Cezer glared at the python. 'Do you even have a back? Oh, all right!' he hissed. 'I refuse to have my honor as a cat impugned by a snake. But I think you're all mad.' Turning, he trotted off toward a tree where some wallabies were playing ball with a coterie of meerkats and bonobos.

Oskar remembered the smallest member of their party. 'Well,' he asked the songster, 'we haven't heard from you, Taj. What's your opinion?'

The canary pushed out his purplish yellow chest. 'I owe Master Evyndd everything. If not for him I would be nothing more than a bird in a cage. I mean,' he added quickly, 'I would not have been given the opportunity to participate in so important a journey.'

Oskar nodded, then looked seriously at Cocoa. 'Do you think maybe Cezer's right? That we should put aside our task and remain here?'

She shook her head, as pert in feline form as it had been in human guise. 'What kind of animals would we be if we abandoned the one important undertaking we had ever been given? Not by a master: that's only a word. Myself, I always thought of good Evyndd as a friend. A large, clumsy, ungraceful, but well-meaning friend.' She nodded once. 'I'll see this undertaking through to the end—for my friend.'

'Spoken like a true cat,' Mamakitty murmured admiringly. Pivoting, she presented her tail. Held high, the tip provided a comfortable perch for the smallest member of their expedition. 'I'm sure that once we've located the white light, Cezer will realize where his loyalties lie and come to his senses.'

'What 'senses'?' Cocoa growled. 'The word doesn't apply to Cezer. Pfft! The only senses that cat possesses are base ones.'

'Don't be too harsh on him,' Taj told her. 'This place calls strongly even to me.' He punctuated his point with a brief but joyful burst of song. 'The temptations are many.'

She sniffed grudgingly, whiskers bobbing. 'Then we'd best gather him up and be about our business, before he takes off after some flying scrap of paper or loose piece of string and we have to waste time running him down.'

They found Smegden cloistered with a cluster of chipmunks, squirrels, and tree rats. Demonstrating that human hands were not required to carry out higher manipulative functions, they were playing a complicated board game with leaves substituting for squares and different-shaped seeds for markers. Those onlookers not actively engaged in play chattered incessantly—which, considering the characteristic speciation of those present, was to be expected.

As he moved a small oblong seed three leaves forward and one sideways, the aggravated mouse caught sight of his former charges. 'Botheration!' he snapped. 'Now what? Didn't you get any sleep?'

'Plenty of sleep,' Mamakitty assured him. 'In fact, we're so well rested that we'd like to see some more of the wonders of the Kingdom of Purple.'

'What, do I look like a tour guide to you?' he squeaked in exasperation.

'No,' she replied. 'You look like breakfast. But I've already eaten. Can't you show us around for a little while? Just enough so that we can get ourselves oriented?'

Shaking his head sadly, Smegden turned his portion of the game over to the chipmunk squatting next to him and hopped over to confront his tormentors. 'Babysitter to cats and dogs,' he muttered irritably. 'Snakes and canary birds.' He sighed. 'Maybe after one quick tour you'll be ready to settle down. And to leave me alone!'

'Maybe,' Oskar agreed enticingly.

'Very well then.' Impatiently, Smegden tapped the ground with one foot. Since Mamakitty already was serving as a mobile roost for Taj and since Cezer was not in the best of moods to serve as mount for a mouse, Oskar kneeled down so the mouse could scamper up onto the top of his head.

'Fagh!' Even though his scruffy steed could not see the gesture, Smegden made a production of waving both tiny hands in front of him as if to clear the air from in front of his face. 'Cats may be more inherently wicked, but at least they smell better! Oh, well—come on, then. Straight ahead, and take the first right once we're out of the Commons.'

For all his confirmed irritability, the acerbic Smegden proved to be as congenial a guide during the day as he had been the previous night. He showed them the Council Hall, afire with purple gems, where the Chosen of Faerie and other enchanted electors met to discuss matters of importance affecting the entire kingdom. They visited the stablelands, home to cloven-footed animal folk, where giraffes raced griffins and antelope streaked with makeup competed in high jumping against gravel-voiced jackaroos. There were well-organized facilities for storing food and water against the rare times of drought, schools where lectures in the fine art of thud-dunning were attended by