indicated the enveloping grayness that surrounded them. 'Clearly, it doesn't do anything by itself. Just bringing it back here isn't enough. Something more has to be done. Something's lacking.'
A slight but mellifluous whistle turned them all in the same direction. It was a very familiar whistle, even though they were used to hearing it emerge from an avian throat.
Taj looked embarrassed as he gazed back at his friends and companions. His voice was characteristically subdued, yet somehow confident. He met their curious stares without flinching. 'I'm afraid—there's something I haven't told you. It is a matter of some significance.'
Cezer's eyes rolled upward. Cocoa looked puzzled, while Mamakitty's curiosity lent an unforced stiffness to her words.
'What is it now, Taj?'
'It's just that—well, I'm not exactly entirely who I appear to be.' Though strengthening, his voice remained low-key as ever. 'My full name is Tajek of the Gold Flame. I am also known as Tajekafen ben-Arubar, Associate of the Faith Necromantic, Anointed Assistant Alchemical, Odosa—officially designated ordained sortilege affiliate. In more everyday terms, in other words, the Master Susnam Evyndd's canonical, dedicated, and long-time familiar.'
'Oohhh,' whispered a reverential Cocoa.
Cezer was rather less impressed. 'That's an awful lot of title to carry for someone who spends his normal existence as a very small and conspicuously inconsequential songbird.'
Taj shifted his attention to the naked swordsman. It appeared to Cezer that something flickered in the back of the smaller man's eyes—no doubt a trick of the shifting, deceptive light that prevailed near the falls.
'Consider, friend Cezer, my condition and position a credit to Master Evyndd's limitless forethought. When he received visitors and wished to know what they were saying outside his presence, I was there to listen and record —between songs, of course. When he was executing a spell and needed help, but desired to appear as if he alone was performing the necessary machinations, I was present in the background to provide the required assistance.' He looked over at a thoroughly dumbfounded Oskar.
'When he needed a second pair of eyes, or someone to watch over his belongings when he was not present, I was there. Why else, Oskar, do you think he sometimes took me with him on his journeys and not you or Mamakitty? Whether at home or away, others would assume I was present to provide my gift of song. When striving to identify a sorcerer's possible familiar, with three cats and a snake in house, what enemy would give a thought to a canary?'
'Not I, certainly,' Cezer sniffed. Sniffing disdainfully was more effective with a cat nose, the swordsman lamented.
'None of us would.' Mamakitty was wary, but impressed. 'I often wondered why Master Evyndd did not anoint one of us his familiar. That is a question now answered: he already had one.'
Taj nodded solemnly. 'I regret to say that you three cats, together with you, Samm, were present in the Master's household not merely for company but also to serve as decoys. Anyone wishing to destroy the knowledge and wisdom of Susnam Evyndd would also take care to eliminate any familiars. As I have pointed out, the Master thought it doubtful any angry adversary would take the time or trouble to bother with a small, inoffensive bird.'
'A decoy.' Cezer's expression changed from vexed to unhappy. 'The callous son of a bitch—no disrespect intended, you understand. To you, either, Oskar,' he added after a moment's thought.
'Master Evyndd did what he thought was necessary for him to do to preserve himself and his legacy.' In the absence of that deceased worthy, Taj took it upon himself to offer the modest apologia. 'I'm sure he meant no harm by it, and I know for a fact that he loved you all.'
There was silence for several minutes while each of them reconsidered anew their relationship with their now departed master; a relationship they thought they had understood, both as animals and as humans. Now it appeared that emotional tie, along with everything else, had been very different from what they had supposed all along.
Oskar confronted Taj, but not for the reason the latter suspected. 'You said that you recorded and remembered for him. So that—what was it you said?—so that his knowledge and wisdom would be preserved.' He thrust his mustachioed face closer to that of the other man. 'Does that mean
Mamakitty held her breath. The songster's expression was unreadable. 'I have none of his wisdom. Wisdom dies with the wise. But a little knowledge, that I retain.' He shrugged modestly. 'It was my job.'
Oskar's eyes widened. 'You! You were the first one through. You were the one who found the opening in the rainbow and summoned us to follow.'
Taj nodded, and this time allowed himself a slight smile. 'I had to risk exposing myself. It was the only way to save us all. Fortunately, our stalkers did not descry the use of magic on my part. Had they done so, I fear we would have been forced to deal much sooner with the Khaxan Mundurucu. And there were other times, other occasions these past difficult days, when I surreptitiously made use of what small learning I had acquired in the service of the Master.' He saw Cocoa staring at him. 'Do you remember when we entered the Kingdom of Yellow?'
She nodded. 'The great gate. You were the one who discovered that it was unlocked.'
A ghost of a grin creased his face. 'It wasn't exactly 'unlocked.' A small magic, that. And of course there was the time when we were trapped within the fallen kauri tree in the Kingdom of Green. Did several of you not wonder how all those fellow avians who finally freed us could hear my whistling calls through all that wood? To avoid the details of an explanation, I had to several times change the subject in haste.'
'When else?' Cezer could not keep from asking. He was remembering now: little comments, small observations that at the time had not jibed with their view of Taj as a simple songster, but which they had been too busy or too tired to pursue.
'I'll remind you another time, another time, my furry friend. When we sit again by a warm fire in a safe country, and you decide to show an interest in what I have to say instead of wondering how I might taste.'
'We have the white light. Do we begin here?' Eagerness glistened in Cocoa's eyes. 'This is as good a place as any to start overturning the Mundurucu's baneful spell.'
'No, it isn't.' Taj was firm in his objection. 'We must return home, to the Master's house. Not only will we all be more at ease once we are back home, but there are active at that place certain evanescent forces that will aid and abet our efforts. It is why Evyndd caused his abode to be raised in that spot in the first place—or so I was once told.'
Oskar looked closely at his friend. 'You didn't say 'Master,''
'What?' Taj blinked at him.
'When you mentioned him just then. You didn't call him Master Evyndd.'
The familiar started, then nodded soberly. 'It signifies a change. In our status as well as his. We must be our own masters now, and act like it if we are going to do battle with thaumaturgy as powerful as that cultivated by the Khaxan Mundurucu.'
Samm's massive fingers opened and closed. 'I wish I hadn't left my axe behind.'
'We'll take new weapons from the armory at the house. Sorcery notwithstanding, it's always good to have a sharp blade close at hand.' Taj started past the two men, heading for the steep slope that led upward toward the road they had wandered down not so very long ago.
'Maybe that person can help us secure some for the journey back to the forest.' Starting up the base of the hill, Cezer had noticed a woman standing in the shallows downstream from the falls. Now he headed toward her, waving one hand and calling out a cheerful greeting.
Hearing his shout, she turned and saw his approach, whereupon she flung aside the bucket half full of crayfish she had collected, gathered up her skirts in both hands, and ran screaming from the water to the nearby path. Once she reached dry land, her speed increased markedly, so much so that a baffled Cezer slowed to a halt. He could have caught up to her easily. Dropping his arm, he followed her frantic flight until her feet had carried her out of sight. Returning to the waiting group, he cast a bemused glance at his friends.
'I don't understand. I was smiling, and my voice was full of friendship and reassurance. Why did she run from me? Have we in our journeying undergone some awful transformation that is now to make others flee in terror from the sight of us?' He paused to shake his head, more baffled than ever. 'Say—why are you all grinning at me?'
Oskar was fighting back the laughter that threatened to overwhelm him. 'I'm no dog today, Cezer. And you're
