Storm Warning

He held the question back, but it irritated him like an insect bite he couldn't scratch. Laylan himself seemed to know that it was tormenting him, too, because he kept looking back at him, and now he saw what his assumption that he was an animal had not let him see before. He watched him, watched Ulrich, and he had the sense that he was somehow participating in the conversation, even if he couldn't say anything in words.

Finally he couldn't stand it anymore. 'Sir? Your—Laylan—what is he?'

Rubrik blinked, taken quite by surprise by the breathless question. 'I suppose you wouldn't know, would you,' he said, finally, turning in his saddle and squinting against the bright sunlight. 'Ah—the best explanation we have is that Companions are a benign spirit in a mortal body. In some ways, rather like gryphons, except that they deliberately ally themselves with Heralds in order to help us help our land. They choose to look like horses, we believe, because horses pass without notice practically everywhere.'

'Ah!' Ulrich's exclamation of delighted understanding made both of them turn toward the Priest. 'That is the best explanation I have heard yet; I never had heard any reason why your Companions should have that particular form. It seems an inconvenient one.'

Rubrik snorted, and so did Laylan. 'Say that some time when you see him in full charge! This is several stone of muscle and very sharp hooves, my friend, and he knows how to use both to advantage! I'd rather have him in a fight than twenty armsmen, and that's a fact.' He tilted his head to one side and added, as if it had never occurred to him before, 'Odd though, that you Karsites don't seem to have anything like Companions, with your Vkandis being so—'

He flushed, and cut the sentence off, but Ulrich chuckled. 'So much of a divine busybody in our lives, is that what you were going to say?' Rubrik winced, but the Priest only grinned. 'Oh, don't apologize, even Her Holiness has been known to comment on that from time to time. Actually, though, Vkandis does have two supernatural manifestations that ordinary Priests—which are the closest thing we have to your Heralds—can experience. The sad part is that one of those was and is tragically easy to feign.'

Ulrich gave Karal a prompting look.

'The Voice of Flame?' Karal asked with interest, taking the look to mean that Ulrich meant him to supply the correct answer.

Ulrich nodded. 'Good, you recall what I told you.' He turned back to the Herald. 'The Voice of Flame is a sourceless nimbus of fire; it appears above the head of a Priest and speaks through him. It is, by far, the most common manifestation of Vkandis' Will. Since we Priests are often mages as well as clergy, I'm sure you can see how easy this particular manifestation of the Will was to counterfeit.'

Rubrik made a sour face. 'Not a chance you could counterfeit a Companion—' he began.

'Ah, but this is what is interesting,' Ulrich interrupted eagerly. 'There was, traditionally, another manifestation that was impossible to counterfeit—and it was one that had not been seen in so long that it had fallen almost into myth. Until recently, that is. And it seems to me that the Firecats are very like your Companions.'

'Firecats?' Rubrik shook his head. 'I've never heard of them.'

'Not likely anyone has, outside of Karse,' Karal put in. 'In fact, until one showed up with Solaris, I'd say most of the Priests didn't believe in them anymore, either!'

'A cat?' Rubrik's skepticism was quite clear. 'How could an ordinary cat—'

'No more an ordinary cat than your Laylan is an ordinary horse, my friend,' Ulrich told him gleefully. 'First of all, there is the color—Firecats are unique. They are a pale cream in color, with red ears, facial mask, paws, and tail. And like your Companions, they have blue eyes. Then there is the size—they are as tall as mastiffs. And they talk.'

'Talk?' Rubrik was incredulous for just a split second. 'Wait—you mean, in Mindspeech?'

'Mind-to-mind, yes,' Ulrich agreed. 'They can, and do, speak to whomever they choose, however, and I believe your Companions speak only to their selected Heralds?'

Rubrik nodded, and Ulrich went on.

'Firecats historically appeared at significant times to offer advice, not only to the Son of the Sun, but often to anyone else who was of crucial importance. In ancient times, the Son of the Sun was always accompanied by at least one, and often two Cats.' Ulrich shrugged. 'Now, the Cats stopped appearing, I believe, about the time that the Fires of Cleansing were begun; I also believe that there has not been a genuine manifestation of the Voice since that same period, at least not among the Priests in the capital and the larger cities. Until recently.'

Rubrik sat as bolt upright in his saddle as his infirmity would allow. 'Are you telling me that—'

'I, myself, have seen Her Holiness speak with what I believe to be the genuine Voice,' Ulrich told him. 'But far more important, Solaris has a Firecat. He calls himself 'Hansa'—and that is the name of one of the most ancient Sons of the Sun, a name not even a demon would claim with impunity—he is not only seen sitting beside her, but he actually appeared shortly after Vkandis struck down the False Son.' He nodded as Rubrik's