thud.
'Ow!' said Cimorene. 'Morwen, are you all right? When the basket didn't come down again, I got worried.'
'Everything is fine,' Morwen said. 'Telemain is even beginning to come out of the initial stages of backshock.'
'Then what took you so long?' Cimorene demanded.
'I was chatting with our host…' Morwen turned expectantly to the red-haired man.
'Brandel,' the red-haired man supplied. He still sounded sullen, but there was an undercurrent of interest, too. 'I suppose that, since you're in, you can stay.' He looked from Morwen to Killer to the cats to Cimorene.
'But you're going to have to explain yourselves.'
'In a minute,' Morwen said. 'First, we have to tell Kazul what's been going on. Unless you want a worried dragon tearing your tower apart.'
Without waiting for Brandel to answer, she leaned out the window and began shouting reassurances.
Explaining to Kazul took some time, and after that they had to haul the laundry basket back inside. Once it was in, they discovered that Killer had kicked a hole in the side in his last desperate lunge through the window.
This put Brandel out of sorts again.
'I should throw you all back out the window immediately,' he grumbled.
'You're nothing but a lot of vagabonds.'
'That doesn't sound right,' Killer said, climbing to his feet. 'Unless vagabonds is a word for a witch and a magician and the Queen of the Enchanted Forest and the King of the Dragons and some cats. And me.
Is that what it means, Morwen?'
'Not exactly. Brandel is just grouchy.'
'Oh.' Killer shook himself, which made his wings flop open. He had to flap them once to keep his balance and then again to get them back in position. 'I thought having wings would be interesting, but they're just a big trouble.'
'What was that about queens and kings and magicians?' Brandel asked Morwen.
So Morwen made a round of formal introductions, which soothed everyone's feelings. Then, just when they were getting ready to sit down and talk, Telemain stirred again and Morwen had to quiet him.
'I thought you wanted him to wake up,' Killer said.
'I do, but thrashing around won't help him recover,' Morwen said.
'He needs to keep quiet.'
'No problem,' said Trouble. He stood up, stretched, strolled over to Telemain, and draped himself down the center of the magician's chest.
'How long do you want him like this?'
'Thank you, Trouble,' Morwen said, feeling relieved. Not only would Trouble's efforts hasten Telemain's recovery, but keeping Telemain quiet would also keep Trouble from getting into trouble. Given a specific job, the cat was quite reliable. 'Two or three more hours should do it, now that he's warm. Then we can wake him, feed him some broth, and put him to bed.'
'I bet he won't want to go,' said Scorn.
'Three hours. Right.' Trouble yawned and put his head down on his paws.
'I thought regular witches were supposed to have black cats,' said Brandel, looking from Trouble to Scorn. 'Unless-are you a fire-witch, too?'
'No,' said Morwen. 'But I don't see why that should limit me to black cats.'
Brandel started to ask something else, then stopped, frowning. 'No.
I'll ask you about that later. Right now, you're here and you're all settled, and I want my explanation. Before something else happens.'
'First, I'd like to know how you feel about wizards,' Morwen said.
'I've never met one,' Brandel replied. 'And I'm not sure I want to.
They don't have a very good reputation.'
'Good,' said Cimorene. 'It's like this…' And she launched into the explanation.
Brandel listened with interest, but when Cimorene reached the end of her tale, he frowned. 'How did you get by the invisible dusk-blooming chokevines? I thought I'd gotten all the openings near the tower filled in.'
'Kazul burned a path through them.'
'Mmph. Must be handy, traveling with a dragon.'
'Sometimes,' said Morwen. 'Other times it's an inconvenience.'
Suddenly, Scorn's ears pricked up and her whiskers twitched forward.
'Well, well. What's this?'
Morwen glanced sideways to see what Scorn was watching so intently.
On the top step of the staircase, a large, fluffy cat stood gazing at the newcomers. He was mostly black, with a white chin, white front paws, and a white tuft at the very end of his tail, and his expression was wary and disapproving.
'So you've finally decided to come see what was going on, have you?'
Brandel said to the cat.
'Mrrow,' said the cat.
'We have visitors,' Brandel said. 'Morwen, Cimorene, Killer, this is my cat, Horatio.'
'Well, hell-lo, handsome,' said Scorn. Her tail lashed once each way, and she sat up and began washing her face with great unconcern.
'He doesn't look that great to me,' Trouble snarled.
'Behave yourself,' Morwen said sternly. 'We're guests.'
Horatio eyed the group a moment longer, then came slowly forward.
Halfway across the room, he stopped, studying Scorn with an intensity that matched hers. 'Mmmrrr,' he said at last. 'Mrow yow eiou?'
'No, she won't!' Trouble shifted uneasily, as if longing to jump up and pounce on this intruder. Then Morwen caught his eye, and he settled back into place on Telemain's chest, muttering under his breath.
Scorn looked from Trouble to Horatio and made a show of considering.
'You don't need me for anything right now, do you Morwen?'
'No,' said Morwen.
'Then I'll be happy to look around,' Scorn said to Horatio. 'See you later, folks.'
'Watch your step,' Trouble growled. 'You can't trust him.'
'I should hope not,' said Scorn. 'After all, he's a cat.' Tail high, she sauntered over to Horatio. The two cats exchanged sniffs, then Horatio led the way to the staircase and they disappeared.
'She's going to regret this,' Trouble said. 'So is he, as soon as I-' Morwen caught his eye again, and he stopped short. 'I don't expect to have to warn you twice,' she said.
'All right, all right, but you wait and see.'
'Quiet,' said Morwen. 'Brandel, we've told you what we're doing here.
Now suppose you tell us what you're doing here.'
'Living,' said Brandel. 'Staying out of trouble. At least, that's how it was supposed to work,' he added sourly.
'Of course,' said Cimorene with considerably more patience than Morwen could have mustered. 'But how did you come here in the first place? The middle of a swamp is an unusual place to find a fire-witch.'
Brandel sighed. 'It's a little complicated. I come from a family of fire-witches.
Both my parents are fire-witches, and so are most of my aunts and uncles and cousins. My eldest sister is a fire-witch, and my younger brother.
Everyone, in fact, except my younger sister, Rachel.'
'That must have been difficult for her,' Cimorene said. 'Being the only different one in the family is hard.'
'My parents thought the same thing,' Brandel said. 'So when Rachel was very small, Mother brought her
