I did so. Mr. Weathereye said, “Ella May?”
“Here,” said a female voice, the person herself coming through the alley gate, a sturdy woman with a case in one hand. We went in. The woman opened the case, empty except for a small set of implements, which she removed before she went to the closed closet door.
“It’s in here?”
I nodded. The pair went in. I heard a scuffle, then a scream so shrill it made my ears hurt, then a panting sound, another scream and silence. The woman came out, wiping a peculiarly shaped knife on a piece of glowing fabric.
“Now,” Mr. Weathereye said cheerfully to me. “Do you have anything here you want to take with you?”
I begged, “Where are we going?”
“Off Cantardene, my dear. My claim of signed release documents was a false one, for which I apologize. By this time, Lady Ephedra will have summoned the K’Famir, who will shortly assault this dwelling with the aim of killing you. We suggest you quickly put all necessities into this case, and we’ll go.”
I was jolted into movement. I had already set aside a folded change of clothing and shoes. My Hrass robes and disguise lay ready, and if this man could not do what he told me he could do, I might still use these to escape. I saw his eyebrows rise when I put the disguise into the case, filling it completely. Ella May dropped the implements atop the Hrassian false nose, and we went out the door.
The gate through the wall was open. In the alley outside a dark, smooth vehicle hummed quietly. Its doors opened, Ella May climbed inside and extended a hand to help me inside, where I collapsed onto the seat with an abrupt sense of mixed elation and horror. Either I would wake up and be back in Lady Ephedra’s fitting room, or I had escaped. I had no intention of finding out which. If this was to be a temporary ecstasy, I would not abbreviate it.
The vehicle rose soundlessly except for an almost subliminal hum. Mr. Weathereye touched the door and it became transparent. We looked down on K’Famir wearing the straps and weapons of police massed at the street opening of my little alley, then pouring down it in a flood, blocking both door and alley as a dozen or so of them rushed into my dwelling.
“Why?” I cried. “Why do they want to kill me?”
An old woman seated in front next to Ella May turned and said, “The orders came from the palace of the K’Famir Chief Planner. Next to the Great Leader, that’s as high as K’Famir go. Some long time ago, he gave a Thongal spy a few ghyrm to be fastened upon certain human bondslaves on Cantardene to see if these bondslaves were part of a conspiracy. You were one of them. Lately, the Chief Planner learned that the Siblinghood had been looking for you, watching for you. This was taken as proof you were part of a conspiracy, so he ordered that you be killed now, tonight, instead of later, which Lady Mouselline preferred.”
“Why?” I whispered. “Why would he even know about me?”
“Perhaps he doesn’t. He probably takes take his orders from someone else,” said Mr. Weathereye. “We don’t really know what creature may be at the top, but if it isn’t K’Famir, then it’s Quaatar or Frossian.”
“Or all three,” said the old woman. She turned toward me once more. “I’m Lady Badness. We had already planned to come for you. Such badness here among the K’Famir, always such badness. Lady Mouselline always has her fitters killed, but she has delayed your execution several times, and we took advantage of that, not wanting to…betray ourselves beforetime. When we learned that the Chief Planner’s office wasn’t going to wait any longer, we moved quickly, as we are moving to find out who the creature at the top of this evil pyramid may be.”
“Who told you that they wanted me killed?” I cried.
“Someone who listens for us,” Lady Badness replied. “We have people who listen for us. The K’Famir walk in the Bak-Zandig-g’Shadup, their clothing brushes against one of our listeners, they walk away, but now their clothing listens to what they say and tells us about it.”
“I guess I’m one of your listeners, too,” I said. “That’s what I did,there in the fitting room. I listened.”
Below us, the K’Famir were coming out of the house. One of them waved something to another.
“What’s that thing he’s waving?” asked Ella May.
I looked down, uncertain. Suddenly the image magnified, and I saw what it was.
“Oh, no,” I cried. “My go-pass. I was going to leave Cantardene tomorrow…”
“Will they know the pass was sold to you personally?” Lady Badness asked sharply.
I shook my head. “I bought it in the guise of a Hrass, for they’re always coming through Bak-Zandig-g’Shadup…”
“You left most of your belongings back there,” said Mr. Weathereye. “They may assume you plan to return. In any case, unless they’ve recently had a great advance in technology, they cannot see this flier, even if they are looking directly at it.”
This rang an alarm in my mind, but for the moment I could not think why. “Where are we going?”
“We have a place here on Cantardene, a very safe place, we hope, and just until we can figure out a way to get back to…where do we want to get back to?” he asked the old woman.
“Thairy, I believe. That’s where we started from…”
“But the others were going to B’yurngrad…”
“…or B’yurngrad. I imagine either would do.”
I murmured, “What do you do there, or here? I mean, what is your work?”
The man laughed. “Rescuing maidens. Not without self-interest, you understand. Since the K’Famir kill anyone they suspect of knowing something touchy about the K’Famir, and since you were scheduled for killing, we assume you have something that will prove to be very useful to us.”
“Oh,” gasped I with a spurt of pure joy. “Oh, after all these years,
