She went up the stairs toward the other two, pausing briefly beside Yafh as she came up even with him. Protocol dictated that a nonplayer await permission from players before passing or approaching their chosen stances too closely; to obstruct or intervene in a player's field of view while another player was moving could damage not only that player's score, but others' scores as well.
Yafh had been sitting with eyes half-closed, watching the brown cat across the street without seeming to watch her. Now he stood, stretched fore and aft, and turned his back on the proceedings: a gesture readable to all players as indicating the intention to temporarily abandon play without loss of stance.
"Hey there, Rhiow," he said, and stalked off to one side of his stance. "Haven't seen you for a while."
"Business," she said, and they breathed breaths companionably before she sat down. "Goodness, who gave you the fish?"
"Restaurant round the corner," Yafh said. "Perfectly lovely fish heads, why they don't keep them I can't imagine. Ehhif have no taste. Urruah? How's the hunting?"
"Not bad, not bad."
"Saash… don't often see you down this way. 'Luck to you. And who's this youngster?"
"Arhu."
" 'Luck to you, son. Come to see how the professionals do it?"
"Nowhere better," Urruah said, before Arhu could open his mouth. "How's the bout going?"
"Third sequence, twenty-eighth passage," Yafh said. "The balances have shifted."
"You mean you're not winning as usual?"
" 'Winning.' What an ehhif word. We'll see how the situation looks by next week."
"You want to understand the Game," Urruah said to Arhu, "this is the Person you come to."
"I don't understand it very well," Arhu said, in a small voice.
Rhiow glanced at him, wondering briefly where this sudden and becoming modesty had come from. Or maybe he was simply impressed by all of Yafh's scars. "Well, that's no surprise," Rhiow said. "Years now I've been following hauissh, and I'm not sure I understand anything but the basics yet. Yafh is a master, though; what he doesn't know about it isn't worth knowing."
"All you need to know, young tom," Yafh said, "is that hauissh is the Fight— or the best version of it we've got left. Everything else is commentary."
"But… She says life is the Fight," Arhu said.
" 'She'?" Yafh said. "Oh, the One Who you wizards say Whispers to you? Well, probably she's right. But one thing's for sure, life is hauissh."
"There speaks the enthusiast," Saash said dryly. "Arhu, don't let him fool you. Yafh eats, drinks, washes and sleeps hauissh. If it didn't exist, he would have to invent it."
"Don't talk naughty," Yafh said, settling himself down in a way that suggested he had less concern about the elegance of his position than his comfort. "Takes a god to invent something this complex, something with this kind of elegance, this subtlety. You tell me now, young tom: who do you think's holding down the most important stance at the moment?"
Arhu looked around him in bemusement. "Her," he said, flirting his tail sideways to indicate the handsome chocolate-brown cat who crouched, immobile as a statue, on one of the nearby walls between two buildings.
"And you wouldn't be too far off. Trust Hmahilh' to hog a good spot at the earliest opportunity. But why?"
Arhu looked up and down the street. "Because she can see everybody else," he said, "and not everybody else can see her.
"Right. That's part of it, but not all. So try this. We have six players out there: seven, counting me, as of a moment ago. I don't officially count right now, but for this analysis, you can keep my stance in. Look at the pattern, see what you see about it. Not the People: the relationships. Take your time, don't look too hard."
Yafh sat washing his face, ineffectively as usual: the grime never did seem to come off, but at least he was always seen to be making the effort. Arhu looked out at the street for a few moments, and then said, "There's— Is there an empty place they're all pointed at, in the street? Between the cab parked there and the big car?"
"A natural talent," Yafh said, looking around at Rhiow and Urruah with approval. "Boy's got the eye. That's the spot," he said to Arhu. "That's where the Tree is: with the Serpent wound around it, gnawing at the root…."
"There's no Tree there! That's the middle of the street!"
"It's there in spirit," Yafh said. "All hauissh is anchored at the Tree. It's all the original Fight, really; but since we can't chuck lightningbolts at the Old Snake the way Aaurh and Urrau did, we use movement and stealth as a weapon, and seeing as the bolt we strike with, and position as influence. Anyone who sees anyone else could strike them with a lightningbolt if they had one. And the Tree is always the center."
Arhu sat down, looking puzzled for a moment. "Maybe I do see…."
Yafh scrubbed behind one ear. "Hmahilh' there is in one of the classic positions just now, the fouarhweh. Thousands of hours of commentary have been made about it, just in the last century; it would take you a fair amount of study to understand even a few of the major implications for play as it might progress over the next several hours or days. But she's holding down a variant of the position the Great Tom would have held—"
"—before he dies," Arhu said, looking at the empty spot, the life slowly starting to drain out of his voice. "For the Old Serpent rises against him and strikes him with its venom, and the Great Cat falls with a great cry, and striveth to rise but cannot; and breath and warmth swiftly go from him so that his Enemy rises over his poisoned body and leaps upon Aaurh the Mighty. Great and terrible is their struggle, so that seas leap from their beds and the earth is riven, and the torn sky rains fire—"
Yafh looked at Rhiow with mild surprise. Urruah was watching Arhu uneasily, but Arhu paid no attention at all, his whole regard being bent on the spot in the street, through which an ehhif with a houff on the leash was walking. The houff, at the sight of them sitting on the steps, started to bark, but for Arhu, it might not have been there at all. "—Yet even so Aaurh at last is lapped in the Serpent's coils, and crushed in them, and she falls, and her power fails out of the world. Then Iau sees that the light has gone from the Moon, and the Sun is blackened with fair Aaurh's dying; and She rises in Her majesty and says, What has become of My children? Where is Aaurh the warrior, and sa'Rráhh the Tearer, wayward but dear to Me? And what has become of My Consort and the light of his eye, without which My own is dark?— Then Iau draws Her power about Her, and goes forth in grief and rage; and all things hear Her cry: Old Serpent, turn You and face Us, for the fight is not done—!"
"He's been well educated, I'll give you that," Yafh said to Rhiow, blinking a little.
"All the best teachers," Urruah said, dry, but still unsettled.
"That's right, young tom," Yafh said to Arhu, as Arhu abruptly sat up a little straighter, blinking himself. "That's the whole pattern of the gameplay of hauissh, right there in the old words. There are endless variations on the theme, as you might well think. But the Queen raises up Her dead, though not forever, as we know; and then the Fight starts up again… and so it goes."
"Yafh," came a deafening and strangely pitched shout from across the street, "let's get on with this! Are you in stance, or out?"
Everyone winced at the noise. Rhiow smiled, a little crookedly. The source was Hmahilh'. Delicate, graceful little creature though she was, with her demure semi-ehhif smile, she was also profoundly deaf: when she spoke, the noise was so alarming that Rhiow was often amazed that bricks didn't shatter. Rhiow had tried several times, as any wizard might, to treat the deafness, but there was something about the nerve damage that resisted treatment. Rhiow half-suspected that the trouble was not the nerves, but the less educable "limbic" areas of Hmahilh's brain, which had gotten so used to being deaf that they couldn't understand there were other options, and so ignored or stubbornly undid any repair to the cranial nerves involved. As a result, a conversation with Hmahilh', while enjoyable enough for her cultured and humorous qualities, otherwise tended t
o resemble an interview with a fire siren.
"Here, young tom," Yafh said, "you watch this now. She's always worth watching. All right, all right," he yowled back at Hmahilh', "I'm in, already."
"What??"
With a sigh, he turned to face her, a signal she would recognize. Arhu sat watching this, seemingly fascinated, and Rhiow took the opportunity to gesture the others over to a neighboring doorstep where they could watch without being anywhere near another player's stance.
As they went, Rhiow said to Saash, "Are you feeling all right? It's been a busy day… but you look tireder than usual."
"Yes, well. There were some more mice in the garage this morning. I was trying to catch them…"
"And?"
Saash flicked her ears backward and forward, a hopeless gesture. "Nothing. As usual. I'm so glad I live in the city, and have access to an ehhif with a can opener. If I were a country Person, I'd be dead of starvation by now."
Rhiow gave Saash a sympathetic look. She had never been a hunter: it was as if there were something missing in her makeup, perhaps the essential sense of timing that told you when to jump. Either way, the situation had always struck Rhiow as a little unfortunate, or strange, in someone whose technical expertise and timing in other matters were so perfect.
"So what did you do about it, finally?"
"This morning? Nothing. I mean, I could have blown the mice up, but besides being overkill, what good would that have been? The garage ehhif would just have thought a car ran them over or something. When Arhu's done here, I'll ask him to see what he can do. Have to keep the ehhif impressed with our usefulness, after all: otherwise we might have to find somewhere else to stay…"
"Oh, surely not. Abha'h likes you, he wouldn't try to get rid of you!"
"True. But he's not the boss in the garage. I'll be making sure George sees whatever we catch."
Rhiow sighed. "You let me know if you need any help," she said.
They sat on the doorstep two doors down from Yafh's stance. "Our boy is spending more and more time in weird-vision land," Urruah said, looking with some concern at Arhu.
"Just as well," Rhiow said. "It's his wizardry… He seems to see things… and then try to avoid seeing them. I'm getting concerned about the avoidance."
"Can you blame him? I'm not sure I'd want to be sitting on a doorstep one moment and looking at the original Battle at the Dawn of Time the next!"
Saash sat straight and scratched for a moment or so, then started washing. "I think the problem might be that he hasn't really done much wizardry yet. Spells, I mean."
"Yes," Rhiow said. "Everything has sort of been done to him, hasn't it?" Rhiow cocked her ears, then; for the statement, once made, created a sort of silence around itself. When you were a wizard, you learned to pay attention to those silences: they were often diagnostic. Sometimes the Whisperer whispered very quietly indeed. "And you're right: I haven't really seen him do a spell. Initiate one, I mean. Well, he walked through a door or so, and in the air. And the sidling…"
"As regards the physical stuff, he's pretty good," Saash said. "It's the nonphysical I'm more worried about. Nine-tenths of our work is nonphysical…."
"There are a lot of different styles of wizardry," Urruah said. "I think we should try to cut him a little slack, here. Not everyone jumps straight in and starts doing fifty spells a day."
"You did," Saash and Rhiow said, practically in unison.
"Well, we can't all be me."
Rhiow and Saash looked at each other and gave silent praise to Iau the Queen of Everything that this was so. "But it's not like there's a quota," Urruah said. "Or some kind of template for Ordeals. Everybody knows you get the occasional 'sleeper' Ordeal that takes months or years. Or 'second' Ordeals, if you don't finish your first one."
"The universe doesn't usually have that much time to spare for the first kind," Rhiow said, "as you know; and the second kind is as rare as working balls on a ffeih'd tom, as you also know. His passivity just worries me a little, that's all."
"He's a tom," Urruah said, with a wink. "He'll grow out of it."
This time Rhiow did not bother looking physically at Saash, and didn't have to: she could inwardly hear the small, stifled groan. "You are in, how shall I put it, unusually male mode tonight," Rhiow said. "Got another bout of o'hra coming on?"
"Night after next. It's the big night, the concert. I'm going to need the time off, Rhi."
"Take it, for Aaurh's sake," she said, waving her tail. "Get the hormones out of your system. If that's possible."
Urruah smirked briefly, but then folded himself down, and after a few seconds, looked a touch more serious. "Maybe the problem is that he just hasn't noticed how much fun wizardry is," Urruah said. "How good it feels."
"I would suspect not," Saash said, with a little more tooth in her voice than usual, "since his first experience of it came immediately before being almost bitten to shreds by rats…."
" 'Ruah," Rhiow said, "I have to admit that Saash has a point. And pushing Arhu won't help. Till he comes to understand that satisfaction claws-on, there's no point in describing it. If he has what it takes to make a good wizard, he'll know it when he feels it… no matter how he may rationalize it to himself and others as time goes on."
"…Well, I hope he has that time. Otherwise the crunch-part of his Ordeal may come upon him and he won't have anything useful prepared. In which case…" Urruah chattered his teeth briefly, the way a cat will when seeing a rat or a bird, anticipating the jaw spasm that will snap its neck.
"We'll see how he does," Rhiow said, and yawned. "You going to see him home, Saash?"
"Yes. The mice…"
"That's right. All right, then… you call me in the morning when you're ready, and I'll take him down on patrol again: show him the differences between the gates, get him familiar with the track layout on the upper level." She yawned once more. "Sweet Iau, but I have got to get off days…. I am just not a day person. Urruah, you take tomorrow evening off, though I wouldn't mind having you on call during the early daylight hours, at least till I get up."
"No problem. This is going to be going on for a while, and Yafh's right about one thing: watching Hmahilh' is always educational. She's some strategist."
"Right. I'll have a walk around the block, then turn in. 'Luck, you two."
" 'Luck, Rhi…"
She went down the steps, looked up at Yafh and Arhu as she passed. "Hunt's luck, gentlemen… I'm done for today."
"Don't want to stay and see the epic struggle?" Yafh said. "You're working too hard, Rhiow."
"Smile when you say that, Yafh. 'Luck, Arhu… see you in the morning."
"All right," he said, but he was still gazing at that empty spot… with less of an estranged look, this time. The expression was thoughtful, and Rhiow was not entirely sure what to make of it… but then, that was becoming the story of her life, where Arhu was concerned.
She saluted them both with a flirt of her tail and walked on down the block. From above, a voice said, "Oh, look, she's going to go out and try to get some after all."
"It won't matter…. Even if she knew what to do with a tom, she couldn't find any really select blood."
Rhiow had had about enough for one night. She laughed out loud. "What, like yours?" she said, intending her voice to carry as well as theirs had. "Hairballs at one end, fur-mats at the other, and twenty pounds of flab apiece in the middle? This is considered 'select'? Things must be pretty bad in the Himalayas."
Feline laughter came from all up and down the street. There was a flustered silence from above, followed by annoyed hisses and growling. Rhiow turned the corner to finish her circuit of the block, then headed for home, walking up the air to her own rooftop and smiling slightly.
* * *
When Rhiow got home, she found that Hhuha had gone to bed already. Iaehh was sitting up late, in the big leather chair by the empty fireplace, reading. As Rhiow's small door clicked, he looked up in slight surprise, rubbing his eyes. "We
ll, there you are. I was wondering if I was going to see you today."
Rhiow sighed. "Yes, well," she said, "we all have long workdays sometimes." She went to her dish for a long drink of water.
Iaehh put his book down, got up, and took the dish right out from under her nose.
"Hey!"
"You can't drink that," Iaehh said, "it's got cat food in it." He started to refill it from the sink.
"As if I care at the moment!" Rhiow said. "Do you know how salty that pastrami can be? Put it back!"
"Here," Iaehh said, "here's some fresh."
"Well, thanks," Rhiow said, and sighed again, and started to drink once more.
"Your 'mom,' " Iaehh said softly, sitting down with his book again, "is terrible about giving you fresh water."
"My 'mom,' " Rhiow said under her breath as she drank. She smiled slightly. There was no question that Iaehh had noticed over time that Rhiow was, to use the annoying ehhif phrase, more "her" cat than his: he teased them both about it, Hhuha directly and Rhiow in the usual one-sided dialogue.
Well, it wasn't Iaehh's fault, Rhiow supposed. He simply had no gift for making a lap the way Hhuha did. He somehow seemed to have more than the usual number of bones. Nor (when he did make a lap) did he seem capable of sitting still for more than thirty seconds. Always running in all directions was Iaehh: running to work, running home, running out to the store, just plain running. She liked him well enough: he was thoughtful. He just wasn't soft or still the way Hhuha was; and when he held her, no matter how affectionately, there was never that sense that Rhiow had with Hhuha that there was a purr inside the ehhif too, and their two purrs were in synch. Just a personality thing. But he does mean well….
She finished with the water and came over to him to thank him: jumped up in his lap and began to knead his knee and purr. "Ow," he said, "ow ow OW ow—"
"Sorry," Rhiow said, and curled around and settled herself, still purring. "Here now, you just sit still and relax—"
He stroked her while propping the book off to one side, on the other knee, under the lamp. For a little while they sat that way, Rhiow closing her eyes and beginning to feel blessedly calmer after the day she'd had. Saash had reported in briefly that after they'd left the bout of hauissh, she'd bedded Arhu down without trouble; he'd be out until at least dawn and maybe longer, from the looks of him. Urruah had been very good, better than she'd expected. So had Saash.