And Rhiow smiled at herself then. Entropy was not about to stop running. Almost certainly something would go wrong with one of their own gates as soon as they got home, something finicky and pointless that would take weeks to put right …
To her horror, the thought was delightful.
They came down to the dark and quiet of the platform, and Urruah woke up the timeslide: its wizardry blazed up into the familiar "hedge" around them as everyone took their appointed places. Rhiow looked around her as Siffha'h stepped into the power point and Fhrio hooked one claw into the wizardry. "Ready?" he said. "Anybody forget anything? Now's your last chance."
Tails were flirted "no" all around. "All right, Siffha'h," he said. "On standby – "
"Now!" she said: reared up, and came down.
The pressure came. Rhiow surrendered herself to it for a change, familiar as it was. For home was on the other side …
NINE
They came out into darkness: darkness so black that not even a Person's eyes could make anything of it.
For a few moments there was nothing but silence. Then Urruah said, "What in the Queen's name – ?"
The timeslide wizardry collapsed around them, as if something had stomped it flat. All of them looked around them in shock.
"What is it?" said Arhu. "Where's the light? What's gone wrong down here?"
"Nothing," said a soft voice from away off in the darkness. "But something is finally about to go right."
"Uh oh," Arhu said, and fell very abruptly silent.
"Auhlae?" Huff said. He stepped forward carefully out of the circle: Rhiow could feel him brush past her. "Are you all right? What's happened down here?"
"Nothing that hasn't been promised for a long time," came the soft voice. Rhiow strained to hear it better. It was Auhlae … but it wasn't.
"What's the matter?" Huff said. "Has something gone wrong with the gates?"
Laughter came out of the dark. "That's always your first question, isn't it? No, of course not. The gates are fine."
"Oh … good." Huff stopped, unable to see where he was going. "Then maybe you can help us find our way out of here, it's kind of dark …
"Yes," Auhlae said … or something using Auhlae's voice. "A refreshing change, isn't it? This is the way it should always have been from the beginning. No garish stars, no dirty little life– infested planets, nothing but the cold and the night." And indeed it was feeling rather cold down here: much more so than it should have even in London in September. "And shortly this is what it will be like on Earth as well. Perhaps not this dark. But no Sun, no heat. Peace and quiet on this worthless little mudball at last."
A faint spark of light came up from behind them: Arhu making a light. Before them, away off in the darkness, they could see two blue eyes looking at them, gleaming green in the light Arhu made. Those eyes were further away than it should have been possible for them to be, in a direction that should have been solid wall. And the sound of the place had gone all wrong. The close, underground feeling of it was gone: or rather, pushed back a long way … much further than should have been possible, as if someone had scooped out a great cavern here to replace the tunnels.
"Auhlae," Rhiow said, feeling the fur stand up all over her at the look in those eyes. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"You," said the voice. "That you should ask. How very glad I am that you made it back. We have business to settle."
"What are you talking about?"
There was bitter laughter in the darkness. "You think I haven't noticed you trying to steal him from me? Poor simple Huff. He never was able to tell when someone was making a play for him."
Arhu's light was still dim, though Rhiow could feel him trying, vainly, to make it brighter. She could not see Huff clearly, or the look in his eyes. "Auhlae," Rhiow said, "you're completely mistaken.
No one has ever had a better mate than Huff is to you, or a more faithful one. And as for me, what possible good would he do me even if I did want him? I'm spayed!"
The laughter again. "As if that matters," Auhlae snarled. "Do you think I'm such a fool as to think someone's affections can't be stolen without a uterus? How coy you were about it. Oh so sweet and noble and intelligent, and then when that starts to work, then the weak little queen act, oh-dear-I've-fallen-and-I-can't-get-up … and all of a sudden Huff is washing your ears and whispering sweet nothings in them. There'll be precious little left of them to whisper in when I'm through."
