Read The Cat's Job for Free Online

angle to the wall.
    "There's a door," he said to the
shadow at his side. "Then a long corridor, then another door.
Beyond that is -- I am sorry, my friend -- a cage. The cats are in
the cage."
    "Are they indeed?" It was too dark for
Kinzel to see the ironic lift of the eyebrow. "Are there watchers?
Men and women with weapons? Alarms?"
    Kinzel took further counsel from his
staff. "No watchers. Fallan and his 'prentice are the only men in
the keep and they are both far from the cage."
    "Alarms?" insisted Val Con, keeping
pace with the wizard, though the wall loomed close.
    "I don't --" began Kinzel -- and
stopped.
    Half a pace beyond, Val Con spun to
face him, both brows up and clearly visible in the Moon's
light.
    "Friend Kinzel?"
    The mage frowned, moved back two steps
and cast about, as if looking for a way around a wall perceived,
yet unseen. He shrugged gracelessly and walked forward again,
gripping his staff with its green vines tightly.
    Two paces underway, he stopped. Sharply. Almost, Val Con
thought he heard a
thump
, as if wizardly nose had brought up against
invisible barrier.
    "Alarms?" he guessed, glancing over
his shoulder at the keep.
    "Wards," corrected Kinzel, bringing
his hand up and rubbing his nose. He smiled sheepishly. "I don't
seem to be able to come any further."
    Val Con pushed his hair from his eyes,
stepped to Kinzel's side, turned and walked toward the wall,
one-two-three paces. He turned back, hands on hips.
    "The way is clear. I discover no
barrier."
    "For you, no barrier," Kinzel said,
eyes half-closed as the staff hummed in his hand. "The wards are
set to keep out anything -- anyone -- born to the
world."
    "Ah. I begin to see the why behind
your staff's actions." He sighed. "I go on alone, then?"
    "It will be easier for you that way,
won't it? Even if I weren't warded away? You are silent -- and so
quick. I'm clumsy, and you would have to wait for me." He gestured
with the staff.
    "That clump of rock and scrub we
passed?" Val Con nodded. "I will wait for you and the cats there.
The staff will re-Balance and then it will send you home to your
wife."
    "So? And how many cats are in this
cage? Does your staff know that? And how shall I bring them away?
In my pouch?"
    Kinzel thought. "There are one hundred
and forty-seven cats in the cage," he said slowly. "And as to how
you'll bring them out -- you're the King of the Cats. Surely
they'll follow you?"
    Suddenly, surprisingly, the King
laughed, flinging his hands Moonward; then he was leaning forward,
speaking with earnest briskness.
    "In all my experience of cats, never
have I seen anything that leads me to suppose that they will follow
anyone -- King or no. Especially, perhaps, would they fail to
follow their King. Who, if he is truly that, would not ask it of
them. Another way, I implore you. Some assurance that the task is
not wholly the errand of a fool."
    Kinzel was already reaching into his
pouch, pulling out a twist of paper tied with yellow string.
Bracing the staff against his shoulder, he untied the
string.
    "Come here."
    The other man stepped forward until
their noses nearly touched and Kinzel could smell old leather and
new cloth and another scent, which was that of the King
himself.
    Kinzel paused, blinking into the green
eyes. "Are you a man, my friend?"
    "Yes." said Val Con softly. "I will
tell you this: Cats are not found on all worlds. But on the worlds
on which they are found, they are -- cats. Other creatures change.
Including men. Especially men. It is a mystery, is it not? A
wonder. But I am a man -- human -- as much as you are."
    "All right," said Kinzel, pulling the
string free and stashing it in his pouch. "It is only that, if you
were a cat, the herb might make you a little drunk."
    He untwisted the parchment and took
out a pinch of dried leaf, which he sprinkled over the King's head.
He liberally treated hair, shirt, belt and boot-tops, repeating the
process until the leaf was gone.
    Val Con stepped back, nose