Firebrand

He was holding up rather well, he thought, despite the absence of regular, hearty meals, and of the hundreds of servants who saw to his comfort. He would have guessed he’d feel more adrift without a secretary organizing his days, but there was no need for a schedule in the cave. He did not feel exposed without his Weapons, for the cave was a quiet, contained environment, though he’d surely wish for them if the aureas slee returned. There was no one constantly vying for his attention, no political intrigue, no real demands. It was, in fact, something of a relief. But then he’d remember his predicament and the danger to his wife and realm and start searching once more for a way out.

When he reached the upper cavern, he was so surprised by the sight that greeted him, he thought he must be hallucinating.

“Meep,” said the orange tabby cat. It sat on the stone gryphon.

A cat was not something Zachary would usually consider eating, but his stomach rumbled at the thought of fresh meat. His initial thought of food then transformed into shock that there was a cat sitting right there before him. Where had it come from? If it had gotten in, then surely there had to be a way of getting out. Then he remembered both Nari and Magged mentioning that the elemental brought them food occasionally. But why would it bring a cat? It wasn’t much of a meal for three people.

“Where did you come from, little one?” Zachary asked. It just rubbed its cheek against the back of the gryphon’s head. He stepped toward the cat. It did not flee. With another step, it paused its rubbing and stared at him. He halted. Was this some trick of the aureas slee? But the cat rolled over and wriggled its back against the gryphon and purred madly.

Zachary began to search the chamber anew, hunting for a possible exit that he might have overlooked before. He searched feverishly, crawling into crevices, feeling into cracks with his hands, even areas he’d combed before.

“How did you get in?” he demanded of the cat, but it just lay on the stone gryphon with its paws in the air, purring blissfully as though gorged on catnip. There was a reason, Zachary thought, that he gravitated toward dogs.

Nari entered the chamber and stared first at Zachary, and then at the cat. She spoke softly in Eletian, stepped closer to gaze at the cat.

“I have not seen,” she finally said, “one of these creatures in so very long.”

“I have been trying to figure out how it entered.”

She gazed at him with wide eyes, eyes filled with hope. “To feel the sun on my face again,” she said. “To smell of the earth and green of living things.”

“Will you help me look?”

“Yes,” she replied, “though the creature could have squeezed through a very narrow opening.”

“Could the elemental have put it here?”

“I do not think so. I did not feel Slee’s presence.”

They started working along the walls, examining the barest cracks, and gazing up at the ceiling.

“You can feel the aureas slee’s presence?” Zachary asked.

“It is very cold.”

“So, where could the cat have come from?”

“Almost anywhere,” she replied. “We do not know where we are, after all.”

That was true and Zachary considered the possibility they were near civilization, but he had a hard time believing it. If they were somewhere in the wilderness, how had an ordinary house cat found them? He glanced back at the cat many times to ensure it did not slink off and disappear on them.

“Maybe we should get Magged to help,” he suggested.

“She is sulking.” Nari gave him an accusing look.

“Because I rebuffed her?” He peered behind a thick stalagmite.

“Yes. It is the way of your race. She desires family. I have tried my best to be a companion to her, but I cannot provide for all her needs, particularly those which only a male can gratify.”

“I am afraid I cannot fulfill that need for her either,” he replied. “One cannot always have what one desires. I am committed to another. I’ve a wife, with children on the way.”

“I understand,” Nari replied, “and I have gleaned you are the king of the Sacor Clans. You feel great responsibility toward your people.”

“I do, very much so.”

“That is honorable. For Magged, whose whole world is the cave, what is outside is meaningless. She cannot comprehend the weight of your responsibilities. I tried to explain, but all she feels right now is the pain of rejection.”

Zachary looked behind a boulder. “I did not wish to hurt her. If we can find a way out, perhaps there will be someone with whom she can have that family.”

Nari paused her search. “I do not know if she would survive the outside world for long. I do not know that she would wish to leave.”

Zachary sat on the boulder to rest. He could not imagine wanting to stay in this hole in the ground, but he had not spent his whole life there. “What about you, Nari? Would you leave?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “There is one who . . .”

“Someone from whom you were taken?”

“Yes. I would search for him, see if he still awaits me, or if he was lost in Argenthyne.”

She spoke as though only a few years had passed, not centuries, and in Eletian terms, he supposed it was. He’d been so intent on exploring and trying to find a route of escape from his prison that he hadn’t thought to ask her what the world had been like before she was abducted by the aureas slee. What had Argenthyne been like? Might she have had contact with his ancestors? These questions and more now came to him. In his role as king, there’d been little propriety for casual conversation with the Eletians who had presented themselves to him. But now? He was no king here.