Darkness Rising: Book One of The Catmage Chronicles

Four: Nafshi

Saunders stood at the window, watching Andy and the Catmage walk down the street. It was a Catmage, of course. It was wearing the telltale collar, the crossed leather straps with the stone—Magelight, he corrected himself—in the X. And just look at the way the cat trotted alongside the boy, so unlike a normal cat. You'd have to be an idiot not to see them once you discovered they existed. He hadn't had to search long at all before finding cats that did not act like cats. Alef and Bett had been the keys to finding Catmages. They were too close, too much alike, and too obviously a pair. They wore a type of collar he had never seen on any normal cat. Once he convinced them that he could be of assistance, they introduced him to Roah. It was the beginning of a fruitful relationship.

Saunders could tell by the child's body language that the mage was giving him a dressing-down. He laughed quietly. "I know what you're looking for," he said out loud, "and you can't have it." He stepped away from the blinds and strode quickly from the room and down the stairs. He went to the kitchen, where two chocolate-point Siamese cats were sitting in front of a door.

"Anything yet?" he asked.

"No," said Alef, "but Roah is with her now, trying to extract the information."

"It's been a long time, and she has still not given us one iota of information," Saunders said.

Bett licked her front paw, bringing it up to her ear as she groomed herself. "She will break," she said. "Roah is the strongest of us."

"Yes, but Nafshi is the strongest of them," Saunders pointed out. "Or so you've all told me."

"She will break," Bett repeated.

"Why aren't you two down there helping him?" Saunders asked.

"We were told to stay here."

"This isn't going fast enough," Saunders said. "You've had months to find her Magelight and yet, we have no Magelight! We need him here."

"He is out, as you asked, recruiting allies."

"Well, then, why is it taking you so long? Nafshi is only one cat, after all."

Bett stared at Saunders. "Do you think Roah is powerful?" she asked.

"Of course," Saunders said.

"He is young, still, only eight cycles old. Our greatest Catmages study for many cycles, improving their power as they age. Nafshi has been around for a long, long time. She taught Roah's teacher. She taught my teachers, and their teachers. I cannot count the number of Catmages whom she has mentored. Practically every Catmage on the Council for the past twenty cycles has studied with her, or under her."

"And now they are all dead," Saunders said, "proving that she is not nearly as powerful as you believe."

Bett snorted. "Nafshi was not at the Council meeting. The outcome might have been different had she or Hakham been there. Do you know what we call the old ones who are at the height of their powers?"

"Do tell," Saunders said. "I'm just dying to know."

"They are the Magi. There are only a handful of them alive. Do not underestimate a Magi. You know the main reason we can keep her captive is because you keep drugging her. It is taking all of our skill to get even the tiniest piece of information from her, and that only because she is weak from hunger and thirst." The cat looked away from Saunders and started grooming herself again.

Saunders' frowned as the cat dismissed him. It irked him to be treated like that by a lesser creature, no matter how powerful that creature's magic might make it. Saunders would stand their attitudes for now. As always when he was around the Wild Ones, he guarded his inner thoughts. Roah had once commented that Saunders' mind was a plethora of closed doors and dead-end corridors. He complimented Saunders on being able to prevent himself from being easily read by Catmages. Saunders smiled as he remembered Roah actually telling him that this would be useful when they faced the Catmages someday. It was useful now, though Roah didn't know it. Saunders had to be careful that they did not suspect his true motives. These arrogant cats would be singing a different tune after his plans came to fruition. The Wild Ones had no idea, really, what Saunders had in mind. But for now, they were useful, and he would tolerate their superior attitudes—to a degree.