Cats Triumphant (2 page)

The world seemed to tilt as air moved around her. Things brushed close to her skin, some of them swooping close overhead. Mira dared to sneak a peek through her eyelashes, and nearly stopped chanting in surprise.

Superimposed like a glass painting over the homely reality of the attic room was a ghostly landscape. Rolling fields, faintly green, stretched out all around her. Trees, or the spirits of trees, dotted the horizon. Indistinct figures floated slowly here and there. Mira was excited and terrified at the same time. She had managed to open the gate. She was there, or it was here.

She finished the incantation, air felt different around her now, even though she knew she was still in her attic. She unfolded her legs and stood up.

The floor felt bouncy. No, that was her cushion. She stepped off it, careful to stay within the faint light of the candles she could just see through the gray mist of the grass. Some of the shapes floated in her direction, their speed increasing as they neared her. One swooped down, close enough to tangle in her hair. Mira ducked, throwing her arms over her head for protection. She thought she heard maniacal laughter in the wake of the creature. It can’t hurt me, she thought, willing herself to believe. It can’t!

She felt a presence at her ankle, giving her confidence. Bless Zoomer. She reached down to stroke him, and bumped into something big. Hastily backpedaling away from contact, she looked up. And up.

“Zoomer?” she asked uncertainly.

A chirrup, more like a truck horn sounding than an inquisitive murmur, sounded. Mira stared at the gigantic form, eight or nine feet high, and glowing like a nuclear plant. It was four-legged but not quite cat-shaped. “Zoomer? Is that you?”

A big purr from the bright shape literally knocked her off her feet and sent her sprawling. She was glowing too, she noticed as she got back on her feet, her limbs and body suffused with a pearly, warm, golden light. Had she left her body behind in the lower plane, or was this how she really looked? How beautiful!
“Luminous beings are we,”
Yoda had said in
The Empire Strikes Back
. Cool. Way cool.

As she became used to the shadowy nature of the scene around her, she saw the outline of hands beckoning eagerly to her. She started toward them. She wanted to see what was out there, over those ghostly hills.

A nudge from behind brought her to her senses. Mira had been warned to let the Summerland come to her. She must not pass beyond the circle of candles. They marked the protective barrier of the chalk circle. Not everything beyond the gate was benevolent. She grasped for Zoomer, who loomed over her, a comforting presence.

“Violet Schuman,” she called. “I am here to see Violet Schuman, if she wishes contact. She knows me.” Another thing the book had warned against was giving her name. It was just like identity theft in the real world: creatures in the underworld could have power over her if they came into possession of genuine facts about her. She wasn’t about to let that happen. This place was wonderful, but too scary for her to want to be trapped there.

The air thickened as an indistinct figure swirled into being before her eyes.

“My darling,” it said huskily.

“Oh, Aunty,” Mira said, then paused. Violet had never been that short. This person came up to Mira’s collarbone. It was a trick. “Where were you born?” she shouted at once.

“Er, Cleveland?” the figure said, wavering at the edges.

“You’re an impostor. Begone!” Mira flashed a banishing gesture that would have made her dungeonmaster proud.

“Darn!” said the shade, and disappeared. Another form dropped down in front of Mira, but she didn’t let the element of surprise throw her off.

“What’s your middle name?” Mira demanded.

“Melody?”

“Wrong! Go away!”

They crowded in around her, cocooning her in brilliant light that overwhelmed and confused her. One after another, she rejected them, until she was facing only one form. It tilted its head to one side.

“Mira Penelope, you’re amazing.”

Mira didn’t recognize the figure surrounded in blue-white glory, but it moved like Aunt Violet, and it certainly sounded like her. The face took on more detail, becoming similar to Mira’s, but with more nose and less chin. Mira gazed, astonished.

“Aunty?”

The shade smiled. “In the … well, I guess it’s not flesh. Mira, what are you doing here? Have you passed over, too?”

“No! I came … to find you.”

“In heaven’s name, why? Didn’t you have enough of me in life?”

Mira wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She hesitated, afraid to touch the luminous shape, but then couldn’t restrain herself. She threw herself at it, hugging the surprisingly solid form to her. The cold flame didn’t burn her. Far from it; it warmed her. Mira held Violet, squeezing her eyes closed to keep tears from running down her cheeks. She felt a tentative pat on the shoulder.

“Now, now, enough sentiment,” Violet said, giving her a little shake. The old lady seemed to be just as she was the last time Mira had seen her, crotchety, brusque, formidable, but whole and erect now, not wracked with the shaking or the weakness of atrophied muscles. “Now, how is my worthless brother?”

They talked together for a while. Mira gave her updates on everything that had happened in the last two years. She was surprised that the people in the afterlife had no way of knowing what was going on with the people they left behind. She didn’t know how long they went on laughing and sharing memories. The light never changed there, and she never tired.

“But what I really need to know, Aunty, is the name of the village that Great-great-grandfather Georgi came from,” Mira said at last when they’d run out of relatives to abuse. “I’m still trying to look up our family history, and the geneologists all said it would help if I knew that.”

“Is that all, girl?” Violet said, her shade brightening with amusement. “Volberg was the place. I couldn’t find a trace of it on modern maps. Probably lost. Everyone there died, or left, or it was renamed by the shifts in government. You know the way things happen.”

“Volberg,” Mira said, committing it to memory. As she did she sensed a withdrawal of energy around her. She’d fulfilled her purpose for being here. She looked around. The features of the ghostly landscape seemed further away. She wanted to pull it back to her.

Violet sensed it, too. “Go on back, girl. It’s not your time yet.”

Mira hugged her. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when … ”

“When I passed? But it’s all better now, do you see? I’m well and happy. Tell them that.”

“I will.” Mira was comforted. “Do you like it here?”

“Of course!”

“Aren’t you ever afraid?” Mira said, thinking of the aggressive shadows that had swooped over her.

“No, there’s nothing here that can harm me. Ah, but
you
, we can’t defend you if you’re attacked. Only the living can save the living.:”

“I’ll be all right as long as I’m in the circle,” Mira said.

The old woman’s face twitched in a smile. “You were always a smart girl. I’ve got to go now. So have you. It’s time.”

Mira’s heart sank. “Don’t go, Aunty Violet. Please.”

The bright form receded from her. “Don’t forget me.”

“I won’t! I never will.”

The voice came from farther away now. “I’ll remember you, too, Mira. You were always an interesting girl. Give them all my love. No,” Violet stopped, finger in the air in an old, familiar gesture, “don’t. They don’t deserve it. You do.” She smiled the conspiratorial grin that Mira remembered so well. Death hadn’t changed her. She turned away. Mira just had to hug her one more time. She started after the fast-receding light. Her hands touched only air.

Bang! Her foot struck something solid. She saw the candle on the floor, which she had forgotten about, just as it went out. Mira stooped to pick it up. She must relight it immediately. Her hands fumbled for the electronic match, hidden somewhere beneath the gray mist.

But the enemy didn’t hesitate to attack. Blackness took her like a shroud, surrounding her, paralyzing her, sucking life out of her. She scrambled toward the nearby gate, but it tripped her to the ground. With eyesight enhanced by contact from her familiar she saw features in the inky folds, grinning mouths, hollow, hungry eyes. It was an entity of many evil minds, and it wanted to devour her. The lips drew back, baring teeth filed to points. Mira fought, but she didn’t know any defenses against otherworldly demons. She never counted on making a mistake like that!

Years of playing D&D didn’t help. She had no magic missiles to throw. Instead, she summoned up the memory of her women’s self-defense class, clawing, thrashing and generally refusing to go quietly. Her feet flailed wildly, but failed to connect with a solid mass. Unfortunately you couldn’t kick a ghost in the balls. She started yelling for help, but there was no one to help. There wasn’t another living being within earshot.

The blackness shoved at her, dragging her over the rough floor. A black hole opened up ahead of her, just like what happened to the bad guy in
Ghost
. She would be dragged down to the pit.

“Help!” she cried. “Lewis!” He wouldn’t be home for a couple of hours. “God and goddess!” But the gods weren’t listening. She glanced back at the bright shape watching her with its head tilted. “Zoomer! Do something!”

She felt a surge of power well up within her. Light burst from inside her, driving the darkness back. With the gift of her familiar, she was able to defend herself and ward off its advance. The enemy recoiled slightly, but it wasn’t enough. It thinned out, then surged forward again, surrounding her completely. “Help!”

The cat-giant jumped over the wall of blackness, in between her and the smothering enemy, pummeling, clawing, tearing rents in black shadow that bled brilliant white light. Mira pulled herself away on her elbows, crawled to her feet, yelling encouragement at Zoomer.

“That’s it! Kick him! Tear him apart!” she yelled. The cat-shape fought fiercely, ceremonially burying the pieces of its vanquished foe in the carpet. Mira almost cried with relief. “Oh, Zoom, I’m proud of you,” she said, reaching high up to scratch the huge head. Zoomer purred, vibrating the air.

But the nightmare monster had a big brother. It rose out of the ground, blotting out the translucent landscape, everything, a dozen, a hundred times larger than they, until the only light they could see came from a tiny point high, high above them. Zoomer took one look and jumped into Mira’s arms, a giant in fear, yowling and trembling. She clutched him, not knowing what to do. They were out of options. They were going to die. The walls began to close in, closing off even that distant point.

But they had an unexpected ally, too. Mira heard a tremendous ‘boing!’ Bounding in over the barrier of darkness, glowing like Liberace’s piano, was an even bigger entity made of light. It kicked back the black walls, trounced the darkness, sucking it into its glowing form like a vacuum cleaner drinking a balloon. As soon as it was all gone, it bounded toward Zoomer and Mira. Mira recoiled, fearing it would start on them next, but it drove them toward the gate back to the real world. The gate whisked over them.

Suddenly, they found themselves on the other side looking back at the Summerland. They weren’t glowing any longer. Mira looked around for their mysterious rescuer, but saw nothing. No time to waste. She did a banishing, blew out the candles, grabbed Zoomer and ran down the stairs.

* * *

“I wonder who that was that saved us,” Mira asked Zoomer, after her first restorative sip of coffee. Not wanting to go back to the sanctum for her caftan, she sat wrapped in her pink terrycloth bathrobe. “I wanted to thank him. Her? It? There shouldn’t have been anyone else in that circle.”

Zoomer sat down and began to scratch furiously at his neck with a back claw.

“That flea’s still there,” Mira said, almost glad to have something mundane to concentrate on. That had been a harrowing experience. Wait until she told Loretta! She drew Zoomer on to her lap, went through his fur with her fingers. Even though they were out of the sanctum it still felt as though the two of them were the only living creatures in the whole wide world, and here she was picking a flea out of her sole companion’s fur. She located a hard, hyperactive, black speck and held it up.

“There!” she exclaimed, triumphantly. Immediately, Zoomer turned around, swatted her hand and bounded to the floor. The flea disappeared again, probably jumping right back into his fur. Why would Zoomer protest when she was freeing him from an irritation? Then Mira had a funny thought.

The chalk on the floor would have prevented anything else from coming into the circle with them. They had been the only living creatures in the whole wide world. She remembered Violet’s words. Only the living can save the living. She glanced at Zoomer. His flea? The enormous being had defended them, as if it was dedicated to them, exactly like her familiar was supposed to do, but …

Nah.

On the other hand…why not?

“Zoom?” She asked, tentatively, feeling stupid even to be asking the question, “was that your familiar? Did you do the calling ritual?” Then she stopped, feeling even more idiotic. “No, what am I saying? You’re just a cat. I mean, you enhance
my
abilities, but … ?” She hesitated. Could her familiar have a familiar?

Zoomer struggled away, scratched again, looked up at her with the wise look he’d given her when he had first moved into her house, into her life. Mira stopped. He was capable of anything, with an old soul like that. She couldn’t underestimate him. Look at how he’d appeared in the Summerland, larger and more powerful than she was. He was a magician in his own right. And the protective presence, so unexpected, shrinking out of sight just as they passed through the gate to safety. What else could it have been? The flea must be mightier still than either one of them. Mira giggled. It might even have its own familiar, a microbe or something. What could be next down the line? A supercharged molecule?