Like usual, Cat was using me as a heat source in the bed, mugging me from behind, his arms around my neck and threatening to choke me, except he isn't strong enough, thank goodness. To be truthful, I have to wonder what's going to happen when he gets married. I hope the future wife likes cats. It would be difficult if he had to marry a dog person. I can tell you now if it came to a showdown between her and me, the dog person and her yappy barky dog would lose.

Unfortunately, little yappy barky lap dogs don’t even taste good so the obvious way to get rid of one of those things wasn’t even on the menu.

I was chasing a whole herd of caribou in my dreams when a knock awakened me. Cat slept through it but that's okay. If it was something I could take care of, then he could keep sleeping. I put one forepaw on the wall and depressed the latch with the other. Father Garshom was with Lord Estevan at the door. They were both dressed as if they were both ready for travel. That set alarms off in my head.

“Fuzzy? Is Cat awake?” Garshom asked in a soft voice. “There’s something I think you both need to see and then we need to use the crystal ball.”

* I will wake him. * I turned and leapt on the bed. The quickest way to get Cat up was with my adroit usage of my raspy and very cleansing longitudinalis superior with an appropriate load of slobber applied to the peach fuzz of my boy’s nose and chin.

“You dismal failure of a divine agent, take your raspy dishrag of doom and get it out of my face," Cat protested, sitting up and scooting backward to get away from me. Works every time to wake him up, even if he threatens to banish me to sleep on the floor. He's never followed through with that threat. Father Garshom and Lord Estevan had already walked in and were lighting the lamps.

* Sorry, Cat. It looks like something is up. I don't even know what it is yet, but our companions requested we bring the scrying ball. *

Cat’s ire vanished instantly. “Father Garshom, what has happened? Do I need to dress?”

“Let me help you,” the old priest said. That got all of my and Cat’s attention. For Garshom to get Cat dressed meant something serious was in the offing.

“I’ll meet you on the battlements,” Lord Estevan let himself out. His sense of propriety was first rate.

“Braies and old hosen or new-style hosen, Cat?” Garshom was already into Cat’s clothes chest.

“New style, please, long chemise, the yellow short-skirted doublet, the blue houppelande, and the yellow and blue chaperon," Cat knew exactly what he wanted. This trip has been good for him. He's been getting more decisive and vocal about his preferences, which I think is a good thing.

Garshom tossed a yellow pair of new-style hosen, complete with one of those silly codpiece flaps that tie in the front. All of Cat's hosen have left legs that end like a tube below the knee. He gathered the rest of Cat's clothes while Cat's wrestled his way into the hosen. Pulling the left leg up was more difficult for Cat than tying the drawstring at the waist, but he manages to do it on his own now. It's not elegant. He pulls on the hosen while on his back with his legs waving in the air. He usually does it on the mattress, but if there is no mattress, he will use the floor.

Cat then threw the chemise on. This was the one place he needed help. "Father Garshom? Could you please tie my shirt laces?”

Mounting of the false leg was next. Cat slid the leg contraption into the left boot of the yellow pair of thigh-high boots, pulled it on, and started doing the many hidden straps. The right boot went on in seconds with just two garter straps above and below the knee. By the time Cat pulled on his the boots, Garshom had all the throwing spikes loaded into the wrist sheath inside the right sleeve of the doublet. He also loaded all the pouches for glasses eyes, the crystal ball, and general stuff on the leather belt decorated with the gold plaques of cougar heads that the goblin queen had picked out for Cat.

It only took a moment more to dress Cat completely, including the safety pins of the chair of leaves. Between Cat and Father Garshom, it had taken less than five minutes to get the boy all tricked out. Then I was startled when Garshom dropped one of the green riding pads on my back and did the three straps that held it on. "There, now you look like you belong to someone," he grinned at me, the wretch. "Fuzzy, can you take Cat up the stairs to the battlements? It's three flights of stairs."

Cat got on and fitted the feet of his boots in the stirrup strap. Then we were off, following a running Garshom up the stairs. What greeted us was indeed alarming.

The battlements on the top level of the Vogelberg fortress have a view 30 leagues in every direction but east because it's so high up. The view east is blocked by the glacier-covered summit of the Vogelberg itself.

Everyone was up on the battlements already, excluding the three youngest of the Viscounty children. Johan looked down at the shorter Cat and ran off. He returned with a step stool which he put down next to Cat. My boy could barely see over the battlements, but the step stool put his head above the top of the stones.

“Thanks, Johan," he clapped the younger boy on the shoulder. "This is a big help, and oh boy, I do not like the looks of that." I had jumped up on top of the battlements and had an excellent view, especially with my farsighted eyes.

Some thirty leagues away due west, the smudge that was Tammerhof was illuminated by a great fire centered on the two highest buildings: the Temple of the Mother Goddess Matadee the Merciful and the Royal Palace.

“The watch reported seeing a bright flash of light in Tammerhof,” Viscountess Alianora told Cat. “Then they heard a great rumbling noise. What you see now, your highness, is about a third to a half an hour after the bright light, which must have been some kind of explosion.”

Cat stepped off the step and pulled out the crystal. “Fuzzy, you’re better at this than I am. Find father and Aricia, please.” I jumped off the wall and joined him as Willam and Sven walked up behind Cat and watched over his shoulder.

He held the crystal cradled in his hands, and I dropped into the scrying trance. What I saw was upsetting. It appeared that the north wing of the palace, which housed the kitchens, buttery, brewery, stores, wine cellars, and administrative offices, had suffered some kind of explosion. It was engulfed in flames, and the fire was spreading into the rest of the building. The fire had spread by wind to the temple across the open square between the two structures, which shared the highest part of Tammer Butte, the great mostly flat-topped mountain on which the city was built.

I saw many inexplicable things in the crystal, so many that when I came out of my trance, I commanded the flying carpet to come to me on the battlements.

(continued in installment 85)