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They did not slow down till they were far away from streetlamps and habitation. Karigan circled Raven around more than once to ensure they were not being followed. A couple of times, she could have sworn she heard something behind her, maybe a hoofbeat that was not Raven’s or the clacking of a rock, but even with her senses sharply attuned, she found no evidence of pursuit.
They proceeded more slowly now, the density of the dark and the fog challenging her night vision as they traveled the road that bypassed the Scangly Mounds. Eventually they would have to leave the road and rein in toward the base of the Old City’s mount, but she was unsure of the terrain, and it was difficult to reconcile the lines of a map with the actual landscape, especially submerged in a night fog. She paused Raven at a lightly trodden track that veered off the road to their right. She thought that this was the one that led to the Scangly Mounds. If this was the correct turning, she must travel farther along it. But how far? After they’d gone some distance, she halted Raven again and sat, indecisive. The summit of the mount she’d seen, ablaze with the lights of Silk’s excavation, had vanished from view due to tree growth and the shape of the mount itself. Not that she could make out even basic shapes; the wafting mist made everything indistinct. Though she stood still, the world streamed around her in vaporous currents.
Even had it been clear and sunny, she was not sure she’d be able to find the Heroes Portal. She had been there but once, led by a Weapon and the king, and it was well hidden. It was possible to pass very close by and never know it. She worried that her hesitation would make her late for whatever was supposed to transpire at midnight, but she worried more about becoming lost and not finding it at all.
Raven stamped and pranced, interrupting her thoughts. When she finally got him to settle, she realized they were no longer alone on the road.
Meow, said Cloudy the cat. He sat with his tail wrapped around his feet right in front of them.
Karigan had never been so glad to see a cat.
FOLLOWING THE CAT
Raven lowered his head to snuffle Cloudy. A puff of air from his nostrils ruffled the cat’s whiskers. Cloudy tapped Raven’s nose. The stallion jerked his head up and snorted, leaving both horse and cat disgruntled.
“Right,” Karigan said. “Now that you’ve introduced yourselves, what’s next?”
Cloudy flicked his tail, rose, and strutted off with an air of righteous disdain for all horsekind. He veered off the road to their left and into some brush. Remembering the last time that she, accompanied by several Weapons, had needed to find a way into the tombs, they’d been led to a secret entrance by Ghost Kitty. Karigan reined Raven after Cloudy. It was utterly ridiculous to even consider following a cat, but what else was she supposed to do?
Maybe, she thought with some perversity, it wasn’t the gods who controlled the universe, but cats. Cats who toyed with humans as a puppeteer would a marionette. Ghost Kitty had always manipulated her into feeding him treats and giving him the greater part of her bed.
Raven plodded into the brush after Cloudy.
I am following a cat. One part of Karigan wanted to laugh, and another part of her was resigned to the absurdity. Who was she to judge what was utterly ridiculous after all she’d seen and done and experienced?
Cloudy continued into a thatch of woods and thick undergrowth with his tail erect and crooked at the tip. Branches Karigan could not see almost knocked her off Raven’s back, so she dismounted. Cloudy hurried back and rubbed against her legs, then forged onward. She hoped he was not leading her to his favorite mouse hole. She tried to console herself with the fact that the night she and the Weapons had been so desperate to enter the tombs, Ghost Kitty led them true.
The woods only deepened the gloom, and Karigan tripped over rocks and depressions in the earth. Fortunately Cloudy’s light coloring made him visible. Occasionally, he paused with a glance back to see if she was still there. She pushed away wet tree limbs and pulled strands of spider webs off her face, wondering how far they had to go. And was this the easiest way for a horse and human to go, or just a path convenient for a cat? With Raven plowing through the woods, snapping branches as he plodded behind her, they certainly were not making a quiet approach. Anyone who might be waiting for her—friend or enemy—would hear her coming.
Karigan felt like she trudged after Cloudy forever. Would she be late? Would someone be there to meet them? She amused herself by imagining a whole glaring of cats awaiting her, led by one Supreme Cat. Such notions took the edge off her nerves. It was better than worrying about walking into a trap.
So immersed was she in her fancies of a feline greeting committee, that it took her several moments to realize the going was easier—less brush, fewer branches grabbing at her. Raven’s hooves clopped solidly on stone and the ground grew more even underfoot. Karigan’s hopes lifted—there had been the remnant of a granite-paved path leading to the Heroes Portal. If she were able to see the trees that towered overhead, would she find herself passing beneath a grove of hemlocks?
She strained her eyes looking for another sign of where she was and almost missed it. The obelisk had toppled over and broken in two at some point, and only a little of its pale stone shone in the dark. It appeared it was being claimed by the earth, swallowed by moss and leaves and pine needles. They were close now.
She picked up her pace behind Cloudy, her excitement rising, though she also tried to remain alert for trouble. Cloudy jumped up onto a rock and sat to groom himself. No, this was no simple rock. Karigan paused to glide her hand across it. This was a slab of granite shaped by the hands and tools of people. It was pocked by age and covered with forest debris and thick, sodden moss, but it had once been polished smooth. It was a coffin rest. That meant the portal was straight ahead. Not far.