Cats Triumphant Read Free Page B

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