Bondage and Other Tales

The caravan rocked gently as Jem and Rav followed the road at their usual steady pace, as calm as ever.

Drowsily, I wondered whether the black cat brothers were still sharing my usual seat at the front. Quite possibly, one of them had invited himself onto Syl’s lap again. I had to admit, I didn’t much care. It was so much easier just to lie on the bed, wincing when we hit bumps that jostled my bruises, slipping in and out of sleep.

At least they were only bruises. I land a lot better than Syl does. The one thing I hate about our job is the occasional heart-stopping instant of realizing that Syl is in danger and that I might not have enough time to do anything about it. She’s spectacularly good at identifying traps so we can disarm or avoid them, and I try to make sure that she’s always safe behind me, but now and then we come across a sneaky one. In this case, I’d barely managed to knock her out of the way of a swinging wooden weight centred right on the most natural place to stand in order to read the text and images engraved into a wall. That the wood was old and crumbling had probably saved me from broken bones or worse, but it had still tossed me across the room.

Lying next to me in bed was the red-orange carnelian cat, curled into a relaxed pose, beryl eyes open and bright. At least, unlike the black cats, it was unlikely to stretch and expand to magically take up the entirety of a space that otherwise comfortably held two adults.

The cat had simply been there one morning. That was the first night we’d spent on the road, headed for the tomb of the long-forgotten king of a minor country that had not existed as an independent entity for several centuries. We couldn’t just abandon that incomplete, even though it wouldn’t be a quick in-and-out job.

This one was more of a historical run, always Syl’s favourite, and even more appealling to both of us after Enzaneth’s forced treasure hunt: a history professor who corresponded with someone who had hired us previously had asked us to map out the tomb, do detailed sketches of anything that Sylvael decided was noteworthy, and rescue what we could of the rather fragile pottery and wooden grave goods. It had taken us the better part of a month to do everything we honestly could at the site, returning at night to the caravan. The horses simply grazed, waiting for us, and the two cats had proven to be masters at feeding and entertaining themselves; we’d found a carpenter willing to modify the caravan’s front door to add a cat door, which hadn’t taken long and hadn’t really cost that much, and the cats did an excellent job of deterring anything else from using it. We’d made a few trips back to empty the secondary trailer of finds, pass on the report so far, and restock on supplies.

All the while, that carnelian cat sat there, waiting. We were sure we were supposed to bring it back to the Omphalos, but in all fairness, that would have to wait. We couldn’t help wondering exactly how the cat had left Enzaneth’s possession and invited itself into ours. With any luck, he wouldn’t be able to track it right to us, but then, neither of us really thought that the cat would allow that.

At least the accident had happened after we were mostly finished. Sylvael had spent the following two days on the delicate work of packing up finds in the safer areas, while I spent it in bed giving my battered body a chance to recover.

And then we’d realized that my bruises and strained muscles hurt less whenever the carnelian cat was in reach: it started vibrating in a way that I could only call a purr, rhythmic and relaxing, and the pain faded considerably, far beyond what any pain medicine we had available could accomplish. An experiment had demonstrated that it was also making the damage heal more rapidly, although I did fall asleep a lot. The third day, I’d been back on my feet and fairly functional, if rather stiff—and not as a side-effect of having fun.

From the bed, I could see out the rear window, and more importantly, what I could not see anymore was the city or its environs.

Which meant I had slept through Syl unhitching the trailer with the last of the finds, delivering her final report and sketches, and collecting our pay. Alone.

With a groan, I heaved myself up to my feet and made my way to the front, steadying myself with each step. The door had been secured open, and through it, I could see only woodland—the thin kind that happened when humans spent a lot of time harvesting the larger trees and generally interfering.

As gently as I could, I removed the black cat from my seat and dropped onto it, more heavily than I intended. The cat sat between us briefly, washing his shoulder, then sauntered inside.

Sylvael greeted me with a sympathetic smile. The other cat was on her lap. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m alive and planning to stay that way, and I’m glad that you’re safe. I’m highly annoyed at myself for leaving you to handle everything alone. But otherwise, good enough, I suppose. How did it go?”

“It wasn’t so bad. I can talk to people who are interested in the same things I am, and just like always that was about all he wanted to talk about. He threw in a bonus because you got hurt, although I told him that it’s something that just happens now and then. It’s not a big bonus, but it was still sweet. He did want me to stay there while he read through my notes fast, just in case anything was unclear, and I was worried that might take a while, but it didn’t take him very long to say that it was meticulous and thorough and that he couldn’t foresee any confusion. I did promise that we’d stop in on our next trip in this general area just in case there is anything he wants clarified.”

“That’s fine. He might even have another job for us, or something. You did wonderfully, love, I’m proud of you.”

She glanced at me and grinned. “He said I reminded him of his granddaughter.”

I laughed.

I’d been worried that Sylvael would regret her choice, even while my own choice to support her had been a given. That was something I could be absolutely certain about, a couple of months since we had last seen Enzaneth: she was happy, on some deep level that neither of us had ever even really been aware existed. And nothing else had changed. Still together, still in love, still partners when working, still having creative fun in bed, still chasing off opportunistic skirt-chasers. We’d done a couple of jobs, and around that spent some time in cities shopping and enjoying ourselves—we’d sometimes found inns that would allow us to bring the cats in, and sometimes we’d had to leave them in the caravan while bringing them meals.

“Do you suppose we’re far enough away from civilization to make it easier for the goddess?” I asked Sylvael.

“Probably. We’ve been out of the city for a while.” She nodded towards the sun, which was distinctly dropping towards the horizon. “Maybe we can get a little help. Can you hold the reins?”

“I’m sore, m’love, not a complete invalid.” That said, I was just as glad that she was the one going into the back to fetch the carnelian cat. At least, after she dislodged the living cat, who went in to look for his brother. Probably both would settle in their cubbyhole basket to groom each other and commiserate about indignities inflicted by humans.

She returned with the figurine, and sat down with it on her lap.

“Aumret?” she said. “We’d really like to come back to the Omphalos. Please help us find the Gate.”

The carnelian cat moved, uncoiling and sitting up, beryl gaze straight ahead.

“I guess we just keep going,” Sylvael said. “Are you okay to drive?”

“The boys aren’t exactly fighting me. It’s fine.”

“It’ll be good to go back. And this time, we can just... be there. No watching for ways to do something bad, no feeling sick and guilty about lying.”

“Definitely.”

“We should be in time for Rose’s party, too.”

I chuckled. “That too. I bet they have amazing parties. And I bet they allow for some people being quieter or getting overwhelmed by too much.”

When we reached a fork in the road, the carnelian cat turned its head to the left, so we went that way.

We hadn’t gone all that much farther when the cat turned its head to the left again, and Sylvael said, “I think there’s a lane.”

There was. Syl hopped off to open the simple wooden gate, sparing me the task.

The carnelian cat leapt off the caravan and bolted ahead, at such a speed that we quickly lost sight of it. That was startling, but probably was just confirmation that the Gate lay farther along this lane.

I realized that I was smiling in anticipation, and in a way, that surprised me. It had been a long time since I’d felt like I belonged anywhere other than with Syl in our caravan.

I spotted the shimmer of pearly walls, barely visible, and before much longer we saw the Gate. Jem and Rav broke into a fast trot without needing any urging.

That made Syl laugh. “They want to go, too. I wonder what they see or smell or whatever that’s telling them what’s on the other side.”

I didn’t close my eyes this time as we crossed the Gate, but I did reach out again to lay a hand over Sylvael’s.

All three of the Sisters were in the pavilion, Lunessa and Astrenna both embracing Heliara at once.

“Welcome back!” Lunessa called. “Get your beautiful boys settled with their friends! Your apartment is still waiting for you—sixteen, of course!”

Astrenna raised her own voice. “We’ll ask Rose to pay you a visit for a massage with oil that will make you feel better very quickly. We can’t have you sore with Rose’s party coming up soon!”

I climbed down, stumbling briefly, and waited for Syl.

Jem whinnied, and was answered from the pasture.

“I don’t think I can turn that down,” I said. “We don’t want to interrupt your...” Reunion? Yes, of course it was one, although I wasn’t sure I wanted to actually say that or even think about it too much, so I just let it slide. “We do want to tell you something, though.”

“We got paid a lot by that wizard that forced us to come here,” Sylvael said earnestly. “But we don’t feel right about keeping it. I mean, he gave us some other than that, because I told him I didn’t want to be changed back, and we’ve been using that for some clothes and things, but we haven’t touched the main amount. It just... feels wrong. We talked about it and we want to give it to you.”

“To us?” Lunessa repeated, as the trio drew back, though remaining in contact. “Why?”

“Because you do trade with the outside world,” I said. “Some of what the community here needs can’t be produced right here. We’d like to help with that. You got us out a bad situation without condemning us, and you’ve welcomed us here, and we really want to keep coming back...”

“You don’t need to buy your place,” Astrenna said.

“We know. But we do want to contribute something.”

“We don’t have the skills to do a lot of things,” Syl said. “We can help with chores and all, but we aren’t really good at anything except, well, what we do. But without you, we wouldn’t have that money. We’d probably be dead, actually. So we don’t feel like it’s right to keep it. We’d much rather that it went to a better use and bought things for everyone here.”

The Sisters traded glances that probably communicated quite a lot between them, but I couldn’t read it.

“We’d be honoured,” Lunessa said gently. “As long as you are here to share in the benefits yourselves.”

“We’d like to be,” Sylvael said. She sighed. “I tried to get the thing that changed me into a girl, but he wouldn’t let me have it.”

“Don’t feel bad,” Heliara said. “There are other ways to do that. Not everyone living here started off with the body that matched their true self. I admit, that would have been a much easier way, but we can manage without it.”

“What, really? I didn’t know that.”

“It’s just a part of their past, which they can bring up if they choose, but it is not normally relevant.”

Lunessa’s gaze went past us to the caravan; I glanced back. The black brothers were sitting on the front seat together, watching. They didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. “Oh, so that’s where those two went.”

“Sorry,” I said. “They snuck into the caravan and we didn’t know until we were too far away. You can have them back.”

“That isn’t how it works with cats,” Heliara chuckled. “Cats stay where they wish to stay, and only where they wish to. I believe they’re quite happy travelling with you, so I don’t think you’ll be able to escape without them.”

“Now,” Astrenna said briskly. “Off you go. Jem and Rav need to go in the pasture, and you two need to go get settled. For however long it takes before wanderlust takes you off again, you’re home.”