He Nearly Killed the Cat
The Known Names
By Anne B. Walsh
Author Notes:
Yes, I'm back. Information about the wait at the bottom of the page.
"Well, that was unexpected." Carrie tucked her husband into bed and stepped out of their room, shutting the door behind herself. "Just when I thought he was well settled on Chronicling that little tell he'd found, the one where Redwing and Lynx are, this other world came swooping out of nowhere and insisted on having its say. For more than three months of Outer Time, no less."
"It's one of the hazards of living with a Chronicler, or so I've heard." Fox had his hands in his pockets, his shoulders settled comfortably back. "At least it gave us plenty of time to solidify our plans for going after them, whenever their breakpoint comes up. And we've located the other two pairings, so once we have our gingers safe and sound, we can go straight on through."
"Uncle John still isn't back from his own mission, though." Meghan skipped down the hall to the stairs, turned on her toe, and came bouncing back. "So what are we supposed to do next?"
"Who isn't back?" inquired a voice from the stairs.
"Uncle John!" Meghan hurtled back the way she'd come to get a hug, skidding to a halt before she knocked John down the stairs with her exuberance, and Neenie emerged from her bedroom with her brilliant smile, Fox taking his place behind her in the greetings queue.
"Success?" Carrie asked, collecting her own hug after the children had all finished. "And what took so long, if you don't mind my asking?"
"The story wasn't quite as over as I'd thought it was, possibly because of me, so it seemed only right that I stay and help mop up. But things are well in hand there now, and I have some people I'd like to introduce you to." John gave his son, daughter, and niece each a meaningful look. "We will all remember, won't we, that we are Legendbreakers and as such must be courteous to other Legendbreakers. We will also remember that this is Outer Time, not the world we came from, and that people who look like other people may not necessarily have the same name or have done the same deeds. Is that quite clear?"
"This I have to see," Fox muttered. "Who've you recruited, Dad?"
"As it happens, Eve's twin brother and his wife. Their names are Russell and Cecelia Evans, and they will most likely be moving into a domain east of us, since that area is currently uninhabited. In other words, they will be our neighbors, and we will not make trouble with them." John raised an eyebrow at Fox. "Will we."
"No, s—" Fox froze in the middle of the second word, causing Neenie and Meghan to giggle. Carrie, behind them, was shaking her head.
"You couldn't get anyone else?" she asked.
"The idea was to give Eve someone she cared about, no?" John returned. "And someone about whom she had no terrifying memories. Irritating and saddening ones, yes, but not terrifying. Given that, and thirty-odd years of growing up for him, plus I don't dare to guess how many more for her, he seemed the best choice possible. Cecy is an excellent bonus, since they're alike enough that they should get along but different enough that they won't irritate one another. I hope."
"So when do we get to meet them?" Meghan bounced on her toes. "Are they here? Downstairs?"
"Yes, they are. Why don't you and your mother go downstairs and say hello." John stepped aside, allowing Meghan to plunge down the stairs at full speed and Carrie to follow at a slightly more sedate pace, one of her sardonic smiles on her face. Fox still looked rather stunned, but Neenie was beginning to nod.
"The name is from one of the smaller spins of our verse," she said. "But that's not who the person is, or who he started out as, is it? He's just using the name for Breaking, and he was…a dungeon dweller for most of his life?"
"That's right, up until what would be ridge seventh year, when your counterpart, Fox, changed things by admitting he needed help. By making a wish, and forgetting to be careful what he wished for." John chuckled. "We should take a holiday in that world sometime. It's worth a visit. Some of the things they've done with…but I digress. The point is, that wish changed not only him, but a great many other people. One of whom is now traveling as Mr. Evans."
"But can you really call him Miss Eve's brother?" Neenie frowned. "I understand that's how it could have been, but I don't know if she'll like it…"
"Look who's talking." Fox poked his sister in the shoulder. "If I hadn't seen a friendly face for…however many years Miss Eve's been out Breaking, I wouldn't care if he called himself my brother, my sister, or a two-tailed monkey, so long as he was there."
"I think you might have a little trouble if he called himself your sister." Neenie flicked him on the upper curve of the ear and started down the stairs herself. "Since you're the only boy who can pull off dresses that I know."
Fox turned to look at his father. "Was that a compliment or an insult?"
"Probably a little of both." John tapped his fingertips together, trying to think of how to phrase his final caution. "Have you read the tell we were discussing? The one our newest friends come from?"
"I skimmed it, but not much beyond. He gets on my nerves, even when I know he's going to get better." Fox leaned against the wall. "Why?"
"Mrs. Evans…may ask you to do a thing or two for her. Unless it would really go against the grain, I'd appreciate if you would oblige her."
"All right." Fox's brown brows drew together. "What sort of things?"
"Why don't you come downstairs and see for yourself."
"Well, if you insist," Fox drawled, and pushed off the wall to descend the stairs in his usual leisurely fashion.
Behind his back, John crossed his fingers. This would either be a resounding success, or the worst failure since he'd accidentally knocked over one of the wigs Fox's counterpart kept around the house. Apparently, actors had bad reactions to anyone but themselves touching their false hair. Still, most of the spots had gone away within a week, though he thought one or two might still be in places he couldn't reach…
"Here's hoping you can help me look for them soon, love," he said quietly, touching the ring he wore on a chain around his neck, and followed his children downstairs.
After the byplay upstairs, Fox had no illusions about the identity of the man with dark hair pulled back into a neat tail, who was answering one of Meghan's eager questions with far more patience than Fox had ever seen him demonstrate in Inner Time. As well, even a cursory skim of the particular tell from which he knew this version of the man originated had prepared him for the identity of Mrs. Evans.
What he hadn't been ready for was the way in which his own heart gave a queer little thump when he saw her. In his own world, he had known her only from pictures, from stories, and from one memorable visit to the Mirror of Erised. He had always been secretly ashamed of that, as it felt like disloyalty to the Pack, to whom he owed everything he was. But was it so wrong, really, to wish that the people whose blood one shared also shared one's cherished beliefs and principles?
Now, for the first time in his life, one did, and Fox had absolutely no idea what he was going to do about that.
She looked up and saw him, and smiled. "You do look a great deal like Reynard Beauvoi," she said. "Your father had told me you did."
"I didn't always." Fox advanced a step or two into the kitchen, aware that all eyes had turned his way. "The other face…it wasn't my favorite, but I survived it."
"Will you let me see?" The request was quiet, gentle, but Fox could hear the remnants of tears underneath it. Legendbreaker Cecilia Evans might now be, but she was also a mother, and he knew she hadn't made the decision to leave her children behind her lightly. Even if she could slip away from her duties to visit them sometimes, she would no longer be involved in their day-to-day lives, and he was sure it had hurt her terribly.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his twin-bond with Neenie, on pushing aside temporarily the alterations that her blood brought to him. His skin tingled all over, his hair dropped limply against his head, and when he opened his eyes, for one moment his vision was blurry as the change completed itself.
"Yes," Mrs. Evans said softly. "Yes, I see how it could have been." She came to his side, looking up into his face, studying him carefully. "My boy…he's like you, which you already knew, but he carries scars you don't have. Pains and regrets you never knew. You've had your own, that much I can see, but you also have a joy about you, an innocence, almost, which he lost a long time ago. If he ever had it to begin with."
"All children begin with it," Mr. Evans put in. His voice was the same, deeply resonant as always, but it lacked the bitter, biting edge with which Fox was used to hearing it. "Your son's blood parents took pains to remove it as quickly as possible. It would have interfered, badly, with their desires for him. With his father's, at least." He smiled, humor lighting his eyes and making him momentarily unrecognizable as the harsh, dour master of the dungeons. "And still, in the end, he broke free."
"More power to him," Fox said, releasing his control and feeling the color rush back to his face and hair. "I got out so young I didn't have much choice. Though I suppose I could always have turned Dark, if I really, really wanted to." He made a face. "Which I didn't. What's the point? Unless you're on top, you're always taking orders from everyone above you and watching out for everyone below you who wants you dead. And when you are on top, you can't relax either, because one slip and everyone below you—which is to say, everyone—will be swarming up to take advantage. It's just not worth it."
"Cogently argued." Mr. Evans inclined his head in Fox's direction. "I wish I had as much sense at your age. But then, many things would not have happened as they did. And I do like where I find myself now, and this newest adventure I have undertaken." He held out his hand to his wife. "We have undertaken, I should say."
"Shall we escort you over to Eve and Susie's domain, or would you prefer to go on your own?" Carrie asked. "Or is it more proper for John to take you, since he's your sponsor, your mentor?"
"I think it might be best for him to escort us, though I certainly see no harm if you would care to come along." Mrs. Evans took her husband's outstretched hand in her own. "That is, if you dare to leave your young people home alone."
"They haven't blown anything up yet." Carrie looked the cubs over. "But then, we've yet to rescue their usual instigator. Once he gets here, I doubt any of us will even dare to sleep, much less leave them alone."
"That's not fair," Meghan protested. "We can get into lots of trouble without Wolf! There was the time…"
"It wasn't a challenge, Pearl." John placed his hand on top of his niece's head, stemming her incipient outbreak of bouncing. "Find something nice and quiet to do while we're away, all right? We shouldn't be too long."
"Eating and sleeping might not be out of the question," Carrie suggested. "Since once your father is awake and ready to return to that Chronicle he started a few months ago, we should have enough power to perform an extraction without disrupting the timeline too much." She smiled. "As you'll be feeding yourselves tonight, you can have whatever you like. As long as it's relatively balanced, and you do your own dishes."
"And if you're in bed by the time we get back, we'll forgo the beatings for tonight," John added. "But if not…"
Neenie came to rigid attention and snapped off a smart salute, Fox and Meghan following her example. "Sir, yes, sir!" they chorused.
John sighed. "I am surrounded by smartmouths," he told the Evanses, leading the way towards the cottage's front door. "And the worst of it is, sometimes they're even as funny as they think they are…"
Ron Weasley had no idea what was going on.
He thought he ought to be used to the sensation by now, but somehow it never stopped being frustrating, any more than it stopped being frightening. Harry's preoccupation with Draco Malfoy, annoying as it was, he could handle, but now both Hermione and Ginny seemed to have something on their minds that they didn't want to talk about, and he'd never been good at guessing games.
To add to it all, he had a sneaking suspicion that something was still wrong with him. It might be an aftereffect of having been poisoned, though now that he thought about it, it seemed to have been going on longer than that. He recalled Ginny asking Harry, the year before, if he'd had stretches of time that he didn't remember, in an effort to find out if You-Know-Who might be possessing him. Harry's answer, at the time, had been no.
Ron wondered what he was supposed to do now that his own answer was yes.
Why would You-Know-Who want to possess me? What good would it do him? Unless he wants to off Harry and has decided I'm the easiest target…I do fall under the Imperius Curse awfully easy, wouldn't that mean I'd be easy to possess? And I'm nearly always with Harry, we have the same classes since we both want to be Aurors, we're both on the Quidditch team and we sleep in the same dorm…we used to be nearly always with Hermione, but now she's disappearing for hours at a time, and she won't talk about where she's going or who she's with…
The thoughts were not encouraging, but he didn't think he could bring them up to anyone else. They would laugh at him, claim he was having delusions of grandeur, believing himself more important than he was. Only Ginny had been looking strangely at him for the past couple of weeks, and occasionally, when he thought back to one or two of the periods he couldn't remember, he thought she might have been nearby just before or just after them.
She can't be involved…or can she? You-Know-Who did possess her once already, through that damn diary, so maybe could he do it again? And hopscotch from her to me, use her as a launching pad to get to the person he really wants? But then why wouldn't she have worked it out, told somebody, asked for help?
Why haven't you? whispered the little voice inside his head, the one which had him worried. If you really think you're being possessed by Voldemort—
"Don't say his name," Ron hissed under his breath, making Harry and Ginny both look at him oddly. He shook his head at them, returning Harry to his essay and Ginny to her book, and clamped his lips shut, thinking at the voice instead. Who are you, and what do you want with me?
I can't tell you who I am. You wouldn't believe me. The voice snorted in sardonic mental laughter. And the only thing I want from you is to get away, but I don't know how—or maybe I do. Has Harry got the Map on him?
Why do you care? Ron shot back.
Because there's somebody missing from your little group, and if you find out where she is right now, you might be on your way to answering all your questions, and fixing a lot of problems at once. Why not give it a try?
Ron shrugged. Sure, why not. "Do we know where Hermione is?" he asked.
"Not sure," said Ginny, looking up from her book again. "She said she might be meeting another friend for a study session, but not who or where…"
"Let's find out, then." Harry pulled the battered parchment square which was the Marauder's Map out of his bag. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he intoned, touching his wand to its center.
Ron leaned over to see as the familiar framework of Hogwarts spread across the parchment.
"And…done!" Hermione sealed her final spell with a flourish and stepped back, looking up at her work. "If my calculations are right, it should work now. Shall we test it?"
"N-no, not yet." Mal emerged from behind the Vanishing Cabinet and came to stand beside Hermione. "We should make sure it's safe before we risk ourselves. Why don't we…" He glanced around, then picked up a tawdry and tarnished tiara. "Here, let's see if that goes through all right." Setting it on one of the shelves inside the Cabinet, he shut the doors. "Give it a minute to register there's something in there, maybe, and then we'll have a look."
"All right." Hermione smiled, leaning back on her heels. "Mal, I just wanted to say, it's been a real pleasure working with you. I feel like I understand purebloods so much better now that we've been friends."
"What, Weasley wasn't enough for you?" Mal chuckled. "You've known him a lot longer than you have me."
"Yes, but Ron's…" Hermione waved an impatient hand. "Ron's different. His family lives their own way, they do what they please, and most of the things you've told me sound like you come from the traditional purebloods. The ones who're mostly on Voldemort's side." Mal's shudder made her shake her head. "Though that you and Ron do have in common. It's just a name, how can it possibly hurt you?"
"You'd be surprised how much a name can hurt." Mal turned to look at her, his gray eyes unusually earnest. "Hermione…I have to tell you something. Before we look to see if the Cabinet works, before we do anything else. I should have told you a long time ago, but I was afraid. Afraid you wouldn't keep helping me, afraid you wouldn't keep being my friend."
"Afraid I wouldn't…are you secretly a Death Eater? Going to use the Cabinet to kidnap me and make Harry come to rescue me?" Hermione smiled, but no answering smile came to Mal's face.
"They'd want me to, if they knew you were here with me," he said quietly. "If they knew you trusted me the way you have. If they knew how much you've helped me." Now he tried to smile, but it was a wan and twisted expression. "Please…try not to hate me, once you know my name?"
His wand swirled in a tight circle around his head.
Author Notes:
Happy New Year!
Sorry for the long wait, but as you saw at the beginning of the chapter, a Chronicler's life is not always an easy one. The Highwayman's Apprentice changed forms on me in early October and transmuted from one novel into four, and the first of those, A Widow in Waiting, is now complete. That's right, you heard me…I have completed an original novel.
AWIW is not currently available for sale (trust me, I'll let you know the moment it is), but the first seven chapters are posted right here at fanficauthors.net. Why not have a look? It's a historical romance with a strong element of fantasy. I think you might like it.
Also, support your local fan fiction authors! Horror, Humor, and Heroes 3: New Faces of Science Fiction, a follow-up to HHH2: Fantasy, is now available through Amazon.com, and includes my story "Mommy Magic"! If you've been reading this story for a while, you may recognize a couple of the characters… it's only $3, so use a little of your Christmas money and make my New Year happy!
More Surpassing Danger is on the way as soon as I get the chance. Now to spend the last hour of 2011 with roommate, cats, and some tea with bourbon in it, since I'm all out of champagne…