Thrix agreed that it had gone well.

The queen looked on expectantly. "So?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know very well what I mean. How was your subsequent date with Captain Easterly?"

"It went quite well."

"Excellent. Was there sex and debauchery?"

"No."

Malveria looked disappointed. "Might there be in the near future?"

"Probably not, with my track record. But we had a nice meal, and we managed not to bore each other. That's an improvement on any other date I've had recently."

"I knew he would be suitable!" Malveria was triumphant. "The Fire Queen does not send her esteemed friend Thrix on a date with just anyone. The moment I encountered him at the opera, I knew he would make you an excellent companion. Admittedly Distikka pointed him out to me, though I still claim full credit for the match."

"He was a good choice. But don't get your hopes up, there are still plenty of opportunities for it all to go wrong."

"Abandon all such thoughts, Enchantress. Since your meeting, he has doubtless spent every waking hour thinking of you. Really, Enchantress, I feel we may be entering a golden age."

"I don't think I'd go that far, Malveria."

"Why not? You have found a suitable man, your mother is pleased at you for securing the services of Mr. Felicori, your hair is golden and splendid, and your clothes designing becomes better than ever. If we can just solve the minor problem of procuring a substantial sale of your clothes to Eldridges, everything will be excellent."

Thrix didn't feel that everything was going quite as well as the Fire Queen suggested, but Malveria brushed aside her objections.

"And as for my own life, it is equally promising. With Agrivex now frequently absent from the palace, I'm free to concentrate on dressing well and impressing the aristocracy with my operatic knowledge. It has gone down very well, you know. It's being said everywhere that Malveria, besides being best-dressed queen in all the nations, also has excellent taste in music and culture." She smiled very broadly, showing her perfect white teeth to good advantage.

"What about your advisory council?"

"Even there, there has been an improvement. Distikka protects me like a great wall of flame. At this moment she is completing the rather tedious calculations concerning the date for the Fire Festival, and that should keep the council quiet for a while."

Distikka had indeed made the complicated calculations to ascertain the correct date for the celebration of the Vulcanalia and presented them to the advisory council. The council was still unhappy that the Fire Queen hadn't done it herself, as was traditional, but were pleased to have the matter settled. Distikka grew in their esteem. As it was becoming ever more difficult to see the Fire Queen without Distikka's approval, ministers now found it necessary to seek favor with her, no matter how lowborn she was.

Afterwards Distikka returned to her private chambers, awaiting the arrival of her lover, General Agripath. She'd started an affair with a captain and, showing her usual determination, swiftly worked her way up, procuring higher-ranked suitors as her status grew. Now she was having an affair with a general who, it was said, might soon be promoted to head of the army. Distikka let him understand that with her influence behind him, he would be, so it was a favorable alliance for both of them.

CHAPTER 70.

Around midday on Saturday, Kalix appeared in the living room. Daniel and Moonglow were eating breakfast cereal.

"You have a cat on your shoulder," said Daniel.

Kalix sighed. "I can't get rid of it." She twisted her neck to study the small bundle of fur. "Is this normal?"

"I've never seen a cat ride around on anyone's shoulder before," admitted Moonglow, "but it's cute."

She leaned forward to stroke the cat's ear. The cat hissed. Moonglow looked mortified. All her life, she'd gotten along well with cats, but this one didn't seem to like her. It didn't seem to like Daniel much either, though it tolerated Vex.

"You'd think a normal cat would be friendly to humans and maybe suspicious about werewolves, not the other way around," said Daniel.

"Why?" asked Moonglow.

"Because of the danger of being eaten, obviously."

"Hey!" protested Kalix. "I don't eat cats."

"Come on, you know it would make a tasty little mouthful," said Daniel.

Kalix, whose fragile nature meant she was often unable to tell when Daniel was teasing her, looked mortally offended.

Moonglow tried to smooth things over. "I think it's sweet, the way it likes you so much."

"Maybe it thinks you're its mother," suggested Daniel.

"Why would the cat think Kalix was its mother?"

"I've seen it happen in cartoons."

"What? With a werewolf?"

"Well, no. But ducks and things. You know, they hatch out of their eggs and then they meet an elephant or something and they think it's their mother."

Moonglow stared at Daniel.

"It happens all the time in cartoons," said Daniel, defensively.

"If you say so."

"You really need to watch more TV. Then you'd know things like that."

Kalix was still scowling. "I can't get rid of the stupid thing. And it takes up the whole bed."

"You better be careful," said Daniel, directing his words to the cat, "in case she eats you."

"I don't eat cats!"

"We never thought you did!" said Moonglow, looking furiously at Daniel.

"Has Kalix been eating cats again?" asked Vex, brightly, appearing in the room in a gaudy yellow dressing gown.

"I never ate any cats!"

"Okay. Except I thought you said you did. When you were living in that warehouse. Or was that rats? Did you eat rats?"

"No!"

"Dogs? No? I'm sure you ate something strange. Maybe the postman?"

Kalix scowled furiously, offended by the whole conversation.

Agrivex grinned at the cat. "Don't worry, Kabby, Kalix won't eat you, she has plenty of food here." Vex loaded up a cereal bowl with an enormous amount of cornflakes and poured sugar on top. In contrast to Kalix, Vex had a very healthy appetite.

"Why did you just call the cat Kabby?" asked Moonglow.

"Because that's its name."

"How do you know?"

"The cat told me, of course," said Vex.

Kalix, Daniel, and Moonglow regarded Vex with some skepticism.

"The cat told you?"

"Of course." Vex paused, noticing the odd looks that were being directed towards her. "What's the matter?"

"Cats can't talk, you idiot," said Kalix.

"Yes, they can."

"No, they can't."

"Well, I can talk to cats," said Vex, amiably. "She says her name is Kabby, and she's pleased to be here, except she wouldn't mind if you brought her a bit of fish every now and again instead of that cheap cat food. Also, a few cat toys wouldn't go amiss."

Daniel shook his head. He'd long ago abandoned all thoughts of getting any sense out of Vex, and this just seemed to prove it.

Vex poured more cereal into her bowl. "I've got something to cheer you up, Kalix."

"I'm not miserable."

"Yes, you are," said Vex. "You've been miserable since you fled from the classroom."

"Did Kalix flee from the classroom?"

"Fled like Daniel confronted with a pretty girl," chortled Vex. "But don't worry, Kalix, it wasn't that important a test."

"You fled from a test?" Moonglow asked.

"No. Well, yes." Kalix looked even more unhappy.

"And there's an exam soon!" continued Vex. "I have new colored pencils." She paused, and looked puzzled. "I'm sure I was talking about something else apart from Kalix running out of the class."

"You said you had something to cheer her up."

"Ah." Vex broke into a broad grin. "That's right. We have an assignment."

Kalix looked worried. "What's an assignment?"

"We pick a subject and write about it and then we read it to the class! I can't wait. I'm doing mine on Tokyo Top Pop Boom-Boom Girl!" Tokyo Top Pop Boom-Boom Girl was Vex's favorite cartoon, a piece of Japanese anime that showed every day on cable. The heroine of the cartoon was always battling evildoers and had spiky blond hair just like Vex's. When not imagining herself fighting imaginary supervillains, Vex could often be found singing the theme song.

"I don't want to do an assignment." Kalix sunk in her chair.

"It'll be fun! We get to talk to the whole class."

"What's the subject?" asked Moonglow.

"Anything we want. What do you think, Kalix? Maybe you could do yours on Curse of the Wolf Girl?"

"Definitely not!"

"Why not? You know all about it. You could give a brilliant talk on Curse of the Wolf Girl. There's almost no chance you'd panic and run out of the classroom."

"Could we stop talking about college?" cried Kalix, who was becoming paler and paler.

"Okay," said Vex, with her mouth full of cereal. "So how are things going with Decembrius? Is he your boyfriend now?"

"Of course not! I don't like him."

"Is he taking you out again?"

"He never took me out in the first place. He just took me to some stupid rooftop." Kalix told them about their visit to the building in Savile Row.

Daniel, a man with an encyclopedic interest and knowledge of music, was quite impressed at the tale. "I've seen a film of that Beatles rooftop gig. It must have been forty years ago. It was good."

Vex was dismissive. "Forty years ago? What a waste of time. Next time get him to take you somewhere better."

"He's not taking me anywhere," said Kalix.

"I thought he was quite nice looking. Nice red hair. Does he dye it? Moonglow, do you think he's nice looking?"

"Quite," said Moonglow.

"Not as good looking as Markus, I suppose," said Vex. "Now Markus, he was really good-looking." There was a chilly silence around the breakfast table. Vex didn't notice. "It's no wonder you fell for him. Kalix, did you think Markus was good looking? Or do you like Decembrius better? Of course, Gawain was quite good looking too. Hey, where's everybody going?"

Moonglow had exited the room quite abruptly, with moistened eyes. Kalix followed her immediately afterwards, pursued by the cat.