"No word from Blood-mirror-walks and the boys?"

Dolores shook her head. "I don't think we're ever going to hear from them."

"Or from Flicker?" Wolf would certainly have heard if there had been word from Flicker. He had been gone a month. He might be dead or almost at El Dorado by now.

"No.And no sign of Lynx.We have been watching every ship, love."

Yes, it was time to go. "But we'll need to find some way of sneak-ing on board without Rojas knowing," he said glumly."Let me sleep on it." Expecting his milk cows to make a break for it, Rojas would keep close watch on the foreign ship. He might even preempt their flight and send in his bully boys this very night.

She cuddled closer and said softly, "Wolf ?"

330.

THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS.

P.

"Mm?"

" 'Put it in writing?' " She was smiling, but he heard shadows be-hind the words. "I did lie to you that day, love, but not very much. And we weren't even betrothed then!"

"It doesn't matter now."What was done was done.

"It matters to me. So listen. It was the jaguar plaque I was after.You'd told me at Ivywalls that it was an active conjuration, remember? When Lynx refused to part with it, I guessed it was important. In the morning you and I delivered Lynx to the Pine Tree and went on to the palace. The plaque was the first thing I mentioned. Flicker and a couple of oth-ers were sent to the inn to keep an eye on Lynx. He'd skipped by the time they got there. Flicker dropped by when you and I were eating to tell me that they'd lost him."

Wolf said, "He said, 'Mother's looking for you.' "

She chuckled. "Well done! I'll make a snoop out of you yet. The code words are only hints, though.They can't be more than that or they couldn't be hidden in ordinary conversation. 'Mother'

means bad news and 'Father' is good. If the team had been tailing Lynx he would have said something like 'Father's still on the road.' I told him we didn't know where Lynx was either."

"And 'Put it in writing?' "

"Meant I was working on it and didn't need any more help. I hoped we'd find Lynx with the tracker. If we couldn't, then there was nothing more to be done." She kissed him again. "And I honestly don't know if the King knew that Grand Inquisitor were trying to recruit you. I'm just very happy that they did and you married me."

"No regrets here," he said. He wished he believed more of what she had said.

Dolores punched him awake. "Wolf ! Wolf ! Burglars!"

He sat up, bewildered. One of the tangle mats was shrieking.Then another sounded off, even shriller, and now he heard thumps and human screams as well. He fell out of bed and dropped to his knees, not en-tirely by choice. It was his custom to layDiligenceunder the bed at night, 331.

Dave Duncan P.

unsheathed, but during his sickness she had been pushed so far in, be-yond easy reach, that he had to scrabble on his belly to find her.

Appalled at how heavy she was now, he reeled across the room to the door. Dolores was wrapping herself in a gown, but he did not worry about such niceties. He tumbled out in the corridor, bounced off the opposite wall, and headed for the din.The house was dark.

A tangle mat reacted to being stepped on by uttering an unbearable screech and closing around the trespasser's feet so he could not walk. If he fell over, as he usually did, the mat slithered up his body and en-veloped his head. The man in the entrance hall had reached that stage. He was a naked, dark-skinned naturale,heavily built. Surrounded by the ruins of a bench, his loincloth, and a once-sturdy table, he was thrash-ing wildly in his efforts to tear off the suffocating bandage. Knowing the rug would choke him unconscious and then relax enough to keep him alive, Wolf ignored him. He headed for sounds of battle coming from the dining room.

Before he reached the door, a man staggered out backwards, con-testing possession of a sword with another invader.The first was recog-nizable as Hick by his clothes and lurid sailor language. His opponent was anothernaturale,albeit a somewhat skinny one, who should not be giving Hick so much trouble.

When Wolf scooped up a table leg and cracked it over his skull, he dropped, taking Hick with him. The other intruder had now lost his contest with the tangle mat, making two of them out of action and available for later questioning. So far so good.

Peterkin lay groaning and half stunned on the dining room floor. Another intruder was doing a mad one-legged sword dance against the starlit windows, trying to kill a tangle mat before it broke his ankle, but without cutting off his own foot in the process. The mutilated mat howled as if it were alive and in agony.The window it had been guard-ing stood open.

Whatever Ironhall tradition might say, there were times when the table leg was mightier than the sword.Wolf slammed his cudgel against the back of the dancer's knee, sending him toppling to the floor, scream-ing as the tattered mat scrambled for his face like a giant spider.

Something hurtled in through the window without touching the 332.

THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS.

P.

sill. It hit the floor with its front paws, spun over in an airborne somer-sault to strike the far wall with its back paws, twisting in midair so it was the right way up, and without ever pausing, launched itself at Wolf's throat. He glimpsed fangs and claws, but he already knew that if this was not an actual jaguar, it must be a jaguar knight.

Off-balance for an attack from that direction, he had no time to turn and bringDiligenceinto play, but his left hand still held the table leg and he instinctively parried at the open jaws.Turning its head aside to save its teeth, the monster slammed into him. They hit the floor in a tangled heap. Had he been his usual nimble self,Wolf might have made a better showing, but in his fever-weakened state the double impact almost stunned him. His throat was exposed; he expected to feel it ripped open.

The cat thing rolled clear and went to the aid of the man being smothered by the vengeful tangle mat.

Back in Grandon the inquisitors had insisted a mat could not be forcibly removed without pulling the victim's head off, but they had never met a jaguar knight armed with eight finger knives.The remains of the mat fell silent. The gasping vic-tim stopped thrashing.

All this had taken only a few seconds, and Wolf had barely managed to stagger to his knees. He was ages too slow to fight such a monster. Eyes glowing in the starlight, the Jaguar sprang, batting his weapons aside.They hit the floor together again, and this time he cracked his head so hard that flames danced before his eyes. Paws pinned his wrists, great fangs opened over his face. He heard a snarling cat sound. After a mo-ment he realized it was human speech distorted into a yowl.

Not only that, the Jaguar spoke Chivian. What it said was "And whose turn is it to rub whose nose in the dirt now, brother?"

2 Before Wolf could collect his wits, light flooded the room. Help had arrived at last-Dolores, Megan, Hick, and Will, all armed with swords 333.

Dave Duncan P.

and carrying lanterns. Dolores was out in front and reasonably so, be-cause she was the best fencer.

She came within half a second of running her sword into a jaguar knight.

That was at least four-tenths of second too late, though. Lynx launched himself upward again, almost crushing Wolf's wrists in the process. He slapped Dolores's sword aside with his claws, spun her around, and pinned her against him.Then he waved four black talons in front of her face and the rescuer party froze.

"Stop!"Wolf croaked. "It's all right. He's on our side."

My brother the monster! Spirits save us!

"Oh, I wouldn't hurt my dear sister-in-law," Lynx yowled, releasing her. "You are legally married, I trust? Give me a kiss, dearie?" He bared his fangs and waggled a grotesquely long tongue at her.

Dolores screamed and reeled backwards.

Yes, it was Lynx.Wolf knew the scars, although they had faded from red on pink to white on brown. He stood tall on his stilt feet; his head, hands, and feet had been transformed, and he wore a Tlixilian-style loin-cloth, but his chest was hairier than anynaturale's. He carried something strapped on his back.

Seeing Wolf struggle to rise, he offered a paw.Wolf gripped his wrist where spotted fur gave way to human skin and was ef-fortlessly flipped upright.

"What's the matter with you? You fight like a grandmother."

"Fever. More important, what happened to you?"

Lynx chuckled-a sound not far off a purr. "Obvious, isn't it? Where's my guide? Where's Blood-mirror-walks?"

Wolf recalled the husky invader out in the hall. He should have rec-ognized those shoulders. "He'll be all right, as long as he doesn't strug-gle." He wrapped an arm around Dolores, who had been working her way closer to him without going too near Lynx. "Megan, release him, will you? And see to the other one?" Megan swept from the room.

"The other one's Night-fisher." Lynx seemed to be enjoying him-self, but he was mistaken if he thought that exposing those frightful teeth counted as a grin. He turned to the intruder he had rescued from the mat. "And this is taker of one captive Corn-fang. Dread warrior, greet my father's son, Lord Wild-dog-by-the-spring." Lynx spoke Tlix- 334 THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS.

P.

ilian haltingly, and with what must be a Chivian accent. He had learned the language the hard way.

"I kiss the feet of my lord's brother," Corn-fang said, making no move to do so and looking as if he would prefer to cut them off."His glory dims the sun." The tangle mat had totally ruined his elaborate feather headdress and there was blood around his jade labret.

"I weep with shame that a valorous taker of captives should have been so maltreated in my house,"Wolf said. "May we evermore fight in each other's shadow." He presented his wife and the sailors, whom he promoted to warrior rank.

"I want to know how Lynx got here!" Dolores whispered. She was trembling, almost in shock.

"Yes. Explain, Lynx."

"We can sing old songs later!" the cat-man said in Tlixilian.

Wolf was about to go and find some clothes, when in strode Blood-mirror-walks, clearly furious and wearing no more than he was. If a rel-ative of the Emperor did not care, why should anyone? Behind him came the adolescent Night-fisher, limping and rubbing his neck. Then Peterkin and Don, and the room was crowded.

"Where is Heron-jade?" Blood-mirror-walks demanded. "Why did he not warn you of our approach?"

"The noble warrior went inland with Flicker about a moon ago."

The Tlixilians exchanged glances that Wolf found worrisome.

"Good chance to them," Lynx said. "We must hurry, Brother, but you should offer your guests hospitality."

The servants might be hiding under their beds or they might have fled to raise the population.Wolf asked Megan to inspect the outbuild-ings, and she went off accompanied by Blood-mirror-walks.

"You are welcome to all we have. What do you eat now? Raw meat?"

"Meat when I can get it."Again Lynx had answered in Tlixilian. His obvious reluctance to speak Chivian suggested that either he had learned a new respect for good manners or that his companions did not trust him.

"Should I butcher a gardener?"

335.

Dave Duncan P He purred that peculiar laugh again. "No, I haven't gotten to that yet. It's good to see you again,Wolf!"

"And you, Lynx. But you are changed."

"No regrets!"

Could this night get any worse?"Then I'm glad for you. How is dear Celeste?"

"Very well. Much happier. I came to fetch you,Wolf.Your presence is commanded in El Dorado."

Yes, it could! Much worse.

"And me!" Dolores shouted. "And me!"

Wolf was appalled. He had been sure the mission was dead and could be written out of his life. Now it was alive again, he knew that he did not want it alive, did not want it to succeed. He wanted his brother to be a man, not a monster. He wanted to take his wife home, not squire her halfway across a continent of cannibals. He certainly did not want to acquire any vile conjurations for Athelgar and Grand Inquisitor.

He flopped down on a chair, feeling a hundred years old. "Listen, Lynx. I was relying on the Eagles to transport the arms we want to trade. I'm told that they can't do that-that they only found Quondam last year by homing in on that pendant. If that's so, then we'll need years to ship weapons here."

His brother scratched an ear with a claw like a fleshing knife."Don't see a problem. Both Amaranth-talon and Bone-peak-runner have been to Quondam. Either of them can find it again for you."

Dolores squeaked with glee.The original plan was viable again! Life and incredible wealth were back on the table.

Wolf switched back to Chivian. "I have no weapons to trade. I was lying."

"Then you may have serious problems when you get to El Dorado. But you are coming to El Dorado if I have to carry you."

"So am I," Dolores said sharply.

Lynx curled his lip in the snarl that he considered a smile. "Then you carry him.Where's the kitchen?"

Wolf heaved himself to his feet and ripped a tapestry off the wall 336.

THE J A GU AR KNIGHTS.

P.

to make himself at least semi-respectable. He led the way to the kitchen shed, where the sailors were already preparing food for the visitors.

Megan emerged from the dark with a different escort. There were more intruders out there in the grounds, she said, but the servants were still abed and must have slept through the commotion. Fights were every-night occurrences in Sigisa.

Lynx ignored promises of beans and tortillas, demanded meat now, raw if necessary. He shrank to his old height when he sat on a stool with his cat feet under the table, and when he also tucked his forepaws out of sight he could almost have been a human being with his head inside a huge pard mask. The illusion disappeared as soon as he began to eat. Young Night-fisher held the meat for him and he tore off chunks with his side teeth, swallowing without chewing.

The object strapped on his back wasRatter,securely tied in her scabbard so she would not fly out when he performed the sort of gym-nastics he had demonstrated earlier. He must be carrying her only as a talisman, for he had no need of a sword and could not have wielded one with both hands. Forepaws.Oh, Lynx!Did he not evencarewhat they had done to him? Wolf wanted to scream.

The Jaguar consumed most of a standing rib roast, raw. Night-fisher was his squire, or possibly nursemaid, for he wiped Lynx's muzzle and chest to clean him up after the meal.Then the boy was free to finish his master's leftovers, which he did eagerly. It was common knowledge that the native diet offered little meat-venison, turkey, rabbit, and dog-and almost all of that went to the nobility. Human flesh was a privilege of the very highest, meaning the most honored warriors. Other intruders had been ransacking the larder and almost came to blows over some pork ribs they found there.

Leaving the feast in progress, Wolf went in search of Dolores and found her being helped into her traveling clothes by Megan. Obviously she was bound on going to El Dorado no matter what he said or did. A trek of eighty leagues or so over mountain ranges seemed utterly im-possible in his condition. He doubted he could walk as far as the river bank. If the Emperor wanted him so badly, why didn't he send an Eagle?

He found a shirt and sank down shakily on the edge of the bed.

337.

Dave Duncan P.

"You, my beloved, must stay here and see the others safely home to Chivial."

Before Dolores could protest, Megan bristled. She changed her pos-ture, her voice, and her age, transforming into a lady."Since the death of my husband the count," she announced haughtily,"I have decided to re-turn to Chivial with my entourage. Do you imply that I am incapable, Sir Wolf?"