Page 7 (1/2)

THE cab had just huht basement shos, behind which a file of dress display robots ht with considerable realislarowled to the driver to stop She had been silent during one sour in her, and nohen Phil made a move to pay she ih, suddenly eager to see what the Akeley place looked like, as if his hopes and fears had started rotating again when the wheels of the cab stopped

Juno&039;s reference to "the teyptian portal Instead he was facing an oblong of darkness, framed by the sidewalk, shos sos of the two upper streets He crossed the sidewalk and hesitated, as if he stood on the edge of nothingness It was really very black, even for the bottom level The sodium moon had set

Then, as the after effects of the sho&039;s glare lessened, a house took shape before hi incredibly as if it were built of wood, with roofs slanting oddly and lights gleah shuttered bay s and fanciful dusty fanlights Soritted under his foot and he realized that between hirass and weeds This round level of the city soo Noas the s of the third story which peered across the gap at the top-level street far above Phil&039;s head The gap was at one point spanned by a beam Apparently the house was so ancient and rickety that it needed props

But then a new illusion presented itself Phil knew that the house was in the heart of the city, hes on every side There should have been tiers of lighted s and, far overhead, a square of night sky Instead there was only darkness, as if the pre-atohts of a turning car in the street two levels above swept across the upper third of the house, and he saw that all around the house were surfaces painted a dull, non-reflecting black The flat black "ceiling" could hardly be a foot above the top of the house&039;s highest spire

"So up beside hiinal owners couldn&039;t be rooted out, but the city seized the air-rights and built over them Creepy place, looks as if it were about to rot apart - just right for those Akeleys" Then,to bust in on them, and I am C&039;mon"

Phil followed her across the yard to the rickety steps leading to the porch His hand groping for the rail touched peeling ancient paint Halfway up a cat darted past hi his heart, then as the cat paused at the top he saw that it was splotched with soht colors - hardly Lucky It loped around a corner of the porch Following it, Phil and Juno found thelobe, which Phil guessed n of the cat, or indication of how it could have vanished, until Phil noticed a tiny and possibly swinging door cut in the bottoreen with verdigris, Juno pounded on the door in a way thatan apprehensive eye on the ceiling But the house didn&039;t collapse

After a tiray eye surveyed Juno

"I want to see that no-good husband of mine," she shouted, but it didn&039;t seem her usual self-confident roar

"Now Juno, you&039;re all upset," canized as that of Sacheverell Akeley "Your aura&039;s all h it"

"Listen here," Juno bellowed, "you let ht that, even granting some lack of certainty in Juno, this was not a threat to be taken lightly, but it didn&039;t faze Sacheverell "No, Juno," he said firmly "I can&039;t let you in when your vibrations are like that, and when hate hor off you Later perhaps - then we may even be able to help you achieve inward tranquility - but not now"

"But look," Juno coot a friend with ot business with you" She stepped aside

"What business?" Sacheverell asked skeptically

Phil looked straight at the oysterish eye and said, "The green cat"

The door swung back and Sacheverell, now no longer in orange beret and pants, but a robe of bronze ereen, waved Phil in with an arm that swished emerald silk His sunburn now seemed the exotically dark complexion of an Asian mystic "All doors must open to him who speaks that name," he said simply "Do you vouch for your companion&039;s peacefulness?"

"Ah, I wouldn&039;t touch anybody or anything here," Juno growled surlily, shouldering in after Phil "I feel s, Juno," Sacheverell reood blooreat transfor on the threshold of a large living rooray incense and cluttered with Victorian furniture and a bric-a-brac of ornaion in the world The lights here, too, were tungstens, and so few as to e doorway, heavily curtained with black velvet Through the resinous odor of incense came the dull reek of stale food, clothes and people; also a sour animal smell

And then Phil saw that the place was simply alive with cats: black, white, topaz, silver, taupe; striped, ora, Persian, Siamese and Siamese mutant They dripped frohtly fro crevices between cushions; they pattered about or posed sublith on the woven Koran in the center of a Mosle; another lay on a tarnished silver pentacle inlaid in a dark, low table One was battling a phylactery hanging fro and juous,itself in a rosary; tere lapping dirty looking milk from a silver chalice set with a his heart, for in the center of a ilded icon and a tin Mexican devil-s straight as spears the green cat

As Phil walked hypnotically forward, he heard Sacheverell say gently, "No, that is not his true self, but his siure of Bast, the Lady of Life and Love"

And as Phil came closer, he saw it truly was the bronze statue of a cat, encrusted with verdigris al up beside him, Sacheverell explained, "As soon ashe came, I routed out all our relics of Bast Most of them are in there," he indicated the black velvet curtains, "around the altar But a few are here" And he pointed out, beside the bronze statue, a small mum like a little sack with a blob at the top As Sacheverell was explaining the tiny Canopic jar of preserved cat entrails beside it, a six-toed Siahtfully

Finally Phil found his voice "Then you actually do have Lucky?"

Sacheverell&039;s high curved eyebrows curved still higher "Lucky?"

"The green cat," Phil added

Sacheverell&039;s face grew serenely grave "No one has the green cat," he reproved Phil "It would not be permitted He has us We are his humble worshippers, his primal hierophants"

"But I want to see him," Phil said

"That will be permitted," Sacheverell assured Phil, "when he wakes and the world changes Meanwhile, compose yourself, er Phil Gish, you say? Phil philo love an auspicious nareen cat so important, anyhow? What is it?"

The twoon the threshold She ayed forward a little, hugging her elbows, yet had her shoulders squared and was glaring at thereen cat is love," Sacheverell told her softly "The love that blossoms even from hate"

There was another interruption This one took the forirlish snicker Phil turned to the side of the roo the fireplace In it was a deep, wide bayclosely shuttered with gray jalousies, as were all the other s in the roo on darkness beside the fireplace In the bay was a semicircular couch on which Mary Akeley sprawled adolescently, still in black sweater and stiff, red skirt

"You know," she said, "I just can&039;t get used to the idea of loving everything Sacheverell says I&039;ve got to be nice to s, but it&039;s hard"

For ato the cats Then he saw that there were a series of narrow shelves behind her, starting at the top of the couch and going halfway up the bay and that these shelves were croith dolls Moving closer, he saw they were not ordinary dolls, but extreures, h He had never seen dolls so perfectly formed or realistically dressed There must have been two or three hundred They stood behind Mary like the cross-section of a crowded three-level street in so world In front of the couch was a low table croith blocks of wax, nifiers, several partially courines and piled squares of fabrics so delicate they must have been woven specially

"You like my little people?" he heard Mary ask hi striptease dolls, but these that are all my own are sopins stuck through them I think that&039;s the way they want to be loved"

"Perhaps, my dear," Phil heard Sacheverell say with an affectionate chuckle, "but we&039;ll have to wait to see howhe feels about it"

And then Phil saw that the dolls represented actual individual people, were apparently perfect statuettes of them - so perfect that for awhich was the real world: the big one or this tiny one of Mary&039;s He recognized President Barnes, the USSR&039;s Vanadin, square-jawed John Emmet of the Federal Bureau of Loyalty, several TV and handie stars, Sacheverell, about eight versions of Mary herself, Jack Jones in black tights, Juno in ht his breath - Mitzie Ro frock veryfriends?" Mary asked softly, her young face which was so predo up inquisitively toward his

Footsteps clumped Phil realized that Juno had finally co at the dolls Mary looked past him with an innocent smile "They&039;re awfully cute, aren&039;t they?" she reh!"

"Try to be joyful," Sacheverell kindly ader "Try hard Soon it will be ever so o now and see if there has been any change Ahtly set thereen robes whistling against the black velvet curtains

"Sacheverell&039;s been as efficient as can be ever sincehe caer I&039;ve never seen hione in for other things, you know," she prattled on "Seavad-Gita, Gospel according to St Isherwood, Bradburian Folkism, Cretan Triple-Goddess, devil worship and Satanism - those are the two thatI like - and I don&039;t knohat all else Every tiets very enthusiastic, but not like this I&039;ve never seen hireen cat, all cute and curled-up and sleeping -"

"It wasn&039;t sleeping," Phil cut in alun"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous," Mary went on "Jack just found hi Well, as soon as Sacheverell touched hie and there was going to be a new era of love and understanding, and ever since then he&039;s been as busy as a little bee Soon as we got hos I told Sacheverell that because Bast was a lady goddess, maybe we shouldn&039;t call himhe But Sacheverell told me no, that was the way it was and the way it had to be And I guess ht, because when Sacheverell carried hi, all the little cats went for hiirl cats went for him even more than the little boy cats And anyway, I always trust Sacheverell&039;s notions because he&039;s so good at esping and telepathing that heby it"

At thatbegin again behind him Mary smiled slyly and followed Juno with her eyes, but kept on babbling

"And you know," she said, "I guess there is so to what Sacheverell says about an era of love and understanding, because these little cats used to fight all the time, but ever sincehe&039;s been in the house they&039;ve been as peaceful as anything - a regular little cat UN without Russia and the satellites Even I feel sweeter, which is a real test, though it&039;s going to break hed "Still, if everybody&039;s going to have to love people, I&039;ll just have to face it, and I better start practicing right now"

Phil, who had been leaning toward her, jerked up at that Her face was just a bit too like a young crone, despite her inviting lips and creamy skin, but she merely reached behind her and took down the doll of Juno "Even loveher," she said

The footsteps changed direction and cae or outraged modesty

"You put me down!" she demanded "I knohat you are, you&039;re a witch There was one on the next farm back in Pennsylvania Only witches make wax dolls of people and stick pins in theurine an affectionate stroke "No, Juno, I&039;et used to it" She looked up sweetly at Juno, rithed at every touch Mary gave the figurine "Incidentally, I really am a witch and if I had any choice, I would h you"

"Puther ar out tautly underneath the long, tight sleeves of her dress, as if she had a big rock she was going to drop on Mary

Mary courines Her voice was soft as a serpent gliding "Would you rather I practiced loving on Jack? That&039;s what you make me do"

"Don&039;t you touch hi all gooey over hi him that way! Aaaaah!"

Phil ducked back as, with the last screa bellow, Juno kicked the work table to one side so that its contents scattered and all the cats went sca to s

Instantly Mary rose to her knees on the couch, her back to her little people, her arht through the eyes," she hissed, her face a fury&039;sGet thee before me, Satan!"