89. Epilogue

"So few," Patch said, aghast. "So few."

He and White were in Silver's drey - Queen Silver, now - among her adornments of glittering glass. Silver had just returned from a census of the Center Kingdom. The census had not taken long.

"More than fifty," Silver said. "It is said the Forever Winter reduced us to fewer than twenty. We have enough to prosper, to thrive. The crows are gone, and the rats will not bother us again, not with the cats as our allies. Ten years, a few generations, and we will be a proper Kingdom again."

"How many dead?" Patch asked.

Silver shook her head and would not answer. "Go to your drey. You have a visitor."

White led the way from Silver's spruce to Patch's oak. He was still getting used to running the sky-road without his tail-weight for balance. Patch expected his visitor to be one-eyed Twitch, and braced himself for grim prophecies of disaster. Twitch had not yet recovered from the war. It seemed to have burned away almost everything in him that could enjoy the world; Twitch seemed almost to have been replaced by another squirrel, one that lived for disaster and despair. But the last time they had met, Patch had brought him a tulip bulb to eat; and when he had seen the momentary flicker in Twitch's eye when he first saw the treat, he had dared to hope that while perhaps his old and joyous friend had been burned by war and buried within his scarred and one-eyed body, the old Twitch still stood some chance of being one day unearthed.

But it was not Twitch who waited beneath Patch's oak tree.

"Zelina!" Patch cried out.

"Patch! Oh, I'm so very glad to see you. And White, a pleasure as always. Am I understand that you're officially mated? Congratulations!" exclaimed the Queen of All Cats.

Patch looked around. "No Alabast?"

"No. Just me. No other cat knows where I am. If I did, they would come to me and draw me back to the court. It isn't all sushi and cream being the Queen of All Cats, you know. I have so many duties, so many worries - lately, it's the humans, it seems there's something terribly wrong with them - and so many affairs of state, little dignitaries to entertain, so many little treacheries and rivalries and territorial turf wars to deal with, you have no idea how byzantine and backstabbing the cats of my court can be. And all the protocol, the titles, the ceremonies - oh, sometimes they're wonderful, but honestly, Patch, sometimes I think of those days we went wandering through the Ocean Kingdom, nothing to us but our names, not knowing what we'd eat or where we'd sleep next, and I wish I could be there again. And so. You told me once to visit you in the Center Kingdom. And there was the small matter of a poisoning, and a war, and an attempt to exterminate your entire people, and an underworld quest, and a tiger - and before you ask, no I don't know what happened to Siva and his attendant - but the point I am trying to attain is, finally, here I am. Would you like to show me around?"

Patch looked at White; and his mate smiled back at him; and Patch said, "Zelina, I'd be delighted."

A long time ago, on a glorious mid-spring day, a young squirrel named Patch led his new mate White and his best friend Zelina on a tour of discovery, an exploration of the delights of the Center Kingdom in which he lived. They paused often for laughter and stories and reminiscence. The sky above was blue, and the wind was clear and rich with life, and the trees and bushes were thick with flowers and berries, and the days of blood and terror past seemed already long forgotten, and this day and all days beyond seemed to stretch into a warm and golden forever.

THE END

(but for a brief author's afterword, to come tomorrow)