Storm Eagle, King of the Green Elves, arranged a trade deal with the Sahkuhl of Zimlakuliku for commodities the elves did not produce for themselves, like cotton, silk, certain resins and gums used in medicine and commerce, and spices like galangal, pepper berries, and cassia. The elves would provide fresh truum in season, dried truum, purple and golden chanterelles, maple sugar, maple syrup, acerum, and longbow staves.

Included in the haggling was one flying carpet for Cat Rider, lessons in how to use a flying carpet for me, Cat, and Father Garshom, and lessons on how to weave flying carpets for Deer Foot. We took turns flying the carpet with Rumpal, the Sahkuhl’s mage, coaching us. Flying was fun and I got to do the landing with the other three carpets on the lawn in front of the Goblin Queen’s palace.

Flying in from Whiffleblatt took only an hour. I was amazed by how fast travel was on the carpets. The disadvantage of the carpets was the need for the strongest of mages. Someone like Cloud Eye, who was what the elves called a domestic mage, didn’t have the power to manage a flying carpet. Cloud Eye’s magic was good for providing spells to drive away wolves from flocks and herds, keep birds from farm fields and discourage rodents from getting into grain storage, mend straps and cracks in metal, keep bread from molding, milk from turning, butter from going rancid, heal everyday cuts and bruises, and cure common colds.

A step up from a domestic mage was a battle mage, who could throw a fireball, create a small storm, break a gate open, heal deep wounds and cure field fevers and wound infections. Flying carpets are for the very best mages who could make magic tools like Father Garshom and Deer Foot, or who could heal diseases like palsy, cancer, or lame joints like Cat Rider and Sleeping Willow.

Since I was able to fly a carpet, I probably should include myself though I don't think of myself as a mage like Cat, who really is an incredible talent. The ability to do magic runs in the Nordweg royal family and shows up in a prince or princess two to four generations apart. Cat wouldn't be the first mage king if he takes the throne someday, but he would be the first since his great great grandfather. The occasional mage in the family is why King Stephano had all his children tested for mage talent at birth. Thinking on that topic reminded me to ask Uncle Sven about that mage prophesy about Prince Andray. I needed to remember to do that soon.

We brought Uncle Sven and Willam with us but dressed them up as Zimlakans so they wouldn't be recognizable from a distance. This was to keep them from being spotted by whatever agents the Regent or Magus Keleher might have in Kizdangengar. They were hustled inside the palace as soon as we put the carpets down on the ground. They would stay inside the palace and out of sight from all but goblin, elven and Zimlaken eyes until we left in a few days for Nordweg. My boy stayed in the palace with his brother and uncle.

A steady stream of goblin tailors, cobblers, hat makers, and leather crafters was soon traveling in and out of the palace to clothe our rebellion plotters, namely Sven, Willam, my boy, and Father Garshom. I should probably include myself, but the Queen and the Sahkeena decided that they would take me shopping in the souk. Margo is shorter and smaller than her sister and Sahkeena Aisha is not a very big human, shorter than even Cat. I should have expected this outcome: the queen and princess both piled on my back and rode me down to the saddle and tack shop that does the tack and reins for the queen's carriage that she usually rides around the city. In fact, the queen's carriage was waiting at the saddle and tack shop, which suggested to me that a little green person of my acquaintance had indulged in some advanced planning.

It was then that Blue Fox got his revenge for my wounding of his masculine pride in the morning at the time of my soapy water torture. He wandered into the shop as the queen was having me measured for new riding pads and barding. The queen ordered two pads with deep green barding in silk velvet, with goblin magic built-in to repel water. She ordered a third pad in green leather in the same design as the pad Cloud Eye made at the beginning of our adventuring. I don’t think I was meant to overhear Margo asking for a decorative edge trim of stamped and gilded cougar heads.

Aisha walked up while I was looking around the shop, now that I was freed from being measured, “hey Fuzzy, I was told that felines like the smell of this tea powder.” She already had the top off of the tea tin and I could smell, could smell, smelllllllllllllllllllll……

I had to have the tea tin, must have tin, give me the tin. I will lick you, Aisha, until you give me tin, so good, so goodddpprreeeuuuuuuurrpuuuuuurrrrrrrrr puuurrrrrrrrrr purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

I have a strange recollection of my looking at the world upside-down as Owl and Storm Eagle carried me into the palace and up to Cat’s room. They put me on the bed, where I was unable to do anything but lie there and purr softly. Cat sat with me and talked to me softly with my head in his lap. I fell asleep like that.

“Fuzzy,” Aisha shook me. “Fuzzy, wake up.”

My head was still in Cat’s lap though he was reading a book while waiting for me to recover. I opened my eyes to see Aisha pull up a chair and sit down facing me.

“Hey, Fuzzy,” she said in her exotic-sounding accent, “I didn’t know how you reacted to silver vine powder. If I had known, I would have turned down Blue Fox when he suggested it.”

* Please tell me you didn't say silver vine powder. I want to hear that I just misheard you. *

“My apologies, Lady Fuzzy, but I can’t tell you that you misheard me.” She smiled sympathetically.

* I hope no one got hurt? *

“Well," she smiled mischievously, which concerned me, "I don't think having you knock me down on my bum and then wash my face will have any lasting effect. Blue Fox panicked and took the tin of silver vine powder from me. You chased him down one lane of the souk and back up the next. You managed to bring down your prey, which unfortunately broke his arm. It didn't help that you sat on him and were rubbing all over him, because he spilled the powder all over himself. Then you licked up all the excess powder on his tunic. Father Garshom lured you off Blue Fox by making a bright dot of light on the ground. He had you chasing it in circles until you fell asleep but you never stopped purring."

* Is Blue Fox alright? Was he hurt badly? * I was upset that I had been drugged. I was also concerned for Blue Fox. A 200-plus pound cougar on a drug trip can be very dangerous and he wasn't used to roughhousing with me like Cloud Eye and Owl.

“Your Father Garshom is healing his arm now," she grinned with evil glee. "I think the worst hurt was from his injured pride after his father, the king, had some words to share about why it is a rule in Elvenhome that no one ever gives you anything like cat grass or silvervine or Oster honeysuckle."

She reached over and got the sweet spot under my chin, "I found it a most informative evening adventure. I think other than the humor value, and the relief that no one was badly hurt, the most interesting thing was how all the goblins anywhere near the saddle shop ran and got between you and the Goblin Queen. I was shocked when she took me shopping with no guards or retainers, but now I understand why. Her people will protect her with their own bodies, without thought for themselves. King Storm Eagle was trying to impress upon me how different goblins are from we humans and elves. I think now I have a much better understanding of what he was trying to tell me. Goblins are rather amazing.”

I think I like Sahkeena Aisha. She's a smart girl.

Cat and Aisha went off to dinner together. I found out later that Storm Eagle and Blue Fox were missing from the dinner table. When we gathered for the trial of the Bishop and his henchmen in the morning, Blue Fox was present and looking deflated. I wandered up and put my head on his thigh, startled him.

* Between the ears is a good place to scratch. *

“I’m sorry, Fuzzy. I didn’t realize silver vine was dangerous for you. I wasn't in Elvenhome last year when someone slipped you some, and you destroyed the common room in father's house. I just thought you would make a fool of yourself, and I would get a little revenge for your assault with your tail yesterday morning."

* I should have apologized afterward for that. I'm not rational when confronted with the soapy water torture. Seriously, felines and water don't mix. Baths bring out the absolute worst in me. *

“Huh,” he smiled thoughtfully, “maybe someone should drug you with silver vine next time. You’d konk out and purr through the experience.”

My heart dropped into my stomach when Wren's voice from behind me said: "Blue Fox, that is one of the most intriguing things you've ever suggested."

I may try to talk Cat Rider into running away with me.