Imprudence (The Custard Protocol #2)(88)
“To be fair, it was Quesnel and Percy who did that.”
Floote raised one eyebrow at her.
Rue considered the past, frowning. “How many animal-headed gods were there in the Egyptian pantheon?”
“Enough to keep you busy hunting a long time, Alessandro’s granddaughter.”
“Back then, were werelionesses really so bad?” Floote was clearly a resource. Rue was surprised to find she admired him for it. She was beginning to realise she’d wasted opportunities to learn from her parents. Her mother’s history was fascinating. Rue had always thought her so staid and old-fashioned! She refused to be so foolish now.
“The pharaohs of Egypt controlled vast numbers of slaves with crook and flail. And the living gods controlled the pharaohs. I would say the werecats were as bad as any other. Until they realised their mistake might be deadly.”
Unheard, for she had silent feet even without a cat form to call upon, Tasherit joined them. Rue jumped when her perfect profile suddenly appeared on the other side of Floote, silhouetted against the waning moon.
She said, “We were the first to abdicate.”
Floote nodded at her. “There are no great cats on the walls of tombs built after the Middle Kingdom.”
“There were so few of us left at that point. And we were tired of ruling. Cats have never played nice with others.”
Rue gave her a suspicious look. “Are you trying to tell me cats gave up being gods? Preposterous.”
Floote gave a dry chuckle. Tasherit did not respond.
Rue tried another question, gesturing at the nearby balloons with a sweep of her hand. “You think the people of Egypt forgive you their long imprisonment?”
“Humans have short memories.”
Rue cocked her head. “Even Drifters?”
“Ah, but they were never ours to begin with. They had no flight back then, but they were always nomads. We could no more hold them than we could the shifting sands. This is no betrayal of history, them helping us now.”
“Interesting,” said Floote. As if Tasherit’s one statement had changed his whole perspective on the situation.
The werecat flashed them both a wide smile. “Drifters like cats.”
Then suddenly, just like that, she shifted form. A large lioness stood on hind legs next to them, with paws against the railing and tail swishing behind her.
Instinctively, Rue raised her hand to provide the necessary control with touch. She looked to the moon. It was not full.
Miss Sekhmet shook herself, like a dog after a swim, her thick golden fur silvered in the moonlight.
With instinct dampened and safety assured, Rue realised that she, too, had felt it lift. The numbing oppression that surrounded her since they entered Egypt was gone.
They were outside of the God-Breaker Plague.
FIFTEEN
Coal and Consequences
It took them another full day of floating to meet the Nile again where she bent, eastwards this time, below the tiny Nubian village of Abu Hammad. There the dervish met them with a porcupine of bristling guns. Rue had no interest in encountering those whirling automated cannons. They gave the town a respectably high float-over.
Several miles upstream, the Nile narrowed, digging out a deep undulating blackness with sheer cliffs to either side. Miss Sekhmet scented the air, pronounced it safe, and they dipped down to the river to take on boiler water.
At Quesnel’s request and Spoo’s big eyes, Rue allowed the crew a short swim. They deserved some little luxury. Rue envied them their delighted splashing, but it was beneath the dignity of a captain, let alone a lady, to submerge herself in water. That was assuming Rue could swim, which she could not. In fact, Rue had never been a great bather of any kind. There was something about being surrounded by water that made her feel dulled, half her senses cut off from the world, rather like the God-Breaker Plague. She preferred a shower, although rarely available, or a sponge bath.
Quesnel, who had no dignity, joined the crew. He kept his smalls on, although the way the cloth fairly stuck to everything, he might as well not have. It seemed more scandalous than nudity. You’d think, since she’d seen it all already, Rue could pull her eyes away. But she was hypnotised watching him cavort about, tossing Spoo and Virgil up into the air. The youngsters shrieked in delight.
“Lovely.” Tasherit came to watch. She shared Rue’s abhorrence of bathing.
She was shrouded in robes to protect her from sunlight, wearing a hat and carrying one of Prim’s surviving parasols. She looked tired. Were she the type to obey, Rue would have ordered her back to her quarters to sleep the day away like a respectable immortal.
Orders being wasted on cats, Rue said instead, “I didn’t think you favoured men.”
“I make exceptions. However, in this instance, I wasn’t looking at your pet. See, there?” The werecat pointed to where Primrose joined the bathers.
Prim was in a full swimming costume, navy blue with white piping. She was a darn good swimmer for an aristocrat, as was Percy, who paddled next to his sister in a striped costume of white and red contrasting with his hair. Incongruously, he wore a top hat as he bobbed about.
“Oh, sir.” Virgil was distracted from his play into noticing his master. “This is the one time you are supposed to leave off your hat!”
Percy only floated by, looking dignified and pleased with life. Rue would never have thought Percival Tunstell fond of a nice swim. Funny, she had known the twins her whole life. When had they become sporty?