The Adventures of Caterwaul the Cat by Damon Plumides Page B

audacity to play a counter-gambit like that with white.”
    The Witch picked up the pieces and returned them to the box. “Tell me why you are here, my love. I am open to some arrangement. But know this before we go any further. One of the things that I am going to demand of you is the return of my cat.”
    â€œYour cat?” asked the queen. She was about to lie to the Witch, then thought better on it.
    â€œI suspected that you might have him, and your chess opening betrays you. The opening moves you made are from what we chess aficionados call the Keravian Gambit. It is a bold strategy indeed, and not one that I would expect from anyone but the best of players. It is a strategy used often by my cat. He once beat me in eleven moves with that advance.
    â€œLogic tells me that you have played against my former pet, and he has beaten you with that angle. You observed his play, and now you use it against me. Clever, but I expected it. You are exposed. He must have told you about me and my powers. So tell me, why have you come here?”
    By now Druciah’s eyes had adjusted to the lights and smoke. She looked around. The Witch’s cavern did not look so ominous. It hardly looked “witchy” at all. It’s true that there were books. In fact, there were lots and lots of books, and scrolls, and stacks of papers and parchments. But it did not look like the majority of them were magic tomes. In fact, the cavern was overstuffed with all sorts of things that Druciah could only call junk.
    There was a wall filled with jars and bottles, which the queen assumed were magical in nature, but right next to that was a counter heaped with the crockery and leftover remains of several meals. The cauldron on the fire seemed to have some kind of vegetable stew cooking in it. This place hardly seemed like the home of a sorceress.
    On closer inspection, the old woman hardly looked like a witch at all. In fact Warwick Vane Bezel III thought she appeared more like a sad old woman. Like the kind of sad woman who lived a very lonely life underground, here in this dark cave miles away from anybody else. She could have been anyone’s grandmother, if that anyone was the kind to abandon her grandmother to fend for herself here in Red Moon Forest.
    The Witch spoke again, “My cat was my only real companion, but this cave was no home for an animal like him. He needed to roam, to explore, and to see more of the world around him. That is why, as much as it pained me to do so, I let him go.”
    The queen looked surprised.
    â€œYou find this hard to believe, Druciah? That I let my Caterwaul go away from me? Why? He is my only friend. I love him, and I could not bear to see him feeling like a prisoner. So I let him go . . . and now I am miserable.”
    The queen smiled. She now felt that in this new game, she had the upper hand. “Well then, I will not dance about the bush,” Druciah said gliding around the room. “You know who I am, no doubt. As it happens, we can help each other. I have something you want, and you possess something I need. Though he appeared to me as a stray, the cat is no doubt yours, so I will return him to you.
    â€œHe won’t come willingly, so you will have to prepare for me some type of sedative which I can place in his food. In exchange, I need from you only a small thing. In return for your pet, you will consult your catalogue of spells and give me back my youth. I want to be young and beautiful for nine lifetimes.”
    She went on, “I want to be as I was years ago, blossoming and beautiful as an apple tree in spring. I want to rule unblemished by time for nine lifetimes. I want to be as fair as the summer flowers and as timeless as the sea. Can you do this for me?” Druciah asked.
    â€œOf course I can, my vain queen,” the Witch grinned. “But let me warn you. If you try to lie or cheat and do not return Caterwaul to me, I will come after you, and I