Three Wise Cats (18 page)

The sea captain met them at the same tavern where he and his old friend Gracus had eaten months earlier while settling passage for Gracus's household. The other men didn't tell him of the basket Melchior still carried until they were sitting at a large table awaiting their meal.

“Here, Alexos, a surprise for you,” Kaspar said and nodded at Melchior to open the basket.

“It's not a snake, is it?” Alexos asked nervously. He gasped as Kezia leaped from the basket and gracefully landed on the table in front of him.

“My wonder of a cat! The lovely one who saved me from that poisonous snake! Oh, look—how has this happened? Your ear, which I hurt so badly flailing with that trident—your ear is perfectly beautiful once again!” The other men at the table chuckled at Alexos's bewilderment.

Kezia purred so loudly she could be heard over their laughter, and tears stood in Alexos's good eye once again as he stroked her soft fur.

“You are a treasure—and may the gods strike me dead if I am ever parted from you again!”

“Be careful with those vows, Alexos,” Kaspar told him. “For I have a wondrous story to relate to you about the One God and His Son the Messiah, Who restored your little cat's ear.”

The story told and their meal long finished, Alexos looked at his kinsman. “I have never known you to tell a lie,” he said to Kaspar. “And so I must turn from my old familiar gods of the seas and thank the Messiah you found—for surely He is the one who restored both my cat's ear and her very presence here to me.” The Greek sea captain turned to the tabby, who was still seated upon the table. “I shall get you a silk cushion for your basket; you shall have all the delicacies of the sea that I may coax it into yielding; and you are now and forever the Captain's Cat.”

When Abishag saw Kezia the next day, Alexos had fashioned overnight a special collar for her of fishing-net cord, using the smallest sailor's knots he knew. A curiously wrought fish of pure silver hung from the collar.

“Alexos now believes in the old prophecies because of what Kaspar told him yesterday,” Kezia explained to her foster sister. She wore the collar her heart's companion had made for her gladly; more proudly than she ever did the topaz stone bracelet Asmodeus had stolen for her. “I am happy to be loved by Alexos and to love my captain in return. The Messiah has brought me home.”

Now that just leaves me to have my heart's dearest wish granted,
Abishag thought.
I may have my miracle, too!

17

T
HE FIRST STAGE of her mira- cle was granted the next day, when Alexos agreed to return to Lepcis Magna for another shipload of the grain grown in that region.

Midday he met the wise men and Gracus at the dockside tavern and told them of his next voyage.

“And I thought I was to secure passage with you to Athens,” Kaspar pretended to grumble. “My own ship departed weeks ago, to return to my home. Am I to travel with someone else, as but another passenger?”

“Forgive me, my kinsman, but I must sail where the gold takes me.” And Alexos laughed.

Balthazar leaned across the table. “I had nearly forgotten—what of the other small black cat? Who speaks for her? She has not indicated she wishes to remain with any of us.”

The men looked at one another, feeling a little guilty because none had realized not one man claimed Abishag as his cat.

“Surely she can sail with her foster sister upon my ship,” Alexos decided. “They sailed together before, and they may do so again, and welcome.”

And with that, Abishag found herself well started on her trip homeward, as she and Kezia sat by the Greek captain's feet and watched the harbor of Tyre grow ever smaller in the distance and late morning sunshine. They had given Ira their final good-byes the night before they sailed.

It had been a bittersweet farewell; they had endured much and seen wonders together—and the three cats knew they would never, in all likelihood, see each other again.

They touched noses and slept in their same basket, now quite dilapidated, one last night at Gracus's house. Polla had whispered into each set of furry ears her assurances that they would be most happy with the path they had chosen with their life's companions. And she repeated her prophecy about the five fat kittens she foresaw in her mind's eye, tumbling and playing about Abishag's paws.

Dawn found Ira and Gracus reporting for duty at the garrison, and the wise men were packed and saying their farewells, for each had secured passage home as well. They threw their arms about one another and vowed to send messengers as often as possible to each other.

“For we of the star in our palms have formed an unusual brotherhood,” Kaspar said. “And I feel we should keep communication among us, if nothing more than to remind ourselves and each other of the wonders we saw, and the truth of the Messiah being born.”

THE VOYAGE TO Lepcis Magna was uneventful; Kezia and Abishag patrolled the ship and kept mice and rats from setting up housekeeping beneath the deck. The weeks flew by almost as fast as the ship skimmed the sea, but it was still far too slow for Abishag. She longed to get her sturdy little legs upon solid ground once again, to begin the final part of her homeward journey.

Then one fine morning Kezia swallowed so hard the small fish on her collar bobbed up and down. “I—I'm going to miss you very much, Abishag,” she said. “I look back now and wonder how you and Ira tolerated my foolishness and my overbearing pride.”

Abishag smiled at her. “We were all much younger then. And we had not seen the Messiah. He will always bless our lives, of that I am sure.”

The two cats said their farewells as Alexos's graceful ship glided to one of the docks in Lepcis Magna.

“I wish you much love, my sister,” Kezia said sincerely and touched noses with Abishag.

Abishag looked back as she started to step from the ship's ramp onto the dock. Kezia, looking very small, bravely raised a paw. “Good luck!” she called. “Name one of your kittens after me. Remember—she is to be Kezia the Beautiful!”

Abishag laughed and raised a paw in return.
If I kept my nose pointed toward the North Star to find Lepcis Magna in the first place, then I must keep the tip of my tail pointed to the star to find my way home again
.
I should have to journey but another week before I am home at last.

The little black cat retraced the steps she and her foster sister and brother had taken so very long before.
It must be a year, perhaps more
.
I hope Ptolemy is still alive. And if he is not well, then I shall be home to look after him.

At dawn of the seventh day, Abishag's heart beat faster as she recognized the old tower, still at a distance.

“May the Messiah grant we have some last happy days together!” she cried and began to run.

She stopped just outside the gate to catch her breath and say a small prayer.
Please, my Messiah, let Ptolemy still be alive, so I may be near him and love him, even if he doesn't love me in the same way.

She hurried into the dusty courtyard, quiet in the late, fragile sunshine of an early spring day—and saw Ptolemy sitting next to the wall. His muzzle was gray now, not black, and he had white hairs in his tail; but the look upon his face when he saw Abishag made her heart purr.

To her surprise, the elderly astronomer was also still alive, and even had acquired a young assistant, who cheerfully looked after the old man. Abishag happily settled back into the tower quarters with Ptolemy.

He called to her a few days after her return.