Did Your Holiness see this thing that came out of the sky?’ asked the Queen, soon as she had been received by the Head Priest, a little breathless from her haste.
  ‘I did, Your Grace,’ averred His Holiness solemnly, who had not, for the servant that had visited his bed-chamber with the news he had ordered flogged before turning over on his couch and returning to sleep, and also, Her Majesty’s eyes were blazing uncommonly fiercely. He was much disconcerted by her apparition in his house, a phenomenon without precedent, but endeavoured to shellac the oddity of the event with his wonted serenity of manner. So impatient had Katrina been to learn his thoughts that, knowing him to be very old and very slow and no acquaintance of time, she had come to him. Indeed, she had no more than donned a bonnet and mantle before rushing out, not delaying even to wash her face or visit a mirror, so she seemed unaware that the white fur of her chin was still speckled with the dried blood of the Prince Hranu, which she had bibed in the night with that Prince’s own brain-case for beaker, an oversight of the usually fastidious Queen that it much troubled His Holiness to notice.
  ‘And what is it?’ Katrina demanded to know.
  ‘Madam, ‘tis a great and powerful magician that hath stolen one of the planets and taken it to Ratona for some mischievous purpose of the Rat King,’ answereth the Head Priest with that confidence of the prelate that hath gathered the gist of the matter from the blabbered report of his steward whilst hastily apparelling to receive Her Majesty. ‘Would it like Her Majesty to be seated?’ he invited, in hope of unwinding her. ‘Might I offer a braised gizzard and some refreshment?’ 
  ‘Thank you, Holiness but this is not a social call, and We are in much disease, for that this unforeseen event may upset Our well-laid plans to sack the Rat City, that did seem so favoured but last night. We must decide what to do.’
  ‘ ‘Tis a matter that warrants thoughtful prayer,’ His Holiness entreated, feeling that he was being rushed.
  ‘Quite. Which planet?’
  ‘Which planet?’ 
  ‘We hear an echo in this chamber, Holiness.’
  ‘Forgive me, Ma’am. I only mean, as to determining which planet, it be prudent to wait for th’evening to observe what’s missing from it.’
  ‘We had hoped you had some science to determine it sooner.’
  ‘Alack, Your Grace. Perhaps I might peruse some of our holy scrolls soon as I have broken fast.’
  ‘ ‘Tis near noon, Holiness.’
  ‘So it is, Madam. And many are the scrolls that require sifting, for our library is most replete with learned works of our scholars, a national treasure I am satisfied giveth Her Majesty our Queen much gratification to reflect upon.’
  ‘Decidedly. Mean-time, this magician, would you say, is a rat?’
  ‘Oh, most verily a rat, Madam. A type of rat indeed, if by rat be meant a thing like a rat, ‘tis a rat, as the nominalists teach.’
  ‘ ‘Tis a rat?’ pressed the Queen sternly.
  His Holiness beamed and half nodded. ‘It may well be a rat. Logic seemeth to dictate so. Else, why should it have steered for the Rat City?’
  ‘Not because we shot it down?’ 
  This gave His Holiness brief pause, for it had been absent from his servants’ account. ‘We shot it down?’
  ‘Aye.’
  ‘Then undoubtedly it was for cause of Her Majesty’s arrows that the planet fell where it did fall.’
  ‘Yet, how doth that answer to the Rat’s purpose?’
  The High Priest pondered briefly. ‘I understand the puzzle. Her Majesty’s arrows answer to the agency, Madam, but not to the reason.’
  Katrina lashed her tail impatiently. ‘Do speak directly, Holiness. Now is not the time for the cleverish knots of philosophers, but plain work and plain speech.’
  His Holiness had a view of his window, which the Queen had not, her back towards it, and through it he saw something that cheered him, conducing him to turn to the Queen a morbid face. ‘Then, Majesty, let me forecast to you directly that the signs be not propitious for war with the rats. You know the month did wax lustrously for us last night with the Moon, whose waxing is but sign that she must wane. The rose first blushing must soonest fade. Each sun-up added to the cock’s stock of days, even as it persuadeth the fowl more forcefully of the immutable pattern of his existence, draweth the axe a day nearer to his neck.’
  ‘These words be direful and disquieting, Holiness. They like me not.’
  ‘Yet contain truth for pondering, Madam. The wind of favour bloweth not steady in one direction forever.’
  The Queen, seeing where the Head Priest’s gaze led, turned round to the window. The pennant on a roof was a–droop and a wispy cloud had strayed into the valley from the sea. The arid wind that had for weeks blown steady, having carried the curious globe over the mountains, as if thereby fulfilling its errand, had blown out. Quod the High Priest:
  ‘Knowing not your will, natheless your arrows, O Queen, sped on your purpose, as your will, unknowing of a counter, fell thrall of its purpose. That is my present reading of the weather.’