“As far as we know,” said Rigg, “the mice now rule the world.”
“I’m so relieved,” said Umbo. “You and Ram Odin were doing kind of a lousy job of it.”
“Well, now you get to be king,” said Rigg.
“Just a figurehead,” said Umbo.
Param took his hand. “He keeps saying that, but when I try to give him responsibilities he refuses.”
“I don’t want to be in charge of anything,” said Umbo. “I just want to be able to complain about it.”
“He works hard,” said Param, “and he does a good job.”
“But Square and his maskers do all the heavy fighting,” said Umbo. “We’re still trying to figure out how to end the war, now that it’s obvious their armies can’t stand against us and the people want to be rid of them.”
“You’ll think of something,” said Noxon.
“This is what power looks like?” said Deborah. “The people in charge of a war. You’re the Queen-in-the-Tent?”
Param smiled. “Pretty hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“No, you’re very royal,” said Deborah. “But you also look younger than me.”
“They’re children,” said Loaf. “Brats with way too much power. Now that the world isn’t going to end, we’re going to have to put up with a lot of nonsense till they grow up.”
“Come on,” said Noxon. “If we don’t go now and get your facemask, they’ll keep you here for hours with their blathering.”
Deborah grinned at them all and let Noxon lead her out of the room. Vadeshex followed immediately. The rest of them stood there looking at each other.
“I was in the middle of a nice nap,” said Rigg.
“Mine wasn’t all that nice,” said Ram Odin. “I kept seeing Vadeshex popping a bleeding mouse corpse into his mouth.”
“Thanks for putting that image in my mind,” said Param.
“Anything for the Queen-in-the-Tent,” said Ram Odin. He left the room.
“Want me to take you all back to Ramfold?” asked Ramex. “Or somewhere else?”
“The enclave will do,” said Loaf. “Leaky has to serve dinner and I’ve got trainees to supervise.”
“I thought they were all trained,” said Umbo.
“He means my people,” said Square. “We’ve got some new recruits who just got control of their masks.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Umbo. “Are we going to go ahead and just get rid of Hagia and Haddamander now?”
“We aren’t going to assassinate—” Param began.
“Wrong words,” said Umbo. “I mean, why don’t we just kidnap them and stash them back a few hundred years ago? In another wallfold where they aren’t royal and don’t have anybody who’ll obey them?”
Rigg laughed. “I can think of a few wallfolds they’d really enjoy.”
“I don’t want to torture them or even punish them,” said Param. “But yes, Umbo, that’s a good idea. Just put them in a place where they can’t do much harm and maybe they can make a life for each other.”
“And then we’ll find out whether we’re any more fit to rule than they were,” said Umbo.
“Well, if you’re not,” said Rigg, “we can always bring back the People’s Revolutionary Council.”