The answer of the gods was nothing, absolutely nothing, or nothing at least as far as you Izmir are allowed to tell. After a moment or two of floating, and holding the sword and the diamond aloft, Izmir brought his gaze back down from the heavens and returned to the ground.
'Well we did it anyway' he said.
Ahmet too was somewhat disappointed that the unification of the treasures had no visible effect on the world around him. He felt deflated, which was really rather strange, given that they had just achieved the very thing he had wished for with all his might only moments before.
'Shall we go back to Istanbul now?' asked Fatma. 'I'd really like to go home. I don't know what you've done, but I'm sure it will be better if you talk to the elders about it. Serkan will know what to do.'
'Yes I think you're right' said Izmir, 'I mean, the prophecy never said the world was going to change straight away. We'll have to wait to see what happens next.'
'Wait' said Ahmet, 'there's someone coming. Can you see them? They're waving at us.'
'There's only two of them' said Izmir, 'can you make out who they are?'
'It's Mr Caring and Mr Security' said Ahmet. 'They probably want to give us some advice.'
Izmir felt a sharp pain in his chest. The shaft of light he had cast through the universe was suddenly knocked to the right and there settled on a different scene, a section of the structure upon which his dreams had been built, and from the look of it the foundations were rotten.
Fatma composed herself. She had been waiting for such a moment, when their mad dash through heroism could go no further, and the brutal truth of reality chose to reveal itself.
Soon Mr Caring and Mr Security were close enough to shout, and shout they did.
'Izmir! Izmir! The most terrible news!'
'Izabel has been captured!'
'Longshanks has gone mad.'
'You must save her now Izmir!'
By the time they arrived both had shouted themselves quite out of breath. They paused for a moment to recover, both sneaking Izmir a quick glance. They could see he was suffering.
Izmir had not expected to be made to wait.
'Please tell me what has happened' he pleaded. 'Where is she?'
Mr Caring coughed to draw out the moment.
'Yes' he said, starting slowly, 'Izabel, terrible news Izmir, so unfortunate. She was captured at the palace. Quite a mess I'm afraid. The news of your raid spread like wildfire and as soon as it got to Longshanks, well he lost his mind and everything went crazy. It seems he has a contact in the Sultan's guard. The human princess helped you I understand? Well anyway shortly after you left they broke into her room and took Izabel prisoner. Longshanks has her now. We can't calm him down, he insists he's going to have her executed for treason. You must help Izmir, please, fly, go as quickly as you can. Things will never be the same again if we can't stop Longshanks…'
'But where?' cried Izmir.
'When we left she was with Longshanks' guard on the rooftops in Eminönu but she shouldn't be there for long. I think the plan is to have her drowned, from Galata Bridge I should imagine.'
Izmir of course had expected to confront and overcome both Longshanks and Mr Respectable at some point on his way to marrying Izabel. He had also expected the unification of the treasures to lead to some great and immediate change. He was therefore not entirely surprised that the opportunity to meet his fate should once again present itself so quickly. There was something however holding him back. Why did he not want to leap into the air without thinking?
There it was. The thought that had been hiding. Perhaps this was a trap. But too, as before, the path he had chosen to proceed down was not an ambling country lane, its course brooked not the chance to turn left or right, there was no scenic route along which he might delay or avoid arrival. There were only the stark poles of success and failure, happiness and misery, now or never.
'Izabel…' said Mr Caring.
'Yes' said Izmir, 'I'm going.'
He flew straight up into the air, his arms outstretched to either side, sword in one paw and diamond in the other, and then flipped about and shot back through the skies to Istanbul.
'Paws back on the ground eh?' said Mr Security, giving Ahmet a friendly dig in his ribs that felt a little too much like it was supposed to hurt.
'Don't worry' said Mr Caring, 'we'll see you safely back to the gutters. Both of you must be missing your parents by now? They'll be delighted to see you. You've become heroes, did you know that? No, well you'll see, the whole of Istanbul is quite worked up about your little adventure.'
Mr Caring put an arm around a shoulder of both kittens and ushered them forwards.
'Don't worry we don't have to walk the whole way, we have a cart waiting for us just outside the town.'
Ahmet didn't know what to say. His mind was still engrossed in the fate of Izmir. He could see him flying.
Fatma looked at Mr Caring and wished that staring was enough to kill him. Suddenly she felt fierce. Here was her enemy, this she knew, and for all the world she wanted to stop him, stop them from succeeding with whatever it was they were doing.
She was about to say something clever, something mean, when…
Smack!
She turned to her left and saw Ahmet lying on the ground, his eyes closed. The shadow of a large cat was stretched across his body.
The shadow swung. It was Mr Security.
Smack!
Izmir, still shooting through the skies, had lost all love for the power of flight. His passage through the air now seemed painfully slow. He had to admit that he felt a little cold. The rush of air beneath his wings seemed to catch hold his bones. Every now and then he shivered. He looked down and the ground below him beckoned, fall now it called, fall now Izmir, what if you should fall, so high, such a long way to come down.
There would be no one there to save him. He was all alone.
An image popped up in his mind. Fatma and Ahmet were being dragged through the dust.
He looked up. He could see Istanbul. He was there.
Time gave way before the flight of Izmir's star and stopped. The skies gasped. The birds ceased singing. The dogs stopped barking. The sun moved behind a cloud.
Izmir descended upon Galata Bridge.
Scanning first its upper level and then its lower, he looked in desperation for the sight of Izabel.
He cursed. Why did it have to be so busy? He could barely make out a thing. The bridge was heaving with humanity, people walking, people eating, people talking, people fishing, but nowhere could he see any cats.
But there, on the river, just in front of the bridge, was a small rowing boat. They had to be cats. There were only two of them. He might not be too late.
He dived at full speed.
His mind, moving through the moments as fast as it might, had time just enough to see that it definitely was Izabel, she was the cat at the back of the boat sat facing him, and that she looked unhappy, and that too she was tied up, tightly, in a great knot of rope, along which weights had been attached. Then he had arrived and was forced to make a decision.
He hovered above the boat, deliberating. Exactly how was he to save her? She was tied up and so had no chance of holding on to him. He had both his paws full, one with the sword and the other with the diamond.
There was no choice he concluded. He swooped down and dropped the treasures, both of which clattered into the boat.
Izabel looked up in delight.
Izmir grabbed hold of her and tried to fly away. He pulled upwards with all his might.
A net dropped over his head.
Mr Ordinary stood up at the back of the boat. He pulled up the seat on which he had been sat and reached inside the compartment beneath. His paw found what he was looking for. There it was.
He moved down the boat.
Izabel screamed.
'There, there' he said to Izmir, patting his struggling form.
Izmir felt something cold and hard slip between his ribs. He fell down, staring up at Izabel, who was still screaming.