I didn't feel so confident by the time I arrived back at the market square. I'd had just enough time to put together a couple more Bang Rocks, but without the ingredients, I couldn't make any more Chalk Bombs. I could just see the sky beginning to lighten and I was sure dawn wasn't far away. I needed to get this done quickly before vendors began arriving at the market square.

  The place was still deserted, but I could almost sense the cats. They were somewhere lurking in the darkness, and I wondered if they were waiting for me, if they knew I would come back.

  I swallowed my nerves and blew out a few deep breaths. I loosened Grandad’s bat in its sheath. There was nothing for it but to begin. With a final deep breath, I crept into the market square.

  Before leaving home, I had printed an overhead map of the market square and studied it, so I had a vague understanding of the layout. There were six main alleyways that fed into the square. If I could block off the mouth to each one of those alleys, I would effectively cut off the market square to the invading cats, making it safe for the pigeons. I knew that at least one of the alleyways was safe, as that was the one I had first entered the market square from. So I started there.

  At the mouth of the alley, I peeled off one of the labels and stuck it to the brickwork, then ran over to the other side of the alley and laid the spell down as well. As I peeled off the labels and placed them with care again, I tried to concentrate on the details of what I wanted to happen. It might have just been my imagination, but I felt an electric crackle rippling across the alleyway, a pitchless sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

  Once the two labels were in place, I took a deep breath, made sure that my bag was in easy reach on my back, and then began to tiptoe into the rest of the alleyways. The next alley was also deserted. It was much filthier than the previous one, which made me feel like fewer people probably used it. I quickly attached the labels, trying my hardest not to rush and focus on my mental image. Again, I felt the crackle of energy run through it. Okay, two down, four to go.

  But the next four weren't going to be as simple. I would have to travel into the market square and then back out to the mouth of the alleyway. The market square was lit by a single yellow street light, and it glowed and flickered morosely as if it didn't want to be there either. I skirted around the edges, keeping my ears pricked for the yipping and yowling of the cats. I looked across to the other alleyways and saw no movement. I snuck across the market square like a mouse on the kitchen floor.

  I flitted into the alleyway and tried not to run all the way to the mouth. I crept along, my eyes wide. I pulled down my goggles to aid with seeing in the dark, although one lens was still badly cracked and obscured my vision. There was movement in this alley. I froze, and then a rat skittered across my vision. I almost jumped out of the alleyway and ran. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, steadying myself. I knew exactly how that rat felt.

  I tiptoed to the mouth of the alley, gathered my thoughts again before placing down the next two labels, and then it was back into the market square. Three down, three to go. But I had a bad feeling the next three were going to be in the cat's domain.

  I wasn't wrong. In the fourth alleyway that I stepped into, I immediately saw a feline figure curled on top of one of the bins, its tail swishing listlessly back and forth. Freezing in place, I held my breath and stared wide eyed. The nightmarish cat twitched fitfully and made odd snuffling noises. Its chest gently rose and fell. The damn thing was asleep!

  Carefully, I picked my way through the alley, avoiding any puddles or debris laying about, tiptoeing through with my breath held. I passed the cat, only a few feet from it, and marveled at the size and ferocity of the creature. It looked like it could bite clean through my face. The flea bitten mongrel of a cat, continued to doze fitfully, yipping quietly to itself. I fought the urge to start sprinting. Continuing carefully, I crept through the alleyway, my eyes glued to the floor, my see-in-the-dark goggles once again proving invaluable in the litter strewn alleyway.

  I made it to the end of the alleyway, sucked in a deep breath, and then placed down the first sticker. I looked down the alleyway, but it was too far for me to see where the cat was. I just had to assume it was still asleep. Taking another deep breath, I refocused my thoughts, and placed the second label on the opposite wall. There was a brief moment of nothing, then I felt the almost imperceptible buzz of magic. A second later, the cat screamed. It wasn't a yowl, or a yelp,, it was a full blooded scream. I heard banging and clattering from down the alleyway and saw the body of the cat shoot off into the market square, howling in pain as it did.

  "Shit, I should have thought about that," I groaned to myself.

  The Runes had worked, but it had also woken up the cat, and that meant that it would be warning the others, or at least alerting them to some sort of danger. Well, I guess subterfuge and subtlety were out the window now that the proverbial, and literal, cat was out of the bag.

  I only had two more alleyways left. I yanked the bag from my back, grabbed a fistful of Bang Rocks, and took off sprinting back to the market square. As I reached the glowing yellow light of the market square, I saw three cats appear from the opposite alleyway that I still needed to put the labels down in. The cats saw me, their hackles rose, their claws extended, and they bared their fangs. Their ears lowered like wolves ready to attack, and they began sprinting across the market square towards me. Panicked, I threw down the fistful of Bang Rocks. The cats screeched and leaped away from the explosions, howling as they did. I sprinted past them, shooting into the alleyway they had just come out of, stumbling, kicking, and knocking piles of debris over in my desperate scramble.

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  I made it to the end of the alleyway. I looked behind me and saw the cats prowling around the entrance of the alley. They were cautious now, wondering what kind of monster they were fighting. Panting, whether from exertion or fear, I wasn’t sure, I thought about the yowling and yipping of the cat that I'd woken up and used that as inspiration to lay down the next two labels as quickly as I could. The effect was immediate. The creatures howled and scurried away back into the market square.

  I ran back to the market square and looked around for them, and then my heart dropped. There weren't three cats, there weren't six. There weren’t even twelve. It was a damn army of them. They were everywhere, but they were disoriented. They kept trying to run into the other alleyways and then came out screeching again as the sound barriers scrambled their brains. They bounced and fought with each other, yowled, scratched, and clawed. And I realized something in that moment. I had effectively trapped these cats. If I put down the last labels, they wouldn't be able to get out of the market square. Rather than clearing the Pigeon King's kingdom of them, I would have effectively caged them in it.

  Almost as one, the cats turned and looked at me, and I saw a cat the size of a medium-range dog prowling out from their center. It had a scar running down one side of its face that ran through a milky eye. It had ragged ears and scars strewn across its surprisingly muscular body. The feral feline was all black apart from its chest, which was more of a mottled grey colour. The thing was ferocious, as vicious an animal as I'd ever seen. It glared at me with its one good eye, and the rest of the cats seemed to take courage from its appearance. They bunched together, facing me.

  "Oh no," I muttered.

  I didn’t survive being stabbed just to be killed and eaten by a pack of cats, did I? Is that how I was gonna die? How lame.

  I looked to my left and right. I could escape, all I had to do was get down one of the alleyways, and the feline mob wouldn’t pursue me. But then I wouldn't be able to block off the last alleyway. I felt around in my pocket. I had a few Bang Rocks left, maybe another handful. I could use those to keep the cats at bay, but how could I get them out of the market square? And then I had the sinking realization that the only option I had was to use myself as bait.

  "Great," I muttered.

  The lead cat hissed and spat at me, its hackles rising up on its neck and it arched its back, its tail springing straight up, looking like it had been electrocuted. I saw its claws dig into the cobbles, and it began to advance on me, its pack following.

  "Okay, okay, I've got this," I thought to myself. "I've just got to run!"

  I screamed the words at the cats and threw down a fistful of Bang Rocks at the ones that were surrounding the mouth of the last alleyway. They scattered just as the lead cat pounced. I tried to dash through the opening but the cat was quicker. Before I could take two steps, the furious cat hadthrown its large black body between me and the alley as if it knew what I was planning to do. The cat hissed at me. I did the only thing I could do, and the last thing I wanted to do. I unsheathed Grandad’s bat.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said to the cat, menacing it with the bat.

  Talking to a cat is stupid, I know, but I didn’t have it in me to swing a cricket bat at a cat, even a monstrous one like this. Unfortunately, the cat didn’t have the same moral quandaries about interspecies violence as I did. It coiled its hindlegs, its one good eye filled with venom and malice, and then it attacked. Out of pure self preservation, I swung Grandad’s bat… and missed.

  I hit the cat that had been standing to its left, sending the creature flying. The lead cat found its feet, its claws scrambling on the cobbles as the rest swarmed behind it. I took off running as fast as I could into the alleyway. I heard the vicious snarling and hissing as the pack pursued me. I quickly tried to gather my thoughts while peeling a label from the stack. I slapped it against the mouth of the alleyway and ran out the other side, the pack hot on my heels.

  I couldn't believe how fast cats were. For such little things they could move, and they were gaining on me. It was only the last of my Bang Rocks that kept them at bay. I skirted around a little park outside the market square, hopped over a fence, spun back round the other way, and sprinted as fast as I could back into the alley. Cats were all around me, clawing, scratching, and leaping at me as I ran past them. One even managed to leap onto my shoulder, its claws digging into my flesh as it tried to bite my neck. I roared and punched the thing, dislodging it, but it took a chunk of my flesh and my jacket with it.

  I was nearly in the alleyway again when the lead cat flew into my vision. Without thinking, I swung the bat, met it head-on, and the explosion Rune sent the feral monster flying far out of sight, and all I heard was its pained yowls as it went. I hit the mouth of the alley, skidded to a halt, pulled the label out, and slapped it against the wall, my eyes screwed shut as I tried to imagine what would happen next. Then I felt the electric buzz, and the cats ran into the alley, leaping at me, screaming and howling with rage that quickly turned to pain and confusion as the ward kicked in.

  All six wards in a ring produced an immense buzz that even I felt. I couldn't imagine what it'd be like for the cats. They screamed and howled, leaping over one another, scratching and biting to get away, and they fled from the market square, their pained screams echoing into the night. I stood there, drenched in sweat, cut and bleeding, but alive somehow. I looked around; I didn't hear any more cats. I slowly walked back into the market square and peered about. It was silent, other than the almost imperceptible buzz of the wards. I could no longer hear anything feline. I looked behind me and saw the lead cat at the mouth of the alleyway. It prowled back and forth, staring at me with a hatred that was far too human. Then it was gone.

  "Oh man," I sighed, sinking down and sitting in the middle of the market square, looking around. I'd actually done it. I think I had just made an enemy for life, but at least I was alive for now.

  I heard the flap of wings above me and looked up to see the Pigeon King. He cooed raucously, flapping his wings in a triumphant circle.

  "Well done, mageling!" he called down to me. "That was particularly spectacular. Come, my brethren," he called into the night. "Retake my kingdom. Our feral felonious foe has been defeated!”

  The Pigeon King settled himself down on the street lamp and looked down at me imperiously.

  "So this makes us even, right?" I said to him, breathing heavily.

  "Oh no, dear boy, we are just beginning," and then he cawed raucously again, laughing into the night air.

  Of course this nightmare wasn’t over. What did this damn pigeon have in store for me next?