Hunters Unlucky Part 29

"We were teaching several cubs to swim," continued Halvery. "The most precocious had paddled a little ways out, and the ely-ary dropped down and took him. Not a thing we could do but watch."

Roup looked at him more closely. "One of yours?"

"Yes," snapped Halvery.

"I'm sorry."

Halvery just growled. "The females say not to name cubs until they're three," he muttered. "Useless advice when they name themselves."

Arcove paced around the bird, studying it. "Fully adult," he said, "but young, I think. Hard to tell the s.e.x. It's in good condition-not sick, not old, not wounded. I wonder whether they're expanding their territory."

Roup frowned. "Perhaps we're not the only ones having problems with game?"

"Perhaps."

"I think I'll be on my way," said Halvery. He looked at Arcove. "Unless there's anything else."

"No."

Halvery looked unwillingly at Roup. He didn't say anything.

"I'll stop by and let you know about Treace," said Roup. "Unless, of course, you want to bring your cubs to that giant mouse circle."

Halvery smiled. It was as close to a reconciliation as anyone could expect. When he was gone, Arcove and Roup started back towards the dens. They walked slowly, the cubs scampering ahead. Arcove spoke in a low voice, "What are you doing, Roup?"

"What any good officer does-keeping my subordinates alive."

"You really think Treace would ambush Halvery? And risk the retaliation of Halvery's entire clutter?"

Roup sighed. "I don't know. I know that Treace sees Halvery as a threat that he will have to deal with before or after he deals with you. He doesn't see Sharmel that way. He'd like to beat Sharmel in a fight just to move up in the council, but he doesn't really see him as a threat. Me..." Roup laughed. "He sees me as an extension of you-someone who will cease to matter once you're gone. But Halvery would remain a problem, and Treace is a little afraid of him. So, yes, I do not want Halvery wandering around in Treace's territory with little or no escort. Accidents happen."

"You could have explained that."

"I did. You heard me."

Arcove's tail lashed. "May I make an observation?"

"I know you're irritated when you ask my permission."

"You both came to me within a day of each other with the same concern."

"That's because we're both doing our jobs."

"Just so."

Roup sighed. "If I wanted Halvery dead, I'd let him do as he likes."

Arcove relented. A smile crept into his voice. "I thought your interference had more to do with the way Halvery is likely to handle the situation."

Roup snorted. "That too. I won't go in there bellowing and giving orders. I'll just look around. I'll let you know what I see. If I think the problem can be solved with a conversation, I'll solve it."

Arcove said nothing for a moment.

Roup glanced at him. "You disagree?"

"Don't overestimate your own cunning, my friend."

"And by that, you mean?"

"Don't be so sure that you've got everyone fooled, Roup. You're not planning on going alone, are you?"

Roup thought for a moment. "If I walk in there with half my clutter, it'll be perceived as an act of aggression. We've already escalated this by two levels of command. How paranoid would you like to look?"

"If you go alone, then you are alone," said Arcove.

"I'll take Lyndi. Just me and my beta, out for a visit."

Arcove thought for a moment. "Alright."

Roup b.u.t.ted his head against Arcove's shoulder. "Why so dour? You're the one who keeps insisting that Treace is just a headstrong cub who needs firm leadership."

Arcove looked a little pained. He didn't say anything.

"I'll be careful," said Roup.

Chapter 4. Syriot.

Storm had no clear idea of how long they traveled through Syriot, but it must have been days. Shaw told him that the ely-ary had brought him to the beach in the far north-well away from ferryshaft or creasia territory. The telshees moved sometimes through night-black tunnels, but more often along the banks of underground streams, glowing faintly with acriss. Storm was certain that the telshees could have moved much faster-both in the water and out of it. They were going slowly for him, but they did not complain.

Sometimes the walls of the caves glittered with color-blue, green, red, or a clear crystal that threw back the light in rainbows. Sometimes the riverbank disappeared, and they had to swim. Then, Storm would put his front legs over Shaw's body, near her head, and hang on as she undulated through the water.

They traversed vast, echoing caverns, with ceilings lost in shadow, and along the banks of rivers as wide as the Igby. Pale fish swam there, along with tasty little shrimps-almost transparent. Some of the caves were completely black. The acriss, Shaw explained, could not live in freshwater. However, the little jellyfish thrived in salt and brackish water, especially where it was warm. "Hot streams bubble out of the heart of the mountain," Shaw explained. "They're all over Lidian, but even more common down here." The sea often mingled with the hot springs, so that some of the rivers appeared to have tides.

Storm had no sense of day or night. The telshees slept when they grew tired and moved on when they woke. All my friends must think I'm dead. That gave Storm a pang, but also a sense of relief. He felt freed of all obligations...except, perhaps, to his rescuers.

Twice, the drove encountered the scent of lishties. Then they would grow agitated and restless and travel in silence until the next meal or nap. When their rivals did not appear, they relaxed again.

Storm got the idea that the telshees did not often come this way. Shaw was certainly their leader, but even she frequently had to cast about to decide their route. Storm did not like to bother her when she seemed to be concentrating. However, when the going was easy and straight, he would ask her questions, or she would teach him writing signs.

"You sing to each other before going to sleep," he observed. "Why?"

Shaw had to think before answering. "Do ferryshaft never sing together?" she said at last.

Storm smiled. "Sometimes. When we're trying to entertain one another, we sing stories. But you don't usually sing words at all. You sing..." He searched for a word and couldn't find it. "Feelings. Sensations." He gave up. "Did you heal me with your singing?"

"We helped," she said. "It's easier when you're in our pools."

One of the other telshees spoke up. She was the smallest of the pups, no bigger than Sauny, and quite shy. "Shaw healed you," she whispered. "We only sang with her."

Shaw laughed. "Your songs will be powerful, Ulya. Just give it time."

"So older telshees can do more powerful things with their singing..." said Storm slowly.

Shaw inclined her head. "Our pups leave and return to breed," she told him, "and many return only once. A few return again. A very few return to stay. These are the telshees of Lidian. Most of us are either quite young-and not yet ready to leave-or quite old and have seen many sh.o.r.es. I am an old telshee, but Keesha was swimming the deep mountain when I was no older than Ulya. His song is like nothing you've ever heard."

"You asked why we sing before we sleep," said Ulya. "It comforts us. Also, Shaw is teaching us songs. Sometimes, we practice them together."

"Aren't you afraid that lishties will hear you?"

Ulya giggled. "Oh, they're more likely to run away if they hear us. Lishties don't like telshee songs."

All this talk of songs put the drove to humming. They often did that-not a full-mouthed song, but a harmonized humming as they moved along. It was a little eerie. Far more eerie was their ability to speak while humming. They could carry on a conversation without breaking their hum, although if the discussion required concentration, they often stopped. Once, during a song, Storm could have sworn that Shaw was harmonizing with herself in two voices. Storm thought he understood why their songs might frighten lishties. In full cry, the drove sounded much larger than seven animals. Listening to them, Storm could have sworn there were fifty or more.

"I frightened a creasia once by pretending to be a telshee," he said.

Of course, they had to have the story. The entire drove was delighted and begged Storm to demonstrate his telshee song, but he was overcome by sudden shyness. "It doesn't sound anything like you," he said. "Really, the cat must have been half-deaf."

"You must tell Keesha that story," said Shaw. "He will be terribly amused."

Storm had noticed how the other telshees looked at each other whenever Shaw talked about Keesha. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he didn't think it meant anything good. "Is Keesha sick?" he asked.

"No," said Shaw, a little too clipped.

Storm tried again. "He's one of the old ones, though-one of the males. Is he the oldest?"

"The oldest that wakes," said Shaw. "He does not lay eggs anymore, and I cannot remember the last time he could be bothered to sire a pup. We call him Syra-lay. It means Lord of the Deep-not just the deep ocean, but the deep and secret ways beneath the mountain."

"And he wants to meet me?" asked Storm in a small voice.

Shaw sighed. "He will. You have something that belongs to him...and you will remind him of a friend."

Storm looked down at the blue stone with its black core. He was still wearing it around his neck. "Coden was friends with Keesha?"

Shaw inclined her head. "No one knows how long a telshee may live...if she manages to avoid all the dangers of the sea and land. But we do know that old telshees enter periods of torpor-like hibernation. They sleep, sometimes for years. Eventually, they never wake. Keesha was sleeping a great deal when Coden first started coming here.

"Telshees and ferryshaft have an ancient history, but we had not been much involved with one another for generations. Coden would sit and talk to our Syra-lay. He always called him Keesha-to remind him of his youth. Eventually, Keesha started listening. Coden would ask him questions about other lands, and Keesha would tell him."

Shaw shook her head. "I think he told Coden things he won't tell us! They made plans-mad, insane plans-but it made Syra-lay happy. Coden talked of traveling the ways of the deep mountain. Preposterous! I don't think a ferryshaft would survive in the otherways-"

"Otherwise," murmured Storm. "Walk with me otherwise." "Did they do it?" he asked aloud. "Did they leave Lidian?"

"No. Arcove had become a threat, and the ferryshaft chose Coden to lead them. Coden was well-liked, known for his tricks. He convinced Keesha to help in the war."

"Why was there a war?" asked Storm. "I asked Pathar once, and he said that ferryshaft and creasia have been fighting forever. Is that true?"

Shaw considered. "Near enough. Creasia have always been the largest land predator on Lidian. Our stories say that they were the last to learn to speak-because cats are stubborn and hate change, and they would rather fight than talk. They do not write, as far as I know.

"Other species banded together to protect themselves from creasia. Ferryshaft went into the forest every spring and killed most of the cubs. Creasia were not well-organized. They fought among themselves and even killed their own cubs frequently. They are a vicious species. Their king was the cat most capable of beating all the others in a fight-a bully, not a leader."

"But Arcove was different?" asked Storm.

Shaw's lip curled. "Different, yes. They say he killed a member of the creasia council when he was only a cub himself. He was certainly very young when he came into his power. He began organized attacks on the ferryshaft almost at once. By the time he was finished, there were hardly any ferryshaft left. The entire southern plain is empty now, except for lowland curbs, which I hear have become numerous. The ferryshaft were overconfident, it's true, and their leaders at the beginning of the war made many mistakes. By the time they put Coden in charge, it was all-but hopeless. It would have been hopeless without us. Keesha let Coden use our tunnels and secret caves to hide and to ambush. He sent telshees to fight alongside ferryshaft.

"We can be fierce, Storm, but adult telshees have never been numerous. Lidian is our nursery. We come here to rest, to make love, to raise our young, to share our histories, and to die. We are not a warring race. We had not involved ourselves in a land war since the days of the humans, but Keesha did it for Coden, and we did it for Keesha.

"Many telshees died in the fighting-too many. We lost knowledge, lost history, lost pups and lovers and friends. In the end, we lost the war and Coden. I thought Keesha might grieve himself to death."

Storm didn't know what to say. "But he didn't?"

"No. He went to sleep. And he hasn't woken much since."

Over the next sleeping and waking cycles, they began to encounter more telshees, and Storm could see that the drove relaxed. "We are unlikely to meet lishties here," Shaw explained. "The telshees we just met are a border patrol. This territory is ours."

"You came a long way for me," said Storm.

Shaw smiled. "Yes."

"The ely-ary...he's your friend?"

Shaw gave a noncommittal motion of her head. "Ely-ary and telshees have an understanding. We are the only two species who leave Lidian. They do not travel as far as we do. However, I have encountered the occasional wind-blown bird alone on the vast sea, and I have guided those creatures home. Ely-ary remember such debts."

They were coming now to a series of caves amid a confusing mixture of underground rivers and hot springs. Curtains of steam billowed between fantastic, lacy walls of stalact.i.tes and crystal-all lit by the faint, green glow of the acriss. Shaw navigated this maze with ease. The telshees were clearly home. Others called to them as they pa.s.sed, splashing out of pools and uncoiling from the shadows and out of side pa.s.sages.

For the first time since telshees had rescued him, Storm felt nervous. Their scent was very strong in the cave, and it triggered instinctive fear. It didn't help that they all stared at him-not quite hostile, but not quite friendly, either.

Storm remembered what Shaw had said. "We lost knowledge, lost history, lost pups and lovers and friends. Keesha did it for Coden, and we did it for Keesha."

I wonder if they wish they hadn't.

Shaw stopped abruptly. Peering around her, Storm saw another adult, almost as big as Shaw. She blocked the way, bristling, and Shaw moved forward to speak to her. Storm heard the other telshee say, "You've got some nerve! Bringing that here."

Shaw answered more quietly. Storm heard the other's response, "Well, it's none of our concern if they're dying! We will be dying if we're not very careful, or haven't you noticed?"

More muttered conversation. The pups who'd traveled with him formed a little ring around Storm, keeping the other telshees from coming too near. Storm felt small and vulnerable. He heard the other adult's voice again, this time with a sneer, "Good luck with that. He hasn't stirred in a year at least."