Man-Kzin Wars IX Part 7

HIS SERGEANT'S HONOR.

Hal Colebatch

Chapter 1.

"There is a 'cease-fire.' "

The word was not new to kzin military terminology, though used rarely. The kzintis' forebears had offered a cease-fire to the remnant of human resistance on Wunderland once.

The smoke stung Raargh-Sergeant's eye and nose but he held himself rigidly alert.

There were black commas with dangling limbs drifting high in the air with the smoke, he saw: a group of dead kzin and human fighters still held aloft by lift-belts, debris of the previous weeks of fighting. The wind brought the sound of bells pealing from the monkey temple as well as drifting smoke from the burning city and from the straggle of huts beyond the monastery gates. A gust of wind drove two of the floating bodies together. A side arm that one of them still clasped fired a few random bolts into air and ground, throwing up rock and flame. Neither kzin moved.

"We have our orders," Hroarh-Captain said again. "You are not permitted to die heroically. Go to barracks and remain there until you hear further, either from me or another proper authority. I go to seek Hroth-Staff Officer.

"You are, as you know, the senior surviving Sergeant," he added. "I look to you to help preserve what order and discipline there may be in the Patriarch's armed forces . . . all that is left of them. We are Regulars. We are professionals, not wild outland barbarians, and our Honor is in that. We have taken oaths and our Honor is in obedience. Remember that a dead Hero is useless to the Patriarch."

He moved to the half-repaired battle car which Raargh-Sergeant had been loading with weapons for the last attack and killed the engine. It sank to the ground, a visibly dead, defeated thing. Junk.

"You have kits, Raargh Sergeant?"

"No longer, Hroarh-Captain." At least I know mine is dead. I need not tear my liver wondering if he somehow escaped. At least I know mine is dead. I need not tear my liver wondering if he somehow escaped.

A kzin of the old type would have affected indifference to the fate of his male kits once they reached some maturity and did not dishonor him, but times had changed with the extinction of so many bloodlines. Heroes and indeed bloodlines had perished wholesale as one fleet after another attacked Sol System and limped back with its dead and its wreckage. More recently the UNSN's raids had devastated much of the system's infrastructure. Then, like lightning falling from a clear sky, had come the bizarre, unexpected war of kzin against kzin, between the followers of Traat-Admiral and Ktrodni-Stkaa, and finally, with much of the kzin fleet destroyed in s.p.a.ce in fratricidal combat and the ground war beginning to escalate beyond the nuclear threshold, the UNSN's Hyperdrive Armada had swept in with its bombardment from the skies and then infantry landings, coupled with widespread-in fact almost universal-uprisings among the human population of both Wunderland and the Serpent Swarm. There would be many lost kits . . .

"Nor I," said Hroarh-Captain. He looked as if he was in no shape to get more offspring even if chance permitted, but obviously Raargh-Sergeant could hardly broach that topic.

"A dead Hero is also useless to all others who look to him for protection."

A ball of orange fire was rising into the sky from the old human ruins on the plains a few miles away. Some band of Heroes had made a stand there, to be blasted to the Fanged G.o.d by attack from the skies which the humans now ruled. The kzintis' sensitive hearing filtered out a chaos of distant explosions and the supersonic booms of aircraft.

"There are moments," said Hroarh-Captain, "when self-control is the only weapon a warrior has. There is no shame . . ." He twitched convulsively; the ground-effect cart that took the place of his legs lurched, spitting pebbles from the dirt. He had no tail to signal his emotions and the torn remnants of his ears were held steady but his mane was flat as Raargh-Sergeant's. Both felt shame beyond measure.

"I have been summoned," Hroarh-Captain went on. "I will return as soon as possible. Maintain discipline and await further orders. Remember that the situation may change quickly.

"Remember always, a warrior has a duty to all those under his care." He gestured with his remaining arm to the Speaker-for-Humans who, with its female deputy, stood between them. Moisture was running down its pale face and it was shaking. The deputy's expression was hard to read.

"This human has been loyal to the Patriarchy and will remain in charge of human affairs here," the officer went on. "It-he-and those under him are under the Patriarchy's protection still. You will exert that protection. But humans in general are no longer slaves or prey. . . ." He folded and unfolded what were left of his ears thoughtfully, almost as if he were groping for words.

"You are old, Raargh-Sergeant. You are a good soldier, and it was my pleasure to recommend that you be honored with a partial name for your valor and bloodl.u.s.t in the Hohe Kalkstein. . . ."

The name called up memories for both of them. "There was good hunting in the forest and the caves there. I can smell the limestone now. War in the great caves has pleasures all its own. . . ." Raargh-Sergeant tried to cheer his captain. He remembered the great caves of the high limestone, and the strange, three-sided war a few lucky Heroes had fought in the depths with the feral humans and the brainless but savage creatures the humans called Morlocks. Happy days. Once they had placed Morlock skins over their heads and waded through a cold shallow underground stream to come upon a human position . . .

"So I recall. But I recommended you too because I know you have the cunning of a lurker in tall gra.s.s, and are no fool who is burnt to death by the pa.s.sion for glory in his over-hot liver. There are few old and foolish soldiers. You are a survivor and more than ever do we need our survivors of guile now. Continue to survive. That also is an order."

The wind brought a renewed sound of fighting. The sergeant flicked his own torn ears. "The cease-fire does not seem to be very effective, Hroarh-Captain," he said.

"The humans are also fighting among themselves. That is no business of ours now . . . unless the Patriarchy's honor is involved."

Raargh-Sergeant brought his own remaining natural arm up in a claws-across-the-face salute as Hroarh-Captain headed away, holding up a white cloth. Hroarh-Captain was a good officer Hroarh-Captain was a good officer, he thought, although he is still alive. Or because he is still alive? although he is still alive. Or because he is still alive? Then he turned to the human. Then he turned to the human.

"Do I give you a name now?" he asked.

He spoke in the slaves' patois. His was the third generation on the planet and though his sire had been but a sergeant also he had been raised by human house-slaves. He understood Wunderlander well but it was still difficult to p.r.o.nounce.

Raargh-Sergeant had dealt with this human frequently before when it had been in charge of maintaining order and discipline among the local slaves and taxpayers, and it had been in charge of a force of armed human auxiliaries for some time, but its rank description seemed inappropriate now.

It-he, as Hroarh-Captain had said-replied in a sort of Wunderlander in which the slaves' patois and a few Kzinti or Kzinti-derived words were making encroachments. A Hero could certainly use such a language to a slave since matters of dealing with slaves were beneath most considerations of dignity.

"I am called Jorg, Raargh-Sergeant n.o.ble Hero," the human told him. "My deputy is called Jocelyn. If you will give us leave, I will go and try to keep order as I may. I am leaving a guard of twelve of my men at the gate under my orders. They are armed and are instructed to keep other humans out."

Raargh-Sergeant did not know if it was competent for him to give the humans leave now, but it hardly mattered. He made a dismissive sign with his tail, and the humans withdrew, Jorg with many an uneasy glance over its-his-shoulder. It is easier if you think of it as "him." It is easier if you think of it as "him." Raargh-Sergeant watched the human out of sight, and the human "guard" deploy, then he turned and limped stiffly across the parade ground to the barracks. Raargh-Sergeant watched the human out of sight, and the human "guard" deploy, then he turned and limped stiffly across the parade ground to the barracks.

Circle Bay Monastery had been taken over by the kzin forces in the last days of the war. Most of its humans had fled and though a few "monks" lurked in cellars and remote rooms, it would have been a rash human who without authorization had shown himself before a kzin there in the last few days.

But few remained of the kzin garrison now, and all of these were more or less seriously wounded or disabled, cl.u.s.tered into what had been the Sergeants' Mess. He reviewed them as he entered.

Lesser-Sergeant, the closest thing to a friend that one in his position could allow himself; First and Second Section-Corporals, both badly shot up; Trainer-of-Strong-Muscles; Guardian-of-Stores/Fixer-of-Small-Weapons; a junior doctor, almost helpless without either his equipment or his natural forelimbs; an orderly; and two infantry troopers-one of them his personal servant and groom, an old sweat whose reflexes had long ago slowed too much for front-fighting-the other half-conscious, leaking blood and serum and twitching from some head wound that would be fatal soon if he could not be taken to a fully-equipped military doc.

The place resembled a hospital save that in normal times a hospital would have had proper medicines, treatment facilities and better prostheses as well as regeneration tanks and machine-doctors. As it was, it looked like a first-time soldier's bad dream of what might happen to him. As well as what were mainly crude and temporary field prostheses, meant to be fitted in actual battle conditions to keep Heroes in action, Junior Doctor had a few primitive salves and dressings, some commandeered from the human monks' "infirmary." Presumably the salves were effective for Heroes. Perhaps Junior Doctor had tried them on himself. His eyes were violet with pain.

The nine fully-conscious military kzin had fourteen eyes and twenty-five natural limbs remaining between them. But they stood like Heroes, as poised for action as might be. Whiskers were keen and quivering and some even managed to hold their tails jauntily.

There were also a pawful of kzinti civilians: a trainer of kzinretts, a couple of Computer Experts, a Trader with an annoying cough, a very young and evidently orphaned kitten, still spotted and milk-feeding, that Junior Doctor had managed to sedate and was now sleeping on a nest of cushions, the ancient, near-blind Bursar of the Order of Conservors-flotsam of war. The place had been designated an a.s.sembly area for civilians as things had fallen apart elsewhere but few had made it: kzin fighting spirit and poor administrative ability had seen to that between them.

In no kzinti eye was there a trace of fear, and every one of them, soldier and civilian, still had his wtsai wtsai. All looked mature enough to preserve self-control, though all, he knew, would fling themselves against the humans at his order. But the battle car would not have taken us far into the monkey lines But the battle car would not have taken us far into the monkey lines if we had ridden it into a last attack, if we had ridden it into a last attack, Raargh-Sergeant thought, looking at them. Raargh-Sergeant thought, looking at them.

The insurgent humans were no longer fighting, as the ferals had in the old hill campaigns, with an a.s.sortment of makeshift and captured weapons. Though the Wunderlanders were increasingly running riot, and Markham and other feral leaders were said to have landed from s.p.a.ce, more and more of the human infantry were regular UNSN troops with heavy battlefield weapons, armored vehicles and plentiful air support.

In its last major battle, their own regiment had gone in almost entirely on foot, its transport destroyed by air attacks. These few had survived by chance, and by Hroarh-Captain's decision, when command had recently devolved upon him, to keep a small garrison of the least battle-fit at the monastery to protect what civilians and loyal humans they might. Hroarh-Captain was probably the regiment's last surviving officer: kzinti officers always led their Heroes into attack, and the UNSN had been pouring in supplies of precision-guided weapons.

A few traces of the room's brief service as a Mess were still to be seen. There were the acc.u.mulated battle trophies of years-rings of dried kzinti and human ears donated by famous Heroes, stuffed humans and pieces of humans who had put up memorable fights, and bits of armor and weapons, various skins, the wtsai wtsai of old Krawth-Sergeant mounted in a translucent block, a silver-inlaid jar of Chuut-Riit's urine, presented after the second battle of the Hohe Kalkstein, the drum. Dried Morlock heads from the great caves like fanged brainless parodies of men. A mural on one wall showed a Hero rampant, locked in battle with a troop of humanoid monsters, hind claws dug into a heap of simian corpses. of old Krawth-Sergeant mounted in a translucent block, a silver-inlaid jar of Chuut-Riit's urine, presented after the second battle of the Hohe Kalkstein, the drum. Dried Morlock heads from the great caves like fanged brainless parodies of men. A mural on one wall showed a Hero rampant, locked in battle with a troop of humanoid monsters, hind claws dug into a heap of simian corpses.

There were even two live humans-the Mess-slaves, shivering and terrified.

There were still distant sounds of bells and battle here. No business of ours, Hroarh-Captain had said No business of ours, Hroarh-Captain had said. The ancient walls of the monastery were thick, but pierced as they were by many doors and windows, and damaged further in the recent fighting, they made a poor defensive position. There was no point in thinking about that. There was, There was, Raargh-Sergeant thought, Raargh-Sergeant thought, little point in thinking about anything. little point in thinking about anything. Thought might too easily lead to despair, madness and the neglect of Duty. Thought might too easily lead to despair, madness and the neglect of Duty.

He signaled a slave-a servant servant-to bring him his usual bourbon-and-tuna ice cream, but knew he must resist the temptation to drink himself into oblivion.

There was no power for the Mess television-not that many had wanted electronic entertainment there anyway-and the official communications channels seemed to be blocked or disabled, but he felt he should see what was happening.

He crossed the courtyard, signing to the human guards that they need not prostrate, and headed down the crooked alley running between the straggle of huts outside, one of which advertised itself as an internet cafe.

The monastery was situated in rolling meadowland, high on the lip of an ancient meteor crater. Once the humans had raised herbivorous animals on its pastures and vegetables in its gardens, but in recent years, until the Patriarchy had commandeered it, a great straggle of refugee huts had grown up about its walls and fences. These were burning in several places now, and with the heaps of wreckage and refuse and with the smoke of their burning mingling with the smoke drifting from the burning city it was hard to see far.

Any live humans around kept well out of sight. A pair of dead ones lay by a stoop, fluffy white Beam's Beasts already cuddling into them. The blue-eyed, poisoned-fanged vermin had been multiplying in and under the maze of human shanties. Greasy patches nearby littered with acid-corroded bone fragments showed they had been busy for more time.

The internet cafe itself was an older, more substantial and cleaner building, one of the original monastery outbuildings, standing on a slight rise of ground.

As he entered the cafe he was glad, not for the first time, that the mealy smell of humans was odd rather than repulsive, for it was strong here, but in any case he took it for granted now.

The cafe, he noticed with some surprise, for he had not entered it before, had both human and kzin-sized chairs and keyboards which combined human letters and the claw-mark-derived Kzinti alphabet, with layouts for either five small thin or four short ma.s.sive fingers, though several of the chairs were overturned and the building itself was empty.

Kzin warriors and Heroes would never deign to mix with monkeys on such terms, even if they made pets of certain individuals, but not all kzinti were warriors and Heroes, especially not some of those who cared for thinking machines. Perhaps, he realized, some kzin Nirrrds Nirrrds had come here and mixed with monkeys to escape the casual persecution (which could be lethal) of fighting Kzin. had come here and mixed with monkeys to escape the casual persecution (which could be lethal) of fighting Kzin.

The Net itself could not be knocked out by any single blow and there were evidently either cables or some satellites left operating, for some screens still displayed. He sniffed warily for b.o.o.by traps, and used the basic energy and poison detectors from his belt, but could find nothing. Even a one-eyed kzin's sight was sharp for monkey tricks, but who could tell how a computer was wired? Live in fear of b.o.o.by traps and you'll do nothing now Live in fear of b.o.o.by traps and you'll do nothing now, he thought. Danger could never be allowed to deter a Hero.

He took a kzin chair, positioning himself to face the door, and keyed in "News."

It was slow and there were few television channels functioning. One showed a ruined kzin security headquarters. Humans in the headdresses of their "police" were dancing before the camera. No, not dancing, he saw. The heads had been removed from the bodies and other humans were waving them on poles.

Another site showed humans, pink-naked, some leaking red circulatory fluid, cast by other humans into a cage at the Munchen Zoological Gardens. Then a vehicle drove up, doors were opened, and panic-stricken, yammering kzinretts were pushed in amongst them, slashing to left and right. Otherwise there was fire, death, buildings falling. On one television channel a short column of wounded kzin, some carrying others, shuffled away under a guard of human armored vehicles and troopers. On another were charred creatures of indeterminate species that had been too near a flash, laid out in a silent row. Other official sites and television channels simply showed the last official word, beneath a hologram of Hroth-Staff Officer and the sigil of the Patriarch: for troops, to rally and fight; for humans (programmed by loyal humans) to be calm, await instructions and do nothing to hamper the movements of defending Heroes. Cameras in the Serpent Swarm and on Tiamat told much the same story.

Some other netcams filmed gaping vacuum, one a room opening to s.p.a.ce where Heroes floated dead, branching trachea of their lungs protruding from gaping mouths. Monkey had a term for that, he remembered: they called it eeeting a Krisstmus-trreee eeeting a Krisstmus-trreee. There was a scene of the wreckage of what had once been a s.p.a.ceship's bridge, evidently a major warship, with more dead and decompressed Heroes drifting and tumbling. Was one in the ceremonial garb of Traat-Admiral? Another in that of the Chief Conservator? A monkey trick?

He keyed in various other sites: most were inoperable, or cameras showed signs of desolation, carnage or monkey celebrations. Another camera was transmitting from the bridge of a UNSN warship, clean, well-lit and fitted out, with uniformly-clad humans and bulging weapon pods visible beyond the ports.

More monkey clamor outside. He rose and advanced to the door, his hand not on his wtsai wtsai but not too far from it. If the monkeys were hostile and had guns, the but not too far from it. If the monkeys were hostile and had guns, the wtsai wtsai would make little difference. He flexed his claws, natural and artificial. If they were hostile and did not have guns, it would make little difference either. would make little difference. He flexed his claws, natural and artificial. If they were hostile and did not have guns, it would make little difference either.

The Jorg-human and the chief of the monkey priests were backing slowly up the alley. Jorg had a gun in his hands. A crowd of feral humans was advancing upon them. They appeared to have no modern weapons but were carrying clubs and stone missiles, some in a half-crouching position that suggested to him how their ancestors might have looked when they hunted on Earth's plains before some demon gave them lasers and reaction drives.

They set up a howling at the sight of him. He wondered if they might throw missiles. If so, anything other than a claw-swinging charge into them would be unthinkable. Nor, he thought, looking at them, would it necessarily be suicidal. One Hero, even knocked about, could take on more humans than this. Then he saw two or three humans in the first and second ranks of the troop were carrying half-concealed strakakkers. So it would would be suicidal. Well, that made little difference where honour was concerned. be suicidal. Well, that made little difference where honour was concerned.

He dug his hind claws into the dirt, ready to scream and leap. They sensed his poise-humans of the third generation of the occupation of Wunderland tended to be able to read kzin body language-and became still. One human at the rear, who had been holding up something something on a pole, lowered it very quickly, too quickly even for Raargh-Sergeant to be on a pole, lowered it very quickly, too quickly even for Raargh-Sergeant to be quite quite sure what it was in the smoke-filled air. Then Jorg moved and the human growling began again. sure what it was in the smoke-filled air. Then Jorg moved and the human growling began again.

The monkey priest ("abbot" was the human word though like many human words easier to visualize than p.r.o.nounce), whom he knew and had played games with, was speaking to them, ordering them to disperse. As far as Raargh-Sergeant could gather, he was telling them to let things take their course, and not let violence now imperil the cease-fire or cause more humans to be killed.

"Do you think I I am a collaborator?" he was shouting. He had thrown back his dusty cloak to reveal some sort of ceremonial costume beneath, hung with monkey ornaments. "No! And well you should not! But I place these under my protection now!" am a collaborator?" he was shouting. He had thrown back his dusty cloak to reveal some sort of ceremonial costume beneath, hung with monkey ornaments. "No! And well you should not! But I place these under my protection now!"

"You have no power!" shouted one human.

"I do not believe your memory is so short, your grat.i.tude so small, that you do not remember what the monastery and my brothers did for you so recently. You took its protection for yourselves willingly enough a little while ago. I extend its protection, and mine, to these, I say!"

That evidently had some effect. Two other humans began to jabber urgently with the one who had shouted. He finally made a head-nodding gesture. There was silence again for a few moments. Then the troop began to disperse. "We'll be back!" shouted one. Raargh-Sergeant felt his dignity demanded he ignore the whole event. He walked to the abbot and Jorg as casually as the state of his legs would allow, aware of human eyes watching them from the shanties and alleyways. His spine crawled as he waited for the blast of a strakakker. But "Cease-fire," Hroarh-Captain had said. Where was Hroarh-Captain now?

"Things are getting uglier," said Jorg. It seemed an odd statement to Raargh-Sergeant, to whom no humans were beautiful. "Things are starting to break up fast."

"Time," said the abbot, "time may let tempers cool. It would hardly help to lose either of you now."

"They could have gone for you, too," said Jorg. "Whatever you did for them in the past-and I think I know more of that than I should!"

"I was aware of that," said the abbot. He turned to Raargh-Sergeant and made a gesture that was somehow an acknowledgement of respect without being a prostration, not good enough for a few days ago. "Neither of you may know," he went on, "but my predecessor enacted a scene very much like that in reverse, many years ago. Perhaps I had the easier part. But we might do well to get you behind some high walls. The next mob may not be refugees whom the monastery sheltered."

Jorg spoke urgently into his wristcomp as they walked. As they reached the monastery gates, a dun-painted groundcar with the insignia of the human police daubed on it appeared out of the smoke. The human driver got out, handed Jorg the keys and, before anything could be said to him, was gone, pelting off and disappearing down the alley.

"Another loyal servant of the Patriarchy and government," Jorg said, though it seemed to Raargh-Sergeant that his behavior could bear the opposite interpretation. "I'll do a patrol, round up those I can and bring them here. Thanks to you it's probably safer than anywhere else."

"You should be careful," said the abbot.

"I think it's a little too late for that," said Jorg, "and even a collaborator can have a sense of duty."

Three of the twelve humans who had been posted at the gate appeared to have gone, Raargh-Sergeant saw as they approached, but the remainder were still fallen in with weapons. They made the stiff, unnatural movements with them as the three approached which he realized were meant to be salutes. At least some of them did.

"Will you join us?" he asked the abbot. "We could play chesss chesss."

"Thank you, Raargh-Sergeant, but I think I would do better doing what I can to calm things here, while I still have a little credit."

Raargh-Sergeant lashed his tail in puzzlement. He thought he more or less understood the abbot's position in the human hierarchy-the kzin had their own priests although the military tended to respect the old warriors of the Conservor caste rather more. But he did not fully understand the ebb and flow of human authority. The abbot looked too old and frail, even by human standards, to make his authority stick, and he had no weapons, especially now when the human government seemed to be melting away. And how many loyal humans remained at the gatehouse? Nine? Or had another slipped away even in the last few moments?

He reentered the Mess and turned on the strategic tank-display. A specialized idiot savant, it was little more informative than the internet: a few orange patches of kzinti units surrounded by the green of human. But the human-kzin fighting seemed to be almost over.

Tail twitching, he paced and waited, watching the last of the orange lights die one by one, trying to remain coolly alert while closing his ears to the more distant sounds. He erased the Mess records, though they held little in the way of military secrets, and smashed the Mess computer, the only possible military a.s.set in the place.

He pa.s.sed out the last meat from the refrigeration unit, telling the others to make sure that the larger bones went into the excrement turbines. A last luxury A last luxury, he thought, and better disposed of before the monkeys see it and better disposed of before the monkeys see it.

He heard a vehicle in the parade ground and wondered if it was Hroarh-Captain back already. But it was Jorg, the human. He brought the car to a stop near the Mess door and scurried in, going down in a quick reflex prostration under the eyes of the kzin. A kzinrett and a male kit, a little older than the one already in his care, were squalling in the armored rear section of the car.

"Raargh-Sergeant n.o.ble Hero, I have brought two who may be sheltered here. I think the humans will kill them otherwise. I found them wandering. You have seen that there are gangs of feral humans . . ."

There was little to be done with the terrified female until she could be settled down. The kit was evidently not hers, since she let it be taken without much protest. Raargh-Sergeant's prosthetic arm allowed him to extract the youngster without mauling, and, held in a familiar grip by the scruff of the neck, it soon quietened to a low mewling sound, arms wrapped round Raargh-Sergeant's chest.

"They came from the direction of Munchen with a wounded Hero. The Hero placed them in the car," Jorg told him, "then a troop of armed feral humans swept down upon us. He placed these in my charge and went to delay the ferals while I got the car away. I did not see what happened to him."

But you can guess, Raargh-Sergeant thought. As I can As I can. "Why should the feral humans not follow them here?" he asked.

"I thought they would be safer here than anywhere else. The humans still fear to approach this garrison. And behold!" He pointed to the kit's markings, to the distinctive red-orange blazon showing through the juvenile rosette pattern on the chest and to the ear tattoos.

One of Chuut-Riit's! Raargh-Sergeant realized with a new shock. Not one of those who, so he had heard, had been involved in his terrible death, but one of a younger generation. Raargh-Sergeant realized with a new shock. Not one of those who, so he had heard, had been involved in his terrible death, but one of a younger generation. Perhaps the last of the Riit blood on the planet! Perhaps the last of the Riit blood on the planet!

And in my care!

"Say nothing of this," he told Jorg. "Get the car indoors and under cover." It was venting a cloud of fumes from a ruptured fuel line and would go no further without repairs. The kzinrett would have to be calmed. The Trainer could do that. Perhaps when she was settled she could be placed with the sleeping suckling. If she did not kill it, her nurturing instinct might take over.

"Courage, my brave one," he told the kit. "The Patriarch is watching you. Have you yet a name?"

The kit hiccuped and whimpered. "Vaemar," it said at last, staring up at him with huge eyes.

A nursery name, given by its mother and p.r.o.nounced in the Female Tongue.

"Vaemar-Riit!" he told it. He had no right to confer even partial names, let alone promote anyone to Royalty. But this reminder of its ancestry seemed to steady the kit.

"I can walk, Honored Soldier," it said, plainly unsure how to address the gaunt, scarred giant who held it.