Cat Karina (30 page)

“Come on, Tonio,” she said, suddenly more gentle. “You’re not yourself. It’s the reaction. The humidity. Come —”

She broke off, staring.

Tonio had picked up one of the fish. It had been dead for a couple of hours and it was stiff. He clutched it in his fist with the head uppermost.

He regarded it thoughtfully.

Astrud was still. Raoul was still. The forest was silent.

Tonio put the head in his mouth and bit it off, with a crunch, just as though he was eating a stick of celery.

Astrud screamed.

Blood trickled down Tonio’s chin as he chewed, watching her vacantly. He took another bite, stripping flesh from the backbone. He chewed with his mouth open. His teeth shone crimson with blood while his tongue rolled a wad of flesh and bones.

Raoul uttered a bellow of despair and ran, pushing his way blindly through the undergrowth.

“Listen.… What’s that?” said Karina.

Away to the left they could hear a crashing as a heavy body plunged through the forest.

“A tapir,” said Enri. “There are lots of them around these parts. They get scared by a noise, and they just run off into the bush.”

They heard a woman’s voice; a low, breathless sobbing.

“Tapir, huh?” said Karina. “Come on. This way. She’s headed back to the signal cabin.”

“Just Astrud?” The Pegman stayed where he was. “She’s not so important, is she? Tonio’s still up ahead. He’s the one you really want.”

As Karina stood irresolute, staring this way and that into the dense foliage, she caught sight of movement. “Quiet.…” she whispered, and began to creep forward, one careful step at a time.

There was the flick of a black cloak, half-seen. Karina crept on, her heart pounding, her fingers hooked into talons. It was Tonio — it had to be. It was too tall for Astrud. A twig snapped under her foot and she swore under her breath; but, a moment later, she saw the quarry again, crossing a clearing where water flowed.

On the ground beside the river lay some dead fish, one of them half-eaten. “See this?” she said to the Pegman as he hurried up. “They’re eating meat, now. Hunting, kindling the Wrath of Agni — it shows the kind of things True Humans will do, when they think nobody’s watching.”

“I’m a True Human,” Enri reminded her, not for the first time.

Now Karina began to run, plunging through brush which slashed at her legs, climbing rocks, clawing her way up through the jungle and wondering at her quarry’s speed. She climbed on, the Pegman puffing behind her with no pretence at stealth, and emerged into, sudden sunshine.

She was standing on a ridge of short grass and rocky outcroppings which marked the northern boundary of the valley. Fifty meters away the cloaked figure stood in the sun.

And between Karina and this figure lay a ravine with sheer walls, a hundred meters deep.

She stared. “How …?” It never occurred to her that there might have been two cloaked figures and the Dedo, calculating happentracks, slipped away unseen.

The Pegman uttered a wordless exclamation.

The figure was turning round, slowly, to look at them. The cloak fell away from the face, and the sunlight shone on pale skin, jet black hair. It wasn’t Tonio.

It was the handmaiden.

The sun lit the eroded fissures of her burned face and the wind caught her hair, lifting it. Karina’s eyes narrowed as the light seemed to intensify painfully — and suddenly the handmaiden was beautiful. Karina couldn’t see the Marks of Agni any more; only the eyes and the oval outlines of the face; the tall, slim figure and the lifting hair.

And the Pegman was shouting a name, over and over.

“Corriente! Corriente!”

Astrud ran. She blundered through thickets, flung herself across streams, and burst out of the jungle onto the slopes of the ridge. Her mind was afire with horror and disgust. Every rock, every tree was Tonio, his face an animal’s face as he munched raw flesh, snorting with gratification. She stumbled up the slope and down the other side, falling several times, picking herself up and plunging on, scratched and bruised, the heat burning the strength out of her.

She had to get back among real people.

She would pick up a few things from the cabin, then follow the track down to Palhoa. She stumbled on, reached the cabin at last, threw herself at the ladder and began to climb.

The ninth rung split.

She fell, seeing Tonio’s face in the ground as it rushed up to hit her. Later she climbed again, dragging herself up with arms shaking from the effort, one leg almost useless. She crawled across the cabin floor, caught hold of the control arms and pulled herself to her feet. Holding onto her last glimmer of consciousness she worked the arms, catching the sun’s rays in the battery of hemitrexes, directing the beam downhill, noting the way the jungle shadows brightened and following the line until she was sure the people in Palhoa must see the distant blaze of light.…

She fell to the floor, and prayed that someone was looking her way. Some kindly mountain-woman, long-necked with head held high, her eye caught by the sudden glare.…

Much later she awakened. It was almost dark.

Somebody, something, was in the cabin with her.

“Tonio …?”

“Rest easy for a moment. I’ve almost done.”

It was a woman’s voice.

“What … what are you doing here? Where’s Tonio?”

“You can stand now. Your ankle was badly injured, but I’ve healed it.” Leitha slipped a smooth stone into her pocket and helped Astrud to her feet. “You signalled the village. You shouldn’t have done that. It introduces new factors and creates new happentracks. You’re not very rational, are you? I have to get you away from here. There is a need for you in the Ifalong.”

They walked. The forest was waking up for the night. Astrud’s leg felt good and she found time to wonder at the healing powers of this strange girl; then her mind clouded over. This was the woman who had taken Tonio away from her.

“Why did you do it?” she asked.

“Don’t talk. It isn’t safe to be out, tonight. There’s an imbalance.”

They descended the ridge into the secret valley and it was very dark among the trees, and the animals seemed to be all around them. Astrud started as a tapir, head down, burst from the undergrowth and pounded so close that it brushed her in passing. She waited, shivering, for its pursuer to appear. Leitha drew her on, and soon they were fording a stream.

“What’s that?” There was a big shadow on the bed of the stream, and for a terrified instant Astrud thought it was a cai-man, about to snap at her.

And Leitha said, “Torpad.… He’s just a big fish.”

Later they reached the stone cottage. It was empty and weirdly illuminated, and again Astrud asked, “Where’s Tonio?”

“He’s been helping me restore the balance.”

“Balance?” Astrud was intimidated by this cold, self-possessed girl. It was quite obvious, now, that Tonio had not been involved with her in any romantic sense. This girl had never had a man, and never would — although she was quite beautiful in an icy way. Astrud had misjudged Tonio. In a moment she would find him, and apologize to him.… “Tonio’s coming with me. We’re leaving.”

“Well, that’s possible, on certain remote happentracks. But very unlikely. The chances are, you will die.”

The cold eyes watched her.

“I’m getting out of here!” Astrud ran for the door, suddenly terrified in a mindless way, in the way of a hunted animal.

“You’ll only hasten your own end,” the Dedo called after her.

So Astrud ran into the night and stood there for a moment, heart pounding, looking this way and that. She didn’t know where Tonio was, but she knew she must find him quickly. They had to get out of this valley, away from the threats of this girl. She called his name, listened for a reply, but heard only the sound of night hunting.

“Tonio!” she called again.

There was a bright moon above and she could see well enough to discern a trail leading downhill. She thought it was the one she’d come by, but she couldn’t be sure. Had she been in the cottage for long? She broke into a run. She didn’t look back.

Leitha was watching her from the doorway; watching and calculating, because that was her Duty. She weighed predator against prey, scavenger against carrion. She considered the grass, and the deer. Her mind dwelt briefly on the ants and the anteater, the tapir and the rainfall. She listened to the wind and the birds, and the sound of Astrud’s retreating footsteps.

She contemplated the Ifalong.

Astrud ran.

A jaguar killed a pacarana.…

Bantus lumbered through the forest. He ignored the deer which swerved in front of him, and he paid no heed to the tapir which he could hear browsing nearby.

Tonight was fish night.

The certainty was within his being, like a command which he couldn’t help but obey. He salivated, anticipating the flavor of fresh blood. There was a
rightness
about the night. He could sense a rhythm and a pattern, and his own place in it.

Something in his mind was saying:
Bantus — tonight is the night for Torpad
.

Karina had to physically restrain the Pegman from attempting to jump the ravine. There was a brief struggle until finally she pinned him to the ground, during which time the handmaiden disappeared.

“She’s gone, she’s gone. Oh, Corriente!”

“Is that the Corriente you’ve been talking about all these years?”

“That’s her.”

“But she’s cursed by Agni, Enri,” said Karina gently.

“Does that matter? I only have one arm, now.”

How can I kill that woman now?
Karina wondered. “I think we’ll find her easily enough tomorrow.”

The Pegman gave a faint smile. “After all these years.…” he murmured. “And now, Karina, if you’ll kindly get your pretty body off my old one, we can decide what to do next.”

“Oh.… Of course.” She stood, watching him warily. “Maybe we should go back to the signal cabin. Tonio may be there by now.” But the urgency was gone. It was late afternoon and warm here on the ridge. She sat beside the Pegman. “Who is this Corriente, anyway? Where did you meet her?”

“Long ago, before you were born, I met Corriente at the Tortuga Festival in Portina, to the south. I was playing a few tunes for the felinos, singing a song or two; while they were laughing at the idea of a True Human entertaining them. A few of them had been drinking and some things were said which were not really meant. I was thinking of moving on. Then Corriente came and sat beside me, and everyone was silent.

“Because she was beautiful, you see — more beautiful than any woman there, even the felinas. She sang with me, and afterwards we enjoyed the Festival together, the feasting and the dancing and the fun. Later, in the moonlight, we made love. In the morning she cried, and I thought it was because … well, True Human women sometimes do cry when it’s over. So I asked her to be my wife; and she said she couldn’t, because she had to marry somebody else.

Karina said, “True Humans make things complicated.”

“Maybe, but there are sometimes compensations — although not in my case. It turned out that Corriente was the daughter of the Canton Lord, so I was wasting my time. She went away the next day. There was just one moment when I might have had her. I sat on a mule beside Portina station and watched her and the Lord get aboard the sailcar and I
almost
.… She walked past me so close and her eyes met mine, and I
almost
reached down and caught hold of her.…

“And I
almost
rode off with her into the hills, and we almost built a little cabin up there, and raised crops and a family, and we almost lived happily ever after.” He smiled. “It was so close. All I needed to have done, was to reach out and catch hold of her.

“I’ve been trying to undo that moment ever since. You’ve heard of happentracks? Well, I
know
on many happentracks I rode off with Corriente. I could almost feel them there, right next to my life. I’ve been trying to jump across to one of those happentracks ever since.

“Maybe this time I’ve done it.”

The sun had gone down behind the trees. Karina said, “So you became the Pegman. What happened to Corriente?”

“She died — or so everyone thought. There was an accident to her car on the way to the wedding. They say a branch fell off a tree and jammed the sails. The car was struck by Agni and it left the track and fell into the river. They never found her body. It happened at Pele North Stage.”

And he looked at her, nodding slightly, as if to say,
Yes, yes
.…

She stared in growing amazement. “What was the name of the car?”

“
Cavaquinho.
”

“Oh.…” She was looking at him as though she saw him for the first time. “And so … Corriente must be.…”

“Princess Swift Current. Same words, but an old tongue.”

“
You
, Enri?
You?
That story — it’s almost a legend. One of the great sailway songs. You’re the humble minstrel from Jai’a!”

“That’s me,” He grinned in embarrassment.

“Mordecai!” Things began to fit together; old stories, odd remarks from Enri,
carrera
songs.…

“And now.… Here she is, in this valley. Those times I’ve heard you talk about the handmaiden, I never thought.…”

Uncertainly, Karina stood. Suddenly her vendetta was beginning to look small against the sweep of Time and events. All the same, it was getting dark, and the familiar restlessness stirred in her veins; the blood of carnivores from long ago.

“Well.… Let’s go and get that bastard Tonio anyway,” she said.

Astrud saw Tonio in the moonlight, face-down in the stream, and she thought he was dead. With a small scream of desolation she stepped into the water and knelt beside him. He lay very still, the water flowing past his hair and down his pale, naked body. His heels broke the surface, his arms lay along his sides.

Then she saw his fingers were fluttering.