Cat Karina (5 page)

El Tigre stirred in his sleep.

.… Yes, there had been talk of a raid, but it had been a small thing; just a few drunken True Humans stumbling down from Town, seventeen years ago. Chuckling, whispering, out for mischief, nothing more. The felina dwelling they chose was a vampiro tent right on the edge of camp. Inside was the newest mother and her four infants, all asleep. In time they would have been a matriarchal grupo to be reckoned with. Apart from one sickly baby they were unusually big children and the mother had been unusual too — with beauty, grace, swiftness and courage which had set her apart and destined her for mating with the finest man in camp.…

El Tigre, rolling over, uttered a small cry.

She’d taken three True Humans with her. Their bodies lay disembowelled, almost dismembered, nearby. Serena had paid for their lives. She was only marked on breast and thigh, but she had paid heavily, because after the remaining True Humans had had their fun they’d taken her sword — a fine thing of stone-chiselled iron-wood — and they’d driven it up her, killing her that way.

El Tigre awakened to a nightmare vision and spent a moment staring around the interior of his dwelling, reorienting himself in the first glow of daylight, telling himself that the horror had been a long time ago.

Now he arose and dressed, and walked out into the morning. People were stirring, turning the sun-ovens to catch the first rays. An aroma of broiled tumpmeat lay on the breeze. El Tigre, his stomach rebelling, strode towards the sailway track. Here was a scene of activity and in the shouts of felinos and the rattling of harness he hoped to lose the night’s memories.

Serena, transfixed.…

The southbound dawn car came into view, rumbling down the hill from Rangua Town. A carload of humans.… Almost without thinking, he’d bent down and picked up a large, jagged rock. The car drew level and he saw the saturnine Captain Herrero — certainly the least popular of the captains — eyeing him from the forecabin. Somehow El Tigre restrained himself and the car was past, lumbering away across the plain.

And his daughter Karina was rolling in the dirt, then standing and making a playful gesture to the receding deck crew.

Dropping the rock he seized her arm, jerking her towards him. Their eyes met, and a thrill of fear went through Karina; she’d never seen her father look so …
mad
, in an animal way, like a wounded jaguar finally taunted into attacking. And he, El Tigre — he saw in her face all the betrayal of years; all the timid deals made between felinos and True Humans, all the selling-out, lies and mistrust; the broken treaties, the skirmishes, the haggling over prices, the cheating and stealing. So long as people pretended to this sham truce, it would always be like this.…

Karina’s smile was gone, but her fear had faded quickly too, because she understood this huge person before her. He was not
loco
. Things had gone wrong for him again, that was all — and if he was going to beat her because of it, she couldn’t stop him. Her muscles tensed, she regained her balance and stood foursquare, prepared to do her best. Her hands were open, her fingers hooked.

El Tigre saw her expression change, and felt her weight shift into a fighting stance. He was looking into her eyes as her fear faded, and he’d seen that fear replaced by an understanding which, for an instant, caused rage to throb even more violently in his brain.

The girl is pitying me.…

Others arrived, moving into the perimeter of his rage. Idle spectators. And — not so idle — Teressa, Runa and Saba. They stood near, waiting for him to make his move, waiting to move themselves. They would not allow a member of their grupo to be beaten, not even by their father. So it was going to be a full-scale fight. Now he, too, moved into position. He would feint towards Karina and then take Teressa as she came in. Karina would be last, because she couldn’t be hurt, so she never knew when to stop fighting.

Karina, her eyes.…

And suddenly he found his mind dwelling on something which had happened long ago, up in the mountains.
He was lying on the forest floor and didn’t know where he was, or how he’d got there
. A girl had come up to him and said, “I am the Dedo. Don’t be frightened. You’ve come a long way, and you’ve been sick. You will never remember anything which happened before this moment. Now, come with me and meet the woman who will be your mate, and
remember her.
”

She’d taken his hand and led him among a system of interconnecting lakes and there, lying on the bank of the broadest lake, they’d found a girl with auburn hair. Although her eyes were open she seemed to be asleep. He’d looked a long time into those eyes, seeing something living behind them — not just a human mind, but something else — something … alien. “Go and make your life in the felino camp,” the Dedo had said, “and always remember this sleeping woman, whose name is
Serena
. Get out of this valley as quickly as you can, because your very presence unbalances the scales of nature here, and may result in your death.”

So he’d run, hearing a great crashing in the bush behind him. He’d lived in the felino camp, sired children there and become leader of his people. And when, some years later, Serena arrived, he’d loved her.…

Karina,
her eyes.…
They watched him with a life of their own.

They were Serena’s eyes, reborn in the daughter.

El Tigre’s own eyes filled with tears and he turned away, saddened and awed. He began to walk back towards the camp. Teressa, Runa and Saba moved away among the shrugleggers who shied and watched them with rolling eyes.

Karina ran to catch her father, and took his hand.

The morning meat car had stopped nearby and the crewmen had watched the incident with interest. One of them said,

“That’s a good-looking girl. And just look at the size of that male!”

“El Tigre and his daughter,” said another, knowledgably. “For a moment I thought there’d be a fight. She’s quite a girl, but she hates our guts. Funny, though — felinos hardly ever fight among themselves. They’re as vicious as all Agni, and yet they leave one another alone. They hardly ever challenge their own pecking order.”

“Like animals,” said the first speaker.…

So the two humans of the Third Species walked away holding hands, and there had been no victory, no defeat. They knew the strengths and weaknesses of each other, and they each had an inner knowledge of the value of each other to their people — and, possibly, to some other great Purpose .…

“I met a funny woman last night,” said Karina. “She told me some strange things. She was a True Human, and I needed to talk to the Pegman about her. I’m sorry, father.”

The lion of a man beside her, his temper soothed by her presence, growled, “I love you, Karina — always remember that. There is not much real love in the world. True Humans are murdering bastards, and it shames me in front of our people when you’re friendly with them. I don’t need to remind you what happened to your mother.”

Karina said quietly, “Don’t ever worry about my feelings for True Humans.”

They passed vampiros where women cooked, laying strips of tumpmeat on the blackened rocks of the sun-ovens, then aligning the concave hemitrexes so that they caught the sun’s rays and focussed them on the raw flesh. The felinas were slow and lazy, and they talked sleepily to one another as they worked, recounting stories of the night’s prowling and hunting-games. Soon they would eat, then drowse the rest of the day away.

El Tigre sat on the ground outside Karina’s vampiro while she cooked meat for him. Later the other members of the grupo joined them and, after a while, Torch. The young felino’s eyes burned with excitement.

“Last night, we told them, El Tigre!”

“Dozo told us, I thought.”

“No — all we need now is for Karina here to.…” His voice trailed away as he remembered it was El Tigre’s job to brief Karina on the seduction of Raoul, and maybe El Tigre had not seen fit to broach the question yet. He watched the girls with his hot eyes: Teressa, Runa, Karina and, well, Saba. It would be fun to mate with them. They lay around lazy and replete, and Karina’s tunic barely covered her hips. They were a prime grupo — suitable mates for the future leader of the camp.…

“Manoso doesn’t tell me what to do,” El Tigre growled.

“Eh?” Torch dragged his thoughts away from warm flesh. “Of course not, El Tigre!”

“Neither does Karina consort with True Humans.”

“What’s this?” asked Karina.

“Of course not, El Tigre! I just thought —”

“It’s a degrading thing to suggest of a girl such as Karina. A woman’s job is hunting and fighting, not wheedling secrets out of True Humans!”

Karina was fidgeting with impatience. “Hunting? The Examples forbid real hunting with a kill at the end of it. We only play. And fighting? We play at that, too.” She was now thoroughly awake again. “Father — let me wheedle secrets out of a True Human! It sounds like fun.”

“Ah, by the Sword of Agni,” grumbled El Tigre. “No!”

“But I want —”

“No!” Real anger flashed in El Tigre’s eyes, and Teressa’s and Runa’s eyelids cracked open in curiosity. Saba slept, snoring gently. “I will not have you associating with True Humans, neither with that crazy Pegman, nor with Captain Tonio or his son Raoul, nor with any other of that damned breed. You may think they’re weak, and you may hate and despise them now, Karina — but they’re crafty and you know little of their ways. Any kind of association could be dangerous for you. So long as I’m chief of this camp, you’ll stay away from them until the day comes when I give the word to attack!”

Raoul held onto the forestay and watched the sun burn off the coastal mist. He was a big boy for his age, and he had a grace and economy of movement — unusual in True Humans — which caused some people to regard him oddly, and to speculate behind his parents’ backs. And he was a dreamer, given to long solitary rambles in the foothills.

The
Cadalla
rumbled across the plain. She was a heavy car holding some forty passengers, heading north for Rangua, sails full of the morning breeze. The crewmen adjusted the lines in accordance with the cupped commands issuing from below, but there was little real work to do in this steady wind. In the distance Raoul could see a car approaching on the southbound track.

He indulged in one of his frequent daydreams, picturing himself in charge of the
Cadalla
in his father’s place, barking orders. He saw the leaves in a grove of trees brighten suddenly, as a gust of wind took them.

“
Ease the sheets
,” he whispered.

And the voice snapped from the pipe nearby, “Ease the sheets!” as his father, the alert Captain Tonio, anticipated the gust from his vantage-point in the car’s nose.

Raoul smiled to himself. He’d given the right order and saved the car from harm. The gust hit the car. There was a slight lurch and the lee wheels screamed against the guiderails, but the sails had been let out a fraction and the strain on the masts was eased. Nodding to the crew, Raoul descended the ladder to the main cabin. The passengers sat in two rows down each side of the tubular, planked hull. Some dozed, some stared out of the ports, others glanced at him. They all rocked to the rhythm of the car.

“
All is well
,” said Raoul to himself. “
We hope to be in Rangua by noon, given a fair wind.
” He ducked under the beam which supported the mainmast and entered the forecabin.

Captain Tonio sat there, eyes flickering over the scene through the open nose port. The wind blew in, swallowed by the
Cadalla’s
speed, ruffling his hair. A tall, austere man, he sat with knees bent to his chest, crouching forward, eyes slitted with concentration. He sensed rather than saw Raoul. “Everything in order on deck?”

“Fine, father.” Leaning against the bulkhead, swaying to the motion of the car, Raoul indulged in one of his favourite fantasies: The Rescue of Princess Swift Current.

The stories and legends of the sailways are many, dealing with every conceivable type of disaster. Simple songs were often woven around such incidents which would later be incorporated into the Song of Earth: that great History of Mankind which came into gradual being through the songs of the minstrels during the Dying Years. The story of Princess Swift Current would begin thus:

“The
Cavaquinho
flew away beyond her crew’s reclaim.

Her sails were stitched with cinders and her hull was forged of flame.”

The
Cavaquinho
was a small craft, but fast. Built a quarter of a century before Raoul was born, she was an elite Company-owned car specializing in swift transport of wealthy and important people. She had an unusual privilege: the signalmen flashed a special signal to other traffic when
Cavaquinho
was on the track, warning them to pull off into the next siding to allow the faster car to get by. Signalmen also flashed codes to each other, up and down the line, warning that
Cavaquinho
was in the vicinity.

As an added luxury the craft carried guards; huge decorated Specialists of uncertain genetic origin chosen from a remote mountain tribe, who swaggered about the deck with ironwood swords to deter any bandit grupo.

The minstrels sing of
Cavaquinho’s
last voyage, when she sailed south to Cassino Canton carrying the Lord of Green Forests, ruler of Portina Canton, and his daughter the Princess Swift Current, who was to be married to Lord Avalancha of Cassino.

The legend also mentions that the Princess Swift Current was already in love with a humble minstrel from Jai’a, although this detail is omitted from the later Song of Earth.

The car approached the Rio Pele estuary, passing through a heavily-wooded region. Without being told, the crew sheeted in the sails. This was standard practice in order to maintain speed in the more sheltered airs of the forest. Far above the car, the treetops danced in a fierce gale.