Cat Karina (8 page)

In this way you will take a step towards living in accord with your world and the creatures in it, which will be a step nearer to the Example of the kikihuahuas, and the Will of God.”

In more simple terms, the Examples were translated by the irreverent as ‘don’t bash, bend or burn.’ Naturally, it was the humans of the first variety of the Second Species — the True Humans — who had appointed themselves keepers of the faith. Periodically they sent priests into the felino camps and onto the tumpfields, and even into the mountains, to ensure that the Word was kept.

So Astrud stood, ruffled Raoul’s hair — a thing he wished she wouldn’t do — and went downstairs to prepare the supper.

Tonight they were having early tortugas, baked.

The El Tigre grupo, minus Karina, had stalked Iolande’s grupo into the foothills. The huge sighing of the tumps hid any sound they might make. Above, the tumpiers dozed on their mounts; tiny human figures against the night sky.

“They went south, I think,” said Runa.

“I really think I heard them heading west,” ventured Saba breathlessly. She was having trouble keeping up, as usual.

“What can they be doing?” asked Runa.

“Poaching tumpmeat,” Teressa stated positively. “There’s been talk about this at the camp. Somebody’s been creeping into the fields at night and stealing slices from the tumps. The tumps can’t feel it and the tumpiers are asleep. Then in the morning they find fresh wounds.”

“I’m hungry,” said Runa. The talk of flesh was getting to her.

“Forget it, sister. We’re going to catch them in the act, so you’d better make up your mind whose side you’re on.”

“But raw …?” Saba was disgusted.

“It’s better that way,” said Runa with relish. “Haven’t you ever tried it? Cold and juicy and full of flavor.”

“Runa!”

“They frown on it at the camp, of course. They think if the True Humans ever saw us eating raw flesh, it would really convince them we’re animals. But so what? If it tastes good, eat it, that’s what I say.” Runa’s eyes shone in the moonlight.

“I think I can smell blood,” said Teressa. She sniffed the air and smacked her lips. “The wind’s from the east. That’s where they are — they must have circled behind us.” She swallowed. Her mouth was watering.

“Raw.…” said Saba thoughtfully.

“Hold it!” Teressa decided this had gone far enough. “Tonight we’re on the side of law and order, for a change. We suspect Iolande’s grupo is guilty of antisocial behavior, and we’re going to confront them.”

“Confront them?”

“Sneak up on them —” A vast sigh like the exhalation of a whale sounded from almost overhead, interrupting her “— and confront them. Point out how they’re cheating the whole camp — in fact how they’re cheating felinos everywhere, giving them a bad reputation with True Humans.”

“Personally I don’t give a shit what True Humans think of us,” said Runa.

“Well, no. But it makes us look good in front of our own people. I mean.… Torch will probably put in a good word for us at the next meeting. We have a few things to live down, you know.”

“Torch? To hell with Torch!”

The scene was set for one of those frequent clashes between Runa and Teressa.

“You’d better not say that when he’s heading up our grupo!”

“He’ll never head any grupo I’m a member of!” snapped Runa.

“You won’t have any choice in the matter, sister!”

“Who’s going to make me? You? Are you sweet on that swaggering goon, Teressa?”

“By Agni, I’m going to kill you, Runa!”

Runa sprang. Teressa sidestepped and Runa found herself clawing uselessly at the tough hide of the tump. As she turned, Teressa’s kick caught her full in the stomach and she dropped, the air whistling out of her.

“You’ll have to be quicker than that!” Teressa taunted her. “Torch is a big man. He’ll kill you on the first night!”

“Stop it! Stop it! shouted Saba. “I wish Karina was here!”

“What’s going on down there?” came a sudden shout from above.

“Now you’ve done it, you two,” Saba whispered. “The tumpier’s woken up.”

“Let’s get out of here.”

They crept away, Teressa supporting the staggering Runa who was having difficulty breathing; and headed east, downhill. Far below them the sea glittered coldly and the polished hardwood of the sailway showed as a silver thread across the plain. The wind was cold, and bore the strengthening scent of blood.

Suddenly, Runa fell.

Instantly Teressa was kneeling beside her. “Are you all right?”

“I’m … fine.” She tried to struggle up.

“No, lie there a moment. Saba! Go and scout out that smell. Don’t let anyone see you. Just keep your head down and find out what’s going on.” When Saba was out of earshot, Teressa said, “I wanted to say I’m very sorry I hurt you, and I’ll try not to let it happen again.”

“I … I.…” Runa gulped, snuggling her head against Teressa’s breasts.

“Tell me.”

“It’s so
hard
. The other grupos often have mothers or boys leading them and they know so much, and they just seem to run rings round us. I want us to mate well but Torch drives me insane, always creeping round father.… But he’s well thought of in the camp. I don’t know what to think.”

“Well, we’re well thought of too — you know that. We’re pretty much the top grupo of our generation.”

“A lot of that is due to Karina,” said Runa.

“So where is she now?” It had been annoying Teressa for hours. “A grupo should be together. That’s what grupos are all about. Suddenly she keeps going off on her own.”

“We all need one another, I think,” said Runa pacifically.

When Saba returned, she found Runa and Teressa curled up together like kittens, half asleep. “I’m glad you’ve settled your differences,” Saba said with some asperity, “because Iolande’s grupo’s down there feasting on a tump like they haven’t eaten for months, and if we don’t hurry up they’ll strip it to the bone and start in on the lumpier.”

Teressa stood, “Right. Runa, you circle south around that knoll. Saba, north through the gully. I’ll take them from the front — you’ll have to keep your head down; the moon will be in our faces. Don’t move in until you hear me yell.”

Saba said, “I wish Karina was here.”

Many years before, the handmaiden, then a young girl, had asked the Dedo, “What is the Purpose?”

The Dedo walked across the bare floor of the cottage and laid her palm against the Rock. Since the Rock gave access to most areas of the Greataway, it followed that much of the knowledge of the Rainbow could be tapped into. After a moment the Dedo nodded.

“You will need to know,” she said. And she told the handmaiden the story of Starquin, the Five-in-One.…

“Starquin passed near Earth a long time ago and, sensing that interesting events were going to happen, he decided to stay for a while. Life had begun on this planet, and life is always fascinating to an itinerant scientist such as Starquin. The small creatures walked on Earth, and the great land-mass of Pangaea was beginning to split into the smaller continents we know today. Starquin watched.

“Then he sent down extensions of himself — fingers, or
Dedos
 — in the form which is now known as the First Variety of the Second Species of
homo sapiens
. The Dedos had two purposes: to keep Starquin informed of happenings on Earth, and to attend to the Rocks, which are used for Greataway travel.

“So the Dedos watched Mankind develop. Civilizations came and went and finally a crude three-dimensional space travel was achieved, and humanity began to colonize the stars. Then, in the Cyclic year 91,702, over 250 million years after Starquin’s arrival, a crucial event occurred.

“A certain Captain Spring became host to an alien parasite, which she brought back to Earth. The details are unimportant, but as a result of this and other factors Mankind discovered the Greataway. He could travel in all dimensions now, even unknowingly stealing rides on the broad-band routes established by the Dedo’s Rocks. They called this the Outer Think. By this means, humans spread throughout the Greataway — and inevitably met their match. They came into conflict with the inhabitants of the Red Planet.

“The Red Planet had a Weapon against which humanity was almost defenseless — you don’t need to concern yourself with the nature of that weapon. But its existence forced Man back into his own corner of the Galaxy, and to protect himself he created a frightening group of pseudo-humans who became known as the Three Madmen of Munich. These creatures seeded the Greataway with the so-called Hate Bombs — an effective defense, because the Greataway is very fragile and travel depends upon emotions as much as dimensions.

“This kept the Red Planet’s warriors out. But it cut humans off from many of their colonies, too.

“And worse, it imprisoned Starquin in a small area some sixty light-years across.…”

The cabin was silent. The Dedo gazed at the play of light on the Rock. Outside, a coughing roar signalled the presence of a huge beast. It was getting cold. The Dedo walked over to the fireplace and did something; flames trickled over the surface of a small pile of kindling, smoke disappeared up the blackened chimney.

“That was almost thirty thousand years ago,” said the Dedo. “Starquin is out there still.

“Our Purpose is to work towards freeing him. To aid us in this Purpose, we have the resources of Earth. That’s all. It’s not much. But our knowledge of the Ifalong tells us it can be done.”

A quarter of a century later, the Dedo said to the handmaiden, “You saw her, then. She is prepared?”

“She is a willful girl, like all young felinas. But she has a strong sense of loyalty towards her race, and she will suit the Purpose.”

The Dedo said, “I hope so. She is the only chance Starquin has. I’ve monitored all the Ifalong and on just one happentrack I see a slender thread running through Time, carrying the seeds of
bor
through a thousand generations without a break, until a young man named Manuel is born. That is the happentrack we must bring about. That is the happentrack on which Starquin is freed.”

“What must I do?” asked the handmaiden.

“You must prevent Karina being killed by the caimen,” said the Dedo, whose name was Leitha.

“For how long must I guide her?”

“There will be a time when the conception and birth of John is inevitable,” said the Dedo. “Our work will be finished, then.”

 

Where True Humans and others
join the happentrack
on which Karina sails towards her destiny,
guided by the handmaiden.

 

“
To seek purpose in the millenia of human existence is as futile as asking God the reason for the tortuga.
”

— attr. to Ilos, 115,614C-115,701C

Karina crept through the jungle, following her quarry by scent as much as by sound.

It was strange to be alone. All her life she’d been used to the strength of the grupo; and now here she was, unprotected, following two True Humans into the secret recesses of the delta.

Why?

Because of her stubbornness. Because she was loyal to her people. Because she wanted to prove to her father that she was capable of looking after herself. Because she was sure there was something in the delta which the felinos ought to know about.

But basically because she was a felina, born to hunt but condemned by her religion to play hunting games — until now.

Tonio halted his horse before a group of mouldering huts near a tall fence of vegetation and spun silk.

“Wait here, Raoul,” he said, dismounting, “I won’t be long.”

“Can’t I come?” It was an unpleasant corner of the delta, and Raoul thought he saw monstrous things in those huts. Certainly eyes watched him from the shadows.

“I said wait. It’s Canton business — no affair of yours.”

Tonio paddled through the boggy ground, not allowing Raoul to see his own uncertainty and slight fear, and ducked into the largest hut. “Cocodrilo?”

A supine figure opened an eye, opened a huge mouth in a yawning grimace and hoisted itself off a low bed, standing in a threatening crouch. “Yes?”

“I’ve come to inspect the crop.”

“It’s not convenient.”

“Listen, I’m not going through all that again.” It was the same every year. Of all the humans of the coast, the delta people were the most surly, the most unobliging. But then, they had to be strange, to live in a place like this. “Open up the gate and let me through!”

Grumbling, Cocodrilo shambled to the gate, brushed away a cluster of black widows with his horny hand, and tugged at the fastenings.

Suppressing a shudder, Tonio passed through. The black widows looked as big as puppies, and they could kill. He hurried across the farm, seeing Siervo in the distance. His mood changed to pity as he watched the man, emaciated almost to the point of looking skeletal, digging away at an endless dyke like a man possessed. He remembered his own childhood when they’d tested him, breaking the skin and touching the wound with a smear of brownish venom — and he’d been sick for days. It was one of his clearest memories — everyone said the same. A child never forgot his black widow test.…

“I’ve come to see the crop, Siervo.”

Siervo hadn’t noticed his approach. He dropped his shovel with a small scream of fear, and stared at him, hollow eyes guilt-ridden. “What’s that? What’s that? What do you want? Who are you?”