Ratha's Courage

by Clare Bell

  The crackle-hiss of the Red Tongue found its way into Ratha’s dreams. Her creature’s light and warmth were there as well, but so, too, were the charred remains of those her creature had slain and the harsh taste of their burned corpses as she had to drag them away. . . .

  She woke with a sudden start. The horror vanished, but to her surprise the sound, light and smell of flame remained. She blinked, leaning toward the fire. It was real.

  How . . . ? Amid the smoky scent came Thakur’s smell. She turned her head, looking up at him.

  “Night-who-eats-stars. I found him. He got away, but left this.”

  Ratha narrowed her eyes, suspecting that this wasn’t the whole story, but the look on Thakur’s face said that she would have to coax hard to get any more out of him. A male Firekeeper came with Bira’s treeling on his back and a load of wood in his mouth. He tended the fire while Ratha tongued her paw and scrubbed away sleep from her eyes.

  Watching the Firekeeper and the treeling go about their duties was a comforting sight, especially when the Named way of life had been so badly damaged. Cub-mews made her look back over her shoulder to where Cherfan and Mondir were feeding the litterlings. One cub scrambled over to Ratha and butted its head against her belly, seeking milk. She wished briefly that she could nurse them, but Khushi came over and swept the cub back to its littermates.

  “We’ve taken a few more stray animals,” he said. “The raiders seem to be ignoring our herdbeasts for now, but they won’t when they get hungry.”

  Ratha got up and stretched.

  “The first animals they’ll take will be our young face-tails, since those are their usual prey,” said Thakur from behind Khushi. “We should send a party to get the tuskers and any other beasts we can round up, clan leader.”

  He was implying that Ratha should lead the herdbeast rescuers, but she had other ideas. “First I want to go with Quiet Hunter to True-of-voice.”

  “Why?” asked Khushi.

  “Because he is the source of our problem. He exiled New Singer and the other young hunter males. If he took the renegades back into his tribe, they would release the other females and leave us alone.”

  Ratha heard Thakur’s hissing sigh. “I don’t think it will work, Ratha. Even if he does understand what you want, he can’t undo what’s been done.”

  After a good night’s sleep, Ratha was feeling feisty. “I think he can, especially with a little persuasion.” She paused. “Thakur, you and Cherfan lead the herders. Mondir, you, one of the Firekeepers, Ashon, Bundi, and Mishanti stay here and guard the cubs with the Red Tongue. Quiet Hunter, please come with me.”

  As she passed Thakur, he said, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” His fangs showed as he spoke, telling her he was annoyed.

  “You told me you didn’t want me to give up leadership,” Ratha answered. “This is the best idea I’ve had, so I’ve got to try it.”

  “Very well, but don’t expect much. I will meet you here at nightfall.” He left the cave, followed by Cherfan and the other herders.

  “Quiet Hunter, are you ready?” she asked the dun-colored, gold-eyed male. A lift of his whiskers told her that he was.

  Ratha chose two torchbearers to accompany her to True-of-voice, then set off with her party to speak with the hunter leader.

  She had brought the torchbearers to counter any challenge and was mildly surprised when none came. Everything seemed to be back to normal among the song-hearers. At her request, Quiet Hunter asked one to summon True-of-voice. Again, to Ratha’s surprise, the leader came, surrounded by a group of older males.

  Using Quiet Hunter as the intermediary, she told True-of-voice what she thought had happened, why it had, and what he could do about it.

  As she spoke, her irritation grew. She decided that now was the time to ask the question she had delayed.

  “How could you have let this happen, especially after we helped you and your people?” she had Quiet Hunter ask the hunter leader.

  She watched as the dun male conveyed her message with the singsong voice, smell-changes, touches, gestures, and the other means he had previously used. Ratha had to work to sit on her impatience. Why couldn’t he just talk?!

  “True-of-voice tells this one that his tribe has done nothing wrong.” Quiet Hunter turned to Ratha. “As for bringing the exiled ones back, he must not. The song told him what to do and for him it is right.”

  “For us it isn’t. Can’t you make him understand?”

  “This one will try,” Quiet Hunter said, but when he turned back to Ratha, there was defeat in his eyes.

  “Tell him,” Ratha said through frustration-clenched teeth, “that New Singer and that gang of his are hurting our females by killing their cubs and holding the mothers captive. It is wrong, and you must stop them.”

  Struggle as Quiet Hunter might, he could not get her meaning across to True-of-voice.

  “The song . . . I mean True-of-voice . . . does not understand how he has hurt your clan.”

  Ratha explained again how events had cascaded into the final damaging result. She tried not to snarl as she concluded, “You are hurting our friends because they don’t want to be captive or have their cubs killed or be forced to mate.”

  After a very long exchange, Quiet Hunter turned back to Ratha. “You must understand that for True-of-voice the song is all. To be alone behind the eyes, to be individual—the idea is beyond his reach. What an individual wants or needs means nothing to him, thus it cannot affect what he does.”

  Ratha hated the floating-off-her-feet feeling that was starting again. She wanted all four paws slammed down on solid ground.

  “Tell him that if he doesn’t stop his son from harassing my people, he will taste the Red Tongue,” she growled. “Or would he prefer a slash for a slash? For every Named cub that died, many hunter cubs would be slain.”

  “This one understands now how you feel,” said Quiet Hunter to her. “But such threats are of no use if he cannot understand what you want, or why.”

  Ratha hackled. “Don’t you understand, song-hearer? New Singer has my daughter!”

  Something hardened briefly in Quiet Hunter’s eyes. “I want Thistle back as much as you do. Attacking True-of-voice won’t help her.”

  Ratha’s temper was on the point of taking over and demanding that Quiet Hunter obey and translate the message. She wanted revenge for the suffering of her people. If True-of-voice had to kill New Singer to bring the renegades under control, so be it. If he didn’t do something, he would know the wrath of the Named.

  “The song is growing restive,” said the dun male, his ears flicking nervously. “We are not enough to challenge it. This one knows that if the song becomes angry, we will be killed. We should go. Please, clan leader.”

  She met Quiet Hunter’s gaze. He was asking her not to throw his life away, but whatever she decided, he would do. Then came a flash of memory. The canyon. The firestorm. The dead.

  It took nearly all of Ratha’s will to round up her surging feelings and pen them away. It would do the Named no good if she, Quiet Hunter, and the two torchbearers were slain.

  “You are starting to sound like Thakur,” Ratha grumbled, and grudgingly told the two torchbearers to turn around. With Quiet Hunter following, she turned away, taking the path back to their streamside refuge.

  Brooding, she waited by the fire for Thakur and the herders to return. She extended her claws and ran her tongue along her fangs. There was a time when leading a charge with the Red Tongue between her jaws could sweep all problems aside. That time had gone.

  Near sunset, Thakur, Cherfan, and the herders returned with the young face-tails, a few three-horns, and some dapplebacks. She wasn’t surprised that the renegades had eaten a few herdbeasts. She wondered why they hadn’t killed more.

  “They are more interested in mating than eating. They want to be there when the first female comes into heat,” Thakur told her. He paused. “Quiet Hunter tells me that you wanted to threaten True-of-voice w
ith fire, but you held off. I am grateful for that, clan leader.”

  “Be grateful to Quiet Hunter. He counseled me just like you would.”

  “Was it just Quiet Hunter?”

  “No,” Ratha admitted. “Just after I gave him the order, I thought about the fire-slain hunters in the canyon. It was brief, just a flash, but it was enough to make me hesitate when he resisted my order.” She laid her nose on her paws. “It will be a lot harder for me to use the Red Tongue against others. Every time I think about it, I get that taste in my mouth, that smell up my nose, and I see how those burned bodies fell apart. And that dead hunter up that tree . . .” She shuddered. “I hope this doesn’t . . . cripple me as a leader.”

  “I think you will just seek other alternatives.”

  “What worries me is when there are none.”

  “Then you will do what you must in spite of your feelings. I have faith in that,” he answered.

  For a while Ratha was silent, staring at the fire. Her creature had such power to harm as well as help. “Did you find more grazing space?”

  “Yes. Those rumbler-creatures are useful after all. They’ve eaten down the brush and knocked over trees so that new grass is growing. There will be enough to feed the herd, at least for a while.”

  He sat down by the fire with her. She watched it shimmer in his emerald green eyes.

  Ratha felt her voice lower into a growl.

  “I wanted to kill their cubs, Thakur. Revenge for every Named litterling that New Singer slaughtered. I still do.”

  Thakur was quiet.

  “Revenge would feel good,” he said, surprising her. “My teeth ache to tear New Singer’s hide. I could even kill the hunter cubs, if you ordered. I saw how our litterlings died.”

  “Then . . .”

  “I can feel this way and not act on it,” he said. “I know that such revenge would destroy us. We value the light in the eyes. True-of-voice’s people have that light, even though it has taken a strange form.” His voice softened. “Retaliating by killing cubs will not only cost our lives, it will taint us and everything we are trying to be. I think you understand me, clan leader.”

  This time it was Ratha who fell silent. At last she asked, “What are we trying to be?”

  “I don’t know. I hope I get a chance to find out. And I hope that True-of-voice and New Singer get that chance as well.”

  “It seems so easy for you to forgive them.”

  He lay down beside her. “It may seem so, but I struggle as much as you do.”

  “Is that another kind of courage?” Ratha asked him as he laid his head on his paws and let the fire reflect in his eyes.

  “Yes,” he said. “It is.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ratha awoke the next morning, half believing that the return of the treelings and her creature was a dream until she felt Ratharee curled up against her flank and the fire’s warmth on her face. This refuge seemed like home, a thought that brought mixed feelings. No, home was clan ground. Home was also Thistle-chaser, Fessran, Bira, Drani, and the others. Ratha was determined to free them.

  First, she would get word to the captives that most of their cubs were safe. By using whisker patterns, she knew now that the Named had lost four litterlings. Fessran had five and two were killed. Bira and Drani had each lost one. Though the mothers would mourn their slain young, they would take heart to hear that most of the cubs were still alive, cared for by fathers. It would give the captives what they needed most—hope.

  Ratha thought about sending one of the Named with that message, but dared not. Any male who approached New Singer’s stronghold would be killed. She was the only female left among the exiled Named. Thakur would argue that losing her would imperil them even more, both as a leader and a breeding-age female.

  Did he really see the truth, or was he blinded by his feelings for her? Despite his words, she knew he could lead. Even if Cherfan became leader, Thakur would counsel and guide him. As for breeding, she knew she wanted only Thakur. Yes, she could accept another male and had, but somehow her body, shocked by what had happened to her first litter and her first mate, had never produced any more cubs. So she might not be as important in those ways. If she could help the captives and free them, she might be serving a greater good.

  She knew that she and her friends were fast running out of time. By the feelings in her body, she sensed that she and the other Named females were coming into heat. It could not be denied or delayed.

  Ratha knew the captives would be fighting the overwhelming urge to mate as well as the encroaching renegade males.

  My friends and my daughter won’t be able to resist. Or if they do, they will be killed.

  She knew that Fessran would certainly resist, turning into a spitting slashing fury. Bira, who had younger cubs, might not come into heat, but she would certainly be scared. In the commotion, a male might try to mount her. And Thistle-chaser . . . the first heat should be a time of joy, not . . . . Ratha buried her nose in her paws, unable to bear the thought.

  I wish we were like the witness Un-Named or the dreaming hunters who are spared anticipation or dread.

  Ratha knew she couldn’t choose anyone else for the task. She was the one who had to go.

  She flattened her fur, holding in her scent. She didn’t want the males to know how close she was to being in season. They didn’t need the distraction. She didn’t either.

  She surprised Thakur by agreeing to lead the next herdbeast roundup. The more animals they could secure, the better, since it would deprive New Singer’s renegades of easy prey and give the surviving cubs more food.

  Leaving Khushi and Mishanti to guard the cubs, Ratha assembled the Named males and led them down the trail.

  She kept her tail up and her step lively to convince everyone that she had recovered from the self-recrimination that had threatened to paralyze her. They, in turn, seemed to gain confidence as well.

  “We’ve been sneaking around, taking strays,” she told the group when they stopped briefly for a drink at the stream beside the rocky trail. “This time we are retaking what is ours. We’re going for the herdbeasts in the meadow.”

  The resulting yowling cheers were subdued but intense, to avoid alerting the enemy. Eyes shone and teeth flashed.

  Ratha’s party found the edge of clan ground open. New Singer hadn’t set guards on the perimeter. This at once encouraged and dismayed her. It would make recovering the herdbeasts easier. At the same time, was New Singer’s carelessness an indication that the renegades were already distracted by the mating fever?

  “I’m glad to see you feeling better,” said Thakur at her shoulder. Startled, Ratha skipped away. A rush of warmth ran through her, centering deep in her belly, making her head spin.

  Not now. Please, not now.

  She caught Thakur’s puzzled look and his tentative sniff, but knew she couldn’t stop to explain. She ran ahead, choosing a path where the wind blew her scent away from the clan males. She could just imagine the herdbeast rescue turning into a mating frenzy, the clan males suddenly turning on one another, fighting over her.

  Thankfully the clan males had spotted the herdbeasts and the meadow. Only a few sentries watched the herdbeasts. Before the guards could even roar, Cherfan, Mondir, Thakur and the others charged in and overwhelmed them.

  “Quick, before they alert New Singer,” Ratha hissed. Cherfan and Thakur surged to the front, leading the herders. Surrounding the animals, they nipped harshly at hocks and rumps to get the beasts moving. Hooves started to thunder, dirt spattered, grass flew. The mass of three-horns and dapplebacks tightened and began to flow out of the meadow. This was no usual roundup but a near stampede.

  Thakur was at his best, dodging and darting with incredible speed to keep the animals at the edge from splintering away. Cherfan’s and Mondir’s strength and ferocity made the animals in the rear sprint past those in the front. Ratha helped Thakur in keeping the herd packed while yowling orders to the herders and keeping an
eye out for New Singer’s minions.

  The enemy came, charging out from the direction of the fire-den, but they were slow and late. Most of the herd had poured out of the meadow and was streaming away over the borders of clan ground, urged on by the herders. Cherfan and Mondir threw themselves at the renegades, a note of joy in their roars telling Ratha that they welcomed this chance to strike back.

  Cherfan reared, belting down his attackers as if swatting half-grown cubs. He stunned them with body slams powerful enough to knock over a tree. Mondir landed on backs, raked shoulders, slashed flanks. Even Bundi kick-raked a bigger opponent, reddening the other’s belly.

  Ratha, impressed by the power of the attack, thought for an instant that her forces could sweep onto the fire-den itself and retake the heart of their land.

  No, there were too many raiders. Even as New Singer’s wounded fled from the fray, more raced to join them.

  Fearing that the tail end of the escaping herd would be cut off, and the Named with it, she yelled to the fighting males to leave their opponents and help Thakur break off the end of the herd. She and the herders turned the animals across the path of the oncoming enemy while the main mass of animals disappeared in a swirl of dust.

  New Singer and his gang were furious at having lost the animals and launched themselves at the clan males, but the Named had already sheltered themselves behind a wall of galloping three-horns, stripers, and dapplebacks.

  Throwing their heads and arching their necks, the animals shattered the front of the renegade attack. Enemy squalls choked into silence as several renegades fell under trampling hooves.

  Following the path made by the herdbeasts, the Named streaked through and ran after their animals. Seeing the results of turning the herd itself into a weapon, Ratha thought again of carrying the attack to the fire-den and rescuing the captives. If she could, she would spare herself the task of doing it alone. Weighing the chances of succeeding, she knew she didn’t have enough animals or enough herders to sustain such an attack.

  For now, she thought, as she sprang into a gallop that carried her swiftly away from the raiders, it was enough to have rescued the herdbeasts.