by Shannah Jay
Katia made a sign to everyone to shush and closed her eyes to concentrate. 'There's a fault in the rocks just down there,' she said. 'It runs back into the mountain from the fissure. I think I can weaken it enough to cause a small slide, enough to trap Quedras below for a while.'
Cheral stared at her, then exchanged glances with Herra, but said nothing. She had never heard of such a Gift before and she, of all people, knew each Gift and the history of its development.
'Benjan, Jonner, can you drive the cats in that direction?' asked Katia. 'Try to trap them behind those jagged rocks. Herra, release those you've stilled.'
A snap of Herra's fingers added two bewildered carnivores to the group of cats below them in the cleft, but they started creeping forward the minute she turned her attention away from them.
Jonner grinned at Quinna. 'Slings are better than swords for this!' he said pointedly and bent to pick up some more pebbles. Benjan seized some bigger chunks of rock and started throwing them, and the others grabbed any projectile that came to hand. Under a sustained onslaught, the cats retreated, snarling. 'Is that far enough?' Jonner called. Even though he had kept back from the edge that made him feel so dizzy, his slingshots had been by far the most telling, sending the cats back again. He threw a triumphant glance at Quinna, who spread her hands in a gesture of acceptance of his superiority in this.
'Stop throwing now and stand back!' Katia held out her hands imperatively to Herra and Davred. 'Lend me your support.' They grasped her hands and the three of them stood unmoving while Katia began a mental push against the underground rock fault which only she could sense. The earth rumbled beneath them and the cats started to whine.
'Here, it won't make us slide us away as well, will it?' Jonner demanded, moving right back towards the babies, just in case.
There was no answer. Herra and Davred were as still as statues, while Katia was muttering aloud to guide her efforts. Suddenly, she raised her hands, still holding theirs, and shouted, ' Now!'
The rumbling intensified, the ground tilted slightly and the jagged rock cleft below them slid sideways, taking a whole chunk of the cliff face away with it. From Quedras's group below came cries of panic and from the equally terrified cats came yowls that differed from the human shouts only in shrillness of tone.
Everyone on the cliff top clutched the nearest person, for the feel of solid rock shaking underfoot makes even the strongest fighter feel helpless and vulnerable. There was one more low rumble as a further piece of cliff face split away, then silence. Dust and small debris showered the group, but nothing large enough to hurt them.
Katia sighed and collapsed on the ground. It took Davred and Herra a moment or two to regain full control, then they knelt beside Katia.
'Is she all right?' Davred asked anxiously.
Herra felt Katia's brow. 'Exhausted. Drained. She doesn't use that Gift skilfully yet. It's a new one to all of us.' She stroked Katia's brow. 'She'll be very tired for the next day or so.'
Benjan came up to them. 'I think she's done what she promised and cut the cats off below us, as well as Quedras. Half the cliff side's gone and there's an even steeper stretch of rock below us now. I don't think anyone else will be able to take this route over the mountains for a while, not unless they hew out new steps or footholds for the last bit. But by the same token, we won't be able to go back, either.'
'Who wants to go back?' demanded Quinna.
Cheral knelt beside Katia. 'A new Gift,' she said in wonder. 'Our Brother is certainly travelling with us.'
There was an angry yell from below. 'Hey, you rrenegades!'
Quinna bellowed back. 'Hey yourself, Quedras, my lad. How'd you like that little trick, eh?'
'I damn well didn't! It nearly knocked us off the track.'
'We hoped it might slow you down a little.'
'What are you doing rrunning off with them, Quinna? I didn't think you'd rrenege on your oath and desert us!'
'I just feel like a bit of travel, Queddie. Want to see the world outside the Rims. You should try it yourself sometime.'
Herra left Katia and went over to join Quinna at the vantage point. 'I warned you not to try to stop us, my friend! This is a God-given Quest. But we all thank you for your past kindnesses and wish you luck with your farming.'
'You were lucky there was an earthquake just then, crrazy woman! I'd have caught you, else,' he roared back.
Quinna leaned forward again. 'That was no luck, Quedras, that was done on purpose by magic.'
'Hey, what do you think, Quinna - that I'm as stupid as a new-born rock rat?'
'No. But you know what these folk are like. They cured Querilla, didn't they? They cured the sand madness, too. Well . . . didn't they?'
'Yes.'
'And that rockslide was deliberate. I saw them myself moving the earth. What they said, they did.'
There was a moment's silence, then, 'Swear that on your sword!'
'By my sword, I swear it, Quedras. May Quequere strike me dead if I lie to you.'
His only reply was a volley of colourful oaths.
There was a long silence from below, then Quall's voice floated up. 'We're going back in a minute or two. I wish you luck, Herra, everyone.'
'Thank you, my friend.'
Quedras wasn’t as magnanimous. He yelled up, 'If I meet you again, Quinna, you'd better watch out for yourself. I'll keep my sword sharp.'
'You've not beaten me for years. Who'll you get to practise with now that I've left?'
'I'll find someone. And as for you, Herra, you crrazy woman! I didn't think you'd be so ungrateful as to desert the people who saved your lives.'
'You always knew we were vowed to our Quest.' She looked down in surprise as she felt moisture creeping over her feet. Water was welling up from a crack in the rocks. She moved back a few paces.
Quinna came over to join her. 'Hey, that's water! On Drymouth Ridge! Did you magic that, too?'
'No.' Herra cupped up some of the water in her hands and tasted it carefully. 'It's beautiful! Try some.' She watched as the water began to gush out of the ground more quickly, making a pool in the hollow where they were standing.
As they all retreated to higher ground, the water rose swiftly until the hollow was full, then rolled silently down the slope towards the cliff, where it fell over the edge in a fine spray that soon became a miniature waterfall.
A series of yells from below told them that the water had caught up with their erstwhile pursuers. Below Quedras's group, amber and beige forms were streaking down the mountain side, yowling and ignoring the humans in their haste to avoid the water.
Quinna chuckled. 'Those cats purely hate water! They don't see much of it up here.'
The humans below them didn’t immediately move away. They stood gesticulating at each other and pointing up at the ribbon of water. 'Hey! What did you do that for?' bellowed Quedras after a while, his voice bouncing faintly from rock to rock, so that his words seemed to echo along the valley.
'We did nothing,' Herra called back and, though she didn’t bellow, her voice carried clearly down the mountainside. 'It must be a present to you from our Brother the God. With this river, South Vale will become the most fertile place in the Sandrims. Did Quequere not say you would gain much by pursuing us, Quedras?
You'd better plan to build a large town down there, my friend! You'll be able to unite and feed the whole of the Sandrims, now.'
Quedras stood stock still, staring up at them, then he moved over to a trickle of moisture and held out his hands to catch some as it fell down the rocks. He tasted it, then moved backwards, trying to get a better view of the water. After a while, he shook his head, signalled to his group and turned away.
'Crrazy!' floated up to them. 'They're all crrazy. I give up.'
His band began to move more swiftly down the mountainside.
Beside Herra, the water gushed out of the ground ever more swiftly, widening the crack through which it had welled so unexpectedly and hurling itself eagerly
over the cliff's edge. On the lower slopes a silver thread of moisture trailed Quedras all the way down the pass.
CHAPTER 18 THE FOOTHILLS
What woke Katia was a faint mewling sound that seemed to echo through her head. She opened her eyes and stared muzzily around, pain throbbing at her temples. Where was she? As she lay there, she began to remember the struggle against the cliff cats and the way she’d sent the spur of rock crashing down into the valley. Had she really done all that? She sighed and put one hand up to her forehead, but she still didn’t feel like moving.
'Katia.'
She turned her head. 'Herra. Is everything - all right?' She still felt disorientated. She wished they would leave her alone.
'Yes, child. You lost consciousness once you'd loosened the rock.' A cool hand rested briefly on her brow and the throbbing pain stopped. 'How do you feel?'
'Strange and . . . ' Katia broke off as the mewling sound rippled through her head again. 'What's that?'
'What?'
'That sound.'
'I hear nothing.'
'Something’s crying. Something very young.' She sat up and waited for a minute until the dizziness passed, then tried to stand. 'Herra, I can hear it clearly. Something's in distress. Surely you can hear it, too?'
'No. I can hear nothing untoward. But that doesn't mean you're imagining things. Wait a minute. Let me help you to stand up. There. Now, when you have your balance, tell me where the sound is coming from.'
Katia gestured to their left and they both remained motionless and silent for a minute.
'I still can't hear anything, but I can sense some form of life in that direction.'
'I must go and help the poor creature. Perhaps it got trapped by the rock fall.' Katia struggled to her feet and set off across the rough ground, followed closely by Herra, who gestured to the others to stay where they were.
The sound was desolate, a young thing bereft of its mother. It brought tears to Katia's eyes. Without hesitation, she wove her way in and out of the rocky outcrops at the top of the cliff, then skirted a particularly large clump of rocks and stopped in amazement. 'Look!'
Under an overhang at the back of the jagged semicircle of rocks lay a kitten, only - Katia frowned at it - the creature was much too large to be a kitten. As they watched, it rose unsteadily to its feet and tried to snarl at them, but the effort made it tumble over again. It looked very sickly and thin, and its amber fur was matted and dirty.
'It must be the kit of one of those cliff cats,' said Herra. 'We can't leave it here to die of starvation. I'm afraid we'll have to put it out of its misery.'
'No!' Katia moved cautiously forward, chirruping to the kit, which stopped snarling to stare at her in bewilderment. 'Stay back, Herra,' she said very softly. 'Let me look at it first.' She slowed almost to a halt as she drew nearer to the untidy pile of soiled grass litter in which the kit was lying. It struggled to its feet and essayed a snarl. Again it failed to maintain its balance and sat down very suddenly, shivering.
Katia began to croon, a wordless thread of sound that made the kit hold its head on one side and whine at her in puzzled entreaty. She took one careful step after another, still crooning, until she was very close. Herra waited behind her, not daring to move in case she frightened the kit.
Katia held out one hand and waited until the wobbly head had sniffed it carefully. The kit sat back and mewled plaintively, as if to say, 'I don't understand!' but it made no attempt to attack her. Very gently, she stroked its head and the kit rubbed itself against her hand. Then it began to nuzzle her and she realised it was hungry. 'Herra, will you fetch me something for it to eat - some bread, perhaps, or some strips of dried meat?'
'Katia, we can't look after it. We'll have enough to do looking after ourselves.'
'Once it's better, it'll feed itself. See, it's lost its milk teeth. It's only illness that's making it so weak. While you're gone, I'll examine it. Perhaps - perhaps we could heal it.'
'But we don't heal animals.'
'I could never understand why not. They feel pain and suffer illness, just like we do.'
Herra stared at her in amazement. 'Surely it's obvious! We simply don't have the energy to spare. Healing is exhausting.'
'But we could help animals if we wanted to, couldn't we? I mean - it's possible.' Katia stroked the kit as she spoke.
'I suppose so. But what in our Brother's name would we do with this kit if we did heal it, Katia? And on a journey, too!'
Katia's expression grew stubborn. 'Love it. Help it. Use it to keep watch. Animals like this have much more acute hearing than most of us.'
Herra abandoned the attempt to talk sense to someone who was too soft-hearted for her own good and changed the subject to something which had been puzzling her. 'How did you find it? You must have extremely acute hearing, for I heard nothing, not even when we were close.'
Katia shrugged. 'I didn't hear anything, either, not really hear. I think I heard it in my mind. Is that possible?'
'Mindsharing?' Herra looked dubious. 'We have known limited forms of it between human beings - though only between those very closely tied by bonds of love, like you and Davred - but I've never heard of it happening between a human and an animal before.'
Katia continued to stroke the furry skull and the kit sighed, letting its head drop to the ground. 'Well, however it happened, I knew something was in distress. I knew it was crying for its mother. And Herra - I just can't leave it here to die. I can't! Besides, we're the ones who drove its mother away, so it's only fair that we look after it now.'
Herra shook her head and gave up arguing. 'I'll go and fetch some food. If it won't eat, then we'll have no choice but to - '
'It'll eat,' said Katia confidently. The kit made a snuffling noise and snuggled closer to her.
When Herra had gone, Katia made a careful examination of the festering wound on the kit's flank. Though it growled a little in its throat, it allowed her to handle it, but yelped as she touched the tender flesh around the wound. She continued to stroke its head and found herself moving instinctively into a healing trance.
'Fever fade! ' she murmured, using the words to guide her will. ' Kit be whole and fever fade.' She repeated the litany till she could feel the healing taking place.
Herra, returning with Davred, tugged suddenly at his arm. 'Look! Davred, look!'
They both stopped and stared at this, surely the strangest healing in the annals of the Sisterhood. The slight flickering aura around Katia was easily discernible if you knew what to look for and the surge of healing power was obvious to both watchers. They waited, motionless, until the healing was over. The kit now lay pressed against Katia, sleeping, its furry head cradled in her lap. The wound on its flank was pink with new flesh.
As the others approached, Katia whispered triumphantly, 'Did you see, Herra? It's very similar to healing people.' Her face was radiant. 'And Herra, I'm sure that our Brother doesn't object to my helping injured creatures.'
'I'm sure he doesn't.' Their Brother's Gifts could not be denied and they’d all long recognised Katia's empathy with animals.
She continued to stroke the bedraggled fur. 'She was feverish, poor little thing, a scratch that had taken an infection.'
'She?' queried Davred, smiling.
'Yes, the kit's a she. She'd have died if we hadn't been here. She'll be weak for a day or two, then she'll be all right again.' Katia sagged suddenly. 'And I'm going to need a good long rest as well, so the kit won't really be holding us up. I'm afraid I've tired myself out again, Herra.'
Davred moved forward to put his arms round his wife, who was looking strained and weary. 'Katia, your heart is too generous for this world.'
Katia smiled and the glance that they exchanged was as warm as any embrace. 'Or perhaps the people of this world haven’t yet learned to be generous enough with their fellow creatures,' she said quietly. 'Those of the Serpent follow the path of cruelty. My path is, perhaps, too gentle, and is before its time, but I must f
ollow it. Perhaps I can help point the way for those who will follow me. All creatures share life's energy. All are part of the universal soul. As they start learning not to kill, we of the Kindred shall help them follow new turns in the path.'
They all stood quietly for a moment or two as a soft breeze ruffled their hair. Katia's words seemed to echo and re-echo around them.
'I think that's your first prophecy, Katia,' Herra murmured, still caught in the eerie disorientation.
Once the vibrations of the strange energy that always accompanied a prophecy had faded, it was Davred who turned to practicalities - the two Sisters seemed still to be listening to distant echoes. 'Will the kit wake up and snap at me if I try to carry it? I think it'll be all you can do to carry yourself back to the place Quinna’s chosen for a camp, my Katia.'
'I'll still the kit lightly.' Herra dragged herself back to the present and accepted the addition to their group with a wry shake of her head.
Katia and her protégée slept until late the next morning, then both woke simultaneously. The kit, suspicious at first of anyone except Katia, lost most of her aggression when these strange creatures produced food - albeit food such as she’d never tasted before. Still, food was food when you were ravenous, so the bread was wolfed down, the water lapped up from its bowl and the strips of dried meat disappeared with a few snappings of the kit's strong jaws.
Under Katia's guidance, everyone took it in turns to feed the kit, until she grew to know them all and would accept food from any of them. But it was Katia to whom the kit turned when she felt drowsy, Katia near whom she must sleep, and failing Katia, the twins and Lerina, whom she allowed to roll against her and grab fistfuls of her soft amber fur.
'Hey, what you gonna call her?' demanded Quinna, on the second day, chuckling to see how quickly the kit gobbled down the food she had just brought.
Katia stared at the kit, who stared solemnly back as if she knew she was being discussed. Again Katia had the feeling of mental communion with the creature. 'I think she already has a name. It would translate, as near as I can phrase it, as Nimble-on-the-Rocks.'
