“How do you suppose he got here?” Leroni asked.
“It doesn’t matter how he got here,” Leflin replied. “We can’t take him to the city. He could be dangerous.”
Leroni snorted. “He’s not dangerous. Look at him. He’s out of his mind.”
“All the more reason not to bring him in,” Leflin replied.
Leroni pushed herself up onto her feet. She turned around and faced Leflin. As soon as he saw her face, he pulled his head down between his shoulders. “What?”
“Are you telling me,” she growled, “you plan to leave a Lycaon who just happened to fall out of the sky in the middle of our territory free to go wherever he pleases? What are you going to tell Renier when he comes back, that you left this Lycaon out here, alone and unguarded, because you thought he was dangerous? Somehow I don’t think Renier will think that’s Alpha behavior.”
Leflin shrank even further under her flashing eyes. “I never said that.”
“You have no choice but to bring him into the city,” she told him. “If you honestly believe he’s dangerous—and you know as well as I do he isn’t—you can’t leave him free out here. He’s already crossed half our territory to get here....”
“That’s impossible,” Leflin interrupted.
“Either way,” she went on, “he can’t stay out here. If you won’t bring him in out of compassion, then bring him in to guard him. You have to stop him from roaming free over the other half of our territory.”
Leflin frowned down at the young man. “What did you say his name was? Sooss? What kind of a name is that?”
“I never heard anything like it,” she replied. “It certainly isn’t like any Lycaon name I ever heard before.”
He grunted in answer, but he didn’t go near the young man. He stayed behind Leroni.
“Maybe Anna can tell us what to do with him,” Leroni suggested.
Leflin glared at her. “What’s she got to do with this?”
“Her relatives are back and forth between the factions all the time,” Leroni replied. “Anna spent years with the Lycaon before she mated with an Ursidrean. Maybe she knows something about him.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” he countered.
“It’s worth a try,” Leroni urged. “She knows the Lycaon as no one else in this city, or even this faction, for that matter. She knows the Lycaon better even than Renier. She could take one look at this young man and tell us exactly who he is.”
Leflin straightened up, but he didn’t stop frowning. “I’ll take him in because I have to, but I’m not getting her or any of our people mixed up with.....with this.” He waved his hand at the creature cringing at his feet.
Leroni bent down and took hold of the young man’s arm. “You don’t have to do anything. I’ll take charge of him, and I’ll make sure none of our people has anything to do with him.” She started to raise him from the ground.
“What are you going to do with him?” Leflin asked.
“I’m going to take him to our apartment,” she replied. “I’m going to dry him off and warm him up. Then I’m going to give him something to eat, and a comfortable place to sleep, and....”
“You’re not taking him to our apartment,” Leflin snapped.
“Why not?” she asked.
“You just said you would keep him away from our people,” he told her.
“He will be away from our people,” she replied.
“He’ll be with our own children,” he pointed out.
“So what?” she asked. “He won’t harm them. I’ll make sure of that.”
“He could corrupt them with his influence,” Leflin exclaimed. “You can’t bring him around the children.”
Leroni let out an exasperated gasp and renewed her efforts to raise the young man from the ground. “For pity’s sake, Leflin, listen to yourself. He’s a helpless young man. He’s hundreds of miles from his home and his people, and he’s obviously suffering from some ailment. He couldn’t corrupt my pillow if he tried.”
“If he’s suffering from some ailment,” Leflin grumbled, “he should be put in quarantine, not brought to live with our children.”
Leroni didn’t answer. She turned all her attention to the young man. She pushed both hands into his armpits and lifted him bodily off the ground. “Stand up, Sooss. We’re taking you.....I’m taking you back to the city. Come on. Stand up. Can you walk?”
When she first straightened him out, he didn’t extend his legs and he sank back onto the ground. When she lifted him the second time, his body somehow registered the change and his legs unfolded underneath him. They still didn’t support his weight.
Leroni groaned with the effort. “Stand up, Sooss. Stand up.”
At last, he braced his legs and stopped sinking. When Leroni’s arms fell away from him in exhaustion, his legs supported him, but he shook more violently than ever. His teeth chattered, and his whimpering grew louder and more plaintive.
Leflin peered into his face. “What’s wrong with him?”
Leroni caught her breath. “I don’t know, but he’s not a danger to anybody. He needs help, and he isn’t going to get it from anybody but us.”
She pushed her body under his arm and propped him up. “Come on, Sooss. Try to walk.”
Leflin glared at them, but he didn’t try to stop Leroni from helping the young man take his first shaking step. His knees buckled from his own weight, but Leroni held him up. One step followed another, and they crossed the grove. Leflin muttered behind them, “This is bad. This is really bad.”
Leroni gasped over her shoulder. “Can you think of any other alternative?”
Leflin didn’t say anything else, but followed her back toward the city. The young Lycaon’s shaking and chattering only got worse when they emerged from the shade into the open field, where the sun beat down with ferocious heat. Leroni broke out in a sweat all over her body, and Leflin panted behind her, but the young man cringed against her in pitiful desperation. Would she get him to the city before they both collapsed?
She staggered through the gap in the wall and let his body slump against the wall of earthen bricks at the base of the stairs. He sagged away from her, and she freed herself to catch her breath, but he didn’t fall to the ground. He remained cowering against the wall until she shouldered him again. “All right. Just up these stairs and we’re there.”
Chapter 3
He was heavier than he looked—a lot heavier. By the time Leroni dumped him on the sleeping platform in her home apartment, her own knees wobbled and her back threatened to give out. She sank down onto the floor and wiped the sweat off her face. Leflin frowned at the young man from the doorway, but said nothing.
The children moved over to make room for him, but he didn’t notice them. He drew his knees up to his chest and went on shivering. Mala stopped what she was doing and stared at him. “What is that?”
The other children couldn’t take their eyes off him. The littlest boy put out his finger to touch the young man’s wet skin and pulled it back. He cuddle close to his older siblings. Leroni breathed a heavy sign. “That is a young boy, and he needs our help, so be nice to him.”
“He’s no boy.” Mala made a disgusted face and looked the young man up and down. “I’ve seen boys, and that is definitely not one. Rami is a boy. That is not a boy.”
“He’s a Lycaon.” Leroni got to her feet. “He’s a young Lycaon. Now you’ve seen one, and he still needs our help, so we’re going to help him.”
When Mala frowned, she looked exactly like her father. She humphed and went back to the bundle of branches. She took a single branch from the pile and held it in one hand. She flexed the fingers of her other hand, and her fingernails extended into sharp claws. She scored the bark of the branches, and white ooze sprang from the score marks. She collected the ooze in a bowl and moved on to the next branch.
Leroni bustled about the room. “He’s cold. We have to dry him off.”
<
br /> Mala shouted to her mother over her shoulder. “How can he be cold? This is the hottest summer we’ve had in years.”
Leroni stuck her head into another room and came back with a heavy animal skin, shaggy on one side with long brown fur. “Open your eyes, Mala. I swear, you’re as bad as your father. Look at him. He’s shaking with cold. Look at his skin. He has goosebumps. And his lips are blue. He’s freezing.”
“But how....” Mala began again.
Leroni cut her off with a sweep of her hand. “I don’t know how. Maybe these Lycaon have a different metabolism than Felsite. Who knows? All I know is, he’s cold and we have to warm him up. For heaven’s sake, Leflin, don’t just stand there. Go up to Anna’s apartment and ask her to please come down here. She’s the only person in the city who might know who he is.”
Leflin furrowed his eyebrows even more. The children watched their father and waited to see what he would do. He humphed just like Mala did, and then he strode out of the apartment. Leroni sighed and took the robe to the platform. She bent low over the young man. “Come here, Sooss. We have to dry you off.”
“Sooss!” Mala exclaimed. “What kind of a name is that?”
“I don’t know,” Leroni muttered.
Mala’s younger sister Mila spoke up from the platform where Rami huddled on her lap. “I guess it’s a Lycaon name.”
“It must be.” Mala went on with her work.
“That’s what’s so curious,” Leroni told them. “It isn’t a Lycaon name. I don’t know what kind of name it is, but it isn’t Lycaon.”
“But you just said he was Lycaon,” Mala pointed out.
“He is,” Leroni replied.
“Then how can he have a name that’s not Lycaon?” Mala asked.
Leroni shot a vicious glare over her shoulder. “I don’t know. I just said I don’t know, okay?”
Mala shook her head and bent over her branches. “You’re not making any sense, Mother.”
“I know.” Leroni sighed again. She picked up a rough woven blanket from the platform and bent back over the young man.
She wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and tucked it under his chin. Then she rubbed him hard all over. She extended the claw in her index finger and slit his pant legs up to his hips. Then she rubbed his legs, as far up as she could reach. While she rubbed his thighs, she noticed he wore a loincloth of soft tanned skin under his pants, so she cut his pants the rest of the way off. They fell sodden to the floor along with his shirt, which Leroni also discarded.
The children stared in wonder at their mother ministering to this strange creature. He huddled under his blanket and shivered, but when she finished drying him and tucked the blanket around him, he didn’t shiver as violently. The color returned to his face, and his teeth didn’t chatter so loudly.
Mala set her shredded branches aside. “What are you going to do with him?”
Leroni stood back and regarded the young man. “I really have no idea.”
“Well, he can’t stay here.” Mala handed three bowls of the white liquid to her siblings on the platform. Then she sat down next to Mila with a bowl of her own.
Leroni rolled her eyes and whirled away. “Oh, Mala! You’re exactly like your father.”
“Well, it’s true,” Mala countered. “We can’t have some Lycaon staying here.....” She swept the apartment with her hand, “...in our own house!”
Leroni hefted the big furry skin onto the platform. She took away the blanket she used to dry the young man and wrapped the skin around him in its place. After she tucked that under his chin, he stopped shivering. Instead of searching his surroundings with sightless eyes, he stared straight in front of him. Leroni studied him.
“There’s something wrong with him,” she murmured to herself. “I don’t know what it is, but he needs our help and we’re going to help him” Mala started to say something, but Leroni only shook her head. “Now that he’s warm, he’s exhausted. He’s been through a lot, and now he’s starting to feel it. We have to find a warm place for him to sleep.”
Mala started. “Not here!”
“Don’t worry,” Leroni replied. “I won’t let him stay here. He needs quiet. He can stay in the other room.”
At that moment, Leflin came back with Anna. Anna smiled at Leroni and the children, but her smile vanished when she saw the young man. “What the....?”
Leroni nodded. “That’s exactly what I said. I found him down by the river.”
“What was he doing there?” Anna asked.
“That’s exactly what I want to know,” Leroni replied. “I thought you might know him, since you spent so much time with the Lycaon.”
Anna took a step closer to the platform. She inspected the young man close up. “I don’t recognize him, but he looks young.”
“I thought so, too,” Leroni replied. “He can’t be more than seven.”
“If he’s seven,” Anna told her, “he would have been born after I left the Lycaon. Leflin says he told you his name.”
“I don’t know if it is his name,” Leroni replied. “He kept saying ‘Sooss, Sooss,’ but that’s not a Lycaon name, is it?”
“No, it isn’t.” Anna bent closer to him. “Hello. What’s your name? What village do you come from? Who are your parents?”
A spasm shot across the young man’s face, but he didn’t move. He stared straight in front of him and said nothing.
“What’s wrong with him?” Anna asked.
“I don’t know,” Leroni replied. “He was like this when I found him, except he was shaking all over with cold and he seemed to be terribly frightened about something. I couldn’t figure it out.”
Anna frowned. “What else was he doing when you found him?”
“Nothing,” Leroni replied. “He was just sitting there on the riverbank. He was sort of crying and whimpering about something, and he kept looking around for something, but he couldn’t really see me. That, and he was so cold. He’s calmed down now. I thought he might freeze to death out there if we left him alone, and you know what the heat is like out there in the middle of the day.”
Anna compressed her lips. “Hmm.”
“What do you think?” Leroni asked.
“I don’t know what to think,” Anna replied.
“You don’t think he’s a danger to us, do you?” Leroni asked. “He’s not diseased or anything, is he?”
Anna shook her head. “He’s harmless. The Lycaon are peaceable people. However he got here, he didn’t come for any hostile reason. And look at him. He’s not going anywhere.”
Leroni smiled in relief. “That’s what I thought.” She picked up the bowl intended for herself and held it under his nose. “Here, Sooss. Drink this. It will make you feel better.”
He didn’t even blink. She dropped to her knee and pressed the bowl’s rim to his lips. She tried to tip the liquid into his mouth, but he jerked his head out of her grasp.
Leroni set the bowl aside. “I guess he doesn’t want anything.”
“The Lycaon eat meat,” Anna told her. “Try that.”
Leroni fetched a bowl of diced meat from the other side of the room, but she frowned at it. “The Lycaon eat their meat cooked, don’t they? And we don’t have any way to cook it.”
“Carmen has a little handmade stove she uses to cook her meat,” Anna told her. “You could use that.”
“But Carmen’s not here,” Leroni pointed out. “I wouldn’t know where to find her stove or how to use it.”
Anna nodded. “I forgot about that.”
Leroni shrugged and held the meat bowl under the young Lycaon’s nose. He turned his head back the other way. Leroni sighed. “Well, that’s it, then. He doesn’t want anything.”
“He’s probably too tired or traumatized or whatever is wrong with him to notice how hungry he is,” Anna remarked.
“I better put him somewhere he can rest,” Leroni replied.
Anna moved back
toward the door. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you who he is.”
Leroni couldn’t take her eyes off the young man. “Thanks anyway. We’ll keep him here until we figure out what to do with him.”
Anna’s footsteps faded up the stairs, and Leflin shut the door behind her. He came to Leroni’s side and shook his head. “This is a bad idea.”
“Well, you’re the Alpha Lieutenant in charge,” Leroni pointed out. “Make a decision. What should we do with him?”
Leflin shook his head. “You made the decision to bring him here, and now he’s here. You decide what to do with him.”
Leroni turned away. “You want to put this on my shoulders? All right. I’ll decide what to do with him.”
She put her hand under the young man’s armpit and lifted him up. “Come with me, Sooss. I’ll show you a place where you can rest.”
He didn’t look at her, but he suffered her to raise him to his feet. He shuffled past the children, whose eyes bulged out of their heads. He held the shaggy robe clutched tightly around his shoulders and followed Leroni out of the room.
She led him to a small sleeping chamber adjacent to the main room where a smaller platform ran along the far wall under a window. The aurora winking across the night sky lit up the room well enough for Leroni to see. She guided the young man down onto the platform and nudged him until he lay down. She spread the robe over him and tucked it around him. He shuddered once and lay still.
She stood over him and regarded him for a moment. He looked younger with his eyes closed. He reminded her of her own children. The same heavenly glow surrounded him that surrounded all young creatures, animal and people. Her heart softened, and a solemn resolve settled in her mind. She would never turn her back on him. She would take him under her wing, and protect him from anyone who tried to harm him.
She could stand there watching him sleep all night, but a noise from the front room made her turn away. She stole softly to the door and shut it behind her.
Leflin made a face. “Is your new pet safe and sound?”
Leroni smiled. “Yes, he’s going to sleep. It’s the best thing for him.”
Leflin picked a cube of meat out of the bowl and popped it into his mouth. “You’re crazy.”
The New Angondra Complete Series Page 13
