It took only a light touch to Nadhari"s mind to read that she was no more thrilled with her cousin"s speech than Acorna was.
Acorna decided Kando had enjoyed playing both ends against the middle for too long. He cared nothing for the welfare of the cats and the domestic beasts, or of the people, for that matter, or he would never have loosed the plague among them.
Acorna stepped forward, taking advantage of his slight introduction to bow graciously to the crowd, who cheered, and then to Kando, who started to say something, before she beat him to it. "Thank you, Mulzar. I am, as you say, a healer, and in spite of being an amba.s.sador, I am not always as diplomatic as I should be. Please forgive me that I find this talk of war and conquest under the circ.u.mstances shocking. As I mentioned to you earlier, my people do not believe in war. However, that is neither here nor there. The real point here is that this disease is spreading, is killing the guardians, creatures that all of the people of this planet hold sacred. Should not the emphasis be placed upon curing as many as possible, rather than going into a war that may-no, will-spread death, injury, and disease to even more two- and four-legged beings? As I look upon you, my physician"s heart knows that you are weary and sick of sickness, bereft at the loss of the beloved guardians whose protective presence has always been one of your greatest securities, and impoverished and starving due to the loss of your beasts. And these feelings are shared by all the other peoples of this planet."
"All the more reason for conquest!" one of the priest guards shouted at her.
"But what will you be conquering? Dead and dying people with dead and dying beasts, who have no food you can use and no guardians to bring back with you. What is the point in that? I would like to propose to you, Mulzar..." she said, returning her attention to Kando, whose face probably looked bland from below the balcony but whose eyes showed that he was not at all amused or moved by her speech. She had not expected that he would be. She continued, "... is that I go among those who are normally your, urn, co-belligerents and offer them the use of my skill as a physician to cure as many of their Temple cats and other beasts as I can. In this way I might at least ascertain how many of the Temple guardians have survived in various areas. If I come upon a Temple that has many, I shall ask for kittens in payment for my services and shall bring them to the Temples that have lost the most. Certainly this one falls into that-oh dear, this seems to be a pun in your language, too - category."
The Mulzar smiled suddenly. "You would spy for us? Truly, you are a thoughtful guest to offer to inform us who has the most of what we seek."
Acorna felt her face grow so hot she thought her horn must be glowing with her anger, but she kept her words and tone calm and sweet. "Oh, no, Mulzar! You mistake my meaning. If your opponents are honorable people, there will be no need for you to attack them. Some wall have so few cats it would not be worth your own losses to attack them. And as for those who have escaped the epidemic with less damage, if I cure those who are ill, the priests should grant me the boon of bringing some of then-kittens to the less fortunate Temples. There is no need for me to prevaricate, much less to spy. I seek only to bring aid to your whole planet during this tragic time."
Nadhari sent her an urgent mental warning: (He"s seething. Don"t turn your back on him, Acorna.)
Kando said smoothly, "It is delightful to see such idealism in someone of your station, Amba.s.sador. But you are young, tenderhearted, and by your own admission, from a people who do not wage war. You cannot possibly understand the complications your proposed actions would cause among our planet"s people. I"m quite sure the Federation would never permit you to pursue your proposed course of action."
"I"m sure if you intervened, sir, your contacts there would smooth my path - I imagine that your friend Lieutenant Colonel Macostut would do his best to find a way to accommodate us."
Nadhari"s face was twitching as if she had some sort of nervous disorder, as she sternly suppressed laughter at her cousin"s discomfiture.
The Mulzar raised his arms again to make it clear that Acorna"s interruption was not going to end his speech before he was ready to end it.
"People of Hissim, while I join you in rejoicing at the survival of our guardians, it seems to me we are being tested. The G.o.ds have sent us these tribulations and this lady to determine if we have absolute trust, loyalty, and obedience to them, even as you must do to me. They have taken from us first that which we value most -our beloved guardians. And then we were given a choice in the form of the Amba.s.sador Acorna"s ability to heal our surviving sacred ones. I have had an epiphany, a revelation."
Silence fell over the crowd. Acorna got the collective thought that they hoped the revelation would not be too bad this time.
"Clearly the G.o.ds have been merciful to us, but now it is our duty to show ourselves worthy and return to them something or that which they have spared us."
Acorna caught his thought early in the sentence. So this was how he was going to reconcile his real motives with his public sentiments! She sent a mental push to Miw-Sher. "Take Grimla and run! He"s going to demand a cat sacrifice!"
However, before the thought was out of her mind, another of the Condor"s crew dropped down from the nose of the Temple onto the mouth, uttering a loud yowl that seemed to Acorna to translate as "Scatter, brothers and sisters! Run for your lives! This infidel wants to waste you!"
Although there were only five Makahomian Temple cats present, counting RK, for a split-and-spitting-second the air seemed filled with pinwheeling paws, lashing tails, and slashing claws... particularly claws. Cats flew everywhere, leaping, bouncing, pouncing, and laying down tracks of flayed flesh wherever those lethal claws happened to touch.
Then, just as suddenly, there were no more cats. Anywhere.
However, this observation was made only by those who were still there. Acorna, Nadhari, and Miw-Sher were not.
Kando had been so caught up in the results of his own theatrics that he could do nothing but stand openmouthed for a moment, using a loose fold of his robe to stanch the flow of blood from a wound on his shoulder. The keepers of the cats, with the exception of Miw-Sher, were still present, looking around to see what had hit them. But the only remaining sign of the cats was a few stray hairs floating to the flagstones below on eddies of hot wind.
People were murmuring, exclaiming, even-though it was instantly squelched-laughing.
One of the priests whispered something to Kando and he resumed his speech. "As you can see, People of Hissim, the cats live, but their spirit. are in disarray because they were not intended to remain among us. I am sure the amba.s.sador just realized that, which is why she disappeared. And all of you saw for yourselves the foreign cat that attacked me, no doubt a direct challenge from our enemies. The amba.s.sador may do her best among our enemies, but we will prepare for war."
To the priest beside him he said, "In two days" time, when our cats have had the chance to regain their senses and have resumed their feeding stations and nests, at the second setting our precious four will travel to the G.o.ds in person to deliver our thanks."
The wagons were loaded and ready outside the Temple. The priest driving the first of the wagons was totally taken by surprise when the rampaging RK led the four Temple cats skittering over the Temple walls and leaping onto the wagon beds. Close behind them were Acorna, Nadhari, and Miw-Sher.
Captain MacDonald was at the reins in the second wagon, Red Wat in the third, Sandy Wat in the fourth. In the first was the priest who was apparently to be their guide. Nadhari shoved him off the wagon and took the reins herself. Acorna and Miw-Sher sat beside her, yelling "Hyah! Hyah!" to the team, which broke into a respectable run. Acorna sent a mental message to Captain MacDonald: (Follow us! Quickly! We will explain later!)
He sent a startled reaction back. He"d been prepared for a peaceful mission to aid civilians, not a fast getaway from government forces. He switched mental gears quickly, nevertheless, clicked his tongue at his team, and fell in behind them. The Wats apparently relished all the excitement. They whipped their poor beasts into a lather and almost wrecked their wagons as they rattled over the rutted streets at high speed.
The city gates were open and their wagons arrived faster than any messengers telling the gatekeepers to close them. Instead of stopping to a.s.sist the local farmers engaged in slaughtering their beasts, as MacDonald had intended before this mad flight, they kept driving as far and as fast away from Hissim as they could.
"The Mulzar will send fast riders after us," Miw-Sher said. Acorna felt the girl trembling beside her.
"I don"t think so," Acorna said. "I think he will use our departure to his own advantage and tell the people what he wishes. And possibly try to place the blame for everything on RK and me.
"Of course he will," Nadhari said. "And Jonas and Captain MacDonald as well. Since the people of Hissim only know what Edu chooses to tell them about the outside world, they will be persuaded easily enough that we are all evil. He will tell people that we must be guilty of something; otherwise, why would we have run?"
Acorna told her, "Maybe it would have been better timing to wait until he"d tipped his hand about killing the Temple cats. Then people would have understood that we were saving the cats. But if we"d waited for him to announce it, we couldn"t have saved them at all. The guards would have had the poor things in hand, and there would have been nothing we could do."
"We did what we had to do," Nadhari said, negotiating a bend in the road that led past a small group of hovels. Ahead was open desert.
But as they pa.s.sed the last low building a figure flung himself into the road just in front of them. Nadhari pulled back on the reins so hard that the harnessed beasts reared in their traces. Miw-Sher jumped down and ran toward the man. "Uncle! You"re safe!"
"For now. Do you suppose I could hitch a ride?"
Scar MacDonald stopped his wagon, tied off his reins, and strode forward, his face full of thunderclouds. "That was a d.a.m.n fool stunt, Commander Nadhari. You could have made us crash every wagon in this convoy into matchsticks and killed the beasts pulling us, as well as those under our protection, and then where would we be? Our speedy exit, whatever the reason for it, wouldn"t have done anybody any good." He peered around the wagon and saw Tagoth hurrying toward him. "And who the devil is this, anyway? And what in tarnation were you doing in the road, sir? Hey-wait a minute."
Tagoth didn"t have his hat on now. MacDonald snapped his fingers. "Brother Bulaybub? I never forget a face. But you didn"t have one the last time I saw you. What"s going on here?"
The first thing the Mulzar did after his speech was have the guardians" handlers taken into custody for questioning. The woman, Nekbet, was the first to break. "Please don"t sacrifice our guardians, Mulzar. It was that foreign cat who caused the trouble, the amba.s.sador"s cat."
"She has a Temple cat? Why was I not told of this before?"
"She said he was merely their ship"s cat, Mulzar, and after what she did for our guardians, we thought..."
"You didn"t think! That cat was of oar strain, you can tell by looking at it. You can even see from examining the claw marks on my arm. The amba.s.sador is a spy. I knew it! Pretending to heal the guardians, she has subverted them. I must notify Lieutenant Commander Macostut of this at once and have the woman"s friends taken into custody. She abducted an acolyte, as well, and the four guardians and my cousin, brought a contraband cat among us, and hijacked the wagons we graciously lent her friend to help our poor people."
The surgeon, who was in charge of the persuasive methods by which the captive handlers were forced to answer the Mulzar"s questions asked, "Should we send a party after them now, Mulzar?"
Edu waved a dismissive hand. Actually, Acorna and Nadhari had done him a large favor with their rash actions. He now had a good excuse to wage the ultimate war he wanted, and locate the Aridini Stronghold. And if it was discovered later that he had violated the taboo against Federation technology to do so, he would explain that of course he had to retrieve the Temple cats from the clutches of the foreigners. Bring them back into his own clutches. Yes, indeed. "We have better things to do," he said. "We will launch a holy war on our enemies. No doubt we will sweep up the wagons and their treasonous occupants when we do so. Ready our armies."
"The sacrifice, Mulzar?"
"Since we cannot sacrifice the guardians, we will sacrifice the handlers who were so careless as to let them escape."
"Mulzar!" The surgeon was aghast. Only the day before the Mulzar had implied that a pretense of harming the guardians would flush out a cult. Now it seemed the Mulzar had actually intended to sacrifice the cats.
Hearing the threat of mutiny in the surgeon"s voice, Kando realized his mistake. He winked at the doctor conspiratorially and saw the man relax. "Yes, I think they will strengthen the walls of the Temple with their sacrifice. Wall them up with that other old fool. That should draw out the conspirators, eh?"
The pulling beasts were exhausted from their mad dash from the city, and all the living beings in their little convoy were thirsty. No water had been packed in the provisions MacDonald brought with him. He"d planned to load up on water outside the city at the livestock yards.
More important, Acorna thought, as she saw RK and the guardians nosing and pawing among the load, nothing a cat could eat had been packed in the wagon"s cargo, either.
While Tagoth and Nadhari were sparring, and Scar MacDonald, whose questions were not being answered, contented himself with checking on and adjusting his Metleiter boxes to ride more securely in the wagon, RK hopped onto the buckboard where Acorna still sat. He walked onto her knees, looked into her face, and opened his mouth in a yowl that was silent to everyone except Acorna and the other cats.