"That"s interesting," Miw-Sher said, "for I regret to inform you, Lady Nadhari, that the most recent thing that the High Priest publicly pulled off was the arms and legs of your uncle. When the old Mulim objected, the Mulzar had him walled up."
"His was the voice I heard when I took the pa.s.sage you showed me?" Acorna asked.
Miw-Sher nodded. "A little food is pa.s.sed through a slot in the wall for him - I know, because feeding the Mulim has been among my daily duties, and I often take Grimla to spend a few moments with him. There are ventilation holes on the top of the tail-wall. There were once several anchorites like the old Mulim, but they"ve died to this world."
"I see," Acorna said.
Tagoth and Nadhari were now standing very close to each other. "Be careful, Nadhari," Tagoth told her. "I hope I don"t have to tell you how dangerous Edu can be. I would go with you to help you, but my duty lies elsewhere. I must warn the Aridimi priesthood and help them to defend the sacred lake. My path lies deep into the desert, at the Aridimi Stronghold."
"I"ve always known Edu was a sociopath," Nadhari said. "I had good reason to find out quite early in life."
"I know." Tagoth"s voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"But I am not a child any longer." Nadhari"s own voice hardened with anger. "Edu is not the only one who is dangerous."
Their conversation stopped suddenly as an amazing apparatus appeared overhead. Acorna recognized it at once as the flitter the Linyaari techno-artisans had been modifying with their distinctive artwork before the Khleevi attack. It was in the shape of a flying Ancestor with wings decorated in gilt, embellished with all of the colors worn in Ancestral livery and tack. Becker and Mac had salvaged it. Now it swooped down, Becker at the helm, to settle onto the sand, its wings still upraised. RK hopped down from the wagon and strolled over to the flitter, where Becker stretched out his hands to receive the first mate"s paws as RK sprang from the ground onto Becker"s shoulders.
"Hey, he"s glad to see me. Tired of being worshipped, are you, old man?"
RK closed his eyes and purred. Miw-Sher carried Grimla, while Pash and Haji leaped from the wagon to the hull of the flitter. Sher-Paw alone approached more slowly, sniffing around and curling his lip.
Acorna said, "I can see that your hands are full. I can take the helm, Captain."
"Well, uh, I had to leave in kind of a hurry, Princess. Seems we"ve worn out our welcome back in Hissim. There"s half an army sitting there, waiting for our return. I"m not quite sure where we ought to go from here. And on top of that, there"s only room for three of us with all this cargo I"ve got stuffed in here."
"Tagoth and Nadhari won"t be coming with us. They have other plans," Acorna told him. "Miw-Sher and the cats should come with us, I think. There is room for the cats, isn"t there?"
He felt a lightness on his shoulders and looked around. All four of the Temple cats and RK were up to their hind legs in the open bag of cat food he"d brought with him.
"Yeah. Looks like it," Becker said.
"Guess that leaves me with the Vikings to hoof it," MacDonald said.
But as Acorna climbed into the c.o.c.kpit of the flitter, the sound of an approaching mounted force thundered from beyond the dunes. A dozen riders galloped up on the ancestor-like beasts and slid to a stop, raising a cloud of dust as they surrounded the wagons.
"Raiders?" Acorna asked Tagoth and Nadhari.
"Not necessarily," Tagoth said. He put himself between the newcomers and the flitter and wagons, and said a few words to the riders in an unfamiliar dialect.
Then he turned back to MacDonald. "These are the heads of families from the steppes beyond the Mog-Gim Plateau. They have heard from their relatives in the city that you have magic boxes that grow food, and that you can heal sick beasts. They want the boxes and the healing."
MacDonald smiled amiably at them and said, "That"s what we"re here for. This wagon right here is all yours, boys. Haul "er away. As for the healing, I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I haven"t tried "em yet, so we"ll just have to see how much good I can do you on that score."
Acorna examined the sweating, straining beasts the men were riding. She could see the signs of the plague in them. Some of these animals would not make it back where they came from again if she and her friends did not intercede. She beckoned to MacDonald and picked up Pash, carrying him with her. He purred like a buzz saw in her arms.
"Tagoth, please tell these gentlemen that Captain MacDonald and I will attempt to treat these sick beasts with the help of this sacred guardian cat," Acorna said.
Tagoth declared their intention in priestly intonations worthy of the Mulzar at his most pompous.
"Okay, Amba.s.sador, honey, what do we do now?" MacDonald whispered. "I can"t cure these critters on the spot, you know."
"With the help of the sacred cat, I can."
"If the sacred cat is so darned important, how come they needed you to cure them?"
"Oh, it"s a healer"s thing. Most of the time a healer cannot heal him or herself."
"Okay, I guess I"ll buy that."
"You take that side of the beast and look clinical and busy. We"ll take this other side, and I"ll help Pash heal."
"Gotcha." And aloud he said, "Lay on them healin" paws, O holy cat!"
Pash looked inquiringly at Acorna. She held Pash up to the beast and leaned in with the cat so that her horn touched the beast"s hide as she pretended to listen to Pash meow the results of this examination.
The three of them repeated this operation with each of the sick beasts until MacDonald declared them cured, dusting his hands to emphasize that the task was done.
"We have many more beasts that need curing, including our own sacred cats," the man said. "And we want your food boxes."
"Okay," MacDonald said agreeably, then turned to Acorna, "Whatcha think, Amba.s.sador? How do we work this?"
"You and the Wats drive a wagon behind the riders. If they will be so kind as to have one of their number lead us to their Temple, I will supervise the curing of their cats there while you demonstrate the use of the food boxes and examine their other beasts out in their fields. Then I will try to visit the rainforest Temple and heal their cats, and come back to see what I can do for the other beasts."
"Acorna," Becker protested, "you"re gonna wear yourself out that way."
"Perhaps," she said, raising and lifting a shoulder in a shrug. "But this is an emergency. We have a planet and a species to save. What else can we do? Lead the way, Captain MacDonald. We"ll be right along."
She looked around for Tagoth and Nadhari, but they both had somehow melted into the desert without anyone seeing them leave.
She silently wished them well on their separate missions.
As MacDonald jiggled his reins and clicked his tongue at the beasts pulling the first "wagon in their little convoy, he was followed by the wagons driven by Sandy Wat and Red Wat. Just as they disappeared off in the distance, another party of people arrived, this time a group of mixed s.e.xes and on foot.
The stout woman who seemed to be their leader said to Acorna, "I watched you on the balcony with the Mulzar. So, are you going to help us or not?" She gave a nod toward the last wagonload of boxes, the one that Nadhari had driven, which was now driverless, its beast of burden seemingly pleased to be standing still instead of moving.
"I am afraid we can"t remain here to help you right now," Acorna said. "As I"m sure you know, the Mulzar wants to imprison us and kill the sacred cats, and we must save ourselves and them. But we can give you all the tools you need to help yourself. They are in that wagon, if you would like to have them."
"Well, then, we"ll take them with us. This thing can only slow you down and you cannot take it when you fly through the air, can you? When the Mulzar leaves to fight his battles, you and the s.p.a.ceman come back and help us to use these. Fighting"s all very well for the warriors who"ll be able to live off our land, but with our beasts all gone and the drought and all, we farmers have no other options. We will starve."
"Not if you use those boxes. We will seek other answers for you as well. We are going abroad to other lands to see how they have dealt with the sickness."
"You do that. And keep our sacred cats safe, will you? Bring them back with those kittens you promised our people."
The woman"s face and voice were determined, but she winked at Acorna-or maybe it was Becker, since she "wore a rather saucy expression as she flounced up onto the buckboard and clucked at the beasts, turned them, and waited while the rest of her party climbed aboard with the boxes before driving off again.
It seemed that the Mulzar"s people had made their minds up after his balcony performance. And Acorna thought again that Edu Kando was in for a surprise when he learned who they believed and "which side they "were on.
"Well, I can see you"ve been busy," Becker said. "We"d better fly before anybody else shows up looking for help or a buddy to help start the revolution."