"You won"t get away with this, you know," Macostut said. "The Federation will not allow you to interfere with the authority of one of its officers, to wreck a craft, to contradict the orders of the native ruler, and to interfere with standing treaties."
Mac surprised all of them by responding. "I believe you will find you are incorrect on all points, sir," the android said. "The Federation has an investigative team on the way to interview the parties you and your conspiracy with Edu Kando, the former Mulzar, injured by your actions, and particularly by misuse of Federation technology and research. Your plot to sell and personally profit from the sale of the cat"s-eye chrysoberyls held sacred by the local populace is known to them."
Kando and the Mulzar regarded each other with suspicious slit-eyed speculation. "How can that be?" Kando asked.
"Because the party you tried to sell them to was a subsidiary of House Harakamian enterprises, which as you may not know is run by Amba.s.sador Acorna"s foster father, Rafik Nadezda, under the occasional advis.e.m.e.nt of his uncle, Hafiz Harakamian. When the chrysoberyls, with their unique properties that would make micro-terraformation technology possible on a large scale, came to Hafiz Harakamian"s attention, he recalled conversations with the amba.s.sador and made inquiries among his-er- employees, among the Federation. It took very little research to realize that while such stones are indeed indigenous to this planet and possess the desired properties, they are not for sale and have immense religious significance to the local populace. They were
very fair to you, sir, and searched the records for some evidence of a revision of treaties or rules or possibly some special permission that would allow you to collect the stones, but as you know, no such revisions or permissions exist."
"/ am ruler of half the people of this world," the Mulzar said. "I am making the revisions and certainly gave the permission."
"Not anymore," the high priest told him. "The guardians have conferred. They know what you have tried to do to them and to the lake. Had you sought to loot us without also seeking to destroy the guardians, you might have been allowed to retain your rule. Cats, on the "whole, prefer to stay out of the affairs of humans unless such affairs interfere with their comfort. But your own guardians have testified to the others on this planet. Even as a ruler by conquest, you are unfit to rule."
"And who is fit to rule, old man? You? You are so isolated here with your sacred lake you won"t drink from that you have no idea what the people need."
"I am kept better informed than you were by the late Brother f.a.gad," the priest told him.
Kando knew that yet another of his schemes had been discovered, but he couldn"t seem to help himself and tried one more time, staring angrily at Tagoth. "f.a.gad is late because this mutant murdered him while he was performing his sacred duty and reporting to me that which it was my right, as Mulzar, to know." He spat at Tagoth. "Traitor."
Tagoth nodded. "I deserve that. I am a traitor indeed for ever supporting you, Kando. I liked your ideas - I still like some of them. I have discussed with the priesthood ways in which the best of them might be implemented-with the consent of both our religious community and the people. If you had sincerely wished to use those ideas for the good of our planet, as you said, you would have been a great leader."
"I did want to do it for the good of the planet," Kando said with a ferocious pa.s.sion that made Acorna feel that he was, or at
least had at one time been, sincere. "But you"ll quickly learn that doing such things takes money."
"Perhaps," Tagoth said.
"But that doesn"t mean you can just kill the guardians and all the other animals on this planet!" Miw-Sher blurted out suddenly. "You murdered our own guardians with your germs. How could you? How could you"? They kept us safe for years, all of our loyal friends and those poor little kittens. Some of them n-n-never even got to op-p-pen their eyes!" She was crying now. Tagoth had a hand on her shoulder, but quickly she was surrounded by the Hissimi Temple cats and many of their larger brethren from the stronghold.
"My followers will overthrow any who try to take my place," he said. "Under current rules, until I am bested in battle publicly, I or my descendants rule."
The high priest regarded him ironically. "This is not a law a progressive man such as you claim to be should invoke. However, it is the way things have always been and shall continue to be. Your descendant shall rule, but not with you to guide her. Her mother and the man who has been a guardian to her, protecting her from your incestuous lechery, will rule. She is, as you see, well loved by the guardians and has the proper love for them and concern for their welfare. Besides which, she is one of the blessed who can change in this life, as is her guardian."
"You mean little sister Miw-Sher? But she"s not my - "
He met Nadhari"s cold, hard stare and his voice died away. "I didn"t know. You didn"t tell me."
"I wouldn"t give you the satisfaction," Nadhari said, spitting at him. "And I couldn"t stay. I was a child myself. Tagoth, whom I loved, knew about her, though not that she was yours. He followed you for my sake, never knowing how I hated you."
"H-hated me?" Kando looked genuinely distressed. "But you liked our little games, our secrets,"
"Hated, still hate," she repeated. "I will give you credit for one
thing only. I learned to fight as well as I do only so that I might avoid your touch ever again. That has been what"s driven me, more than life and death, to be a warrior."
"And now she will protect those who followed you in your stead," the priest said brightly, "which seems entirely appropriate to me. You, of course, as an avowed religious are subject to religious law. As such, you will be walled up, to live out your life in contemplation and prayer as an anchorite. The brothers have prepared a place in our walls now. Never fear, you will not be lonely. The guardians will come to visit you at the ventilation holes in your wall."
"Are you going to wall me up, too?" Macostut asked.
"You are not a priest or of our world. I have no authority over you," the high priest said. "Your own people will deal with you. I am a.s.sured by Kadi Nadhari, which is her new t.i.tle as the female co-regent for Mulzarah Miw-Sher, that the star people can make the rest of your life conducive to contemplation of the error of your ways as well."
Nadhari gave Macostut and Edu an evil grin, the toothy sort that Linyaari found especially frightening.
"Cheer up, Edu," Tagoth told him. "The changes you want are coming about because of you, after all."
The prisoners were taken away-Macostut to a cell, Kando to his new home inside a wall.
The old high priest entertained his guests on the balcony where Miw-Sher had slept with the kittens. The kittens and their elders provided a floor show while Acorna and her friends ate. The high priest had ordered some bread, cheese, and fruit be brought onto the balcony for a picnic on the lake. Thanks to the Linyaari horns, even the air smelled better than it had a few hours before.
The priest told them that he was puzzled about many things contained in Mac"s explanation to Macostut and Kando about how they had been found out. He wanted to know more about
Acorna and her non-Makahomian friends, and particularly more about RK, who was making a determined effort to rebuild the feline population of Makahomia with any lady cat guardian he could find.
They told him much of their recent adventures, of the desolation of both planets where the Linyaari lived, of the help the isolated people had received from Acorna"s friends and adopted relatives. Then of course she had to tell him about how she was found drifting in a pod in s.p.a.ce by her three human asteroid miner fathers, and other entertaining parts of her personal history.
Becker told how he had found Aari, and how his shipmate and Acorna had become sweethearts, and how they all had fought together to finally vanquish the Khleevi.
Finally Acorna told him of the strange time aberrations they"d encountered, not sure the old man would understand such things, but knowing that mystics sometimes understood anomalies of physics long before scientists had figured them out. She told him quietly of losing Aari in time and s.p.a.ce.
The priest nodded and rocked on his haunches, clearly thinking.
Finally he said to Acorna, "I must share with you another thing. Please excuse us, friends. This thing is for Kh.o.r.n.ya only."
This time their walk through the bowels of the Temple was friendlier, and where it was possible they walked side by side. As in the other Temples, there were holes high in the walls that let in light and allowed the guardians to jump in and out. At one bend in the path, RK poked his head through a hole and his body followed with a soft plop onto the path. He took a quick hop up to Acorna"s shoulders. She idly tickled his tail and he flipped it under her nose.
"He is devoted to you, your guardian. I have never seen one like him."
"Haven"t you?" Acorna asked. Her heart was beating very rapidly in antic.i.p.ation of what the old priest had to show her, and yet she feared to be disappointed again, to come upon another dead end and find a trace of Aari, but no way to reach him. It seemed safer to talk about cats. They enjoyed being talked about, and people who liked them always had things to say about them. "But Captain Becker told me he found RK on a ship from your planet."
"How can that be? We have had no s.p.a.ce vessels since many years before the s.p.a.ce Cat came to us."
"Time warp?" Acorna asked, looking thoughtfully up at RK.
He licked his paw. (Don"t ask me. I don"t remember anything about another ship before the Condor?)
They had once again reached the statue of Aari, now bathed in the reddish suns-shine pouring through the holes in the walls and ceiling.
It looks so like him. Shrugging RK off her shoulders, Acorna stepped across the water and onto the pedestal of the statue. She put her arms around the cold stone, feeling a tear that ran down her cheek cooling as it touched the statue. Then, realizing the priest was waiting for her, she stepped back across the water again. "Sorry," she said. "I had to do that. I miss him so much."
The old priest said, "Your coming raises many questions, but it has also brought many answers. You have saved us, as was foretold."
"Not really," she said. "Mostly that was my friends. And the person who was foretold in your stories could have been any of us Linyaari, as you surely see now."
"You are modest. You are the one foretold, the beloved companion of the Companion. He knew you would come and that you would come when you were desperately needed, just as he was when he came to us. And so you have. Perhaps it is true that you could not have saved us alone, but you were not alone, for your friends and kinsmen came to help us for love of you."
She wanted to tell him it was an accident, but she knew he
wouldn"t believe her. After all that had happened, she didn"t really believe it herself.