“Come on, Rhi,” Urruah said from behind her. “It’s gone.”
She let go, stood up, and shook herself. She was a mess, but so were all the others. It was like the catenary cavern all over again. She and Saash and Arhu and Urruah stood there, panting, recovering. Off to one side, wearing what looked like an expression of slow shock, Ith stood and gazed at the carnage. He looked hungry … but he did not move.
Very slowly, limping a little—Rhiow had strained one of her forelegs a little, hanging on to the saurian she killed— she went over to him, looked up at him. “Ith,” she said, “why didn’t you run away when you had the chance?”
He simply looked at her. “I have not yet done what I came for,” he said.
“And just what might that be?” Urruah said, slowly making his way over to join Rhiow.
Ith looked at Urruah and said nothing. But from behind them both, Arhu said, “He warned me they were coming.”
Urruah turned to look at him. “He has to be with us,” Arhu said. “I’ve seen him here before, and farther down too. He knows the way: he’s going to take us.” He turned to look at Ith.
Ith leaned down a little and turned his head sideways to look at Arhu: a strange birdlike gesture, a Central Park robin eyeing a particularly juicy worm. But the “worm” was eyeing him back, and the look held for a good little while.
“Yes,” Ith said finally. Rhiow and Urruah glanced at each other.
“Are you hungry?” Arhu said at last.
Ith looked at the bodies … then looked at Arhu.
“Yes,” he said, but he did not move.
Urruah, watching all this, breathed a heavy snort of amusement and disgust down his nose, and turned to Rhiow. “We’d better clean this up and dispose of the scent, as far as possible,” he said. “I’d sooner not leave any hints that we’re down here; once they suspect us…”
Rhiow waved her tail “yes.” “Your preferred method…”
“Right,” Urruah said. “You four get ready to go on ahead.” He started pacing around the space, laying down a circle to contain whatever spell he had in mind. Off to one side, Ith threw one last look at the remains of the battle… then turned away.
“Why didn’t you help your people attack us?” Saash said to him, looking up from a few moments’ worth of furious washing.
“I did,” Ith said.
Rhiow stared at him. “How do you mean?”
“They heard me. That was why they attacked you.”
Rhiow threw a glance over at Saash. Does this make any sense to you?
Rhi, it’s a saurian. Do I look like a specialist in their psychology? I can understand his words, but even the Speech can’t always guarantee full comprehension when the mind-maps are so different. In any case, I’m not sure this boy isn’t a few whiskers short of the full set. Why else would he be hanging around us, instead of joining in when the fight started or running off?
Rhiow breathed out; she had no answers to that. “A few moments more for grooming,” she said. “Then we’d better move out quickly. Urruah?”
“Almost set.”
A few more moments was all it took. Then the team headed off as quickly as they could down the next long sloping corridor that Arhu indicated; downward again, around a bend and through a long tunnel, with Arhu in the lead for the moment, and Ith behind him. Faint echoes of the distant buzzing of the saurian City could be heard here; they raised Rhiow’s hackles. All those voices… all those teeth…
“All right,” Urruah said then, and paused, looking over his shoulder. “This should be far enough—”
Rhiow felt him complete his spell in his head. Immediately from behind them came a brilliant flare of white light. It held for two seconds, three …then went out. A faint smell of scorching drifted down to them.
“Let me go check it,” Urruah said, and padded back up the way they had come, out of sight.
They waited, tense. Within a few minutes he was padding softly back down to them. “Clean,” he said.
“What did you do?” said Rhiow.
“Heated the whole area to about seven hundred degrees Kelvin,” he said. “Stone, air, everything. Sterile and clean.” He wrinkled his nose a little. “At the moment it smells a little like that toasted smoked-sea-eel thing they do at the sushi restaurant on Seventy-sixth, but that’ll pass.”
Saash screwed her eyes closed, and Rhiow made a little “huh” of exasperation. “Only you could find a way to bring food into this,” she muttered. “Come on.”
They all fell in behind Arhu and continued down the long dark corridor. “Where are we going now?” Rhiow said to Arhu.
“Down toward the ‘River’ … I saw some of the way in his head.” He flirted his tail at Ith, who was now pacing nearby, a little off to one side.
Rhiow twitched her tail slowly. “You’ve been through some changes lately,” she said.
I heard Her, Arhu said silently, looking up at Rhiow as they walked, so intently that she almost had to look away: for the expression was entirely too close to that of the stone Iau in the museum. But this expression was living and filled with certainty, though a sheen of plain old mortal, feline doubt remained on the surface. I was Her, Arhu said, and he shivered all over. Now She’s gone, but we need Her… and if anyone’s going to be Her, it has to be me…
“Playing God,” Rhiow had heard her ehhif call it.
And the Oath? she said to him.
He twitched his tail “yes,” a subdued gesture. I took it. I think I understand it now. I have to keep it, though I’m not sure how. The Whisperer… has been giving me hints, but I don’t know what to make of them all. I’m afraid. I’m afraid I might screw up. I’m not an “old soul” or anything.
It’s not “old souls” we need right now, Saash said. Half of them keep making the same mistakes over and over: why do you think they keep coming back? Rhiow shot a look at her: Saash ignored it. We need any soul that’ll get the job done, whether its teeth are worn down or not. Stop being self-conscious and just do what’s therefor you to do.
He twitched his tail “all right,” and slowly walked off.
We could let him go his own way now, I suppose, Saash said after a moment, watching him go. He’s accepted his Oath. He’ll hold by it… poor kitten.
Poor us, Rhiow said, considering where our association with him has led us.
True… Saash paced on a little way, and then said, We’re going to start having some trouble with defense shortly, if the number of these things attacking us increases significantly … and I think it will The “explosion lite” spell is useful enough… but if we keep using it, it’s going to “burn in” in short order. And we can’t use the neural inhibitor in its full-strength version while our little friend’s with us. I almost wish we could lose him… but Arhu says we can’t…
Rhiow glanced ahead of her, to where Arhu and Ith were now walking together. Yes, Rhiow said, and that is very odd.… It was peculiar to watch them: it was as if each very much wanted the other’s company, though their bodies clearly loathed one another—tails were lashing, teeth were bared on both sides. The saurian was clearly shortening his pace to make it easier for Arhu to keep up with him as he paced along. Arhu, for his own part, was favoring Ith once more with that expression of recognition, unwilling but still fascinated.