Клэр Белл - The Named - The Complete Series

Ratha felt the hair prickle along her back at the mention of Shongshar’s name. She remembered how she and Thakur had left the cubs Shongshar had sired far beyond clan ground. The place she’d chosen offered some limited chances for them to find food. Could it be that one or both cubs had managed to survive and even to have their own young? The gray female Khushi described would be about the right age.

“Shongshar’s cubs by Bira?” Fessran was staring at Ratha in open amazement. “But you said they were witless and killed them.”

Ratha flinched at Fessran’s words. “I didn’t kill them; I abandoned them. In a place where they could eat insects and other things.”

Fessran took a long breath.“By the Red Tongue’s ashes, Ratha, if you’d told me what happened to them, things might have turned out differently with Shongshar.”

“Yes, you would have gone out to find the empty-eyed cubs you fostered after Bira left them. That wouldn’t have done us much good either,” Ratha snapped. “Let Khushi tell the rest of his story.”

With a curious glance at Fessran, Khushi went on.“The Un-Named female looked at me in a way that made me shiver and then ran off with a cub in her mouth. But she left one behind and didn’t come back for him.” Khushi halted, swallowed. “He’s over there, beneath the bushes. ”

Ratha sagged back on her haunches, staring at Khushi in disbelief.“You mean you brought the cub back with you?”

He hung his head.“I’m sorry. It was a stupid thing to do. But once I’d been near him, his mother wouldn’t take him back. I put him out and waited as long as I could, but we’d scared her off for good.”

“How did you feed him?” Fessran wanted to know.

“The same way you fed me when you were weaning us from milk to meat. You burped up soft food from your stomach. I had eaten enough from the clan kill before I went scouting that I could do the same.”

Ratha started to pace. If the drought and the herd weren’t enough to cope with, now she had to deal with a young herder with motherly delusions and an orphaned cub that might well be Shongshar’s grandson. She stopped, turned to Khushi.

“If this wild tale is true and not just an elaborate excuse to make me sheath my claws, all I can ask is why didn’t you tell me about him?”

Khushi shuffled his paws in the dust.“Well, you were gone just after that, and when you came back, you were busy, and the longer I waited, the harder it got to tell you. ”

“So you’ve been sneaking away to feed this Un-Named litterling with food from your own belly.”

“And to move him too,” Khushi added. “When these river drives started, I thought I’d have to leave him behind, but I found that if I ran really fast with him in my mouth and got ahead of the herd, then I could hide him and then work until the herd passed the hiding place and—”

“All right,” Ratha interrupted. “Show me.” Khushi led them away from the line of animals, up over the crest of a hill and down the other side. He jogged to a low bush with peeling red bark and thorny leaves, pulled a dead branch aside, and peered in. A weak mew came from inside. Lying in a hollow between gnarled roots was a tiny, thin, spotted shape. Carefully, Khushi drew the cub out with his paw.

Every bone showed on the little body. The coat was dull and rough over prominent ribs, and the litterling staggered badly as he wobbled to Khushi and lay against the herder’s forepaws.

Ratha stared down at the cub, feeling totally at a loss. Even if he had come from one of the clan’s own females, she knew the drought was already straining the clan’s resources.

Yet she couldn’t help a twinge of pity for the cub’s condition and awe for his tenacity. Having been taken from his mother at an early age and bumped around by a young herder who didn’t know how to treat him, he should, by all rights, have been dead.

Fessran came alongside and peered at him.“Ratha, watch how he moves, tries to look at things. He reminds me of our own cubs.”

Ratha felt that things were galloping ahead of her.“Firekeeper, he’s too young and starved for us to make any judgment. And if there is one to be made, you are not the one to make it.” She turned to Khushi once again. “Herder, you should have left him where he was. Take him back.”

Fessran gave a derisive yowl.“You think his mother would accept him after Khushi’s had him this long? We’d be lucky to even find her. And she may not want him back, especially now. The dry weather is also pressing the Un-Named.”

Ratha eyed the Firekeeper. Fessran crouched down to nuzzle and lick the orphan. She wouldn’t have a family this year, and Ratha knew she wanted to raise cubs. That, plus the memory of Nyang’s death and the loss of her treeling…

“If you get your scent on him too, we’ll never get him back where he belongs,” Ratha said.

“I think you’re fooling yourself about that, clan leader,” Fessran answered softly.

Ratha became aware that Khushi was watching the interchange between her and Fessran with unabashed curiosity.“Herder,” she said, “go back to the three-horns. Fessran and I have some thinking to do. And if you are tempted to nurse any more Un-Named litterlings, tell me first.”

When she looked back at Fessran, the Firekeeper lay on her side, the cub curled up against her belly.“I wish I could feed him,” she said wistfully.

“I wish Khushi had never found him,” Ratha growled. “Soft as dung indeed! Fessran, if you must play mother, ask Bira if you will be able to help with her litter. She came into heat early, and I can tell by her scent that the mating’s taken.”

“At least you’re sure Bira’s will have that cursed light in the eyes you’re always looking for.” Fessran looked up, her paw resting lightly on the orphan. “You bullied me into giving up Shongshar’s cubs. Were you really that convinced that they were witless? If the Un-Named one that Khushi saw is the female I fostered, maybe she has more wits about her than you think. Perhaps we should trail her and find out.”

Ratha said nothing, wondering if she should make Fessran remember the blank stare of Shongshar’s daughter on the morning she had taken both young ones from Fessran’s fostering.

“We can’t get distracted by this,” she said. “At least until the drought breaks. I’m not going to waste effort trailing an Un-Named female.” Ratha paused. “And even if I was mistaken and her eyes show the gift we value, she is of Shongshar’s blood and breed. Khushi said she had the long teeth. Would you want another like Shongshar to rise again in the clan?”

She saw the Firekeeper close her eyes and then lick the scars on her chest and upper foreleg. Fessran trembled for a minute, remembering. Then she withdrew herself from around the cub.

“What are you going to do with him?” she said gruffly.

“Khushi is to return him to the place he was found. If we leave him alone, his mother might reclaim him.”

Mournfully Fessran said,“If I could just give him a good bellyful of milk…

Ratha sighed.“All right. I’ll let Khushi feed him the way he did before.” She sent Fessran to get Khushi. When the young herder arrived, she told him to bring the litterling to her once it was fed. She and Fessran went back to the herd and waited until Khushi returned with the orphan.

Ratha looked at the cub and wished that the young of the clan and of the Un-Named didn’t look so much alike.It is not only that their cubs resemble ours. They are so close to us, it makes me tremble. The only difference is behind the eyes. I have asked so many times why it is so, but no one can answer.

Khushi put the youngster down, stretched his jaws, and complained.“He already feels heavy. And I’ll be traveling with a dry tongue and a half-empty belly.”