Клэр Белл - The Named - The Complete Series

Somehow Ratha stopped the threatened fight.“Save it for them,” she hissed.

Bira turned to her, pupils wide with dread and pleading. Her voice shook.“Not right here. Not before all those eyes …”

Fessran was silent. Ratha couldn’t think of anything to say. Sensations began to immerse her again.

“Bira,” she tried to comfort the terrified young Firekeeper, “it will be all right—”

“No, it won’t!” Bira screamed. She crouched, as if preparing for a last frantic dash, then ducked her head down, grabbed her tail with her teeth, and pulled it between her legs. She looked both courageous and ridiculous.

Fessran sighed, shook her head.

Through the surges of her fever, Ratha felt herself tremble with outrage and fear. From her previous experience, she knew that it wouldn’t matter where she was when the full power of the mating urge hit.

Knowing that won’t comfort Bira. For the young Firekeeper, and many others, mating and the time between was intensely private. Ratha knew she was among them. How she had savored the moments alone with Bone-chewer, reveling in the expansion of feelings, savoring the fierce joy. For her, if not for all the Named, a mate was far more than a sire.

That thought made her glance at Thistle. Her daughter wouldn’t have any such memories to soften the coming violation. Ratha so wanted Thistle’s first time to be filled with gentleness and joy. With Quiet Hunter, it would have happened that way, but with these males …

She was weaving her way over to Thistle when one male erupted from the circle’s edge. Large, powerful, and reeking, he dashed at the females and, to Ratha’s horror, grabbed Bira’s nape.

Bira fought back, writhing and plunging.“No!” she screamed. “I won’t mate with one who killed my cubs!”

Ratha had never seen the calm Firekeeper like this. Even in fights with the Un-Named, Bira never turned into the red, spitting fury that she saw now.

With Fessran, Drani, and others, Ratha jumped to Bira’s defense. They drove off the panting male, and then crouched beside the young Firekeeper. Bira’s ribs heaved and her eyes were wild.

“I am Named,” she hissed. “This is wrong, this is so wrong. I’ll rip the flesh of my loins out with my claws before I’ll let any of them take me!”

She managed to rake herself on the belly before Ratha and Fessran managed to grab her paws. They forced her down, then held her, panting.

Ratha knew that Bira’s reaction wasn’t just rage at being forced. Bira already knew the heartbreak of bearing an animal-eyed litter — cubs without the Named light. Ratha, too, had known it, and Thistle might as well.

Ratha crouched down beside Bira, trying to comfort her.“You will survive this, Firekeeper. Fess and I will defend you as long as we can. When Thakur hears I was taken, he and the other males will attack and rescue us. And if you do have cubs sired upon you, by force, don’t despair. Mating outside the clan doesn’t have to result in tragedy. See how wrong I was about Thistle.”

As Ratha tried to soothe Bira, Thistle came over, trying not to limp, and positioned herself on one side of Bira while Fessran took the other. As Fessran passed Ratha, she hissed very softly,“She won’t resist, you know. None of us will fight them when the time comes.”

Again Ratha wanted to swat Fessran, but she knew the older Firekeeper was speaking the truth.

Standing side-on to Fessran and giving her a narrow-eyed glare, Ratha heard Bira pleading,“I have to care for the one who takes me — please, this is so wrong….”

Ratha felt her tail bottle with rage. She whirled, facing New Singer, snarling,“This is useless! Such a mating won’t take or hold!”

Even as she spoke, Ratha knew she was mistaken. The way the atmosphere of the courting circle intensified her own heat told her that the mating would hold. Even in a female who had been barren for the last few seasons…

Her mind replayed Fessran’s words again. Being surrounded by excited and odorous males heightened not only the urge but fertility as well. Fessran was right when she said, “This is what the courting circle does, Ratha.”

She glanced at Thistle and Fessran guarding Bira. Perhaps the young Firekeeper’s self-destructive action might not be so crazy after all….

No. She might have done such a thing when she was younger and more impulsive, but not now. Bearing what she thought were witless cubs hadn’t ended her life and wouldn’t even if it happened again. You will survive this, she told herself as she had told Bira.

She saw Thistle crouch down beside Bira, offering her own comfort.“Will fight for you as well. If they make you have cubs and any of them are like me, will be friend to them, will teach them.”

Bira, calming, managed to whisper that she was grateful to Thistle for those words. Ratha felt a surge of pride that her daughter, despite her own injury, uncertainty, and fear, was strong enough to comfort someone else. With a nose-touch and a head-bump, she praised Thistle.

She faced out to the enclosing circle, feeling more able to defy those impatient eyes. As she watched, there was a disturbance in the circle. Someone else had arrived and was taking a place. He entered on the far side of the circle, behind the campfire so that Ratha couldn’t see the colors of his eyes or his coat. The firelight that reflected from his eyes fell on her with an unsettling intensity. It made Ratha wonder if he would be the one to approach and take her. She tried to catch his scent, but it was so overlaid with campfire smoke and the odors of courting,she couldn’t. Her eyes, however, fixed on him briefly before she turned her head away.

The moment had yet to come. Beyond the dancing light from the fire, the males yowled and shifted, waiting.

Back in their rocky refuge above the waterfall, the clan males came together in a somber meeting. They had pastured the recovered herdbeasts and posted scouts to warn of any reprisal. Thakur felt that things were improving for the Named until dark covered the refuge and Ratha didn’t appear.

“Now we’re the ones that will have to go hunting for females,” grumbled Mondir, settling himself beside the small flame that threw shadows across the tumbled granite of their shelter. “Why did you let her go, Thakur?”

Thakur, sitting beside Cherfan, flattened his ears at Mondir. He was tired from rounding up herdbeasts, and Mondir’s question had clawed a little too deep. “I didn’t see you trying to stop her.”

“Enough,” growled Cherfan, who had been made interim clan leader and didn’t want the job. “We have to figure out how to get her and the others back. And the fire-den and clan ground.”

“Well, we have the Red Tongue again,” said Khushi. “If we charge at New Singer with torches, he and the others will run.”

Thakur caught an uncertain look from Cherfan.“Khushi, these invaders are not like the Un-Named,” the herding teacher said wearily. “Thanks to us, they have learned a lot about fire. Our losing fight with them showed how much they knew.”

Thakur looked at the ground between his paws, already missing Ratha deeply.“The usurpers won’t be scared off. For one thing, they have the Red Tongue. For another, they have Fessran and other Firekeepers. New Singer can force the females to fight back with torches, so we’d be facing our own sisters, daughters, and mates.”

A discouraged silence fell over the group.

“What about treelings?” asked Ashon. “Treelings can hold torches, and they can throw things. They can climb trees and drop rocks.”

“We could use the tree-creatures if we have to,” rumbled Cherfan, giving Bira’s treeling a lick that nearly soaked Cherfaree. “We don’t have that many, though. I’d hate to see them get hurt or killed.”