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is man, this food here beneath me. Saliva dripped from his jowls. You want it
for yourself.
A TAPESTRY OF LIONS 291
Come away, she said. You have wounds to be healed. So have I.
The dogs hurt you?
I have hurts. So do you. Come away, lir. We will have them healed.
Nearby a door was opened. Someone looked out into the street. He heard a
gabble of voices. He understood none of the words- Noise, no more; the noise
of puny humans.
He lowered his jaws. Blood, sweat, urine, fear, and death commingled in a
powerful perfume. He would taste it
NO. The female was at his side. She leaned a shoulder into his. Her chin
rubbed at his head. If you would feed here, there will be no choice but to
kill you.
Who would kill me? Who would dare?
Men.
Inner knowledge gloated. They could not accom-
plish it.
She leaned harder, rubbing against his neck.
They could. They would. Come away, lir. You are badly hurt.
Another door opened. A slash of candlelight slanted into the street. In its
illumination he saw the dead hounds, the slack hulk of a man. Voices cried
out, full of terror.
Away? he asked. But the food
Leave it, she said. There is better elsewhere.
The big cat hurt. His wounds were uncounted, and untended; he required
tending. He went with her then because the urge to feed had left him. He felt
disoriented and distant, unsure of himself. She led him away from the alley to
another not far away and found a hidden comer.
Here, she said, nudging at a shoulder.
She was wounded, he saw. Blood spiked the fur on her spine. He turned to her.
tending the bites, 292 Jennifer Robersm licking to wash the blood away. She
had been hurt by the hounds, torn and tainted by the audacity of mere beasts
who did not know what it was to be gods-blessed.
Leave it, she said. Remember what you are.
He paused. / am He checked.
Gold eyes were intent. What are you?
I am as you see me.
No.
I am I am
Remember! she snapped. Recall your knowledge of self .
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He could not. He was what he was.
She leaned against him. He smelled her fear, her blood. She was alien to him,
who did not know what she was to him. Stay here. You are too badly wounded to
walk. Wait here for me.
It frightened him. Where are you going?
For help. Stay here.
She left him. He crouched against the wall, tail whipping a counterpoint to
the pain in his foreleg, in his ribs, in his jaws. Licking intensified pain.
He flattened his ears against his head and pulled back his lips from his teeth
in a feral grimace of pain and fear.
She had left him alone, and now he was
helpless.
Men came. And torches. The big cat shied back, huddling into a comer as he
snarled and growled a warning. He slitted eyes against the flame and saw
silhouettes, man-shapes holding sticks with fire blooming from them. He
smelled them: they stank of anticipation, apprehension; the giddy tang of an
excitement nearly sexual, as if they hoped to mate once the task was done. The
odor was strong. It filled up his nostrils and entered his head, causing the
reflex response that dropped
A TAPESTRY OF LtONS 293
open his jaws. Raspy in- and exhalations as he scented the men made him sound
like a bellows.
Lir. It was the female. Sima. Lir, do not fear.
They have come to help, not harm.
Fire.
They will come no closer, save one. She slunk out of the blinding light into
his slime-coated corner.
Blood crusted across her shoulders; she had run, and bled again. Let the man
come.
He permitted it. He pressed himself against the wall and waited, one swollen
paw dangling.
Breathing hurt. He hissed and shook his head; a tooth in his jaw was broken.
The man came away from the fire. Kellin could not judge him by any but a cat's
standards: his hair was silver like frost in winter sunlight, and his eyes
glowed like coals. Metal glinted on naked arms, bared by a shed cloak despite
the winter's bite.
"Kellin." The man knelt down on one knee, un-
mindful of the muck that would soil his leathers.
"Kellin."
The cat opened his mouth and panted. Pain caused him to drool.
"Kellin, you must loose the cat-shape. There is no more need."
The cat rumbled a growl; he could not understand.
The man sighed and rose, turned back to the men with flames. He spoke quietly,
and they melted away. Light followed them, so that though empty of men the
corner still shone with a sickly,
frenzied pallor.
The men were gone. In their places was a void, a blurred nothingness that
filled the alley. And then a tawny mountain cat stalked out of the fad-
ing flame-dazzle with another at his side: a mag-
nificent black female well into her prime. Her
294 Jennifer Robersoa grace denounced the gangliness of the young fe-
male with Kellin who was, after all, little more than a cub.
Three mountain cats: two black, one tawny gold. In his mind formed the images
that in hu- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]