Ratha and Thistle-Chaser (The Third Book of the Named) (26 page)

Ratha closed her eyes, and for an instant Thakur thought she couldn’t answer the question.

“I think the best answer to that,” Ratha said, “is to have Fessran bring Mishanti over here.”

When the Firekeeper had placed the cub between Ratha and Thistle-chaser, Ratha said, “Look at him. If there is light in his eyes, it is hard to see, isn’t it?” As the Firekeeper started to bristle, she added, “No, Fessran. I’m not making a judgment of him now. For one thing, I’m hardly in a condition to do that. I just want to show Thistle-chaser something she needs to know.” Ratha nudged Mishanti so that he faced Thistle-chaser.

“That is what you looked like to me,” Ratha said. “I looked in your eyes and could not see what I wanted the most; the promise that you would grow up as one of the Named, be able to speak, think, and know what names mean.” She looked up at her daughter, half-angry, half-pleading. “Can you understand? I had seen the empty faces of the Un-Named and to think that you would be like them... I couldn’t bear it. I clawed Bonechewer. I bit you. I didn’t realize it would wound you so badly. I didn’t know.”

Thistle-chaser bent her head and thoughtfully licked the collar of rough fur that hid her scar. Then she gave Ratha a searching look. “Am I what you... are afraid of?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” Ratha admitted.

“Am I what you wanted?”

“I’m not sure about that either,” Ratha confessed. She looked away. “You lived so long without me, do you really care what I think?”

Newt looked as if she were struggling to put the right words together. At last she said, “I did not live without you. We both made Dreambiter.”

Ratha’s jaw trembled. “There is no way I can take back what I did. And I know you can’t pretend it didn’t happen. That trail is not an easy one.”

“You do one thing for me,” Newt said. “Help me let Dreambiter go.”

“How?” Ratha’s gaze went to Thakur. He could see the lostness in her eyes.

He answered, “The Dreambiter is everything in you that she dreads and fears.”

“But I am not just that,” Ratha said, pleading. “Thakur, tell her. I’m not.”

“You will have to show her yourself. By not judging, not pushing, and learning patience.”

Ratha looked away from him toward Newt. Nervously licking the tip of her nose, she gave a soft come-here purr. Newt crouched then crept to her, putting her head beneath Ratha’s chin. Slowly, tentatively, Thakur saw Ratha lick the top of Newt’s head. She gave a startled grimace. Obviously the sea had not rinsed away all of the sea-beast tang from Newt’s fur. But she did not let the rhythm of her licking falter. She sent a defiant glance toward Thakur.

Then Newt withdrew her head and settled nearby, laying her head on her forepaws.

“I think this gives us a lesson about judging cubs,” Thakur observed. “If we could be so wrong about Thistle-chaser, what about others? The thing we call the light in our eyes is more than just that. I think it shows itself in many ways and we must learn to see it in whatever form it takes.”

He saw Newt twitch her tail impatiently. “What about him?” she said, pointing her nose at Mishanti.

“Well, I guess we should let him grow a little more; give him the chance that we didn’t give you,” Ratha answered.

“No,” Newt said abruptly, startling everyone. She rushed on, her anger making her strangely eloquent. “It won’t work. He is like I was. Different. None of you will have the patience to teach him. You will always be thinking that he should be this or should be that. Even if you try not to, you will. And someone will get impatient and bite him.”

Fessran narrowed her eyes at Newt. “Then what do you suggest?”

“Let me take Mishanti, teach him what I know.”

The Firekeeper grumbled to herself, but Thakur heard Ratha say, “She’s right. We would get impatient with him. Even you, Fessran.”

“I’m not sure that she’s the best... ” Fessran started.
 

“Well, she may not be, but we certainly didn’t do any better,” Ratha argued. Then she turned to Newt. “I’d like you to come into the clan and help Fessran with Mishanti.”

Thakur saw Fessran sit up, startled. “You mean you’re not going to throw me out? Even after what I did?”

“No, singe-whiskers.” Ratha grinned at her. “Who else can I depend on to tell me when I’m running the wrong trail? Thakur often knows, but his voice is sometimes too soft. Fessran’s yowl I can’t help but hear. Even if I do disagree.”

“You may not have been entirely wrong,” Fessran said softly, looking at Mishanti, who was frisking about with his tail. “He hasn’t shown any ability to speak.”

“Perhaps he doesn’t need to.” The interruption was Newt’s. “I didn’t. Not for long time. Perhaps he the same way.”

“But words are important to us in the clan,” Ratha said. “And they are important to you now. I thought you wanted to come into the clan. There is no reason why we can’t accept you.”

Newt gathered herself together. “I don’t want your clan. My seamares give me what I need. I want to be with you,” she said, turning to her mother, “but as... friend, not leader.”

Ratha’s whiskers sagged a little. Thakur imagined that she thought Newt would be eager to end her long isolation and be welcomed back among the Named. But Newt’s adversity had fostered a sense of independence that could not be given up easily.

“Let me take Mishanti,” she said, looking at Ratha and Fessran. “Let me teach him to live with seamares. Let me keep my own ground and my own way and make my own choice to be with the Named or not. That is what I ask.”

Thakur turned to the two, who were staring at each other with disgruntled looks.

“I hate to mention this,” said Fessran, pointing toward the cub with her nose. The wound over his ribs had stopped bleeding and was crusted with dried blood. “You were the one who ripped up his side. Can I trust you?”

Newt looked down at her paws. “He is hurt. I was hurt. We both share that.”

“I know, but is it... ” Fessran began.

“This is part of letting the Dreambiter go,” Newt answered.

“I think I understand what she means,” Ratha said softly to Fessran. “I think she’s right. It is the best way, though not the easiest.” She addressed Newt again. “Since we have enough grazing and water for the herdbeasts to breed well, we can concentrate on the three-horns and dapplebacks, while you and Mishanti herd the seamares. Is that what you want?”

“Knock down the pen and let your seamares out,” Newt said. “They can’t live behind thorns and sticks. They need the beaches.”

“She’s right, Ratha,” Thakur added. “The beasts aren’t eating, and they’ll soon get sick.”

He could see that she disliked the idea of abandoning the pen after all the effort that had gone into making it. “Perhaps the seamares aren’t the best animals for our purposes, and trying to pen them was a mistake,” Ratha admitted. “We have what we need to survive. Yes, I will let them go, and you can live among them with Mishanti. I haven’t been able to give you much, but at least I can give you that. Is it enough?”

“Yes.” Newt bent down and touched noses with Ratha. “I am glad that my Dreambiter has become my mother,” Thakur heard her hiss softly. She turned to Thakur. “Will you help me give the gift of words to Mishanti when the time comes?”

He felt himself grinning. “If you’ll teach me to swim.”

“Thistle, what about me?” Fessran asked, sounding forlorn. “I’d like to see him sometimes.”

“You love Mishanti,” Thistle-chaser said, facing the Firekeeper. “I turn to you if I feeling mad with him. Is enough?”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Fessran promised.

“Well, now that we’ve got all this sorted out,” Thakur put in, “perhaps we should think about finding our way back before the tide comes in again. Ratha, can you walk?”

He watched her get shakily to her feet. She took a few steps, winced, and drew up her battered forepaw. “I’ll limp, but I’ll get there.”

Newt came alongside her. “Use your hind legs more and bring them under you. Then you can take bigger steps.”

Thakur saw Ratha give Newt an exasperated look, but she took the offered advice.

“Well, you can’t deny she knows what she’s talking about,” he observed.

“Now you’ve got two of us,” Ratha retorted, hobbling beside her daughter.

“Not for long. You’ve just got a sprain, and Newt’s leg needs only a rest and a little more strengthening.” He led the way, looking back as Ratha and Newt followed.

“If I see that wretched fish, I’ll bite his tail off,” Fessran growled through her mouthful of Mishanti’s scruff fur. Then she padded after, starting the long up and down scramble and swim that would bring them back to the jetty.

The four made their way across the islands and at last regained the jetty by the time twilight was starting to fall. Above, clouds were gathering, and startled seamares honked at the bedraggled party, as Thakur, Ratha, Newt, and Fessran climbed along the spine of rock that led back to the beach. Ratha found herself lagging behind the others, even though they tried to slow down to her tired pace.

Newt did not want to return with them to the forested area where the Named had settled. Instead, she asked Fessran for Mishanti, and when the Firekeeper reluctantly let him down, she picked him up by the scruff and padded away with him.

“That poor cub is going to be so confused by all of this,” Fessran said.

“Stop worrying. She said you can visit him,” Thakur answered.

The sky had been clouding over again. Ratha looked up as a heavy raindrop splashed down on her nose. Billowing gray clouds stretched across the sea and were rolling inland. Another raindrop struck her back. Soon the rain pattered down all around Ratha and her two companions as they crossed the beach, climbed the bluff, and made their way back to the forested pool beneath the cliff.

While Ratha soothed her bruised and aching foreleg in the pool, Thakur went off to collect Aree and Ratharee from the trees where they had been placed for safekeeping. Fessran yawned then climbed up to a slate-colored ledge, where she curled up out of the rain and fell asleep.

Ratha let her leg dangle in the pool, overhanging ferns and branches sheltering her. She smelled the storm, the cool, wet air, and the rain. This looked like a big storm: one that might move far enough inland to break the drought.

Before long Thakur arrived, bringing both treelings. Ratharee chirred with delight and took up her customary place on Ratha’s shoulder.

“Listen,” Ratha said, pricking her ears to the soft hiss of rain falling through the trees.

Thakur sat in the open, letting the downpour rinse sea salt from his coat. At last he shook himself off and lay down near Ratha. “If that keeps up, the streams will soon be running again on our old home ground,” he said. “Are you thinking we might be able to return?”

“Not for a while. And I don’t want to leave Thistlechaser chaser all alone again.” Ratha laid her nose on one paw, extending the other to Thakur to have it skillfully licked and massaged.

“You were disappointed when she said she didn’t want to join the clan.”

Ratha grunted. “I was surprised. I thought she’d jump at the chance. Instead she turned her tail on it.”

“She’s impetuous, stubborn, and wants to do things her way. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t. After all, she is your daughter.” Thakur nibbled a toe-claw.

She is your daughter.
The phrase whispered gently in her mind, blending with the sigh of the falling rain.
My daughter. One who is stubborn, willful, strong, self-reliant, and resourceful—and one to take pride in.

It occurred to her that Thistle-chaser had changed something else as well. Bonechewer, her Un-Named father, had been Thakur’s brother. If, as Thakur said, cubs from such matings had the same potential as those whose parents both came from the clan, even if their development was not as rapid, then perhaps such pairings might not be as risky as Ratha had once thought. She had already learned that there were individuals with worthy qualities among the Un-Named.

She closed her eyes, feeling Thakur’s tongue soothe the ache from her leg. “Herding teacher, perhaps you won’t need to go away when the next mating season comes.”

He lay down next to her. “Would you be willing to accept another cub like Thistle-chaser?”

“What she might have been like if I hadn’t turned on Bonechewer and bitten her... ” Ratha sighed.

“She still has that chance,” Thakur answered. “You know, Ratha, I sensed something about her that I don’t understand. To us she seems slow, but I think she understands certain things in a way we don’t. It’s not just cleverness; it’s something else. You know that our cubs take longer to grow up than the young of those creatures who don’t think or speak. If Thistle-chaser and cubs like her grow even more slowly, perhaps it is not because they are less than we, but more.”

Ratha rolled on her back, letting Ratharee scramble onto her chest. “That is an uncomfortable thought, Thakur.”

“That seems to be the way of the Named, to think uncomfortable thoughts, to do uncomfortable things,” said Thakur slowly. “But our feet are set on this path, and we can’t turn aside. Nor would I want to.” He stretched himself, groomed his back.

Ratha lay with her treeling on her chest between her raised forepaws. There had been two other cubs in the same litter that produced Thistle-chaser. Could either one of the siblings have survived? If so, what would they be like? Perhaps one day she would search for them and find out. It would be, as Thakur said, a difficult thing to do. But such an effort could bring its own reward, such as the quiet joy she felt now.