"Yes," Acorna said, "I will return as soon as I can."
"Remember," Miw-Sher said, "don't be afraid. Nothing can hurt you, and even if it could, your guardian will protect you."
Acorna ducked low into the wall. Once she was past the entrance, the opening grew taller so she could walk upright. Miw-Sher waved from the opening, then started. "Someone is coming. Safe journey."
With that the door shut behind her, the darkness deepened, and the sounds of the courtyard were snuffed out like a candle flame. RK stiffened in her arms. His fur bristled and his claws pricked her arm. When she touched his head to quiet him, his curs were laid back. A low growl leaked through his teeth.
And then she heard it, too. Coming from inside the surrounding walls, there was a whisper like blowing sand or a serpent's hissing. As she listened more intently, the whisper rose to a mumble and she thought she could make out separate words.
She stroked RK soothingly and listened with her mind as well as her ears. The words were incomprehensible but the feelings behind them were anxious, angry, frustrated, and also fear.
The emotional storm they created enveloped her and RK. The cat's tail switched back and forth, back and forth, faster and harder. He puffed to twice his size, but Acorna was the only recipient of his bared claws.
His growl grew in his throat, and as it grew, a corresponding growl entered the words until they ended in a hollow, reverberating roar Acorna was sure would bring everyone running. Just as she stepped forward, however, the roar was replaced by a calmer sound, a deep and throaty purr. RK's tail no longer switched, and his ears, when she touched them, were pricked forward, alert but calm. The hair on the cat's back gradually settled down sleekly along his spine. RK was sending no thoughts at that point for her to receive, nor had he from the beginning, but now the cat settled into a relieved purr that seemed to be echoed by whatever it was that lived inside the walls of this Temple.
Miw-Sher's skin twitched as she listened to the noise within the wall. Grimla mewed plaintively. Miw-Sher was glad the occasion had arisen to introduce Acorna to the wall's resident. There was so much to explain, so much to ask, but she sensed a firm ally in Acorna if only she could enlist the ambassador's help without alerting her enemies.
When the roar came, Miw-Sher had already reached the cattery and deposited Grimla within it. Her beloved friend could not help just now. The cat needed to gain strength. Miw-Sher was loath to leave Grimla and the other cats, even for a short time, but she could not stay inside the Temple without knowing what was happening. When she was once more in the darkness of the back courtyard, she changed quickly and leaped to the top of the wall and over.
Five
The grub wasn't nearly as good as advertised, Becker thought, but to give him credit, Macostut, after a bite or two of his own meal, apologized for it. "Usually our facility can offer excellent fresh meat and vegetables to our guests, and I automatically promised that when I invited you. The truth is, the disease the Mulzar mentioned has caused the Makahomians to quarantine the meat animals and forbid their slaughter for food. Since, as you mentioned, Captain MacDonald, diseases such as this may be caused by some problem in the food or soil, we have also had to process our fresh vegetables until they are no longer in their most edible condition."
Becker was gracious. "It's better than cat food," he said incautiously.
"I beg your pardon?" Mulzar Kando replied.
Nadhari began damage control. "Captain Becker is a thrifty and resourceful man. He accepts many commodities in trade for his salvage. One of his regular customers gives him large quantities of cat food. There have been times during his more perilous journeys when he sustained himself by eating that when other rations were unavailable."
Kando looked interested. "Hmmm, perhaps, if we have something you would like to trade tor, we could take some of the cat food off your hands? If the diet of our Temple cats is indeed responsible for the disease that has decimated them, some alternative food may provide relief until we can bring the problem under control."
Becker thought for a moment. "Maybe. I had the impression you folks don't use a lot of machinery."
"That has always been true in the past, certainly," Kando said.
"You got any hard-copy books, maybe? I could trade for some of those."
"No, I fear not. Our writing tends toward sacred subjects and is usually inscribed upon monuments."
"Is that so? Seems like you'd have to write down your laws and rulings on things, your history, that kind of thing."
Kando appeared genuinely grieved. "Alas, I fear that being always at war has undermined our ability to retain such ephemeral documents. Battles are recorded only by the bards of the winners. The possessions of the losers that are not looted are burned in the victory bonfires."
"I can see where that might present a problem," Becker said. "How about those stones in your necklaces? Got any of those you're willing to trade?"
Everybody but him and Scar laughed as if he was being intentionally funny.
"No, I'm serious," Becker said, holding up his hands for silence. He explained. "As a gemstone, they're not considered to be worth a lot-I mean, at least not elsewhere-but they have other uses."
"He's right," MacDonald said. "They've used them a lot in spot terrestoration."
"We're only laughing, Jonas," Nadhari said, "because no matter what was offered for one of the sacred eyes, we would never trade or sell it. The stones are religious items, you see. They are believed to have been given to us by the earliest deities of our people."
"Oh, well, no offense meant," Becker said. "Just tryin' to drum up a little business. Didn't mean to interfere with anybody's religion. But they're used for a special kind of particle beam-"
"Ah-ah, Captain Becker," Macostut said, waving his finger in warning. "Such things are not relevant to the Mulzar's culture."
"Oh, of course, sorry," Becker said again, and wished himself back on the Condor, where he was not so socially inept.
The Mulzar waved both of his hands as if to blow away the smoke of embarrassment. "Nothing to be sorry for at all, Captain Becker. Dsu forgets sometimes that while my culture may be more or less uncontaminated, I myself was contaminated at an early age by no lesser agent than the Federation itself. I was well aware at the time that stones similar to our sacred ones were used as particle beam accelerators to produce bladelike laser beams for mining. We have very fine stones here, and I am sure you will be extremely sorry when you see them that my people will not allow me to trade any of them for your cat food."
This time the laughter was unanimous. Becker thought Kando was probably an okay guy after all. And he was Nadhari's cousin. If anyone had an insight into how to bring his former lover out of her funk, Cousin Edu and the old folks at home might be the ones.
Whatever else was affected by the planet's current difficulties, the wine was fine, if undistinguished, and everyone was enjoying it and becoming quite relaxed under its influence.