"Raiders?" Acorna asked Tagoth and Nadhari.
"Not necessarily," Tagoth said. He put himself between the newcomers and the flitter and wagons, and said a few words to the riders in an unfamiliar dialect.
Then he turned back to MacDonald. "These are the heads of families from the steppes beyond the Mog-Gim Plateau. They have heard from their relatives in the city that you have magic boxes that grow food, and that you can heal sick beasts. They want the boxes and the healing."
MacDonald smiled amiably at them and said, "That's what we're here for. This wagon right here is all yours, boys. Haul 'er away. As for the healing, I have a few tricks up my sleeve, but I haven't tried 'em yet, so we'll just have to see how much good I can do you on that score."
Acorna examined the sweating, straining beasts the men were riding. She could see the signs of the plague in them. Some of these animals would not make it back where they came from again if she and her friends did not intercede. She beckoned to MacDonald and picked up Pash, carrying him with her. He purred like a buzz saw in her arms.
"Tagoth, please tell these gentlemen that Captain MacDonald and I will attempt to treat these sick beasts with the help of this sacred guardian cat," Acorna said.
Tagoth declared their intention in priestly intonations worthy of the Mulzar at his most pompous.
"Okay, Ambassador, honey, what do we do now?" MacDonald whispered. "I can't cure these critters on the spot, you know."
"With the help of the sacred cat, I can."
"If the sacred cat is so darned important, how come they needed you to cure them?"
"Oh, it's a healer's thing. Most of the time a healer cannot heal him or herself."
"Okay, I guess I'll buy that."
"You take that side of the beast and look clinical and busy. We'll take this other side, and I'll help Pash heal."
"Gotcha." And aloud he said, "Lay on them healin' paws, O holy cat!"
Pash looked inquiringly at Acorna. She held Pash up to the beast and leaned in with the cat so that her horn touched the beast's hide as she pretended to listen to Pash meow the results of this examination.
The three of them repeated this operation with each of the sick beasts until Mac Donald declared them cured, dusting his hands to emphasize that the task was done.
"We have many more beasts that need curing, including our own sacred cats," the man said. "And we want your food boxes."
"Okay," MacDonald said agreeably, then turned to Acorna, "Whatcha think, Ambassador? How do we work this?"
"You and the Wats drive a wagon behind the riders. If they will be so kind as to have one of their number lead us to their Temple, I will supervise the curing of their cats there while you demonstrate the use of the food boxes and examine their other beasts out in their fields. Then I will try to visit the rainforest Temple and heal their cats, and come back to see what I can do for the other beasts."
"Acorna," Becker protested, "you're gonna wear yourself out that way."
"Perhaps," she said, raising and lifting a shoulder in a shrug. "But this is an emergency. We have a planet and a species to save. What else can we do? Lead the way, Captain MacDonald. We'll be right along."
She looked around for Tagoth and Nadhari, but they both had somehow melted into the desert without anyone seeing them leave.
She silently wished them well on their separate missions.
As MacDonald jiggled his reins and clicked his tongue at the beasts pulling the first wagon in their little convoy, he was followed by the wagons driven by Sandy Wat and Red Wat. Just as they disappeared off in the distance, another party of people arrived, this time a group of mixed sexes and on foot.
The stout woman who seemed to be their leader said to Acorna, "I watched you on the balcony with the Mulzar. So, are you going to help us or not?" She gave a nod toward the last wagonload of boxes, the one that Nadhari had driven, which was now driverless, its beast of burden seemingly pleased to be standing still instead of moving.
"I am afraid we can't remain here to help you right now," Acorna said. "As I'm sure you know, the Mulzar wants to imprison us and kill the sacred cats, and we must save "ourselves and them. But we can give you all the tools you need to help yourself. They are in that wagon, if you would like to have them."
"Well, then, we'll take them with us. This thing can only slow you down and you cannot take it when you fly through the air, can you? When the Mulzar leaves to fight his battles, you and the spaceman come back and help us to use these. Fighting's all very well for the warriors who'll be able to live off our land, but with our beasts all gone and the drought and all, we farmers have no other options. We will starve."
"Not if you use those boxes. We will seek other answers for you as well. We are going abroad to other lands to see how they have dealt with the sickness."
"You do that. And keep our sacred cats safe, will you? Bring them back with those kittens you promised our people."
The woman's face and voice were determined, but she winked at Acorna-or maybe it was Becker, since she wore a rather saucy expression as she flounced up onto the buckboard and clucked at the beasts, turned them, and waited while the rest of her party climbed aboard with the boxes before driving off again.
It seemed that the Mulzar's people had made their minds up after his balcony performance. And Acorna thought again that Edu Kando was in for a surprise when he learned who they believed and which side they were on.
"Well, I can see you've been busy," Becker said. "We'd better fly before anybody else shows up looking for help or a buddy to help start the revolution."
Acorna nodded and they ascended in the flitter, accelerating until they saw the dust from the various riders and the wagons. Flying past the riders close enough above them to be seen and yet not so close as to frighten the beasts, Acorna tipped the wings of the flitter. One rider broke off from the others and rode hard to the south, waving at her to follow. Acorna allowed the man to get ahead of them, then swooped after him.
Soon they were no longer in the desert, but were sailing over broad foothills and plains, crisscrossed with rivers and streams- the landscape of the steppes she recalled from Nadhari's mental images. They saw the Temple long before their guide reached it. It sat in the middle of a green river delta. The cat whose shape this temple bore was long and hunkered down to drink-its tongue was a drawbridge, now lowered, and its tail a wall to a moat. Guardian priests stood behind its ears.
Surrounding it on the green were herds of beasts, and from the air a mile away Acorna could smell their sickness.
Acorna said, "We should stop and help them."
RK replied, (Cats first. Those are just ordinary food animals. What good are they compared with the lives of Grimla's and the guys' fellow holy cats?)
(You have no objection to eating those animals you disdain so much,) Acorna told the cat rather sharply.
To her surprise, RK actually considered for a moment, then said, (Hmmm, right you are. Still, cats first, then the food beasts.)
(If there are any cats still living at this Temple,) Acorna said, her voice tight at the grim thought that they might have died while she dallied in Hissim.
(Oh, most of them are still alive. I can hear that. But they are very sick and already have lost two of their number,) RK told her.
And suddenly Acorna heard them too. Thin, plaintive yowls, sick strangled coughing, and the kittens-the poor little things were as quiet and limp as damp rags. Becker said, "You and the kid and the cats go do your thing, Princess. I'll guard the flitter and lift off in case anyone tries to hijack it."
Acorna said, "I don't suppose anyone here would know how to fly it anyway."