Cherenkova looked at Yiao-Rrit and Chmee-Captain in front of her, leaning forward, tails twitching with ill-concealed eagerness, and realization dawned. The kzinretti were wildcats in desperate heat. She was watching an alien strip show. The third dancer leapt and wailed. She looked at her beltcomp. They were still more than twenty hours from Kzinhome.
“Where does honor come from?” asked Conserver.
“It comes from skill,” said the first kit.
“Very good,” said Conserver. “You shall be Artisan,” and then again he asked, “Where does honor come from?”
“It comes from courage,” said the second kit.
“Very good,” said Conserver. “You shall be Warrior,” and then again he asked, “Where does honor come from?”
“It comes from integrity,” said the third kit.
“Very good,” said Conserver. “You shall be Patriarch.” And as he said it, so it was.
All at once the void was gone and Pouncer found himself lying on the ground in the Puzzle Garden maze. His throat hurt and he realized the scream echoing from the distant fortress walls was his own.
His throat was ragged, raw. How long had he been screaming? How long had been lying there? The shadows were long. Evening then, but as his vision swam into focus he realized that was wrong. The air was rich with dew scent. He found Forgotten Tower, high on the edge of the Middle Rampart, followed its shadow. It pointed west. It was morning.
He'd been there almost a full day? Was that possible? In his mind it had seemed an eternity. He became aware of a presence. Patriarch's Telepath was staring down at him.
“I was dead. My mind was gone…”
“You have passed your test.” Telepath's voice was flat and tired, exhaustion heavy on his wasted features.
“I felt as though I couldn't breathe.”
“Many times you did not breathe.”
Not breathing? That thought gave him pause. “Patriarch's Telepath.”
“Yes?”
“That place I was in… Could I… would I, have died there, had I not passed the test?”
“To survive is to pass the test, to die is to fail it.”
Anger came over Pouncer, but washed out, faded anger with no strength behind it. “That is too dangerous. You must not do that again. Not to me, not to anyone.” He tried to stand and failed.
“Not all necessary things are safe.”
“I nearly died. I wasn't ready.”
“I knew you would not fail.”
“Then why the test?” Pouncer would have screamed, if he had had the strength. “Why put me through that?”
“You also had to know you would not fail.” Telepath's head dipped to his couch and his eyes slid closed. “The maze path has been changed.” I already know this, thought Pouncer. I am more observant than he thinks. Patriarch's Telepath waved a paw wearily. “You are exactly as observant as I think. Your mind is oppressive. Leave me now. Events are beyond immediate control. I have much to do, and I need to rest.”
Pouncer started to say something, thought better of it, and stayed silent. With an effort he found his feet. The waiting Whrloo buzzed into the air and Pouncer followed it again. Unlike the route in, the route out past the changed gates was long and convoluted, and the sun was almost down before he made it back to the outer Puzzle Garden. Pouncer was not entirely surprised to find Rrit-Conserver still waiting for him at the maze entrance, for all he could see, in the exact same position he had been in when Pouncer left.
“You knew what was going to happen.” The anger Pouncer had been unable to muster at Telepath spilled over onto his mentor.
“I knew as much as Patriarch's Telepath would tell me.”
“What did he tell you? That he would gut my brain like a prey animal? That I might die in battle with my own mind?”
“He told me you would pass.”
“He told me that himself, afterward.” Pouncer shivered involuntarily. The blackness. “I am not convinced.”
“Rage is death.”
“Rage is…” Pouncer's lips twitched over his fangs and he felt the kill rage coming over him at the platitude, but regained self-control with an effort. He is right. I am acting from anger. I have passed, whether they knew in advance or not, whether I might have died or not, I have passed, I have survived. He breathed deeply and repeated the mantra. Rage is death Fear is death. Telepath's test had been more trying than simple annoyance with Conserver.
After a long moment he spoke, his voice level. “Have you been tested like that yourself, Conserver?”
“Telepaths will not share minds with Conservers.”
“Why is that?”
“It is against the traditions.”
“You taught me that no tradition exists without reason.”
“Hrrr.” Rrit-Conserver looked at First-Son with care. He is gaining wisdom. He will make a good Patriarch. He composed his answer carefully. “They have their reasons, I am sure. They are not well treated by our culture, and we Conservers hold the keys to that culture, we and the Priesthood. They work for the long term, as do we. It is not necessarily the same long term.”
“He said events were overtaking us. What events?” Why was I tested so early?
“The Great Pride Circle is meeting. The Patriarchy is at a turning point. Our growth has been checked by the monkey-humans. Worse, we have gained the hyperdrive…”
“Hyperdrive is not new.”
“Its use throughout the Patriarchy has reached a saturation point. Its reliability approaches absolute, and it is now the dominant means of transport. We cannot continue as we have before.”
“The humans have shown nothing but advantage in possessing it. We now communicate faster than light, mass forces in an instant. How can this fail to aid us?”
Conserver waved a paw hand down, this-does-not-follow. “This technology does not serve us as it serves them.”
“Technology is neutral. It is up to us to find its best application.”
“You must understand the difference between ourselves and humans. We feed at the top of the food chain, and it is very difficult for us to move lower. At the bottom of the chain are photosynthetic plants. They provide the totality of energy available to the system. Every layer above them represents a drop in available energy of nearly eight-squared times. When you eat a grashi burrower you are using energy only one-over-eight-to-the-sixth as efficiently as the plants eaten by the insects that the grashi eat.”
“I fail to see the connection.”
“Each kzin require a tremendous amount of resources. We are large, warm-blooded carnivores. We require a tremendous amount of energy, all of it filtered through several layers of food chain. The sheer physical space required to support that many plants is a major constraint on our population density. We are evolved to live in these low population densities, and so we respond poorly to crowded conditions. The amount of a planet's surface we can use is small compared to the amount humans can use.”
“This is irrelevant to the application of the hyperdrive.”