A sudden howling and trembling filled Guthlac's ears and the air trembled. Sonic stunners, he realized. He struggled for consciousness. Just before everything went black he saw a squad of troops in UNSN combat gear, another squad in the gray of the Free Wunderland Forces, charging down the corridor, Cumpston at their head, and another who he recognized as Markham.
Raargh deposited Leonie and Dimity in a sheltered alcove. Another run secured Dimity's medical equipment. He rolled on the ground and beat at the flames on his fur.
“My Honored Step-Sire is in much pain,” Vaemar told Dimity. “Can you ease it?”
“Yes, yes, I think so.” She extracted a needle from the small field-doc. A gauge showed it was much depleted but not yet empty. “It's human specific, but it ought to work.”
“Yes,” said Vaemar. “Human and kzin have similar body chemistry. It leads to interesting speculations as to our common microbe origins. Proteins are not identical but we can eat same food for a long time.”
Dimity injected Raargh, finding the best purple artery with Vaemar's assistance. She also sprayed the area heavily with the white foam of Universal Burn Repair. Raargh hefted his weapon but the sounds of battle were diminishing as the sonics took effect. He and Vaemar picked off several more figures as they slumped into unconsciousness or lay prone on the gantries. Dimity had turned back to Leonie. Vaemar made an interrogative feline sound that covered a number of questions.
“He is no stranger to pain, I think,” she said to Vaemar, without looking up. “It should be diminishing now.”
“He is Hero,” said Vaemar.
“And you,” said Dimity, “are Hero and something else. You speak of 'interesting speculations' in the midst of a battle.”
“Of course. Interesting speculations are always interesting, particularly, I think, this one, and when I spoke no targets presented themselves and the battle was plainly all but won. I calculated I could afford distraction for that measure from fighting, given the state of the tactical situation. I have just hunted and killed and it is perhaps now safe to obey the promptings of my system and relax a little.”
“I thought… I thought I was the only one…”
“Further,” said Vaemar “I wish to think upon my Honored Sire Chuut-Riit's purported testament in the light of certain of my own experiences and auditions here. Is that strange? I would be glad if you would tell me, should it strike you as such. My Honored Step-Sire says I must learn human ways and values.”
“It is not strange to me,” said Dimity, still not looking up from her work. “But then, I believe that I am not a typical human. I have sometimes wondered what I am.”
“I too have wondered what I am,” said Vaemar.
Colonel Cumpston, carrying beam rifle and stunner, walked wearily up the corridor to join them. The fighting seemed to have stopped. The UNSN and Wunderland troops were gathering up the unconscious bodies of the enemy. There were a couple of medics, guiding a larger doc on a gravity sledge.
“Hurry!” Dimity called. “Hurry! Over here!”
“I'm very tired,” she said, as the medics took over.
“Manrret rest,” said Raargh. And then: “Manrret Hero, too.” He and Vaemar caught her as she stumbled with weariness and set her down. She clung for a moment to Raargh's great arm.
Arthur Guthlac recovered consciousness to find himself looking into the face of Ulf Reichstein Markham. “In all, der results positif haf been,” said Markham. In moments of stress the Germanic sentence-structure and pronunciation of Wunderlander became thicker in his accent. Guthlac saw the stock-light on the heavy kzin weapon he carried was glowing with the warning of insufficient charge. It had evidently seen a lot of firing very recently. Markham drew a deep breath and when he spoke again his accent was much diminished.
“If necessary we will get you a new leg. Let it not be said Wunderland is inhospitable to her distinguished visitors. And you have done us a service… Do you know where Jocelyn is?”
“No.” Jocelyn… you said you loved me, you proved you desired me… Have you completed the transformation of my life, wiped away the last of Arthur Guthlac, the misfit museum guard and finished making Arthur Guthlac the Man? Jocelyn, where are you?
Somehow, as he whispered that question, he knew it would never be answered. Jocelyn was gone with Selina.
There was a cover hiding the lower part of Leonie's body, but Nils Rykermann had seen laser wounds before. He could, if he allowed himself, imagine what was there. A medic was attending the tubing that ran under it, and something was pumping fluid.
He knelt beside her head. Her hands were fluttering feebly, plucking at something invisible. He stroked one with his fingertips.
“A lot of fighting,” she whispered.
“It's over now.”
“So the Exterminationists win?”
“No.”
“Tell me. It's all right. I can hear. I can understand.”
“There is no kzin rebellion. And the Exterminationists have had a blow. They've lost Jocelyn. She was their most powerful figure. Guthlac is wavering, I think. And… so am I.” He bent and kissed her cold forehead. “Lion cub,” he whispered.
“Good… good.” She did not speak again.
“Live,” he breathed. “Don't run out on me. Or on old Raargh.”
Her eyes closed slowly. Rykermann could not tell if she was dead or unconscious. He turned away, his face buried in his hands, and he did not see the medics remove her.
Dimity Carmody was sitting on an empty ammunition box. She had taken out one of her small music boxes and was listening to it. Raargh and Vaemar approached her. The white foam, setting hard, covered the burns on Raargh's legs. He was walking, but carefully.
“Hullo,” she said.
“Do not fear ratcats,” said Raargh, remembering the terror he had picked up from her previously. “Raargh and Vaemar and Dimity manrret companions in battle.”
“Yes,” said Dimity. “I've been told a bit about it all. Well, there are some ratcats I don't fear now.”
“Dimity helped Leonie,” said Raargh.
“Yes, of course.”
“Raargh and Leonie old companions.”
“Funny, she is one of the flashes of memory I have. Quite a lot of it is coming back. Seeing her now, I remember, I was jealous of her. I never dared betray that to him… She was Nils's best student, his favorite. And she wasn't a freak like me. I don't suppose this means much to you.”
“Manretti sentient. Always problems,” said Raargh. “Dominant kzintosh have harem, some kzintosh allocated one kzinrett, most have none. Humans untidy.”
“It must have been hard for you to change, to live with humans as you do,” Dimity said.
“Hero do hard things,” said Raargh. “Otherwise not Hero.”
“No,” said Dimity. “Otherwise not Hero.”
“The human Andre, one who tried to kill you and Leonie,” said Raargh. He produced something and tossed it with a moist sound from hand to hand. “I have his maleness here. A gift for you and Leonie.”
“Honored Step-Sire Raargh-Hero,” said Vaemar, “I do not think Dimity human understands kzinti customs. I will take. But here is a gift,” he held out a chess knight, moulded in osmium with sapphire eyes. “Vaemar made.” Dimity accepted the substitute gift with some relief.
“Not fear?” asked Raargh.
“Not so much.” As Leonie had done previously, she reached out with a tentative hand and tickled his chin. Raargh had just killed and eaten to satiety. This time he allowed himself to purr.
“You play chess?” she asked Vaemar.
“Oh, yes!”
“I haven't played more than a couple of times. But a game between us might be interesting.” Raargh reached out and picked up Dimity's music box. Vaemar looked at it curiously. “May I see it?” he asked.
“Wind it,” she said, “It's running down.”
“It is decorous,” said Vaemar, fiddling at the tiny handle with his claws. “Delicate.”