Hunters Unlucky Part 68

A rectangle had opened in the ceiling, and the piece that had fallen formed a ramp up to it. Storm tried to understand. It's like a jaw, he decided. The piece that opened is the bottom jaw, and the roof of the cave is like the top. The weight of the stone sticking to the bottom was enough to make it open.

Of course, that means we've got to go down its throat.

Nothing moved in the dark void at the top of the ramp, but Storm thought he could feel a faint, warm breeze. He took this as a positive sign. If air is moving, we won't suffocate.

Arcove padded up the ramp. He stopped in the dark opening, sniffing, and then disappeared. A murmur went up from the watching creasia. Storm was certain that many of them did not like the idea of taking refuge in a cave that had been a fortress for ferryshaft and telshees and humans, but never for creasia. However, their king had gone in, and where he went, they would follow. They began to file up the ramp.

Beside him, Storm heard Halvery give a sigh of relief. "Even if we can't close it, a few cats could hold off hundreds in that small opening."

"I think we can close it," said Storm. "Didn't they close it when you laid siege to Kuwee?"

Halvery hesitated. Everyone had avoided mentioning the siege.

"Yes," he said at last. "But they had telshees."

Creasia were filing past them-some with cubs in their mouths, exhausted three-year-olds, limping wounded, grim-faced fighters. One of the females stopped beside Halvery. She laid the cub she'd been carrying carefully down between them. It was one of the young ones-less than a year old. Storm saw that it was not moving.

Halvery nosed at the cub. He licked it, but it did not respond.

The female licked the top of Halvery's head. "She's been cold since the river, Halvery. But I thought you'd want-"

"Yes," he said quickly. "I'll- Yes."

He picked up the small body and stalked out of the cave.

"What will he do with it...with her?" asked Storm.

The female glanced at him. Storm did not think she would deign to answer, but then she said, "Hide the body. Take her to the ghost wood when this is over...if we live."

There'll be a lot of trips to the Ghost Wood, thought Storm, if we live.

Off to the south, Storm heard the unnerving wail of hunting creasia. He looked back at the line of cats. Hurry.

Storm trotted out into the moonlit night and then beneath the boughs of the shadowy trees. Bones loomed up out of the soil ahead of him, gleaming white where the moonlight touched them. Storm felt an uneasy p.r.i.c.kling along his spine. The last animals to take refuge here ended badly.

He'd left Teek with Roup on the edge of the water. Storm had been hurrying ahead to open the cave, but now he felt he should get the cub out of harm's way. He did not want Teek involved in the fighting if the foremost of Treace's cats met the rearmost of Arcove's.

The rush of incoming creasia had slowed to a trickle by the time Storm found Roup. Only a few heads bobbled on the moonlit ripples. "Are they almost all here?" asked Storm.

"Almost," said Roup. He hesitated. "Almost all of those who are coming, anyway." He was watching the swimming cats and the far sh.o.r.e. Teek lay at his feet, asleep.

"How many?" asked Storm.

"Two hundred and thirty-four adults have swum over."

Storm winced. "You lost a lot of the wounded."

"Not as many as we would have lost if we'd stayed at the den," said Roup. He stopped to call to a struggling swimmer who was getting off course. "Here! Come ash.o.r.e here!" Roup glanced back at Storm. "Do your telshee friends know where we are?"

Storm licked his lips. He thought about lying, but he didn't think that would be helpful. "No."

"Will they figure it out?"

"Maybe."

Roup considered. Storm expected a reprimand. Instead, Roup said, "If Keesha turns up, I want to talk to him. No matter how angry he is, I want to speak to him."

Storm said nothing.

"What is wrong with Arcove? He's more than tired; I can tell."

When Storm still said nothing, Roup growled. "Charder wouldn't tell me, either. Do you think everything will resolve in your favor if Arcove dies?"

"I'm not trying to get him killed," said Storm.

"You're not trying not to get him killed, either."

Teek stirred at Roup's feet. "I want to get Teek back to the cave," said Storm. He hesitated. "Where's Charder?" It occurred to him that he hadn't seen the older ferryshaft in a while.

Roup turned back towards the far sh.o.r.e. "He's one of the ones I'm waiting for."

"Oh."

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. A few wet and limping cats dragged themselves out of the water and started into the trees, following the scent trail left by their companions. Finally, Roup said, "Did you ask your curb friends about that trap Treace used during the fight? I've never seen a curb trap latch onto a creasia like that."

Storm shook himself. He had actually asked Eyal before he left. "Highland curbs don't make traps," he said slowly, "but they know how traps are constructed. They said..." He hesitated, remembering something Teek had mentioned last summer. "Curbs bite off long tendrils from the...the ghost plants. They put the cut ends in the blood of the species of animal they wish to hunt. Usually, they place them in the belly of a recently killed sheep or deer. The plants soak up the blood and...remember."

Teek was awake now, looking at him. "Give them the blood of their prey..." murmured Storm. "I think Teek saw them practicing on a cub. It's one of the reasons he followed me from the Great Cave. He grew up in Treace's clutter, and bad things happened to orphaned cubs there."

"The snakes," whispered Teek.

Roup looked down at him. "Snakes?"

"He has nightmares about a cub with snakes in its belly," Storm explained. "I suppose they were vines." He grimaced. "Would Treace's cats really do that to a cub?"

"Moro would," said Roup. "I found one of their early tests with a pit and a vine trap. I thought they were just catching deer to feed their overpopulating dens."

Storm stood up suddenly. In the moonlight, he saw a ferryshaft dash out of the trees on the far sh.o.r.e, run along the bank, and splash into the water. At the same time, he heard a creasia rally cry from the same direction, frighteningly close. There was still one more cat paddling towards them, but Storm could see no others.

Roup stood up, too, tail twitching. "Storm, get Teek up to the cave."

It was good advice, since Teek could not sprint as quickly as the adults. Teek kept glancing back all the way through the forest. "What about Roup?"

"He's coming," said Storm.

"So are Treace's cats," whispered Teek.

"Roup will get here first." Storm hoped that he was telling the truth as they stood in the cave, s.h.i.+vering, and waited. Creasia faces looked down from the opening at the top of the ramp. They're expecting a fight, thought Storm. He wondered again how to shut the entrance. He had a nagging fear that he would not like the answer.

Teek seemed to read his mind. "Will someone have to stay outside to close it?"

"I don't know," said Storm.

His hopes rose as a creasia came racing up the hill, but it was only the final swimmer. Storm heard another creasia rally cry, and it sounded so close that he thought the animal must be on the island. He was about to trot up the ramp to the entrance, when two shapes broke out of the trees at the bottom of the hill and darted up the slope. Charder nearly collapsed when he reached the cave. "I-am getting-too old-for this," he gasped.

"Oh, surely one is never too old to trap oneself on Kuwee Island," panted Roup with more sarcasm than Storm thought necessary.

"Charder," said Storm, "how do we close it?"

"By leaving someone outside to die, of course," said Charder. He looked around at their serious faces, then caught his breath and laughed. "Joking. Go on up the ramp."

Roup looked as confused as Storm felt, but he backed onto the ramp. Storm and Teek followed him, and the creasia who had been watching from the top retreated out of sight. "Go on," repeated Charder. He stepped onto the bottom of the ramp, then leaned over the side and nosed around beneath the edge. "Why do you think it's on a chain?" he muttered. Then his teeth closed around the silver thread, and he pulled the Shable up over the side of the ramp.

Nothing happened immediately, although, as Charder walked towards them, Storm felt a subtle s.h.i.+ft in the stone underfoot. Behind Charder, in the moonlight, Storm saw the first of Treace's cats emerging from the trees. Storm backed up quickly towards the dark opening. Charder came on, and as he did, the ramp began to lift from the ground. Without either their own weight or the weight of the Shable to hold it open, the "jaw" was closing.

Clever. Storm thought, wistfully, that he would like to have known the humans. Then he turned and filed with the others into the dark fortress beneath Kuwee Island. The "jaw" clicked shut.

Sauny felt euphoric. The wood around her was in b.l.o.o.d.y chaos, and she had caused it! Ferryshaft had turned on creasia and trampled them or ripped them to pieces. Even the lishties-and they were all lishties as far as Sauny was concerned, even the ones who looked like creasia-even they had fled or been trampled. In the midst of the madness, Kelsy had shouted by her ear, "We need to lead them!"

Sauny had spat out a mouthful of cat fur. "Then do it!"

But that was not so easy. The moment the herd had eliminated the immediate threat, they began plunging into the lake, swimming for the mainland. It was a bright night, but as soon as they got beneath the trees, it became difficult to see what was happening. Animals were shouting to each other, running this way and that. Sauny wondered whether any of the lowland curbs would be unwise enough to make an appearance. If so, she didn't see them. She didn't see any highland curbs, either.

"I don't think they're going to listen to anyone!" Valla had to shout to be heard, even though she was right beside Sauny. Kelsy had been lost somewhere in the shadows up ahead.

"But we're running in the right direction," said Sauny. "Back towards the northern plain-towards home."

"Do you think they'll actually do what we want once they get there?" asked Valla.

"I don't know." For the first time that evening, Sauny felt uncertain. "I guess we'll find out when they stop."

Chapter 20. The Worst.

Storm woke in a shaft of sunlight. Some sleepy part of his brain informed him that this was odd. Near his ear, a small voice said, "Storm! Storm, wake up and look..."

Storm opened his eyes. He was lying in a little cave with no ceiling, inside the bigger cave. In the confused dimness of last night, he'd sensed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of these. It's like a beehive, he'd thought.

In the morning light, that notion was reinforced. However, he could see better now, because sunlight fell in bright streams from tiny openings in the ceiling of the vast cavern. Everywhere, crumbling walls formed corridors that ran much straighter than the slot canyons to which Storm was accustomed. They formed little rooms, some with walls only as tall as a cub, and others with walls that even Arcove could not have looked over. A few had roofs, although many did not. Towards the back of the cave, these structures became more complex and rose like an anthill of rooms piled on top of each other, some with walls falling down, but most intact.

Storm had settled in a little room partway up the mound of structures, and he had a good view from the entrance. It was clear to Storm that these structures had been created by living creatures in an organized effort. He could not imagine how.

All of this would have been astonis.h.i.+ng enough, but Teek was staring at something else-paintings like the one of the telshee at the entrance. Nearly every wall was covered in lines and images. Some seemed to be senseless. Others were clearly animals, trees, rivers, and plants.

Teek was walking around the little room in which they'd slept, staring. "Storm, look! That's an oory. And that...that's a rabbit. Storm, is that a ghost plant? Storm, look!"

"I see, I see." Storm stretched luxuriously. The air in the cave was decidedly warmer than the outside air. He felt both comfortable and safe for the first time in days. Well, almost comfortable. He could tell that hunger was waiting to pounce on him the moment he began to move around.

"What are they?" asked Teek. "Who made them?"

"The telshees call them paintings," said Storm. "I think the humans made them. Humans disappeared from Lidian hundreds...maybe thousands of years ago."

"I wish they were still here," said Teek without taking his eyes off the paintings.

Storm had had more time to think about that last night. An animal so clever could also be very cruel. He wondered if humans had ruled the island in their day, whether they had culled other species, whether they had gone to war.

Teek finally tore his gaze from the wall. He looked at Storm almost guiltily. "I'm hungry," he whispered. "But I know there's nothing to eat."

Storm winced. He remembered Keesha's story of watching Coden's foal and other friends die of hunger and thirst in these caves. He remembered the pain in Keesha's voice and in his humming. I hope I don't learn how he felt.

Storm hopped up onto the crumbling wall as though it had been a sheep trail. From here, he had a view of almost the entire cave. He could see into some of the little rooms farther down the slope where cats were resting. He saw mothers nursing cubs, clutters sleeping in heaps, cats grooming themselves and each other. Almost like a herd, he thought. They're social animals...like ferryshaft. In so many ways, they're like ferryshaft. He did not see Arcove or Roup.

As Storm's gaze s.h.i.+fted upward, he was surprised to catch a brighter rectangle of light. "The door is open!"

"What?" Teek clambered up beside him.

Storm squinted. He saw a few cats coming and going near the entrance, but n.o.body looked alarmed. "Let's go down and find out what's happening."

Arcove was dizzy by the time he woke that morning. The feeling was familiar now-vertigo and waves of nausea. Nevertheless, he got up and organized a party of the strongest fighters to go out and drive their enemies from the island. It was a critical move, as the cave was only a death trap without control of the rest of Kuwee.

As Arcove had expected, Treace did not waste much effort in trying to hold the surface of the island. His cats had doubtless slept uneasily in the open last night, expecting an attack from the cave at any moment. It was easier and safer for Treace's cats to lay siege from the bank, where they could see enemies swimming over long before they arrived. Arcove's creasia would eat up most of the food on the island within a few days, so it would be an easy waiting game.

Nevertheless, Treace's creasia put up a token struggle before they were driven off-a test, no doubt, to see how much of their opponent's strength remained. Arcove killed two in spite of his spinning head. He knew he was behaving recklessly. There is one more thing to do...although dying in battle might be preferable.

However, when the dust settled, he was hardly more than scratched. Time enough for dying later.

On his way back to the cave, Arcove ran into Storm, poking cautiously around the entrance. "They're off the island," he said. "Hunt if you like. Halvery is setting up a perimeter patrol."

Storm squinted at him. Arcove wondered whether he was swaying. He felt like the floor was heaving up and down. Don't you dare ask. Arcove turned quickly and made his way into the ruins. He went up, layer after layer, until he found a room near the very top. Diffuse light streamed in through c.h.i.n.ks in the porous stone above. He curled up in the farthest corner and slipped into uneasy dreams.