The Gandalara Cycle I (38 page)

Their fur was dark and long. In the domestic herds, the fur was salvaged when the skins of slaughtered animals were tanned. It was too fine and smooth to be woven into yarn, but it served as filling for the sleeping mats.

Except when we had trained together, I had left Keeshah pretty much to himself. Any fears I'd had about his being accepted by the other sha'um had vanished immediately. There was plenty of room in the valley, and plenty of food.

And the other traditional source of conflict between male cats wasn't a problem.

To take my mind off the impending ceremony, I asked Keeshah a question I'd been wanting to ask ever since we arrived.

*Don't you want a female sha'um, Keeshah?*

*I do not need one yet.*

Markasset was twenty-three years old, so Keeshah was twelve. Markasset had known that sha'um had lifetimes as long as or longer than those of men. It was conceivable that Keeshah would undergo something akin to puberty. His use of the image "vet" indicated it.

*When will you need one?*

*I will know.*

Oh, yes
, I thought,
I'm sure you'll know.
To him, I said:
*What will you do when you need one?*

*Return to the Valley,*
he answered.
*Females there.*

*Shall I come with you?*

*No.*

My stomach knotted up. I had to ask the next question.

*Will you come back from the Valley?*

*I do not know.*

With startling suddenness, Markasset's memory gave me an entire, tense year of his life, when Thanasset had waited for the return of his sha'um. Markasset had been ten at the time. When his father's sha'um had not returned by the end of the year, the boy had become determined to go to the Valley himself. For his own sake, yes - but partly to bring another sha'um into the household so that his father wouldn't be so lonely.

I wondered if Thanasset had known about the boy's generous impulse. It was almost certain that it hadn't borne the fruit Markasset had wanted. The sight of Markasset and Keeshah together would have brought Thanasset only pain, at first, then wistful memories.

Let's see, Thanasset was filly-six now -
why, he's younger than I was when I left my other world let with Markasset's perspectives, I've been calling him an old man. Ah. Youth! -
which meant he had been forty-five when his sha'um had left him. The cat had been thirty-four years old.

That couldn't have been the first time his sha’um had gone to the Valley. Markasset's memory of that year includes such an air of expectancy - Thanasset thought the cat would be back. I wonder what happened to him? Killed by a rival for the same female, maybe? Or a love affair too potent to abandon?

A whimsical notion struck me.
Markasset went to the Valley only two years later. It's conceivable that Keeshah is the son of Thanasset's sha'um!

It would be useless to ask Keeshah to verify that. To him, a sha'um's identity was an impression of appearance, odor, and voice. His communication with them was purely physical, a matter of gesture or attitude combined with vocal pitch.

*Do you understand what is going to happen this after- noon?*
I asked Keeshah.
*Do the others understand?*

*It doesn't matter.*

Well, I guess that told me,
I thought, laughing to myself.
A Rider's only worth to a .sha'um lies in his relationship to the big cat. And I think all the Riders would agree that it's a higher honor than any rank they might confer on one another.

*Let's get it done.*

We turned back down the hill.

Dharak greeted me at his door with a glass of faen and a question: "Have you decided what your part of the ceremony will be?"

I gaped at him. "I haven't even thought about it," I admitted. "Something will occur to me when it's time."

We had a quiet homey lunch with Shola, and then Dharak offered me the use of his private bath-house. When I returned to the guest room, I found that Dharak had replaced my "civilian" clothes with a Sharith uniform.

It consisted of trousers and long-sleeved tunic, both tan and made of tightly-woven, soft linen. All the uniforms looked like this, but few were of such fine quality fabric. With the uniform was a beautiful pair of sueded leather boots which reached to my knees. On the outer sides of the boots, holes had been cut at small intervals. Groups of thin leather strips had been threaded through the holes, interlaced and knotted with one or more other of the groups, and then allowed to drape into a pointed fringe about four inches long. The knotting, besides being decorative, served to make the boot more rigid. The interior sides, which would press into a sha'um's flanks, were left bare and smooth.

As I was stamping into the second boot, Dharak knocked and came into the room. He beamed at me when he saw the boots on my feet.

"It's time they were worn again," he said.

"You're not going to tell me that
these
belonged to Serkajon, are you? They're brand new."

"They are copies of his boots, which we kept carefully for him, wrapped in oiled cloth, until they were barely recognizable, much less wearable. Since then, one of our people has crafted a new pair, whenever signs of spoiling appeared on the old ones. These were made only last year." He smiled slyly. "I see they fit you well."

"Yes, they fit," I said. "But they make me uncomfortable."

He frowned. "I have seen how much this troubles you, my friend. If you say so, I will cancel the ceremony."

Make yourself look the fool, and foul up all the plans you've made, based on my new position? I believe you would do that out of friendship and I'm grateful. But I realized, last night, that it was too late to cancel, the day I agreed to it.

I stood up and gripped his shoulder. I tried to smile naturally. "You've convinced me that this is supposed to happen," I told him. "And I guess I'm ready."

"Not quite," he said. He had brought a bundle with him, and now he unwrapped it. He unfolded an embroidered sash much like the blue one he was wearing, only this one was a silky white, stiffened and decorated with silver threads. "This, too, is a duplicate," he explained as he helped me to arrange it around my waist in exactly the right way. Then he picked up Rika, which rested now in an ornamental scabbard, and held it out to me. "Your sword, Captain."

I reached for it, hesitated, then grinned and took it from him.

Keeshah and Doran were waiting outside Dharak's house. The Lieutenant and I mounted and rode, close together, up to the Hall. I could see that the rest of Thagorn was deserted; there weren't even any guards on the wall. The great heavy gates were shut and barred a visual symbol of the security of the valley.

The Hall was a huge, square building, two stories high, but empty of a second floor. I had crossed its vastness once, walking across its marble-tiled floor. I was no less awed by its size now, as I rode into it.

Enormous double doors in the center of the south wall opened as we approached them. They closed behind us, and the men who had manipulated them went to stand with the other non-Riders, who were waiting quietly in the western quarter of the Hall.

Dharak and I rode through an aisle formed by mounted Riders. They faced toward us until we had passed by, and then turned toward the great marble block in the center of the floor, which was the Hall's speaking platform.

As we rode up to that platform and stepped down to it, I felt a familiar tightening in my chest. It was like the feeling Ricardo had experienced, whenever he had watched a Marine company doing close-order drill. The beauty of precision, the hours of training necessary, the sensation of unity - to these were added the grace and strength of the big cats and the very special pride of the Riders. Again I was swept up in that feeling of
belonging.

As we turned to address the Riders, Dharak let out a small gasp of impatience. It wasn't hard to figure what was bothering him. The four companies of Riders were arranged in sharply dressed columns, three abreast. The companies were separated by wide aisles, and their leaders were out front. That is, three of the leaders were there, visible evidence of the chain of command. The fourth leader was missing.

So Thymus didn't want to come to the party?
I thought.
I really don't mind - but Dharak does.

The Lieutenant's face was grim, as he called the order to dismount. When the men were standing, the cats crouched down to the floor, each to his Rider's right. Dharak began speaking.

"Great changes have come upon Gandalara," he said. "For the first time since the fall of the Kingdom, the Ra'ira has left Raithskar. It is in the hands of one whose ambition makes him both unworthy and dangerous to the peace we are pledged to preserve. Because of this terrible threat, the long centuries of separation between us and our leader are now at an end."

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"This is Rikardon, the son of Thanasset of Raithskar, who is descended in direct line from our great Captain, Serkajon. I tell you, from my own knowledge, that he brings honor to the boots and the color of rank which he now wears. He carries Rika, the great sword of rakor which Serkajon carried during his lifetime."

Dharak's voice rose from just louder than normal, until he was shouting his last words.

"He
rides!
" the Lieutenant called out. “Honor Rikardon as our Captain!"

A tremendous sound surged upward from the men before me, and from the rest of the Sharith standing to the west of the platform. Stunned by the suddenness of the sound, it took me a few seconds to realize that they were shouting my name. When they repeated it twice, they quieted expectantly.

All right, smart guy,
I told myself.
This is where you're supposed to wing it. Do something.

I looked out over the people and sha'um on the floor around me. I tried to see a dwindling society, desperate to maintain its heritage and traditions against pressure from the outside world and against the erosion of inaction. But the pity associated with such a vision refused to come.

I saw the Sharith. Proud of their beginnings, satisfied with their lifestyle, confident that their use would come again to the world. Sure that I was the signal and the instrument of the world's need for what they had to offer.

I should say something about the Ra'ira,
I thought.
I ought to lay the groundwork for Dharak's orders to sit still. But that - even that - seems unimportant now. Only one thing is important.

I am the Captain of the Sharith.

Every one of these men, women and children has pledged life and service to me today. I'm not sure I deserve it, but they've done it. And
they
deserve more than a disappointing speech.

I jumped down from the dais and called Keeshah to walk on the right side of me. We went up to the leader of the third company, which was the one closest to me. It was Liden. His sha'um, Cheral, stood up as Keeshah and I approached. "This is Keeshah," I introduced him formally. Then I offered my hand to Liden. "Thanks for your friendship, Liden. And for yours, Cheral."

As Liden grinned and accepted the handshake, I lifted my left hand, palm upward, to the cat. He dipped his head and touched my palm lightly with his muzzle. Liden copied my gesture, and Keeshah responded in the same way.

*Smells good,*
Keeshah told me.
*Like friend.*

I moved around Liden and walked up to the first rank of his company. The boy on its eastern edge, along the aisle I had ridden down, stood up straighter. His sha'um stood up.

"I am Raden," the boy said, then introduced his cat: "This is Borral."

Again I offered my hands to the Rider and his sha'um, and Keeshah greeted the man.

"Welcome, Captain," Raden said, as he gripped my hand. His gaze strayed to Keeshah at the touch of fur and whiskers to his left hand.

"I'm glad to be here, Raden and Borral," I said. Keeshah and I moved on.

It took time to greet each one of nearly a hundred Riders individually. Part of me was focused on the men and their sha'um, making an effort to store the names in my memory. Another part of my consciousness was congratulating me on finding precisely the right way to confirm my place with the Sharith.

The handshake wasn't a Gandalaran custom. I had used it out of Ricardo's habit, and out of an instinctive desire to verify the reality of the occasion by touching someone. The open-palm gesture had originated on my first arrival in Thagorn, when I had sought a way to express my thanks to Poltar and Cheral for carrying me as extra weight. Now it was giving Keeshah an opportunity to record the identities of the Riders by sight and smell, and the sha'um were receiving the same information about me.

Those sha'um were also receiving an influx of whatever emotion the Riders felt as I spoke to them. I suspected they shared what I was feeling, and projecting to Keeshah - a singing gladness and a sense of history changing at our fingertips.

When Keeshah and I had greeted all the Riders except Dharak - and the missing Thymas - we moved through the other members of the Sharith. Because I was aware of how long everyone had been standing here, I didn't ask names, but walked through the crowd rather quickly, greeting the people I did know, and saying hello in a general way. Keeshah followed me, the crowd moving back when necessary to let him pass, and he did greet everybody. He walked with his head bent, and skimmed his nose across the hands that were held out to him eagerly.

Finally, we returned to the center of the Hall. Dharak had stepped down from the platform, and was waiting beside Doran. His eyes were shining as he gripped my hand strongly, and lifted his left hand to Keeshah. He didn't say anything, and neither did I. I turned away and mounted Keeshah, then asked him to climb up to stand on the platform. I had a high, clear view of everyone in the Hall and all of them, from the sha'um to the smallest child, were watching me.