Breed to Come (7 page)

Furtig leaned against the wall. At least there wasno smell of Ratton. And they were still heading in theright direction.

Then he really looked about him. The corridordown which they had just come ended at a wall.

Andif this was like the wall the servant had opened, well,he did not have the ability to get through it.

Leavingthe table, he shambled forward to examine it better.

What was happening to him? This was the bottomof a shaft, much the same as the one he had fallen down earlier. But now—he was going up! Gently, as ifthe air itself was pushing him.

Frantically Furtig fought, managed to catch hold ofthe shaft entrance and pull out of that upward current. As he dropped to the ground, he was shaken outof that half-stupor which had possessed him.

It was plain, as plain as such a marvel could be, and thathere the shaft reversed the process of the other one.And it was also plain that Gammage—or what hissearch sense had fastened on as Gammage was above.

Would this mysterious upward current take thetable also? He could only try. Pulling, he got it into the shaft. Foskatt's body stirred, drifting up from thesurface. So—it worked on him, but not on the table.

Wearily Furtig accepted that, kept his hold on histribesman as they began to rise together.

It took a long time, but Furtig, in his weariness, didnot protest that. He watched dully as they slid pastone opening and then another. Each must mark a different level of these vast underground ways, even asthe caves opened from two ledges. Up and up—

Four levels up and Furtig's search sense gave thesignal—this one! Towing the limp Foskatt, he madeswimming motions to take them to the opening. Andhe had just enough strength to falter through, out ofthe pull of the current, to the floor beyond.

He lay there beside Foskatt, panting, his sides andback aching from his effort. What now? But he wastoo worn out to face anything more—not now. Andthat thought dimmed in his mind as his head fell forward to rest on his crooked arm.

Furtig came out of sleep, aware even before he openedhis eyes that he was not alone. What he sniffed wasnot the musky scent of Ratton, but rather the reassuring odor of his own kin. With that, another smell,which brought him fully awake—food! And not thedried Rattons of his traveling either.

He was lying on a pallet not unlike those of thecaves. And, waiting beside him, holding a bowl whichsent out that enticing fragrance, was a female he hadnever seen before. She was remarkable enough to lethim know he was among strangers. And he gaped ather in a way which should have brought her fur rising,set her to a warning hiss.

Fur—that was it! Though she had a goodly show ofsilky, silverly fur on her head and along her shoulders,yet on the rest of her body it was reduced to the thinnest down, through which it was easy to see her skin.

And those hands holding the bowl—the fingerswere not stubby like his own but longer, thinner.

Furtig did not know whether he liked what he. saw of her,he was only aware that she was different enough tokeep him staring like a stupid youngling.

"Eat—" She held the bowl closer. Her voice had atone of command. Also it was as different as her bodywas from those he knew.

Furtig took the bowl and found its contents hadbeen cut into easily handled strips. As he gnawed, andthe warm, restorative juices flowed down his throat,he came fully to attention. The female had not left and that disconcerted him again. Among the Peoplethis was not the custom—the males had their portion of the caves, the females another.

"You are Furtig of the Ancestor's cave—"

"How did you—"

"Know that? Did you not bring back Foskatt, who knows you?"

"Foskatt!" For the first time since his waking Furtig remembered his tribesman. "He is hurt—the Rattons—"

"Hurt, yes. But he is now in the healing place of the Demons. We"—there was pride in her tone—"have learned many of the Demons' secrets. Theycould heal as well as kill. And every day we learnmore and more. If we are given the chance we shallknow all that they knew . . ."

"But not to use that knowledge to the same purposes, Liliha."

Startled, Furtig looked beyond the female. The softtread of any of his race should not be entirely noiseless, but he had been so intent he had not been awareof a newcomer. And looking up—

"Famed Ancestor!" He set down the bowl with abump which nearly shook out what was left of its contents, hastened to make the gesture of respect due thegreatest Elder of them all.

But to his pride (and a little discomfort, were thefull truth to be known), Gammage hunkered down byhim and touched noses in the full acceptance of thePeople.

"You are Furtig, son of Fuffbr, son of Foru, son ofanother Furtig who was son of my son,"

Gammage recited as a true Elder, one trained to keep in memoryclan and tribe gene through the years.

"Welcome to the lairs, warrior. It would seem that your introduction here has been a harsh one."

Gammage was old"; the very descent lines he hadstated made him older than any Elder Furtig hadever known. Yet there was something about himwhich suggested vigor, though now perhaps more vigor of mind than of body.

Like the female's fur, though she was clearly youngand not old, Gammage's body fur was sparse.

Andthat body was thin, showing more bony underliningthan padded muscle.

He wore not just the belt common to all the Peoplebut a long piece of fabric fastened at his throat, flowing back over his shoulders. This somehow gave himadded stature and dignity. He also had about his necka chain of shining metal links and from that hung acube not unlike the one Foskatt had carried. Whilehis hands—

Furtig's gaze lingered. Whoever had he seen amongthe People with such hands! They were narrower, thefingers longer and thinner even than those of the female. Yes, in all ways Gammage was even strangerthan the old tales made him.

"Eat now." Gammage gestured to the bowl. "Within the lairs we need all the strength food can give us.Rattons"—his voice deepened to a growl—"Rattonsestablishing their own place here! Rattons attemptingto gain Demon knowledge! And so little time perhapsbefore we shall be called upon to face the Demonsthemselves." Now his voice became a growl withoutwords, the sound of one about to enter battle.

"But of that we can speak later. Furtig, what saythey of me now in the caves? Are they still of like mind—that I speak as with the mindless babble ofthe very young? The truth, warrior, the truth is of importance!"

And such was the compelling force of the Ancestor's tone that Furtig answered with the truth.

"The Elders—Fal-Kan—they say that you plan togive Demon secrets to strangers, even to the Barkers.They call you—"

"Traitor to my kind?" Gammage's tail twitched."Perhaps in their narrow viewing I might be termedso—now. But the day comes when the People, plusthe Barkers, plus the Tusked Ones, will have to standtogether or perish. Of the Rattons I do not speakthus, for there is that in them akin to what I have learned of the Demons. And when the Demons return,the Rattons may run with them to overturn all our lives."

"The Demons return?" Listening to the note of certainty in the Ancestor's voice made Furtig believethat Gammage was sure of what he said. And if hetruly believed that, yes, would it not be better to make truce even with Barkers against a common andgreater enemy?

"Time!" Gammage brought those odd hands of histogether in a clap to echo through the room.

"Time isour great need and we may not have it. We have somany lesser needs, such as the one which took Foskatt into that section of the lairs we had not fully explored, seeking hidden records. But, though he didnot find what he sought, he has alerted us to this newdanger, a Ratton base on the very edge of our ownterritory. Let the Rattons learn but this much"—Gammage measured on between two fingers no morethan the width of one of them—"of what we havefound here, and they will make themselves masters,not only of the lairs, but of the world beyond. Saythat to your Elders, Furtig, and perhaps you will findthey will listen, even though they willfully close theirears to a worse threat."

"Foskatt was seeking something?"

Gammage had fallen silent, his eyes on the wallbeyond Furtig, as if he saw there something which was as plain to be read as a hunting trail, and yet tobe dreaded.

"Foskatt?" Gammage repeated as if the name werestrange. Then once more his intent gaze focused onFurtig. "Foskatt—he was hardly handled, near toending, when you brought him back to us, warrior.But now he heals. So great were the Demons—lifeand death in their two hands. But they played gameswith those powers as a youngling plays with sticks orbright stones, games that have no meaning.

Savethat when games are played as the Demons playthem, they have grim consequences.

"They could do wonderful things. We learn moreand more each day. They could actually make rainfall as they pleased, keep the sun shining as theywould. There was no great cold where they ruled and— But they were not satisfied with such, theymust do more, seeking the knowledge of death as well as of life. And at last their own learning turnedagainst them."

"But if they are all dead, why then do you speak oftheir return?" Furtig dared to ask. His initial awe, atseeing Gammage had eased. It was like climbing amountain to find the way not so difficult as it hadlooked from the lowlands. That Gammage could impress, he did not doubt. There was that about him which was greater than the Elders. But he did not useit consciously as they did to overawe younger tribesmen.

"Not all died," Gammage said slowly. "But theyare not here. We have tracked them through this, their last lair. When I first began that search wefound their bodies, or what was left of them. But oncewe discovered the knowledge banks we also uncoveredevidence that some had withdrawn, that they would come again. It was more concerning that second coming that Foskatt sought. But you will learn, Furtig—

There is so much to learn—" Again Gammage gazedat the wall, rubbing one hand on the other. "So much to learn," he repeated. "More and more we uncoverDemon secrets. Give us time, just a little more time!"

"Which the Rattons threaten now." Liliha brokeinto the Ancestor's thoughts, amazing Furtig even more. The fact that she had not withdrawn at Gammage's arrival had surprised him. But that she would speak so to the Ancestor, almost as if to an unlessonec1 youngling, bringing him back to face some matter which could not be avoided, was more startlingyet.

However Gammage appeared to accept her interruption as proper. For he nodded.

"True, Liliha, it is not well to forget today in considering tomorrow. I shall see you again and soon,cave son. Liliha will show you this part of the lairswhich we have made our own."

He pulled the fabric tighter about him and wasgone with the speed of a warrior years younger.

Furtig put down the bowl and eyed the female uncertainly.

It was plain that the customs of the caves did nothold here in the lairs. Yet it made him uncomfortableto be left alone with a Chooser.

"You are not of the caves," he ventured, not knowing just how one began speech with a strange female.

"True. I am of the lairs. I was born within thesewalls."

That again amazed Furtig. For all his life he hadheard of warriors "going to Gammage," but not females. But that they carried on a normal manner oflife here was a minor shock. Until he realized the limitof his preconceptions concerning Gammage's people.Why should they not have a normal life? But whencehad come their females?

"Gammage draws more than just those of his owntribe," she went on, as if reading his thoughts.

"Thereare others of the People, on the far side of the lairs,distant from your caves. And over the seasons Gammage has sent messengers to them also. Some listento him more closely than his blood kin seem to."

Furtig thought he detected in that remark the natural airof superiority which a Chooser would use 'cm occasionwith a warrior.

"There is now a new tribe here, formed from thoseof many different clans," she continued in the samefaintly superior tone. "It has been so since my mother's mother's time. We who are born here, who learnearly the knowledge of the Demons, are different inways from those outside the lairs, even from thosewho choose to join us here. In such ways as this dothe In-born differ." She put forth her hand, holding itin line with Furtig's. Not with their flesh making contact, but side-by-side for comparison.

Her longer, more slender fingers, were in evengreater contrast when held against his. Now she wriggled them as if taking pride in their appearance.

"These"—she waved her hand slightly—"are better able to use Demon machines."

"And being born among those machines makes youso?"

"Partly, Gammage thinks. But there are also placesthe Demons use for healing, such as that in which Foskatt now lies; When a mother is about to bear heryounglings she is taken there to wait. Also, when shefirst knows she has young within her, she goes to thatplace and sits for a space. Then her young come forthwith changes. With hands such as these I can domuch that I could not do—"

She paused, and he finished for her, "With such asmine." He remembered how he had used his tongue,as had Foskatt, in the cube hole. Perhaps, had he hadfingers such as Liliha's, he need not have done that.

"Such as yours," she agreed evenly. "Now, Gammage would have you see the lairs, so come.

"We have," she told him, "a thing to ride on. Itdoes not go outside this one lair, though we have triedto make it do so. We cannot understand such limitations. But here it is of service."

She brought forward something which moved moreswiftly than the rumbler on which they had riddenout of the Ratton prison. But this was smaller and ithad two seats—so large Furtig was certain they hadbeen made to accommodate Demons, not People.

Liliha half crouched well to the front of one seat.Leaning well forward, she clasped a bar in both hands.He guessed that she was uncomfortable in such astrained position, but she made no complaint, onlywaited until he climbed into the other seat.

Then she drew the bar back toward her. With thatthe carrier came to life, moved forward smoothly andswiftly.