by Davis Ashura
He reached for her again, holding her, caressing her, kissing her. Jessira cupped his face, and his arms tightened around her. He reveled in the soft feel of her. He wanted this moment to last —
The hissing, grating cry of a Braid on the hunt rose in the air, not more than a quarter-mile away.
“Fragging unholy hells!” Jessira cursed.
Chapter 21: A Fearful Alliance
I once gave thought to the idea that the Tigons might be reasoning creatures much as we are. I was quickly disabused of such foolish notions. Tigons are slaves to their appetites for destruction.
-From the journal of Li-Choke, AF 2062
Li-Choke arrived at his objective, a narrow canyon in the foothills south of the Privation Mountains. He paused to get his bearings. Steep, ice-slick walls — a hundred feet tall — ran east-to-west, ringing the ravine. Mother had directed him here. Sunshine reflected off the small pond near the base of the northernmost cliff. The scent of pine needles hung in the air.
From this point on, he had to be cautious. Without ongoing, consistent discipline, Chimeras often became uncontrollable in their aggression, fighting one another; Braids, Balants, Ur-Fels, and Tigons all striving for supremacy. Riots were even known to break out. They required a firm, steady hand to keep them in line. The Chimeras that Choke was meant to command hadn’t felt a Bael’s judgment and influence in months. Who knew how they might react to his orders at this point? They might have forgotten their fear of Baels and attack him.
From the north came the sound of small rocks fallings, of someone moving furtively.
It seemed they had forgotten their fear of his kind, and Choke wished his brother Baels were with him. He missed them with an ache that hadn’t ended since the moment Mother annihilated Li-Dirge and the others. And losing the last of his brethren a month ago had sapped his passion for life. Li-Choke had shambled to his destination like an animated corpse. He lacked any real desire to continue living, but he would carry out this burden Mother had placed upon his shoulders. The lives of the western Baels depended on his actions and his success.
Choke eyed the heights above. Just because the canyon seemed empty didn’t mean Chimeras weren’t about. The furtive sounds from earlier was proof of that. Something was here. Choke moved south, wanting his back to a canyon wall. As he reached his destination, he sighted movement on the heights. A Balant. No. Two. Clumsy. Now, where were the rest of the Chimeras? Choke scanned with all his senses. From the western entrance came the faint acrid of odor, concentrated urine. Tigons. Probably a claw led by this Chak-Soon.
A hiss, quickly cut off, followed by the slithering of scales on rock came from directly above him. Choke stepped away from the wall, set his trident, and uncoiled his whip. Fifteen feet above, ten Braids — two traps — hung from the rocks like giant misshapen bats. Upon their faces was a predator’s glare. The Braids were ready to attack.
Choke snapped his whip. The thunder-crack of the barbs bit into the stone and small pieces shattered directly in front of the lead Braid. It gave Choke the time he needed to set himself as the rest of the Braids hissed in consternation. A Bael had to display his dominance if he ever hoped to lead the Chimeras. It was an unalterable law as old as the Fan Lor Kum.
“I’ll grind you underfoot, you pathetic worms,” he growled. “Stand down and bow before he whom Mother Herself chose to lead you.” Another crack of the whip had the other Braids rustling nervously. “NOW!” They shared fearful glances before slithering down the rock face, bunching up as they faced Li-Choke. They bowed before him, knees on the ground and foreheads pressed to the dirt.
They were his.
“Follow mussst. Mother sssaysss,” the lead Braid whispered in a sibilant voice.
Li-Choke nodded. “Good.” He gestured to where the Tigons were coming into view. “Follow me. Three paces behind. If the Tigons don’t bend knee, kill them.” Choke turned his back to the Braids, trusting the snake-like Chimeras to follow. They would remain loyal so long as they trusted in his leadership.
A claw of Tigons waited at the mouth of the canyon. Leading them was one spotted like a jaguar. He had to be Chak-Soon. The ordinate appeared calm, unruffled and unimpressed based on the sneer he wore on his muzzle. Another Tigon loomed large behind Chak-Soon, a giant with a tiger’s stripes. Another stood close by as well, black like a panther. The final two Tigons filling out the claw were both lean and rangy, like cheetahs. All were arrayed in a simple breechcloth with a sheathed sword strapped to their waist and a cased bow and quiver of arrows upon their backs.
“Bow,” Li-Choke ordered.
His command earned him a further sneer from Chak-Soon. The others in his claw growled in agitation and warning.
Li-Choke never allowed fear to enter his heart. If it came to a fair battle, he and the Braids would not prevail against the Tigons. But it wouldn’t come to a fair battle. Guile, as Li-Dirge had so often explained, was a far more potent weapon than brute force. Choke coiled his whip, letting it drop to the ground as he strode forward with a smile. He was inches from Chak-Soon, looming over all the Tigons, even the giant tiger.
Without warning, Choke smashed the boss of his horns against Chak-Soon’s forehead, felling the ordinate like a tree. He swept aside the black-panther Chimera before grasping the tiger-striped Tigon by his leather harness, holding him in place. One straight punch. Two had the giant Chimera limp as well. Chak-Soon made to rise, and Li-Choke hammer-fisted him back down. The cheetah-like Tigons held back, tails tucked between their legs. Here came the panther. The foolish cat leapt. Choke caught him in mid-air. A thunderous knee to the Tigon’s mid-section exploded all the air from the panther’s lungs. The cat curled up around himself as he gasped for breath. Choke dropped him with a thud. The tiger was on his knees, trying to clear his head. Choke kicked him in the gut, lifting him off the ground. Another kick to the face, and the large cat was out. Chak-Soon made to rise once again, but Li-Choke was there. He pulled the ordinate to his feet, holding him by the neck, choking him while holding him out at arm’s length.
“Foolish kitten. I am Bael, and you will obey as Mother commanded, or you will be ended.”
Chak-Soon nodded feebly.
Choke let him fall heavily to the ground. He recovered his whip and snapped the barbed ends inches from the ears of the Tigons until the cats rose to their feet and bowed before him. Without their obeisance, they could never be trusted. And only then could Li-Choke teach them his manner of leadership. Since Tigons were irrational brutes, they were only able to learn discipline after they had first experienced pain.
*****
“Tigons learn. No need punish,” Chak-Soon said. “Balants and Braids cower.” His words were almost unintelligible as his thick tongue moved clumsily around his sharp teeth even as he stumbled across the slick, snowy path upon which they trod. His breath blew mist in the frigid, wintery air. They followed a northward running rivulet through the heart of a broad valley edged by rolling foothills south of the Privation Mountains.
Li-Choke nodded. A week since their initial meeting, and he was still doling out punishment for even the most minor of infractions. It wasn’t because he was a sadist or enjoyed doing so but because discipline and order amongst the Fan Lor Kum had slipped so precipitously since Mother had given control of the Eastern Plague to the Tigons. Li-Choke had been forced to reinstitute knowledge that the Chimeras had seemingly forgotten: swift and certain punishment followed disobedience. The Tigons had apparently believed a severe, if haphazard and unpredictable form of discipline was all that was required. It was a habit of the intellectually lazy. But then again these were the Tigons. What else were they if not stupid and lazy?
“The Chimeras are re-learning what should never have been forgotten. Had you and your claw bowed before me as Mother commanded, do you suppose I would need to beat your brethren so frequently for their insolence?”
“They learn. No need to punish,” Chak-Soon said stubbornly.
Li-Choke growled as
he came to a sudden stop and faced the Tigon. “I have heard you, stupid kitten. Now be silent or be silenced.”
“I take punishment for all Tigons if they make mistake,” Chak-Soon said, refusing the direct order. “It only right. I command them.” He shuffled in uncertainty, but faced Li-Choke with an unblinking stare, doing his best to hide his fear.
Li-Choke rocked back on his heels, taken aback by the Tigon’s words. In all the instruction he’d received from his elder Baels, never had the idea of a compassionate Tigon ever been considered. The cats were known to be little more than animated killing machines. Their hearts were empty of empathy, even for their fellow Tigons. Indeed, they often laughed at the misfortune of their brethren, going so far as to devour their fallen when mad with heat of battle. Yet here was Chak-Soon, willing to accept whatever punishment his fellow Tigons might face.
“Do you understand what you’re saying?” Choke asked.
Soon nodded. “I know. Save Tigons hurt. It right to do. Good.”
Surprise turned to shock. A Tigon understanding a moral concept of right and wrong? Impossible. He’d heard the cats mutter of Humanity’s evil and Mother’s holiness, but the words had been those of the ignorant and stupid. Soon’s statement was something else. He sounded sincere, outwardly understanding what he was saying. Choke considered how to respond. Could Soon truly grasp esoteric concepts such as sympathy and pity? It flew in the face of everything he knew of Tigons. More likely Chak-Soon was simply parroting words he’d once heard uttered by a Bael. “The Tigons and all the other Chimeras must receive their proper discipline. They learn only through pain,” Li-Choke said.
“You teach us?” Chak-Soon asked. “Learn best without hit.”
Choke scowled. The Tigon simply wouldn’t let it go. “I’ll discipline as I see fit,” he answered. “Do not say anything else!” he snapped upon seeing Soon’s mouth open in likely protest.
The Tigon settled down, looking unhappy while Li-Choke pondered their conversation.
*****
“Hume,” Chak-Soon said.
Li-Choke furrowed his brows, perplexed. Had the Tigon just spoken the Master’s name? “What of him?”
“Mother want kill him,” Chak-Soon replied.
“She told you this?”
The Tigon nodded.
“What do you think of Her command?”
Li-Choke waited for the Tigon to speak, but Chak-Soon remained silent. A surprising silence as far as Choke was concerned. He would have expected the Tigon to growl out something to the effect that a Chimera’s place wasn’t to question Mother’s orders; that their first duty was to simply obey them. The cat-like Chims had always been the most devout of Mother’s creations.
“What about the others in your claw such as Chak-Vimm and Chak-Tine?” Choke asked, naming the large, tiger-striped Tigon and black panther one. “Are they as troubled as you appear to be?”
Chak-Soon grimaced. “They not care. Duty given. Holy order.”
Li-Choke found his estimation of the ordinate rising. Was it possible the young Tigon had a mind with which to think? Perhaps a test was in order. “Hume is dead. Three centuries now since the fall of Hammer. How do we kill someone who’s already dead?”
Chak-Soon muttered something unintelligible under his breath.
“You had something to say?” Li-Choke asked.
“Mother orders not always … ” Chak-Soon bit off whatever else he might have been thinking.
Choke waited but Chak-Soon refused to say anything more. “Mother’s orders aren’t always rational,” Choke finished for the Tigon. “Is that what you were going to say?”
A single, sharp, unhappy nod was his only answer.
Li-Choke’s heart swelled with hope. Could Tigons actually have the ability to reason? Even if it were only a few of them, from those small seeds, Hume’s great teaching could further flower. Perhaps the Baels need not be alone amongst the Chimeras.
It was a lot to base on one short conversation, but taken together with Chak-Soon’s previous actions — the Tigon’s offer to accept punishment for those in his command — it might just be possible. A smile spread across Choke’s broad face. How deliciously ironic. Perhaps Mother’s decision to spare Li-Choke could someday lead to further subversions of Her command, but this time it might involve Her most loyal Chimeras: the Tigons.
The part of his mind warning to slow down and not read too much into the situation was drowned out by the need to find a reason to live, something beyond fear, something that spoke of a deep-seated desire to serve and do good in this world. Since the murder of his brethren on the Hunters Flats, all Li-Choke had done was simply put one foot down in front of the other in a profoundly pathetic mime of existence.
Enough. It was time to once again grasp life in his hands and on his horns. It was time to live. It was what his SarpanKum and even the wise, young Human to whom he owed his life, Rukh Shektan, would have wanted for him.
“Have you ever given thought to brotherhood?” he asked Chak-Soon.
*****
“Brothers. Li-Choke says all who think are,” Chak-Soon said to Chak-Tine.
The black-panther Tigon scowled. “You and Bael not crèche mates. Him command under Mother. Not right say his name.” He bared his fangs.
Chak-Soon hid an impatient sigh. His fellow Tigons lacked the wit to see what their ordinate had come to believe was the truth: they were all brothers, whether they were born of the same crèche or not. Perhaps it was because of their inborn aggressiveness. It didn’t take much to get a Tigon furious enough to unsheathe claws and go for the jugular. Even when it came to simply discussing a topic they were unused to, they tended to react with anger rather than thoughtfulness.
How had the Baels maintained their patience in the face of his fellow Tigons anger-addled stupidity?
Just then, Li-Choke strode to his side. When they had first met, the Bael had been the grimmest of commanders under whom Chak-Soon had ever served. He had crushed the incipient challenge to his rule by doing as a Bael should: by ruthlessly seizing command. The weeks following hadn’t been easy. Li-Choke had been a severe taskmaster, handing out penalties and punishments for the most minor of infractions. None of them were particularly harsh, but they never seemed to end. The Bael was either a sadist or the Fan Lor Kum had truly become as he had claimed: unbalanced and unordered. Chak-Soon believed it was the latter. At any rate, early on Li-Choke’s actions had earned him a certain amount of enmity amongst his Chimeras, especially the Tigons who had grown used to the lax discipline that had come about during their tenure as leaders of the Eastern Plague. Of course, that tenure was soon to end with the arrival of the Western Baels. It was a good thing as far as Chak-Soon was concerned. His kind were not meant to rule.
The Bael spoke up. “Chak-Tine, relieve Chak-Vimm. He has been guiding the Balants for long enough.”
A late winter storm had rolled through a few days ago. It had dumped knee-deep snow in many places and slowed the Chimeras to a crawl as they struggled to make their way through the Creosote Plains. The Balants had been set at point, breaking the trail while a Tigon remained at their side, ensuring they didn’t stray in the wrong direction. Without guidance, the baboon-like Chimeras tended to wander in whatever direction was easiest. Their progress was further slowed by the need to hunt and replenish their food stores. It was a task to which Tigons and Braids were poorly trained. They knew how to stalk visible prey, but they knew little of interpreting animal droppings or reading their markings.
In fact, were it not for Li-Choke, who did know how to hunt, the Chimeras might have already starved. As usual, Mother had chosen well, when She had set the Bael in command. He was teaching Chak-Soon the truth of fraternity amongst those who could reason — excepting Humanity, of course — and with Choke’s leadership, they were certain to carry out Mother’s mission. Chak-Soon scowled a moment later. What mission? To kill someone already dead in a city already crushed?
“Something troubles you,
ordinate,” Li-Choke noted.
Chak-Soon glanced at the Bael. The traces of their stern commander were still present, but over the past month, since he had first broached the topic of brotherhood, Li-Choke no longer handed out his disciplines with the grim visage of one hoping for a reason to kill. He even smiled now and then, eliciting pleased reactions in return. Tigons prospered under the kindness of those to whom they’d willingly submitted. Li-Choke had even asked about this once, noticing the happier attitudes of the claw. It had fallen to Chak-Soon to explain how the supposed antagonism and jealousy Baels assumed Tigons felt toward them was, in fact, untrue. Tigons had pride, and they hated when those to whom they’d given their loyalty treated them with disrespect. Tigons loved acceptance and praise more than they loved fighting — though they seemed unable to turn that trick themselves when it came to their own leadership.
Chak-Soon was too young to have interacted much with Li-Dirge, the SarpanKum who Mother accused of treachery, but the older ordinates sometimes spoke of the dead commander with barely concealed reverence in their voices. It was said that Li-Dirge often treated the Tigons as equals, offering advice or even camaraderie. He had been a rare Bael, and it seemed that Li-Choke was following in the late commander’s hoofprints.
Chak-Soon scowled again. He had been praising the SarpanKum who Mother accused of treachery. Even the very word: accused was wrong. Mother didn’t accuse. Those She stated had committed a crime had done so. Mother’s judgment was never wrong.
“Something does trouble you,” Li-Choke said, noticing the Tigon’s troubled expression. “What is it?”
Chak-Soon shook his head. “Mother.”
Li-Choke nodded as if the one word answer was explanation enough. “You feel guilty over questioning Her judgment,” he guessed. “I know what you’re experiencing. Every Bael who has ever lived has struggled with that same problem: if the Queen is wrong in one small thing than in what other matters might She be mistaken.” He shrugged. “Life is so much easier with the certainty that comes from blindly following what we are told is right and just.”