Sand itched all through Bobcat's fur. "Yeah, I guess."
Skink scuttled around. "In a pool frequented by the Lady Dolphin, it will be quite an experience."
Fisher waded in, and Bobcat followed. The water did feel good, warm and flowing like the River at Crawford's Bend south of Ottersgate, a wide, wooded place Bobcat liked to visit on the hotter days of summer. He splashed himself, bent around to lick his fur down, stubble already bristling in the deeper cuts along his sides. He took his time again, managed to get most of the sand out of his coat, and when he waded out of the pond, Fisher and Skink had already packed everything up.
He took the towel Fisher held out to him, ran it once or twice over his face, but the scent of the air made him think it was probably going to get hot today; he decided to leave his fur wet, let the evaporation cool him down. "So," he said, stuffing the towel into his pack. "Where do we go from here? That little canyon the stream comes out of seems to be the only way off this beach."
"Yeah." Fisher squatted beside the stream, her canteen bubbling beneath the surface; she brought it up, recorked it, strapped it onto her backpack, and slipped the thing on. "We work our way back inland, I guess, see where we come out."
Skink scurried up onto her back. "Our way is tended by Those Above. I have no doubt we shall find our way."
Bobcat shrugged, filled his own canteen, and pulled on his pack. "Well, you want to go first again?"
"Sure." Fisher shook a paw, then started up the beach along the streambed, Bobcat falling in behind. "From what we saw of that canyon," she went on, "I think it might be easier if we wade upstream. The current's not too fast, and the brush up in there looked mighty thick."
Bobcat had to agree, especially after they followed the stream around the curving rock face and came into the mouth of the ravine, all the brush making him think of the Brackens, the weathered crack running back into the cliff not much wider than the stream but tangled with brambly vines and things that looked to Bobcat like tumbleweeds. Fisher waded out into the stream, and Bobcat followed, the water barely reaching his ankles. He lowered his head against the brush closing in around him, and they started up the canyon.
It was still shadowy down here, sunlight occasionally striking the layered cliffs rising on both sides of the stream winding into the rocks. They were climbing, Bobcat was sure, just not very quickly, and as the day wore on, the creek bending and twisting, midge flies buzzing at his nose and ears, the air thickening, heating, getting stickier and stickier, not a breath of wind stirring, Bobcat started hoping they wouldn't have to spend a night down here.
But around midmorning, the canyon began widening, the brush not crowding in on them anymore. The cliffs stopped towering overhead, started pulling away, sloping off into hills, the sun finally showing itself over their tops off to the right. Other canyons branched off theirs, other creeks carving their own ways to the sea, but they stuck with the main flow, getting larger and quicker the farther inland they went, until they finally had to crawl out and walk beside it.
The heat got worse, too, the sun rising higher, and by the time it stood burning at the top of the sky, the hills were flattening out, the stream they followed fast and deep. Around one last low hill it led them, and there stretched the grasslands of the Savannah, green and yellow and swaying off toward the horizon as far as Bobcat could see.
Fisher had stopped, and Bobcat settled down beside her. "Wow," he said.
"Eloquent," Fisher replied. "How 'bout lunch?"
His pack felt alarmingly light when Bobcat shrugged it off. "Yeesh. I'm starting to think we should have reprovisioned back at Kazirazif when the Ramon offered."
Fisher had rummaged one of her little sacks out and was pulling nuts from it. "I'm sure he was just being polite. I mean, remember the track record here; we may never need another meal, y'know?"
Skink raised a claw, swallowed the sip of water he'd just taken. "Not necessarily, Fisher. After all, both my grandmother and your great-great-grandfather did return."
"True." Fisher's eyes slid over to Bobcat.
"Hey!" Bobcat crooked a claw at her. "Don't you look at me like that! Don't forget: the Lady Raven said that the Lady Dolphin thought I was the best bobcat they've had in a long time!"
Fisher's brow wrinkled. "She said what?"
"Yeah, last night. After the Lady Dolphin left. She said that the Lady Dolphin had gotten so mad at me 'cause she thought I had a good chance of pulling this off."
Fisher blinked. "Last I heard, the Lady Dolphin had just called you an idiot."
"What?" Bobcat sat forward. "But...the Lady Raven! She said it! You...you must've heard! I mean..."
Skink was cocking his head from side to side. "I myself was struck with slumber after the Lady Dolphin dematerialized, awakening again only this morning."
"Me, too." Fisher had set her sack down. "Did the Lady Raven say anything else?"
Bobcat looked from one to the other. "Well, uhh, no, I mean, she, uhh, she said that she would send Garson a dream to let her know I was thinking about her, but, uhh..."
Fisher was rubbing her whiskers. "Did she say she agreed with the Lady Dolphin's assessment?"
"What, uhh, what do you--"
"Did she say that she thought you were the best?"
Bobcat flicked at a pebble. "Not, uhh, not really, no."
"Thought not." Fisher picked out another nut, cracked it between her paws. "The Lady Dolphin's great to spend time with. I mean, it just recharges your batteries being in the same place with her. But, well, she's a little, uhh..." She looked over at Skink. "Help me out here."
Skink shifted on his rock. "I believe the Lady Dolphin's youth is what Fisher is trying to convey here. The second youngest of the Curial powers, she is nonetheless in many ways the most idealistic, the most emotional. Her blessing is a tremendous honor, Bobcat, but she is vast and ever-changing. Cottonmouth of Selmir Kiva put it best when he wrote: 'In all ways and in every thing, she is Water.'"
Bobcat blinked at him. "What does that mean?"
Fisher tossed her bag of nuts to him. "It means she can be ice one minute and steam the next. Pinning her down is like trying to put a nail in a river. Now eat something, will you? We've gotta be getting along, here."
Bobcat caught the bag. "Okay, I get it. You're saying the Lady Dolphin's a little flaky."
Fisher rolled her eyes. "Just forget it. I mean, if you have to, look at it this way: the Lady Dolphin paid you a compliment. That's all. She likes you, but that doesn't change anything, and we've still got work to do." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Now, seems to me we should head due east. The Coati Road runs straight through the Savannah to the cat collectives and the towns of the hoofed folk farther south, so if we head east, we'll eventually hit the road again. I can use that as a fixed point, maybe try some scrying to find out where exactly we're supposed to go to meet the Blood Jaguar. What do you guys think?"
Skink was nodding. "I understand your reasoning, Fisher, but I feel we should continue south from here. That is, after all, the only direction the Ramon could give us, and it seems likely to me that the Ladies diverted us to this part of the Savannah with some purpose in mind. Although, of course, it may be that since we are, so to speak, following the story line, the direction of our travels will make no difference. Whatever is supposed to happen to us will happen regardless of which way we choose to go." He spread his claws. "I can only conjecture on this point, but the nature of our journey being that of a Cyclical Myth, I--"
Bobcat held up a paw. "Yeah, fine, but can't we stick to the stream here?" He pointed to the track it made winding out into the grass. "It looks like it's coming out of the southeast, so, hey, we can go with both your ideas. And who knows? The water might keep things a little cooler." He shrugged. "I mean, if Skink's right and we're gonna run into the Blood Jaguar no matter where we go, then, well, we might as well be a little more comfortable while we're walking, you think?"
The other two blinked at him, then at
each other, and Fisher shrugged. "Sounds good. You ready to go?"
Bobcat gave her back the bag and shouldered his pack. Fisher did the same, Skink taking his place between her shoulders, and they set off along the stream bank into the grass.
For a time, everything went along well enough, Fisher and Bobcat traveling side by side. But with each step they took out onto the plain, the grass grew taller and taller, bunching thicker and thicker, until Bobcat found himself in front, shouldering through the grass, over his head and standing in clumps; before long, sweat dripped from his whiskers at the effort of trying to push through what sometimes seemed to be a solid wall ahead of him. Every once in a while, he would stumble into a little clearing and be able to take a breather, but mostly it was just probing and digging, forcing a path in the right general direction if he couldn't find one.
"Wait a minute; wait a minute," he panted out after less than half an hour, collapsed against the side of one of the clearings, his paws aching. "This isn't... Can't we... Can't we take the stream again?"
"Doubt it." Fisher cocked her head. "Take a listen."
Bobcat held his head up. He could hear it rushing past through the pampas grass somewhere off to his left, and it sounded like a real river now. He nodded.
Fisher was looking up. "I don't know what else we can do but push on."
"Well," came Skink's voice from her back, and he scuttled down to the moist dirt. "As I am smaller than either of you, I might have less trouble moving through these canebrakes. I propose that I scout ahead until I find a clearing, at which point I will call back to you and give you directions. I doubt that we will make any better time, but it is certain to save wear and tear on poor Bobcat."
"I like this plan." Bobcat gave him a grin.
Fisher nodded. "All right, but you be careful, Skink. We won't really be able to come running to help."
"I understand." He scuttled around. "I shall keep us close to the river." The grass rustled, and he was gone.
A few minutes passed, Bobcat getting his breath back and waiting with pricked ears for Skink's voice. The sun beat down, the grass still and silent, not a breeze moving the air, until Bobcat heard the lizard calling: "Fisher! Bobcat! Push through from the end of your clearing and move toward the river! The way is fairly passable for about five yards; then you will have to cut right to the side of a large clump of pampas grass! I am in a clearing just passed there!"
Fisher grinned. "Gotcha, Skink! Be there in a minute!"
Bobcat staggered to his paws, clawed at the grass at the end of the clearing till he could push through, and found the grass much thinner on the other side. He homed in on the sound of the river and headed toward it, Fisher padding along behind, till another stand of the stuff blocked the way. He pushed around to the right of it, found a gap, and stumbled into a clearing where Skink was waiting.
Grass rustling, Fisher popped through behind Bobcat, and he saw Skink scamper to the other end of the clearing. "Off again!" he called, and disappeared into the pampas.
This went on for the rest of the afternoon, some passages short and easy, some long and complex, Skink guiding Bobcat and Fisher halfway sometimes, then leaving them to wait among seemingly solid walls of cane while he tracked another route. Hour followed hour till the sun settled behind the tops of the grasses and a strange, premature twilight fell, the sky above still bright and blue when Bobcat could glimpse it, but the grasses filled with shadows, nothing but the rush of the river to give him any sense of direction at all.
Bobcat just felt tired all over, the uneven intervals of sitting and moving and sitting and moving and then sitting some more making him drowsy, letting him doze off, not paying that much attention. So it wasn't until after one long, nasty push through close-pressing pampas, as he shouldered his way into the clearing Skink had been guiding them to, that he first realized he wasn't hearing the river anymore.
He blinked, took a few steps toward the center of the clearing, stretched his ears out. Skink had already moved to the far side, and all Bobcat could hear was the rustling of Fisher shoving her way into the clearing after him. "Hey!" he called out. "What happened to the river?"
He saw Skink cock his head, saw his eyes go wide. "I...I don't understand. I am certain I heard it mere moments ago."
"Me, too," Fisher said, and Bobcat watched her prick her ears by the wall of pampas they had just come through.
"Oh, great." Bobcat looked up, tried to get his bearings, but he couldn't tell where the sun was. A sharp, uniform blue spread above him, the grass all in shade, nothing to tell him where the light might be coming from.
A gust of wind burst into Bobcat's ears then, sudden and cool, the first wind he'd felt all day. It staggered him, it was so unexpected, made him turn in its direction, and there in the clearing before him sat three huge fiery cats.
The shudder that wracked through him almost made him bolt for the grass, but in the next second he saw that none of the three was the Blood Jaguar. The largest, lying just in front of him, glowed with a light more golden than the raging reds he remembered in the Blood Jaguar's fur, while the one to his right reclining before Fisher burned bright orange, black stripes somehow running through its fire. The third, to Bobcat's left on Skink's side of the clearing, shone white-hot and brilliant, black circles floating over it. Or, rather, Bobcat realized, over her. For he saw they were female, all three unmistakably, now that he was actually looking at them.
Huge, glowing female cats, and it came to him all at once: the Lady Lioness lay in front of him, the Lady Tigress to his right, the Lady Leopardess to his left.
Skink, he noticed, had his head between his claws and was muttering more of his little chants, while Fisher had taken a step back, was staring wide-eyed, her ears down and her legs bent like she was about to leap. The three Ladies, though, didn't seem to be paying any attention, their paws stretched out, their eyes closed, just lolling in the shade of the tall grass. Bobcat knew there was nowhere he could run to, so he just stood there, waiting.
Time went by--whether minutes or seconds, Bobcat couldn't tell. Then the Lady Lioness opened her eyes, let loose a yawn that showed every one of her gleaming teeth, and said, the ground rumbling under Bobcat's paws, "Tell me, sisters; why do you suppose earthly folk would wander onto our Savannah? I can't imagine they thought anything good would come of it."
The white fire to Bobcat's left flared, and the Lady Leopardess opened her eyes. "Seems unlikely," she said, her words making the air colder around Bobcat somehow. "Maybe they've taken leave of their senses."
"No," came a grumble from his right, a sound so close to the Blood Jaguar's growl that Bobcat felt his knees buckle; the Lady Tigress had opened her eyes. "I can't think that even someone gone crazy or stupid would come out here on their own. I wonder if perhaps they are under the protection of any of our various brothers and sisters. At least, for their sakes, I certainly hope so." Bobcat felt the raw heat of her eyes pass him, her gaze moving from Fisher to him and on to Skink. "Consequences would ensue otherwise."
"Indeed." The Lady Lioness stretched one massive paw out and turned to the Lady Leopardess. "Sister, is yours under someone's protection?"
The Lady Leopardess rose, the blinding white of sunlight on snow the only thing Bobcat could think of, and stepped toward Skink, still rustling his chants. She sniffed, cocked her head, and said, "Yes, sister. This one has been a shadow cast by the voice of our brother Eft."
"Ah, brother Eft." The Lady Lioness smiled, like the sun breaking though the clouds after a shower. "It's been too long since we've seen even his shadow here." She turned to the Lady Tigress then. "And yours, sister. Is she under someone's protection?"
The Lady Tigress rose, a lightning strike, a scattered spark, every blazing fire ever struck moving on her paws. Fisher bowed, but the Lady Tigress reached out, touched a huge paw to Fisher's chin and murmured, "Let me see your eyes, child." Fisher's head came up, the two stood with eyes locked for a moment, and the Lady Tigress smiled. "
Yes, sister. This one is a shaman in the service of brother Kit Fox."
"Ah, brother Kit Fox." The Lady Lioness's smile rose slowly, dawn in late spring. "He and his are always as welcome as a summer afternoon."
The other two Ladies had turned now, their eyes hot and cold on Bobcat's flanks. "And yours, sister?" the Lady Leopardess asked.
"Yes," the Lady Tigress added. "Is yours under anyone's protection?"
The Lady Lioness rose in one smooth motion, clear and unhurried as the sun at high noon, and padded toward Bobcat. She loomed before him, and Bobcat's throat closed up; he wanted nothing more than to break her gaze, but the golden fire of her eyes held him fast, and he knew she was gazing right down to his insides. "I...," he started to stammer. "I...don't think...I'm, uhh...under anyone's, uhh..."
But her eyes went wide, their unearthly glow vanishing, a pair of regular lion eyes staring down at him. "No," she whispered, and her voice didn't shake the ground, didn't send his fur shivering and his whiskers jittering; in fact, it reminded him of someone. "It... It can't be," she said a little louder, and her face was a lioness's face, tawny and beautiful and old and...familiar? "Ghareen?" she asked.
A scent tickled Bobcat's nose, a scent he hadn't smelled in decades, and all at once, he knew her. "Sh...Shemka Harr?"
Then paws were around him, hugging him close, her voice laughing in his ears: "I never thought I'd...I mean, how did you... Where did you... It can't... Oh, Ghareen, Ghareen." Just as suddenly, though, her voice stopped, the paws going rigid across his back. Bobcat felt the ground under him again, and when the lioness stepped back, he could see that everyone else in the clearing was staring at them.
The Lady Leopardess and the Lady Tigress now looked more like actual folk, still larger than anyone Bobcat had ever seen, but they weren't glowing the way they had been. The silence lingered for a while then, the Lady Tigress finally clearing her throat. "Perhaps," she said, still rumbling deep and scary in Bobcat's ears, "you can explain, sister, what all this ad-libbing is about?"
The Blood Jaguar Page 19