Princess Swift Current was back — older, but the Pegman recognized her still, and marvelled. The Little Friends withdrew, having unblocked certain pathways in her mind.
“What.… What’s been happening?” she asked.
“Do you remember me, Corriente?” the Pegman asked. Of course, she wouldn’t. It was so long ago. So many things had happened.
She said, “Enri. I wanted you to take me away with you.”
“I didn’t know.…”
“You knew I loved you.”
And now that he had her at last, Enri lost his nerve. She was too beautiful, and he was a one-armed Pegman. He wasn’t worthy. He shrugged, admitting his past foolishness, accepting that it was now too late. He turned away.
Corriente took hold of him, swung him round and kissed him.…
For a long time Karina fidgeted nearby, examining the stone wall with embarrassed intensity. True Humans were the strangest creatures — they behaved like people in legends. At last the couple stepped apart. Karina sighed with relief. She’d feared they were going to mate, there and then, and it wouldn’t have seemed, right for her to watch. Anyone else, but not the Pegman. Needing to change the subject, she said tentatively:
“The Dedo died very … easily, didn’t you think, Enri? With all her powers.…” Her imagination had conjured up a picture of the Dedo sitting in the chair by the fire the way she’d first seen her, sitting there right now, on the other side of the wall, smiling to herself, having fooled them all.
“She knew Raoul was going to kill her. It was in the Ifalong. So there was no point in fighting it. I kind of think it was all part of her Purpose that she died.”
“Look!” said Corriente. Smoke was puffing from under her door.
They backed off. The smoke thickened, then suddenly the cottage burst into flames. Fingers of fire reached through the roof into the trees and the slates popped and crackled. The roof collapsed and a great breath of smoke puffed out of the windows like the exhalation of a dying dragon. The door fell outwards, flaming, and within minutes the cottage was reduced to a smoking shell. So rapid had been the conflagration that the ferns and mosses growing in and around the walls were barely scorched. As the smoke died, the remains of the cottage seemed to blend back into the forest, giving the impression of an old rock face scarred by a couple of caves.
In fact, thought Karina in a moment of superstition, maybe that’s what it is.”
It had all happened so unnaturally fast, as though Starquin had needed to erase something from Time, and had done it by the most convenient means.
Karina was about to discuss her new theory with Enri when she saw that he was again occupied with Corriente, and looked as though he’d rather not be disturbed. She stood quietly for a while, feeling sad; then at last said diffidently:
“What shall I do now, Enri?”
The Pegman disentangled himself. “Are you still here, Karina? What are you waiting for? Go and look after Raoul — this forest is thirsty for blood. I’ll see you in Rangua in a few days.”
Karina flushed. “I don’t go nursemaiding True Human brats!”
“But he saved the life of a felina brat,” said Enri.
“Oh.”
“Or did he save the life of a good felina girl who would be happy to return the favor? He’s lost and unhappy, Karina. Does it matter that he’s a True Human?”
“He saved my life.…” Karina was reliving that fearful moment. “Do you think I’ve misjudged him, Enri?”
“Go on. Get after him.”
“Thank you, Enri. Thanks for everything.” She threw her arms around his neck, pressed her body against his and kissed him long and hard.
Afterwards, the Pegman chuckled ruefully. “That was every bit as good as I expected. Will you forgive me, Corriente?”
Corriente was watching Karina running into the jungle. “She’s a very remarkable young woman.…”
“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“Raoul isn’t a True Human, Enri.”
“What!”
“He was brought here from a distant place. He’s the first natural hybrid of True Human and Specialist. According to the Dedo, on certain happentracks he’s capable of fathering children. This is the Dedo’s Purpose — to create a new line of people. Karina’s a descendant of Captain Spring, the tiger-woman who brought bor back to Earth. She’s not a full jaguar-girl at all — hadn’t you noticed? And Raoul — his children may be able to mate with True Humans or Specialists.”
The Pegman caught a glimpse of the Ifalong. “That could solve a lot of problems.”
“But it’s incidental to the Purpose. In one happentrack of the Ifalong — maybe this happentrack — Karina and Raoul will mate and have a son. This son will be the first of a new line of humans with bor, neither full Specialists nor True Humans but having the best characteristics of both, and capable of breeding with either.”
“Karina and Raoul.… I always thought there was something special about her; but him.… I don’t know. Do you really think it’s going to happen, Corriente?”
She said, “I hope so. Leitha died for it. That’s quite a sacrifice for someone who’s nearly immortal.”
The importance of love.
There was no love in Leitha. Why should there be, when she was a Finger of Starquin? He is a lone creature, a being without sex, without even a form.
Yet Leitha understood love, and what it meant to humans. And she used it in bringing Karina and Raoul together. She’d learned about it long ago; learned of its importance, and the part it had played in Mankind’s progress. She’d known the days of Greataway travel, when humans flitted among the stars faster than light, in insubstantial matrices they called Invisible Spaceships.
Love played a very big part in Man’s Greataway travel, because the ether is delicate and will not readily accept hostile vibrations. The Three Madmen of Munich, who planted the Hate Bombs, only succeeded in entering the Greataway because of a one-in-a-million chance when a Dedo was unluckily absent from her Rock.
But by the time our story takes place, romantic love has become rare. Most Specialists had no need for a permanent bond between male and female, and only the True Humans carried on the old traditions — a little strained in most cases, like Astrud and Tonio. And only a few remote happentracks can tell what really happened to Corriente and Enri, when he scooped her into the saddle that distant day in Portina. Did they, in fact, live happily ever after?
There is one exception — a Specialist who was essential to the Purpose — an animal-person who, against all the odds, knew a romantic attachment. He is central to all the events of that momentous year, he is the reason why Serena, and later Raoul, were transported to Rangua, yet he is only briefly mentioned in the Song of Earth.
He is El Tigre, the fierce and gentle man, the only suitable mate for the tiger-woman Serena.
He is an underestimated lover.
There are others in the Ifalong more famous.
The fast and exciting lives of the Dream People in the Domes left little time for the lingering slowness of love. Just one Dream Person is celebrated for her knowledge of real love — Elizabeth of the Triad, also known as the Girl-with-no-Name, from Dome Azul, along way down the coast. In the same Dome a Cuidador named Zozula lived; in the Song of Earth he is known as the Oldster.
These two Dome people, they knew love. They discovered it over twenty thousand years after the time of our story.
Meanwhile the thread of Karina’s descendants continued, and they experienced love too, because bor knows it is essential to the ultimate survival of a sexual species.
The Triad is celebrated in one of the most famous verses of the Song of Earth, beginning:
“Come, hear about the Trinity of legendary fame.
The Oldster and the Artist and the Girl-with-no-Name.”
In the year 143,624 Cyclic the Triad came together, loved, rediscovered the Greataway and went out there and removed the Hate Bombs by the strength of their love alo
ne.
And Starquin was free.
The Artist was one Manuel, a young Wild Human.
He was a direct descendant of John, who was born during the year after Leitha died.
Karina saw Raoul on a rock at the top of a ridge. He sat slumped, silhouetted against the sky in the warm morning sun. He was clearly visible to any predator, but didn’t appear to care.
Karina climbed up to him.
He heard her coming, jerked around and saw her, and tensed as though about to run. He watched her with as much nervous uncertainty as he would watch an oncoming jaguar.
“It’s all right,” Karina called.
He said nothing as she sat beside him. She’d washed herself in a stream and she was confident that she looked good. Her hair had dried and it drifted like a bronze cloud beside her head.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said.
“I’m not afraid of you!” he said with a flash of spirit. He forced himself to stare at her and suddenly found that he was not, in fact, afraid.
“I’m sorry about your parents, Raoul.”
“Don’t give me that! I heard you at Torres! You —”
“I wasn’t myself at Torres. I didn’t realize how much the Dedo was in charge. She ruled us all, you know that? For a while there, everything we did was dictated by her. Including what your father did.… She influenced us in lots of little ways — and when that didn’t work, she compelled us.”
“But now she’s dead,” said Raoul.
Karina remembered how he’d reacted when he’d thought her life was in danger. She felt a warm glow spread through her body, almost alarming in its suddenness. “You killed her, Raoul,” she said softly. “You killed her for me.”
“Well, I don’t know about that.…”
“So now she’s dead,” said Karina with sudden forced gaiety, trying to suppress her growing emotions. “And now we can do anything we like!” She wriggled, finding her words had a double meaning — and gave in to herself, admitting to herself what it was she would like. She left the rock and the disturbing proximity of Raoul, and lay on the grass, looking at the sky. It shouldn’t be hurried.
“Tell me about the Dedo,” said Raoul. “I thought she was just some girl my father found.”
So Karina explained, from her first meeting with the handmaiden to the occasion in the cottage when his mother had died, just a few hours ago. When she’d finished, Raoul said:
“If she was so powerful, don’t you think she might have left her plans behind her? Set up the Ifalong to suit herself, I mean?”
“I don’t care,” said Karina, yawning. The sun was making her drowsy and for a moment she closed her eyes. Here, on this ridge with Raoul, she had a wonderful feeling of isolation and content. The rest of the world seemed a long way off. She stretched, catlike, feeling her breasts pressing against the tunic and hoping that Raoul was watching her. She cracked open an eye, and saw that he wasn’t.
“I can’t see why she had to kill so many people,” said Raoul. “Do you suppose she set up the whole revolution?”
“I don’t want to talk about the rotten old Dedo.”
“Well.… What do you want to talk about?” He sensed an impatience in her tone and hoped she wasn’t going to leave.
“Mordecai! Here we are all alone in the forest and you don’t know what to talk about?”
“My parents have just died.”
“Well, I’m very sorry. But they weren’t your real parents, were they?”
“No. But I loved them, I guess.”
“I know what you mean. My father.… He’s the nicest man I know. And I love my sisters, too. But that’s not the same thing as, well, you know.… A man and a woman. Is it, Raoul?” She’d propped herself up on one elbow, looking up into his face, hoping he could see down the front of her tunic. “Remember a while back, I rode with you in the sailcar, and you kicked Torch in the pants?”
He grinned suddenly. “I didn’t like him too much.”
“But you liked me.”
Trapped, he admitted, “You’re very pretty.” He could see right down to her navel.
“Why did you kick him? Why did you kill the Dedo? It was because of me, wasn’t it!”
“Yes,” he said quietly, staring at the distant ocean.
“Well, then!”
“Karina, I.…”
“Look at me when you speak to me, Raoul!”
And foolishly, he did. He fell into the pools of her amber eyes and was caught by the nets of the Little Friends who waited there. He leaned forward, unable to help himself, and slipped his hand inside her tunic, stroking the nipple gently, then squeezing the breast.
“Karina.… We’re different species,” he said helplessly.
He was hers, now. She crawled close, put an arm around his neck and pulled him down beside her. She kissed him long and passionately, as though she’d been doing it all her life.
“Karina, you’re not being fair,” he said, when he had the chance.
“It’s not supposed to be fair. It’s supposed to be fun. Come on, Raoul. Show me what you’re made of. Show me it wasn’t a fluke, what you did in the cottage.”
“But killing has nothing to do with this!” he protested in despair, his hand between her legs, his fingers drawing her clothing aside.
“No,” she said in satisfaction. “It wasn’t a fluke.”
“But this is because I want you.”
“That’s good enough for me.”
But not for me, he thought in desolation, as his body did just what she wanted it to. This only makes it worse. Now I’m trapped, and I’ll never, never be free.
“Oh, Raoul.…”
Because I love you, Karina. I love you with all of my heart, and you don’t even know what that means.
Then, for a few blessed moments, all thought stopped.…
Later, Karina rolled away and stood. “Oh, Raoul — that was so good. Every bit as good as they say it is.”
“You mean … you never …?”
“Yes, that was the first time for me,” she said happily. “I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to think I was, well, amateurish, you know. But you liked it, didn’t you?” She was full of life, full of vitality and youth, as though she’d just enjoyed a refreshing swim on a hot day.
Raoul sighed, lost, as he’d known he would be.
Return to Rangua.
Seven days later Karina and Raoul came out of the Jungle and told Captain Guantelete to take them back to Rangua.
“I’m not sure about that.” Palhoa basked in an Indian Summer and the turmoil of Rangua seemed a long way off. “There’s been no news out of Rangua for days,” Guantelete said. “God knows what’s happening down there.
“Take us,” said Karina.
Guantelete grinned suddenly. “If that is your wish, Karina.” He had his curiosity. Every day he’d climbed a signal tower and observed the Canton capital for a while. He’d seen no sails moving. The little signalmen were gone from Palhoa; disappeared into the foothills. It was rumored that their Guild had called them off the job due to violation of their property in Rangua. The hemitrexes stared blindly downhill. Palhoa was cut off from the rest of the world.
Some time later the sailcar rolled to a halt in Rangua station.
Nobody paid any attention to Karina and Raoul as they alighted and walked down the main street. A few True Humans were about, and felinas loitered at the corners in grupos, chattering and idly stropping their fingernails on the trees.
They found El Tigre sitting alone on a treestump beside the sailway track. “It’s good to see you again, Karina,” he said. “The Pegman was here a few days ago, with his woman. He told us the story. It was difficult to believe.”
“I hope you didn’t harm him.”
“Nobody’s been harmed for many days,” said El Tigre. His eyes were haunted. “Raoul, I’m grateful to you for saving my daughter’s life.”
“I think I’d do anything for her, El Tigre,” sai
d Raoul.
Karina gave a smug grin, then surprised her father. “We mated, up there in the jungle. Lots of times. It was so good.”
El Tigre watched them silently; his wayward daughter and her True Human lover, and he was sad. It was a pity that such a beautiful thing wouldn’t last. And it was all so pointless anyway, because they were different species.…
He found himself thinking of Serena.
“Who did win the Tortuga Race, anyway?” Karina’s question brought him back to the present.
“Captain Herrero.”
“Oh. What a pity.”
“They flashed the news through just before the signalmen walked out. I’d rather not have known. It seems there’s nothing on Earth will stop a man like that from winning.”
Raoul regarded the houses of Rangua: quiet, defeated, in mourning. “If it’s any consolation, I expect Captain Herrero thinks the same about you, El Tigre.”
Then Teressa and Runa arrived, and the mock-fight finished with the girls a tangled heap on the ground while Raoul and El Tigre looked on tolerantly.
As the felinas were dusting themselves off, Raoul asked, “What’s been happening around here, anyway? I expected to find you all living in the Palace.” And for a moment the memories returned; the house with its view over the coastal downs, and his father and mother. He could never go back to that house.…
“We’ve been betrayed,” said El Tigre. “How can I deal with the Canton Lord when we can’t put our own forces in order?”
“Manoso’s double-crossed us,” Teressa explained. “He took his army to the delta under orders to capture it, but instead he made a deal with the people there. The bastard. He’s got the cai-men and Maquinista and all the Specialists on his side, and he’s holding the delta, the tortuga pens, and all the cars in there. Now he’s bargaining with us for terms.”
“He wants to operate the whole place himself,” said Runa. “He’s set himself up as a little Lord.”
“We should go right in there and slaughter every last one of them!” said Teressa.
El Tigre said, “There will be no more killing.”
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