by David Weber
“And if he refuses to let them be moved?” Irina asked.
Jessica’s grin faded. “He won’t. But if he did, well, I’ve got some images cached that would go straight to where they’d do us the most good.” Her expression brightened again. “But he won’t. He’s not the sort of man to let even a bunch of chipmunks starve to death if he could help. He’ll find a way to make it work. He’d better.”
21
Stephanie’s heart beat rapidly as the shuttle touched down. So much had happened in the last three months—and so much was about to happen. Already the demands of her coursework seemed unreal, especially in the face of the challenges to come.
When debarking began, Stephanie was immediately aware of the change in gravity. For a moment, she thought about switching on her counter-grav unit, but she resisted. From his carrier, Lionheart gave a heartfelt “bleek” and waved his true-hand to show that he, too, felt the changes.
Stephanie’s parents and Karl were chattering, bags were being gathered, general motion began towards the exit. On some level, Stephanie took part in all of it, but most of her was focused on what would happen in just a few moments. Anders had promised he’d be there to meet her, yet she felt suddenly nervous. What if he wasn’t there?
But Anders was there, tall and lean, his wheat-colored hair pulled back in its usual ponytail, his dark-blue eyes intent. His smile flashed when he spotted her in the queue. He loped forward.
“Steph! Welcome home!”
Anders hugged her, then turned and greeted the senior Harringtons. Karl was being hugged by his parents and various siblings, so the young men settled for clasping hands over the assorted dark heads.
“Your dad and I can wait for the luggage, Stephanie,” Marjorie Harrington said playfully. “If Anders wants to give you and Lionheart a ride home, you can leave now.”
Without waiting for Stephanie to answer, Anders grabbed her carry-on from her father, leaving Lionheart’s carrier to her. “Thanks!”
Stephanie considered letting Lionheart out right away, but the treecat would certainly attract attention. Better wait until they were outside. She waved to Karl.
“Later!”
Karl was now wearing some sort of homemade paper crown. He gave her a sheepish smile. “Later . . .”
Outside, the air was crisp, sharp with autumn in a way it hadn’t been when Stephanie left for Manticore. Or was the change she felt just the contrast between the planets? Lionheart certainly felt it. When she let him out of his carrier, he wrapped his tail around himself, then jumped into the air car.
“He did lose a lot of fur,” she said thoughtfully, talking to cover her sudden nervousness. It was one thing to message a guy just about every day. It was another to finally be alone with him. “I wonder if I should get him a sweater?”
Anders laughed. “If you do, don’t let Dr. Hidalgo see him in it.”
“Right!” Stephanie joined the laughter; both he and Jessica had messaged her about Dr. Hidalgo’s devotion to pristine cultures. “I’m all for letting the treecats live treecat lives, but not to the point where Lionheart gets sick.” She slid into the passenger seat. “How did Survivor do when you took him home? He’d lost a lot of fur, too, hadn’t he?”
“Scott and Irina felt pretty much the way you do,” Anders said. “They sent him home with a couple of jackets they’d cobbled together. All the fastenings can be undone by a treecat, so Survivor can wear them or not as he pleases.”
“That’s good. Maybe I should com for the pattern and make a couple of jackets for Lionheart.”
Anders nodded agreement, but Stephanie felt a throb of apprehension. There was something tight about his features. She couldn’t help but notice that his hand didn’t reach for hers as it would have before. Her sense that something wasn’t quite right wasn’t helped when Lionheart jumped onto the back of the seat and wrapped his tail around her neck instead of bleeking for the window to be opened the way he usually did.
“Steph,” Anders said, biting down on his lower lip. “There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m going to just be honest. I’m . . . I’m in love with someone else.”
“Jessica.” The answer was so obvious that Stephanie didn’t even need to guess. A sick feeling flooded the pit of her stomach, followed by a flash of anger. How could they betray her? She’d loved them both, though in different ways. She’d trusted them . . . Then, as soon as her back was turned, they’d gone against her!
“I don’t know,” Anders went on stiffly, “if Jessica loves me. I know she likes me but . . . She’s been keeping her distance ever since I told her how I felt. That was after the Attack ’Cat went for her.”
The air car was on autopilot, but Anders had been staring at the HUD as if he were piloting through a storm. Now he hung his head. “I feel like an utter blackhole, telling you this when you haven’t even gotten your planet legs back, but I thought holding out, acting like nothing had changed, would be worse.”
To Stephanie’s surprise, Lionheart stretched to pat Anders on one arm. For a moment, she felt a flare of jealousy. Then she understood. Lionheart could feel Anders’ emotions—and that meant the pain she saw on his face was genuine. He wasn’t acting. He really did feel terrible.
“I don’t . . .” she managed. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging in mute understanding. “Listen, don’t blame Jessica. She didn’t encourage me or anything. We haven’t been dating or anything . . . I’d been keeping my feelings to myself . . . Then, there she was, all covered in blood, her eye nearly slashed out . . . You’ve talked about how you felt when Lionheart was being attacked . . . I . . . I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. And I’d never lie to you.”
Stephanie reached into herself, wondering if this extraordinary calm she felt was Lionheart’s doing, but she didn’t think so. She could feel him there, watchful, attentive, ready to intervene if she needed him, but the treecat seemed to have learned that there were things she had to deal with without the comfort he so easily offered.
“I . . . Talk to me . . . I’m confused.”
“Me, too. What do you want me to talk about?”
“Is there something wrong with me? Are you still my friend? Is Jessica? I . . . I feel like the universe’s gone through a blender and everything is all different shapes. I guess I’m glad you were honest. I know I am, but I can’t . . .” She felt hot, fat tears running down her cheeks. “Just talk to me.”
He did. Slowly at first, then with greater detail. Eventually, she started talking, too. Back and forth, back and forth. He still thought she was great. So did Jessica. Both of them were torn up. . . .
Was there a point when Lionheart intervened, letting Stephanie feel just how lost and confused Anders felt? She didn’t know, but throughout it all the ’cat stayed close, wrapping her within the fluffy length of his tail.
* * *
Climbs Quickly did not need to understand mouth noises to figure out the reason for the emotional storms he was caught between. The next day, when he and Death Fang’s Bane went to the two-legs’ gathering place and met with Windswept and Dirt Grubber, his friend filled him in on the details he could not gather from Death Fang’s Bane’s mind-glow.
After showing him how Swimmer’s Scourge had assaulted Windswept and Nimble Fingers, Dirt Grubber said,
Climbs Quickly chewed thoughtfully on the cluster stalk he had been served. Maybe it was just being home, but it tasted so much better than it had in the Hot Lands.
As methodically as he would have set one of his gardens in place, Dirt Grubber began with the finding of the body he now knew to have been Red Cliff’s and his first sensing of Keen Eyes. He interwove what he had later learned from Keen Eyes and Nimble Fingers, so that by the time Climbs Quickly had taken it all in, he actually had a better understanding of events than had any of those who had been more immediately involved.
Climbs Quickly said.
Dirt Grubber said.
He reached for another piece of cluster stalk, expecting Death Fang’s Bane to take it from him because he had already eaten over a hand of them, but she remained intent on her conversation with Windswept. He could only hope that some of it was about starving People and not all about one young two-leg with bright hair.
* * *
“Jessica commed me,” Karl said when he picked Stephanie up for their meeting with Chief Ranger Shelton. “So you don’t have to tell me anything. She said she talked to you, too.”
“She did,” Stephanie agreed. “We had shakes at the Red Letter Café a couple of days ago. We decided not to let a guy get in the way of our friendship. I mean, she’s not to blame for Anders’ feelings changing.”
Karl sighed. “Steph, I’ve never really told you about Sumiko, have I?”
Stephanie blinked, startled by the change of subject. “Well, I know a few things. She lived with your family, right? Some things Irina’s said . . . I think she was your girlfriend. And she . . . she died in an accident.”
Karl nodded. “Those are the basics. But I’m going to tell you something no one else knows—no one, not my mom or my dad or anybody.”
From the thin trickle of emotion flowing into her through Lionheart, Stephanie could tell this was very important to Karl, so she didn’t say any of the usual things, “If you really want to” or “I don’t want to pry”—all those “kind” things people say when what they’re really saying is, “Don’t take me into your pain.”
“Go on. I’m listening.”
“Sumiko came to live with us after all her family died in the Plague. My folks legally adopted her. Sumi and I were pretty close in age. I was just a few months older. Since our families’ freeholds shared a border, we’d known each other all our lives. For a while, it was just like having another sister, but as we got older . . .”
He paused and made an unnecessary adjustment on the air car’s panel. Stephanie held her breath, not wanting to break the moment.
“I’m not sure who started thinking we’d get married when we got older. I think it started with adults joking around the way they do when they think kids are too young to really take them seriously. The thing is, we did take them seriously. We’d talk about it when we were alone. Whether we’d live in the house her family had built or build one of our own, stuff like that . . .”
Karl swallowed hard. “When I turned fifteen, Sumi started getting really serious. Maybe it’s because girls mature faster than guys or something. I don’t know. She wanted us to get engaged or at least betrothed. I wasn’t against it. I mean, marrying Sumiko was as much a part of my future life as going to Landing for college. But I did want to go to college, and I didn’t want to get married and start a family before I was done.”
“Oh . . .”
Karl rushed on. “On the day Sumi and I took the kids sledding, we’d been fighting. She’d been hinting that she thought I’d be giving her a betrothal ring for her fifteenth birthday. I just told her flat out I wasn’t, that I thought eighteen would be better—we’d both be legal adults then. It wouldn’t be kids’ games.
“Sumiko was furious with me, said what she felt wasn’t kids’ games, that she loved me, and if I didn’t love her enough to give her a stupid promise ring, then . . .”
Karl’s fists were clenched tight, but the words came rushing out. “Normally, we’d probably have figured out a way to go off on our own, cool off. Then we would’ve made up. But we’d promised the kids, and so, still really mad, we went out. Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have. The tree branches were heavy with snow and we weren’t too young to know conditions were dangerous. But, well, if we’d backed off, it would have been like one of us was giving ground.
“It’s probably because I was so pissed that I didn’t see that one of the branches of the crown oak my sister Larissa was sledding under was weak. Sumi did, though. She screamed a warning and ran all out, knocking Larissa out of danger . . . Sumiko didn’t get clear, though. The branch hit her from over a hundred meters up.”
Stephanie could see it all in her imagination, the crown oak limb tearing free, the fragile black-haired girl smashed. She knew all too well how hard things could fall in heavy gravity.
Karl went on, his voice stiff. “I hollered for someone to call for help. I ran and hauled that tree limb off, but there was nothing I could do. Sumiko’s chest had been crushed, her lungs punctured. There was blood on her lips. She said something about our having at least six kids, that she loved me, and then . . . she died.”
Karl was crying now, his calm, stiff tone a frightening contrast to the tears that rolled down his cheeks. “She was dead and I’d killed her. Killed her because I wouldn’t give her a stupid ring that would have made her happy.”
“Karl . . . you didn’t! It wasn’t your fault . . .”
Karl gave her a twisted grin. “Yeah. Except it felt like it. It still feels like it. There’s not a day I don’t think about it, don’t wonder how things might have worked out. When I turned eighteen, I realized this would’ve been the year I gave Sumiko her ring . . . And I also realized that maybe I wouldn’t have. I mean, people change a lot. Three years? Would kids’ dreams have lasted that long? I don’t know.”
Stephanie fought back tears. “Kids’ dreams? That’s why you’re telling me this? Because of Anders?”
“Some.” Karl looked directly at her. “Maybe other reasons. Maybe because I’m beginning to be ready to let go of the ghost. Look, I don’t think what you felt—feel—for Anders isn’t real, but the fact is that most people don’t end up settling down with the first person they fall in love with. Even if they do, not all those relationships work out. I’m finally accepting that even if Sumi and I had gotten married, maybe it wouldn’t have been as perfect as we dreamed.”
“And maybe,” Stephanie said slowly, “if Anders hadn’t fallen for Jessica, something else would’ve come along to break us up. Still, there have got to be easier ways to get dumped than having your guy fall for your best friend.”
Karl poked her with one long finger. “Yours? They don’t really belong just to you, you know. And you don’t belong just to them. No matter what words you use, Jess and Anders have lives beyond how they relate to you . . . And you wouldn’t have gotten involved with them if you hadn’t thought both of them were pretty great people, right? Imagine how yo
u’d feel if Anders had dumped you for Trudy!”
Stephanie actually found herself giggling. “I see what you mean. Okay.” She grew suddenly somber. “And, hey, Karl . . . Thanks. I won’t tell anyone.”
Karl nodded his appreciation. “Actually, I’m thinking it’s time I told my family. Maybe I’ll start with Irina. She’s pretty understanding. It’s time I stopped carrying this shadow on my heart. Sumiko deserves more than to be remembered for her last few hours.”
Stephanie nodded. “I think so. I think, you know, she’d probably like that a lot.”
* * *
“So, essentially,” Chief Ranger Shelton said, “you want to move an entire clan of treecats. You’re just giving the SFS a chance to pick where.”
Stephanie felt as if this was another test—and one where a lot more than the final mark rested on her answer.
“Well, sir, it’s sort of complicated. First of all, there is precedent—SFS relocated the remnants of the clan the Stray came from.”
“Ah, but in that case,” Shelton said, “the treecats were endangered by human actions. In this case, the fires were completely natural.”
Karl pointed to the holo map they’d brought with them. “Sir, humans are involved here, too. Not by causing the fires, but indirectly. Look at how many possible areas are blocked by human settlement.”
“Point taken,” Shelton said. “Still, why should the SFS get involved?”
Stephanie drew in a deep breath. “Well, sir, like I said, it’s complicated. If the treecats are animals, then this particular clan is living on Crown Lands, which makes them Crown property. If we just move them, say to a space on the Harrington freehold or on Karl’s family’s lands, then we’d be stealing. We don’t want to do that.”
“I am vastly relieved. Continue.”
“If, however, as a lot of people—”
“Including some members of the Adair Foundation,” Karl inserted helpfully, with an innocence that didn’t fool anyone.
Stephanie glared at him. “If, as some people seem to think, the treecats are sentient, then they should have the right to move wherever they want as long as where they go doesn’t get in the way of other people’s claims. I mean, if the ’cats are people, not property, then they can’t be stolen. If, say, Chet parked his truck and a bunch of ’cats got on, and then he gave them a lift, that wouldn’t be theft, right?”