Part 71 (1/2)
Don't fight, thought Roup. Just tell it. ”This is my story,” he began, but Arcove interrupted, his eyes locked on Keesha.
”Coden would not agree to any terms that limited ferryshaft breeding or numbers, nor would he agree to anything that limited their range. If I had capitulated to his terms, I would have been right back where I started in ten years or less-outnumbered and surrounded.” Arcove's voice rose in a snarl. ”I was not going to be outnumbered and surrounded again. Ever. Also, I doubted what worked for me the first time would work again. The ferryshaft would have been more wary and certainly under a less friendly leader, as Coden would have gone off to chase b.u.t.terflies by then!
”So I did what I do best: I fought. And after I killed a few of his friends, Coden wasn't interested in talking anymore. I would have offered him the same terms right up until the end, but he wouldn't listen.”
Arcove stopped talking. The silence in the cave felt oppressive. ”Are you finished?” asked Roup.
Arcove sank back down and put his head on his paws. ”I don't know. You tell me.”
Keesha spoke. His voice had an uncertainty that Roup had never heard there before. ”When you said...that I got Coden killed...”
”Once you entered the war, Coden didn't think he could lose,” whispered Arcove. ”On Kuwee...he would have surrendered. I know he would have. He wasn't that crazy. If you had stayed out of it, we could have come to some agreement. But he wouldn't budge. He wouldn't compromise, because he thought-”
”I heard you,” said Keesha. ”Why didn't I hear any of this at the time?”
”That's what I wanted to tell you,” said Roup. ”You thought you came to the parlay where we tried to come to terms on Kuwee. But you didn't. The real parlay happened the night before. Coden met with Arcove and me. We hadn't spoken in two years, but we'd never been anything but friendly face-to-face. Coden and I had never spoken about the war or the antagonism between the ferryshaft and the creasia. I know that seems strange, but we just didn't talk about it. When we were together, we talked of other things. I was certain that, if we just sat down and addressed the issues, we could sort everything out. Arcove didn't think so, but he was willing to let me try.
”So we talked, and I learned something that night. I learned that Coden didn't see other creasia in the same way that he saw me. In his mind, I was an honorary ferryshaft. He wasn't willing to extend to other creasia the same trust or kindness that he extended to me. Arcove was right. Coden would not compromise, and his terms would have put us at the mercy of ferryshaft and telshees for the foreseeable future. He believed that, with Syra-lay on his side, he did not need to make compromises.
”For the first time in our lives, Coden and I quarreled. We almost fought. Arcove didn't say a word, just got between us when we almost leapt at each other. I left that meeting knowing that we had to win or die. There would be no mercy and no compromises. I told myself that my friend had changed, that the other ferryshaft had poisoned his mind. I reminded myself of every terrible thing they had done to me as a cub, and I did not want my cubs to grow up with creatures like that hunting them. When we met to parlay the next day, it was merely a formality. Coden and Arcove snarled threats at each other, and I kept my mouth shut.”
Roup hesitated. Tell it straight. Tell it all. ”Coden and I used to meet sometimes at the first full moon of fall. I didn't go to the meeting. I didn't think he would. The ferryshaft were all-but trapped in caves on the southern plains, fighting for their lives. A few days later, I did go to the meeting place...and his scent was there.” Roup swallowed. ”I will wonder until the day I die what he wanted to say to me...whether it would have changed things. We never spoke again, though.”
Roup looked at Keesha. ”If you need to blame someone for what happened on Kuwee, for the death of your friend, for the way the war turned out, blame me.” Roup tried to put all of the pain and frustration he felt into his voice. ”Coden was our friend, too, Keesha.”
Roup stopped talking, and the room was utterly silent. Somewhere below them, in the maze of little rooms, Roup heard cubs calling to each other in play. Stones rattled softly as some part of the ruin settled.
Finally, Keesha said, ”The Shable...”
Roup glanced down at Arcove. ”No one knows this part. No one.”
”I can guess,” said Arcove quietly.
Then you haven't held it against me. ”After I watched two friends fight to the death in the place where we used to meet and play,” said Roup, ”I found the Shable in an old food cache behind a waterfall. It was another place where Coden and I had sometimes met. He'd left it there for me.”
Keesha looked puzzled. ”Why?”
Roup licked his lips. ”Perhaps he just considered me the least dangerous option, since he couldn't get it to either the telshees or the ferryshaft. However, he could have thrown it into a river. He could have taken it to Turis and tossed it into the sea. He didn't.
”I think it was his way of...of saying that he still trusted me...of making peace...of saying good-bye. But it felt like the last devastating evidence of my failure-proof that he would have listened if I had just found the right words.”
Roup paused, but no one spoke. ”I wanted a piece of him to take to the Ghost Wood,” he continued. ”I searched the beach for days, looking for any sc.r.a.p of bone or fur, but there was nothing. Finally...I took the Shable.”
”Ahhh,” murmured Keesha. ”Of course.”
”It was the closest thing to a piece of him that I had,” said Roup. ”I took it to the Ghost Wood and flung it as far as I could. I screamed his name into the wind, and then...I went home. I lived as peacefully as I knew how. I did not go on raids or kill ferryshaft, but I understand why Arcove thinks he has to. It is hard for us to trust ferryshaft, and their populations outstrip ours very rapidly.”
Charder spoke. His voice sounded tired. ”Our females do not quicken if they do not get enough to eat in the fall. That is how our populations are normally limited, but I cannot produce this effect artificially. Bitterleaf just makes us sick. Also, the herd I inherited was not my herd. Most of my herd was dead. Arcove put me in charge of the shattered remnants of a dozen herds. They did not choose me. They resented me a great deal at first. I tried, with the sullen a.s.sistance of the elders, to regulate our own numbers for two years, but it didn't work. Attempts to enforce breeding rights were tearing the herd apart. We settled on the creasia cull after the elders would not agree to anything else.”
Arcove opened his eyes. He tried to say something, but it came out slurred. Roup noticed that a quivering had started in his hindquarters. ”It's not you, Charder,” Arcove managed. ”It's not...can't...”
”What he's trying to say,” said Roup to Charder, ”is that he's done his best not to make a friend of you, because he always thought he would have to kill you. But somehow, he went and made a friend of you anyway. He was hoping you wouldn't notice.”
Arcove glared at him. ”That...is not...what I-”
”No, but it's what you meant.” Roup's chest felt tight; the blood pounded in his ears. ”Arcove?”
Arcove looked like he was having trouble breathing. The quivering had increased to a full-body shudder. Roup looked at Keesha. He wanted to scream. ”What's wrong with him? I know it has something to do with you!”
Arcove's back legs kicked in a convulsive, involuntary manner, and he flopped onto his side, breathing in agonized gasps. His eyes were dilated, fixed and staring. Roup crouched beside him, looking back and forth frantically. He couldn't see any wound, nothing to explain Arcove's obvious distress. He felt, more than saw, Keesha's presence, hovering over and behind him.
Roup laid his head down against Arcove's, desperate to offer comfort. Arcove gasped against his ear. ”You...were...right,” he managed. ”This is...better. Better end to the story. Sorry for... Sorry.” He let out a long breath and did not take another.
Chapter 23. Something New.
”Listen to us, ferryshaft!” shouted Sauny. ”We have something to say to you!”
The herd-what was left of it-had gathered around Sauny, Kelsy, and Valla. Valla had counted over eight hundred animals, approximately six hundred of which were adults or older foals. She did not know how many they'd started with, but nearly everyone she spoke to reported a friend or family member missing. Did we lose a hundred? Two hundred? More?
”This is a great day for the herd,” Kelsy began. ”We are free, ferryshaft! For the first time in my life, we are free.”
A cheer went up, and several of the younger ferryshaft howled. However, someone called a question immediately, ”Where is Storm? He should be here! Where is Vearil? Where is the Doom of Cats?”
”Storm is on Kuwee Island,” said Sauny, raising her voice to carry over the babble, ”with Arcove's creasia.”
Shocked silence followed.
Kelsy spoke quickly. ”Friends, I have a confession to make. As some of you know, I have attended creasia conferences this past season. I have listened to Arcove's plans, and I have made compromises. I made compromises to prevent war, to prevent what happened when we attacked the creasia by the lake last year. I lost a beloved mate that day, and I did not ever want to do that again. My friends, I was afraid-afraid of war, of loss, of death. So I made compromises.”
”We all did!” shouted someone. ”But that's over! No more compromises!”
”No more compromises!” screamed another voice. ”Death to cats! Death to curbs!”
”Highland curbs saved your lives last night!” shot Sauny. ”Some of them died to set you free.”
A confused murmuring broke out in the herd.
”I made compromises to prevent war,” continued Kelsy, ”but war came anyway. Hiding did not keep me safe, and it will not keep you safe. It will only make you the victor's trophy. You need to take back control of your lives, ferryshaft. You are not a prey species. You are not deer or sheep. You are valuable allies to the other intelligent species of Lidian. You need to show them that.”
Silence. Some of them see where he's going and don't like it, thought Valla. The rest are just confused.