Catacombs (12 page)

A dry rustle and slide, and then—and this was what got through to them—high-pitched feline cries of fear and dread. At the same time, a nauseatingly pungent smell filled the corridor.

I think we’ve found the kittens
, Chester said.

Somehow, Jubal didn’t think this was a good thing.

P
shaw-Ra had been running his tail off ever since he and the Barque Cats landed. Once his master plan was complete and the universe conquered, he would have a nice long nap.

Perhaps it would have helped if he had a dedicated two-legged assistant, but that seemed to defeat his purpose. True, humans here on Mau knew their place, but if cats were to be independent of humans, exercise their superiority over them, then he, the engineer of this metamorphosis, must lead by example. Besides, he didn’t know of any human who could keep up with him. His former servant was much too old now—not to mention politically inconvenient, as the father of the outcast princess’s handmaiden.

So Pshaw-Ra knew he had to convince the queen, house the Barque Cats, arrange for their feeding and for the proper medications to be administered to them and to the resident feline populace as well, so the breeding could commence. Sadly, this medication also made sure that no more inconvenient full-Barque kittens would be born, so that the mothers would be available to mate again and bear the superior sort of hybrid kitten he had in mind. Meanwhile he had to ensure that the polydactyl gene common among the Barque Cats got spread as widely as possible. And then there was the problem with the half-grown kittens and what to do with them so their mother would be ready to mate again.

Chester and his boy were in some ways an asset, but in other
ways they were a pain, since they understood far too quickly what was on his agenda. He had not given Chester the drug, because he had something special in mind for Chester, the first specimen to respond as he had hoped as a result of his experiment with the kefer-ka. Chester seemed to have figured out the special destiny for himself. But now the reckless pair had gone after the blasted Barque kittens. How inconsiderate! If only they had stayed put until he was ready to deploy them for their role in his scheme.

Now he had to track them through the tunnels and reroute them to keep them away from secrets he wasn’t yet ready to share, including the whereabouts of the kittens. He had thought he was being clever using a voice sim of the kitten cries to lure them into the right passages, but somehow they hadn’t continued following it. And then, to his astonishment, the minute his back was turned, he lost them! He couldn’t find them on the locator screens at all, so to be on the safe side, as if he didn’t have enough to do, he snatched up the kittens again and transported them to a more secure location.

The area was disused, but he left them food and water, told them not to wander off, and stuck up a force field to seal off the tunnel.

He checked the underworld scanners one more time before returning to his lab, and located Chione and Renpet, who were where he expected them to be, along with, to his relief, Chester and the boy.

But then everyone had to start moving about, and soon the cat had reclaimed his boy and Chione returned to Renpet.

The males were headed for the kittens. They were moving very fast.

Watching them, Pshaw-Ra became aware that something else was moving fast, though less perceptibly, as it was roughly the same size and circumference as the tunnels.

But how could it be that? It was supposed to be dormant, inactive, trapped in the underworld. His force field was not going to
protect the kittens from it, nor would it protect Chester and his boy.

He lightened his gravity and bounded down the corridors, praying to—well, to himself, since he was the wisest and most powerful entity he knew—that he would be in time. Otherwise, it would mean starting all over again with the kittens, which would be a great deal of bother.

This time the mewing was coming from real kittens, I could tell. When I sent a mental search party toward them, they latched onto it with all of their paws and teeth as well.
Get us out of here
, they said. Well, one of them did. Another one said,
Something’s coming. Something big and stinky
. And the other two wondered if I’d brought anything for them to eat.

I know where you are now
, I told them.
So shut up. Probably not a good idea to attract the scary thing, whatever it is. The boy and I are coming
.

But of course they were really young and kind of stupid. I’m sure I was much brighter at that age.

That cat who brought us here said we had to stay here
, one of them said, making noises even while he thought-talked to me.

I said to be still
, I reminded him. Now the stench was worse, and it wasn’t the dead cats this time. It smelled like something had digested a meadow full of really rancid grass and horked it back up. I couldn’t see the kittens in the tunnel ahead of us, and their voices seemed to be coming from the side—there were probably more rooms cut out along the way here, as there had been in some places on the other side of the river.

All I heard was the kitten voices in my head and, unfortunately, in my ears at times, and the dry scratching, scraping, and sliding sound. Now I felt a sort of a hump and thump once in a while, as if something was crawling forward on its belly.

I don’t like this
, Jubal told me.
I don’t like this at all
.

Nevertheless, we continued forward, me in a low crawl slink and Jubal creeping on tippy toes. The kitten voices grew louder, but so did the other sound, and the smell was so nasty I paused to hork up my own last meal.

Jubal’s headlamp picked up the opening in the wall marking a room, and I knew that was where the kittens were, but all of a sudden my nose banged up against some kind of barrier and no matter how I scratched and clawed it wouldn’t give way. Jubal pushed too until he stopped. “Hooooooolysmoke, Chester. Stop. L-Look.” He pointed.

At first I couldn’t see what he was carrying on about because there was still just a big long tunnel, as there had been. Then I noticed the differences—the fangs at the top of it and the other teeth at top and bottom, plus big fiery eyes staring at us over a scaly snout.

What is that thing?
I asked Jubal.

The most ginormous snake in the entire galaxy is my guess
, he said.
Coming straight for us. Do you suppose this barrier keeps it in as well as us out?

Meanwhile the kittens are going “Mew mew mew” even louder, and I keep shushing them but they are so terror-stricken they can’t even hear me. The snake draws close to the opening in the wall and the head turns slightly so we can see its profile. Yuck. A tongue like forked lightning turned into a slimy slab of meat flicked in and out, searching for the kittens.

“Meeyew!” Poor little beggars. They wouldn’t stand a chance with that thing. I didn’t really see why it was going to bother with them. They wouldn’t even make a good bite for a monster that big.

Jubal pressed against the force field, kicked it, hit it with his fist. It drew the attention of the serpent momentarily. The thing blinked its fiery eye then pointed its snout into the hole in the wall.

Cram yourselves into a corner or a crack
, I advised the snake kibble even as they continued squeaking their terror.
That thing is
huge. It might not be able to suck you out of there if you get wedged in good
.

Save us!
the most optimistic one cried. What did it think I was going to be able to do against that thing?

“Chester, what are you thinking?” Renpet’s voice cut into the kitten pleas. She sounded awfully close, and no wonder—she was right behind me. Her voice was high and shrill. “The great serpent Apep has come back to life! He will destroy us all!”

Jubal said, “Chione, what is that thing?”

Chione whispered, “I had heard his lair and prison were down here but never did I guess that the Apep was active. He is lord of the underworld, eater of suns.”

“I thought the cats were in charge?” Jubal asked, sounding doubtful. That thing was enormous.

“They are—but, oh, how can we save those poor kittens?”

The humans couldn’t, of course. And for some reason I didn’t understand, I couldn’t look away from what I was sure would be a terrible massacre, even worse than when Buttercup, my litter sister, and our foster mother Git had been slaughtered by a canine predator.

But Renpet, striking faster than any serpent, knocked the controller from Chione’s hand and stepped on it. I had been leaning with my forepaws against the invisible barrier between us and the snake. Abruptly, I was through that barrier, on all four paws.

Renpet was ready for battle. “Attack its eyes, Chester. Ready?”

It was a foolish plan, a desperate plan, and a plan any right-thinking cat would have yowled at and taken off in the opposite direction. Instead I took the serpent’s right eye, she the left, and we leapt much mightier leaps than I had ever leapt before, straight to the top of the ugly scaly head. It was slippery but that’s what claws are for. I landed high up on the eye ridge, clinging with my other three sets of hooks, and lowered myself to attack the eye that blazed with such an unnatural light I feared at first to burn my back paws. I clawed with all my might. The head thrashed wildly,
whipping back and forth, trying to scrape us off on the walls, but we clung tight and dug at those eye sockets with all our might. The eye went bloody, then dark, and finally dull and flat as I clawed and clawed and hoped that Renpet was doing the same.

The snake’s body was so huge it filled the tunnel to the walls, preventing it from thrashing even harder since there was so little room for it to move. Nevertheless, faster than I could swat a fly from the sky, it had scraped me off the eye ridge and sent me scrabbling its scales until one front paw and one back paw latched into a nostril, dangling me above that toothy lower jaw.

Now it was backing away, hissing like all of the angry cats in the universe, back through the tunnels faster than an express tram. I unhooked and flung myself backward, tail over nose, onto the stone floor. My back right leg hit first, hard, and pain shot up my hindquarters.

Just as I was trying to rise, something heavy and soft landed on me, sending agony through my back and legs again.

I cried out but could not rise.

Chester! Did it bite you, boy?
Jubal, suddenly at my side, patted and stroked me.

No
, I said, and I confess I actually tried to bite him when his hand passed over the injured leg.
But I hurt. A lot
.

Much to my surprise, I lived, and after some expert attention, stopped hurting as much.

I don’t remember being carried back to the cavern, or that Renpet had to be carried too, or that kittens clung to Jubal’s and Chione’s shoulders as they beat a retreat back along the water and to the larger cavern.

I don’t know exactly when Pshaw-Ra arrived, but he had brought the expert attention, and it wasn’t any of those so-called cat doctors either. This was a human vet, very skilled and with good tools and medicine I didn’t even have a chance of fighting. I heard Chione call him “Father,” and Pshaw-Ra whispered to me, “This is Balthazar, my own man, father of Renpet’s handmaiden. He will heal you. I wish it.”

Sure enough, sometime later the leg hurt less, but I heard voices drifting around me.

“…  be put down, released from this life …” someone was saying. Male but not Jubal, so I thought it had to be the new human vet.

“No!” Jubal said. Of course he did. “He’s better already, Balthazar. He’ll recover. You’ll see.”

“He has partaken of the late queen’s kefer-ka,” Chione said. “He
is brave as a lion and just as strong. You’ll see, Father. He will recover yet to rule beside the Princess Renpet.”

“Renpet rules nothing,” Balthazar said sternly.

And then everything got as fuzzy as—well, as a warm kitten, four of which were packed around me most of the time. In some of my waking moments I would feel the dab of a sheathed paw against my sides or face, as if I were being tested to see if I still lived.

My leg was bound and restrained, and the rest of me didn’t feel very well either. Jubal said that I had cushioned Renpet’s fall and probably saved her life as well as the kittens’. I was a hero. I was glad everyone was okay, of course, but wished I were too.

Renpet licked my face every once in a while, but that was it. It was her idea to jump the snake, and I had been injured and she had not and all she could do was lick my face?

It took a long time before I realized why—she was very large and very round.

“Not more kittens!” I cried.

These ones are yours, Chester
, Jubal told me.
Yours and Renpet’s
.

I’m too young to be a father and I’m hurt. How can I take care of kittens?

“We’ll help you, Chester,” said the largest of Flekica’s kittens, the one called Shahori, listening to our thought-talk. “We will tell them all about how you killed the snake.”

“I didn’t kill it,” I said. “Though I am pretty sure we blinded it.”

“The snake is immortal,” Pshaw-Ra said. “Life begins and ends and begins again with it. It can only be defeated, never slain. The injury you dealt it will not last. It is unfortunate that so few saw your heroic deed. Soon it will be as if the battle never took place.”

“But we’ll still be saved,” Shahori said.

No one mentioned returning to the surface. Pshaw-Ra came and went but Balthazar remained with me, under Chione’s and Jubal’s supervision.

The day came when he removed the bandage and I hobbled around the cave floor. It was good. The leg held my weight without pain.

“Oh good, now we can return to the surface and take Flekica her kittens,” Jubal said to the other humans.

Pshaw-Ra was there then. Since I read the boy’s thoughts and Pshaw-Ra read mine, he understood what Jubal said.