Chapter 3 Dominion #2
“Then why are you here?”
The Old Kitty Mother lay down before Blacktail and exposed her belly in submission. The cougars drew back, shocked. They looked at Blacktail with murder in their eyes.
“No, no,” Blacktail said. “Please. Get up. Do not humble yourself this way.” He glanced at the cougars. “Really. There’s no need.”
“I will not get up,” she said. “I have come to beg a favor of you, Lord Hunter. I will do it in the proper way, with all courtesy.”
“Favor? What favor?” Blacktail said, keeping his eye on the cougars.
“Will you make a short journey with me? There is something I need to show you.”
“Yes,” he said. “Certainly.” Anything to get away from those two. He got his feet under him and prepared to rise.
“No,” she said. “You needn’t get up. It is not that sort of journey.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I must make a small spell.”
“What?” His eyes narrowed. “No. No sorcery. I don’t trust that stuff.”
“Do you trust me?”
Blacktail considered this. What was it Snooky-Ookums had said? “If you hunger before your journey I am to offer myself as your meal”? Something like that, anyway.
“No,” he said. “I do not. Sorry. No spells.”
The cougars glared at him, but the Old Kitty Mother gave a little croak of amusement. “You may be smarter than I gave you credit for.” She considered. “What if I gave you my solemn oath, here in the sight of god, that no harm will come to you while you are in my presence. Would that do?”
Blacktail considered this as well. “I’m afraid not,” he said. “I mean no offense, but I’ll not have a spell laid on me by you or anyone else. Not if I can help it.”
The cougar called Anki yowled at this. He crouched as if to spring. Blacktail was on his feet in a flash, growling, the fur on the back of his neck high.
The Old Kitty Mother sprang to place herself between the two of them.
Anki met her gaze for a moment, his muzzle curled back over thick fangs.
The Old Kitty Mother hissed something at him, using the dialect of cats.
Blacktail did not understand what was said, but Anki’s expression faltered.
He averted his face and backed up far enough that more than a single leap separated him and Blacktail.
Then she turned to Blacktail.
In that moment it was in Blacktail to kill her.
He bore her no ill will; indeed, he was grateful to her.
She had done him a great service. Apart from that, right now she was the only thing keeping the cougars at bay.
But the Old Kitty Mother had suggested that Blacktail’s mind was not so slow as most supposed, and in that she was righter than she knew.
Blacktail had hunted alone from a very young age, and somewhere along the way he lost the taste for language.
This led most creatures, even Blacktail himself, to suppose that he was thickheaded.
But his eyes were the flat surface of a lake beneath which much moved but was not seen.
Blacktail could not guess why the Old Kitty Mother had gone to such lengths on his behalf, but the question bothered him more than he cared to admit.
He still had no idea what she might be about, but when he looked in her ancient green eyes, he saw the ending of all that he had ever known, all that he might have been.
And this spell will be the beginning of it.
In that, he was quite correct.
The Old Kitty Mother, no simpleton herself, took his measure in a single glance. Blacktail’s muzzle pulled back over strong fangs, sharp incisors. She saw that the fur of his back was high and bristly. He struck out at her a bare instant later, jaws stretching wider than her head and…
…fell over, sound asleep.
Anki did not move from his position, did not so much as purr.
The Old Kitty Mother’s word to him the moment before had been very clear…
and more than a bit intimidating. Enki, however, was under no such injunction.
He padded over and stared down at Blacktail in curiosity.
He looked at the Old Kitty Mother, who was now attending to an itchy ear with her back paw.
“What did you do?”
“Are you blind? I put him to sleep. Your idiot brother left me no other options.”
Enki sniffed Blacktail’s ear, tentatively. Asleep, all right. He looked up at her. “Shall I kill him for you now?”
She froze midscratch. “No,” she said. Her tone was terrifyingly mild. “Quite the opposite. Anki! Come here, please.” Anki slunk over and sat next to his brother, watching her with fearful eyes.
The Old Kitty Mother made a gesture with her tail. Anki’s stomach rumbled. After a moment, so did Enki’s. The Old Kitty Mother turned and trotted a few paces farther away.
Anki’s eyes went wide. His stomach rumbled again, louder this time.
He bunched up his hindquarters as if to defecate, but instead of dung his ass sprayed out a great gout of flame.
It shot straight down, singeing the pine straw and leaves on the forest bed.
“Aaagh!” Anki screamed. “My ass is aflame! Run, Enki! Save yourself!”
Enki moved toward his brother, hoping to help, but before he had taken even a single step a gout of flame flew from his behind as well. He turned and nipped at it, singeing his whiskers in the process. Anki danced around the clearing, screaming as he moved. It was not uncomical.
The Old Kitty Mother watched this impassively for a few moments. When she judged that their burns were very painful indeed but not yet life-threatening she swished her tail. The flames stopped.
She gave them a moment to collect themselves. “Come here, you two.”
They obeyed.
“Did I, perhaps, communicate my wishes imprecisely? Have I failed the two of you in this way? Is the flaw mine? Perhaps I spoke too quickly? Is my accent strange to you? Perhaps I used unfamiliar words?”
“We…” Enki began, panting with the pain. “Ah, that is to say…”
“Shut up.” She furrowed her brow in concentration. “No. I rather doubt that that was it. I think, instead, that the two of you are exceptionally stupid. What do you think?”
They were too frightened to speak. They only looked at her.
“Yes. Yes, I’m sure that must be it. Very well, then. Let me try again. This wolf is not to be harmed. He is not to be threatened. He is never…ever…EVER…to be treated with anything but the utmost courtesy. For any reason. Are you with me so far?” She eyed them avidly, waiting for an answer.
“Yes, Mother,” Anki whispered. “We understand.”
“Very good. Then let us continue. He will sleep soundly, and for some time. While he sleeps, the two of you are to guard him with your very lives. Let me say that again: with…your…very…lives. When he wakes, he will have forgotten how you offended him in flagrant disobedience of my direct orders…though I, of course, will not. We will speak of that later. However, if he wakes up hungry and decides to gnaw off your forepaw as a snack, I will require not only that you sit perfectly still as he does it, but you must also offer him words of encouragement from time to time. You must congratulate him on his appetite. You must thank him when he is done. Is that understood? Anki?”
“Yes, mistress.”
“Enki?”
“Yes,” Enki said, biting back a scream, “mistress.”
“Very good. I believe you are beginning to understand. But I will repeat myself once again, since you are so very, very stupid.” She paused. “Are you paying attention?”
They swished their tails in unison, wincing at the pain this brought.
“There is nothing…absolutely nothing…in this world so important as the safety of that wolf. You are charged with his well-being. It’s worth more than just your lives if you fail. You are to protect him as if he were the last kitten on earth, before yourselves, before even me. Am I understood?”
“With our very lives,” they said in unison.
“Excellent,” she said. She looked down at Blacktail, then back up at them.
When she spoke next, her tone had softened somewhat.
“In truth,” she said, “I do not expect trouble. But if it does come, it will be up to you to handle it. I spoke harshly to you in order to make my point, but I would not have chosen you to serve if I did not know you to be strong.” She walked over to a nearby oak, which was tall and vibrant.
“I am sorry for this,” she whispered to the tree, “but it is necessary.” Then, to Anki and Enki, “Come here.”
The Old Kitty Mother scratched at the tree, then turned and swatted Enki with her paw. Enki winced at her touch, but a moment later his face relaxed and he no longer seemed to be stifling a scream. “Better?” she asked.
Enki swished his tail and let out a long sigh. “Much.”
She turned to Anki and healed him in the same way. When it was done, the tree was dead.
“Move away,” she said. “In a moment the branches will begin to fall off.” They did. “I trust that in the future you will pay closer attention to my instructions? The Farts of the Dragon are among the least of the corrections that I might inflict upon you.”
“It shall never happen again,” Anki said.
“Oh, truly,” said Enki. “Never, ever again.”
“I am pleased to hear it. You were fortunate, you know. Normally I would have let you heal in the natural way, but I require your services immediately. You must watch over me now. I am placing my life in your care. Mine, and many others as well. More than you know.”
“We will give the matter our full attention,” Anki said. “You may depend upon that. But what if, well, something happens? We can handle bears and suchlike, but…”
She considered this, then swished her tail in acknowledgment. “You have a point.” Then, under her breath, she said, “Larkspur.” She made it sound like a curse.
“Beg pardon, Mother?”
“Hmm? Nothing. I was thinking of an old apprentice of mine. Never mind. If my enemies choose this moment to move against me, you may wake me with a word. But be careful to use it only in direst need. This business I am about is more important than you know.”
“We understand,” Enki said. “Well, we understand enough.”
“I believe that you do. Very well. The word is dominion.”