Tailchaser’s Song

CHAPTER 27

Strange things were happening in the world above the labyrinth. Distant cries and lights made the night Hours mysterious and unsettling. Felas gave birth to kittens too unusual to survive, and Prince Dewtreader of Firsthome made dire pronouncements. Many Folk were afraid. The ground everywhere felt unsoiid- shifting and treacherous.

The Eye opened to its fullest a complete sun-iurn earlier than expected, and hung red and swollen in the sky. Meeting Nights were full of unanswerable questions and nameless fears. Blind Night, the night of greatest darkness, was coming. Some whispered that this time the darkness would bring the os.

The os was on the tongues of many, and in the minds of more…

Below the ground, the Great One on his carrion throne of death and dying worked a web of curious forces. Energies beat and pulsed through his seat of power so intensely that sometimes the air itself in the Cavern of the Pit became as solid and resisting as water. Strange images waxed and waned, flickering at the edge of vision like lightning on the eyelids of a sleeper. At times, now, none but the Boneguard could attend the Lord of All, and the Claws would stand muttering in the tunnels outside the Master's cavern.

Even Tailchaser, on the periphery of Vastnir's main arteries, could sense the imminence of… something. Scratchnail had ceased talking altogether- mumbling and howling alike-and plodded along with a dull, lifeless sheen on his deep eyes. He stopped incessantly to scratch, gouging at his dark fur with crimson claws until it seemed he must draw blood. Fritti understood. His skin, too, was crawling.

The trio had paused by one of the main passages, looking down a dark, sloping access tunnel to the broad causeway below. Teams of Clawguard marched purposefully by, or harried fainting, stumbling prisoners. At Tailchaser's side Skinwretch cocked an ear to the sounds of pads scuffling endlessly past.

"Aaaahh." The Toothguard beamed, his scarred face crinkling into a complexity of lines. "Hear that? Lisssten. Great thingsss are afoot… great thingsss." The naked snout took on a dejected cast. "The unfairness of it. That a faithful sservant, sssuch asss I…" He made a sniveling sound. Fritti, worriedly watching the Clawguard legions, nodded his head distractedly-forgetting momentarily that the other could not see him.

"I was born to sserve the Lord of All," Skinwretch lamented. "How could I have been brought to thiss low essstate?"

The Toothguard's reproachful words finally sank in. An idea began to form in Tailchaser's mind.

"Skinwretch. I have something important to tell \ou." Fritti said in a low voice. "Let's move back up the corridor a bit."

When they had walked back to stand by the stu-porous Scratchnail. Fritti said: "You say you are loyal to the… Lord of All?"

"Oh yessss!" Scratchnail eagerly affirmed. "It iss my one purpose!"

"Then I can tell you my secret. Do you promise to keep it?"

"Oh, certainly, Tunnelwalker, mossst asssuredly!" Skinwretch bobbed up and down in a horrible parody of trustworthiness. "I ssswear by the Foaming Ssstone of the Toothguard!"

"Good." Tailchaser deliberated for a moment. "Lord He-the Master-has grave need of information from a certain prisoner. He does not trust his chiefs, though. Some of them, like… well, if I must say it, like Hissblood, have shown themselves to be unreliable-if you understand me."

The Toothguard was jiggling excitedly. "Of course! I understand. Like Hisssblood! Exactly!"

"Well," continued Fritti importantly, now warming to the deception, "he has chosen me to find and observe the prisoner. But no one may knowl You can see that it would be… well, unwise, especially now!" He was a little unclear himself on the logic of this, but Skinwretch seemed enraptured by the idea. "Anyway," he added, "the Lord of All has chosen me, and I am choosing you. You must find the prisoner for me, and no one must know why, or even suspect. Can you do that?"

"Clever Tunnelwalker. Who will sssusspect old, crippled Ssskinwretch? Yesss, I ssshail do it!"

"Good. The prisoner you must find for me is the fela who accompanied the escaping Tail… Tail…" He hemmed and hawed convincingly. "Tail-chooser. The one Scratchnail raves about. The fela who was with him survived, did she not?"

"I do not know, Tunnelwalker, but I ssshail find out," said the blind creature soberly.

"Very well," said Fritti. "I will meet you on this spot when three work shifts have passed. Can you find it again?"

Tad WilliAiws

"Oh, yesss. Now that the Ssscalding Flume no longer boilss my earsss I can find my way anywhere."

"Move, then, and take Scratchnail with you-only, keep him out of trouble that will draw attention." Fritti especially did not want to be yoked himself to the powerful, maddened beast-who would be even more of a danger if his memory returned. "And remember," he added, "if you betray me, you betray your Master. Go!"

Fraught with newfound purpose, Skinwretch hurriedly roused Scratchnail, and the two went trudging away.

Tailchaser stifled an impulsive sneeze of pleased laughter as he watched them disappear. The hardest was yet to come.

With that matter settled, Tailchaser felt his fever-swift thoughts begin to slow down. He was very-hungry. This presented a problem. As he stood close to the tunnel wall and watched yet another press gang of captives being herded out to the diggings, he considered his alternatives. He supposed that he could try to stay inconspkuously on the edge of things-stealing a meal here or there, trying to avoid the guards by stealth and speed. Sooner or later, though, he would be caught. There were no free Folk roaming about the mound-at least, none that he had seen. It was courting disaster, and he had a mouthful of trouble already.

Another clutch of prisoners, overseen by a pair of surly Claws, moved along the passage below him. As they passed his hiding place, one of the slaves near the front collapsed. There was a great yowling and snarling as others tried to leap over the fallen one, and collided with their fellows. The two Claws, red talons shot, waded into the flurry.

Fritti seized this chance, bounding out of the tunnel and moving rapidly toward the rear of the line.

It will be easier to escape from one of these gangs than to live tike a phantom for very long, he decided. Also, who would hunt for an escaped prisoner in a prison cave?

"You little sun-rat!" rasped a voice. Tailchaser looked up into the heavy-jawed face of one of the guards. "I saw that!" the Claw snarled. "Try sneaking off again and I'll slit you from gorge to tomhoodi"

The crush of tunnel salves surged forward again, bearing Fritti along.

Life with the slave gang was not as difficult as it had been before. He was stronger after his interval in Ratleaf; though the hunting had been sparse, still he had eaten better than the poor beasts with whom he was imprisoned. It saddened him to see the misery and suffering around him-but this time things were different: he had joined this press of captives by choice; he was operating in secret. Although his heart warned him against foolishness, he could not help feeling a quiet pride. He had a purpose, and so far he was succeeding remarkably. His luck had been dancing.

The prisoners, too, could feel the difference in the mound's atmosphere. The stirring, anxious sense of impending events had beaten them down. No prisoners told stories, or sang. Even the arguments were lackluster, dispirited. Collectively the slaves were cringing; they were waiting for the blow to fall.

One of the other captives told Tailchaser laconically of the rumors among their warders: about the lights and noises in the Cavern of the Pit, and of the assembling of Claws and Teeth into bridling, impatient units who were then sent out to farther tunnels. Trying to appear unconcerned, Fritti milked the prisoner-a one-eyed tabby named Fumblefoot-for more information, but the weary cat had no more to offer.

Fritti had been with the tunnel slaves for two work shifts and his impatience was rising: he knew that his time was running out. All he could think of was the danger that his friends were in. Firsthome and the fate of the Folk had faded from his memory as useless abstractions. After he left Fumblefoot, Tail-chaser sat humpbacked in the corner of the cave until the guards came to dme them forth.

The dirtv. back-bending digging time oozed by as slowly as running sap. Although his paws were cracked and bleeding, Fritti dug as though consumed-striving to obliterate the dragging Hours by main force.

When the smirking Claw at the mouth of the tunnel growled down the order to quit digging, Tailchaser and the other wean prisoners began to mount upward. Carefully falling behind, he stopped as the last cat before him turned up over the tunnel rim, then quickly ducked down the short passage and threw himself to the earth at the end of the hole they had been excavating. He wiggled as far beneath the piles of loose soil as he could and lay quietly.

The sounds of the milling prisoners drifted down from above. For a moment, a burning golden eye looked down into the tunnel, but dirt and darkness hid Tailchaser from all but the closest inspection, and soon he heard the press gang crunching away. He remained silent at the burrow's end while his heart beat many times, then finally crept cautiously toward the surface.

The small cavern from which the tunnel network led was empty. The dim earth-light revealed no movement but his own. Nonchalantly but rapidly he groomed the worst of the dust from his face, legs 1 tail then moved silently out into the larger shaft which his fellow prisoners and their guards had aireadv vanished.

In the mirk where Pouncequick lay dreaming of the white cat, Roofshadow herself was also finally discouraged. The strain of anticipation-waiting for the return of the revengeful Clawguard-and the enforced helplessness of her situation had worn her down until she could no longer muster strength or worry to resist. Chin on paws, she had lain for a long time staring at the peaceful, helpless forms of Pouncequick and Eatbugs, and hopelessness had drifted over her like a warm mist. When the guard thrust his malignant head into the chamber he saw all three of the cats lying in deathlike stillness. With a yellow-fanged grin of approval, he withdrew.

Eatbugs' eyes blinked open. For a moment, while his body still lay slack and motionless, they filled with an intense, cool fire. Then the light flickered in their depths, and seemed to die. The lids sagged back into place, and all was still as stone once more.

Skinwretch was waiting for Fritti when he arrived at the spur tunnel. The Toothguard was doing a little dance of anticipation, his furless tail kinking and wriggling like a drowning nightcrawler. Tailchaser, who had spent what seemed like Eyes and Eyes working his way carefully across the mound to this spot, approached as quietly as he could, only to be greeted by Skinwretch's shrill, excited hiss.

"Tunnelwalker! Have you come? I have newsss, newsss!"

"Silence!" Fritti himself hissed. "What news?"

"I have found your prisoner!" said the Toothguard gleefully. "Ssskinwretch hasss done it!"

Tailchaser felt the pressing of time. "Where? Where is she?"

Skinwretch grinned, the mouthful of teeth below the scarred snout gleaming crazily. "Not far from here, oh yesss, very clossse. Oh, clever Sskinwretch hass ssserved the Lord of All!"

Trying to keep his patience, Fritti waited with dry mouth as Skinwretch described where Roofshadow was being held. When the eyeless Toothguard had finished Tailchaser began to back away, planning furiously, then suddenly stopped.

I'd better keep up appearances, he thought. This creature is a terrible enemy, but he makes a good ally.

"You have done well," he told the Toothguard. "The Master will be pleased. Remember, not a word to anyone!"

"Of coursse not. Not clever Ssskinwretch!"

As he watched the creature's mad caperings, Fritti suddenly noticed something he had missed in his excitement. "Where's Scratchnail?" he demanded. "You were to keep him with you."

A sudden look of fear crossed Skinwretch's ruined features. "Oh, Tunnelwalker, that one. He isss full of ossss. He would not stay by me, and I could not make him-he iss very powerful, you know. He ran off into the tunnelsss, crying and ssaying ssstrange thingsss. He wasss punished becaussse of the pris-soner, and he iss sssick with the osss."

Nothing to be done, thought Fritti. "Never mind," he told Skinwretch, who brightened immediately. "Go on, now, and if I need you I will find you."

Tailchaser darted out of the spur tunnel and across the main shaft, stopping in an alcove on the far side, shielded by darkness from observing eyes. When he looked back he saw Skinwretch, maimed face in a crooked smile, still leaping and jigging in the shadows.

Hiding in pools of deeper shade, stealing quietly past squadrons of bristling, congregating mound-dwellers, Fritti moved like a spirit-cat through the awakening underworld. The mound-beasts were everywhere-moving, whispering, flexing sharp red claws.

Fritti reached the junction of three tunnels that Skinwretch had described. Looking cautiously around, and seeing no one paving attention, he ducked down the passage that the Toothguard had instructed him to take. Tail erect, whiskers tingling and every bit of fur puffed upright, he crept downward.

A shaft entrance in the tunnel wall ahead. That was the one! He felt an urge to leap, but controlled himself. Carefully, carefully…

He reached the hole and peered cautiously down. In the dim light at the bottom of the shaft he could see… Pouncequick! His heart leaped. The young killing and Roofshadow were being kept in the same cave! His luck was holding.

Leaning farther forward, he could now see two more shapes. Roofshadow! And was the old one Eatbugs? But why weren't any of them moving? Could they be… but no. He could see Pouncequick's sides rising and falling.

Something crashed down on him like a toppling tree. With a yowl of pain he tumbled to the side of the cavern entrance. Standing over him with a massive paw cocked for another blow was a large black shape. The half-familiar face of the Clawguard leered down at him.

"What are you up to, then?" the brute growled.

"N-nothing!" squeaked Fritti. "M-m-my name is T-Tunnelwalker, and I've lost my way." He tried to make himself small against the earth. The Claw leaned closer.

"Is that right?" he snarled, and his hot breath made Tailchaser blink. The beast's eyes narrowed. "Just a moment. You look familiar. What's that mark on your head?"

His head? Forehead? Skydancer's Tears! Fritti cursed himself. He must have wiped the masking dust from his face when he had emerged from the slave tunnel.

Fritti made a sudden squirming movement toward escape, but the heavy paw descended on his neck, scarlet claws softly pricking his throat.

"By the Great One!" said the Claw. "If it isn't our little escaped sun-rat! Isn't that fine!"

In a rush of despair, Fritti recognized his captor. It was Bitefast, Scratchnail's former companion, who now bared his teeth at the trapped Tailchaser in a terrible smile. "Well now," chuckled the Claw, "it's awfully good that I should be the one to find you. Because of you, they ruined the chief. All because of you!" The paw pushed cruelly down on Fritti's throat. He coughed helplessly.

"Well, I'm the chieftain now." Bitefast smirked. "And I'm going to make sure you get what you deserve." The black beast squatted, and pushed his deep-set eves up next to the face of his wheezing captive. The Claw's voice descended to a vindictive whisper.

"I'm giving over you straight to the Fat One!"