An hora later, Morigan found Karic at the communal woodpile, savagely splitting logs. He silently watched him for a time, noting the anger and immense frustration that fueled his son's forceful efforts. Finally, Karic paused, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his body glistening with sweat.
"She didn't understand, did she?"
Karic wheeled around, his fist clenching the ax handle. Fury blazed in his eyes.
"Oh, she understood well enough," he growled, burying the ax deep in an unsplit log. He eyed the tool, its handle still quivering with the force of his toss. "With that unbending pride of hers she's just too cursed stubborn to give in."
"Yes, with her pride
and
her fear of you."
Karic's head jerked up. "Yes, that, too," he sighed. "But there's nothing more I can do. If she chooses another at the Festival, so be it. It'll hurt, but I've survived worse."
He gave a bitter laugh. "Indeed, what other choice is there?"
"I'm sorry, Son. Perhaps if I hadn't interferred."
Karic sadly shook his head. "It doesn't matter. She doesn't love me enough to fight past the obstacles. It's as simple as that, and time I accepted it. Now," he continued, his features hardening in remembrance, "there's an issue of more pressing importto our people and our ultimate survival. What has the Council decided about the Guide?"
Morigan arched a graying brow, then nodded. "They are eager to know more. How can we fight it?"
"We can't, I'm afraid," Karic glumly muttered. "At least not with a frontal attack. We'll have to find a way of destroying it when it's not functioning. And we must take out Necator and his scientists, too. Anyone with knowledge of how to rebuild the machine must die."
"How do you propose we get into Primasedes with that new alarm system of theirs?"
Karic scowled. "I haven't figured that part out yet. All I know is we've no other choice. Sooner or later Necator will come looking for us with a Guide powerful enough to mentally drag us out of our lairs. It's all a matter of reprograming strength. Necator demonstrated the extent of his ruthlessness when he murdered those people. He won't stop until he's done the same to us."
"We'll need some plan to present to the Council," Morigan carefully ventured. "Something more than what you've got right now. They'll support you this time, but we dare not rush into this without a plan. We'll only have one chance at the Guideand we must succeed."
"I know all that, Father." Karic let out a deep breath. "But at this moment I haven't any idea what that plan is." He lifted his head, a resolute gleam in his eyes. "But I willand soon. Council support or no, I'm going back to Primasedes.
Someone
has got to take on Necator before it's too late!"
Morigan stalked his lair, nervously awaiting Liane's arrival. A full seven sols had ensued since her return and, thanks to Agna's miraculous salves and healing powders, the beautiful Bellatorian was again restored to full health. Healthy enough to attend the Mating Festival this nocte, he grimly thought, and healthy enough to choose a mate. One last time, Morigan would attempt to convince her that her choice should be his son.
Her slender form darkened the cave's entrance. Then, with a resolute straightening of her shoulders, Liane entered. Morigan motioned for her to take a seat.
"A cup of uva wine, perhaps?" he asked.
Liane seated herself. "Yes, please."
Morigan poured out two cups of the burgundy liquor and passed one to her.
"Why did you summon me, my lord?"
He leaned forward on the table. "This senseless battle between you and Karic must end. It's breaking his heart."
Liane lifted her cup for a sip of wine, betraying the sudden trembling of her hand. She locked eyes with his. "Then let me go."
"You know that's impossible."
"Then it's your laws that are breaking his heart."
Green-gold eyes glittered over at her. "You are a heartlessly stubborn femina. What are you so afraid of?"
Liane stiffened. "I am not afraid. I just don't like your laws."
"Really?" A sad smile touched his lips. "And I say you use our laws as a shield to guard your heart. Our laws have never been the real problem, have they, Liane?"
She nervously swallowed. "I . . . I don't know what you mean."
"Don't you? Is not the real issue your fear of Karic's sexual urges, ever since that nocte of the triple moons?"
Hot embarrassment flooded Liane. She rose. "You have no right to speak to me of that. I will not stay and"
"Sit down, femina."
The words were uttered in a low voice, but the hard command was there, nonetheless. Liane sank back into her chair.
Morigan gazed over into hostile blue eyes. He must tread carefully here, he realized, or risk losing her respect for the rest of their lives.
"Truly, I didn't mean to offend," he carefully began, "but there is much you don't understand that I would have you know. Bear with me a bit more, before you judge the impropriety of my actions."
She forced herself to relax and nodded. "As you wish, my lord."
Morigan heard the tinge of skepticism but chose to ignore it. "The nocte of the triple moons," he began, "and the wild passions it stirs has always been an event of great pleasure and anticipation, as well as one of great shame. Though we understand its significance in the continued propagation of our species, we also find it a most uncomfortable reminder of our animalistic origins. We mate on that one nocte of every three cycles like beasts, instinctively, unthinkingly."
Morigan's gaze locked with hers. "We are not proud of it but have learned to accept it in ourselves. There's no point dwelling upon what cannot be changed. Instead, we dedicate our efforts to what
can
be changed. And truly, among our own people, that nocte is one of mutual pleasure, so no real harm is done." Liane shuddered in remembrance. "I found no pleasure in it."
"No, I don't suppose you did." Morigan's voice softened in understanding. "By the time you reached Karic, he must have been mad from the pain of fighting his urges. He was beyond rational control. And I tell you truly, Liane, if you hadn't arrived when you did, it would have soon killed him."
"I don't understand." Liane's eyes riveted on the older man. "Why would it have killed Karic?"
"The mating urge on that nocte is powerful. It cannot be denied without dire consequences. Karic left you, knowing you'd spurn his advances, hoping to make it back to a more willing femina in some village you'd passed along the way."
"Devra," Liane murmured. "He must have been going back to Devra."
"He
had
to mate with some female, Liane," Morigan persisted. "Don't you understand? Karic would have died a horrible, excrutiatingly painful death otherwise. But he didn't make it to the village. The urge struck too quickly. Unintentionally, your arrival saved his life."
The blood drained from Liane's face. Aware of her decision to remain celibate, Karic had chosen to risk his life in an effort to spare her. He had left that nocte to protect her, not knowing if he'd even reach Devra's village in time, but it had been worth the danger to him.
A hot wave of shame rolled through Liane. To think that she had called him an animal!
She raised tearful eyes. "I . . . I didn't know. He didn't tell me."
Morigan's hard stare pierced right through her. "You wouldn't let him tell you." Liane's head lowered. "You're right. I didn't even give him a chance to explain. I couldn't get past my anger, nor my need for revenge."
She looked up, her smile wry. "It's the Bellatorian part of me, you know."
"It's understandable. However unintentional, my son took something of great value from you. For all your Sententian heritage, you've the heart of a warrior. It was natural you'd fight back." He paused. "But a warrior also knows when it's time to stop fighting, when to admit the battle is over, that to struggle on is only to cause more harm and gain little good. It's past time to cease your battle, Liane."
"Yes, perhaps you are right." Liane closed her eyes on the threatening tears. "But my fear of him won't as easily disappear. It goes too deep after what he did to me. II don't know if I can ever overcome it."
"And I cannot help you with that," Morigan quietly replied, "except to tell you how it was with Karic's mother. She, too, loathed and feared me when I first captured her."
His eyes darkened with loving memories. "Rissa was beautiful and as fiery as they came. I loved her from the first moment I saw her. But she didn't want me and fought me every step of the way, until I despaired of ever winning her heart."
"Yet you did."
Morigan nodded, his eyes gleaming. "Yes, I did. Rissa finally came to realize that, even with my half-animal blood, I was also a man, a man who loved and needed her, a man who could be gentle as well as passionate. She found happiness with me, Liane. Of that I am certain. Won't you allow Karic a chance to give you that same happiness? He loves you deeply."
Joy swelled in Liane, rising to swirl chaotically with her deep-seated fears. If only she could trust Karic, be certain he'd never hurt her and turn into that horribly mindless beast. But how would she ever know if she didn't take him as mate?
The thought both thrilled and terrified her, and, slowly, a plan insinuated itself into her mind. She'd avoided the reality of her situation for too long. She'd been a fool. She had no other choice but to choose Karic and mate with him. Then, if she forced his control to its utmost limits, she would finally have her answer. It was a dangerous gamble, with dire consequences if she failed, but one she must risk if she hoped to have any chance of happiness with Karic.
Liane rose. "But a few horas separate me from the Mating Festival. I need time to consider your words. I beg leave of you, my lord."
Morigan studied her and found no hint of any decision on her face. He sighed. Well, he had tried. "You have my leave, femina."
She hurried out of the cool cave and back into the afternoon sun. Her steps quickened as she headed down the valley to Agna's lair. It was almost too late to carry out her plan, a plan that really should have been tested before the Mating Festival to ascertain the extent of Karic's control, but there was no time left. No time left, yet so much to be learned. She certainly knew nothing of the art of loving between a man and a woman.
As the triple moons began their ascent in the blackened sky, drumbeats, rhythmic and slow, filled the air. At the sound, Karic looked at his father. A sad smile touched his lips.
Wordlessly, the two men left their lair, their long strides carrying them toward the large bonfire where, even now, the Cat People gathered. The steady beating of the drums grew louder, hypnotic and sensual in the relentless pounding, calling one and all to the ritual gathering place. It was time to once again choose a mate and renew the age-old call to join flesh and propagate the species.
As they reached the brightly lit area, sheltered on three sides by sheer rock walls and guarded overhead by sentries to preclude discovery by unexpected enemy patrols, father and son parted. Morigan strode to his royal throne set upon a lavishly decorated dais, while Karic moved to join the other males of mating age. Karic's gaze briefly met those of the others. They glowed with an excited, hungry light.
Normally, the heady anticipation of joining with a new femina would have stirred Karic as strongly, but that was before Liane, before he'd loved and lost her. Because of that, this nocte would hold only pain as he watched her go to another.
The thought of his own fate never troubled him for a moment. It mattered not that Kalina would once again choose him. He would do his duty for his people, but that was all it would bea physical release, a joyless mating, for it would not be with Liane.
Morigan raised his hand. The drums ceased. He stood, scanning the assemblage. Then he smiled.
"Let the feminas be brought forward," he intoned the ritual words, "for this nocte the circle of life begins anew." A hush settled over the crowd as Agna, the eldest of the lair's feminas, led Liane and the rest through the vine-twisted archway at the far end of the walled enclosure. Karic's eyes riveted on her.
Her face was pale but resolute, her lips clamped tight. She clasped Agna's hand as if afraid to let go, but she followed without hesitation. The firelight bathed her in its golden brilliance, glinting off her crimson gown. Karic's breath caught in his throat.
The fabric skimmed her body, outlining each curve from the full swell of her breasts to the gentle indentation of a narrow waist and softly flaring hips. The neckline of the sleeveless garment dipped low, for a tantalizing glimpse of the satin valley between her tenderly rounded flesh. Karic thought he'd go mad with yearning. In spite of himself he felt himself swell and thicken.
Her eyes met his, and Liane threw back her head, the luxuriant ebony mane tumbling about her shoulders. She'd seen his desire, he realized, and was angered, even repulsed by it. Desolation knotted in his chest. Would he ever be able to hide his feelings from her?
The drums began anew as Agna led Liane and the other feminas to their spot beside Morigan's throne. There they halted to face the males standing across the fire. Eyes ablaze with excitement and hot with desire glowed in the flickering firelight as each group gazed at the otherall but Liane and Karic. Suddenly, they could not seem to bear another moment of the fierce burning heat in each other's eyes.