A Rising Thunder

“I don’t know how they kept her from suiciding,” Arif’s voice was softer than Honor’s had been. “I…have the impression it wasn’t easy.”

Her eyes met Honor’s from the display, and Honor nodded. Treecats who’d adopted almost never survived the deaths of their human partners. Before prolong, that had been the great tragedy of the bonds, for treecats normally lived over two hundred T-years, and their humans’ deaths had deprived them of all those additional years. Honor could think of only two ’cats in her own lifetime who’d survived their humans’ deaths: Prince Consort Justin’s companion Monroe and Samantha, herself. What it must have been like when every single person in Sorrow Singer’s Clan was ripped away from her in one brutal instant…

“It must have been terrible for all the clans in range,” Arif went on starkly, “and Moonlight Dancing was closest of all. The SFC says they’ve lost over a dozen ’cats since the strike, and others don’t look good. Which made me wonder why in God’s name the clan’s two senior memory singers were traipsing off to visit me at a time like this.”

Stillness hovered. Then, finally, Honor cleared her throat.

“Why—” She paused, her soprano husky, and cleared her throat again. “Why had they come, Adelina?”

“I know Nimitz and Samantha were off-world when it happened,” Arif said a bit obliquely, “but from what Song Shadow and the others say, every ’cat who wasn’t off-world felt it. The more distant clans felt it less strongly, thank God, but even our crew here at Green Bottom got hammered. Trust me, it was…bad. Really bad.

“I don’t know if they understand exactly how it happened even now, but they know it was the result of a human attack. Personally, I wouldn’t have blamed them for turning their backs on all humans, but that’s not the way treecats’ heads work. Apparently they’ve been passing around Nimitz’s experiences with you, and especially what happened with Lieutenant Mears, for some time now. And, according to Song Shadow, they’ve overheard at least part of the newscasts about President Pritchart and Dr. Simoes; some of the SFC rangers were viewing the news channels during a medical visit to Moonlight Dancing. They’ve figured out Nimitz and Samantha must’ve actually met Simoes, and the clans want them to come home for the memory singers to get their first-hand experience with his mind-glow, but I think that’s just a formality. They figure that if he were lying, or if he were crazy, Nimitz would already’ve told you. For that matter, they know you can sense emotions. So there’s not much question in their minds that Simoes is telling the truth…or that Mesa is behind everything that’s happened.”

“I’m glad they don’t blame us for it, although God knows I sometimes do,” Honor said somberly. “I still don’t understand why they wanted to come see you in person, though. For that matter, I don’t see how Song Shadow got the word all the way from Bright Water that they did! Nothing I’ve ever seen has suggested they’ve got enough range to reach halfway around a planet.”

“I’m pretty sure they relayed from clan to clan,” Arif said. “And the reason they wanted to see me is that Sorrow Singer has a proposal.”

“A ‘proposal’?” Honor’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of ‘proposal’?”

“She wants to tell you herself,” Arif replied, and a slender, dappled brown and white form jumped into her lap and into her com’s field of view. The treecat sat up on her rearmost limbs, facing the com, her eyes and body language somber. She looked so small, so fragile, Honor thought, feeling the tears at the back of her own eyes.

“Sorrow Singer?” she asked softly, and the treecat nodded.

Honor wanted to reach out and hug that distant ’cat. To share with her the depth of her own grief for what had happened to Sorrow Singer’s clan. Her sense of guilt that humans—any humans — could have caused such an atrocity. But she couldn’t, and so she simply bent her head in a small half bow of acknowledgment.

Sorrow Singer inclined her own head in response. Then her hands rose, and she began to sign with a flowing grace that somehow communicated a bottomless sea of sadness.

<I know of you, Dances on Clouds,> those graceful fingers said. <I have tasted your mind-glow in the songs from Laughs Brightly. And since the Day of Sorrow, Wind of Memory and Echo of Time have sung the songs of all those who came before you, as well. I have tasted them all, even Death Fang’s Bane herself. I know your clan.>

Her hands emphasized the verb, and as Honor looked into those bottomless green eyes, she realized what Sorrow Singer meant. That for the treecats, the mind-glows of all who’d gone before were still available, still there, as long as the chain of singers was unbroken. In a very real sense, Sorrow Singer had actually met Stephanie Harrington, Honor’s own ancestor, the very first human ever adopted by a treecat, and Honor felt a strange, powerful envy.

“I wish I could share those memories with you,” she heard herself say. “I’ve always wished I could have known her.”

<You would have liked her,> Sorrow Singer signed. <Indeed, I think she was much like you in many ways. But in all the years since she and Climbs Quickly bonded, Death Fang’s Bane Clan has been the People’s friend and protector. We know what your clan has done for us. We know what you have done for us. And now, it is time for us to protect you.>

For a moment, Honor was certain she must have misread those flowing fingers. Protect her? Protect her, when humans had destroyed Sorrow Singer’s entire clan?

“Nimitz has already protected me many times,” she said. “And I’ve done my best to protect him. That’s what you do when you love someone.”

<I know that,> Sorrow Singer replied, and her tail flirted as if in a sad laugh. <I could not have tasted the Bright Water memory songs without tasting your love for Laughs Brightly and his love for you, Dances on Clouds. But that was not what I meant.>

“Then, forgive me, but what do you mean?”

<The evildoers who destroyed my clan, who have destroyed so much of Death Fang’s Bane’s Clan, who have brought such sorrow to the People and to our two-legs, cannot be allowed to do still more evil.> Now Sorrow Singer’s fingers moved with a flat, somehow terrible emphasis. <We know—I know, from your mind-glow — that you will die to prevent that. That your friends among the two-legs, even those we have never met or tasted, will do the same. That you will stop their evil, whatever the cost, however long it may take. And we know from the stories we have heard over the “HD”>—she signed the obviously unfamiliar term carefully—<that the evildoers who slew my clan have tried to slay you, as well. That they forced one you loved to attack you against his will. I have tasted that, too, in Bright Water’s memory songs. And it seems likely that if they have tried once, they will try again. And again. Not to slay only you, but also Soul of Steel or others of your great elders.>

She paused again, and Honor nodded.

“I’m afraid you’re right,” she said soberly. “And we don’t know how they’re doing it. How to stop them.”

<Nor do the People,> Sorrow Singer said. <But unlike two-legs—other two-legs, at least — the People can taste mind-glows. We do not know how the evildoers make others do their bidding, but we can recognize the moment when it happens. From Laughs Brightly’s memories, we know now what to look for. I believe we could taste it even sooner with that knowledge…and give other two-legs at least some warning.>

Honor inhaled sharply. She looked at Sorrow Singer for several seconds, then spoke very carefully.

“We’ve thought—I’ve thought — about that possibility,” she admitted. “As you say, Nimitz recognized the same fear, the same desperation, I saw in Tim that day. And from the security footage of the attempt to assassinate Berry Zilwicki, Judson Van Hale and Genghis recognized those same things in the killer they sent after her. So, yes, I’ve thought about it. But Genghis was bonded to Van Hale just like Nimitz is bonded to me. They tried to protect each other because they loved each other, just like Nimitz and I love each other. And Genghis died, Sorrow Singer, just like Nimitz could have died trying to stop Timothy.” She shook her head. “Like I said, you protect the ones you love.”

<And you would not have the People risk themselves for those they do not love,> Sorrow Singer signed, and gave a slow, human-style nod. <That is what I would have expected from