The Named: The Complete Series

Chapter Eleven

At the fire where the Named gathered, Ratha crouched with Bira, Khushi, and Thakur, listening to her daughter speak. Thistle was talking about her experiences with the face-tail hunters and how she had learned more about them.

When Thakur had returned that previous morning, with Thistle at his side, Ratha had been too grateful to ask questions, even though Thistle was subdued and looked as if she had been through another fit. She seemed to have recovered, but listening to her now, Ratha couldn’t help wondering. What she said seemed so nebulous and strange. And she actually seemed comfortable with the nature of the face-tail hunters!

Every word she says about them makes me shiver inside. How can she think that understanding more about this clan will make me accept them?

Ratha tried to keep her nose from wrinkling and her tail from twitching, but she found it hard to hide her repugnance. Thakur evidently spotted her reaction, for after Thistle had finished speaking and curled up near the fire to rest, the herding teacher approached Ratha and took her aside.

“Clan leader, come with me,” he said, and they walked away from the fire together.

“I hope you are not taking me to watch that hunting bunch again,” Ratha said crossly when they were away from the others.

The herding teacher looked at her quizzically. “You really don’t like them, do you?”

“It is worse than that. Thakur, I hate them. I wish they were all gone, or dead.” She surprised herself with the coldness in her voice.

Thakur’s silence told her more eloquently than any words the depth of his shock and surprise.

“You never thought you would hear such things from me, did you?” she said wryly, but her whiskers trembled.

“No.”

She stopped, facing him. “You want to know why those hunters make my belly crawl? It’s that leader of theirs, that True-of-voice character. From what I saw and what Thistle said, he sounds worse than any of the Un-Named, or even Shongshar. Shongshar may have been a tyrant, but he couldn’t take away anyone’s thoughts. This True-of-voice seems to have something slimy oozing out of him that turns his people into infant cubs.”

“Thistle didn’t use those kinds of words,” Thakur said.

“Thistle was so befuddled she couldn’t see the truth. How would you like having someone talking in your ear all the time so that you couldn’t think for yourself?”

“I wouldn’t,” Thakur confessed.

“Well then?”

“Ratha, just because such a thing is wrong for you or me doesn’t mean that it is wrong for the face-tail hunters.”

“How can anything be wrong or right if you don’t even have a choice?” she countered.

“All right. The way these hunters are controlled is hard to accept. I’m not having an easy time either.”

“I can’t even think about accepting it. I can’t believe anyone would want to stumble around in a trance their whole life. If this True-of-voice really forces his will on his people, he is bad,” Ratha said bluntly, and added, “Maybe the best thing we could do for them is to kill him.”

She watched Thakur’s green eyes go wide, and his teeth flashed as he spoke. “You don’t know enough to judge,” he said, his voice hard.

“There are times when I’ve known even less about an enemy, yet I’ve acted. How much did I know about the Un-Named when I first used fire against them?”

“Do you have to think of these hunters as enemies? When you saw them, you said they share some of our ways. ”

“Yes. I also saw how well they worked together and how devoted they are to their leader. They are a threat. I can’t pretend that I’m blind to it. We need to show our strength by wielding the Red Tongue.” She looked away from Thakur, then back. “I’m doing what I did when the Un-Named attacked us. It worked. And I never heard you speak out against it.”

“Perhaps I should have spoken out against it,” Thakur said in a voice that was nearly a growl. “Or maybe I should have spoken louder. Clan leader, we of the Named have already learned that things are not as simple as we once thought. We can no longer divide the world of creatures into those who are like us and those who are not.”

“It is easier to do that when you are clan leader,” Ratha said, feeling both shamed and justified. “Thakur, you know that I have to choose in favor of our people.”

“Does something that helps the Named have to hurt others?”

The green in his eyes seemed to burn into her, making her tongue clumsy. “N-no. But somehow it has happened that way.”

“In past seasons we were struggling so hard to survive that we couldn’t afford to worry about who we hurt. But now—and I credit your leadership, Ratha—things are better. We are not so much on the edge. Maybe we can afford to be more understanding. It may have unexpected rewards.”

Ratha eyed him. “You are thinking about Thistle, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

She switched her tail. “Sometimes I wish you didn’t think so much, herding teacher. You’d be easier to live with.”

“I probably would be,” Thakur agreed.

“So you want me to postpone any face-tail hunts. How long?”

“Long enough for Thistle and me to convince you that True-of-voice’s people are not enemies.”

Ratha sighed. “All right. I’ll delay the hunt I’d planned and I’ll explain why to Bira and Khushi. If I have any rash impulses to go shred True-of-voice, I’ll sit on them. ”

“Or talk to me about them,” Thakur suggested.

She grimaced. “I don’t think that even you can make me feel differently about True-of-voice. My belly really doesn’t like him. I’m being patient for your sake, not his.”

“I appreciate that you are being patient. The reason doesn’t matter.”

And I’m doing this for your sake too, Thistle, Ratha thought as she jogged back to the campfire beside Thakur.