Shadow and Twilight: Temple Cats

By Catherine Soto

Lin Mei and her younger brother Bio Mei fled to the western deserts of China to escape the people who seized their home and killed the rest of their family. When the caravan they were hiding in took shelter in an abandoned temple, they found two kittens and adopted them. Then their lives got really interesting...

This is a collection of eight stories first published in SWORD & SORCERESS 21-29. The individual titles are: Step by Step; Night Watches; Hope for the Dawn; Sages and Demons; Winter in Khotan; Storm over Taktsang; The Rolang of Taiyung; and Shining Silver, Hidden Gold.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust
• Release date: Jul 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386985754

Catherine Soto

Catherine Soto's body may be in San Francisco, but her heart is clearly in China. When not writing or at the obligatory day job, she hangs out at the Asian Art Museum or explores sushi bars.

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Shadow and Twilight

The Complete Temple Cats

Catherine Soto

The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust

PO Box 193473

San Francisco, CA 94119

www.mzbworks.com

Contents

Contents

Step by Step

Night Watches

Hope for the Dawn

Sages and Demons

Winter in Khotan

Storm over Taktsang

The Rolang of Taiyung

Shining Silver, Hidden Gold

Copyright

Step by Step

THE WIND WHIPPED A spatter of rain into Lin Mei’s face as she looked up at the dark mass looming ahead of them. The temple was much larger than it had appeared from the road, as well as being very old and abandoned.

The caravan came to a stop in front of it, twenty-two pack horses, four grooms and ten guards, all soaked from the rain and glad of a place to shelter from the storm.

There’s a barn or something off to the side! Shin Hu, the caravan master, yelled over the wind. Get the horses in it and the packs off and under a dry roof!

Lin Mei dismounted, slipping in the muddy puddles. She and the other grooms held reins and leads in cold wet hands barely able to grip them and led the horses toward the dark outbuilding beside the temple.

Biao Mei, her brother, paused for a moment as he passed her. Keep moving, he told her quietly. You shiver when you stop. He looked at her worriedly. Although he had only fifteen years to her seventeen, he was stocky and muscular while she was slender and willowy, although far tougher and stronger than she looked.

She nodded and walked as quickly as she could to the outbuilding and the welcome shelter under the roof. It was just as cold inside as out, but at least the walls cut most of the wind and the leaky roof kept out almost all of the rain, and unsaddling and grooming the horses would warm her quickly enough.

It was hard work, Mei Lei thought, but it was better than their last job had been—and much better than the death her uncle had planned for her and her brother. They had survived, and now they worked towards the restoration of their house and their honor.

Grain for the horses! Togrul Magh said, coming up with a heavy bag on his shoulder. A long bow protruded from over the squat and stocky nomad’s other shoulder. Lin Mei gave him a quick smile. He had been kind to them, getting her brother a job as a guard and her as a groom with this caravan.

Good if we get some for ourselves too! another guard said. These horses eat better than we do!

Rice is cooking in the temple building, Togrul said. We eat as soon as the horses are seen to! He balanced the sack on his shoulder and slit it open with a slash of his dagger, then poured a golden spout of grain into one of the troughs alongside the wall.

Now we can eat! Togrul said. There was some low laughter and he led them all through a door to the main hall of the temple, each of them stopping for a moment at the door to make obeisance to the front of the hall. There was no longer an image or idol of whatever deity the temple had been raised to, but no luck was gained by disrespect to the Gods and spirits that ruled these mountains.

A fire burned in the center of the empty hall where a hearth had been laid. A frame of iron rods supported a trio of kettles over the flames.

The rice and tea are ready, Shin Hu said. Everyone, get your bowls out. Rice bowls and teacups came out from their packs. Biao Mei took a spot near the fire with the other guards, and Lin Mei squeezed into a small space next to him.

Togrul heaped a mound of steaming rice into her bowl with a wide grin then poured her some tea. She nodded her thanks and held the bowl close to her, enjoying the warmth for a moment before digging into it and wolfing down mouthfuls of the steaming rice.

She smiled wryly to herself. To such simple pleasures had her life shrunk to. The past was gone, she lived in the present, and the present was good, if sometimes uncomfortable. It was also a step towards the future. Lin Mei was determined, but not impatient. She and Biao Mei would reach their goal, but there was much to be learned before they could return to their distant home and take on their uncle.

We’ll sleep in one of the back rooms, her brother said. He indicated a door by the wall near the back of the hall. He stuck his sword back in his sash, and then gathered up his pack and a glowing torch from the fire. She took up her pack and followed.

The door opened onto a short hallway with two doors at the end. He went to the left one and opened it to reveal a room that had apparently been a storage space at some time. Straw baskets were stacked against the corner and a pair of cracked pots lay in the other corner. He grabbed one and stuck the torch in it, making a crude lamp. They unrolled their sleeping mats, and they lay down, covering themselves with their wool cloaks for warmth.

But as soon as she lay down, Lin Mei noticed an odor she was all too familiar with.

Biao Mei, she whispered urgently. I smell something dead!

His hand reached out to his sword, pulling the long blade to his side as he sat up on his bedroll. Pine needles, mold, damp grass, he catalogued, sniffing the air. Horses, people, but nothing dead.

I smell it! she insisted. He looked at her. Maybe it’s on this side, she said.

Sighing he got up and came over to her side of the room, sitting down beside her and inhaling the air.

You’re right! he said. It’s here! He stood, his sword scabbard clenched in his left hand, right hand on the hilt ready to draw.

It’s not too big, she said. I suspect it may be some small animal. But it’s recently dead. It’s under us, she said, standing up and pulling her dagger from her sash. Grumbling Biao Mei took the torch out of the cracked bowl and swung it around, causing the embers to blaze again. Lin Mei was already prying up the floor boards with the point of the dagger.

Biao Mei stepped forward to shine the light of the torch down into the darkness under the floor as she pulled the last of three floorboards loose and up. The stench of death rose up.

Biao Mei leaned over, the flame dangerously close to his face as he peered into the opening. He made a face.

It’s two creatures, he said. Joined together in death. Lin Mei looked down and gasped.

In truth there were two animals dead under the floorboards. Two dead animals, so tightly wound around each other’s bodies were they that an immediate identification was almost impossible, but Mei Lei had seen this exact sight before—in a dream six years earlier.

That had been the dream she dreamed the night that their home was attacked, the night their family had been wiped out. The dream had wakened her and enabled her to hide herself and her younger brother among the servants who survived the attack. She had learned the smell of death well on that night.

The cat and the weasel! she exclaimed in a low voice. The weasel’s jaws were locked in death on the cat’s throat as tightly as the cat’s jaws were locked on the weasel’s spine. Her brother made a sound of disgust as he looked into the opening.

Weasel, he muttered. That explains the smell! They both examined the tangled bodies below them. The fur on both was matted with blood and torn, but color and markings were still visible. The cream color and dark face markings of the cat were a sharp contrast to the dark reddish brown of the weasel.

They died together in combat, Biao Mei noted.

It was a mother! Lin Mei said. See her belly? Biao Mei looked, nodding unconsciously. The skin on the cat’s underbody was distorted; she had obviously been a nursing mother.

She was protecting her cubs! Lin Mei said. The weasel came hunting and she fought him!

Dead men tell no tales, Biao Mei said, and neither do dead cats. Do not be so sure you know what happened here.

What else? she asked in reply. Be quiet! Her eyes grew cloudy as she listened to the sounds around her. The details of her long-ago dream resurfaced in her mind, as clear as if she were just now awakening from it.

Over there! she said, indicating a direction closer to the door. She stepped quickly to the door and began prying up more loose floorboards until she heard a low mewling sound.

There! she exclaimed, reaching down into the void. Carefully she pulled up a mass of dried grass, obviously bedding for the two tiny furred bodies resting on it.

They’re near death, her brother said brusquely. We were too late to save them. With their mother dead, they are doomed.

No, she said. They are not. We were not, and they will not be! She cradled the two kittens in a fold of her sleeve. They were barely breathing, their eyes still shut.

But they will die! Biao Mei said in exasperation.

No! she said. There is a mare with milk in the caravan. She can spare a few drops for such a pair of small mouths as these. She stood and went to her pack, taking out her teacup, then went back to the door and opened it, stepping quietly out into the hallway. Biao Mei followed in silence.

Lin Mei padded quietly back into the main hall of the temple, which was filled with the snores of sleeping men. One, Togrul, was missing, doubtlessly outside on the first watch. The others were sound asleep. She passed through the door into the stables, not waiting for her brother to catch up. The mare was at the far end, her colt curled up on the straw next to her. Lin Mei cut a strip of cloth from the sack Togrul had used to bring in grain for the horses and twisted it into a wick. With soothing words and hands she gentled the mare, then milked a small amount of the milk from her udder into her teacup. When it was half full she sat cross-legged on the floor and settled the kittens onto her lap, then dipped one end of the twisted strip of cloth into the warm milk and held it to the mouth of one of the kittens.

Slowly, almost painfully, the kitten was trying to open its mouth. Lin Mei held the strip of cloth against the tiny snout, letting a drop of warm milk form on the muzzle.

It was enough. The moisture on the drop of milk was sufficient to moisten the caked tissues and allow the mouth to open just enough for her to squeeze a drop of warm mare’s milk into the tiny open mouth. She dipped the cloth back into the teacup and held it against the other kitten’s muzzle. She alternated between them for a while, feeding them drops of milk as they grew in strength and began to suck from the scrap of twisted cloth as if they had been nursing at their own mother’s side. Finally the milk was gone and the two tiny bodies were satiated.

They’re asleep, she said.

As we should be, her brother commented. She made a face and wrapped the two kittens into another scrap of cloth cut from the grain bag.

We won’t be likely to leave early, she told him. Shin Hu won’t want to start in this storm until we’ve had some food to keep us warm on the journey. We might even be able to sleep late!

I wish, her brother muttered. But let’s not tempt fate by staying out here. Those cats set a good example. Let’s get some sleep ourselves! He led her out of the barn and back into the main hall where the snores of the sleeping men told them no one had been disturbed by their nighttime antics.

The rain is fierce tonight, Lin Mei said in a low voice, pointing to the roof where the sound of drumming raindrops made a low staccato on the tiles. Maybe we should take some tea out to Togrul, since we’re already up anyway.

First the cats, now Togrul, he sighed. He followed her as she picked her way to the fire and lifted the tea kettle off the hook over the embers.

It’s still warm, and there’s almost a cupful, she said, hefting it. Enough to help Togrul stay awake. Biao Mei looked at the door, listening to the rain hitting the roof above them.

I’ll take it out to him, he said. No sense you getting cold and wet, especially since you’re carrying those two kittens. He took the kettle from her and began to pick his way through the dark around the snoring men on the floor. Lin Mei smiled in the darkness, holding the bundled kittens against her body with one hand.

She looked around her at the dim interior of the temple. The cream colored cats with dark faces were often used as temple guardians, she recalled. Most likely these two were descended from cats left behind when the temple was abandoned. Suddenly a flash of lighting flared in the night outside, illuminating the hall through cracks in the door.

Intruders! she screamed, seeing a shadowy form perched on a beam above her. She jumped to the side, pulling her dagger loose with her free hand, while she tucked the kittens into her sash with the other.

Biao Mei spun on his heel, dropping the tea kettle and grasping a lance from where it lay on the floor. With a sudden snap he threw it upward into the dark at the movement he had spied up there, a dark shadow against darker background.

A grunt showed he had struck home. All around them bodies stirred to wakefulness, alerted by Lin Mei’s scream. Shin Hu was on his feet first, his sword flashing loose from its scabbard in a flash of steel in the light from the fire’s