Ratha’s Challenge (The Fourth Book of The Named) Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I’m not talking about Thistle. I’m talking about you. You had those cubs when you were scarcely more than a cub yourself.” She paused. “You were young. Young ones can be stupid. They haven’t had time to learn or they are too impatient. You bit Thistle because you were young. You are older now. You wouldn’t do it again.”
    Ratha opened her mouth to make a retort, then closed it again. Fessran gave her a quizzical look and said, a bit smugly, “These things are all simple when you turn them around the right way. It’s like learning to open a herdbeast carcass. You have to start at the right place.”
    “Only you would say it that way,” Ratha grumbled, laying her nose on the sand.
    “Only you would need to hear it that way, clan leader,” Fessran answered lightly, nibbling crusted sand from one paw. “Do you feel better?”
    “I should say I feel worse, just to spite you.” Ratha eyed her friend. “But I do feel better.”
    Fessran stood up and shook herself off again, peering down the beach. Ratha remembered that she had been watching Mishanti while Thistle did her leg stretching.
    “I made him sit down and told him to stay there,” Fessran said. “I have no doubt that he is now tearing all over the beach. I am beginning to think that his ears have no connection to the inside of his head.” With a sigh, she added, “I had better go and look for him.”
    “Wait,” Ratha said as she saw a puff of dust rise from the cliff where the path ran down to the beach. “He might be up there.” She stared harder. “No. That’s someone else.”
    Fessran joined her in squinting at the path. “They’re certainly in a hurry, judging by all the dust being kicked up. Or clumsy. No, both—that’s my son Khushi up on the trail.”
    Khushi! Ratha had sent him off many days ago with Bira and Thakur to find the face-tailed beasts. What had happened to bring him back so soon? Her ears swiveled forward as she watched Khushi skitter around one bend after another on the switchbacks of the trail. Soon he was down on the beach, bounding over the dunes.
    “Clan leader!” he cried as he slid to a stop. “Thakur sent me with a message.”
    “Is he well? Is Bira well?”
    “Yes, they are both fine. We found the face-tailed beasts you sent us after. But we also found another tribe of clan-cats. That is why Thakur sent me back.”
    “Another clan like us?” Ratha stared at him.
    Khushi’s words spilled out in a breathless rush. “Well, Thakur thinks they may turn out to be like us, although they are hunters and not herders. He has been having trouble trying to talk to them, and that is why he wants you to come. He wants Thistle-chaser as well.”
    Ratha had him repeat the last part, not sure that she had heard him correctly. Thistle? Was Khushi sure that was who Thakur wanted?
    “Yes. He made it very clear and he was very insistent. I don’t know why he wants her, but he does.”
    Baffled, she asked Khushi other questions, all the while trying to figure out why Thakur wanted Thistle.
    Unless he wants her there just because he is fond of her, Ratha thought. No. Thakur doesn’t do things for those sorts of reasons.
    Fessran spotted Mishanti far down the beach and took off after him, leaving Ratha standing beside Khushi.
    “My mother,” the young scout said with a grin. “She always complains about how much work it is to raise cubs, but she can’t seem to live without at least one.”
    “One Mishanti is all anyone can manage.” Ratha watched Fessran’s efforts to corral the youngster. She began pacing down the beach, Khushi beside her. “How did Thakur find this other clan?”
    “They were also hunting the face-tailed beasts.”
    “Are these strangers like us?”
    “I don’t think so, but they resemble us enough that Thakur and I were able to go in among them. They even have a language like ours. Thakur said he could understand their words.”
    “Then why couldn’t he speak to them?” Ratha asked,