The Pool of Two Moons by Kate Forsyth Page A

her brilliant blue-green eyes slowly shutting. "What's wrong?" Finn cried. "What have ye done?"
    "She's sleeping." Tomas put his glove back on.
    Enthralled, the little girl bent over the kitten and saw the wound was knitted together. She looked up, her hazel eyes glowing. "Thank ye, Tomas!"
    "Wha' do ye think ye're doing?" Dillon snapped. "Tomas, ye dinna! That witch-sniffer's no' far away, Ea damn it!"
    "Finn asked me to." Tomas quickly passed on the blame, and Finn braced herself for Dillon the Bold's sharp reprimand, which she accepted meekly. Asleep, the kitten was as soft as a bundle of geal'teas wool, and Finn cuddled her close. At the feel of the little heart fluttering inside the rib cage, Finn's breast again swelled with a feeling close to pain. "What can we feed her?" Dillon frowned. "Ye are no' thinking o' adopting that animal, are ye? Soldiers do no' have kittens, Lieutenant Finn!"
    "But, Scruffy, she'll die unless we look after her," Finn protested. "We canna heal her, then let her die o'
    starvation."
    "Tomas should never have healed her," Dillon said crossly. "After all I said about the importance o' lying low! If the soldiers come down on us, it'll be your fault, Finn! And stop calling me by the baby name. I be Dillon the Bold!"
    "I think they're absolute brutes," Johanna said. "They killed them just for the sport o' it. Those soldiers must have known we could no' have been hiding in this cave if the elven cats were here."
    "Why would they have known that?" Dillon's broad, freckled face turned to Johanna with interest.
    "Well, elven cats will fight to the death rather than surrender," Johanna said. "I thought everyone knew that. They're very terry-terry—ye ken."
    "Territorial," Finn said absent-mindedly.
    "Aye. They're real wild. They canna be tamed, so it's no use ye trying, Finn, ye'll never get it to come to ye. They're only wee, but they can fight!"
    "She's only a babe," Finn said defensively, cuddling the furry body closer.
    "Makes no difference," Johanna said. "Ye canna tame 'em." Finn's mouth set stubbornly, and involuntarily she squeezed the elven cat closer. Suddenly her arms were full of writhing, squirming, scratching cat. Sharp fangs sank into her hand and the kitten leapt from her arms and disappeared into the darkness. "Look what ye've done!" she cried and began to search the cave, but there was no sign of the little elven cat. Near tears, Finn let herself be ordered to bed, as her calling woke the others, but it was long before she slept.
    In the morning Dillon ordered brambles to be arranged around the cave mouth and patrols were mounted at all times. Finn was disconsolate, though several times the kitten dashed out of the darkness to sink her fangs into someone's ankle. So black was her fur that she could be virtually underfoot and still remain invisible.
    Finn filled Jorge's beggar's bowl with water but the kitten would not come close enough to taste it. Johanna, anxious to be of help, promised to help Finn catch some fish. Although they had no hooks or fishing rods, Johanna was surprisingly adept at catching fish with nothing but her bare hands. Tickling trout was a skill her cousin had taught her back in the days when she had lived in the country, and she had caught several fish this way over the past few weeks.
    "Do no' worry, wee kit, I'll look after ye," Finn whispered. "Ye mun be so thirsty. Lap up some o' the water and I'll be back with fish as soon as I can." To her surprise, she was answered by a weak, muffled mew, though she could see no sign of the little black cat.
    The two girls kilted their skirts up around their knees and braved the freezing rush of the Muileach, wading stealthily to the still waters near the bank. Johanna showed Finn how to slowly bring her fingers up under the body of the trout, fluttering them like the leaves of a water-weed. Johanna caught a fat one almost immediately, but Finn was too noisy and impatient and scared the rest away. They crept downstream to