Soul Catcher by Frank Herbert Read Free Book Online Page A

poised to jump if the
slope went. The rocks remained in place, but he sensed the
trembling uncertainty of the whole structure. Cautiously, he went
on up.
    At the beginning of the climb, he watched to
see that
    Hoquat made each step correctly, found the
boy occupied with bent-head concentration, step for step, a precise
imitation.
    Good.
    Katsuk concentrated on his own climbing
then.
    At the top, he grasped a willow bough,
pulled them both into the shelter of the trees.
    In the shaded yellow silence there, Katsuk
allowed the oil-smooth flow of elation to fill him. He had done
this thing! He had taken the Innocent and was safe for the moment.
He had all the survival seasons before him: the season of the
midge, of the cattail flowering, of salal ripening, of
salmonberries, the season of grubs and ants—a season for each
food.
    Finally, there would be a season for the
vision he must dream before he could leave the Innocent’s flesh to
be swallowed by the spirits underground.
    Hoquat had collapsed to the ground once
more, unaware of what waited him.
    Abruptly, a thunderous flapping of wings
brought Katsuk whirling to the left. The boy sat up, trembling.
Katsuk peered upward between the willow branches at a flight of
ravens. They circled the lower slopes, then climbed into the
sunlight. Katsuk’s gaze followed the birds as they swam in the sky
sea. A smile of satisfaction curved his lips.
    An omen! Surely an omen!
    Deerflies sang in the shadows behind him. He
heard water dripping at the spring. Katsuk turned.
    At the sound of the ravens, the boy had
retreated into the tree shadows as far as the thong would allow. He
sat there now, staring at Katsuk, and his forehead and hair caught
the first sunlight in the gloom like a trout flashing in a
pool.
    The Innocent must be hidden before the
searchers took to the sky, Katsuk thought. He pushed past the boy,
found the game trail which his people had known here for
centuries.
    “Come,” he said, tugging at the thong.
    Katsuk felt the boy get up and follow.
    At the rock pool where the spring bubbled
from the cliff, Katsuk dropped the thong, stretched out, and buried
his face in the cold water. He drank deeply.
    The boy sprawled beside him, would have
pitched head foremost into the pool if Katsuk had not caught
him.
    “Thirsty,” Hoquat whispered.
    “Then drink.”
    Katsuk held the boy’s shoulder while he
drank. Hoquat gasped and sputtered, coming up at last with his face
and blond hair dripping.
    “We will go into the cave now,” Katsuk
said.
    The cave was a pyramidal black hole above
the pool, its entrance hidden from the sky by a mossy overhang
which dripped condensation. Katsuk studied the cave mouth a moment
for sign that an animal might be occupying it, saw no sign. He
tugged at the thong, led Hoquat up the rock ledge beside the pool
and into the cave.
    “I smell something,” the boy said.
    Katsuk sniffed: There were many old
odors—animal dung, fur, fungus. All of them were old. Bear denned
here because it was dry, but none had been here for at least a
year.
    “Bear den last year,” he said.
    He waited for his eyes to adjust to the
gloom, found a rock spur too high up on the cave’s wall for the boy
to reach with his tied hands, secured the end of the thong on the
spur.
    The boy stood with his back against the rock
wall. His gaze followed every move Katsuk made. Katsuk wondered
what he was thinking. The eyes appeared feverish in their
intensity.
    Katsuk said: “We will rest here today. There
is no one to hear you if you shout. But if you shout, I will kill
you. I will kill you at the first outcry. You must learn to obey me
completely. You must learn to depend on me for your life. Is that
understood?”
    The boy stared at him, unmoving, unspeaking.
Katsuk gripped the boy’s chin, peered into his eyes, met rage and
defiance. “Your name is Hoquat,” Katsuk said. The boy jerked his
chin free.
    Katsuk put a finger gently on the red mark
on Hoquat’s cheek from the two