The twins advanced toward the back of the cave, where the women and children were cowering. The youngest were crying loudly while the older ones watched them fearfully without saying anything. The women were terrified and clutched their offspring to protect them. Darok came closer to sniff them, which set off shrill screams.
"Do not be afraid," Inata said. "We mean you no harm. Our wolf is well trained and won't bite you. Isn't that right?" she asked her brother and Melio.
The little ginger cat seemed in no way inclined to confirm the young woman's words, for on the contrary he began to hiss and slash the air with a threatening expression.
"That's enough of that!" the twin snapped, shooting the feline a black look.
"There's something..."
Hichy's words remained suspended in the smoky air of the cave the moment Melio threw himself upon a miserable-looking little boy. He drove his claws into the child's eyes and bit his forehead until blood flowed. The child let out a dreadful cry, the tone of which was strangely deep.
"Melio!" Inata screamed in horror.
The little animal had become uncontrollable, wild and bloodthirsty. He was a predator ready to kill, heedless of the age of that child who seemed far too young and far too innocent to deserve any punishment whatsoever. The young woman tried to tear him away from his prey to come to the little boy's aid, but Melio bit deeply into her hand. Painful though it was to her, she had no choice but to use magic against a member of her own clan.
"Too bad for you," she sighed, concentrating on the cat's spinal cord.
It was as futile as trying to cut a knife with a piece of wood. Her magic had no effect on their companion. Nothing could stop him any longer apart from the signal of the one and only person he had chosen to obey. Hichy's whistle put an end to his demonic attack and brought him back to reason. The little boy lay unconscious on the ground. His face was furrowed with cuts so deep that he now looked like an old man. His eyes were two whitish balls without colour, no doubt because they had been gouged by the little furry monster some still called a pet. The other children and their mothers had stopped crying and screaming, but the scene had something horrifying about it. Attacking a child is a taboo that even the most terrible criminals respect. Melio had crossed a boundary that might forever shatter the ties binding him to the rest of the group.
"I'm going to heal him before it's too late," the sister said.
The blood quickly stopped flowing from the little boy's forehead, and the twin swiftly put the torn flesh back into place. No vital organ had been touched, but the eyes were in a terrible state. She tried to heal them under the stunned gaze of the women and children of the cave clan. Something was resisting her, however, something she could neither understand nor master. Likewise, the furrows remained deeply etched on the little victim's cheeks and forehead, like...
"Wrinkles! He has wrinkles!" Hichy cried. "He's not a child, but an old man!"
"Old age isn't an illness and can't therefore be healed," his sister observed aloud.
"You know you must always trust Melio," he said, taking the little ginger cat into his arms and stroking him.
One by one, the faces of the other children too lost their smooth appearance and became lined with wrinkles. Hichy took a step backward, wondering what dirty trick they were going to play on them next. It was impossible to grant the slightest trust to those malefactors. Meanwhile, the cat, satisfied with himself, was conscientiously licking his paws. If he was no longer on his guard, it was because the main danger had passed.
Their attackers dropped to their knees in submission, both the old men and old women who had been passing themselves off as children and the women and men whom they had neutralised and who were struggling back to their feet. Darok ran from one to another yapping while Melio watched them with an expression that discouraged even the slightest attempt at rebellion. From a circular survey of the situation, Inata was able to verify that there were no dead. She administered first aid to all those who needed it, but taking care to leave a few highly visible scars here and there so that they would remember that one does not steal or kill with impunity. The little boy the cat had unmasked, that is to say the most eminent member of their clan, got to his feet.
"You saved my life," he observed. "And yet you know we would not have spared you. We would have killed you and devoured your animals if we could. Why let us live?"
"Let's turn the question around instead," Hichy replied. "What would be the point of killing you?"
"To stop us from doing it again. The moment you turn your backs, we'll take the opportunity to fall on you and stick a knife in your backs."
"Then we'll crush you in the same way we did before," he replied, raising his fists.
"I thought we were the only ones who could manipulate magic."
"You call that pathetic little trick of yours, changing your appearance, magic? It's utterly useless. We, we..."
"Be quiet!" his sister interrupted him. "You must never reveal your sigillum."
"Where did you get that from?"
"I don't know. I just invented it."
The clan chief's remark nevertheless remained relevant. If they were capable of facing off against attacks aimed at them, the same could not be said for the other travellers, especially the most vulnerable.
"Why do you do this?" the twin asked.
"Why do we do what?" asked the old man in the child's body.
"Why do you attack people? Why do you rob them?"
"Your question is the stupidest I have ever heard. You already know the answer. We do what it takes to survive, that's all. It's our way of life, and we have no choice."
"It's horrible!"
"And if we die of hunger, isn't that horrible? Your reaction is a masterpiece of naivety. Would you be ready to die in order to stay on the righteous path?"
"Of course!"
"Easy to say. But we shall see on the day you are starving. Fine intentions are much less easy to maintain once your belly is empty."
The twins stood before an insoluble dilemma. If they wished to protect the travellers making their way through the mountains, they had no other solution than to kill the entire clan kneeling before them. Exterminating so many people was unthinkable. And yet, if they spared their lives, they were certain those people would immediately begin again. To face that sort of situation, advanced societies had invented prison, in order to keep their most harmful individuals outside the system. That nevertheless required having enough wealth to feed the prisoners, house them, and maintain the surveillance system.
"There remains one solution," Hichy said.
"Which one?" asked his sister.
"Hand them over to the Celestial force."
"On what grounds?!" the clan chief mocked. "We have committed no offence under their jurisdiction. It is you they will condemn for obstructing our freedom of movement."
"Then there is no solution at all!" the twin cried angrily.
"No solution that satisfies you," corrected the old man. "The simplest course for everyone is to let us go."
By dizzying leaps, the cat, the donkey, the wolf, and the two children moved away from the cave. They made the fastest progress possible, leaving behind them both their misgivings and the clan of bandits. Inata had abandoned the idea of protecting the weak, tears in her eyes and her stomach knotted. It was no longer a question of allowing themselves to be distracted by altruistic considerations. It was now out of the question to pass themselves off as simple travellers or hide their powers.
Apart from a few mosses, the vegetation vanished entirely as they approached the summits. They had nothing left to put between their teeth and were beginning to shiver. Even Melio, with his long fur, had preferred to take refuge in his master's arms to absorb the warmth of his body.
"Do you know what the best remedy against the cold is?" Hichy asked. "Vacuum. It's time everyone learned to manipulate the matter around us."
The boy launched into long explanations, which Darok and Helios listened to attentively while the little ginger cat took the opportunity to sleep peacefully. When he had finished, both animals responded with a nod that they had understood. Melio, who seemed to have listened to nothing, had nevertheless wrapped himself in a duvet of vacuum, becoming, through that process, totally insensitive to the cold. Only a little opening at the level of the mouth was necessary for communication, which was, it must be said, not the feline's strong point.
They made camp at the foot of the glaciers, building their shelter from bricks of ice. Maintaining an airtight bubble around themselves while sleeping remained problematic, no one having yet succeeded in using their powers in their sleep.
After a night without food, the band was awakened by the rays of the sun bouncing off the snow, blinding and far too intense. The twins would have liked to deflect the photons to protect their eyes. Those having no mass, however, were insensitive to their powers.
Many lifeless bodies lay strewn across the glacier, and a few roped parties were advancing painfully while avoiding crevasses and avalanches. Those who had managed to survive until then still risked disappearing beneath the glacier or being blown away like chaff at any moment. The bodies were lean, the stomachs famished. The most terrible ordeal was arriving at the very moment when the least strength remained to face it.
For the two children and their four-legged companions, that represented only a few more leaps, with no risk other than having to bounce back up from the bottom of a crevasse to regain the glacier's surface. The sun had not even yet reached its zenith when they attained the pass lying at more than six thousand metres above sea level.
The Celestial empire spread out before their eyes when they tipped over the other side, a world both gigantic and impressive.
"Yeah, well, not bad," said Melio.