The Burning Horizon Read online

  Maps

  Dedication

  Special thanks to Cherith Baldry

  Contents

  Maps

  Dedication

  Chapter One - Toklo

  Chapter Two - Lusa

  Chapter Three - Kallik

  Chapter Four - Lusa

  Chapter Five - Toklo

  Chapter Six - Lusa

  Chapter Seven - Kallik

  Chapter Eight - Lusa

  Chapter Nine - Toklo

  Chapter Ten - Kallik

  Chapter Eleven - Lusa

  Chapter Twelve - Toklo

  Chapter Thirteen - Lusa

  Chapter Fourteen - Kallik

  Chapter Fifteen - Lusa

  Chapter Sixteen - Kallik

  Chapter Seventeen - Toklo

  Chapter Eighteen - Lusa

  Chapter Nineteen - Kallik

  Chapter Twenty - Toklo

  Chapter Twenty-One - Lusa

  Chapter Twenty-Two - Kallik

  Chapter Twenty-Three - Toklo

  Chapter Twenty-Four - Lusa

  Chapter Twenty-Five - Kallik

  Back Ads

  About the Author

  Books by Erin Hunter

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER ONE

  Toklo

  Toklo padded through the trees at the edge of the forest, with Lusa, Kallik, and Yakone a little way behind him. On one side of them the trees crowded closely together, while on the other the sheer wall of the Sky Ridge stretched up to the cloudless blue sky. The trees were in full leaf, but the shade gave only a little relief from the scorching sun. Toklo let out a grunt of discomfort, longing for the cool of evening and the chance to rest.

  Each pawstep he took was more difficult than the one before, not only because of the heat and exhaustion, but also because each one took him farther from his own territory. Toklo could still feel the aches and cuts from his punishing battle with his father, Chogan, the old bear who had once driven him away with his mother Oka and his brother Tobi. In his mind he could still hear Chogan’s threatening roars, smell the hot reek of blood, and feel fierce satisfaction as his claws slashed through his father’s pelt. It was from Chogan that he had won his territory.

  Chogan had better enjoy the rest of his time there, Toklo thought grimly. Because it won’t last long. He knows he only gets to stay for now because I promised to go with Lusa to Great Bear Lake. Toklo felt strength and power flow through his body at the memory of his victory, but at the same time there were doubts in his mind. Am I really old enough to have my own territory? Am I ready to be on my own?

  Toklo worried, too, that while he was away another strong brown bear might come and drive out Chogan from the territory he had just claimed.

  But it’s mine. He let out a soft growl. Every pawstep of that ground holds memories for me, and I’ll fight for it again if I have to.

  For a few moments Toklo concentrated on finding a clear path among the rocks strewn over the ground, and listened to the chatter of his friends behind him. Kallik and Lusa were discussing the journey to Great Bear Lake and telling Yakone how so many bears traveled there for the Longest Day Gathering.

  “Thousands of bears!” Lusa exclaimed. “More bears than there are stars in the sky!”

  Toklo let out a snort of amusement at the little black bear’s excitement, but his thoughts soon drifted back to his territory. It felt strange to be leaving his brother Tobi’s grave site behind, when he had only just found it. He pictured the small mound of earth beneath the overhanging rock with the berry bushes clustering around it, and his pawsteps grew heavier still. Suddenly it felt like he was tearing himself away from his brother. But he trusted the brown she-bear, Aiyanna, to look after the burial mound until he returned.

  And I will return—to her. . . .

  Feeling a curious pang pierce his chest, Toklo stopped and turned his head toward the Sky Ridge. Is all this hesitation because of Aiyanna?

  He shook his head impatiently. No, that can’t be it. It’s just my grief for Tobi and worry about my territory, that’s all.

  “Toklo, are you okay?” Lusa scrambled over the rocky ground, her pelt brushing by arching fronds of fern, until she caught up with him. “Are you sure you want to keep traveling? The whole point of our journey now is to find homes for ourselves,” she continued when Toklo didn’t reply at once. “I know how hard it must be for you to leave the home you’ve just found.” She butted his shoulder gently with her muzzle. “I’ll understand if you think your part is over.”

  Toklo turned to look at Kallik and Yakone making their way toward him. They had left the Melting Sea to help him and Lusa find their homes, when they could have stayed with Kallik’s brother Taqqiq and the other white bears.

  I’m not the only one to leave something important behind, he thought, his resolve strengthening. Because this matters more. All four of us should be together when we reach the end of our journey. Grief prickled deep in his belly as he recalled how Ujurak had died on Star Island, protecting them from an avalanche. We should be five. . . .

  From the corner of his eye Toklo spotted a frosty glint of light, as if a star had awoken beyond the branches of the forest trees. When he turned his head it was gone, but comfort flowed over him like a warm tide.

  We are still five. Ujurak is watching over us.

  “Thanks, Lusa, but I’m fine,” Toklo said, touching her head with his muzzle. “We all need to reach the end of our journey before it’s over, and that hasn’t happened yet. I made you all a promise, and I’m keeping it.”

  “Great spirits, it’s hot!” Kallik gasped, when she and Yakone had struggled up to join Toklo and Lusa. “I can’t wait for burn-sky to end.”

  “By then we’ll be back on the Endless Ice,” Yakone reminded her as he gave her ear a friendly nuzzle. “We’ll have our own home there. No more earth beneath our paws!”

  The white male’s words reminded Toklo once again of the sacrifice Yakone and Kallik were making by staying so long among forests and mountains. He noticed that Yakone was limping again, a few trickles of blood oozing from his injured paw.

  It starts to heal, and then he stubs his toes on a rock, or trips over a branch, and it opens up again, Toklo thought. He needs time to rest, but it’s time we don’t have. Not if we’re going to reach the lake by the Longest Day.

  “Great Bear Lake, here we come!” he announced.

  Lusa gave an excited little bounce. “I hope I meet Miki and the other black bears at the lake,” she said to Toklo. “They taught me so much about living as a wild bear. I know they’ll let me stay with them.”

  “Let’s hope they’re at the gathering again,” Toklo responded to Lusa as they padded through the trees. “We rescued Miki from those spirit-cursed white bears, so his family owes you something. And I’ll stay with you until we find them, or some other black bears you can live with.”

  Lusa blinked up at him affectionately. “Thanks, Toklo.” She turned and stared up in dismay at a rocky shelf that blocked their path a few bearlengths ahead. A steep, tumbled slope stretched way above her head, with trailing plants and spindly bushes growing from the cracks. A fallen tree was wedged diagonally across the shelf, and the bears would have to push their way through its branches before they could even start the difficult climb up the rock.

  “Great spirits, how are we going to get up there?” Kallik asked tiredly.

  Toklo stopped for a moment, considering. The forest around them was silent except for the piping of a single distant bird. The sun shone warm on his fur; the air was still and stifling, without even the whisper of a breeze.

  Kallik and Yakone must find the heat even harder to cope with than I do,
Toklo thought.

  Lusa had trekked along the bottom of the shelf, looking for a path. “Come over here!” she called. “It’s easier once we get past that tree.”

  Following her, Toklo saw that she was right. Farther into the forest the rock wall was lower, the stones broken up with more vegetation in the gaps.

  “Get on my back,” he said to Lusa. “I’ll boost you up the side of the cliff.”

  He could feel Lusa’s claws digging into his fur as she scrambled up, then took a leap from his back and clung to the rock face. Earth and small stones showered down on Toklo as she climbed; a moment later he could see her bright face gazing down at him from the middle of a clump of ferns.

  “There are plenty of pawholds,” she told the others. “The climb isn’t too bad.”

  Toklo wasn’t sure about that. Kallik and Yakone weren’t such agile climbers, especially now when they were tired. “What do you think?” he asked the two white bears as they plodded up to him.

  “We don’t seem to have much choice,” Kallik replied. “We have to go this way. If we head farther into the forest, we’ll be traveling in the wrong direction, and we don’t know how far these rocks stretch.” She gave Yakone a doubtful look. “Will you be okay?”

  Yakone set his mouth determinedly. Toklo could see that he wasn’t going to let his wounded paw hold him back.

  “Don’t fuss. I’ll be fine,” he growled.

  Kallik opened her jaws as if she was about to protest, then closed them again without speaking, though she still looked uneasy.

  To prove his words, Yakone dug his forepaws into cracks in the rock and scrabbled with his hindpaws to push himself upward. Kallik gave him a shove from behind to help him on his way, then followed. Once Toklo was sure they could manage, he began hauling himself up the cliff, tearing at the vegetation as he struggled to find pawholds. His claws were clogged with mashed-up leaves and his fur felt full of grit by the time he stood beside his friends at the top.

  “Made it!” he grunted with satisfaction.

  From the top of the cliff the ground fell away in a much shallower slope, covered with grass. At the bottom Toklo could see a lush growth of ferns, and he caught glimpses of a narrow stream winding its way among the clumps.

  “Water!” he exclaimed, realizing for the first time how thirsty he was. “Come on!”

  Lusa outran him as he galloped toward the stream, but the small black bear was so eager to reach the water that she tripped and went rolling head over paws down the slope. At the bottom she bounced up, pieces of leaf and twig clinging to her fur, and plunged her snout into the stream.

  Toklo joined her, followed a few moments later by Kallik and Yakone. Kallik was matching her pace to Yakone’s, whose limp seemed worse after the scramble up the rocks. Toklo knew that the white male’s injured paw must be painful. The wound looked red and swollen, and blood was still trickling out, but neither of the white bears complained, just bent over the stream and drank thirstily.

  “Yakone, are you okay?” Toklo asked. “Do you need to rest your paw?”

  Yakone looked up, droplets of water spinning away from his muzzle. “My paw is fine,” he said.

  Toklo knew he was just being brave. I know he worries about holding us back. But Yakone clearly didn’t want sympathy, so he said no more.

  Lusa finished drinking and glanced around at her three friends. “You know, there aren’t any other bears like us,” she said.

  Toklo gave her an affectionate nudge. “So you’ve met all the other bears in the world?” he teased her. “When did that happen?”

  Lusa batted at him with one paw. “No, listen. Toklo, I know that what you really want is to stay here in the mountains on your own territory, and yet you drag yourself away from it for your friends. Kallik and Yakone left the Melting Sea for us. We’ve had help from flat-faces, like when Ujurak swallowed that fishhook, and we’ve traveled on a firesnake. How many other bears could say that?”

  Toklo nodded reluctantly. He understood Lusa’s point, but he wasn’t sure that their choices had been the right ones. The two white bears looked grubby and exhausted, and Lusa was thinner and smaller than the other black bears they had met on their way. Is it because she’s been traveling for so long?

  As he was wondering whether they could afford a short rest, Toklo picked up a new scent on the air. His neck fur rose in apprehension as he lifted his snout for a good long sniff.

  It smells like wolves . . . but not quite the same. Are we in danger?

  “Keep still,” he ordered in a low voice.

  He sank down into the vegetation with the others beside him, all of them sniffing now. Toklo could make out only one scent, and after a few moments he spotted an animal slinking along the line of trees.

  Not a wolf—a coyote!

  Lusa let out a gasp of alarm, while Kallik and Yakone stiffened, their fur bristling. The creature seemed unaware of them. It was prowling along at a deliberate pace, its nose down and its gaze fixed on the ground, making Toklo think it was on its own hunt. Memories of how they had been tracked by the pack of fierce coyotes flashed back into his mind, but he squashed his fears down.

  This coyote is alone, and it doesn’t look like it’s after us. It’s hunting something else.

  Thinking about hunting made Toklo realize how hungry he was. I’d love to know what the coyote found, he thought. I haven’t caught a sniff of prey all day. “It might lead us to some food,” he whispered to Kallik, who was closest to him. “Just one coyote and four of us—it should be easy!”

  “Maybe.” A gleam of humor woke in Kallik’s eyes.

  “So what’s the plan?” Lusa asked.

  “I think we should follow it,” Yakone suggested. “Let it make the catch, and then we snatch the prey.”

  Kallik nodded. “Good idea.”

  “Okay, so we spread out,” Toklo said. “That way if it runs off with its prey, one of us will be there to grab it.”

  The four bears rose to their paws and padded through the trees as quietly as they could, forming a wide ring around the coyote.

  The stupid thing doesn’t even know we’re here, Toklo thought. It’s totally focused on its hunt.

  Watching Yakone limp through the undergrowth, a dark memory assailed Toklo of how the coyote pack had followed the trail of blood from his injured paw, relentlessly tracking them down. This coyote could do just the same, given half a chance. But he’s alone, he reminded himself. We’ll be okay.

  By now Toklo had spotted the coyote’s prey: a pika, a furry creature a little smaller than a rabbit. He signaled to the others to keep well back so as not to spook the little animal, and concentrate on tracking the coyote. He was enjoying the practice of putting his paws down silently, making sure that he didn’t brush against the undergrowth.

  He spotted Kallik maneuvering so that she stayed upwind of the coyote and crouching down to slide underneath a low branch. He could see from the glimmer in her eyes that she was enjoying this, too.

  Wry amusement bubbled up inside Toklo as he watched the coyote snuffling along the pika’s scent trail. All its attention was still focused on its prey. As it drew closer to the pika, Toklo signaled to his friends again, jerking his head for them to move inward, tightening the circle.

  We don’t want to lose it now.

  The pika stopped to nibble something on the ground underneath a juniper bush, and that was when the coyote sprang, snapping its jaws shut on the pika’s neck.

  Before the coyote could take a mouthful of its prey, the bears leaped forward. Toklo let out a roar, hoping to scare it off. The coyote looked up, wide-eyed with alarm, then snatched up the pika and tried to dart away.

  Kallik plunged forward and raked her claws along the coyote’s side. “Drop it, mangefur!” she snarled.

  The coyote let out a yelp of terror. For a moment it froze, expecting Kallik to deal it a killing blow. But she stepped aside and the coyote fled, leaving the pika behind.

  Toklo padded up and gave the
pika a sniff. “It’s not much for four hungry bears.”

  “Three,” Lusa said, beginning to grub happily in the ground among the ferns. “There are plenty of roots here for me.”

  Even divided among three, the pika did no more than take the edge off their hunger.

  “Should we hunt some more?” Kallik suggested.

  Toklo shook his head. “Look through the trees,” he said. “There’s another cliff ahead. And there’ll be fallen trees, ravines, rocks. . . . We need to keep walking while it’s still daylight.”

  Kallik gave Yakone a glance. “Are you worried Yakone will have trouble with the terrain?” she asked Toklo. “He’ll be fine.”

  Yakone nodded. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “I’m not,” Toklo told him, not sure he was being entirely truthful. “But we’ll walk at your pace, no faster. Let’s go.”

  Another hard scramble brought the bears to the top of the next cliff and into a stretch of land where the trees were interspersed with wide-open spaces covered in long grass. With little shade, it was harder than ever to keep going. Toklo could see that the white bears were beginning to stagger, their chests heaving with each breath.

  But we have to keep moving, or we’ll never get to Great Bear Lake in time.

  His belly still rumbling after his share of the pika, Toklo kept sniffing the air as he padded along. He had just picked up a warm prey-scent when he heard a startled yelp from Kallik. A hare had jumped up from the grass right under her paws. Instinctively Kallik lashed out, and the hare dropped limply to the ground.

  “Great catch!” Yakone praised her.

  “I didn’t do anything,” Kallik said, looking dazed. “It was right there. How could I have missed it?”

  “Maybe Ujurak sent it,” Lusa suggested.

  “Maybe,” Toklo agreed. “Thank you, spirits, whoever you are.”

  Kallik picked up her prey and headed for the next clump of trees, which cast a welcome patch of shade. Gathering around, they all shared the hare.

  When he had filled his belly, Toklo felt sleepy. The shadows were lengthening as the sun slid down the sky, and he was tempted to stay where they were for the night. He knew that none of the others would argue if he suggested it.