The Burning Horizon Page 4

  The sun was going down, and Kallik heaved a thankful sigh as the heat of the day faded and a cool breeze sprang up. As twilight gathered, the bears found a place to sleep in the middle of a juniper thicket.

  “This is good,” Kallik said approvingly. “The smell of the bushes will hide our scent.”

  “But we have to hunt before we sleep,” Toklo reminded her. “I’m starving!”

  Kallik and Toklo set off, leaving Lusa and Yakone dragging ferns into their temporary den to make it more comfortable. Toklo headed into the trees, while Kallik prowled around closer to the bushes. While she hunted, she stayed alert for the sound of more flat-faces.

  The undergrowth was full of the scent of prey, and before long Kallik picked up the traces of a partridge. Setting down her paws as lightly as she could, she crept up on the ground-nesting bird, her jaws watering with anticipation. But the partridge must have heard her approach, because when Kallik was still just out of reach, it let out an alarm call and exploded upward in a flurry of wings. Kallik leaped and batted the bird out of the air, holding it down with one paw while she ended its struggles with a bite to its neck.

  When she returned to the den with the partridge dangling from her jaws, she met Toklo on his way back, carrying a squirrel.

  “Good job,” he mumbled around his catch. “We’ll eat well tonight.”

  Inside the thick covering of the juniper bushes, the four bears shared their prey. Kallik felt almost too exhausted to eat, but she felt a warm satisfaction that they had crossed the river safely.

  “Lusa, you won’t forget your underwater swim in a hurry,” Toklo teased. “Maybe you’ll show me how to do it sometime.”

  “Oh, sure,” Lusa retorted sleepily. “Right after you and Yakone show me how to hunt horses!”

  A harsh squawk from somewhere overhead woke Kallik. Stretching her jaws in a yawn, she looked around to see pale light filtering through the branches of their den. Her companions were still sleeping. The harsh call came again, along with a flutter of wings as the unseen bird took off.

  We’ve never been in such a noisy place! Kallik thought crossly, wishing she could go back to sleep. My ears are ringing!

  The second call had roused her friends, and they all pushed their way into the open. The air was cool and clear, and above their heads the sky was pale blue without a trace of cloud. Kallik felt brighter as they set out, enjoying the fresh scents all around her and the shade of the trees.

  More narrow, stony trails crossed their path, and Kallik’s paws itched to follow one that seemed to be going in the right direction. “It would be great not to have to struggle through brambles the whole time,” she sighed.

  Toklo shook his head. “It’s too dangerous, you know that. Besides, we can’t be sure it would go the right way.”

  Reluctantly Kallik agreed. The scents of horses, mules, and flat-faces were too strong to risk it, and she followed Toklo without protest as he headed across the trail and back into the undergrowth.

  Only a few bearlengths later Toklo halted, pointing with his snout to a set of clawmarks scored into the bark of a pine tree. A familiar scent drifted into Kallik’s nostrils. “There’s a brown bear living around here,” Toklo said. “We’d better stay out of his territory.”

  “Did you meet him last time?” Kallik asked.

  Toklo shook his head. “He must have moved in since then,” he replied. “Or maybe we just missed the edge of his territory.”

  Following Toklo, they veered to the side, tracking the scent marks and scratches on the trees in an effort to skirt the brown bear’s territory. Kallik’s fur prickled with apprehension as she padded quietly along, hoping not to attract the bear’s attention.

  I hope he’s over on the other side of his territory. We have enough problems without getting into a fight.

  “If I were this bear,” Toklo said as they came to a small stream bubbling along among rocks, “I would make this my boundary. A stream makes a good barrier.”

  “Let’s check!” Lusa bounded on ahead for a few bearlengths and halted underneath a gnarled oak tree. “You’re right!” she called back. “Here are some more markings!”

  “Lusa,” Toklo grunted as the others caught up to her. “Don’t go dashing off like that again. We know there could be a hostile bear about.”

  “Okay,” Lusa muttered. “Sorry.”

  Toklo fell silent as they walked along the edge of the brown bear’s territory. Kallik wondered if he was thinking about the territory waiting for him—and maybe the she-bear Aiyanna who was guarding his brother’s burial mound.

  “One day you’ll have your own territory,” she said to Toklo. “And bears will have to avoid your scent.”

  Toklo nodded. “I won’t fight any bear unless I have to, though,” he said. “I’m not like Chogan.”

  A short way farther on, the stream vanished into a patch of swamp surrounded by brambles and spindly dogwood. The bears circled around it warily, looking for the next set of clawmarks.

  “Let’s check over there,” Yakone suggested, pointing with his snout at a lightning-blasted tree on the edge of the swamp. “It’s the only spot where you could put a clawmark.”

  Heading for the tree, Kallik saw that Yakone was right. The bear had scored his claws deep into the trunk of the dead tree. She could see the next set of clawmarks, too, on a pine tree well away from the direction she and her friends were traveling.

  “Thank the spirits!” she exclaimed. “The boundary curves away here.”

  “And we haven’t met the bear,” Toklo added with satisfaction.

  As they left the unseen bear’s territory, Kallik began to hear more sounds from up ahead: horses clattering along a stony trail with their hard paws, and the occasional bark from a flat-face. Not again . . . As they approached the sounds grew louder, and they were somehow different, harsher and more confused, from what they had heard before.

  Peering out of the bushes, Kallik was astonished to see a plump flat-face on a horse followed by a long, long line of mules, far more than she could count, all linked together by vine tendrils. Each mule carried a bundle on its back, each bundle almost the size of a black bear. Farther down the line, more flat-faces on horses flanked the mules.

  The bears crouched down to hide in the bushes to watch them all plod past.

  “Seal rot!” Yakone muttered. “We’ll have to wait until they’ve gone.”

  Kallik’s fur prickled with anxiety. The line of mules seemed never ending. How many more can there be? she wondered.

  Then one of the mules balked, sidestepping and tugging on its vines as if it wanted to flee.

  “It knows we’re here,” Toklo growled. “Now the flat-faces are sure to spot us.”

  Kallik tried to press herself closer to the ground as the panic spread through the line of mules, more of them throwing up their heads and letting out high-pitched whinnies. The vines that held them snapped taut, holding them in place with skittering paws. Kallik heard annoyed barking from the flat-face at the front.

  “I can hear more flat-faces. Coming up behind us!” Lusa whispered, her eyes wide with dismay.

  Kallik swiveled around. She picked up the flat-face scent, then stiffened as several bright-pelted flat-faces emerged through the trees, chattering away and heading straight for her and her friends. They didn’t seem to be aware of the bears or the mules. “Now what do we do?” she hissed.

  On both sides the undergrowth pressed in on them, its thorny walls a barrier that was impossible to break through. There was nowhere to go but forward, but the long mule train was still blocking their route.

  “Will it ever end?” Toklo muttered.

  The flat-faces behind them drew closer and closer, until Kallik could hear them breathing. Much closer and they’ll step on us!

  “We can’t stay here,” Toklo growled. “We’ll have to charge the line of mules.”

  “But we won’t be able to get through!” Yakone objected.

  “It’s the only way
. We’ll have to charge at a gap between two of them.” Toklo glanced from Kallik to Lusa. “Ready? We’ll meet up on the other side of the trail.”

  Lusa nodded, her eyes wide with fear.

  “Okay,” Kallik said, trying to crush down the terror that was surging up inside her.

  Yakone gave a nod as well.

  “Now!” Toklo roared.

  Together all four bears plunged out of their hiding pace and down onto the trail, crashing into the line of mules. The mules reared up and let out screeches of alarm, their forelegs kicking at the air. Struggling to escape from the bears, they became entangled in the vines that bound them, quickly changing from an ordered line into a shifting, impenetrable mass.

  Kallik, in the lead with Toklo, found herself caught up in the vines that attached the mules to one another; within a heartbeat they became wrapped around her legs so she could hardly move. Toklo was trapped, too, roaring as he tried to bite through the vines and escape from the terrified, thrashing mules.

  BOOM!

  The crack of a firestick sounded above the shrieking of the mules. Panic washed over Kallik, and she found herself crashing into the other bears as they all tried to flee. She caught a glimpse of the plump flat-face running down the trail toward them, aiming his firestick again.

  “Get back to the bushes!” Toklo bellowed.

  But it was impossible to retreat. Rocks and undergrowth hemmed them in, and they were trapped with the panicking, kicking mules all around them.

  BOOM!

  Kallik saw a paw-sized chunk of rock fly off a nearby boulder a heartbeat after the firestick explosion. It flew through the air toward her, and before she could duck, it struck her on the side of the head. Her vision blurred and she stumbled; then she felt Toklo and Yakone grabbing at her, pulling at her fur. Noise and an echoing darkness swirled all around her.

  Oh, spirits, come and save us!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Lusa

  Panic flooded through Lusa when she saw the flat-face raising his firestick. She tried to run, but one of the mules’ vines was wrapped around her front paw. Drawing on all her strength, she wrenched at it until the vine snapped, and with a desperate, scrambling wriggle she managed to reach the edge of the mule train. At the roar of the firestick she ran as fast as she could back up the slope to where they had started.

  Behind her the air was full of the bellowing of bears and flat-faces and the trampling of many paws. A bird screeched in alarm. All Lusa wanted was to hide. But as she hurtled forward she saw the group of bright-pelted flat-faces that had been behind them scattering in front of her. One of them let out a yell and waved its forelegs above its head.

  Lusa ducked behind a large tree, her heart thumping with fear. Then she scrabbled through a bush, swerving away from the flat-faces, ignoring thorns that tore at her pelt. For a moment she thought she had escaped; then the ground gave way under her paws, and she rolled down a steep bank and back onto the trail, where the bears and mules were still in a mix of chaos. She landed with a thud that drove the breath out of her body.

  The paws of the rampaging mules stamped a snout’s length from Lusa’s head. Rolling away from them, she scrambled to her paws. A few bearlengths away she could see her friends, struggling in the midst of mules that flailed at them with their hard paws. Flat-faces were shouting and the mules were letting out high-pitched whinnies, while the bears bellowed as they fought to escape.

  Lusa stared in horror as one of the mules near her started bucking madly, breaking free from the vines that tethered it. The mule reared up, shrieking. Its forelegs kicked out, and one of its sharp, rocklike paws hit Lusa on the head.

  Pain sliced through Lusa. She staggered and fell onto her side, her vision blurring, and a sound like rushing water filling her ears. She struggled to stand up, but her legs felt too weak to support her. She stumbled back to the ground again and took a moment, breathing hard, before she managed to push herself to her paws.

  Beneath the roaring in her ears, Lusa thought she could hear her friends running through the trees on her side of the path. They must have given up on getting across. Her eyes were streaming, but she managed to pick out vague, swirling shapes in the shadows. She hauled herself up the bank once again and began to run.

  Behind her, the sounds of struggling pulsed loud and soft in her ears. The forest around her seemed to shift and blur, and though she blinked she couldn’t clear her vision. Unable to find a safe path, she crashed from tree to tree, with brambles ripping at her fur.

  Oh, Arcturus, help me!

  Lusa stumbled on past many trees, thinking this must be the way she’d seen her friends go. Gradually the roaring in her ears died away, and she could see clearly again. Blinking, she halted and looked around.

  “Toklo? Kallik?”

  There was no reply. Bewildered, Lusa turned around to face the way she had come. They must be behind me. They’re on their way, right?

  But agonizing moments passed, and there was no sign of Toklo, Kallik, or Yakone. Lusa crouched, motionless, pain still throbbing through her head as she tried to control her breathing and the pounding of her heart so that she could listen. But the only sounds that came to her ears were the trampling and braying of the mules in the distance, along with the irritated grumbles of the flat-faces who were trying to get them under control.

  Lusa sniffed the air, but all she could pick up was the fear-scent of the mules and the acrid tang of firesticks. There was no scent of any of her friends.

  I’ve lost them! Lusa thought helplessly, staring into the dark trees.

  “Toklo! Kallik! Yakone!” she called again, but her voice was lost in the echoes from the dense trees, and beneath the squawk of birds startled by her roar. Trees loomed over her head, and a whirling darkness threatened to engulf her.

  The pain in Lusa’s head where the mule had kicked her grew worse and worse. It felt like an aching heartbeat in her skull, or a stabbing claw hurting her again and again, clouding her mind so she couldn’t think. She reached up with her forepaws to the place where the pain was, but it didn’t help, only unbalanced her and sent her stumbling through the trees.

  Lusa slumped down on her side and looked around. The sound of the mules had faded away, and now she wasn’t even sure which direction she had come from. Oh, spirits—how am I going to find the others? She was afraid that they had run and run like she did, thinking that they were all still together. They could be anywhere by now!

  Growing more desperate with each moment, Lusa heaved herself up again and went on searching and calling, crawling through bramble thickets and scrambling over rocks in her frantic search for some trace of her friends. There must be something—a pawprint or a lingering scent.

  At last, exhausted, Lusa collapsed to the ground. Dazed and terrified, she tried to figure out where she was. She needed to find the other bears. Peering up through the branches, she tried to recognize the peaks that were just visible above the trees. Could she figure out which way they’d been heading before they met the mules?

  “If I go in the same direction,” she said aloud, trying to sound confident, “I’ll meet up with them . . . won’t I?”

  Lusa rose to her paws and staggered through the trees on unsteady legs, only to halt as another frightening thought came to her.

  What if they’ve noticed I’m not with them, and they’ve turned back to look for me? What if the flat-faces find them? They could be risking their lives for me.

  Trying hard to squash her fears down by doing something practical, Lusa checked the angle of the sun and studied the shape of the mountains and the way the trees grew. There should be a peak shaped like a squirrel’s tail, she thought, trying to focus on her distant memories of her first journey to the lake. Lusa couldn’t see that particular mountain from where she was, but she set off again on what she hoped was the right path. She blundered through the trees, trying to avoid the worst of the thornbushes and brambles, but as she waded through a stretch of long grass, she failed to
notice the edge of a bank and half fell, half slid into a muddy stream, landing in the water with a splash.

  Lusa dragged herself out, her pelt covered in mud, and scraped her paws on a patch of low-growing, thorny plants that covered the far bank. Her head still spun, and she realized she had lost all sense of direction again. She wished that it was night, so that she could follow the Pathway Star.

  As Lusa tried to regain her bearings, a flicker of movement caught her eye. She turned her head to see a flat-face appear from behind a nearby tree. Startled, Lusa shrank back. I should have picked up his scent long before he got this close.

  The newcomer was big for a flat-face, with gray head-fur and a bright-scarlet pelt. He stood still for a moment, shock and fear in his eyes. Then he raised his forepaws and let out a roar.

  Lusa flinched away from him, pressing herself against the tree trunk behind her. It’s okay! I’m not going to hurt you. Just leave me alone!

  Then another flat-face appeared, smaller than the first one. When it opened its jaws and began yapping at the first flat-face, Lusa guessed that she was a female because of her higher voice. She had put one of her paws on the tall flat-face’s arm and was looking at Lusa with kindness in her gaze.

  I think she’s asking that fierce flat-face not to hurt me.

  Lusa took a lumbering step sideways, shifting away from the flat-faces and keeping her head low in an attempt to show them she wasn’t a threat. She moved slowly and carefully, aware that it was important not to spook them.

  But her head was hurting so badly now that she could hardly stand up. Her vision blurred again, shadows pressed around her as if they wanted to swallow her, and her hind legs felt too wobbly to hold her up. She staggered, took another wavering pawstep, and collapsed onto her flank.

  Lusa was dimly aware of the flat-faces approaching her, slowly and cautiously. She knew she should run away, but she felt too exhausted, and was in too much pain, to move a single step. The flat-faces were talking to each other again; their voices were gentle and low-pitched, and she had a sudden memory of being in the Bear Bowl, where the flat-faces brought her food and spoke to her in the same gentle tones.