The Burning Horizon (29 page)

No! I will not lose her now!

Then the firebeast steadied itself, Lusa scrabbled with her hindpaws, and Toklo heaved until Lusa collapsed beside him on the firebeast's flat, slippery back. She rolled to one of the firebeast's flanks and lay there unmoving.

“You can't kill us!” Toklo bellowed into the wind and driving rain. Looking down again, he saw Kallik was nearly at the top of the vine herself, and he leaned down again as far as he dared to help her. “If the firebeast tilts, just hang on,” he called out to her.

Kallik had more strength left than Lusa, and she scrambled up the vine without much trouble. But another wave struck just as she reached the top, and her claws slipped on the waterlogged surface. Toklo lunged for her, sinking his claws into both her shoulders. A horrible vision of her being carried far away from the firebeast by the receding wave flashed through his mind.

“No!” he howled to the water. “You can't have her!”

Kallik's eyes were wide with fear. “I can't hold on!” she panted.

Toklo kept his grip on her, but her weight was dragging at him, and he realized with a pang of pure terror that they were both in danger of plummeting into the ravenous waves. But he didn't let go.

At the last moment the firebeast lurched the other way and, still clinging together, Toklo and Kallik slid away from the edge until they banged against the structure where Lusa was lying.

“Thanks, Toklo,” Kallik gasped, then tried to stagger to her paws. “We've got to help Yakone!”

She scrambled to the edge of the firebeast and looked down. Joining her, Toklo saw that Yakone had already begun to climb. But he was in trouble because his injured forepaw couldn't grip the vine tightly, and he kept slipping back down.

“I have to go help him,” Kallik panted.

“No!” Toklo grabbed for her, but she was out of reach.

Before Kallik could lower herself down the vine, the firebeast tilted wildly to one side. Lusa began to slide toward the water, and Toklo lurched after her and grabbed her shoulder in his jaws. Then he and Kallik hooked their paws over the edge to stop themselves from falling backward, while the side of the firebeast where Yakone was trying to climb was suddenly almost flat.

“Now, Yakone! Hurry!” Toklo roared.

Paws skidding, Yakone tottered up the side of the firebeast. He reached Toklo and Kallik just in time, before the firebeast rocked back the other way. They gripped him by the shoulders and pulled him to safety.

Yakone flopped down on top of the firebeast and choked up a huge amount of lake water. His injured paw was scarlet with blood, and there was a patch of missing fur on his flank where he had been thrown against the side and it had torn on something.

But at least he's alive,
Toklo thought.
We're all alive. There don't seem to be any flat-faces here, and the firebeast hasn't tried to eat us—yet.

Now that they were up there, being on the firebeast hardly
seemed safer than being in the water. Rain and wind still lashed them, the thunder boomed around them like massive rocks thrown around the sky, and lightning ripped from one horizon to the other. The firebeast lurched and heaved, its back slick with water. Toklo and the others had to cling to whatever they could. Lusa was dazed, barely conscious, and Toklo held her scruff in his teeth, terrified that she wouldn't be able to hold on herself. Every wave that crashed over them dragged them to the edge, threatening to sweep them back into the storm-tossed lake. Toklo was terrified that sooner or later one of them would be swept away and never seen again.

Is this how our journey will end?

The sky grew lighter as the short night passed, but the storm kept on, as fierce as ever. All around them was a waste of gray water. Sometimes Toklo thought he could glimpse a darker gray blur of land in the distance, but he couldn't be sure, and even if it was land, it was too far away for them to swim.

Then he heard another sound, a harsh screaming that seemed to come from the depths of the firebeast itself. To his horror he saw a gap suddenly zigzag across the top of the firebeast, a dark line stretching from one side to the other.

Yakone saw it, too. “It's breaking up!” he barked.

Toklo briefly let go of Lusa and pulled Kallik and Yakone close, desperate for all of them to stay together. But when he reached for Lusa again, she had slid onto the other side of the slowly widening gap.

“Lusa!” he roared.

The black bear looked up, blinking, but she obviously had no idea what was going on. Toklo had a vision of her tossed away, lost to them, as the firebeast broke into pieces. With the screams of the dying firebeast battering his ears, he leaped across the gap and staggered through the lashing rain to Lusa's side.

“Get up!” he ordered her, shoving her to her paws. “You have to move. We need to be over there with Kallik and Yakone.”

“Lusa!” yelled Kallik. “Come to us!”

“We'll help you!” Yakone roared.

Numb but obedient, Lusa scrabbled across the slanting top of the firebeast. She let out a squeal of panic when she saw the gaping crack between her and her friends. Toklo gave her a boost from behind while Kallik and Yakone reached for her, gripping her with claws and teeth to help her across. Once he was sure she was safely on the other side, Toklo followed, bracing himself for a massive leap over the yawning gap. He landed well clear of the edge, colliding with Yakone as the firebeast tilted again.

The bears clung together, overwhelmed with horror and deafened by the screeching of the firebeast as the two halves of it pulled slowly, hideously apart.

“No!” Toklo howled.

Water surged up to meet them, and Toklo found himself struggling to swim again. The bones of the firebeast splintered
around him before scattering in all directions, tossed on the white-crested waves. Toklo looked frantically around for his friends, but they had vanished. The tumult of sky and water surrounded him, pitching him this way and that until he sank down and down, and knew nothing more.

Lusa opened her eyes, blinking in
the sunlight. Gentle waves rippled around her, rolling pieces of wood onto the sandy shore. The storm had passed, and a weak sun shone overhead through a thin covering of cloud.

I didn't drown
. . . Lusa thought muzzily.
I can't believe it. . . . Was it all a dream?
She remembered the storm, the lashing waves, and how they clambered onto the firebeast to save themselves.
Oh, spirits, then the firebeast broke up! Where are the others?

Lusa scrambled up, every muscle in her body shrieking in protest, and coughed up several mouthfuls of water. She felt battered and too exhausted to take a single pawstep, but she knew she had to find her friends. Gazing around her, Lusa saw that the lake lay eerily peaceful, perfectly blue in the sun. It was hard to believe in the fury of the night before. The shore was littered with branches and scraps of flat-face stuff that Lusa guessed had come from the shattered firebeast. Apart from the soft waves, nothing moved as far as she could see.

Fear swelling inside her, Lusa limped along the shore,
pushing aside lumps of broken wood and sniffing through churned-up weeds from the bottom of the lake. As the moments dragged by, her search became more desperate.

“Toklo! Kallik! Yakone!” she called desperately, but there was no answer.

I can't be the only one who survived . . . I
can't
be!

Then Lusa spotted what looked like a brown-and-white boulder lying on the beach at the water's edge. As she drew closer, she realized it was Toklo and Yakone, slumped together in a heap of two-colored fur. Neither of them moved.

“Toklo! Yakone!” Lusa shrieked, racing up to them and prodding them frantically with her snout. “Wake up!”

Relief crashed over her as Toklo began to stir. He let out a confused grunt, then wriggled out from underneath Yakone.

“Lusa,” he rasped. “You're okay?”

“I feel like a firebeast ran over me,” Lusa choked, almost overcome with emotion. “But I'm all right.”

By this time Yakone was rousing, too. He blundered to his paws with a yelp of pain.

“Where's Kallik?” he barked, looking around.

As if in answer, a faint cry sounded from farther along the beach. Lusa spun around to spot Kallik tottering toward them.

“There she is!” Lusa shouted. “We made it—all of us!”

As Kallik joined them, the bears pressed themselves together, nuzzling with heads and noses as if they couldn't believe that they were all together again. Lusa couldn't get close enough to her friends. Even though she was bruised, exhausted, and waterlogged, she didn't think she had ever felt
happier or more relieved. She could see the same joy shining in the others' eyes.

“I've never been so scared in my life,” Kallik said quietly, stepping back to look at her friends.

“Me either,” Toklo agreed. “And where was Ujurak when we needed him?”

“He was there!” Kallik protested, her eyes widening. “I saw him in the shape of a fish. He pushed Lusa over to me when I couldn't find her.”

Lusa nodded as the memory returned, the flash of silver scales in the darkness. “I saw him, too.”

“There was so much pain in his eyes,” Kallik added. “Pain that he couldn't save us. It was terrible for Ujurak, too. But now it's over.”

“That's not all,” Toklo added. He took a pace back to check the position of the sun. “Look where we are. We're on the far side of the lake, right where we wanted to be.”

“Thank the spirits!” Lusa exclaimed. “I couldn't go through all that again.”

A strong fishy smell surged into her nostrils. Following the scent around a rock, Lusa noticed that this part of the shoreline was strewn with fish that had been pushed into a narrow inlet and washed up in the storm. “Look at this!” she called to the others. “Food!”

Lusa and Kallik collected some of the fish, while Toklo and Yakone scouted around and found a sheltered spot in a grassy hollow above the beach.

There was more than enough fish for all of them, and
Lusa's belly was stuffed full for the first time in days. “Do we have to leave yet?” she asked drowsily.

“No, we all need to rest.” Toklo gave a massive yawn. “We'll get going again when we're ready.”

“If you're sure there's time,” Yakone said. “We don't know how close we are to the Longest Day.”

“Ujurak was with us in the storm,” Kallik reminded him. “He's still helping us to reach Great Bear Lake in time.”

“You're right.” Yakone flopped down beside her. “Let's sleep.”

Lusa woke at twilight and saw Arcturus right above her, shining more brightly than any other star. Joy thrilled through her from snout to paws.
We're almost there!

Unable to contain her excitement, she roused her sleeping companions with sharp prods in the ribs. They staggered drowsily to their paws, becoming quickly more alert as Lusa pointed up at the stars. Ujurak's star-shape sparkled down at them, and it felt like he was reassuring them that he would be with them until the very last pawstep.

Lusa thought again how Ujurak had helped her when she was struggling in the lake. “Thank you, Ujurak,” she whispered. “I know you're watching over us.”

The bears ate more of the stranded fish, then set off again, traveling through the brief night. It was never fully dark; there was a glow on the horizon the entire time, as if the sun had only just barely dipped below it. The ground had been washed clean by the rain and was squishy underpaw with little
streams gurgling through it, which made for easy walking. The air was cool and clean, soothing Lusa's aching muscles.

As dawn approached, Lusa began to hear voices from somewhere in the distance. At first she thought she was imagining things, but when the daylight strengthened she was able to make out a group of black bears—two adults and three cubs—traveling a little way ahead.

“Look!” she whispered. “Black bears!”

She glanced at Toklo, who gave her a nod. “We're nearly there, Lusa. It's time to join the other bears.”

Lusa hesitated, glancing uncertainly at Kallik and Yakone. Yakone gave her a friendly nod, while Kallik prodded her gently in the shoulder and said, “Go for it!”

Breaking into a run, Lusa caught up to the group of black bears. As she galloped up, they stopped and turned toward her. Lusa didn't recognize any of them from the gathering the suncircle before, and for a moment she was daunted by the sight of so many bears who looked just like her.
They seem so small!
she thought, then reminded herself that they were the same size as her, just much smaller than the companions she was used to.

“Hi!” said Lusa.

“Hello,” the male bear said.

“I'm Lusa. I'm on my way to Great Bear Lake.”

“So are we,” the male bear told her. He sounded friendly, though there was surprise in his voice as he added, “You're not traveling alone, are you?”