The Burning Horizon (6 page)

“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!

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.

Ashia should be here,
Lusa thought woozily.
And Yogi and King . . .
Where are they all? And is that fruit I smell?

Her senses were drifting away when she felt flat-face paws pushing at her, and she realized that they were rolling her onto a flat, shiny pelt. A moment later she felt herself being dragged over the bumpy ground. As she lurched to one side, she let out a groan and felt a flat-face paw, warm and hairless, touching the side of her face. The female flat-face made a sound that Lusa guessed was meant to be soothing.

This is all wrong,
Lusa thought.
I should be running away, finding the others. . . .

But her head hurt so much, and she didn't even have the strength to raise a paw. Everything around her was blurred, and with a long sigh Lusa let herself slip into the waiting shadows. As she drifted into sleep, she heard a bear roar at the very edge of her hearing. She tried to stir, but the darkness tugged at her limbs and dragged her down. . . .

Rock-hard paws slammed into Toklo on
all sides. Vines clung to his legs, and the air throbbed with the screeches of mules and the yells of the flat-face with the firestick. In the chaos he had lost sight of the other bears.

Enough!

Toklo braced himself, standing solidly on all four paws. Drawing air into his lungs, he let out a massive bellow.

The mules scattered, panic-stricken, scrabbling and screeching as they tried to get away from him. He spotted Yakone through the shifting mass of bodies; the white bear was untangling a vine that was wrapped around Kallik's legs. There was no sign of Lusa, but Toklo guessed that she must be hidden somewhere among the mules. “This way!” he roared.