“Six hours until dawn.”
An hour ago, Temi would have stifled a groan, lest he think her complaining. Now, she didn’t bother to hide the heartfelt noise of frustration and distress. She hadn’t been injured yet, beyond scrapes and bruises, but her back ached from bending and fighting, and she had lost the alertness that had kept her movements crisp in the first few fights. A numb exhaustion was creeping into her body now.
A spitting hiss came from below. One of the creatures was climbing again. Temi straightened, keeping one hand on the trunk and the other on the sword. Her branch was not very wide. If at any point she slipped, the exercise—and her life—would be over.
“When Eleriss comes,” Jakatra said, “I will suggest he takes you to a portal.”
“To return home?” The notion renewed her flagging energy. Even if Prescott was a long way from the home where she had grown up, Simon and Delia were there, and they would know where to find a lemonade. And their irreverent quips would be welcome after this week of relentless training. “Have I learned enough?”
“Someone is trying to kill you tonight. It is no longer safe for you here.”
“How do you know someone’s not trying to kill you?” she asked lightly, though the implication that she hadn’t learned enough stung. What had she expected? To become a master sword fighter in less than a week? It had taken her more than ten years to start winning tennis tournaments at the highest level. Besides, she hadn’t even wanted to become a sword fighter and a monster slayer, right? She had wanted to fail, to be released from this commitment. That had been the plan anyway. Somewhere along the way, things had changed. Funny how her desire to show Jakatra that she was capable, that she was a worthy student, had turned into an acceptance of her fate.
“It’s possible but unlikely,” he said. “Murder is uncommon among our people.”
“A rule that doesn’t extend to humans?”
The creature had climbed close enough to their branches that they had to stop their conversation to deal with it. The animals always came up on her side of the tree, a fact she hadn’t missed. She lowered herself to a crouch, the sword raised for a swing. At the same time, Jakatra leaned around the trunk from his own branch.
The cat hissed at him, then sprinted up the side of the tree toward Temi. Her heart tried to jump out of her throat, but this was the fourth or fifth time one of the cats had done this, and she kept her calm, merely meeting it with a slash to the face. Jakatra had more of a stabbing blade than a slicing one, and he rammed the point into its side as it tried to fly past, to make it to Temi’s branch. Her weapon cut into the creature’s pointed maw, the magic or whatever gave it its power, guiding it deep. The animal screeched, but flung itself upward anyway, its claws raking at her leg.
She stumbled to the side, slashing again and putting her back to the tree. Her heel slipped off the branch, and she almost pitched over the side and fumbled the sword. Losing it would be almost as bad as losing herself over the edge.
With a twist and a wild flinging of her arms, she regained her grip on the hilt, as well as her balance on the branch, but the creature had the time it needed to climb up in front of her. It looked all too comfortable on the narrow perch. It bunched its legs and sprang. There was no way to dodge. With her back to the tree, she lifted a leg to her chest and kicked outward, her heel taking the feline in the face. At the same time, Jakatra swung onto her branch out of nowhere—from above, she thought—landing in a crouch behind the creature. He stabbed it in the back and heaved it sideways, somehow maintaining his own balance on the narrow branch.
The cat fell away, but his sword, embedded deeply in its flesh, didn’t come out without a hitch. Temi, her back still against the tree, reached out and grabbed his shoulder to keep him from tumbling after the animal. With his agility, he probably wouldn’t have fallen anyway, but he gave her a nod when he straightened up, his sword still in his hand, the creature down among its buddies again. Hopefully dead. A fall of thirty feet should kill an animal, shouldn’t it? Temi and Jakatra had landed killing blows on some of them, but the milling pack down there never seemed to grow smaller.
“As I was about to say,” Jakatra said, “I don’t know how the laws would relate to killing humans. Eleriss and I may be the only ones who have interacted with your kind in recent generations. It is likely my people would regard you as a trespasser. Some would evict you through the nearest portal. Others might take more drastic measures.” He tilted his chin toward the prowling predators. “I do not think anyone would be punished for slaying a human, not if it happened here. But this method of sending predators… It suggests someone doesn’t want to be caught. They must know I’m here as well. I suppose if I were to die out here with you, Eleriss would only be able to report my death as a hunting accident. Perhaps because I am helping you, I am now a target as well.”
He didn’t sound happy about that. Of course not. He hadn’t wanted to help her in the first place.
“These portals,” Temi said, “is there any way we could escape to one now?”
“They must be… created—that is not the correct word, but I do not know another in your language—with the… portal opener.”
Temi was sure it was all far more sophisticated than someone rolling up to a house and tapping a remote control to open a garage door, but that was what came to mind.
“Eleriss has the device,” Jakatra added.
“Of course he does.”
Jakatra didn’t reply. She expected him to return to his branch, but he remained on hers, standing a couple of feet away, his sword in hand, a silent guardian. She wasn’t sure when he had turned from teacher to protector, but he must think she needed protecting now. She hoped that was a reflection of the odds they faced rather than of her ability to handle herself. Fighting on the ground would seem a breeze after this.
“It is possible I erred in seeking out this isolated scenario,” Jakatra said.
“Oh?” She couldn’t remember him ever admitting to an error.
He gazed toward the dark forest. “When Eleriss gave me this task, I objected to teaching you, to teaching any human.”
“Yes, you made that clear.”
“You have been…”
Temi arched her brows.
“A good student,” he finished.
The compliment surprised her into speechlessness, and she could only gape at him.
“I do not think that killing the jibtab will make any difference or change the fate of your world, but I will concede that you are worthy of carrying that sword.”
Strange that it felt good to receive praise for a skill she had never wanted to acquire. “Thank you.”
“Now I see why they’ve been quiet,” Jakatra said after a few moments.
“Why?”
“They’re climbing up that tree.” He pointed to another stout trunk about fifteen meters away. “They’ll be able to leap down on us from there.”
“Great.”
A light appeared in the distance, something that reminded her of a headlamp. It was up in the air, a little higher than their branch, and it was coming their way. Jakatra, focused on the felines climbing the tree behind them, didn’t seem to have noticed.
“Any chance that’s Eleriss?” Temi asked. “Coming early?”
“That is not his truck.”
Temi thought about pointing out that the word hovercraft might be more appropriate for their flying vehicles, but it hardly seemed important just then. “Any chance it’s someone else coming to help?”
“A chance.” Jakatra turned, putting his back to her as he faced the light—it was getting closer. Whoever was flying the craft knew exactly where he was going. “Stay behind me,” he added.
Given that she was standing on a branch, Temi couldn’t imagine where else she would go, but was happy to follow the order.
The top of the hovercraft was open, and she thought she could pick out a couple of heads in there, but its headlight didn’t do anything to illumina
te the people riding inside. If they had weapons, she couldn’t tell.
She expected the craft to fly closer, but it stopped, the powerful yellow beam of its headlight sweeping back and forth, searching the trees. Searching for them. The light brushed the snarling felines below—Temi tensed, because a new one was climbing the tree—but it didn’t stop there. The beam traveled up the trunk to shine in her and Jakatra’s eyes. He lowered into a deep crouch, ready to spring. But where? Thirty feet to the ground? Into the maws of those giant cats?
As if he knew what she was wondering, he looked up, his gaze lingering on a higher branch for a long moment. The sturdy tree would support their weight if they climbed higher, but Temi didn’t see how that would help them against a flying car.
The light dropped, and the craft spun in the air, turning its backend toward them. It soared away, and soon the trees hid it from view, though its light was still visible as the craft moved about in the forest. Was it looking for something further? Maybe it was someone out there hunting for mushrooms, someone who wanted nothing to do with the cats or Jakatra and Temi. Of course, if that were the case, she would have expected the people to help, to try and drive the creatures away.
“The appearance of the technology did not scare the saru away,” Jakatra observed.
“Because these ones are controlled by those glowing dots?” Temi asked.
“Likely.” He seemed to have something else on his mind—other suspicions—but that was all he said.
The scrape of claws sinking into bark reminded Temi that they still had other problems. Jakatra moved farther out on the branch, so they could both attack at once. With two swords slashing toward it, they knocked the cat free before it found its way to their level. These small triumphs no longer inspired Temi, not when more creatures would soon start up to take its place.
Jakatra’s nose wrinkled, and he faced in the direction of the hovercraft again. The headlight had disappeared—or wasn’t visible from their position—but a new light had appeared, this one orange and flickering.
“Fire?” Temi hooked her arm around the trunk and leaned out for a better view. Her stomach sank. A lot of fire. Flames were licking up the side of a tree about a hundred meters away.
“Fire,” Jakatra agreed grimly.
Chapter 9
A normal forest fire that size wouldn’t spread quickly and might burn over there all night without bothering them, but Temi had a feeling this wasn’t a normal fire. The hovercraft wasn’t anywhere in sight, but it was too much of a coincidence to believe flames had randomly started up right after it left. It wasn’t even dry here, not like in the forests of her New Mexico homeland.
Jakatra pointed to the right of where Temi had been looking. Another fire was burning in the undergrowth over there. At the base of the tree, the creatures’ voices changed, concern in their unearthly yips for the first time. They turned, their furry snouts pointing toward the flames. Damn, there was a third spot fire now.
“Is it just me,” she said, “or are your people lighting those fires in a circle? To make sure we can’t escape?”
“This is not logical behavior,” Jakatra said. “If they wanted you, or for some reason wanted me, they could shoot from afar with a projectile weapon. To deliberately burn the forest is strange behavior for one of my people.”
“Maybe a human got through,” she said. It was a joke, or sarcasm at the least, but he answered seriously.
“It was ensured centuries ago that none of the portal keys remained in your world. Unless someone else brought a human here, one could not be present.”
“Fires are good for hiding evidence, they say. Maybe someone wants to kill us without being obvious about it.” Temi shifted her weight, trying to figure out how they could escape without jumping into the jaws of death down below. Those creatures shouldn’t want to stick around for a wildfire, either, but who knew what those blue dots were commanding them to do? None of them had left yet.
“Possibly. That would be in line with the animal attacks.” Jakatra faced the trunk and pointed up. “If they seek to surround us with fire, then we must leave first.”
“That way?” Temi also pointed up.
“I believe that if we go out on that branch approximately twenty feet up, we can make our way to the next tree, and then the next. After that, we’ll reassess our route.”
Temi stared at the orange flames dancing on the ground, already climbing numerous trees. The scent of smoke had reached her nose now. At least Jakatra wanted to go in the opposite direction from the flames, but she wasn’t a squirrel and those branches up there were thin. She and Jakatra were already more than thirty feet off the ground.
“You are capable of this feat,” Jakatra said. “Sansolu said so.”
“Who?”
“Your healer.” Jakatra waved at her knee as he stepped past her. Without brushing her, he leapt and caught the side of the tree, his dexterous fingers easily finding holds in the cracks between plates of bark. “He said you would now be capable of swinging through the trees.” He paused, his head tilting in consideration. “In reflection, this may have been an insult in regard to the simian origins of humans.”
Temi snorted. “I’ll bet.”
Jakatra was already climbing, so she sheathed the sword and did her best to follow. The flames had already grown to the point that they illuminated the forest so that she could see without the silvery glow. A fact that was less comforting than one might imagine. “What did elves evolve from?”
“Elves? Ah, yes, that is your word for us.”
“I forgot your word.” Temi grimaced as her foot slipped on the bark. She should probably be concentrating on climbing.
“We also share origins with a tree-dwelling species, but they were more elegant than your simian cousins.”
“Were they snootier and more arrogant than our simian cousins too?”
Jakatra paused to look down at her, the flames of the fire reflected in his violet eyes. She expected a haughty sniff, but he actually seemed to be considering the question.
“The modern ones do seem to believe themselves superior to the other wilderness denizens,” he said.
“Imagine that.”
Temi was almost to the branch Jakatra had pointed to from below. A few more feet, and she could pull herself up to a safe spot. Too bad he wouldn’t let her stay there long.
Bark crumbled beneath her fingers, and she lunged for the branch with her other hand. She grasped it at the same time as the bark gave way, splinters digging beneath her nails as wood fell. For a second, she hung there by one hand, wondering how many more times her heart would try to leap out of her chest before it succeeded.
Jakatra, already standing on the branch, looked down at her. Doubtlessly wondering what was taking so long. Temi swung up her other hand and hauled herself onto the slender branch. As soon as her feet were on it, Jakatra jogged along its length, the wood shivering beneath his steps, and leaped a couple of feet, landing on an equally slender limb stretching across from the next tree. He trotted out of the way, then stopped to wait again.
Temi wiped sweat out of her eyes, spread her arms for balance, and tightrope-walked after him. She wished for some of the gripping skills of those simian cousins. Her shoes lay at the bottom of the tree, and she had flung her socks down at some point, as well, so she tried to use her toes, but mostly she relied on her balance, inching farther and farther. The branch trembled, growing narrower as she moved along it. The snaps and cracks of the fire reached her ears, adding pressure to the situation. As if the yips and whines coming from the base of the tree weren’t enough. Temi kept hoping the animals would take off, but a handful of them were following her progress from the ground, their snouts tilting upward as if she were the only food they had seen in months.
“You will find it easier with more momentum,” Jakatra said when she stopped at the point where he had crossed.
“Good to know,” Temi said and very carefully made the jump. She bent her kn
ees and spread her arms, catching her balance on the new branch. “Next,” she said when she got over the relief of making it.
Jakatra led her to the trunk, then out onto a branch on the other side. Temi did her best to keep up, all too aware of how quickly that fire was spreading.
A whine like that of a mosquito, but louder, sounded, and one of the branches above her snapped. It fell, nearly dropping onto her head. She batted it aside with her arm, but it upset her balance, leaving her flailing for her life once again.
“What was that?” she blurted when she had regained her balance.
“A projectile weapon not unlike your firearms.” Jakatra pointed into the air above the fire. The hovercraft was back, its beam probing the trees again, the smoke making the light hazy, surreal. This whole damned experience was surreal. “Hurry.” He ran along the branch as he spoke, jumping onto the next one.
“Hurry where?” Temi growled, though she raced after him as quickly as she dared. She grudgingly admitted that he had been right, that it was easier when she went faster instead of checking her balance every inch of the way. But it hardly mattered. The cats were guarding the ground, whoever had the gun was guarding the air, and the fire was coming from the side. Where could they possibly flee to? “We’re going to have to confront… somebody.”
The animals, the people, she didn’t know which confrontation they would be more likely to survive, but they were targets at the moment.
Another whining weapon fired, blasting into the side of the trunk. Bark flew everywhere, this time battering Jakatra. So, he was as much of a target as she. Later, Temi might find that interesting, but right now, she was too busy trying not to fall off the branches. She lunged behind a trunk, expecting to have to climb to another branch, but Jakatra was waiting there, the bulk of the tree hiding them from the hovercraft.
He gripped her arm. “You are correct. I will confront my people. You continue in the trees. Get as far as you can. Make sure you’re out of the fire’s path.” He pointed in a direction, though how he could tell which way the fire would turn, she couldn’t guess. “Don’t go down unless you’re certain the animals have given up the chase. Even then, stay near the trees. Eleriss will find you eventually.”
Destiny Unchosen Page 6
