He straightened and tried to rub the sleepiness from his eyes. Something was definitely amiss, like a single dish missing from a cupboard, except in his weary state, he could not tell which dish it was. Then he realized it—the forest was silent.
A figure, no more than a silhouette in the waning light of the embers, sprung out from behind a tree and bore down on him before he could react. He tried to shout a warning to the others, but he had no sooner drawn in breath than a brawny hand clamped over his mouth. Arms grabbed him, spun him around, and flung him to the ground. A knobby weight—a knee, most likely—dug into his spine, pinning him down and driving the wind out of him.
A second man stepped into the glade. “Kora?” He kept his voice low.
Daniel’s assaulter gestured at Kora’s dormant form. His companion pulled a strip of fabric from a pocket at his hip and crept over to her. He whipped the cloth over her mouth and gagged her.
Kora woke with a start. When she saw the man leaning over her, her eyes shot open and she bucked and squirmed, trying in vain to free herself from his clutches.
Daniel tried to shake off his captor, but with the hand still smothering his face and his body pinned to the ground, he could only kick his legs, which accomplished nothing.
The first man grunted his satisfaction. “Bind her.”
Kora’s attacker twisted her arms behind her back and fastened her wrists together with a section of rope. He then dragged her to her feet.
The girl writhed in his arms. She screamed, but the gag reduced her voice to a muffled moan. Her eyes found Daniel’s, silently pleading for help.
“What about these two?” The first man asked.
“Don’t kill them,” said his companion, “But make sure they don’t follow us, either.”
At that moment, Ram stirred from his sleep. He blinked drearily. He began to say something, but when he saw the two men, Daniel sprawled on the ground, and Kora bound and gagged, his thought morphed into a yelp of surprise. He scrambled to his feet and fumbled to pull the gun from his belt.
Kora’s captor noticed the weapon first. “That one’s armed. Get him!”
The man on top of Daniel moved to grab hold of Ram, and as soon as the weight lifted from his back, Daniel rolled towards the cooling embers of the fire. “Hey!”
His shout drew the man’s attention. Daniel grabbed a handful of coals, searing his hand, and flung them into the face of the Akorite scout.
Burnt and blinded, the man bellowed and clutched at his face.
His companion dragged Kora, still kicking and struggling, towards the edge of the glade. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”
Ignoring his throbbing palm, Daniel bolted towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ram give up on the gun entirely and drive his shoulder into the scout’s stomach like an angry bull. Both went down.
Daniel collided with Kora’s captor and locked his arms around the man’s legs. The scout lost his grip on Kora, and she crumpled to the ground. Daniel somehow emerged from the tangle of arms and legs on top of the scout, and before the man had time to change that, he managed to jab him in the throat.
The scout kicked him off and shrunk into the forest, gasping for air.
Daniel stumbled to Kora’s side. In a few short moments, he had the gag off.
“Knife in my belt,” she gasped.
He groped in the semi-dark until he found the blade, and sawed at the knots at her wrist until the thin cords snapped.
Ram joined them. He was breathing heavily, and there was a gash on his cheek. He gestured with his thumb at the limp man on the ground by the fire. “He won’t stay down long. I suggest we run.” He had already retrieved his pack.
Behind them, the second scout was picking himself up, though he still clutched at his throat.
Daniel helped Kora to her feet, and they fled from the glade. “Back to the stream, quick.”
The girl shook her head. “They’ll follow us. We have to lose them.”
“The forest, then,” said Ram.
Daniel had no time to object.
They put the glade and the stream to their backs and plunged into darkness.
* * *
Weary, bruised, branch-whipped, and bloodied, Daniel and the others found the Weeping River. The rushing waters roared in the depths of a chasm so wide that, in the dark of the night, the opposite side was lost from view. The ravine opened up like a hungry maw in the midst of the forest, and Daniel wondered how they hadn’t run right over the brink and plummeted to their demise.
Kora collapsed at the ravine’s edge like a melting candle. Her shoulders shook, and sobs escaped her lips between gulps of air.
Ram, winded and drenched in sweat, was more preoccupied with the inky darkness behind them than with the river before them. “Did—did we lose them?”
The forest was still, though any sound their pursuers might have made would have been drowned out by the pounding water below.
“For now,” said Daniel, “But we can’t stop.” He turned to the shivering Kora, and a cold edge crept into his voice. “Explain yourself.”
The girl looked up at him, hair clinging to her face and neck. Her mouth parted, but no words came out. She propped herself up on her right arm, her left hand pressed against her collar.
Daniel took a step closer. “They knew your name. How?”
She crawled away from him, but quickly met the edge of the ravine. “I…”
“You know the mountains like your own backyard.” Daniel went on, towering over her quaking form, “You can handle a gun and a knife with ease. You have secrets you won’t share, but you’re obviously afraid of something. And now, it turns out you’re on a first name basis with the people that killed my parents!” Ram tried to intervene, but Daniel shoved him aside. “Are you a Preceptor? Some kind of spy? Is that why they want you? You’re hiding something, and at this rate, it’s going to get us all killed.” He glared down at her, fists clenched. “Explain yourself.”
Kora’s eyes darted from his looming frame to the rushing river below, as though she expected Daniel to push her into the chasm.
Ram forced his way between them. “Daniel, she’s hurt. Can’t you see?” Slowly but firmly, he guided Daniel away from Kora, away from the edge. Then he found the flashlight and knelt beside her. “Show me.”
Kora closed her eyes and shook her head.
Ram focused the light on her shoulder. A trickle of blood seeped from between her fingers, but she kept her hand where it was. “I need to make sure it’s just a scratch,” said Ram.
Her lower lip trembled. “I’m fine.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Let him look.”
“No.” She backed away a few more inches. “Please…just leave me. Stop helping me!”
His jaw tightened. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”
Tears spilled from her eyes. “I couldn’t tell you,” she burst out, “Not after you kept talking about Obenon. I knew what the Akorites did there—I knew how much you’d hate me if you knew!”
“Then why? Why stay with us and try to hide the truth?”
“You don’t understand,” she said, “They’ve been hunting me ever since we ambushed the Preceptor train.”
“But why?”
She hung her head. “My cousin died right beside me. The Preceptors shot him. His blood was everywhere, and I couldn’t do anything. Bullets went every direction—and screams. I didn’t want to die like the others. I panicked, and I fled. I knew from the moment I abandoned my post that I’d become nothing more than a deserter and a traitor.”
While she spoke, Ram tended to her shoulder.
“That night, a friend of mine tracked me down and warned me not to return. While we were talking, the snapjaws came. We ran.” Kora bit her lower lip. “The snapjaws took her. I kept running—I didn’t care where, I just wanted to get away. To survive. In the morning, I stumbled upon the cabin—and the nest. That’s where you found me. I—I didn’t know who you were
or where you were going, but I figured you were my best chance at staying alive.”
Ram finished bandaging her wound, and the three of them fell silent.
For a long while, Daniel was lost in thought. He had no reason not to believe her story. At last, he spoke. “I’m sorry. I’ve treated you harshly, when your road has been even harder than ours.” He offered a hand and helped her to her feet. “We made a deal, and I intend to keep it.”
She stared at the ground, silent.
Daniel let out a breath. “We should—” He stopped and lifted a hand.
From deep in the forest, where unseen trees groaned against each other in the wind, barely audible above the clamoring of the river, came a new sound. Howls.
Ram smacked his forehead. “Oh, what fresh misery is this now?” He reached for the gun.
The howls multiplied until a host of ghoulish cries seemed to reach them from all directions, closer with each echo.
Daniel knew, though he didn’t want to admit it. “Wolves.” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kora’s hand come to rest on her knife. “We can’t fight them,” he said. “But we can put the river between us and them. How far to the nearest crossing?”
Kora’s eyes darted nervously. “To the fords? We’ll never make it. But there used to be…I can’t guarantee it’s still up.”
“What? A bridge?”
She wavered. “You could call it that.”
The wolves howled again, close enough to send a shiver down Daniel’s spine.
“Let’s not stand around and get eaten,” said Ram, “Lead the way, ranger.”
* * *
Raindrops began to pelt her skin like tiny, cold bullets, but Tess didn’t pay much attention the worsening weather. She stood, hidden, between two of the cars of the train, and her gaze was locked on the western ridges across the valleys. The night watchman had spotted movement in the hills, and she feared the worst.
One of her men sidled up to her and confirmed her suspicions. “It’s them.”
She never took her gaze off the mountain. “Thank you.” He took off, following the train, to relay the message to the other Preceptors, and she trained a pair of binoculars on the ridge. Sure enough, the tail end of a line of guerilla fighters was just disappearing into the trees. They were definitely on the move. But what were they up to? Her men had joined with those under First Preceptor Maravek to form a defensive perimeter, using the train as cover. It would be a strategic place to make a stand against the Akorites, should they be planning an attack. And now, it seemed that they were.
Tess lowered her binoculars and observed the Preceptors positioned on either side of her. The line stretched down the length of the train, from the engine to the last storage car. They were all still. They were all tense, waiting for something to happen.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and the rain intensified from a scattering of heavy drops to a steady shower. Tess sighed, resigning herself to a long night of standing still and being wet and cold.
The sound of boots splashing in mud broke through the downpour. Preceptor Maravek and one of his third rankers approached her from the direction of the engine. “Great weather for a stand-off, isn’t it?”
Tess couldn’t think of an answer that would humor him, so she remained silent. Maravek stepped past the edge of the train car they were sheltered behind to get a better look at the valley on the other side. The third ranker stayed dutifully close to him.
“I would advise more caution, sir,” said Tess. “We haven’t determined the nature of their movements yet. They could be up to something.”
Maravek dismissed her warning with a casual wave of his hand. “Don’t be such a damper, Kerrigan. Get it—damp?” He shook water droplets out of his thick hair, grinning. “There isn’t a man in the Akorites that could hit a neon cow under these conditions.” He stuck out his hand. “Hand me those binoculars.”
Tess shook her head in wonder when he turned his back. How did this man ever become a First Preceptor? There must be some quality in him that she just hadn’t had the time to see, but he clearly lacked the professional demeanor that should characterize a first ranker.
A sharp crack echoed from the western ridge. A whining buzz. The Third Preceptor’s head snapped back, and he toppled into the mud, a gaping bullet hole in his forehead.
Tess instinctively snapped back against the metal sides of the train, and Maravek did the same on the opposite side of the gap where the cars linked, swearing at the top of his lungs. The other Preceptors looked on, wordless.
Tess boiled with anger. She wanted nothing more than to call Maravek out for the fool that he was, but she barely managed to keep her tongue in check. She snatched her rifle from around her shoulders and crammed rounds into the chamber as quickly as her dripping fingers allowed her to. No follow-up shots came from the ridge. It was possible that the third ranker had been the Clan’s intended target, but she suspected otherwise, and right now, she wished they hadn’t missed.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a pair of Maravek’s underlings, a man and a woman, came to drag their dead comrade away. Their faces betrayed no emotion except for a hint of regret in the man’s eyes.
Thunder clapped above the mountains. By now, Tess was soaked to the bone. Water squelched in her boots every time she shifted her weight. “Aren’t you going to do something, sir?” She ventured to ask. “You just lost a man.”
“Not now, Kerrigan.” Maravek almost had to shout to be heard above the pouring rain. “Can’t you see we’re under attack?”
“You’re in charge here, and the men look to you for orders.”
Maravek glanced back up towards the ridges, and she followed suite. It was impossible to see if anything else was happening on the mountain slopes, and she imagined he wasn’t having much more luck with her binoculars.
Then she paused. The downpour and the dark were allies to her just as much as to the Akorites. If Maravek wasn’t going to take action, it was up to her to make a move before their sniper picked them off one by one. She could easily circle around the ridges overlooking the valley and pinpoint the Akorites’ location. Then they could mount a swift strike and end this whole ordeal.
While Maravek bellowed useless orders to his men, Tess slunk away from the train and disappeared into the night.
* * *
The rain overtook Daniel and the others like an army as they fled for the bridge that Kora knew of. The downpour drummed through the foliage of the trees above them, which only intensified the crash of the storm, and to their left, the waters of the Weeping crashed against the walls of the ravine. If nothing else, the combination drowned out the howling behind them, and the rain would make it nigh impossible for the Akorites to find them.
The path they followed was treacherous. In many places, the roots of the trees crawled over the chasm’s edge like gnarled fingers, and in the pitch black, it was hard not to trip or slip at nearly every step.
After one such occasion, when Daniel’s foot slid on a slick, mossy stone, nearly sending him over the brink, Ram was forced to risk using the flashlight.
Every now and then, Daniel would glance over his shoulder, and a few times, he thought he saw dark shapes bounding after them just within the trees, but nothing lunged out at him, and he discarded them as tricks of the mind.
Then they rounded a bend, and as the trees parted out again, the bridge came into view. At least, Daniel guessed it was the bridge—it wasn’t much more than a stout tree pushed over across the ravine with several yards overlapping the edge.
He stopped, and vertigo clenched his gut again as he stared at the questionable crossing.
Kora urged them on. "What are you waiting for?"
"She's kidding, right?" Ram said, his eyes wide. Kora spun around, frustration tugging the corner of her mouth down into a scowl. "You're kidding," he said to her this time.
"This is the only way, unless you want to outrun the wolves for another three miles."
Daniel and Ram lo
oked at each other. Daniel could imagine what he was thinking. Even without the driving rain and wind, the rudimentary bridge looked like an accident waiting to happen.
Howls erupted in the forest. This time, Daniel was sure he saw one of the brutes lingering in the rain no more than a stone’s throw away.
Daniel balled his fist tight. "She’s right. We can’t waste a second." He took a deep breath and heaved himself up among the dead roots of the fallen tree. “Stay low, and stay close together.”
Daniel inched forward on his hands and knees as the other two clambered up behind him. He wasn't even out over the ravine yet, and already he felt shaky. The rain battered his face, and the wind threatened to lift him right off the slippery surface. He locked a memory of Litty's smile in his mind, and focusing on that, tightened his jaw and crawled forward, one slow movement at a time.
The fallen tree was cold under his hands, and even more slippery than it had looked from the ground. The ridges of the bark dug into his hands and knees each time he put his weight down, but he knew that if he tried to stand, he wouldn't last a minute.
He spared a moment to glance over his shoulder. Kora was already up on the tree, and Ram was passing the backpack up to her before hoisting himself up. Daniel inched forward, not daring to look down at the rushing waters below.
Daniel was almost halfway across the ravine when Ram yelped in terror. He craned his neck, and his pulse quickened. A mountain wolf bound from the trees and clawed at the tangle of roots at the base of the tree, snapping its jaws at Ram’s feet.
Lightning split the sky in a momentary sheet of brightness, revealing four more wolves emerging from the forest.
Scrambling and twisting to avoid the snarling beast, Ram yanked the gun from his belt and fired off a few rounds. The gunshots did nothing to dissuade the wolves’ advance. Now the five of them were clawing at the tree, and it was only a matter of moments before they would be upon him.
"Get away from the edge!" Daniel’s voice was lost to the wind and the rain. Trying to control his own shaking hands, Daniel turned himself around and started back towards Kora and Ram.
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