“I remembered stuff I had forgotten even happened!” he exclaimed in a rush. “Swimming in the stream—”
“The way the water cooled our fur and the sun on the bank,” said Simmi.
Tao stared at her in wonder. “We had the same memory!”
I hardly took in their words, my mind running over Pirie’s memory. Métis hadn’t understood how the Narral had learned of Pirie’s gifts. Greatma had warned him not to play with foxcraft.
“Oh, Pirie …” I sighed. “Why didn’t you listen to her?”
He never meant to hurt anyone. He had no idea. How can a cub understand the brutalities of this world? He longed only for adventure.
Métis … His voice in my thoughts rising over the words of the other Elders.
Do not blame Pirie. He did not create the Taken. None of this is his fault.
My muzzle sank. “I don’t know what to do,” I whispered.
Do not tarry—it is what Keeveny wants. Even now, his army of pleached foxes closes in. Can’t you sense them? Very soon, it will be too late.
My head snapped up, my ears twisting forward and back, forward and back. Métis was right! The Taken were running toward us. I felt the thump of pawsteps up ahead, and others behind us.
“We need to go. Where’s Siffrin?”
“Here!” he replied. He moved quickly through the yellow dust, but his eyes were pained.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
My tail-tip twitched. He looked haunted. “What did you see back there?”
“Nothing,” he repeated. “I reached for my memories, for something of my ma, of my brothers and sisters. There was darkness.”
I wanted to comfort him, but there wasn’t time. “The Taken are close.”
“The weeping tree is up ahead,” said Haiki. “It isn’t far now.”
There are Taken up ahead.
I could sense them, their acrid fur. I could almost see their dead eyes upon me. But what could we do? The Taken were coming from all directions, swarming over the Deep Forest.
“We have to get to the blood-bark tree before they do!” The Elders’ maa was rippling through me. I could run faster than the Taken, but what about the others? I remembered how I’d slimmered over Farraclaw. Thinking of him brought back the hunt.
A single beast, a single heart …
“Stay close to me!” I urged. Simmi and Tao stood alongside me, with Haiki ahead and Siffrin just behind. I unfurled my maa like a silver pall, letting it wrap them in its power. Our paws slammed over the broken twigs, our legs pounced over the yellow mushrooms. While the gloaming hummed beneath the soil, the Mage’s dust hissed through the Darklands.
Five sets of forepaws, five floating tails. Five pairs of pointed ears.
Yet we were more.
We were the power of the pack, the breath of the Bishar. I knew them then, and they knew me. I’d felt the bond between Simmi and Tao. Sensed the self-doubt beneath Siffrin’s strong will. Touched the despair of Haiki’s fragile heart.
I didn’t need to ask the way. I could see it clearly through Haiki’s thoughts.
Betweeen grasping vines, under briars and ivy, over upturned roots and burrs, till the bowing trees split to reveal a giant trunk. We burst toward it so fast that we smacked against its weeping bark and tore apart, five foxes once more.
“How did you do that?” gasped Tao.
Simmi’s tail was thrashing.
“You found it!” gasped Siffrin in amazement.
Haiki yelped in delight.
But I could not rejoice. My ears heard further, my sight saw deeper. I threw out my senses in pashanda and caught an icy breeze as it cut through the Darklands. The Taken are close, it told me. The Taken are coming.
The Taken are here.
“Start digging.” My voice was a low growl. “Now!”
Simmi and Tao stared at me. Haiki’s tail fell. Only Siffrin snapped into action, throwing himself at the earth beneath the blood-bark tree. He started shoveling dirt with his paws.
“The Taken,” I yelped, joining Siffrin under the great tree. “We need to find the cache! So many foxes have been pleached. It must be a great mound of fur.”
This was enough to jerk Simmi and Tao from their confusion. They scrambled under the tree and started to dig. Haiki stood still, head cocked and ears flat.
“Don’t you want to help?” I snapped. “Still not sure which side you’re on?” I kicked up earth. I couldn’t see Haiki’s face but I guessed at the anguish that passed across it. I swiveled my head and our eyes met. “To free the Taken, we must unearth their buried fur. It will be under a mound of white hairs from the Narrals’ tail-tips.”
“Is that how he does it?” Haiki’s brown eyes glinted. “I’m on your side,” he added quietly.
I blinked and returned to the earth under the blood-bark tree.
Haiki started to dig.
Gekkers pierced the quiet of the forest. I jerked up my head. Between the black trunks there were silhouettes. Long tails and pointed ears.
I leaped to my paws. “Simmi, Tao, don’t stop! Remember there’ll be two lots of fur, with a much larger stash below. When you find them, whisper across them: ‘Run fast, be safe, live free.’ Be as quick as you can!” I refused to think about the scale of the pleach. Could this really work?
What would we do if it didn’t?
Simmi and Tao converged on the trench, digging furiously. They had lost their ma and fa to the Mage’s ghoulish army—I knew what this meant to them. My eyes darted around the dark forest. The yellow dust was thickening. It rose in the air, mingling with the mist.
The Taken were on the move. Like shadows they appeared between the trees. I had never seen so many, even at the Elder Rock. The contour of numerous pointed ears loomed out of the forest. They were legion, an army, and we were only five. The mist trembled and arched, drawing tighter and dispersing in sickening waves.
Beneath the muffling hiss of the Mage’s dust, I sensed the call of the gloaming. “Siffrin, help me hold them off.”
The red-furred fox leaped to my side. I heard the mumble of his voice.
“I am the fur that ruffles your back. I am the twist and shake of your tail. Let me appear in the shape of your body: no one can tell; others will fear; dare not come near.”
Siffrin sprang forward. In midair, he whirled around, a flurry of fur and violet light. He thumped down hard on the forest floor in the shape of a savage dog. His muscles bulged beneath taut flesh and a brindle coat. His muzzle was blunt, jowly and wet. With a snarl he revealed his enormous fangs.
The Taken cowered to a halt. A couple whined, their tails wrapping around their flanks.
“Dog!” barked one, stumbling backward. “A dog is here!”
Siffrin stormed toward them and they dispersed. Then their eyes started glowing. A moment later the Taken webbed together. Terror showed in their drooping tails and flattened ears.
“The Mage is controlling them,” I hissed beneath my breath. “He won’t let them run.” I had always suspected that the Mage was watching, but now, surrounded by pleached foxes, the realization gripped me. We were in his lands, like mice scampering through a cat’s hunting grounds. He would never let us escape.
Four of the Taken sprang at Siffrin. I threw back my head and karakked, showering them with the shrieks of coyotes. The terrified Taken reared, smacking into one another, as Siffrin slimmered. He reappeared beneath a tree, still in the form of the brindle dog.
But the Taken were coming in ever-increasing numbers. Tens of red-eyed foxes strode shoulder-to-shoulder. I wheeled around to see others nearing the blood-bark tree, dangerously close to where Simmi and Tao were wildly digging up fur. I hadn’t tried wa’akkir since I’d mimicked the great bird—since I’d plunged into the Raging River.
I tried to calm my racing heart. “I am the fur that ruffles your back. I am the twist and shake of your tail. Let me appear in the shape of your body: no one can tell;
others will fear; dare not come near.” To myself, I added, “I am Isla. I am changing. I am King Farraclaw Valiant-Jowl.” A bolt of maa shot through me so fast that I lost my footing and almost fell to the forest floor. My forepaws throbbed. I glanced down—they were enormous. White fur was dusted with flecks of gray. My body pulsed with power.
“Get away!” I growled, pouncing toward the pleached foxes.
They cringed from me, smacking into one another. But a moment later they stalked forward again, their red eyes trained on Simmi and Tao.
“There it is!” cried Haiki. He pressed between them, revealing a ball of white hairs. “Isla, what do we do?”
Hope shot through me. “Keep digging!” I barked. “You need to find the Takens’ fur!”
One of the pleached foxes reared on his haunches and dove at Haiki. Simmi was closer. She crashed into the fox’s shoulder, knocking him to the ground. Haiki turned back to the cache and resumed his furious digging. In a moment, Tao was at his side. I lost them under a storm of soil. Beyond it, I spotted Simmi again. Her lips moved in incantation as she started to slimmer. I could just make out the edge of her paw as she slammed it into one of the startled attackers. Confusion was breaking out among the Taken, but still they kept coming, more and more red-eyed foxes. On the other side of the blood-bark tree they were overwhelming Siffrin. I saw him wrestle and leap, shifting into different dogs, slimmering and karakking, but it was a losing battle. There were too many Taken.
A tawny fox turned and looked at me. Light quivered in his red-rimmed eyes. Longing tore through me unexpectedly. As though the voices of untold foxes had risen in fear and confusion and were scratching at my thoughts.
Help us!
Free us!
Bring us back!
Then I saw it—the giant ball of long white furs raised preciously in Haiki’s jaws. He set it down between his forepaws.
“The chant!” I yelped. “Say it over the fur, again and again.”
Tao’s voice was shaking. “Run fast, be safe, live free!” he yelped.
Haiki echoed his words, standing above the balls of fur. “Run fast, be safe, live free.”
Nothing happened.
I heard Siffrin cry out and my heart leaped. I could no longer see him over the heads of the Taken. They strode toward the blood-bark tree with gloomy purpose. The yellow dust rose in the forest. Ahead of me, I heard the snap of teeth. One of the Taken had dared step closer and was straining to land a bite on my leg. Others flanked her, baring their fangs. A wall of red-eyed foxes enclosed us.
I karakked again, raining down coyote shrieks. The Taken only paused a moment before starting forward again. They had closed in a ring around the blood-bark tree.
Don’t waste maa on wa’akkir! It was Métis’s voice.
The Elder was right. My disguise could not repel them. “I am King Farraclaw Valiant-Jowl. I am changing. I am Isla.” With a spasm, I was myself again, scrambling away from a fox’s swipe.
Simmi and Tao were chanting. “Run fast, be safe, live free!”
Silently, I repeated their words. Run fast, be safe, live free. The Elders’ voices joined my thoughts. Run fast, be safe, live free.
Pain shot through my flank. One of the Taken had pounced, snapping his jaws around my leg. Another threw her forepaws on my back. I twisted in time to see her yellow teeth as she bore down on my throat. My eyes clamped shut in terror as she tugged me up from the ground.
Abruptly, she dropped me, and I fell with a thud. Daring to open my eyes, I saw the vixen had rolled onto her side. The fox who had bitten me released my leg and staggered backward. Cautiously, I rose onto my paws. The Taken were everywhere, a mass of foxes, but the redness in their eyes was fading. Some were shaking, collapsing to the forest floor. Others stood still, their ears pricked in shock.
Haiki ran to me. “Isla, are you all right?” Behind him, Tao was gaping. Simmi flickered back from her slimmer.
“They’re changing,” I said slowly.
I looked to the bundle of fur beneath the blood-bark tree.
It had gone.
Something was happening to the tree. Its bark trembled, cracking into deep grooves that etched a familiar shape—the mark of the broken rose—the same mark that the Taken bore on their forelegs. The tree’s red sap channeled down the furrows of the rose’s petals. The bark shifted, swallowing all traces of the mark. The last trickle of red sap dried along its trunk and vanished.
“They’re free,” I said in wonder.
Dozens of foxes blinked into the dark forest, glancing at their paws and staring at each other in shock. A vixen squinted at the male beside her. “Aril? Aril, is that you?”
He blinked back at her. “Do you know, I think that is my name.” He shook his fur. “I lost myself …” He lapped his muzzle. “Nirap?” The two foxes touched noses. Tentative tails began to wag.
Our army of attackers had been transformed into a mass of confused foxes. Some ambled between the trees in shock. Others were drawing in great gulps of breath.
A brown-and-white vixen was looking about, her head tilted curiously. “What is this place?”
“It’s the Darklands,” I told her. “The Deep Forest. The Mage kept you prisoner, forcing you to be his slave. He stole your will, but you’re free now. You can go home.”
“I can go home,” she murmured in wonder. Her eyes strayed to the mark of the rose, still darkly etched against her foreleg—a permanent reminder of all she had been through.
“We can go home!” yelped another of the Taken.
Excitement fluttered through the freed foxes.
They started to disperse, hurrying between the trees. I watched them, hoping they would make it—that enough of them still had skulks to return to. That somehow they’d piece together the fragments of the lives they had once known.
“Ma!” gasped Simmi. She pushed past me, making for one of the Taken. I recognized a vixen with a pointed snout and a slim red tail. As Simmi and Tao butted and nipped her affectionately, Karo seemed to melt back to herself, like a thawing stream. “My cubs,” she gasped. “I thought I’d never see you again.” “Karo?” Flint staggered toward them. The four foxes pressed into a huddle, overwhelmed to be together again.
I tugged my gaze away. It wasn’t my moment to share.
I thought of Pirie. With the Taken freed, it was time to enter the Mage’s Lair. I could feel the gloaming tugging at my paws, struggling against the muffling yellow dust. “Siffrin?” I called.
He was limping toward me, lame in one back paw. I noticed spots of blood.
“You’re hurt!”
He glanced behind him. The yellow dust was clotting in mustard knots. The white mist was uncoiling, spreading into long sheaths like claws. A hint of gray touched the sky. “It’s almost dusk.”
I dipped my head quickly in understanding. “Do you need maa-sharm?”
Siffrin lowered his gaze. “I’m all right,” he said stiffly.
Haiki was standing behind me. He had watched in hushed amazement as the Taken returned to their senses. “I didn’t know this could happen,” he mumbled, breaking his silence. “I didn’t know they could come back.”
“I came back,” said Siffrin quietly, his gaze dropping to the old scar on his foreleg.
“Do we need to go that way, through the trees?” I asked. “Toward the rising mist?”
“Yes,” replied Haiki. “If you’re sure you want to go to the lair.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “They say the Mage is invincible. He—” The words died on Haiki’s tongue. At the same moment, I caught the scents of other foxes. Almost a dozen.
Koch appeared from the yellow fog, surrounded by the rest of the Narral.
The freed foxes who were still by the blood-bark tree fell back in terror. Several fled, others started keening and trembling.
Koch glanced at Siffrin, who stood at a distance. Then he ran his small eyes over me and Haiki. “How dare you free the Master’s army? You had no right.” The Narral behind
him shape-shifted into coyotes. More foxes shrieked in terror and ran. Only Koch retained his shape, his blunt snout sniffing the air, his greasy auburn fur slicked back. Somehow, it made him even more sinister—a fox leading a pack of coyotes.
Fear hammered at my chest. They topped us in number. They beat us in foxcraft. They would see through any art I tried; they would outstep any move I made. Even with the Elders’ maa, I knew I couldn’t win.
Koch shot forward. My mouth flew open but no words would come.
Pirie! I thought in despair.
But it was Haiki who sprang into Koch’s path. “You murdered my family!” he cried. “I won’t let you hurt Isla!”
Koch’s eyes flashed green. “Oh, won’t you?”
Haiki was quaking, his small ears pressed back. Still, he stood his ground. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
Koch pounced without warning, seizing upon Haiki. He threw him roughly to the earth. Yellow dust encircled them. A flurry of gray forepaws. A shower of dirt. The cracking of bones.
The Narral fox stepped back. Blood clung to his maw. It happened so fast, in the blink of an eye. “That was always the plan,” he spat.
Beneath the choking yellow dust, Haiki slumped on his side. The fizzle of escaping maa, a sharp tang in the air, and he was gone.
With a yowl I sprang into the air. “I am the fur that ruffles your back. I am the twist and shake of your tail …” As I thumped against Koch, my outstretched paws were the black dog’s. We rolled on the ground in the dust. Koch snapped his teeth near my ears. “Foolish foxling, you can’t beat me!”
Maa thrummed through me. “Can’t I?” I slammed him hard against the earth, slimmered and jumped, springing down on his chest and gnashing his shoulder, tasting blood. He snarled in rage and threw me off. An instant later we were both on our paws, squaring up to each other.
I can do this. I can beat him.
My brush shot straight behind me. Siffrin was running to my side. From the tail of my eye I saw a Narral fox block his path, still in the shape of a coyote. They started sparring. Simmi and Tao confronted two other attackers, backed up by Flint and Karo and a few of the freed foxes.
The Mage Page 19
