Mari knew what she had to do. She wasn’t sure how she was going to do it, but she had to save Nik—and if that meant saving the Tribe and the City in the Trees, well then, she’d simply have to save them, too.
She sprinted past the straggling little group of Companions and through the weary Earth Walkers, finding Isabel in the lead with Rigel not far ahead of her. Mari’s pup barked a welcome, ran to her for a quick hug, then trotted back to his lead position as she dropped into pace beside Isabel.
“You’re doing really well, Isabel. Thank you for not being afraid of Rigel.”
Isabel smiled bravely at her. “I wouldn’t say I’m not afraid of him, but I am getting used to following along behind him.”
“You don’t have to be scared of him. I give you my word on that.” Mari lengthened her stride as much as she dared. “We need to pick up the pace. The smoke is making it hard to tell how late it is, but it feels like we’ve been walking for most of the day.”
“It feels to me like we’ve been walking for most of the year,” Isabel said drolly.
“I know what you mean. Isabel, I need to talk to you about what is going to happen once we get to the Gathering Site. I’m going to get the groups settled—then I’m going to leave you in charge while I run for Sora.” And after I tell Sora about what’s going on, and she’s on her way to help, then I’m going to save Nik, Mari promised herself.
Rigel gave a couple quick barks and trotted into what Mari realized with a happy start was a familiar grove of cherry trees.
“Finally—the Gathering Site,” Mari said, then she raised her voice for the rest of the group. “The site is just through this grove. You can rest there while I get—” Rigel’s welcoming bark made him seem more pup than ferocious adult as he rushed through the budding cherry trees. Mari lost sight of him, but she heard a surprised shriek, followed by a fit of semihysterical giggles. “What the…?” She jogged forward while the rest of the group hung back—to see that Sora had been knocked on her butt by Rigel, who was happily licking her face as she laughed and made an obviously halfhearted attempt to fend him off.
“Mari!” she sputtered, wiping Shepherd slobber from her face with one hand as she looped her other arm around the big pup’s neck, hugging him close. “Great Goddess, I’m glad to see you. I was so worried! I told Jenna and Danita to stay put, but I had to look for you. All this smoke, Mari! What’s happening back there with the Tribe and—”
Isabel materialized from the smoke behind them, causing Sora’s words to break off.
“Isabel? Is it really you?”
“It is!” The girl smiled. “And there are more of us here, too.” Isabel stepped aside so that Sora could see the ragged line of Clanswomen behind her.
Sora was on her feet in an instant, running to the Earth Walkers, calling many of them by name, touching them, comforting them. Mari studied her carefully, proud of her friend and apprentice and thinking that she definitely had the makings of an excellent Moon Woman. She’d brought a satchel and a big skin full of water and was already passing around the skin and pulling containers filled with salves from the depths of the satchel. Mari felt the terrible burning tension between her shoulders begin to relax.
Then the small group of Companions limped into the clearing, and everyone went very still.
Mari went to Sora’s side. “Sora, this is Nik’s cousin, O’Bryan.”
Sora studied the young man with an expression Mari couldn’t read. Then, slowly, she nodded her head. “Hello, O’Bryan. Nik has spoken well of you.”
“You, too, Sora,” O’Bryan said with a tentative smile.
“Really? He didn’t tell you I wanted to let him die?”
O’Bryan’s smile grew less tentative. “Oh, he did tell me that, but he also said you changed your mind.”
Sora snorted. “I didn’t change it. Nik changed it for me.” She looked from O’Bryan to the Companions behind him. “Who are your friends?”
Looking relieved, O’Bryan introduced the rest of the group. Then Sora turned to Mari with an assessing look. “So, Moon Woman, what are we going to do with them?”
“Not we—you. I’m hoping you brought some aloe gel for burns.”
Sora nodded. “I did. I also have Danita and Jenna gathering as much aloe as they can find, and refining it into gel and salves. I thought you might need it.”
“You were right,” Mari said. “It was a good idea to harvest more aloe.”
“Thanks.” She grinned at Mari. “What’s next?”
“Use some of that aloe gel for the Companions. Lydia and Rose are the most badly burned of them. But don’t spend too long on any one person right now. They need to get to safety first.”
“What’s your idea for that? There are, what, about twenty-five or so in this group, with a good half or more of them injured?”
As Sora spoke, Mari led her a little apart from the rest of the group so they could have a measure of privacy. Sora followed her, sharp eyes still assessing the ragged group of survivors as most of them dropped heavily to the ground to rest.
While the two of them moved away from the group, Sora began coughing—a wet, nasty, rattling sound. She turned her back to Mari, trying to stifle the coughs, but Mari saw her shoulders shaking with the effort it took.
“What?” Sora said, wiping her mouth and meeting Mari’s gaze.
“You’re sick,” Mari said softly. She reached toward Sora, intending to examine her, but the young Moon Woman stepped back, shaking her head.
“No, no, no. I’m fine.”
“You’re sick,” Mari repeated. “You look pale, even though your cheeks are flushed. Are you running a fever?”
“Mari!” Sora grabbed her wrist and marched farther away from the group with her. “I. Am. Fine. Or at least as fine as I can be after being attacked, bitten, and almost raped yesterday by Clansmen I grew up thinking were my friends, and maybe even more.”
“That shouldn’t have made you sick,” Mari insisted.
“Really? I disagree. And I looked it up in your mama’s journal. I think she’d disagree, too. My immune system has definitely been compromised. That’s why I feel awful. But right now I don’t have the luxury of curling up in our burrow and drinking tea for a week and making your creature bring me things.”
“You want Rigel to bring you things? Are you sure you aren’t delirious?”
Sora frowned at her. “You know he can do all sorts of crazy stuff. He practically reads your mind. So, if I’m sick, I figured he could certainly bring me things. I’m not sure what, but when this is all over and I get a chance to relax I’m definitely going to do as little as possible and get him to do as much as possible. You keep telling me how smart he is—I’m just agreeing with you. Finally.” Sora reached down and patted Rigel on the top of his head. He gave her a doggy grin and licked her hand, which made her grimace. “I just don’t understand why he has to be so slobbery.”
“He’s a Shepherd. Apparently they’re slobbery and sheddy,” Mari said, smiling down at Rigel. “All right. Fine. I’ll pretend like you’re okay if you heed Mama’s journal notes about what a Moon Woman should do when she’s ill.”
Sora sighed. “Already read the notes, and I’ll do what Leda directed. I’ll wash my hands. A lot. And if my cough gets worse I’ll tie a mask around my nose and mouth so that I don’t make anyone else sick.”
“And remember to care for yourself as well as you care for your patients.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, when I have time. So, back to our group of refugees. What are there, twenty-five or so of them?”
Mari nodded, deciding Sora was correct; they really didn’t have time for her to be on bed rest because of an inconveniently timed cold. “That’s a good count, yes. My idea is that you’re going to lead all of them to the birthing burrows. Make them comfortable. Treat their wounds. Feed them. Isabel will help—so will Jenna, if she can leave Danita,” Mari said. “Actually, it might help Danita to think about someone else’s needs for a while, so be sure you bring her to the burrow, too.”
Sora chewed her lip contemplatively, nodding slowly as she brushed her hair back from her damp forehead and stifled another cough. “It’s not a bad plan. At least the birthing burrow is big enough for everyone and with a little help from the Clanswomen we can repair the door and bar it against the night.” Then she frowned, as if understanding the rest of Mari’s words. “Wait, while I’m doing that, what’ll you be doing?”
“I’ll be saving Nik.”
* * *
Mari ran. She didn’t let herself think about Sora’s worry, the Clan’s fear, or the refugee Companions she’d left in the care of strangers and enemies. She thought of nothing except keeping up with Rigel and of Nik.
I’m not going to let him die. I’m not going to let him die. I’m not going to let him die. The litany played through her mind as she sprinted up inclines, scrambled over rocks, and dodged fallen logs. She paused only once at a stream, calling Rigel to her and coaxing him to roll in the water, soaking his thick, double-layered coat as she splashed water all over herself, thoroughly soaking her clothes, as well. Then she met her Companion’s wise gaze. “Rigel, find Nik!” She repeated the command she’d given him as they sprinted away from Earth Walker territory.
The Shepherd surged out of the stream, heading directly into the thickening smoke. Mari tore a soaked strip of wet cloth from the sleeve of her ragged tunic and tied it over her nose and mouth. Then she ran after her Shepherd and as she ran she sent images to Rigel of avoiding people—any and all people except for Nik.
She knew Rigel understood. She didn’t question him or hesitate as he led her, winding and twisting around trees and brush, sometimes coming to a sudden halt to avoid more and more of the walking wounded.
The closer she got to the burning City in the Trees, the more surreal the day became—if it could be called day. Smoke tainted everything, hiding the sun while it made tears fill her eyes and its acrid scent coated her nose and throat. She wondered if she’d ever get the taste of it from her hair, her skin, her mouth. And always, always there was the keening of the wind as it battered the forest, changing directions as if it couldn’t make up its mind, carrying with it the seductive sound of distant thunder that teased at rain.
It was easier than she’d expected to avoid the Tribe. Those who straggled past her in the smoky haze moved as if they had no energy to spare for anything except putting one staggering foot before another.
Mari felt for them. A large part of her, the part that belonged to her mother and her Clan, ached to be the Healer—to gather the injured together and begin tending to their terrible wounds. But she couldn’t. She had to keep going. She had to find Nik.
No one paid any attention to her. With her face hidden by the wet strip of cloth, Companion Shepherd beside her, they assumed she was a member of the Tribe as she ran into the heart of the City in the Trees and the ravenous forest fire.
Rigel led her to a wide, clear stream that they splashed into gratefully, stopping to gulp the cold water. This time Mari didn’t have to encourage the pup to soak himself. He waded straight in and lay down, lapping thirstily. Mari quickly washed her face, drenching her hair and clothing before retying the cloth around her nose and mouth. When she was ready Rigel got to his feet, though he didn’t leave the stream. Together they waded with the current taking them closer and closer to the center of the Tribe.
She heard and felt the blaze before she saw it. The sound was feral, almost alive, as it ate through the ancient pine forest and the City in the Trees, and as they got closer and closer to it the heat that radiated from the inferno was terrible. Sweat mixed with soot and water dripped down Mari’s body. She and Rigel came to a gentle curve in the stream; the young Shepherd stopped, backing suddenly against Mari, growling softly.
Automatically, Mari left the water. She moved slowly and carefully, inching her way forward as voices raised in anger drifted to her with the smoke like wrathful specters. Using the thick trunk of an enormous pine to hide them, she peered around it at the scene just yards before her. She wiped her sleeve across her eyes, clearing her vision, and Mari’s stomach tightened with a sickening twist.
Nik was there, on the far side of the fast-moving stream, standing with his back to a newly felled pine. Laru stood before him, fangs bared at the group surrounding them. Even above the ravenous sound of the not so distant fire and the shouts of men, she could hear the Shepherd’s deep warning growl as he faced a group of grim-faced Companions led by a maliciously grinning Thaddeus.
Mari scanned the crowd, trying to judge their intention. Thaddeus appeared swollen with rage. Companions who Mari knew must be Hunters because they each had a Terrier beside them were milling with obvious discomfort behind Thaddeus. Mari thought she recognized the Companion Nik had called Davis. She saw him and his little blond Terrier backing away from the group led by Thaddeus and disappearing into the smoke
There were other Tribe members present, men and women who had no canines with them but were working grimly to fell trees and clear foliage as they sent surreptitious glances at the crowd surrounding Nik.
“I said arrest this fucking traitor!” Thaddeus’s hate-filled voice carried easily over the water. “He and his Scratcher whore caused all of this!”
Thaddeus’s words were like a physical blow to Mari. She felt them hit her in the gut, but instead of being knocked to her knees, Mari embraced the anger and allowed it to begin to build within her.
It was the hatred of men like Thaddeus that had killed her father.
It was Thaddeus himself and the tunnel vision of his bigotry that had killed her mama and Nik’s father.
Mari wasn’t going to let that poison destroy Nik, too.
She had a momentary wish that she had her slingshot and a basket of rocks. She even searched the ground and found one flawless round stone that fit smoothly in the palm of her hand. Mari fisted her hand around it, even as she understood that something as mundane as a stone or a slingshot wouldn’t get Nik out of this mess. She needed power, and she needed it fast.
Mari looked down at Rigel. The young Shepherd met her gaze. She sent to him one intention, complete and perfect like an unfolding blossom—we save Nik.
And then Mari stepped from the concealing pine and began striding forward, with Rigel so close beside her that his powerful shoulder brushed her leg.
The other canines noticed Rigel before the Companions. Terriers sniffed the smoky air and turned their heads in the pup’s direction. Mari felt more than saw Thaddeus’s mean little Terrier shift his attention to them. His warning growl was surprisingly fierce for such a little dog.
“It’s her! The Scratcher whore!”
Nik’s head snapped to the side and Mari saw his eyes widen in disbelief as he caught sight of her.
The crowd behind Thaddeus shifted their attention to Mari. “Get her!” Thaddeus shouted the command. A couple of the Hunters started toward her.
Rigel’s response was instantaneous. He moved so that he was standing between the approaching men and Mari. His ears went up with his tail. The thick sable fur along his neck and back lifted as he bared his teeth, pressing even more closely against her. His growl came from deep in his strong, wide chest, echoing in perfect accord with Laru.
“It’s just a pup! Grab him and take her!” Thaddeus shouted, spittle raining from his lips.
Mari didn’t flinch. She didn’t so much as glance at Thaddeus. She sprinted to Nik. Rigel ran with her, his growl changing to snarling barks—the strength of which belied his youth. The Terriers that were standing between Mari and Nik scattered, ears down and tails between their legs submissively, and suddenly she was beside Nik! He opened his arms and she stepped into his embrace, allowing herself one small heartbeat of a moment to be secure in his strength and his affection.
“I told you she was his Scratcher whore,” Thaddeus said.
Mari positioned herself so that she was beside Nik. Laru and Rigel stood before them, teeth bared at the Hunters.
“I’m getting really tired of him calling me that,” Mari told Nik, as if they weren’t facing a group of angry men and women and their canines.
“Yeah, Thaddeus isn’t known for his social skills,” Nik said.
“Enough talk! Get the bitch and her traitor lover!” Thaddeus shouted.
“Stop!” A tall man with a large dark-coated Shepherd at his side ran into the clearing, followed by the young Hunter Davis and his blond Terrier, as well as several more tall Companions accompanied by adult Shepherds. They all looked singed and exhausted, covered in sweat and soot, coughing into wet rags they’d wrapped around their faces and necks. But the tall man’s voice was firm and filled with unshakable strength. “Thaddeus, you have no authority to order the arrest of Nikolas, or of this woman.”
“Wilkes, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Red-faced, Thaddeus shouted at the Warrior, “You were there, on the Channel, when this bitch let the Scratchers escape and set our world on fire!”
Wilkes’s voice was flinty and Mari was sure she saw disgust in his expression as he faced Thaddeus. “I was there, but things didn’t go down exactly as you’re saying. And there is still the matter of our Sun Priest’s death to deal with—and that death was by your hands, Thaddeus. This fire is the only reason you haven’t been arrested.”
Mari watched the expressions of the Tribesmen and women. They ranged from shock and grief to anger. Then Wilkes took a step toward them, as if he wanted to speak in private to Nik. Laru and Rigel’s response was instant and in sync. Side by side, the two mighty Shepherds alerted, snarling twin warnings.
Wilkes’s big, black Shepherd’s reaction was just as instantaneous and was mirrored by every canine in the clearing, Shepherds and Terriers alike. Their ears, tails, and heads all went down, and they refused to move forward, showing complete submission to Laru’s Alpha position in the Tribe.
“Nikolas, it appears Laru has chosen you as his Companion. Is this true?” Wilkes asked.
“It is,” Nik said. “Laru chose to live with me, instead of dying with my father.” Nik’s hand found his Companion’s head and he stroked the big Shepherd reverently. “That is something for which I will be grateful for the rest of my life, and maybe beyond.”
Laru’s tail wagged, but he didn’t take his intense amber gaze from the crowd.
Wilkes studied his Companion, and Mari could almost see the connection between them. Then the tall Warrior nodded, as much to himself as his Shepherd. “Our Companions have decided. They still acknowledge Laru as their Alpha and Leader. As is tradition for the Tribe, that choice is up to our Companions, and cannot be changed. I propose we work together to stop this fire and when the Tribe is safe again we can convene the Council and allow the people to decide how we move forward, what we do about our Sun Priest’s death, as well as what action, if any, should be taken against Nik and his Scratcher,” Wilkes said.
“Earth Walker.” Mari’s voice was strong and sure. “My people are called Earth Walkers. To call me a Scratcher is to insult me, and you should all know that I’m only half Earth Walker. My father was of your Tribe, a Companion named Galen.”
Mari saw surprise flicker over Wilkes’s face, and that surprise echoed throughout the surrounding group, especially in Tribesmen who were middle-aged or older.
“She can’t really be saying she’s one of us,” Thaddeus sneered.
“She doesn’t have to say it, and you don’t have to believe it,” Nik said. “The fact that a Shepherd has chosen her makes her one of us.”
“Nik has a point. It isn’t blood that makes a Companion. It’s heart and soul and the love of a canine,” Wilkes said.
“And Mari has all of those things.” Nik smiled proudly at her. Then his gaze moved through the crowd as his voice lifted so that everyone in the clearing would be sure to hear his next words. “She also has the ability to cure the blight.”
“Lies!” Thaddeus shouted.
“Truth!” Nik countered. “I had the blight. She cured me. O’Bryan had it, too, as all of you know, and now he is cured.”
“That’s just talk! No one has seen O’Bryan since the fire began,” Thaddeus said.
“I have.” Everyone’s attention shifted to the young man named Davis. He moved his feet nervously, a movement the little blond Terrier at his side mirrored. Then he continued. “I saw him helping Rose try to save Fala’s litter. He might not have made it because part of the fire cut him off from me, and from her, but I definitely saw him and he was definitely not sick anymore.”
“He made it,” Nik told Davis. “I saw him after that. He saved all of Fala’s pups and was getting them and Rose to safety.”
“Oh, well, obviously that makes all of this okay!” Thaddeus said.
Mari was done being silent. She shook her head with distaste. “Thaddeus, you’re the worst kind of hypocrite—a lying one. It’s because of you that my mother is dead. It’s because of what you and that old man did at the Channel that the Earth Walker women panicked and the fire started. It’s because of you that Nik’s father, your Sun Priest, is dead. And if we burn today it’s going to be because hatred is more important to you than life.” She looked at the other Companions, meeting their eyes. “Is hatred more important than life to all of you, too?”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that, you Scratcher whore!” Seeming unable to control himself, Thaddeus lurched forward, hands reaching as if for her throat.
With a ferocious snarl, Rigel flew at him, knocking the grown man to the ground, where he stood over him, growling a warning, bared teeth almost touching his neck, while Laru pinned Thaddeus’s mean little Terrier to the ground, forcing him to bare his neck and belly, too.
The other canines, Shepherds and Terriers, moved as one, backing away from Laru and Rigel, lowing their heads, and tucking their tails submissively.
“Nik, Mari, call your Shepherds to you,” Wilkes said. “Thaddeus, we need to focus on stopping this fire. Later there will be time for the Tribe to decide what is to be done about the other events of today—if the Tribe survives. Until then, you will keep your hands off Mari and Nik.”
Laru and Rigel padded back to their positions beside Nik and Mari, leaving Thaddeus and his Terrier to get slowly to their feet. Thunder boomed in the background and the wind shifted again, whipping suddenly from north to south, bringing with it sparks, smoke, and the ravenous roar of the approaching inferno.
“We’re out of time! We need sunfire to make a break in the forest fire, but without our Sun Priest—”
Wilkes had begun to quickly address the group, so everyone’s attention had shifted to him—everyone’s attention except for Mari’s. She was still watching Thaddeus, still considering how a single hate-filled man could have so drastically affected her life, when she saw his hand go to the small sheath at his waist. He glared at Rigel as he flicked it open and with practiced dexterity pulled the throwing dagger free.
Mari’s fear boiled from deep within her. “Not Rigel!” As she screamed at Thaddeus she let loose the anger that had been simmering within her since he’d first called her whore. A ball of fire burst from her outstretched hands, landing at Thaddeus’s feet and catching his pants, causing him to drop the dagger, which fell, blade down, burying itself into Odysseus’s flank. Both man and canine shrieked in pain. Thaddeus ran into the nearby stream while Odysseus screamed in agony and tried to grab the handle of the dagger with his teeth.
“Help him! Help Odysseus!” Thaddeus shouted from the stream. Two of his Hunters hurried forward, pulling the blade from the little Terrier’s flank and applying pressure to the bleeding wound.
Mari stared at the injured Terrier in horror—torn between the understanding that she probably wouldn’t be allowed to help the canine and her gut reaction, which was to help the canine. She must have taken an involuntary step forward, because Nik’s hand was suddenly clamped around her wrist.
“Thaddeus caused his Terrier’s injury. Not you. Stay strong, Mari. You just called down sunfire. You’ve proven Companion blood beats through your veins,” Nik whispered to her.
Every Tribesman and woman in the clearing stared at Mari. She pulled her eyes from the wounded canine, lifted her chin, and let her gaze take in the group.
“Do you still doubt that my father was one of you?”
Thaddeus staggered from the stream to Odysseus, roughly pushing aside the two Hunters who had been tending to the Terrier’s wound. He crouched beside the little canine, who was still whining pitifully, and skewered Mari with his hate-filled green eyes. “You fucking bitch! You’re going to pay for hurting Odysseus!”
Nik started to speak, but this time it was Mari’s hand on his that stilled him. “Do you ever take responsibility for your own actions?” she asked as she shook her head in disgust. “Everyone here saw what happened. You threatened my canine. I called down sunfire to stop you. You dropped the dagger you would have used to cut Rigel, hurting your Odysseus instead. It was your fault!”
“And it wouldn’t have happened had you not trespassed here. Just like the fire wouldn’t have happened—and Sol’s death wouldn’t have happened,” Thaddeus shot back.
“It’s simple,” Nik spoke up. He didn’t so much as glance at Thaddeus. Instead, he addressed the watching men and women. “Do you want to wallow in hatred with Thaddeus, and continue to reap what anger sows, or will you open yourselves to something more, something different, something better?”
Into the waiting silence came the disembodied voice of a stranger. “It’s even simpler that that. Do you want to attack the only person here who can call down sunfire and save us all?”
Mari’s eyes widened as a man burst from the wall of smoke. He jogged straight for the stream, splashing the cold, clean water over him. But Mari paid him less attention than she did the creature by his side.
“It’s a Lynx,” Nik said softly. “His Companion is a mercenary.”
Even surrounded by danger, Mari was filled with curiosity. The feline was big—easily bigger than a Terrier. Even filthy and singed, her coat looked thick and soft. Her paws were enormous and reminded Mari oddly of a gigantic rabbit. The Lynx’s ears were tipped with distinctive black, feather-like fur, and when she glanced Mari’s way she was taken aback by the way the feline’s yellow eyes shined.
“Antreas has a valid point,” Wilkes said.
The man looked up then, and Mari was surprised to see that his eyes were the exact color of the cat’s. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his tunic before saying, “And just in case my point didn’t strike home, you should know that right behind the fire, which is right behind Bast and me, is a swarm that is devouring everything the fire misses.”
“Swarm?” Wilkes called to the Lynx’s Companion. “A swarm is on the move during daylight?”
“Yes, if you can call this daylight.” Antreas made a gesture that took in the smoke-filled sky and the shrouded sun. “You have no more time. If you can stop this fire, do it now. If you can’t, you are welcome to follow Bast and me. We got cut off from the Channel when the wind kept shifting, but we’re going to make our way around Port City to the Willum River.”
There was a huge explosion behind Antreas. Mari noticed that before the man reacted he looked to the Lynx. He nodded and then surged from the stream. “Or you can stay here and bicker like dogs. It makes no difference to me.”
“Bicker like dogs?” Thaddeus shot the question at the Lynx man. “You insult us in the heart of our own Tribe?”
Antreas paused as he and his Lynx walked past Thaddeus and Odysseus. Several inches taller than the rather delicately boned Hunter, Antreas looked down his nose at Thaddeus. “I don’t see a Tribe anymore. I see a group of bickering children.”
“You fucking cat lover—” Thaddeus began, but lightning quick, the Lynx leaped between her Companion and the Hunter. She arched her back and her yellow eyes flashed dangerously as she hissed a warning.
Antreas smiled as Thaddeus stumbled back. “That’s right, Bast doesn’t live by your rules. She won’t knock you over in a show of dominance—she’ll eviscerate you. Keep coming, dog man, and make her day.”
“Thaddeus, stand down!” Wilkes commanded. Then he nodded to Antreas. “I won’t ask you to stay. This isn’t your Tribe and this fire isn’t your fight. I will ask, though, that you mark your trail to safety clearly, so that the Tribe may follow if need be.”
“I will,” Antreas said, nodding respectfully to Wilkes before he and his Lynx faded away into the forest.
“Our guest had a valid point,” Wilkes said. “Mari, will you help us?”
Mari’s answer was swift and clear. “Only if you’ll grant safe passage from Tribe territory to Rigel and me, as well as Nik and Laru and any other person or canine who wishes to leave with us when the fire is out.”
Wilkes’s startled glance found Nik. “You intend to leave? With the Alpha canine of the Tribe and the woman you say can cure the Blight?”
Nik answered with no hesitation, “I go with Mari.”
Mari saw the effect of Nik’s words on the Tribe. They seemed confused and not sure how to react. She felt for them—their city was burning, their friends and families were in danger, and now they were faced with her, a girl who was a stranger and an intruder, and their only chance at salvation.
Yes, she felt for them, but she wasn’t foolish. Mari raised her voice to a shout that carried over the whining of the wind and the noise of the fire as it ate its way ever closer. “I will call down sunfire and save you. I will give you my word that I will also return and tend to your wounded, sharing the healing arts of a Moon Woman with the Tribe, but only if your Council rules to never again enslave any Earth Walker.”
“Her word means nothing,” Thaddeus said as he tore the sleeve of his tunic and began to bandage Odysseus. “If you let her leave, the only way we’ll get her back here is to track her and then truss and bind her like a wild boar.”
Mari looked into Thaddeus’s hate-filled eyes and spoke to him alone. “If you don’t shut up I’m going to silence you for good.”
“You dare to threaten me, Scratcher bitch!”
Rigel took two steps toward Thaddeus, growling ferociously. Mari felt Rigel’s anger—she fed off it. She let it fill her so that her own lips lifted in a snarl. Then her Companion’s anger shifted within her so that she was filled with heat, a yellow burning that seemed to be above, around, and within her all at once.
Nik dropped her hand as if it had burned him, but his smile was encouraging. “That’s it! You’re doing it again. You’re calling sunfire!”
“Everyone, get back!” Wilkes shouted. “Get across Badger Creek!” As the Tribe scattered, Wilkes went to Mari and Nik. “It isn’t safe for you to call down sunfire so close, not as much sunfire as it will take to stop this blaze. Nik, let’s get her up there to the raised side of the bank.” He gestured up where the creek wound lazily around and up into the heart of the Tribe.
Nik nodded and the three of them, canines following, hurried to the top of the bank.
“Nik, now what?” she whispered to him.
He spoke quickly and quietly. “The power to call sunfire is in your blood—it’s your birthright, just like calling down the moon is also your birthright. Accept what’s already filling your body. Let it use you, Mari. And then release it.”
Mari’s stomach felt sick with nerves, but she nodded and turned to face the direction from which the fire was making its way through the forest, devouring everything in its path.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply once, twice, three times, grounding herself by focusing on her breath and not on the heat and smoke, fear and hatred, that surrounded her. Mari imagined the smoke clearing above her, and within her mind’s eye she envisioned a fat yellow sun beaming proudly from a perfect cerulean sky.
She could feel the heat and the power. It was definitely there. She lifted her arms, reaching up. Mari felt the golden filigree pattern that slept just under her skin awaken, filling her body with more of the unique yellow heat.
But it didn’t boil within her. It didn’t build and expand and ache to explode.
She opened her eyes and let her arms fall to her sides. “I can’t. It’s not working.”
“You can!” Nik said, taking her shoulders and turning her to face him. “I know you can. You did it before, at the creek, when your mother died.”
“I didn’t think then, Nik. It just happened—like a second ago when I threw it at Thaddeus. It starts heating inside me until it suddenly boils over, but I don’t know how to get it to start boiling.”
“How about like you call down the moon? It has to be almost the same thing,” Nik said.
“But it’s not! I know the moon, and she knows me. I’ve been calling her my entire life.”
“What’s happening?” Wilkes had stayed several paces off, allowing Nik and Mari some privacy, but now he approached, a concerned frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”
Nik began to speak, but Mari’s gentle touch on his arm silenced him. “I don’t know how to call down sunfire. Not really. I’ve only done it twice, and both times it just happened.”
“You mean the sunfire you threw at Thaddeus was an accident?”
Mari nodded.
“The other time was when her mother died,” Nik said. “I meant to ask Sol to train her, but…” His voice faded.
Wilkes closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them he met Mari’s gaze, saying, “Please forgive me.”
Mari was wondering what he meant as she watched Wilkes unwind the woven hemp belt from around his waist. Then, with a movement so fast his body blurred, he struck, slipping the belt that was now a noose around Rigel’s neck, jerking it with such force that it lifted the young Shepherd off his feet as Wilkes pulled him up and back, in a tight, perfect choke hold, while Rigel struggled and gagged.
“Get your hands off him!” Mari shrieked at Wilkes, rushing at him, hands raised in claws, snarling her rage.
And that was when Mari saw the knife pressed against Rigel’s neck. She and her Shepherd froze at the same time.
“No! Don’t hurt him! Please don’t hurt him!”
“If you don’t call down sunfire I’m going to slit his throat.”
Mari would never forget how unemotional Wilkes had sounded. She looked into the Companion’s eyes and believed he would do it—he would kill her Rigel.
Anger, fear, outrage, and despair all flooded Mari. She could feel the breath being squeezed from Rigel—could feel her Shepherd losing consciousness as the knife pressed against his neck. It had already pricked through his thick coat so that drops of scarlet spattered the ferns at Wilkes’s feet.
Mari’s breath deepened. She followed the magickal, mysterious link that connected her to Rigel, allowing herself to be filled with the young canine’s fear and anger and pain.
The heat within her began to build and Mari embraced it—the anger, the fear, the pain, and the power that radiated, first from her Shepherd and then from above and around her, until she felt engulfed by it. Then Mari lifted her hands and screamed, releasing the yellow heat that poured into her, flinging it over Wilkes’s head, over the creek, so that it rained liquid fire past the felled-tree line, pouring like lava from the volcano that was Mari’s anger.
The force of the molten fire was like nothing Mari had ever imagined. It was not the cold, silver strength of the moon. This power—this liquid heat—was magnificent and terrifying. It poured through her, growing in intensity, as Mari watched, helpless to stop it. She saw the edge of the forest fire then. It seemed to be drawn, mothlike, to the tide of blazing sunfire come to earth. As the two forces met, Mari could feel the forest fire. It was ravenous, insatiable, and it struggled to absorb her sunfire so that it could go on feeding.
“No!” Mari screamed. She knew she needed more of the sun—more power, more heat. She closed her eyes and opened herself to eddies of sunlight that managed to slip through the smoke, accepting them as they entered her body with an eagerness that was foreign to her. The heat that had been pouring through her palms increased, with an answering roar from the deadly inferno that met it.
“You’re doing it!” Nik’s mouth was close to her ear. His voice was filled with pride and excitement. “When I tell you to stop, you must stop. Sunfire can kill just as surely as the forest fire.” There was a short pause and then Nik shouted, “Stop now, Mari!”
Mari opened her eyes. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to stare into the center of the waterfall of flame that continued to pour from her palms. Her body had begun to tremble violently and her knees felt as if they would give out at any moment. She tried to close her hands. Tried to stop the torrent of fire, but she couldn’t. She’d found sunfire, and now she had no idea how to control it.
“I—I c-can’t. It w-won’t stop,” she gasped through chattering teeth.
Then Nik’s arms were around her. From behind his hands traced along the outside of her trembling arms until they found her wrists and then the backs of her hands. He placed his hands behind hers, gently covering the backs of them, nestling them against the coolness of his palms as he spoke softly into her ear.
“Look to your right, Mari.”
She tore her gaze from the maelstrom of fire across the creek to see that Wilkes had released Rigel. The young Shepherd was pressing himself against her right leg, staring up at her and whining imploringly.
“Rigel is safe,” Nik continued in his calm, soothing voice. “You are safe. Laru and I are safe. You don’t have to be angry or afraid, Mari. Breathe. Relax. Then release the sunfire up—return it to the sun where it belongs.”
Mari kept her gaze on Rigel, focusing on the love that he was sending her. She drew a deep, full breath and then released it, along with her anger and fear, imagining that it geysered up and into the sky, along with the molten sunfire.
As quickly as that the sunfire left Mari. She staggered and would have fallen had Nik’s strong arms not held her upright.
“You did it!” He held her tightly. “You did it! The fire is out!”
Mari wiped her face as she turned in his arms. It was then that she saw he was holding his hands oddly—stiffly and away from her. “Nik, what’s wrong with—” she began, but her words choked off as she took his hand in hers and saw that his palm, both of his palms, were burned and bloody. Her body began to tremble again. “I did this. I burned you!”
Nik used the back of his hand to stroke her wet cheek. “Mari, I’ll take burns on my hands any day if the alternative is to have a forest fire devour the Tribe.” He laughed. “You are amazing!”
“But you are burned! From touching me.” Mari felt dizzy and a little sick as she grasped the edge of Nik’s tunic and tore strips from it, using them as makeshift bandages for his hands.
Nik was grinning as if he’d just been awarded his heart’s desire. “Well, Moon Woman, it looks like you’re just going to have to fix me. Again.”
Before Mari could answer, the air began vibrating. She and Nik whirled around to look with horror at the blackened, smoking mess before them. In the distance the land rippled and quivered as within the ashes of the incinerated forest the swarm lifted, departing the dark, secret places from which they slept and descended upon the Tribe.