Without warning, Aloof One spun around and faced back the way they’d come, ears pricking forward and then lying flat against her neck.

  Lynn stared wide-eyed down the path, but she couldn’t see anything. Uh oh, what’s that rattling noise?

  Some of the loose rocks they had recently traveled over were banging against each other as they rolled down the hill. A great many of them were banging and rolling, judging by the sound they made. Something big had disturbed them.

  With a growl that stiffened Lynn’s whole body, a behemoth- sized bear lurched around the bend in the path. When the bear saw them, it rose up on its hind legs and roared out its hatred. The bear’s head was as big as the rocks on either side of it. Its mottled blue fur resembled shadows under dense trees, and its red mouth revealed three rows of jagged teeth.

  The girl screamed in terror, and Aloof One screamed too, but in defiance.

  Lynn had never heard a Stalli Mountain horse scream in battle. For a second, the bear itself paused. That was all the time Aloof One needed. In a movement too fast to see, the mare whirled around and raced for the turn in front of them.

  Unfortunately, Lynn had not expected such a whirlwind move. Her hands had stiffened along with the rest of her. They still weakly clutched at Aloof One’s mane but couldn’t hold on. She screamed as her body slipped and hit the path with a thump that knocked the breath out of her.

  Aloof One was going too fast to stop all at once—and there wasn’t room on the narrow path to change directions without stopping. The bear stalked forward, sure of its prey.

  Lynn managed to push herself up to an awkward sitting position, facing the oncoming behemoth, her eyes opening so wide that white showed above and below her irises. She scrabbled a few inches backwards on her hands and feet, as if that would help.

  Suddenly a growl thundered behind the bear. With a snarl, it turned to face the menacing thunder, but it turned too slowly.

  A bright yellow body threw itself at the bear’s head and actually knocked it to the ground. It didn’t stay there long, but Lynn had time to scramble to her feet.

  “Boulder!” she gasped out.

  Aloof One had reached Lynn’s side by then. Mare and girl watched with held breath. The dog was big by dog standards but no match for the monster bear. With one paw, the bear knocked Boulder off.

  The movement took its attention off the mare though, and that was a mistake.

  With another whirlwind twirl, Aloof One advanced, aiming a kick right at the bear’s face. Her hooves tore the bear on its jaw, and it snarled, lashing out at her with dagger-tipped claws.

  Lynn screamed as she saw her friend’s gray side raked into bloody stripes.

  However, this time the bear had forgotten Boulder. In his prime, the dog had fought bears as large as this one, and he knew what to do. Rushing in as the bear struck Aloof One, Boulder jumped again for its head. This time he got to the part he’d aimed at before and missed, the bear’s eyes. With one slashing bite, Boulder blinded the bear, and it staggered further along the path, but that didn’t stop python-strong arms from closing around the yellow body of its enemy. For a full minute, they balanced on the edge of the precipice, the bear crushing Boulder’s breath out of him.

  Then a tiny, orange-red flame darted towards them.

  Whistle hadn’t been able to keep up with his friend at the end of their long trip up the path. When they heard screams and snarls up ahead, Boulder had taken off like an oversized arrow and left the little dog behind—but Whistle had caught up now.

  With all the ferocity his small body could muster, he flung himself at the monster who was suffocating his friend.

  The little dog made the difference. With a final snarl of hatred from the bear, all three of them fell backwards over the precipice and down, down to the trees below them. Lynn heard the splintering of tree branches breaking. Then there was a deathly quiet.

  She dragged herself to the edge of the precipice and peered over, although she was fighting tears too hard to see anything. For several long minutes she crouched on the path, refusing to let herself cry.

  Lynn does not cry. Lynn does not cry. The words ran over and over through her mind. What good would crying do? she asked herself fiercely.

  When she felt more in control, Lynn peered down again. Below her, the trees waved in the breezes, their myriad blue leaves and dark gold trunks as beautiful as ever. She despised them.

  “Those leaves should fall off in homage,” she said, slowly pulling herself back from the precipice’s edge. “Shouldn’t they, Aloof One?”

  Aloof One!

  Lynn leaped up, remembering the mare’s wounds and scanned the path frantically for her friend. Aloof One stood near the side of the cliff as if she needed its support. Her head had lowered and she breathed raggedly in and out.

  On one side of her body stretched five long cuts where the bear had raked her with its claws. The cuts weren’t bleeding much, but orange ooze clung to each red stripe in small balls, like a line of hungry leeches.

  Lynn ran to her, stumbling a little in her haste. “What should I do?”

  The mare lifted her head with an effort, but Lynn saw at a glance that Aloof One could not take charge.

  Help her, Keshua! Help her! You’re the Healer, Lynn prayed jerkily. She didn’t know how to pray. She was too new at this.

  Then she felt the Plete’s presence inside of her again; only this time he calmed her down and gave her an idea. Lynn stroked and kissed the gray mare’s head.

  She said with forced cheerfulness, “Let’s walk up the path, Aloof One. The movement will make you bleed more, and the bleeding might wash away the orange ooze. I’m sure it’s poisonous. We need to get it out of your wounds; then you’ll feel better.”

  Taking hold of Aloof One’s head, Lynn pulled her up the path, coaxing her to take each step. As the mare climbed, her wounds did open up, and an ugly mixture of blood and orange goo ran down her side. She went slowly but was able to keep going.

  They climbed for thirty minutes without incident. When Lynn smelled something sweet ahead, her eyes narrowed, and the ends of her mouth curved downwards into a perfect semicircle. At this point, she was suspicious of everything they met on that path.

  Aloof One, however, lifted her nose, sniffed deeply, and started up the path with a fervor that bumped Lynn along in front of her. They rounded yet another curve and found in front of them a pocket- sized ravine that opened into the cliff. Bushes filled the small ravine, and berries filled the bushes—big orange berries that smelled sweet.

  Lynn’s mouth lowered into its semicircle again. She didn’t trust those berries. They were orange like the poisonous ooze-balls on Aloof One’s wounds. Gefcla had probably planted them. The young woman hesitated on the path, but Aloof One knew no hesitation. She rushed right past Lynn, knocking her to one side, and charged at the berries.

  “Aloof One, be careful,” Lynn warned in a high-pitched voice, but the mare paid no attention.

  She bit off an orange berry, chewed it once or twice, and then gulped the whole thing down. Immediately, she bit off another one. Lynn watched breathlessly as Aloof One ate a dozen berries. Nothing happened to her.

  Maybe it’s slow-acting poison, Lynn warned herself, but her fears were subsiding. Wasn’t there something familiar about that smell? In another minute, Lynn laughed out loud. Of course, it was familiar. It smelled like mallowberry juice: good, wholesome mallowberry juice. Then these must be—mallowberries!

  Lynn moved off the path into the middle of the bushes and picked an orange berry. Without giving herself time to think, she popped the whole thing into her mouth and bit. A burst of flavor rewarded her, and she swallowed the juice frantically, sucking at the skin of the berry until it was empty. She spat it unceremoniously out of her mouth and picked another one.

  A small bush full of berries later, Lynn quit.

  Aloof One was still gulping them down, when the girl moved over to her and inspected her side. The flow of blood had washed away most of the poison, but a few orange balls clung obstinately to the wounds.

  Lynn had an idea, but she wanted to check it out with Aloof One before acting on it.

  “Aloof One?”

  The mare did not respond to the questioning voice. “Aloof One!”

  The mare did not respond to the emphatic voice.

  “Aloof One!!!”

  Aloof One reached for another berry. She didn’t even flick an ear in Lynn’s direction.

  “Okay now, you listen to me, you greedy mare,” Lynn scolded, as the mare went right on chewing her berry as if nobody had spoken. “Is it all right if I squirt mallowberry juice on your cuts?”

  Aloof One grunted and swallowed, reaching for another berry right away. Lynn took the grunt for a “yes” and picked the biggest berry she could find. She held it above one of the cuts and squeezed hard. Nothing happened.

  “These berries have tough skins,” she muttered as she brought the fruit to her mouth and bit a hole in it with her front teeth.

  Holding it again above the cut, she squeezed. This time, juice from the mallowberry ran over the wound, washing away a ball of orange ooze. Aloof One winced slightly, but she didn’t object, so Lynn kept on picking berries, biting holes in them, and squirting the long cuts.

  When Aloof One had finally quenched her thirst, she turned her head toward Lynn and gave a long sigh. The mare’s eyes were bright again, and Lynn had to blink several times.

  Lynn does not cry, she said automatically to herself. She’d had time to think while cleaning Aloof One’s cuts. “We have to keep going,” she pointed out, grimacing.

  The gray mare snorted and nudged Lynn toward her back.

  ‘I’m sorry that I’ll have to ride, when my leg is bound to hurt your side,” Lynn said apologetically.

  Aloof One gave one of her old impatient nudges, and Lynn cheered up.

  “Well, if you feel that way,” she said and climbed on a convenient rock.

  From the rock, she maneuvered herself onto Aloof One’s back without bothering the cuts any more than necessary. If she sat up towards the neck, her leg only touched the longest of the cuts.

  “Off we go,” Lynn announced loudly, tossing her head.

  “And may the Healer go with us!” she added impulsively, and then flushed pink and cleared her throat. Had she really said that? Aloof One whinnied in agreement, however, and Lynn slowly nodded.

  Eleven

  Shagger’s Rock

  The bowed heads inside the tent were concentrating too hard to hear the commotion going on outside in the Stalli campground.

  “Protect Lynn from the dangers Gefcla throws at her,” begged Erchat. “Give her the stamina to continue and keep her from discouragement.”

  “Thank you for Aloof One’s wisdom. She befriended Lynn months ago when the girl first arrived. Strengthen the mare’s long legs and protect her also from evil,” prayed Dressle.

  Pumache spoke up next. “Great One, please show them the way to Shagger’s rock, so Lynn can obey the order in your rhyme and deliver Tarth from Gefcla’s evil plans. Guide Chell too,” she was continuing, but at that point, a face poked itself around the door flap and announced, “It’s time to go!”

  Stiffly, the old people rose to their feet, helping each other and smiling at the creaks their knees made.

  “We’re interrupted as a group, but we must not stop our individual petitions,” Erchat said, grasping the arms of the people nearest him.

  “We won’t,” they assured him.

  “Gefcla is a formidable enemy,” he reminded them, making eye contact with each person. His white eyebrows had lowered and his hands were shaking with the intensity of his words.

  “He will attack Lynn in every way possible. I’m sure Keshua wants us to join with her in this labor. Pray for her physically, emotionally, and mentally.”

  They nodded, accepting the responsibility of supportive prayer.

  Mugger couldn’t resist having the last word. These people talked too formally for his taste.

  “Just pray the girl gets there, drops the rocks, and gets back—safely!”

  He sounded so querulous that they all smiled.

  “Do they want us to fold up the tent with them in it?” a voice asked.

  As quickly as their old limbs could take them, they scurried outside.

  The Stallis were on the move!

  R

  Aloof One’s wounds didn’t bleed anymore, even with the movements involved in climbing up the path. The juice from the mallowberries must have made the blood clot.

  I’ll ask Bunnistik if mallowberry juice has that effect—if I ever see her again.

  Lynn clenched her teeth. When would this journey end? The sun had already dipped low enough in the sky to weaken the brilliance of its rays. Yet still they circled on and on around the rocky cliff. Lynn hated this path. The Muntas should have made it shorter.

  I sat in the grass too long. If we’d left earlier, the bear wouldn’t have caught up with us. He came from that last forest, of course, the one with the spooky trees that grew too close together. My neck prickled when we left that place. I should’ve kept better watch.

  Lynn didn’t realize how long she’d been frowning until her face got sore. She tried to relax her facial muscles but couldn’t. All her past mistakes kept listing themselves in her mind, and the more she thought about them, the worse they grew.

  Lynn does not scream—HA! Scratch that Lynn statement! I screamed hard enough when the bear attacked us. That’s the only thing I did the whole time—I screamed. If I’d held onto Aloof One’s mane, I wouldn’t have fallen, and she could have taken us out of there. Then the bear wouldn’t have clawed her, and the dogs—but Lynn couldn’t continue.

  The memory of those funny, bumbling dogs who had followed her all that way only to plunge without hesitation to their deaths choked her up. Why hadn’t the Great One taken better care of them? She frowned heavily.

  You saved Aloof One and me from the bear, Great One. You gave us the mallowberries, and we’re all right, but couldn’t you have saved Boulder and Whistle too? Aren’t you great enough?

  This was all wrong.

  Lynn knew it, but she couldn’t break out of it. Her spirits felt as dark and heavy as that large dark-green cloud, groping its way across the sky toward them. They’d climbed high up Munta Hill and had no place to hide from a storm even if they could spare the time.

  She’d never seen it rain in Tarth. Maybe ominous, evil- looking thunderclouds were quite normal here.

  A stab of lightning in the approaching cloud made Lynn jump. Aloof One nuzzled the girl’s leg, but Lynn noticed that the mare picked up her pace. When thunder broke the stillness scarcely five seconds after the lightning, Aloof One’s ears flattened.

  We’re going to die! Gefcla’s sent this storm to kill us, and we can’t get away from it. In another minute, we’re going to.....

  “Stop panicking! Stop it right now!”

  She heard the ringing words and went limp with relief. Her brows lifted and her teeth unclenched. Someone had needed to say it. Certainly, having words jump out of her mouth as if on their own was a bit surprising, but Lynn didn’t waste time wondering about the experience. She nodded in agreement.

  ‘Lynn does not panic,” she announced belatedly. Aloof One’s ears had perked up.

  “I thought the mallowberries were bad too, and they were a life-saver,” Lynn told Aloof One’s ears.

  No, she would not add those mallowberries to her list of past mistakes! She’d start a new list instead—a list of good things the Great One had done for them.

  Okay, this storm might somehow, you know, turn out....

  Another lightning knife cut the sky with thunder roaring immediate approval.

  Lynn forgot about not panicking. “Great One,” she said out loud and didn’t even flush over the obvious prayer. “Lightning’s coming our way, and we need you to protect us. You too, Keshua. And, uh, Plete.”

  After praying, Lynn felt a little better. Aloof One must have felt better too. Her ears stayed up. In fact, they bent forward, as if something on the continuously curving path had caught the mare’s attention.

  “I can’t believe it—there’s shelter! Hurry, Aloof One,” yelled Lynn, the words tumbling over themselves in her excitement.

  In front of them towered two enormous rock slabs. The slabs were leaning against each other directly over the path, forming a natural tunnel wide enough for a horse and rider. Normally, Lynn didn’t care for small, closed-in spaces, but at that moment, she would have squeezed into something much smaller for the sake of a roof over their heads.

  Big raindrops began to fall. Despite her haste to get out from under the threatening cloud, Lynn lifted both eyebrows. Green rain! She’d think about that later. At the moment, she wanted to get inside the tunnel. Lightning had started attacking the hillside directly below them.

  “Aloof One, go on!” Lynn shouted, shoving on the mare’s neck.

  The mare was moving forward in inches, hesitating after every step. At Lynn’s shout, she walked a little faster, but her head pushed forward and her nostrils flared. She snorted shakily.

  A flash of lightning stabbed so close Lynn could feel its heat before Aloof One stepped under the rock slabs and into the tunnel. Immediately she stopped and trembled all over. Lynn’s jaw stiffened. The whites of her eyes showed. She didn’t have to wonder what had alarmed the mare—she could see for herself.

  On the other side of the tunnel, the path wound its way through low gray rocks which had wide, flat surfaces. In clearer weather, the rocks must have made excellent places to bask in the sun for the hill cats standing on top of them.

  The cats were as big as Boulder, maybe bigger. Their thick gray hair blended perfectly with the gray rocks. Thin purple stripes spread across their heads, over their backs, and down their legs. They did not appear to be happy cats, standing out in the rain, and they did appear to be all too well aware of the mare and young woman intruding in their domain.

  Lips stretched back, exposing curved teeth. One of the closer cats hissed at them. Lynn could hear it through the rain. Long claws extended and big muscles flexed. A tail floated down over the end of the tunnel a few feet in front of them, making Aloof One jump. The cats were everywhere.