notice? He had returned with the pack so quickly that he could not possibly have packed it. It had to have been ready to go.
Tavi shook his head and almost bumped into Kitai, who had come to a sudden stop in front of him. He came to a halt, close enough to the other boy that he could feel the nearly feverish heat of the Marat's body.
"What is it?" he whispered.
Kitai shivered and moved his head almost imperceptibly.
Tavi looked to his left, moving only his eyes.
A Keeper squatted on a gnarled root that rose from the forest floor, draped in a mantle of glowing croach, not ten feet away. Tavi looked the other way, seeking the nearest means of moving away from the Keeper.
A second spider-like creature sat on a low, wax-shrouded branch, on level with Tavi's head. It let out a high-pitched chirrup, bobbing up and down on its knobby limbs.
The first Keeper answered it in a different pitch. It too began to bob in fluid, steady motions. Other chirrups sounded from around them, out of sight. Many of them. A great many.
Tavi shuddered. He hardly breathed as he whispered, "What do we do?"
"I..." Kitai shivered again, and Tavi saw that the other boy's eyes were wide, panicked. "I do not know."
Tavi's eyes flicked back to the nearest of the two Keepers. It shook its head, pale eyes peering this way and that, twitching in independent motion, a dark dot at their center the only thing that resembled a pupil. Then, as Tavi watched, something strange happened. The Keeper's eyes changed color, right there before his own: They changed from a pale shade of maggot-white to something as bright orange as a candle's flame.
In that instant, the Keeper went deathly still. Both eyes swung to orient on the boys, and it let out a piercingly loud whistle, something that sounded like a mad bird's scream.
Kitai's breath caught in his throat, and the boy leapt forward.
Tavi's eyes swept left and right, and he saw what the Keepers did very clearly. The further Keeper's eyes swirled to orange as well, and oriented immediately upon Kitai's form. It too let out a shrill shrieking scream, and, mirroring the first, started after the Marat boy with a deceptively languid, deadly grace.
In that moment, Tavi saw exactly how the Keepers had detected them, and how they might be able to thwart them. "Kitai!" he shouted, and then bounded after the other boy. "Wait!"
More shrill whistles went up all around them, as Tavi raced to catch up with Kitai. It was all but impossible. The Marat boy carried no pack and moved with the grace and speed of a terrified deer. Tavi could barely keep the Marat in sight as he ran-and all around him gathered the glowing orange eyes of the wax spiders, standing out in sharp contrast to the green glow of the croach.
If Kitai hadn't tripped on a sudden dip in the croach, perhaps where one of the wax spiders had recently raised itself up out of it, Tavi didn't think he'd have caught up to the other boy. Instead, he swooped down and hauled Kitai to his feet by the boy's wild hair.
"Ow!" Kitai hissed, eyes wild.
"Shut up!" Tavi said, his voice sharp. "Follow me."
Kitai blinked in startled surprise, and Tavi gave the boy no time to argue with him. He looked to his left and darted forward, tugging the other boy forward a few steps to get him moving, then sprinting as quickly as he could toward the rocky wall of the chasm. A Keeper suddenly appeared on the ground in front of them. Tavi stifled his fear and kept running at the creature.
The wax spider reared up onto its rear sets of legs as Tavi approached, but before he reached it, the boy began a spin, holding the heavy pack out in both arms. The pack almost pulled him off balance, but instead he took a pair of whirling steps and felt the weight of the pack slam hard into the creature. The Keeper was lighter than it looked. The blow threw it to one side and slammed it hard into the wax surrounding a tree. It crumpled into the impact, legs curling up around it.
Tavi ran on, and behind him, around them, the chirps of the Keepers grew louder, more shrill, filled with what Tavi imagined must have been a chill and alien anger.
They reached the stony cliff face, both of them panting. Tavi dropped