tree in a blaze, sudden and high, and once again, from the direction of the central spire, whistling shrieks rose up in a solid
wall of terrifying sound-one underlaid, this time, by that deeper whistle, one that overrode the shrieks and continued over the silence
Kitai stared at Tavi, her eyes suddenly wide "What is that?"
"I don't know," Tavi said "But, uh I think, uh I think I woke it up "
They looked at one another once more and, in silent accord, turned together and fled toward the ropes a few yards away, toward the safety at the top of the cliffs To either side of him, Tavi saw the Keepers flooding toward the fire through the trees, closing on them in a carpet of glowing eyes and knobby limbs and leathery shells
Tavi had reached the ropes and Kitai was only a few paces behind when something dropped down from one of the crouch shrouded trees above them, something tall and slender and horribly fast Whatever it was, it wasn't a Keeper, because it reached out with one long limb and wrapped hard-looking, chitmous fingers around Kitai's ankle, hauling her to the ground The girl let out a scream of sudden terror and twisted in that grip
Tavi only saw what happened in bits and pieces He remembered turning to see something that he thought was like some kind of hideous wasp, semitransparent wings fluttering in the glowing light of the crouch, It bent over Kitai, weirdly humped shoulders flexing as its head whipped down, as mandibles sunk into her thigh Kitai let out a horrible scream and struck down at the thing's head with her fists, once, twice Then her eyes rolled back in her head and her body started jerking and twisting in helpless spasm, limbs flailing She kept trying to scream, but the sound came out broken, irregular
The wasp-thing, covered in the glowing slime of the croach, lifted its head and let out a signal-whistle that echoed around the chasm like the tones of some vast bell It shook blood from its mandibles, and Tavi caught a flash of multifaceted eyes, of some kind of yellowish fluid at the edges of Kitai's wounds
"Valleyboy!" shouted a distant voice Tavi looked up to see Doroga, one hand on the rope, leaning far out over the cliff, and even from so far below, Tavi could see that his face was anguished "Aleran! You cannot save her! Come up!"
Tavi looked back and forth between Doroga and the Marat girl on the ground, the horrible thing crouched over her twitching body Terror rose through him, a horrible taste in his mouth, and he couldn't see, couldn't seem to focus his eyes One hand tightened on the rope in helpless frustration
Kitai had saved his life
She had trusted his plan to get them both out of the chasm alive
He was the only one who could help her
Tavi let go of the rope
He turned and ran, not toward the thing crouched over Kitai, but past it, around several glowing trees and to the one they had set on fire Keepers crowded in all around him He could hear them coming through the forest toward him, shrieks and whistles resounding
Tavi leapt up to the lowest branches of the tree, hauling himself into them and started scrambling toward the top, toward the fire Halfway there, he hauled himself up and found himself face-to-face with a Keeper, which reared back from him in surprise, its mandibles clacking against its shell
Tavi didn't have time to think His hand flashed to where he'd put Fade's wickedly curved knife at his belt He slashed it at the creature's eyes It scuttled back from him Tavi followed it, wriggling forward, thrusting the knife at the thing's face
The Keeper let out a shriek and fell backward, out of the tree, its limbs flailing It hit the ground twenty feet below with a crunch and a wet-sounding splat, and Tavi looked down to see it writhing on its back, legs flailing, its broken body trailing glowing fluids out onto the forest floor
Tavi heard more Keepers coming He hauled himself up higher into the tree, until he reached a branch bare of the crouch, slender and unable to support his weight Farther out along the branch hung the burning blanket Fire spread along it, toward the trunk of the tree
Tavi hacked at the branch with the knife, the steel biting into the soft wood Then he gripped the knife in his teeth and hauled at the branch with