Emberhawk - Jamie Foley

1

KIRALAU

Kira ran until her heart threatened to burst. She didn’t dare look back. She wouldn’t be able to see the trace cat anyway—it bent reality around itself in streaks of bleeding light. The beast’s footfalls thumped through the dying forest with a lion’s gait; it was probably an adult male.

And she was probably dead.

Kira plowed through a joyberry bush and ignored the stinging scratches across her shins. She cried a prayer that the noose of her big-game trap still lay in the same spot. And that it would actually work this time. The bait had never been so good.

She ducked under a gnarled oak branch and broke into the clearing, where the merciless sun beat down on starving grasses and decaying stumps. Energy surged through her, flinging her toward the young tree, pulled taut with her trap’s noose. As she leapt over the rope, she realized the sapling wouldn’t be strong enough to hold a trace cat of this size.

Water goddess, creator, elementals—whoever’s listening—help me! Kira grabbed for a throwing knife as she flew over the noose. But her leather sheath wasn’t in its place on her thigh.

Wood cracked and rope groaned. A high-pitched snarl pierced the forest, and Kira ran a stone’s throw before daring to turn on her heel.

The cat that writhed in mid-air was as large as her father’s prize bull. It shimmered in and out of existence like a firefly at dusk, with streaks radiating across its pale fur like a tiger that had lost its stripes. Fiery-orange eyes fixated on Kira with wild hunger.

Terror chilled her blood despite the midday heat. It was an adult male all right, and her trap wouldn’t hold the awkward grip on its shoulder any more than her mother’s nagging could keep her from Granny’s joyberry pie.

She turned and ran straight into umber skin and white cloth. Her brother pulled a lasso from his belt and glared at the trace cat with ice-blue eyes.

“Lee!” Kira stumbled back and nearly fell. “What are—”

“Back up!” Lee swung his rope, and Kira ducked, barely affording him enough room in the clearing to toss the rope. It circled around the trace cat’s neck and cinched tight. The beast floundered against it with a guttural growl.

Lee tossed the lasso’s slack over a tall branch. “Help me!”

Kira grabbed the rope and pulled just as her trap’s young tree snapped and splintered. The fibers burned against her palms as she yanked down and heard a strangled pop.

The forest quieted to nothing except her panting and the hesitant song of a distant bird.

She looked back at the beast. Its body lay still, pulled between her noose around its shoulder and Lee’s lasso around its neck. Light glistened along the length of its fur, which faded to a dull beige.

Lee dashed to the beast, drew his knife, and turned his back to Kira as he finished the job.

Kira’s fingers trembled but refused to let go of the rope. Whichever deity had heard her prayer clearly wanted her alive.

“Bleeding stars.” Lee wiped his blade on a rag as he straightened. “You ever seen one this big?”

“No.” Kira’s voice shriveled in her throat. “You might have saved my life.”

“Yeah, like that’s never happened before.” Lee winked over his shoulder, his bright eyes glinting in contrast with a dark smirk. “What the tails are you doin’ playin’ cat-and-mouse with a trace cat?”

Kira looked down at the empty spot on her thigh where her fanned sheath of throwing knives should have been. I’m never going anywhere without a weapon again. “It wasn’t on my agenda for the day.” Her bones creaked with resistance as she released the lasso, allowing the cat’s body to lie flat across crackling leaves. “How’d you know I was in trouble?”

Lee sheathed his knife and tossed the bloodied rag to the ground. “Your screechin’ was a little higher pitched than usual.”

Kira huffed and wished she was close enough to smack him, then reminded herself that he’d saved her life. And she had no desire to move nearer to the beast that had nearly made her its brunch. “You were at the edge of the forest already?”

“Yeah, I came to give you somethin’ to sell in town.” Lee wiped sweat from his brow and stomped into the spotted shade. “Though this cat’s pelt will make us ten times as much.”

Kira’s frantic mind calmed enough to wonder exactly how late she was for this week’s trade run to Navarro, and how Lee could possibly tan such a large hide without their mother