Page 8 of Keeper of the Word (The Unsung and the Wolf Duology #2)

Chapter

Eight

ELANNA

E lanna knew danger lay in her future’s footsteps.

A chill had cloaked her like a snowstorm.

’Twas near time. And attempting to force the exact spot in that timeline made her more than exhausted.

StarSeers were not meant to beg the stars for immediate foreSight.

But as Rasa shied from continuing ahead, she found herself on her knees pleading.

And now she was unable to stand. She reached for Rasa’s saddle horn.

Her fingers did not even graze his barrel.

She had dared to See too much, even through the thick cover of trees that blocked out so many stars.

Danger was hours away. Elanna could not gauge exactly what crept near, but ’twas fast—nay, slow—stalking and monstrous.

Return home to Ashwin, Elanna thought through the fog of her mind.

But she was not meant to return home. She was meant to go elsewhere. If she could climb into Rasa’s saddle. Strange. She’d pleaded to See when the danger would come, but exerted so much energy, she would not be able to save herself. Moving her limbs might as well be swimming through mud .

Her eyes cracked open. She found herself lying on the bed of the forest floor, dried leaves poking her scalp, staring straight up into a giant tree.

Night’s darkness transformed the boughs into menacing arms with wings and claws.

But if she could straighten out her mind, shake the cloudiness, the fatigue, Elanna imagined that the boughs were formed in such a way that one could climb them like high steps of a ladder.

She forced herself to prop up on her elbows, blinking to gauge which tree she stared at was imagined and which was real.

A low growl snapped Elanna suddenly into awareness.

“Did you hear that, Rasa?”

He most certainly had. From under the shadows of the forest overhead, Rasa’s head stiffened in the direction of the sound; his ears turned back. Rasa gave a short neigh and retreated.

“Rasa.” Elanna extended her arm to catch the stallion’s reins dangling on the ground, but she was too sluggish, and the horse was too spooked. Another growl sounded, and Rasa disappeared through the copse of trees. “Rasa!” she yelled after him.

The night sounds of the forest ceased. She hadn’t noticed them before, but now that they were gone, Elanna’s shallow breathing was the only sound. Her eyes scanned the surroundings, useless in the dark.

Get to the tree.

Standing was impossible, so Elanna used her forearms to crawl to the trunk of the tree. Still aware of the silence encircling her, she peered up, squinting to make her vision less blurry.

Not far off, a branch snapped.

“Come, Elanna. You’ve Seen more. This is not the end. Go,” she whispered, forcing herself onto her legs. They wobbled, and she collapsed to the ground.

Up her gaze went once more, but this time, not to the tree to which she clung, but to a gap in the canopy where she discerned a small cluster of stars.

“You did not bring me here to let me die. Help me!” Her limbs began to go numb. Her eyes glossed over. She was going to black out. She was already too weak .

Another disturbance nearby.

Elanna kept her eyes fixed on the stars. If she was about to perish, they would be the last sight she beheld.

“Pray, help,” her voice barely uttered the words. Her eyes closed.

Elanna, Daughter of Light. Open your eyes and show your strength.

She obeyed the voice from overhead and found that not only had the feeling returned to her limbs, but they felt renewed.

Whatever stalked out there drew nearer.

Elanna gripped the first branch, hauled herself up, and began climbing.

She gave no thought to where she placed her hands and feet.

For she had Seen that she’d made it to the top.

Through her Sight, hand over hand, Elanna found herself in the topmost branches, clinging to the trunk, and gazing down.

A black beast, half the size of Rasa, stared up at her.

Its yellow eyes in the darkness seemed to glow.

It gave a roar this time, and had she not been clasping tight to the tree, Elanna would have covered her ears. She gulped down her breath. In the distance, two other roars echoed.

“Oh stars.”

Shadow cats could climb trees. Why had the stars directed her up here? The angry thought made her glance at the sky again, where, from this vantage, the whole of it was revealed to her.

She peered down. The shadow cat prowled back and forth at the bottom of the tree. Even from this height, Elanna could detect a limp in its gait. This animal was injured. And could not climb most likely. Hopefully.

It roared again, and this time, its distant companions’ replies were unquestionably closer.

Large movements crashed through the forest. Elanna had no plan, no Sight of what would happen next. She simply tightened her eyes shut and held onto the trunk.

Her ears were the only means to detect that the beasts, their movements becoming more distinct, grew closer and closer.

There must be four of them, at least .

A noise came, not from the ground, but from high in the trees. Elanna sensed the presence of something nearby. She dared open one eye.

With the same demonic yellow eyes, a shadow cat crept toward her, three trees away. Her grip tightened as the animal bounded effortlessly from tree to tree.

She screamed.

The large cat halted briefly, its eyes pinning her. On the opposite side, at her back, Elanna discerned the same vaulting din. Another. The cat in front of her gave a low growl. Its tail swished back and forth. Behind her, a large branch broke and there came a scrape followed by a snarl.

In the background, the racket of others’ approach was unmistakable.

The shadow cat in front of her leapt to the tree beside hers. It shifted onto its hind legs in preparation for the attack. A faint whimper escaped Elanna.

The cat pounced, and in midair, an arrow pierced its belly. The animal shrieked, missed its mark on Elanna’s branch, and tumbled to the ground.

Whiz.

Behind her, other arrows flew through the air. The beast behind her gave a similar shriek. But no tumbling crash followed. She dared a backward glance. With two arrows sticking out of its side, the massive cat crouched on her tree, lurking on a branch opposite hers.

She screamed again, and a third arrow pierced its hide. The cat slipped but held its perch. She risked not a glance but heard men below.

“Climb down, blast it!” a voice commanded her.

Elanna did not move. Her only focus was on the yellow eyes devouring her.

Another arrow whistled by but missed. The shadow cat gazed down as if bored.

Into the thicket charged a third beast. It roared. A sickening sound of flesh being pierced followed. The beast shrieked as its companion had. The commotion of fighting rang. Voices yelled, trading signals, orders, and growls of their own.

The arrows that had momentarily ceased due to the new attack resumed; only one of them found its mark, however. The cat inched forward.

Something else climbed the tree. Elanna paled and glanced down. But ’twas not another cat, but a man.

When he was near, he yelled, “Here! Take this!”

She chanced another glimpse. A dagger was being held up to her. Her eyes trained on the predator inching closer, she reached down and grasped the handle. She brought it up to her side, listening to the man continue his climb toward her.

An arrow struck the beast again, this time in the neck. A coppery scent filled the air. It wobbled, and Elanna used that moment to ascertain the man’s position—the branch below hers.

“Climb down to me,” he directed.

“I cannot.” ’Twas true. Her limbs grew numb again. Her grip on the dagger loosened. “I am too fatigued.”

“Shoot another!” he bellowed.

The new arrow sunk into the cat’s shoulder, and it gave a last shriek.

But instead of falling, it vaulted toward Elanna.

She thrust the dagger out, sinking it into thick flesh.

Its claws lashed out across her shoulder, and she screamed again, releasing the dagger.

The man sprang onto her branch and shoved the beast away from her.

Elanna closed her eyes in pain. The thumps of the animal hitting branches as it fell before landing with a thunk on the ground, gave her something to focus on to keep her from blacking out.

She heard no more fighting. The third cat must have been downed, too.

She was suddenly aware of the large person in front of her on the branch. When she opened her eyes, stern brown eyes were locked on her.

“I cannot—” But she couldn’t finish her thought. The stars reclaimed their borrowed power, and Elanna fell against him and into oblivion.

Elanna had a brother once. Daved. She supposed she still did somewhere back in Grenden, where she was from.

When she allowed herself a personal thought or two, sometimes she wondered about him.

Did he still live in the city of Mara, a port that also acted as a military citadel between the Capella Realm and the country of Vathnava?

Daved, five years Elanna’s senior, filled her ears with stories of seafarers, the distant lands beyond, and the courage of the Capella Realm’s military.

He meant to join when he became fourteen, the earliest age of enlistment.

Even at such a young age, Elanna was frightened of when that day would arrive.

Their father, whom Elanna could never remember without a jug in his hand, did not put food on the table.

Daved did. A cobbler’s apprentice, ’twas he who brought home scraps of meat and bread, enough to keep a small child’s belly from being completely empty.

She understood too much about food and what its lack meant.

But in the end, that worry had not mattered.

Daved had been only eleven when Elanna left Mara.