1.5 - Destiny Unchosen (8 page)

As if he knew what she was wondering, he looked up, his gaze lingering on a higher branch for a long moment. The sturdy tree would support their weight if they climbed higher, but Temi didn’t see how that would help them against a flying car.

The light dropped, and the craft spun in the air, turning its backend toward them. It soared away, and soon the trees hid it from view, though its light was still visible as the craft moved about in the forest. Was it looking for something further? Maybe it was someone out there hunting for mushrooms, someone who wanted nothing to do with the cats or Jakatra and Temi. Of course, if that were the case, she would have expected the people to help, to try and drive the creatures away.

“The appearance of the technology did not scare the
saru
away,” Jakatra observed.

“Because these ones are controlled by those glowing dots?” Temi asked.

“Likely.” He seemed to have something else on his mind—other suspicions—but that was all he said.

The scrape of claws sinking into bark reminded Temi that they still had other problems. Jakatra moved farther out on the branch, so they could both attack at once. With two swords slashing toward it, they knocked the cat free before it found its way to their level. These small triumphs no longer inspired Temi, not when more creatures would soon start up to take its place.

Jakatra’s nose wrinkled, and he faced in the direction of the hovercraft again. The headlight had disappeared—or wasn’t visible from their position—but a new light had appeared, this one orange and flickering.

“Fire?” Temi hooked her arm around the trunk and leaned out for a better view. Her stomach sank. A
lot
of fire. Flames were licking up the side of a tree about a hundred meters away.

“Fire,” Jakatra agreed grimly.

A normal forest fire that size wouldn’t spread quickly and might burn over there all night without bothering them, but Temi had a feeling this wasn’t a normal fire. The hovercraft wasn’t anywhere in sight, but it was too much of a coincidence to believe flames had randomly started up right after it left. It wasn’t even dry here, not like in the forests of her New Mexico homeland.

Jakatra pointed to the right of where Temi had been looking. Another fire was burning in the undergrowth over there. At the base of the tree, the creatures’ voices changed, concern in their unearthly yips for the first time. They turned, their furry snouts pointing toward the flames. Damn, there was a third spot fire now.

“Is it just me,” she said, “or are your people lighting those fires in a circle? To make
sure
we can’t escape?”

“This is not logical behavior,” Jakatra said. “If they wanted you, or for some reason wanted me, they could shoot from afar with a projectile weapon. To deliberately burn the forest is strange behavior for one of my people.”

“Maybe a human got through,” she said. It was a joke, or sarcasm at the least, but he answered seriously.

“It was ensured centuries ago that none of the portal keys remained in your world. Unless someone else brought a human here, one could not be present.”

“Fires are good for hiding evidence, they say. Maybe someone wants to kill us without being obvious about it.” Temi shifted her weight, trying to figure out how they could escape without jumping into the jaws of death down below. Those creatures shouldn’t want to stick around for a wildfire, either, but who knew what those blue dots were commanding them to do? None of them had left yet.

“Possibly. That would be in line with the animal attacks.” Jakatra faced the trunk and pointed up. “If they seek to surround us with fire, then we must leave first.”

“
That
way?” Temi also pointed up.

“I believe that if we go out on that branch approximately twenty feet up, we can make our way to the next tree, and then the next. After that, we’ll reassess our route.”

Temi stared at the orange flames dancing on the ground, already climbing numerous trees. The scent of smoke had reached her nose now. At least Jakatra wanted to go in the opposite direction from the flames, but she wasn’t a squirrel and those branches up there were thin. She and Jakatra were already more than thirty feet off the ground.

“You are capable of this feat,” Jakatra said. “Sansolu said so.”

“Who?”

“Your healer.” Jakatra waved at her knee as he stepped past her. Without brushing her, he leapt and caught the side of the tree, his dexterous fingers easily finding holds in the cracks between plates of bark. “He said you would now be capable of swinging through the trees.” He paused, his head tilting in consideration. “In reflection, this may have been an insult in regard to the simian origins of humans.”

Temi snorted. “I’ll bet.”

Jakatra was already climbing, so she sheathed the sword and did her best to follow. The flames had already grown to the point that they illuminated the forest so that she could see without the silvery glow. A fact that was less comforting than one might imagine. “What did elves evolve from?”

“Elves? Ah, yes, that is your word for us.”

“I forgot your word.” Temi grimaced as her foot slipped on the bark. She should probably be concentrating on climbing.

“We also share origins with a tree-dwelling species, but they were more elegant than your simian cousins.”

“Were they snootier and more arrogant than our simian cousins too?”

Jakatra paused to look down at her, the flames of the fire reflected in his violet eyes. She expected a haughty sniff, but he actually seemed to be considering the question.

“The modern ones
do
seem to believe themselves superior to the other wilderness denizens,” he said.

“Imagine that.”

Temi was almost to the branch Jakatra had pointed to from below. A few more feet, and she could pull herself up to a safe spot. Too bad he wouldn’t let her stay there long.

Bark crumbled beneath her fingers, and she lunged for the branch with her other hand. She grasped it at the same time as the bark gave way, splinters digging beneath her nails as wood fell. For a second, she hung there by one hand, wondering how many more times her heart would try to leap out of her chest before it succeeded.

Jakatra, already standing on the branch, looked down at her. Doubtlessly wondering what was taking so long. Temi swung up her other hand and hauled herself onto the slender branch. As soon as her feet were on it, Jakatra jogged along its length, the wood shivering beneath his steps, and leaped a couple of feet, landing on an equally slender limb stretching across from the next tree. He trotted out of the way, then stopped to wait again.

Temi wiped sweat out of her eyes, spread her arms for balance, and tightrope-walked after him. She wished for some of the gripping skills of those simian cousins. Her shoes lay at the bottom of the tree, and she had flung her socks down at some point, as well, so she tried to use her toes, but mostly she relied on her balance, inching farther and farther. The branch trembled, growing narrower as she moved along it. The snaps and cracks of the fire reached her ears, adding pressure to the situation. As if the yips and whines coming from the base of the tree weren’t enough. Temi kept hoping the animals would take off, but a handful of them were following her progress from the ground, their snouts tilting upward as if she were the only food they had seen in months.

“You will find it easier with more momentum,” Jakatra said when she stopped at the point where he had crossed.

“Good to know,” Temi said and very carefully made the jump. She bent her knees and spread her arms, catching her balance on the new branch. “Next,” she said when she got over the relief of making it.

Jakatra led her to the trunk, then out onto a branch on the other side. Temi did her best to keep up, all too aware of how quickly that fire was spreading.

A whine like that of a mosquito, but louder, sounded, and one of the branches above her snapped. It fell, nearly dropping onto her head. She batted it aside with her arm, but it upset her balance, leaving her flailing for her life once again.

“What was
that
?” she blurted when she had regained her balance.

“A projectile weapon not unlike your firearms.” Jakatra pointed into the air above the fire. The hovercraft was back, its beam probing the trees again, the smoke making the light hazy, surreal. This whole damned experience was surreal. “Hurry.” He ran along the branch as he spoke, jumping onto the next one.

“Hurry
where
?” Temi growled, though she raced after him as quickly as she dared. She grudgingly admitted that he had been right, that it was easier when she went faster instead of checking her balance every inch of the way. But it hardly mattered. The cats were guarding the ground, whoever had the gun was guarding the air, and the fire was coming from the side. Where could they possibly flee to? “We’re going to have to confront... somebody.”

The animals, the people, she didn’t know which confrontation they would be more likely to survive, but they were targets at the moment.

Another whining weapon fired, blasting into the side of the trunk. Bark flew everywhere, this time battering Jakatra. So, he was as much of a target as she. Later, Temi might find that interesting, but right now, she was too busy trying not to fall off the branches. She lunged behind a trunk, expecting to have to climb to another branch, but Jakatra was waiting there, the bulk of the tree hiding them from the hovercraft.

He gripped her arm. “You are correct. I will confront my people. You continue in the trees. Get as far as you can. Make sure you’re out of the fire’s path.” He pointed in a direction, though how he could tell which way the fire would turn, she couldn’t guess. “Don’t go down unless you’re certain the animals have given up the chase. Even then, stay near the trees. Eleriss will find you eventually.”

She imagined him snoozing in a bed—or a funky hammock—back in a city somewhere. “At dawn?”

“No later than that. He is punctual.” Jakatra shifted his weight to go back the way they had come.

“Wait, are you sure you don’t want help with them?” She surprised herself with the offer. It wasn’t her fight—they had brought her here, after all—but he might need help. And she didn’t want to lose someone who had spent the night keeping an eye out for her.

“They shouldn’t be your concern. You must return to your world with your weapon to protect your people.” Jakatra pointed to her sword scabbard. “And I believe you will do so.”

“But...” Temi stretched out a hand toward him, struggling to articulate what she wanted to say. “I don’t want to lose another coach.”

“I will see that this is not the case.” Jakatra gave her a solemn nod, then took off across the branches, maneuvering along them more easily than she would ever be able to.

More whining shots fired, and she winced, dreading the idea of him being killed. Especially if there was a way it would be her fault again. They may have brought her here, but they were doing it to help her world. And she had agreed to come, whatever her motivations had been. She was the reason the forest was burning.

Temi brushed her damp eyes. They were tears of frustration, she told herself, nothing more, nothing... weaker. Then she took off in the opposite direction, toward the dark forest night, putting the burning trees at her back.

She picked a route through the branches for minutes that felt like hours. It was hard to tell. Smoke filled the dark sky, and she couldn’t see the fire any more, nor the hovercraft. It was all she could do to concentrate on the trees, on running along the branches with legs and arms that grew ever wearier. Growls, yips, and yowls sounded from the ground from time to time. She didn’t know if they belonged to those cats or simply to creatures fleeing the fire, but she was afraid to drop to the forest floor to find out. So long as the latticework of branches provided a path, she would follow it. Ash coated her tongue, and she was so thirsty, her lips had cracked. Her skin felt flushed and fevered, and she didn’t know how much farther she could go.

When a light appeared ahead of her, Temi was so numb that it didn’t register to her brain at first. As soon as it did, she halted, grabbing a trunk with hands scraped so raw they were bleeding. It wasn’t fire; it was a headlamp again. The hovercraft. Jakatra must not have caught up with it. Or maybe there was more than one.

She leaned her temple against the rough bark, tired of running, tired of all of this.

The beam of light swept through the haze toward her. She tried to scoot behind the trunk, to hide herself. She gripped the hilt of her sword, but didn’t draw it. She was too tired to command the blade not to glow and didn’t want it giving her away.

The hovercraft drifted closer through the smoke.

“Artemis?”

She lifted her head. Was that...? “Eleriss?”

“Yes. I am here. We must return you to your home.”

Temi had never heard words that sounded so sweet, but it took a while before she could force her arm to release its death grip on the tree trunk. Not until Eleriss’s pointed ears and blue eyes came into view did her grip relax.

He pulled up, his craft hovering below the branch she stood upon. “Jump in, please. Time is a concern.”

Temi swung down into the seat beside him, banging her feet on her tennis bag. Eleriss must have guessed this would be her last night and she would have to leave. Had he also guessed this night of hunting could turn into something much different than she had envisioned? That the hunters would become the hunted?

Questions for another time. She sank back into the seat. She was so relieved to be sitting in something solid—as solid as a chair in a floating car could be—that she almost cried. But smoke still clogged the air, stinging her eyes and reminding her that they weren’t free of danger.

“Jakatra, have you seen him? He went back to confront the...” She waved vaguely in the direction she thought the fire had started, though she had lost track of much up in the trees.

“I will return for him, but I must send you home first.” Eleriss pressed his palm against a soft gel pad, pushing with his fingers, and the hovercraft pulled away from the tree. It zipped through the smoke, heading away from Jakatra instead of toward him.