Island of Shadows (10 page)

“Sorry,” Toklo muttered.

“Don't worry, I'm fine,” Yakone responded. “I just hope there's something worth finding at the other side of these hills.”

Have you got a better idea, cloud-brain?
Toklo forced himself not to say the words aloud.
Yakone just doesn't understand about making a long journey.

Soon the top of the crags loomed just above Toklo's head. With a last desperate scramble he pulled himself over the edge. In the same heartbeat a storm of white wings battered his head, and he let out a surprised yelp, almost losing his balance and falling back down the slope.

The scent of goose washed over Toklo. Hunger in his belly took control of his paws. He lashed out, snagged his claws in feathers, and landed hard on top of a goose, bringing it to the ground. The rest of the flock wheeled into the air with harsh cries and were gone.

Behind Toklo, Lusa's horrified voice cried out, “Toklo! No!”

Toklo stumbled to his paws, looking down at the goose with mingled shock and fury. It lay motionless, its neck at an awkward angle.
Not again.

“There was a whole flock of geese,” he growled defensively. “How likely is it that I'd snatch Ujurak? And if it was him,” he added, “it serves him right for hanging around looking like prey. I'm hungry!”

But it's not Ujurak
, he told himself silently.
It can't be. I killed him by the shore, when he was the hare. This just can't be Ujurak, too. He wouldn't be that cruel.

“I'm going to eat,” he announced defiantly. “You can share if you want to.”

Yakone crouched down beside the body of the goose. “Thanks, Toklo.”

Kallik hesitated a moment longer, then joined them. “I suppose Ujurak might have sent the geese,” she murmured, though Toklo wasn't sure she was managing to convince herself. “We won't get much farther without food.”

“That's right.” Toklo tried to sound as if he believed her. “Ujurak wouldn't let us starve.”

Lusa just shook her head sadly, and padded over to a thorn tree growing at the edge of the rocks. A few shriveled leaves clung to its branches; Lusa stripped them off and crunched them, then clawed off strips of bark and began to chew those.

That doesn't look like much of a meal
, Toklo thought, with his mouth full of goose.
But it's better than meat for Lusa, I suppose.

The goose was a big bird, though divided among three it wasn't really enough. Still, it soothed the pain in Toklo's belly and sent new strength into his paws. Raising his head from the remains of the prey, Toklo let out a groan. He had thought that with the last scramble they had reached the top of the hills. He had half expected to see Kallik's Frozen Sea stretching out in front of them. But now he saw how wrong he was.

From the top of the slope they had just climbed, a narrow plain stretched in front of them. Beyond it the hills rose up again, fold upon fold, higher and more daunting than before. A biting wind swept across the plain, swirling up the snow in clouds of ice crystals.

“Is that really the way we have to go?” Lusa whined, joining them again with scraps of bark clinging to the fur around her muzzle. “I'm tired.”

“It's that or go back,” Kallik said.

“Come on.” Toklo heaved himself to his paws. “We'll find somewhere to make a den for the night. The climb won't look so bad in the morning.”

The plain had only a thin covering of snow, and the rocks beneath were sharp underpaw. The wind probed their fur with cold claws; it still carried the faint scent of firebeasts. Toklo's wound had started stinging again after he leaped to catch the goose, but he plodded doggedly forward, scanning the mountains ahead for some sign of shelter. As the hills drew closer, he spotted a narrow valley leading upward, a deep furrow between snowy slopes. “That could be a frozen stream,” he said, veering toward it.

“If we go that way, it will make the climb easier,” Kallik added.

Toklo could tell she was trying to sound optimistic. By the time they reached the mouth of the valley, Lusa was stumbling along with her head down; Kallik guided her around rocks, letting the smaller bear lean on her shoulder. At last Toklo spotted a gap between overhanging rocks, leading into a shallow cave. Thorns grew in front of it, sheltering it from the wind.

“Over here,” he said, staggering toward it.

As he drew closer, Toklo noticed that the snow in front of the cave was churned up, and at one side of the gap was a pile of frozen droppings. Sniffing suspiciously, he picked up the scent of bear, but to his relief it was stale.

“It looks as if this was a bears' den once,” he said. “But they haven't been here for a long time.”

It was a squeeze for all four bears to fit inside the cave, but bundled up together they were at least warm. Sighing, Toklo let himself relax, and sleep flowed over him like a surging sea.

Toklo woke to see pale sunlight shining on the snow outside the den. His friends were still sleeping. Wriggling out of the cave, he brushed past the sheltering thorn trees and stood looking up the valley.

His ears pricked at the sound of running water.
I was right
, he thought.
There is a stream.
He padded across a stretch of stony ground until he came to the water's edge. Scraping away the snow, he saw dark air bubbles beneath the surface of the ice, and he slammed a paw down hard. The ice crunched under his claws, and he thrust his muzzle into the hole and took a long drink.

Gasping at the cold, he looked up again, with icy drops of water spinning away from his muzzle. Kallik was just emerging from the cave, with Yakone behind her.

“Come and have a drink,” Toklo invited her.

“It
is
a stream!” Kallik exclaimed, and added hopefully, “I don't suppose there are any fish?”

Toklo shook his head. “The water's too shallow. There might be a few minnows, but they're not enough to fill our bellies. We'll have to share Lusa's leaves this morning,” he added, nodding toward the thorns that sheltered the den.

Yakone gave the twisted branches a shocked look and let out a disgusted snort. “I'm not eating trees!”

Kallik butted his shoulder with her muzzle. “You'll get used to it,” she assured him.

Toklo wondered about that. More and more he doubted that the white bear from Star Island would be able to cope with the harsh demands of their journey.
You'll soon find out who's the real leader around here.
Toklo knew he shouldn't feel pleased at the thought of Yakone having problems, but he couldn't quite crush the feeling down.

Kallik roused Lusa, who blundered her way out of the den as if she was only half awake. Toklo felt another twinge of anxiety as he realized that the small black bear was still struggling against the longsleep.
But we have to keep going
, he told himself.
And at least there's better food for Lusa here on land.

All four bears crowded around to strip leaves and bark from the thornbushes. Yakone kept passing his tongue over his jaws as if he didn't like the taste. “I can't believe I'm eating this!” he grumbled.

After a last long drink from the place where Toklo had broken the ice, the bears set off upstream. The valley led them into the hills at a steep angle, with rocky, snow-covered slopes on either side. The tracks of birds and hares stippled the snow, but Toklo didn't think of hunting. The nagging fear that he had killed Ujurak—and might kill him a second time—never left him.

As the valley grew narrower and the top of the hill drew closer, Toklo became aware of a low rumbling sound that grew louder the higher they climbed. It wasn't continuous, but came and went without any obvious reason. Finally he halted.

“What is that?” he asked.

His companions stopped to listen.

“It sounds like thunder,” Kallik said after a moment.

Toklo glanced up at the sky, which was clear except for a few wisps of cloud. “Not thunder,” he muttered.

“If I didn't know better, I'd think it was firebeasts,” Lusa ventured. “But there can't be firebeasts out here.”

Toklo shrugged. “It doesn't seem to be doing us any harm.”

The rumbling grew louder still as they plodded upward. Before they had traveled many more bearlengths, Toklo saw that the narrow valley ended in a mysterious dark hole; as they drew closer, he saw that the hole was lined with reddish stones, each one squared and regular.

“Flat-faces made that,” he murmured, a prickle of apprehension running through his fur.

“What are no-claws doing out here?” Yakone asked, as if he could hardly believe what he was seeing.

His last words were drowned out by another long rumble, which grew louder and louder until it sounded as if it were almost overhead, then dwindled away into the distance.

“What
is
that?” Lusa's eyes were wide and scared.

Kallik scrambled up the steep valley side until she reached the top. Toklo heard her exclaim, “Great spirits!” Turning to look down at her companions, she added, “You were right, Lusa. That noise is firebeasts. There's a BlackPath up here.”

Toklo gaped with astonishment. “What?”

“Come and see,” Kallik replied.

Toklo clawed his way up the slope, with Lusa and Yakone just behind. Wind buffeted their fur as they stood on the edge of the BlackPath. It appeared from behind a shoulder of the hills, ran straight past the place where they were standing, then curved away and vanished behind a steep, rocky bluff.

“What do no-claws want up here?” Yakone asked, disgust in his voice. “Isn't there anywhere left for bears?”

“I'll never understand what flat-faces want,” Toklo responded, in sympathy for once with Yakone. “All we can do is cross the BlackPath and then get as far away from it as we can.”

“Okay.” Yakone started forward, only to leap backward as another firebeast roared into view and swept past them, churning up the half-melted snow that covered the surface of the BlackPath.

“Wait till it's safe,” Toklo growled.

Yakone didn't reply, too busy shaking off the snowmelt spattering his white fur.

“That hole down below looks as if it goes right under the BlackPath. Maybe we should go that way,” Lusa suggested.

“You can if you want to,” Toklo replied. “But Kallik and Yakone and I would probably get stuck down there.”

“No,” Lusa said. “I'll stay with you.”

“Wait on the edge,” Toklo instructed the others. “When I say ‘now,' we'll run.”

As he finished speaking, he heard the distant rumble of another firebeast. He waited until it roared past and the sound died away again. When he could hear nothing but the whistling of the wind, he growled, “Now!”

Kallik and Yakone leaped past him, side by side, and Lusa bounded after them. Toklo followed once he was sure that the little black bear could keep up the pace. The other three stopped at the other side of the BlackPath, but Toklo kept running. All he wanted was to leave the flat-faces and their firebeasts far behind him.

Ahead of him stretched a rocky wilderness, a jumble of rocks and snow and thorn thickets, stretching up to yet another fold of the mountains. Its emptiness and peace drew Toklo forward as if his paws had a life of their own.

“Come on!” he called, glancing back over his shoulder at the others. “This way!”

Suddenly full of energy at the thought that he was leaving the flat-faces far behind him, Toklo scrambled up to the top of a boulder and launched himself onto a stretch of unbroken snow. But when he landed on the white surface, his paws broke through into emptiness. There was nothing solid underneath, only billows of snow surging around him as if he had leaped into the sea. Toklo let out a startled roar as he fell with snow pouring down around him. His paws lashed out in a vain effort to find somewhere he could grab on and stop himself. Then he struck something hard, and all the world went black.

Kallik froze with horror as she
heard Toklo's roar of alarm and saw him plunge downward in a shower of snow.