“That looks like a cat’s paw,” Leeze whispered.
“Never seen a cat that big,” Kule said. “Never want to,” he amended.
Syl crouched down and put her finger to the print. Tacky. “It’s still fresh,” she said, and reached out with her senses. She couldn’t feel the Anihazi nearby, but that didn’t mean they were safe.
“Tracks come from the house and head down a path over there,” Rogar said and pointed. “If the blood’s still fresh, then whatever left those prints is still close.”
Everybody gripped their weapons a bit tighter, and all eyes turned to Syl.
“What’s down that path?” she asked Milia.
“Jurik keeps his animals out back. And there’s a small pond at the end of the path the family uses for bathing,” she answered quietly.
“Rogar, check the house for any survivors. A wife and three kids?” Syl confirmed, and waited for Milia to nod. “Dena, go with him.”
“Right,” Dena said, and followed Rogar to the building.
“Should we check down the path?” Reylo asked her. “This might be our chance to finally kill it. Or at least get a good look at it so we know what we’re dealing with.”
Syl didn’t answer immediately. Something about the tracks was… wrong, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. They had an opportunity. For the first time, they knew where the Anihazi was. It had definitely passed there, and very recently.
If they followed the tracks, they might be able to catch it by surprise. If they did that, they really might be able to kill it. They could protect everybody. Her father included. The threat would be over.
Syl was just about to tell everybody to get ready for a fight when Rogar and Dena returned.
“That was quick,” Kule said.
“Didn’t require much looking,” Rogar said. “They were all killed just inside.”
“Not as bad as Lake Cashin,” Dena said, her face pale.
“Lake Cashin? What happened at Lake Cashin?” Milia asked, but nobody answered her. All eyes were back on Syl while she stared at the tracks.
Lake Cashin had been bad. The Anihazi deserved to pay for what it did to those people. For what it did to the hunters outside her village. For what it did to Reylo and Milia.
These tracks could help them…
And then it clicked. That was what was bothering her so much.
“It’s another trap,” she said, and shook her head in disbelief. “We need to leave, now. Continue to Teb’s farm,” she finished and stood up. Syl glanced in the direction the tracks went, but didn’t give it a second thought. She wasn’t wrong.
“What do you mean it’s another trap?” Dena asked.
“Kule, Edar,” Syl said, ignoring the question. “Get Milia, we need to go,” she instructed, and nocked an arrow.
They all wanted to ask her questions. She could see it in their eyes. But they didn’t. They held their tongues, and Kule and Edar picked up Milia just as she’d asked. She gave them all a quick nod of appreciation.
“Rogar, Dena, take the lead,” she said, and made sure the others went first. She’d hold the rear, in case the Anihazi realized its trap wasn’t working.
The group moved quickly back to the road and then turned to continue toward Teb’s farm. They kept a tight formation with the stretcher in the middle and everybody else with their eyes on the forest.
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“Okay, now that we’re away from there,” Rogar said quietly. “How about you answer Dena’s question.”
“What’s the one thing we’ve never seen in all of the attacks?” Syl asked.
“The Anihazi,” Kule said flatly.
Syl sighed. “Okay, besides that,” she said.
“Tracks,” Dena corrected.
“Right,” Syl confirmed. “And the Anihazi,” she conceded when Kule gave her a look. “Outside the village, nothing. Where Kilik was found, nothing. Lake Cashin…”
“Nothing,” Rogar finished for her.
“What happened at Lake Cashin?” Milia asked a second time. Everybody ignored her again.
“And then suddenly we find perfect tracks?” Syl asked. “No, it’s the same as last night. Another trap. It wanted us to take that trail. It was waiting somewhere down there to ambush us. Just like it was waiting somewhere around Milia to attack us last night.”
“But you didn’t find me until this morning…” Milia trailed off, something occurring to her. “You heard me last night? You heard me screaming, but you waited until this morning to come get me?”
The group’s lack of a response was all the confirmation she needed. “You left me in pain. Left me to die, when you could have come at any time? Were you in Jurik’s cave the whole time? Listening and laughing at me suffer?” Milia spat.
“It’s not like that,” Dena said, one hand patting the air to calm the angry woman.
“So, it did this to me,” Milia pointed at her leg, “just to get to you?”
“Maybe not us specifically,” Syl said vaguely.
“Who are you?” Milia asked. “What makes you special?”
There it was again. Kule had brought up the same thing back at the cave, and Syl had tried to dismiss it. But she couldn’t just ignore it, not anymore. Was Syl special? Her ability to sense the Anihazi—what she thought was her imagination—was that why it seemed to be hunting them?
No, she corrected herself. Not them. Her.
Had she brought her friends directly into the Anihazi’s path? More than she’d ever realized.
“I…” Syl started, but something stirred at the edge of her perception. It was there, just for a moment, and then gone again.
“What is it, Syl?” Dena asked. Nobody could read her as well as her best friend.
“We need to keep moving,” Syl said. “When the Anihazi realizes its trap didn’t work, it’s going to come looking for us. We need to be as far away from here as we can be.”
“That’s never helped us before,” Kule said dryly.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Syl snapped. “I’m sorry,” she said almost immediately. “You’re right, but can we save the inevitable gloating until after we’re farther away?” she asked, and offered a forced smile along with the sarcasm.
“I suppose,” he said, and left it at that.
“Thanks. Teb’s farm is what, another hour or two down the road?” she asked, looking to Edar or Milia for an answer.
Milia just glowered at her.
“About that,” Edar said. Carrying the stretcher would slow them down.
There it was again. That blip at the edge of her perception telling her the Anihazi was moving. But gone again before she could pinpoint its location. If it was on the move, it’d already realized they didn’t fall for the trap.
“Keep your eyes on the right side of the road,” Syl instructed. “If the Anihazi was waiting for us, that’s the side it’ll be coming from.”
They moved as quickly as they could down the road, all eyes scanning the treeline for any sign of movement. Syl tried to focus on her other sense, the one that let her feel the Anihazi from a distance, but she couldn’t maintain it while moving. It seemed to work like any of her other five senses; it was always active, but dull unless she concentrated on it.
A tickle at the corner of her mind signalled the Anihazi had touched the edge of her passive net. She immediately slowed and expanded the radius of her senses, but the Anihazi was faster and darted away.
It was definitely on their right side, but she couldn’t tell if it was ahead of them or behind them. If she stopped, she could probably find it, but then she’d need to explain to the others exactly what she was doing. Yes, she was being stupid by not telling them, but if she did, if she said it out loud, that meant she was bringing the danger to them. That she was responsible for all the people killed by the Anihazi. And she didn’t even know what it was about her that was attracting it.
She simply wasn’t ready to face that truth.
But the Anihazi took the choice from her. She felt it at the edge of her passive net, and then suddenly it was charging straight for them.
The wash of anger and hate almost bowled her over as surely as its physical body would. Syl staggered and vaguely heard Dena call out to her, but she tuned out her surroundings while her mind focused on the beast speeding in their direction.
The thrum of its steps reverberated in her bones, as surely as if it were running across the taught skin of a drum. And in that thrum, Syl found a familiar rhythm. En da.
Syl embraced the rhythm like a long-lost friend, and her body knew what to do with it. An arrow left her quiver and found the bowstring in one fluid motion as she turned and drew. She shifted to the left before the rhythm changed, as she knew it would, and let loose her arrow.
The arrow pierced the green veil of leaves before the others began to react, and Syl’s body was already reaching for her second arrow. Her mind, however, focused on the Anihazi charging towards them. And on the arrow speeding towards it.
She felt its surprise as the arrow predicted its change in direction. She felt its surprise as the arrow plowed into its forehead.
Then she felt her own surprise as the arrow passed harmlessly through its body.
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