Telari's Arc

Chapter 14 of 11

They did not wait. Telari led Katt off the ridge, down toward the trees where they'd hidden the scout's horse. She wanted the horse gone before the camp sent riders looking. But the ground betrayed her. Hooves sounded on the path below, faster than she'd planned. A patrol was already climbing. She dropped flat behind a rock. Katt did the same beside her, one hand on Bladestorm's hilt. Four riders came up the path in a loose line. They rode early, ahead of any schedule she'd guessed. Telari reached for her bow, then froze. Her lions were still tied to no signal. She had no cue ready, no way to call them without breaking cover. "They see the tracks," Katt whispered. The lead rider had stopped. He pointed down at the churned dirt where they'd dragged the body. He knew. Telari's throat went dry. She could take one, maybe two arrows before they reached her. Then the knife, and Katt alone against the rest. Bad odds on open ground. She needed the lions, and they were too far to hear a whistle over the noise of the horses. But the horses made noise, and the lions heard it. Grey Leia broke from the treeline first, a low shape flowing over the rocks. The white lion came behind her, silent and fast. They had not waited for a signal. The hoofbeats had drawn them the way a wounded animal draws a hunter. Telari didn't hesitate. The plan was gone, so she made a new one in a breath. She rose and loosed. Her arrow took the lead rider through the chest, and he fell backward off his horse. The other three turned toward her, and that turn was the mistake. Leia hit the second rider from the side. Horse and man went down together. The white lion drove into the third, jaws closing on the arm that reached for a blade. Katt was up now, moving fast for a big man. He swung Bladestorm and cut the fourth rider from his saddle before the man could shout. It ended in seconds. Four riders down, no horn sounded, no cry carried to the camp below. Telari stood among the dead horses and men, chest heaving. She had no signal, and it hadn't mattered. The lions had answered the noise itself. Katt wiped his blade on a fallen cloak. He looked at the bodies, then at her. "They knew we were here," he said. "Those tracks told them." Telari nodded slowly. The patrol had come because someone in the camp had already grown suspicious. That meant the mastermind wasn't waiting anymore. He was searching. And now four of his riders would never return, which would tell him exactly where to look. She knelt and pressed a hand to Leia's flank. "We move on the camp now," she said. "Before he sends more. We don't get another quiet hour."