5 Onslaught Read Free

All signs point
to Mira being taken. She might have been on the horse’s back, but I doubt she
went willingly. For a moment I think she’s been kidnapped by a herd of random
farm animals, but then I recognize another print that’s not been trampled by
the others. Four wide toes, each tipped with a long claw, and a thick pad,
twice the width of my hand. “This one is a lion.”
    She
nods. Apparently lions are known to the underworld, probably because they’re
renowned killers. Horses, not so much.
    We
follow the trail up through the cave. I’m kicking myself for not seeing it on the
way in, but I wasn’t looking at the floor. I was too busy rushing to the last
spot where I saw Mira. Seeing the trail earlier wouldn’t have really changed
anything, but it might have saved a minute or two.
    When
we reach the cave exit and step out into the light of day, we’re greeted by our
dinosaur companions. They look up from the river where they’re drinking and
then they look back at us. They’re massive creatures, stretching thirty feet
from snout to tail tip. Grumpy’s green skin shimmers, like new growth leaves in
the sunlight. The maroon stripes over his neck, back and tail seem to absorb
the light, creating a pattern of contrasting color and brightness that helps
him blend into the jungle. But it’s the tall crest over his eyes
that distinguishes him from other dinosaur species—well, that and the
fact that most other dinosaurs are now extinct. I say most, because this
continent is full of surprises, the most recent of which is whatever took Mira.
    The
cresties go back to their refreshment when we walk past without speaking to
them. The trail is easy to follow. It’s a mash of footprints, a mix of species,
following what appears to be a game trail through the jungle. Whoever has Mira
is either so confident that they don’t fear being tracked, or they’re completely
naïve to what is going on. I realize there is a third option a moment before
Kainda speaks it aloud.
    “This
feels like a trap.”
    She’s
right. The trail is too easy to follow. But that’s also the problem. “It’s a
really bad trap.”
    She
frowns. “Obvious.”
    “Right.” I look at her. “Not that it changes
anything.”
    “Trap
or not,” she says. “We push forward.”
    I
stop and take her hand. “Thank you.”
    She
looks back, meeting my eyes with hers. Her dark brown eyes look almost black,
perfectly matching her tied-back hair. “You would do far more for me.” She
scrunches her nose and then corrects herself. “You have done far more for me.”
    I
want to kiss her. The moment is perfect. Her face looks soft. And her tan body,
clad in the scant coverings of a hunter, has a sheen of sweat mixed with humidity that makes her glow. Focus , says the voice of Kat in my head.
    Focus , I tell myself. Mira
is in danger.
    I
pull my eyes away from Kainda and search the jungle around us. The trees—a
species unknown to me—rise hundreds of feet into the air, their branches
twisting and splitting into a thousand different directions. They remind me of
when I used to drop ink onto a page and blow it with a straw. But the
diamond-shaped leaves are sparse, and large patches of
sunlight beam to the ground, allowing thick vegetation to grow. Moving through
this jungle on anything but this path would be very time consuming...unless...
    I
look up. “Let’s take the high road.”
    Scaling
the tree’s craggy bark is a simple thing. Soon we’re moving through the jungle
faster, more silently and without any fear of being set upon by an ambush. Not
that we see one. It appears that whoever left the tracks is just sloppy.
    Twenty
minutes and a little more than a mile later, the trail splits ninety degrees in
either direction, skirting the base of a cliff. We climb down to the jungle
floor and inspect the tracks.
    “They
head in either direction,” Kainda says. “And they’re all equally fresh.”
    “She
could have been taken in either direction,”