5 Onslaught Read Free Page A

I say.
    “We
need to split up.”
    I
don’t like this idea, at all. Not because I don’t believe Kainda is capable of
rescuing Mira on her own, or that I don’t trust she really wants to. But there
are some things in the jungle that she can’t handle alone, and if I manage to
find Mira, but lose Kainda, I won’t be any better off than I am now. Before I
can say any of this, I spot something that keeps me from having to.
    I
quickly inspect the tracks on one path, and then move to the second.
    “What
is it?” she asks.
    I
ignore her, and move back to the path leading up to the T junction. “There they
are,” I say.
    “What?”
    “The
lion tracks.” I point to the large paw print.
    “I’ve
been thinking about that,” she says, while I move to the path leading to the
right. “Do you think this could be the lion from Edinnu? What did you call
him?”
    “Ookla,”
I say, before pointing to the path. “No lion prints.”
    I
move to the path leading to the left.
    “Do
you think this could be Ookla?” she asks. “And other
creatures from Edinnu?”
    “No,”
I say. I point to the path. “No lion prints.”
    “How
do you know?” she asks, sounding frustrated at being dismissed so quickly.
    “Because,”
I say, stepping closer to the rock wall and looking up. The cliff rises higher
than I can see, stretching up into a bank of clouds. “I don’t remember Ookla
being able to fly.”

 
     
    2
     
    “Fly?”
Kainda says. She’s about to ask what I’m talking about, but then seems to
understand. She glances at all three trails. “The lion tracks stop here.”
    “And
since there are no tracks through the jungle, no tracks heading back or into
the trees, there is only one direction left to go.” I look up.
    “I
don’t see how this helps,” she says. “Now we have three choices instead of
two.”
    “We
need to go up,” I say.
    “Is
that what your instincts tell you?” she asks.
    “Yeah,”
I say, hoping she doesn’t hear the lie. The truth is , lions have sharp claws and big teeth. If Mira is with the farm animal gang, I’m
a little less afraid for her, but if she’s with the flying lions, well, that’s
a bigger problem.
    Kainda
steps up to the wall and lifts herself up.
    “What
are you doing?” I ask.
    “The
climb will take most of the day,” she says. “I don’t want the sun to go down
while I’m a thousand feet above the ground, do you?”
    “Who
said anything about climbing?” I say. She flinches when I pluck her from the
wall and put her back on the ground. If I’d been anyone else, I’d be dead right
now. The look on her face says I still might be.
    I
put my hands on her hips.
    “You’re
testing my patience,” she says.
    “You
love it,” I say.
    She
tries to squelch a smile, but fails.
    “Hold
on,” I say.
    She
puts her hands on my shoulders. When a sudden wind kicks up around us, she’s
pressed up against me. My hands slide around to her back and her arms wrap
around the back of my neck. The embrace distracts us both and by the time I
open my eyes, we’re a hundred feet off the ground and climbing.
    I
hear a gasp in my ear. Kainda’s arms squeeze a little tighter. That this
hardened woman can feel fear pleases me. She’d once been numb to anything but hate,
and now, she is so much more. It’s one of the things I like best about her. The
softening of one’s heart is not an easy thing to do. I’m not sure I could have
done it myself without Aimee’s help.
    Aimee,
Mira’s mother, held me in her arms just moments after I was born. It was her
face that greeted me into the world and her face that returned me to it. And
now, Merrill, her husband and my friend, has returned to save her, only now
they’ve lost their daughter. And the majority of that is my fault. All the more reason to hurry.
    The
wind becomes an upward moving cyclone. My long blond hair whips around,
stinging my skin. The air tugs at my clothing, which is not much more than
Tarzan’s loin cloth, a belt