Edge of Dark Read Free

us.”
    â€œYou were invading their home.”
    â€œWill they hurt us now?” Justin shrank closer to Charlie, almost touching him.
    Charlie’s glasses pinged for danger and he blinked a few times, adjusting his view, taking in the size of the heat signature behind him. “Charlie?” Jean Paul’s worried whisper vibrated in his ear. “Do you see it?”
    Charlie whispered in turn to the boys. “Stay completely still. Don’t make any sound. None.” He checked his gun, stood up and turned slowly. A huge animal stood on its hind legs about twenty meters in front of him, just at the bottom of the rocks. He drew in a sharp breath and his hand tightened on his gun barrel. Being above it might not help very much.
    â€œBoys,” he whispered. “Stand up as slowly as you can and be careful not to fall.”
    Justin’s arm slid around Charlie’s waist and Sam let out a tiny moan, then went silent.
    The predator cousin of the jumpers he’d flown over earlier stood three times the size of a man, with a long neck and snout and huge haunches. A thick, long tail twitched on the ground. Its neck moved like a snake’s, back and forth, back and forth. Vestigial wings fluttered on its back and the small hands attached to them reached out sideways as if pulling on the air.
    Justin whimpered. His braver brother whispered, “A rakul. A real rakul.”
    Charlie swallowed. “That’s what might have eaten the tongats that might have eaten you.”
    â€œWhat do we do?” Sam whispered back.
    â€œNothing, unless it comes closer. It’s trying to decide what to do.”
    A howl came up from behind them. The rakul raised its head and looked around. It bounded close enough for Charlie to make out the small fine feathers on its arms and the folds in the leathery skin of its neck. Its teeth were as big as his forearm. A breeze blew the smell of carrion and earth toward them.
    Justin buried his face in Charlie’s stomach. Charlie’s free arm snuck around the kid, patting his back awkwardly. The other hand flexed at the gun, keeping it ready. He’d need a very precise shot to even slow a rakul.
    Time slowed. The beast glanced at them directly from time to time. It bent to sniff at a tongat body and then lifted its head again, apparently surprised that the possible dinner in front of it was alive.
    Charlie aimed his gun at the rakul. His hand shook. His own rules told him to allow predators to kill, but he had put the tongat in harm’s way, and it shouldn’t die because he’d stunned it.
    Another tongat bayed, then a third.
    The rakul glanced around and then cried out. The high-pitched screech drove a smile out of Charlie.
    Other than his hand patting Justin’s back, he wasn’t certain he could move if he had to, even in self-defense. His eye stayed on the beast, drinking details. He’d never been so close to one. “What terrible beauty,” he whispered, and Justin clutched him harder.
    The tongat closest to the rakul pushed itself up and then raced away, a little unsteady on its feet but obviously driven by fear.
    Two more rakuls came up over the rocky ridge, both bigger than the one they stared at. The biggest called sharply. The one close to them turned and jumped away, its thick tail thumping with every leap.
    Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and double-checked. Nothing. “It’s fine, Jean Paul,” he whispered. “It’s all fine. It’s gone. They’re gone. There were three of them.” He turned and did a three-sixty visual scan of the area. “The tongats are gone, too.”
    Jean Paul’s relieved laugh on the other end broke the spell. “Wouldn’t you be gone if you could run fast enough to outpace a rakul?”
    â€œEven the one the boy shot got away.”
    â€œThey’re lucky beasties,” Jean Paul said.
    â€œThe tongats? You