While the farmers, and her father, continued along the road like nothing was out of the ordinary, Syl and her friends branched off and raced ahead. With blue-tipped Sho-Vals over their backs and Anihazi-killing arrows in their quivers, they became the hunters.

  “You’re sure it can’t sense you?” Dena asked quietly from beside Syl. They were still several hundred feet from where the Anihazi lay in wait, but they couldn’t be sure about how good its hearing was.

  “I’m sure,” Syl whispered. “Not since I got the Stone.”

  “How far now?” Rogar asked.

  “The road curves over there,” Syl said, pointing. “Then again ahead in that direction. The Anihazi is waiting at that second bend. If we continue straight here, we’ll come up from behind it.”

  “Will we have a clean shot?”

  “We won’t need one,” Dena said. “Just follow Syl’s shot like we trained.”

  “Don’t finish it off,” Kule said. “Leave that for me.”

  Nobody responded, but they all thought the same thing. If they could kill the Anihazi—and end the threat with as little risk as possible—they would.

  “Let’s go,” Syl said, and quietly weaved through the trees.

  The moon in the still-clear sky directly overhead was full and bright, though little light penetrated the canopy. The wind that followed them through the forest carried a hint of the coming rain and the flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder reached them at an increasingly frequent rate.

  We need to get to the Anihazi before the others do, Syl thought as she led them on a direct path to the ambush point. Every time the world lit up and her surroundings became clear, Syl sped the group ahead. As they plunged back into darkness and the valley shook with the sky’s reverberations, she was forced to slow down once again. While they’d spent most of their lives in the woods, very little of it had been at night, and the four moved at a frustratingly slow pace.

  With Rogar on her left and Dena on her right, she was confident they could have half-a-dozen arrows in the air before the Anihazi even knew they were coming. And given the weakness she felt from it, a single arrow might end the confrontation entirely.

  Syl kept her focus on that glowing spot in her mind where the Anihazi hid. The rustling leaves all around didn’t make her nervous. The panther couldn’t hide from her, not anymore, and she stalked forward confidently.

  “At least the wind is covering any noise we make,” Kule said quietly from behind her.

  He’s right. As long as we don’t…

  Dena grunted as she tripped over something and blasted the wind from her lungs, interrupting Syl’s thoughts.

  Everybody else froze and three sets of eyes turned towards Dena, who struggled to catch her breath and look at whatever had tripped her.

  Whatever she saw, she didn’t like, and one hand came to her mouth to only partially stifle a surprised half-gasp, half-scream. Dena scurried backwards along the ground as quickly as she could while Syl tried to figure out what had upset her.

  The corpse, guts spread across the nearby grass, suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning gave her the answer.

  Dena didn’t stop until her back hit a tree at the edge of the small clearing. Another flash of lightning, and this time Dena couldn’t keep the scream in. The body impaled upside-down on a broken branch beside her was just too much.

  Syl tensed involuntarily as Dena’s scream kissed the night air, only to be drowned out by a crack of thunder.

  “Shhh,” Kule tried to hush her. Dena did the best she could, dropping her bow and bringing both hands up to forcefully hold her mouth closed.

  A chain of flashes lit up the clearing, and Syl counted three additional bodies. The Anihazi had torn apart another group of hunters.

  “That’s Balin,” Kule said, pointing with his Sho-Val towards the man hanging from the tree.

  “Quiet,” Rogar whispered. “No wind.”

  Syl’s focus immediately flew to the Anihazi and she felt its body tense as it listened for another sound.

  It heard us!

  Syl held up her free hand, demanding stillness and silence. Dena’s eyes were wide, though she’d gotten past the shock enough to control herself.

  But the Anihazi wasn’t stupid, and it prowled in their direction. It was less than a hundred feet ahead of them, still hidden and safe behind the thick tree trunks and dense bushes. Syl could fire her arrows and hope for the best. It had worked out before, but she doubted she would be so lucky a second time.

  A nocked arrow told the others what words couldn’t—It’s coming. Dena swallowed hard but picked up her bow with a shaky hand. Rogar followed suit, then looked to Syl for direction.

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  The panther was coming their way but it wasn’t moving quickly. It wasn’t sure what it had heard and the battle at Teb’s farm had shattered its earlier confidence.

  The wind, still a moment before, picked up again with a vengeance and Syl knew it would play havoc with their arrows. They’d need to be more than lucky to hit a target that moved as fast as the Anihazi.

  Syl changed their plan on the spot, grabbing Dena’s attention and pointing towards a nearby tree. The same tree the dead hunter hung from. Dena understood immediately and shook her head. Her eyes pleaded with Syl for another option, but Syl didn’t have one. And they didn’t have time. She gestured a second time, more forcefully. Dena’s eyes lingered on Syl but a hard swallow and a small nod later, Dena climbed up the corpse.

  To Rogar, Syl gestured to the thick bushes on the other side of the clearing. He didn’t move right away, understanding and not liking Syl’s role in the new plan. Luckily, she didn’t need to gesture a second time with him. Rogar silently mouthed ‘be careful,’ then turned and followed her instructions.

  Her bow went into its sheath on her back and her Sho-Val came out. The weight of the blue-bladed weapon was a bit different than her own, but it felt sturdy and well-balanced as she snapped the three pieces into place. The clearing wasn’t as big as a Ka-Sho ring, but at least she didn’t need to worry about her spear hitting one of the trees.

  As another series of flashes lit the small clearing, Syl turned her attention to Kule. He’d taken up position behind her at an angle and was lying flat on the ground, his Sho-Val in front of him. The tall grass would hide him from the Anihazi, and even if it did see him, it would assume he was just another corpse.

  He was far enough back she didn’t need to worry about hitting him by accident. On the other hand, he’d be close enough to launch a sneak attack if she kept it distracted.

  Which was more or less her plan.

  Another wordless gesture for the others to wait for her signal to attack, one usually used for hunting but equally appropriate there, and Syl turned her senses to the Cloud Stone. The Stone protected her from detection by the Anihazi.

  She took a deep breath and lowered that protection.

  The Anihazi instantly sensed her. There was trepidation and confusion for a moment. How did she get so close without it knowing? Did she know it was there? Its hate for her smothered that confusion, however, and it stalked forward, determined to kill her once and for all.

  “Come on!” Syl screamed, the sky lighting up to emphasize her words. “I know you’re out there! Let’s end this, you and me.”

  It hesitated as it realized it didn’t have the element of surprise, but then loped forward at increasing speed.

  Before Syl knew it, the Anihazi was racing towards her with its usual unbelievable swiftness. She barely had time to embrace En Da before it burst through the edge of the clearing, seven feet off the ground after a powerful leap, vicious claws leading the way.

  Syl ducked and spun as it sailed overhead. It hit the ground and skidded to whirl on her, great divots of earth spraying the opposite direction. It moved so quickly Syl didn’t have the chance to signal the others. It came in with another powerful claw swipe, a tail whip, and a biting lunge. En Da kept her out of harm’s way, but it also had her dancing in circles around the Anihazi, preventing a clear shot for the others.

  They would only have the one chance at surprise and they all knew they had to make the most of it.

  The Anihazi’s assault was completely unlike their previous encounter and it pressed on with a furious, unrelenting series of attacks. It wouldn’t give her the chance to counterattack. Syl continued to dance around it just out of reach, but had no opportunity to take the offensive.

  She tried to take an extra step to bring the Sho-Val to bear, but the Anihazi didn’t give her the room. It pursued her as she quick-stepped back until she felt her back hit a tree.

  She was cornered.

  At least, that’s what both she and the Anihazi thought. The En Da, on the other hand, seemed to have a different idea.

  Instead of diving aside, or getting disembowelled, Syl stepped in and turned to the side as she brought her Sho-Val up in a tight arc.

  The blade connected with the Anihazi’s swinging arm just below the elbow. Unlike her old spear, the cloud-like arm didn’t pass harmlessly around it.

  A brief heartbeat of resistance, then lightning erupted into the sky as the blue blade cleaved through the Anihazi. Syl was almost surprised to find herself still standing, nothing more than a slight tingling in her fingers from the contact.

  The Anihazi wasn’t doing as well, and it staggered and fell to the side with a thunderclap-like roar of pain. Before Syl had a chance to follow up on her attack, it rolled right back to its feet, the substance of its body flowing down and reforming the claw like nothing had happened.

  No, not nothing. The Anihazi was noticeably smaller. But no less angry, and it leapt right back in with fury. Syl barely managed to duck, and the claw intended for her head splintered the tree behind her. She made a quick gesture with her left hand, then lunged away.

  The great tree, thicker than she was, gave out a deep groan. As if in slow motion, the trunk where the Anihazi’s claw struck buckled and bent, and the tree came crashing down into the clearing.

  At the same time the tree was falling, two arrows lanced out from opposite ends of the clearing. The first, Dena’s, was unluckily intercepted by the falling tree, but not before the Anihazi’s lightning eyes locked onto her hiding spot.

  It never saw the second coming, and Rogar’s arrow buried itself deep in the Anihazi’s back.

  The Anihazi’s body convulsed as power raced across its back and into the arrow. That power coalesced into another bolt of lightning that destroyed the arrow and shot back up into the clear sky.

  “Die!” Kule shouted, leaping to his feet and lunging straight for the Anihazi, spear leading. Despite the weakness it felt from two consecutive hits from the blue-tipped weapons, the Anihazi was still unnaturally fast and spun out of the way of the dangerous Sho-Val. Its tail snapped out, connecting with Kule’s ribs, and sent the boy flying into the branches of the fallen tree with a pained grunt.

  Dena’s second arrow clipped the wide branches obscuring her line of sight on the panther and veered just wide to drive into the ground beside its reformed right claw. Knowing another arrow would be coming from Rogar, the panther didn’t stay still, and leapt aside as the arrow passed where it’d been only a second before.

  “En Da!” Syl shouted, leaping back into the fray. If the dance worked for the Sho-Val, she was sure it would work for the bows as well. All they needed to do was get into the same rhythm.

  The Anihazi ducked under her horizontal cut, then pushed off with all fours, literally rolling in mid-air to land on its feet fifteen feet away at the edge of the clearing. Two arrows jutted from the spot it’d just left.

  “Almost had it that time!” Syl told the others and squared herself for another push, expecting a counterattack.

  The Anihazi, however, dashed off into the woods.

  “Where’s it going?” Dena called as she jumped down from the tree.

  Syl reached out along her connection with it and then she was running before her mouth was moving.

  “The others,” she shouted, not waiting to see if her friends would follow.

  It was going after her father.

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