Page 36 of The Weaver

CHAPTER 8

“I know.”Rekosh squeezed the shaft of his spear and clutched Ahmya against him.

He’d known even before he’d heard the kuzahks rushing through the undergrowth behind him, had known the instant he’d seen the first one.

A kuzahk ahead meant a pack of them behind.

Hearts thumping so quickly that he could not discern their individual beats, Rekosh ran. He charged through vegetation, jumped over fallen logs, and scrambled along raised roots. With every segment he crossed, he sensed the kuzahks drawing nearer.

Crackling thunder echoed between the trees, making the air tremble. Huge, heavy raindrops pelted Rekosh’s hide, each coming quicker than the last, each colder than the last. But they could not cool the fire within him, could not diminish his fear and fury.

Ahmya’s breaths were rapid, and he felt her shaking, felt her heart racing.

His mandibles ticked, and his fangs ground together.

Instinct demanded he stop, turn, and fight, demanded hedestroy this threat to his mate. Yet it also demanded he run faster and carry Ahmya as far away from this danger as possible.

A kuzahk snarled to his left, just behind him.

Rekosh responded with a snarl of his own. He could see the creature at the corner of his vision. The slits at the end of its snout flared as it scented the air, and its fur glistened with moisture.

Rekosh kicked out with a hind leg, striking the beast’s front shoulder. The kuzahk stumbled, falling back, only for another to dart around Rekosh from the right.

Without slowing, he leapt into the air, drawing his legs up tight. The beast’s jaws snapped just beneath him. Rekosh came down heavily on the other side of the creature, pouring his momentum back into running.

The kuzahks yipped and howled behind him. Much too close behind him.

Ahmya is unharmed. She will remain unharmed. She will be safe.

He repeated those words again and again in his mind, and each repetition lent him a little more speed, a little more strength. But he knew in his hearts it would not be enough.

Vrix were fast. Kuzahks were faster.

More of the creatures entered the edges of his vision, keeping beyond his reach. They understood that they possessed the speed to surround him.

Rekosh pushed himself onward. He had no idea how many segments he’d traveled from their camp, from the spot they’d been foraging, from Kaldarak. No idea where he was. But only Ahmya mattered in that moment.

He scaled a low, rocky rise, and his eyes widened. Less than a body’s length ahead, the ground fell away sharply into a ravine.

Everything within Rekosh seized. His hearts stilled, the breath locked in his lungs, even his blood refused to flowthrough his veins. He dug the ends of his legs into the ground and threw his weight backward.

“Oh God!” Ahmya’s body tensed around him, her breaths coming quick and ragged.

One foreleg slid over the edge before Rekosh skidded to a halt. Stones, dirt, and leaves tumbled down into the raging waters of the river ten segments below.

He staggered back only a few steps before a kuzahk leapt in front of him. The creature’s fangs caught on Ahmya’s backpack, and it tugged backward, nearly pulling her from Rekosh’s grasp.

Ahmya cried out, nails raking his hide as she struggled to hold on to him.

Fear fanned the flames of his anger. She was not going to be taken from him, and he was notgoing to lose her, not here, not now, not to this thing. He thrust his spear, striking the creature’s hindquarters with a glancing blow that opened a gash. The kuzahk released its hold and hobbled away with a whimper.

Rekosh hugged Ahmya to his body again.

She stiffened. “Rekosh, look out!”

He turned his head to see a kuzahk on his left pounce.

Releasing his hold on Ahmya with his upper arm, he raised it, using his lower arm to shove her across his chest toward the right. The beast’s jaws clamped on his raised forearm. Pain burst through the limb, swept away by rage as quickly as it had come. He swung his head down at the beast and pierced its skull with his mandibles. When he shook the dead kuzahk off his arm, he barely noticed the blood mingling with the rainwater on his hide.

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