Sylvia stopped breathing, and her eyes widened at the sight. The mountain lion hadn’t noticed her—yet—and she jerked herself out of her brief stupor and began to follow it again, her mind racing.
Only one idea came to her, and she didn’t like it at all. It was against all of her instincts, but she would have to do it. She was sure Maddy wasn’t prepared to defend herself against this beast. She would have to draw its attention to herself instead.
She squeezed her hand so hard around the hilt of her knife that her nails bit into the edge of her palm.
Injured though it might be, this mountain lion was enormous. Sylvia watched it slink down the path, its head low, and movements as fluid as water. It was a wonder that the first lion had managed to injure it so severely. The first lion had paid for it, though, Sylvia thought, making herself shudder.
Completely oblivious, Maddy plodded along, over the well-worn track that most Riders took to go north to Skycity. The lion was gaining on her, though, and Sylvia would soon need to make a decision. She began to notice the energy coursing through her veins as adrenaline poured into her system.
It was a wonder that the girl didn’t look around, Sylvia thought wildly. How could she miss it? The beast was in clear sight behind her.
At once Sylvia looked directly behind herself, spotting nothing. She took a shaky breath, gathering her courage.
“Maddy!” she shouted, before she could change her mind.
The girl whirled around, her eyes popping wide as she spotted both the source of the unexpected voice, and the beast advancing down the path in between. The lion paused, a front foot hovering in mid-air as it flicked its head back to look at Sylvia. It glared at her with its intelligent amber eyes. Sylvia’s mouth was suddenly dry.
Maddy’s mouth opened in what looked like a silent scream, and Sylvia watched the lion hesitate as it considered the two humans.
Having sized herself up to be far shorter than Maddy, Sylvia assumed the lion would choose her, the smaller target, especially since Maddy had begun to climb a rise, leaving Sylvia and the mountain lion on the same level. To Sylvia’s absolute horror, the lion lunged toward the girl instead, discarding all of Sylvia’s careful logic.
She couldn’t run fast enough. Her legs felt as if they were pumping through a lake of molasses, instead of the short distance over the clear trail. The scene ahead had sped up to double-time, and Sylvia watched the lion reach the girl, who couldn’t get to her axe in time.
Sylvia’s heart beat against her ribs so hard it was as if it were trying to get out.
With a thump that was audible even over Sylvia’s feet pounding on the packed earth, the lion knocked Maddy to the ground.
Maddy savagely grabbed the mountain lion by the ears, a move that surprised Sylvia, and indeed, the lion itself. She kept the lunging jaw from her throat by a mere inch as it struggled to free itself from her grip.
With her long legs, she kicked the thing in the stomach, unknowingly aggravating the wound on its side.
It gave a tortured yowl and rolled off her. Sylvia finally reached them, and kicked the beast again in its side, making it retreat further from the pair of girls, where it collapsed to the ground, its wound now too much to bear.
Not yet sparing a glance for Maddy, Sylvia quickly approached the beast to remove the threat completely.
Sylvia shuddered when she turned her back on it. Though she didn’t feel bad for the murderous beast, she couldn’t very well leave it to stalk them back to Lightcity, even if it had been injured.
Maddy stood there, staring at the lifeless beast on the ground behind Sylvia. Her long hair had a few snarls and twigs already caught in it, and Sylvia watched as Maddy finally unhooked her axe from her pack and stuck it in her belt where she could reach it.
Before Sylvia could open her mouth, the girl began talking. “Thanks for that,” Maddy said. “But who are you? How do you know my name? I don’t think I’ve ever met you before. Are you a friend of my parents?”
The corner of her mouth quirking up, Sylvia answered when she was sure Maddy was done talking. “I’m Sylvia,” she said, and stuck out her hand. “Thorne,” she added as they grasped hands.
“I’m a Rider, from Meadowcity. I don’t know your parents, but…” she paused. “Your sister was worried about you—I was worried about you,” she added, when Maddy huffed and turned away.
“Gloriana doesn’t know anything,” Maddy retorted, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. “Mum and Dad have been gone weeks longer than they said they would—”
“Listen, Maddy—” Sylvia tried to interject before the younger girl raised her voice to echo through the trees.
“—And I can defend myself, you saw—”
“—But, Maddy—”
“—If Gloriana sent you to bring me home, you can just go right back to Lightcity; I don’t need your help.”
Sylvia felt as if the girl had struck her. All of the arguments she had formed earlier seemed to pour out of her mind, useless.
Maddy turned back to look at Sylvia. “Look, I’m sorry,” she said in a low voice. “And I appreciate you helping with the...” she jerked her head to where the mountain lion lay a few feet behind them.
“It’s alright,” Sylvia said warily. “But you shouldn’t be out in the wilds if you haven’t completed your training,” she added bluntly.
“And you have?” Maddy shot back, all hint of remorse gone. The girl threw back her shoulders, leaving no question as to who was taller.
“Yes, I have,” Sylvia said, affronted. “More than a year ago.”
Maddy narrowed her eyes at her. “What do you care if I’m out here?”
“It’s dangerous,” Sylvia enunciated the word slowly, gesturing clearly to the dead mountain lion behind her. “You had a six-foot lion stalking you for probably half an hour and you didn’t even notice.”
“I—” Maddy huffed, clearly rallying. “It was injured. I would have handled it fine without you.”
It was Sylvia’s turn to narrow her eyes this time. “Really,” she said. “And what happens when an uninjured, undistracted lion creeps up on you next time?”
“I’ll—I’ll be more careful now, I promise.”
Sylvia snorted. “You can’t just suddenly ‘be more careful’,” she scoffed. “And you’re not going any further; you’re coming back to Lightcity,” she said, injecting as much authority into the words as she could. She hitched her pack higher up on her shoulders, eager to get back to Lightcity. Those two weeks of boredom were looking much more appealing at the moment.
“Make me,” Maddy hissed.
Sylvia looked around incredulously, wondering what in Arcera she was supposed to do now. She sincerely regretted feeling resentful for being stuck in Lightcity—she would never wish for adventure again, she told herself.
The girl spun on her heel and returned to the path, her long legs carrying her with ease up the incline before Sylvia could do more than furrow her eyebrows and open her mouth to gape at her retreating back.
Maddy was almost to the top of the rise before Sylvia made up her mind. “Oh, no you don’t,” she growled, and followed.
Five