Book of Fire. Michelle Kenney

filled the air. The Leader raised his left arm ominously as Eli and Max flanked Grandpa, helping him to his feet.

      Eli’s silent fury was clear, and Max shot him a warning look. I bit my lip, forcing myself to think. I had to change up the odds, but a girl with a catapult wouldn’t prove much of an adversary on the ground, and I couldn’t pick a direct fight with the Insiders. Then the idea stole into my head. There were a couple of ugly monkeys to whom I’d taken a bit of a dislike …

      Grimly, I selected a couple of stones and took careful aim, before releasing first one stone and then the other, in quick-fire succession. My targets were two of the largest creatures, and my aim for both was true. The stones found their targets within a millisecond of each other, causing the creatures to jump up and snarl ferociously, before settling their malevolence on each other. As I’d hoped, their intense rage was all the invitation the rest needed to join the frenzy.

      Max acted immediately on the advantage, stepping forward to kick the thin device from the Leader’s hand, and push his arm in an upward twist. I watched intently as Eli followed up with his own lightning manoeuvre, crashing into my steely-eyed assailant and forcing him to the ground in a heavy tumble. To my amazement, Grandpa shuffled forward, and grasped his lower legs while Eli sat on his chest, pinning his arms behind him.

      Then another shrill whistle punctuated the air, and everyone’s gaze swivelled in the direction of particularly dense, entwined trees at one side of the clearing. The thick foliage was being cracked slowly and ponderously. Briefly, I wondered if the Leader had summoned a Sweeper, and I braced myself for another ambush. But I was wrong. It was something entirely different, something that sent a winter chill stealing across my sun skin.

      I could only watch as the ferret-faced monkeys backed away from the protesting bushes, my skin creeping. And then finally, something mammoth, dark, and foreboding crashed into the clearing. As it drew to a halt, it threw its head back and released a rough, bloody snarl that made the ground vibrate, and trees rustle in trepidation. I inhaled a short, painful breath, and knew instinctively this creature had come from the same malevolent place as the rattling monkeys. It was the biggest, ugliest hound I’d ever seen in my life.

      I stared at our new adversary with creeping horror. Its well-defined muscular haunches were as high as Eli’s chest, and it had to be at least twice the weight of the tigress. As it lifted its thickset head to sniff, it pulled its wide, thick lips back to reveal a terrifying set of long, sharp, yellowed canines that dripped with saliva. Then it swivelled its gaze to snarl menacingly at the party on the forest floor, its disgruntled resonance making my muscles freeze. It was the most bone-rattling sound I’d heard any animal make in my life.

      Max and Eli scrambled backwards towards the protection of the bushes, as the Leader lifted the visor on his helmet, and greeted the animal. I stared in disbelief at his cruel face twisted with ugly triumph.

      ‘Easy, Brutus, I didn’t want to disturb you but these fools have no idea who they are playing with. The old man is useful; the rest are yours … Playtime!’

      He pulled Grandpa to his feet roughly, and after filling the air with one final, piercing whistle, strode from the clearing with the rattling monkeys and my assailant in close pursuit. For a split second there was complete silence, and then the slavering beast snarled and sank back on its powerful haunches. As Max and Eli spread out, I scrambled down the scratching branches as fast as I could. I had no idea how I was going to help, but I wasn’t going to stand by and watch my brother and best friend get eaten alive. Max yanked his machete from his belt, just as the beast snarled again and readied itself to spring.

      ‘No!’ The cry left my lips before I could stop it, and Eli looked up with a quick scowl before running to Max’s side. It didn’t surprise me that Eli had sensed my cry. Although he lived in a silent world, he’d always been able to detect my voice. I leapt down the remaining branches as fast as I dared, frantic to do something, anything. Even if that meant dying with my family.

      I crashed through the undergrowth, no longer caring who heard me, and burst through the bushes into the moonlit clearing. On the ground, the dog-beast looked even bigger than it appeared from the air, almost as though someone had moulded a clay version of an ancient Greek fighting dog, and magnified it a thousand times complete with distorted jaws, teeth, and claws. Only this one was real. And staring right at me.

      I watched in disbelief as it lowered its head and began advancing menacingly, its black lips drawn back furiously over its huge, arched, yellowed canines. My legs buckled with fear; its ebony eyes were empty, angry, and soulless. Backing up against a nearby trunk, I yanked the small mirror from my leather pouch. It was the smallest of hopes, but better than closing my eyes and waiting for death.

      Then in a heartbeat, a powerful thrust sent me sprawling into the thick bamboo canes at one side of the clearing. I caught my breath, and ignoring the scratches burning my legs and arms, crawled forward to see Eli staring straight into the eyes of the snarling beast. He eyeballed it intently, before slowly lowering himself into a completely submissive crouch. Not this time, Eli, I wanted to scream. I’d watched him calm an animal in this way so many times before but this was completely different. He was so, utterly vulnerable.

      The huge creature lowered its bulbous forehead so it was level with Eli’s own, and then slowly tilted its weight forward. Eli held his ground, but it was easy to see how the colossal beast could take Eli’s head off in a single snap of its mighty jaws if it chose. My heart faltered as its breathing slowed, and the nanoseconds crawled by. No one moved an inch.

      Finally, it let out a rumbling growl and moved in. Blood drummed in my temples, and I willed my legs to move, to provide some distraction, anything. And then, something entirely unexpected happened. The beast started covering Eli’s entire body with long, wet, pink-tongued licks. As it nuzzled into his shoulder, my chest started to hurt and I realized I was holding my breath. Slowly, I released my captive breath and flexed my fingers, bloodied from holding the old mirror too tightly.

      ‘Tal … Tal.’

      The urgent whisper finally penetrated my foggy thoughts, and a warm hand closed around my upper arm. I panicked and twisted out of the hold, scrambled up into the low-hanging branches of a nearby tree, pausing only to kick at whoever was in pursuit.

      Max yelped.

      ‘Hey hey, calm down, it’s me OK?’

      A pair of familiar hazelnut-green eyes peered anxiously into my own, making my knees feel weak with relief. Frustration quickly followed.

      ‘Max! What the …?!’ I whispered, shaking his hand off.

      ‘Don’t give me crap, Tal; I’ve never been so worried!’ he returned, swiftly scaling the branches to crouch beside me. ‘What in the name of Arafel are you doing here?’

      A whistle stilled the response on my lips, and my gaze swung back towards the clearing as though in slow motion. Even the birds and trees seemed to be holding their breath. I willed my arms and legs to move but nothing seemed to work any more. Eli was still out there, still silhouetted in the moonlight, but no longer looking at the monstrous dog-beast. Instead, he was staring straight out across the clearing to the thick bushes on the opposite side.

      I tried to move, but my limbs were too heavy, and then I was only conscious of the unusual rush of tunnelled wind as a small blue dart fell away from Eli’s strong, athletic body. He looked down as though momentarily confused, and I opened my mouth to scream, but there was a hand, always a hand.

      Somewhere in the distance a ruffed lemur howled, and the bamboo stirred in the breeze; but I could only watch as my precious brother crumpled heavily to the floor.

Chapter Four

      I could see Max’s lips moving, but my head was filled with a muffled drone. It had to be at least a minute since Eli were taken by the long arm of a Sweeper, and I could only assume it didn’t have time to scour the undergrowth for us. I couldn’t focus. It felt as though I was underwater again, and everything was distorted. I struggled to breathe, fighting