Sixteen Moons | Shelha Series 3 | ✔

Chapter Fifty-Two: Empty Compounds

'What got him?' she tapped on Jay's paw.

'A Vipra bite and a kick to the stomach.'

She moved her claw to Dusk's abdomen. It was hard from internal bleeding and slashed by blunt claws. By the spacing of the gouges, the kick had probably been from a Vipra. Sethral found the bite next. It was Sonar's; his teeth were wider spaced than his brother's. Ryatzi had only one bite from Sonar.

There was something gritty in Dusk's fur around the puncture wounds. Sethral checked the rest of his scruff, but whatever it was seemed to be restricted to the bite area. She sniffed her fingers warily.

Charcoal.

It was so fragile it turned to paste in her fingers, different from the powder Lapwing, Nova's head healer, made her patients swallow when they had ingested a poison. And Lapwing said charcoal didn't work on wounds. Sethal checked Dusk's paws and tails. He had not applied it himself. She relayed all this to Jay, but he was as baffled as she was.

The rain stopped around what might have been moonhigh had the sky been clear. In the silence, Silversand's sensitive hearing picked up sounds from the northeast: Leslanders were fanning out from what must have been Rockhall. The trill of an alarmed bird rang from the other direction.

Ryatzi gasped. "Get out of the forest!"

Creatures scrambled to their paws. Something shot through the group. Taz screamed and staggered back, blood streaming from a gash in his chest. All hell broke loose. Shadows whipped past and around and through the group, too fast to see or touch or smell. They had no smell. Taz went down. Sethral gave a wild screech that diverted two ghosts and saved her and Ryatzi. A yowl from Silversand; another scream, from Wing this time. Jay kicked Fletch to the ground and dove to shield the mutt.

"Silver!" screamed Whipper, up a tree.

Sethral was slashed across the shoulder, then one wing. Ryatzi yanked her down as a figure flew by overhead with something sharp at throat level. One behind it kicked Ryatzi into the open. Every shadow dove, then veered away. Sethral grabbed th Saberel's scruff and dragged him behind a tree.

"They're trying to kill Wing!" screamed Fletch.

Wing had been battered back against a trunk. One shadow aimed for his chest, but then Jay was there, taking a glancing blow as he sent the shadow flying. Taz and Fletch were behind another tree. Where was Silversand? The shapes kept coming. They aimed for Jay, who pushed Wing to shelter and couldn't dodge in time. He reeled. Somehow he kept his footing, and was struck again. Where was Silversand?!

Sethral screamed as fire burst from nowhere and everywhere. A creature made of flames and as fast as a Rocklander sprinted around them. It circled Wing and Jay, then Taz and Fletch, like it was drawing walls in the air. The shadows reared back and vanished.

Wing barely caught Jay as the Raindai passed out. The fire-creature hovered by them for a heartbeat, then looped through the group as though assessing the damage. He was a Coppertail, Sethral realized, though smaller than Taz and Fletch. A spiked crest curled over his head and down his neck. His shoulders, paws, crest and tail were all alive with flames, and his fur glowed in ripples like a live coal. Then it was all coal, as the flames died and the crest sank to a backswept ruff. The creature flicked to Jay, Dusk and Taz and gestured for the renegades to follow him.

"Just a heartbeat," said Fletch.

"Where's the cat?" demanded Sethral, louder than she had intended.

The fire-Coppertail—a Pyrya?—gave her a withering look.

Whipper had dashed into the forest. Sethral spun to Wing, who had Jay's head resting on his forepaws.