what your real intentions were.' Sharp teeth flashed briefly in Quoll's mouth. 'It is not our business to find out. Only to bring you back.' Red-gray eyes burned. 'So long as one or two of you survives to answer the Mundurucu's questions, they will be content. I don't care which two.' He jiggled the heavy, spiked end of the mace, bouncing it up and down against his open palm. 'Come to think of it, five is an unwieldy number. It cries out to be reduced.' He spoke without looking back at his companions. 'Please to tell me what you think?'
'I think six is even more unwieldy,' hissed an unexpectedly sonorous voice.
Samm did not burst from the woods so much as throw himself into the clearing. One massive foot landed in the fire, sending a whirlwind of orange-red sparks flying. The iron-tipped bolt that caught him in the right shoulder, he ignored. Swiping downward, he snatched the other crossbow away from Ruut. Fingers contracted tightly, and the sound of snapping wood and tortured metal rose above the roar of the falls.
Oskar made a dive for his sword. As he did so, Quoll darted with astonishing speed to intercept him, the lethal business end of the mace rising high above his head. He let out a stiff, startled squeal when Cezer slammed into him from the side. Its trajectory altered, the mace struck only bare ground. Snatching up his blade, Oskar rolled quickly onto his feet, ready to thrust and hack with abandon.
But the fight was already over. Capes flashing briefly in the glow from the fire, their extraordinary assailants had vanished into the undergrowth. Contorting his body with incredible abandon, their leader freed himself from Cezer's grasp and rushed after his companions, moving through the dense brush faster than even a rearmed Mamakitty and Cocoa could follow.
By the time the two women returned, Oskar and Cezer had already extracted the crossbow bolt from Samm's shoulder and were applying a makeshift patch to Taj's side.
'That was brave of you, to try and dissuade them with a lie.' Cezer tugged the bandage tighter around Taj's injured flank. For once, the cat-man spoke without sarcasm.
The smaller man shrugged, then winced. 'I wish I had spent less time singing and more listening to Master Evyndd. Who knows? Perhaps I might have picked up a useful spell or two.'
'Foul creatures.' Mamakitty put her sword aside and wiped sweat from her forehead. 'So the Mundurucu are aware of us. That's not a good thing.'
'But they don't know our intentions.' Finishing up the bandage, Cezer gave it a little pull to make sure it would hold. Taj winced at the contact, but did not cry out.
'Small comfort.' Oskar found himself gazing intently into the dark woods. 'They know enough to want to stop us.' He glanced back at the largest of his comrades. 'Your arrival was timely, Samm. You probably saved us all.'
The giant tried to shrug, but his bandaged shoulder would not permit it. 'Not timely enough.' A cumbersome finger pointed. 'Taj was almost killed.'
'But he wasn't,' Cezer announced brightly. 'Just got a scratch.'
'Scratch you,' the songster muttered in pain.
'We can't stay here.' In the darkness, Mamakitty had begun gathering up her few belongings. 'We have to go.'
'What—now?' Cezer eyed her uncertainly. 'In the middle of the night? You really think they'll be back, and so soon?'
She met his gaze. 'If you had been given a task by this Mundurucu, would you return and confess to failure? I don't want to be shot at in my sleep, or surprised by whatever other skills these empowered predators may possess. Or did you think they were regular people?'
'No,' Cezer admitted. 'They are transformed, like us. The smells of the caped ones I recognized. The other— his scent is new to me. As new as it is unpleasant.'
Mamakitty nodded knowingly. 'I sniffed the same. We move now.'
While Cocoa and Oskar kept watch, they hastily loaded up their supplies—with Samm, as usual, hefting the bulk of them. When all was in readiness, Mamakitty led the way through the moonlight while Oskar and Samm guarded the party's rear. Several times Oskar thought he sensed movement in the sodden brush, but when he looked in the appropriate direction, he saw nothing. Nor did Samm, whose eyesight was sharper still. Unfortunately, the giant could not also make use of his exceptional sense of smell, or his unique ability to sense the heat given off by living things. At the bottom of the gorge, individual odors and temperatures were masked by the omnipresent mist generated by the falls.
The air grew steadily damper as they forced their way through the thick vegetation and approached the base of the cataract. Trees and bushes gave way to expanses of bare, slick rock, and the revealed moon brightened their surroundings. Cocoa hissed with delight when their objective finally came into view from behind a quartet of blooming mistberry trees.
'You were right, Mamakitty! It is permanent! I never would have thought you could see a rainbow at night.'
The older woman surveyed the band of color, subdued but unmistakable, that arched across the roaring river. With her humanized eyes, she could for the first time see
'At night it would more properly be called a moonbow, I should think, but they are one and the same thing. Don't credit me with overmuch knowledge. If you had spent more time in the company of Master Evyndd, you would know as much as I do.'
'He was always pushing me off his lap,' Cocoa replied regretfully. Using caution, she approached the edge of the ledge onto which they had emerged.
'Same with me.' Cezer was equally entranced by the nocturnal spectacle, though he tried hard not to show it. 'I was always too busy with more important matters. Chasing dust motes or hunting vermin, for example.' He leered good-naturedly at the fine young woman beside him. 'Bet he wouldn't push you off his lap now.'
'Cezer, you are incorrigible!' She edged sideways, beyond his reach.
'Actually, I'm a tabby, but what's a whisker or two between friends?'
'What do we do now?' Oskar found that he could approach the rainbow quite closely. It seemed to him that this was an unusual quality for a rainbow, which he had thought tended to retreat whenever a person drew near. This one, though, remained fixed in place as if cemented to the rocks, the muted colors growing brighter and more intense the closer he came.
Unslinging her collapsed water bag, Mamakitty advanced to join him. 'This is empty. Let's try making use of it and see what happens.' Holding open the spout, she encouraged him with a nod.
Nothing to lose, he thought as he reached out with both hands. Holding them tightly together in the manner of someone preparing to scoop water from a stream, he pushed them forward into the moonbow. Something might have tickled his fingers, but he couldn't be sure. As he drew back his cupped hands, the movement seemed to stretch the edge of the glowing arch ever so slightly, as if the diffuse, colored light possessed some slight viscosity of its own.
His curving palms, however, were empty of light or color, and contained nothing to place in the waiting water bag.
'Well, that didn't work,' he murmured. 'I thought I could feel something when my hands were inside, though.'
'Feel what?' Though still dubious of the enterprise, Cezer was intrigued.
Oskar considered. 'Hard to say. A kind of stickiness. It was barely perceptible. I don't think an ordinary human would have noticed it. We dogs have a more sensitive touch.'
'Now there's a contradiction,' Cezer sniffed. 'A sensitive dog.'
'There's something there.' Mamakitty studied the nearby band of coloration. 'We just have to figure out how to draw out some of it.'
'Here, let me try.' Hands extended, Cocoa pushed past both of them.
'No more time for experimenting, I'm afraid.' At Samm's unexpected warning, everyone turned to follow his gaze.
Something was dropping out of the moonlit sky. A pair of massive winged shapes had wheeled around above the northern horizon and were now diving straight toward them. Identifying the specters from a picture he had seen in one of the Master's open books, Taj went cold in his belly.
Morggunts. With riders. Riders he recognized.
