lioness's splayed claws slapped onto both sides of the mare's neck. Before she slid under the stampeding hooves, the lioness bit hard and clung to the horse's pink-white nose.
Clenched^ tight in the saddle, Star looked over the horse's head into red-rimmed black eyes. The lioness's weight, over seven hundred pounds, immediately dragged down the horse's head. Star saw what was coming, let go of the reins, kicked free of the floppy stirrups, and catapulted from the saddle. As the horse stumbled and somersaulted, the lioness let go and skittered aside. Star barely had time to throw up her arms. Grass whipped her face, and she slammed into the ground on her shoulder, flipped like her horse, and thumped on her back. As she skidded to a dazed halt, grass pierced her skin like needles.
From arm's length, with her head spinning, Star looked up into golden-brown eyes. A huge lion, king of the pride, studied her. Hypnotized, paralyzed with fright, Star watched the lion's nostrils twitch, ears flicker, and whiskers tick as grass caught behind them. The princess knew that lionesses did most of the hunting so were more feared, but this monster could break her spine with one paw and bite through her neck. Part of her mind calmly urged her to remain motionless and maybe live. The other part shrieked to scramble up and run.
Staring, Star heard a curious keening whine coming from her own throat. Somewhere Tafir shouted, but the words didn't penetrate. The lion curled a whiskered lip. The samira saw yellow fangs long as her fingers, smooth as ivory tusks from cutting through living bone.
A dragonfly zipped by and thudded into the lion's shoulder. No, not a dragonfly, one of Tafir's bird arrows. The shafts were longer than Star's arm, the feathers wide for stability. The head wasn't a steel point, but four thin prongs for catching birds on the wing. Such a pinprick couldn't hurt the lion, Star wanted to scream, it would only-
The lion grunted as the arrow hit, then snapped at the shaft with its blunt black muzzle. It couldn't reach. Snarling, it whirled and turned smoldering eyes on its attacker. Star saw the lion settle on its back legs, then leap like an eagle taking flight.
A horse whinnied again. Star twisted about painfully and parted grass fronds to see. Gheqet, with his torn scalp, had fled. Thirty feet away, Tafir fought to control his plunging black horse and hang onto his riding bow. Under the assault of three lionesses, Star's white horse was painted with blood, its face torn off like a mask to expose red-streaked bone. One of the lionesses ripped open its throat and the horse died quickly, but none of the females fed. As long as meat beckoned they continued to hunt. Leaving their kills, they split and melted into grass to encircle Tafir's black horse. A pair of yearling males with scanty manes had skulked that way, but they jumped aside when the old scarred matriarch coughed.
'Star,' Tafir called, 'run the other way, and I'll circle around to pick you up.'
Tossing the clumsy bow, the cadet yanked the black's head over and kicked hard. The horse laid back its ears and ran. Star wondered where the huge lion had vanished, but now it pounced on the spot Tafir had just vacated. The long bird arrow had been plucked from the lion's shoulder, probably by grass stalks, leaving four leaking holes.
Star then blinked as all three lionesses, with no prey at hand, spun their heads and stared at her. Golden eyes glowed like six unwinking lamps. Gulping fear, Amenstar scuttled up and ran. Grass whipped and stung her face, cut her hands, arms, lips, and tugged at her tangled corn-rows. She had no clue where to run, for she saw only grass and sky. Dashing, she almost twisted her ankle in a hidden hole. She recovered and pounded on, breath rasping in her lungs, burning.
Suddenly Tafir's black horse, foam-sweaty, loomed ahead, its dark eyes rimmed with white.
Tafir called, 'Keep running! They're close behind!'
Gasping, Star charged faster, then clutched at horse and rider like a drowning woman lunging at a boat. The strong cadet leaned, grasped the back of Star's baggy trousers, and hauled hard to dump her across his saddle. Trying to encourage his mount, or trying to scare the lions, he bawled and whooped nonsense. Belly down, facing more grass, and unable to breathe, Star felt the horse balk, perhaps stumbling in another hidden hole. Tafir cursed and kicked. Gheqet shouted from far away.
An electric tingle like lightning burned Star's calf. For a frozen moment, she wondered what happened. Pain flashed through her leg and spine, and she shrilled out her last breath.
Tafir hollered as the horse regained its footing, set four powerful hooves, and launched through the grass. The rhythmic banging, thumping, and pounding wouldn't let Star catch her breath. The world dimmed at the edges, and she blacked out.
'Star! Wake up!'
The samira fell, instinctively grabbing for support, but Tafir and Gheqet caught her and laid her onto low, wiry bushes. It felt wonderful to breathe freely, the princess thought, until her left calf brushed a bush and a splinter of agony made her yelp.
'Easy,' Gheqet crooned. 'Here, roll over.'
'That big lioness tagged you,' Tafir explained.
Both young men inspected the wound. Splitting her trouser leg, Gheqet picked cotton threads from the wound, but even that gentle motion made Star clench her teeth.
'Not bad,' the cadet grunted. 'Like a pink from a practice sword.'
'It feels like…' the samira moaned,'… like I've been disemboweled and set afire.'
'This wound will inflame,' Gheqet said. 'Cats' claws are filthy.' He wrapped his dusty apron around her calf and tied it lightly with the strings. 'Good thing we've got one horse left.'
Star realized the lions must have cut down Gheqet's brown mare first. The architect's apprentice had been lucky to escape with just a scalp wound. Hers throbbed like a kettledrum.
'Get me home, you two,' she said, 'and quickly.'
The two citizens raised their eyebrows at the command.
'We just saved your life, Samira Amenstar,' Tafir said icily. 'Even wounded, Gheqet distracted the lions by jumping and yelling so I could ride in and grab you. That's why only one lioness raked you, instead of all three pouncing on both of us.'
'That's all very well,' Star snapped, 'but it's your civic duty to protect your sovereign's life. You, Tafir, as an army officer who took a sacred vow, and Gheqet, as a nobleman and citizen of the realm. All Cursrahns must keep the welfare of the royal family uppermost in their minds.'
They were embarrassed and angry by her rudeness and ingratitude, but gentle Gheqet shrugged and told Tafir, 'She's upset. She'll go into shock if we don't hustle her home.'
'We'd do that anyway,' Tafir snorted. Together they hoisted Star onto the saddle, made sure she was secure, and rushed off through the scrub.
'Can't complain, but it's not the life I'd choose,' Tafir droned, 'rising before dawn to stand on a cold parade ground, having superior officers scream orders in my face then having to scream the same orders at sergeants, who all resent me being so young so they scream at the troops, who barely understand a word because so many are barbarian mercenaries. There's the same food day in, day out, marching aimlessly across the plains just to keep busy…'
The men talked while Star sulked and nursed her pain. Gheqet held the horse's bridle in one craggy hand.
'What would you do if your parents hadn't enrolled you in the army?' he asked Tafir.
'I've no idea,' Tafir groused, 'but I wouldn't be a soldier. I hate it, Gheq. My best hope is for my parents to die young so we inherit, though my brother's and sisters' debts will eat up most of that money anyway.'
Low hills unfurled before their tired feet. A bright blue sky beamed. Most of the scenery was covered by tough grass. Distant herds of zebra and antelope grazed. Lonely, parasol-shaped acacia trees dotted the horizon. In pockets fed by tiny springs thrived myrtle trees and dark green cedars. Occasional outcrops of barren rock and sand were ringed by wiry scrub bushes that only goats could eat.
Country dwellers carried warnings to the marketplace that the yellow sand was expanding, that springs and pools dried up seasonally. The land had been changing ever since the Era of Skyfire fifty-two years back, but few city dwellers cared about the wilderness beyond Cursrah's skirts.
The vast grassland was populated by a few. Shacks and tents belonged to herders and hunters. Travelers lurched and swayed on camels and plodding donkeys, and a patrol of the bakkal's cavalry rode under a brilliant red
