Qaletaqa (39 page)

Panting and heaving, the creature watched me
warily. I thought I had broken some of its ribs and one of its legs
was practically useless, but it wouldn’t give up. It had gotten in
a few attacks on me when its anger fueled a more thoughtless
attack. Blood ran down my forearm and dripped into the sand. We
were both nearly spent. It stared at me, formulating its last
attack. Lunging forward, it feigned right. I pretended to follow
its lead, but snapped back to the left at the last moment as I
caught its neck in my arms. Dropping to my back, I wrenched its
body across me, snapping the brittle bones and stealing its life
away. The body rolled off of me at last, and I struggled to pull
myself back up.

I could feel my blood calmly sliding down the
side of my face as I stood and faced the Matwau. My legs felt weak.
A huge gash down the center of my thigh was dripping out most of my
strength. My hands were shaking so badly that I wasn’t sure I could
even form a fist anymore. I knew how to kill the Matwau, as long as
I could overcome his multiplied power, but did I have the strength
left to actually do it? I stumbled over another of the ruts in the
ground and fell to one knee. Melody’s sob echoed in my heart. I
felt like doing the same as I was finally forced to admit I had
made the wrong choice.

I couldn’t do this alone.

***

As soon as Uriah’s motorcycle was out of
view, my eyes snapped to Talon. He didn’t hesitate. I sighed in
relief. “You were very convincing,” I said to him.

He nodded in a way that seemed to say the
same thing to me. I wasn’t convincing enough to make Uriah leave
without tying me up, but it didn’t go as badly as I thought it
might. Talon padded over to me and started gnawing at the thin
rope.

“I was afraid you were really going to leave
us here for a while,” I said. He looked up, baring his teeth in the
direction Uriah had headed. We may not be able to communicate with
each other like he could with Uriah, but we were of like mind when
it came to protecting the people we cared about. Nothing he could
have said would have made us stay behind.

Although, as a few of Uriah’s words drifted
back into my mind, my chest constricted. Tears threatened when I
thought of him saying watching me die wasn’t worth killing the
Matwau. He believed it with his whole heart, but he was wrong. He
wouldn’t be the only one to die. If he failed, countless others
would be ravaged by the Matwau until someone else came forward to
try and stop him. And judging by the way the gods revered Uriah
when he met with them, that might have been a long time coming, if
ever.

Uriah was wrong. My death would be worth
saving everyone who came after me.

Having said that, I wasn’t exactly planning
on dying.

It was torture arguing with Uriah. Letting
him believe there were no other options but watching me die or
dying himself. All through our somewhat frightening drive down here
I was thinking. I had a list of things in my mind that had to
happen in order for Uriah survive. It was a short list, but an
important one. Give him my power. Get him to turn away from the
Twin Soul bond forever and gain that power as well.

The plan for giving him my power started the
second he pulled up. I really was frustrated with him that he
didn’t believe me, but I only fought him enough to make it
believable. The bond, that one was going to be harder. He couldn’t
turn away from the bond until after it was formed. That was where
it got tricky.

My bindings sprang away. I shook them off
quickly and got Harvey loose as well. Two seconds later all three
of us were running for the truck. Thankfully, Harvey didn’t try to
drive. I think Talon and I had both had enough of his frenzied
driving by that point. I tugged out the keys Uriah had left in my
pocket after tying me up and jammed them into the ignition. The old
engine roared to life, more full of energy than I had ever seen
before. Even the truck new Uriah was wrong.

All of this happened without a spoken word.
That was about to change. Talon and Harvey seemed to know it, too,
because both of them turned to stare at me as we bounced down the
mountain. “Please tell me you have a plan,” Harvey said.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I do, but you
aren’t going to like it.”

***

Uriah was tiring. His shield was still in
place, no doubt trying to keep me from rushing in to help him, but
it had weakened along with his physical body. His pain and fear
were sweeping through me. I dashed through the sands, pushing
Claire and Harvey along with me.

The drive back down the mountain and over to
Taos de Pueblo had taken longer than I expected, and we were all
dismayed to find out that the road stopped well away from any view
of the Matwau. The pale hills ran right up to the forest, but the
shifting sand had us scrambling over them much too slowly.
Traveling on all fours was nothing new to me, but Claire and Harvey
were forced to travel in the same way and they were certainly not
pleased about it. The scorching sand burned their hands. They
struggled to move as quickly as they could.

As we got closer to the tree line, sounds of
the battle began to reach us. The clash of man and animal brought
growling and howls, snarls and yelps from the animals, but also
screams of pain and anger from Uriah. Even without being able to
tell Claire that Uriah was struggling, she heard the sounds and
knew it was not going well. Harvey seemed to come to the same
understanding. Both of them doubled their pace and pushed with
everything they had.

One last low hill stood in front of us.
Claire and Harvey were ready to sprint over it, but a sharp growl
from me stopped them. The sounds of the fight were very clear now.
Topping that hill would put us in plain view of everyone in the
valley. I had no idea what powers the Matwau could now make use of
in the valley of his birth, but I did not want to find out that
way.

Quietly, but quickly, I led Claire and Harvey
around the base of the hill. The slope terminated near the edge of
the forest, giving us a place to survey the valley before jumping
in. I was going to help Uriah, but I would not break my promise to
protect Claire, either.

“Can you see him?” Claire asked.

A few more steps brought me around the base
and laid the entire valley out before me. Utter despair filled me
as Uriah’s emotions hit me full force. The scattered bodies of the
Matwau’s creatures lay at his feet. Dead or defeated they did not
move any longer, but they had left their marks on Uriah.

There was hardly a single inch of his body
that was not covered in blood. Some might have belonged to the
creatures he had killed, but the gash in his thigh and another in
his forearm let his lifeblood leak out. He was down on one knee
staring up at the woman whose life he had come to save. Her eyes
pleaded with him to get up, but hopelessness was her only
answer.

Nodding to Claire that I could see him, I
then dipped my head and shook it back and forth.

“What? What’s wrong?” Claire demanded. I
pantomimed Uriah’s injuries and shook my head again. Taking a deep
breath, she said, “Okay, the plan will still work. I’m just going
to need a few minutes before we put it into action. I’ll have to
take care of Uriah’s wounds first.”

I nodded eagerly. I didn’t understand any of
the conversation Claire had with Kaya on the way down the mountain,
but I understood she was getting more last minute instruction on
using her power. It worried me that Claire had never tried Kaya’s
techniques before, but we had no other choice. Uriah could not last
much longer on his own. By the expression on his face, he knew it,
too.

Claire’s hand on my shoulder brought me out
of my concerns about her power. “We’re ready, Talon.”

I had so many instructions I wanted to give
her. Go right to Uriah. Keep Harvey back. Let me distract the
Matwau. I could tell her none of my plan. I growled in terrified
frustration. Patting my back, Claire nodded, her face stony and
filled determination. I didn’t need to tell her anything.

She was ready. She gave Harvey instructions
that I hoped were similar to the ones I wanted to give him and took
his hand in a show of unity, or maybe to keep him from disobeying.
His face was hard now, no fear, just solid determination. We all
knew the risks. We were all ready to die if that was what it took.
I had lived a long life filled with hunts and danger and
friendship. Although the last was new to me, it was what made me so
willing to give up the others.

With no regrets and a cold fury burning in my
heart, I tore into the valley, straight for the Matwau’s
throat.

***

I watched Talon leap away from us. His legs
carried him impossibly fast, but we didn’t stand there to watch his
flight. The second we saw the Matwau’s eyes snapped over to Talon
we made our break as well.

Uriah stared in amazement at Talon as he ran
past him. He watched his friend leap into the air at the surprised
Matwau. Surprise did not last long enough. The Matwau lashed out at
Talon, knocking him away. Talon’s claws did manage to score a few
rough slashes across the Matwau’s arm before he was tossed away.
Talon fell into the sand, but was back up in a split second, ready
to leap again.

I looked away, praying Talon would be
alright. I turned my attention back to Uriah and tried to prepare
myself. He had fallen back to his knees at the sight of Talon, but
was already trying to jump back up and go to his friend. His
trembling legs were having a hard time doing as he wanted.

“Uriah,” I called out. “Uriah, wait!”

He turned back and finally saw us. His eyes
flew wide and his head started shaking, but relief hid behind his
denial. I wanted to jump into his arms, but I was afraid I would
only damage him even more. I slowed just before I reached him and
grabbed his hands firmly in mine. I hauled him back to his feet. I
had no time to be gentle with him.

Unlike me, Harvey was paying no attention to
Uriah. His eyes were glued to Melody. Melody’s frightened eyes
danced between her husband’s and Uriah’s as she was yanked back and
forth by the Matwau’s attempts to avoid Talon. He looked to be on
the verge of running to her, which I knew would only end in his
death. I grabbed his arm and forced him to look at me.

“Wait, Harvey. Just give me a few minutes,
okay? Don’t run up there and get yourself killed before I have time
to fix this mess.”

He held, barely. I had to trust him to stay
put for now. Leaving him to hopefully sit still, I frantically
turned back to Uriah. I didn’t know if he heard what I had just
said to Harvey, but his face was a mask of confusion and relief. As
I stared back at him I finally saw the damage he had sustained.

“Oh, Uriah, I’m sorry we didn’t get here
sooner. It took longer than we thought it would to get here from
the pueblos. Are you okay?” I asked.

He just shook his head. “Claire, you have
to…”

Surely he won’t try to tell me to leave
again, I thought. He can’t be that thickheaded.

“You have to help me,” Uriah said in defeat.
“I can’t do this alone. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you
before.”

“I doesn’t matter,” I said quickly. I took in
his appearance one more time. He could barely stand, let alone
fight. I only had a few seconds to help him. Talon wasn’t going to
be able to distract the Matwau for much longer. Rolling out Kaya’s
instructions to the front of my mind, I held Uriah’s face and
closed my eyes. He tried to ask me what I was doing. I ignored him
and focused every bit of my energy on our bodies.

Everything was so chaotic, I couldn’t get in
contact with him like I wanted. I needed more. Wrapping my arms
around Uriah, I let myself drink in everything about him. His
power, the bond, the scent and feel of him. It strengthened my
resolved, focused my mind, and let my power touch him.

I dove through the heat of the bond and
hovered at the edges of his soul. The last thing we needed was to
have Uriah black out again, so I didn’t go any deeper. Quickly, I
searched the border of his soul. The wounds leeching away his
strength pulsed against my touch. I felt compelled to soothe him,
protect him. Everything Kaya had told me suddenly felt so natural,
like I had known it long before she told me what to do.

The wounds to Uriah’s body sizzled under my
touch. I could feel his need to be healed covering him from head to
toe. My power responded to that need. Leeching away my own
strength, I let it pour into him. The pulsing wounds settled and
relaxed instantly. Uriah shivered in my arms, causing me to pull
back. I nearly stumbled to the ground when my power receded.
Stronger than it was a second ago, Uriah’s grip caught and held
me.

I looked up and was startled even though I
knew what to expect. It had taken less than a second, but the
change I saw in Uriah was amazing.

“What did you do?” he asked. He was still
covered in blood, but instead of blood pouring out of every wound,
the flow had stopped and had the look of beginning to mend.

“I…I healed you,” I said. No need to get into
the details of how, and what it cost me right now. I knew how Uriah
would react to that bit of information.

“Talon can’t do it! He’s about done, Claire,”
Harvey yelled. His frantic voice pulled against me just as hard as
his arm as he tried to escape my grasp. “We have to move now if we
have any chance of pulling this off!”

“Harvey,” Uriah said, his voice commanding,
no longer shaky and weak, “stand back. Protect Claire. I’m going to
get Melody away from him.”

Uriah’s body coiled in anticipation of
renewing his fight.

“No, you’re not,” I said, grabbing him before
he could do anything stupid. He stared at me like I had just asked
him to slit his own wrists. I buried the hurt that look drew out of
me and focused. “Uriah, you already tried to fight him on your own.
It didn’t work. And don’t bother arguing with me. I know exactly
how close you just came to dying. I’m done standing on the
sidelines.”