Page 38 of Warrior of the Wild
Soren, realizing this, takes a step away from me, brushing carefully at his bleeding palms. “I promised no such thing. I said I’d leave your camp, and I did. What areyoudoing here? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
Of course I wasn’t, but I say, “That is the purpose of our mattugrs, is it not?”
That brings him up short. “Your mattugr…”
“I’ve been sent to kill Peruxolo.”
There it is. I said the words out loud. Now I realize just how hopeless they are.
“Which is, once again, none of your business,” I add.
“Your life is my only business now. Do I need to remind you? I owe you a life debt.”
“And just how do you think you’re—” I cut off as I realize something. “The rockslide. That was you?”
“I tried to divert the god’s attention so you could flee. Thank the goddess, he didn’t think to climb the mountain and see what caused the slide.”
“They’re probably a regular occurrence near the mountain,” I say, thinking aloud. “I doubt he thought anything of it.”
“That’s good for us.”
“There is no us!” I shout. “I neither need nor want your help.”
He doesn’t want to help me. Getting close to me only serves his own ends, whatever they are. I know this. I know that people are only capable of thinking about themselves. I don’t have any desire to find out what it is Soren wants. I don’t care.
I will not make myself vulnerable like that ever again.
“It’s not up to you,” Soren says. “The goddess wills it. I will not disobey her laws. Will you?”
“You—”
A sound fills my ears. Something loud, like a rock falling to the ground. It comes again. And again. And again.
“What is that?” I whisper.
At first, I think I see one of the trees moving.Moving.But then I realize it’s no tree. Its skin is the same color as the deep brown bark of the innas, a perfect camouflage. It’s so very tall and large, over four heads taller than Soren and me. Four black eyesstare down at us, unblinking. They dilate simultaneously once they take in the two of us. I realize now that the loud, crashing sound is each of its steps across the ground, but I can’t make sense at all of what I’m looking at.
But Soren must make something of it, because he says, “Run.”
ITAKE OFF AFTERhim down the road, Soren barely one leg stride ahead of me. And whatever that thing is, it races after us, bounding on two legs.
“What the hell is that?” I shout.
“The gunda,” Soren says.
“The gunda isn’t real.”
Soren flings an arm behind him in the direction of the creature, an emphatic gesture.
Yes, I see his point.
I dare a glance back over my shoulder. Despite its large girth, the beast isfast, those legs taking longer, quicker strides than our own. What I had mistaken as the texture of bark, I now realize are actually tendons connecting to powerful muscles. The gunda doesn’t have any arms, just toned legs to carry it. The beast doesn’t have a neck, either. The main body thins toward the top, where all four eyes rest in a row. A tail snakes out behind it, balancing the gunda as it runs.
It doesn’t make a sound, no cackles like the ziken, and somehow, that silence is even more terrifying. Where is its mouth?
“It’s gaining on us!” I shout.
“We can’t outrun it. Watch your feet,” Soren says. Then he turns quickly, heading right into the thickness of wild.
