Dedication

Dedication

For Roberta Annabel Baldry, with love

Contents

Contents

Dedication

Maps

Acknowledgment

Chapter One - Lusa

Chapter Two - Toklo

Chapter Three - Kallik

Chapter Four - Lusa

Chapter Five - Lusa

Chapter Six - Toklo

Chapter Seven - Lusa

Chapter Eight - Kallik

Chapter Nine - Toklo

Chapter Ten - Lusa

Chapter Eleven - Kallik

Chapter Twelve - Toklo

Chapter Thirteen - Kallik

Chapter Fourteen - Lusa

Chapter Fifteen - Toklo

Chapter Sixteen - Kallik

Chapter Seventeen - Lusa

Chapter Eighteen - Toklo

Chapter Nineteen - Kallik

Chapter Twenty - Lusa

Chapter Twenty-One - Kallik

Chapter Twenty-Two - Lusa

Chapter Twenty-Three - Kallik

Chapter Twenty-Four - Lusa

Chapter Twenty-Five - Toklo

About the Author

Books by Erin Hunter

Back Ads

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Maps

Maps

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment

Special thanks to Cherith Baldry

Chapter One - Lusa

CHAPTER ONE

Lusa

Wind blasted into Lusa’s face, flattening her pelt to her sides. Her eyes watered as she stared at the SilverPath forging across the flat, open plain. Shining twin lines stretched ahead as far as she could see, leading the bellowing firesnake toward a smudge of mountains on the horizon. Lusa’s body shuddered and her fur quivered as the firesnake rattled over the lines. She still couldn’t believe they were doing this! A sharp, fizzing tang flooded her senses, not quite the same as with firebeasts on the BlackPath, but it made her eyes water in the same way, and made her mouth taste sour.

Beside her, Toklo crouched on the rattling floor, his chest still heaving from the battle with the coyote that had tried to follow them onto the back of the firesnake. Lusa squeezed her eyes shut as she remembered the blood of the coyote smearing the SilverPath, and the creature’s dying wail of terror.

That could have been Toklo, crushed under the firesnake’s paws. Lusa shook herself. But it wasn’t Toklo. He’s fine. We’re all fine.

But that wasn’t entirely true. Yakone lay on his side, his injured forepaw stretched out in front of him. He had lost two toes in a trap set by flat-faces, and though the wound had stopped bleeding, the exposed flesh looked red and angry. When Lusa sniffed, she could pick up its nasty, sweetish smell over the reek of the firesnake. Kallik sat close beside Yakone, bending over him with a worried look in her eyes.

Lusa edged closer to the white bears, wincing as the sharp pebbles that covered the floor dug into her pads. Why is the firesnake carrying these? she wondered crossly. Aren’t there enough pebbles in the mountains?

“How do you feel, Yakone?” she barked, raising her voice to make herself heard above the thunder of the firesnake. Looking at him, she felt guilty for her moment’s irritation. The brief twinge in her paws was nothing as bad as Yakone’s wound; he might never walk properly again.