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.

Yakone looked up at her. There was pain in his eyes, but his voice was resolutely upbeat as he replied, “I’ll be fine. It’s good to rest, and let the firesnake do the work.” Lusa knew he was trying to be cheerful for her. His eyes half closed, but he forced them open again, as if he was struggling to stay conscious.

Lusa gave him a doubtful look. He’s so brave! Her heart was thudding hard, and she fought the urge to wrap her paws over her eyes and whimper like a scared cub. In all her travels, from the Bear Bowl to the Endless Ice, down to the Melting Sea and then along the River of Lost Bears to the plains, she had never endured anything as terrifying as this journey on the firesnake. The flat segment where they were crouching was open to the sky, with only a narrow metal strip along the sides to keep the pebbles from falling off. They were moving so fast, and so far above the ground, that Lusa felt she might be swept off the firesnake’s back at any moment.

Most frightening of all was when she looked ahead, along the silvery side of the firesnake to its head, then back at its long, long tail, made up of segments piled with more pebbles.

It’s so huge! And what happens if it realizes we’re here? It could flip over and swallow all of us in one mouthful!

Meeting Kallik’s gaze, Lusa could see that her friend shared her fears, though the white bear did her best to hide it.

“Do you think we’re crazy?” Lusa asked in a low voice, hoping not to disturb Yakone, who had closed his eyes again and seemed to be slipping into a troubled sleep. “When did bears ever belong on the back of a firesnake?”

Kallik shrugged. “We didn’t have much choice. It was this, or become prey for coyotes.”

“True.” Lusa shivered at the memory of the slinking, slavering creatures that had tracked them for days, following the scent of Yakone’s blood. “I never want to see another coyote!”

“I just wish I knew where we’re going,” Kallik went on, the tightness in her voice betraying her worry. “Wherever we end up, we need the right kind of herbs to help Yakone.”

Lusa nodded. “Toklo said the firesnake would take us to the mountains. There must be herbs there.”

Glancing over at the brown bear, she saw that he had recovered from the shock of the coyote’s attack and was gazing intently forward at the line of purple mountains that was just visible on the horizon. Lusa could almost taste his impatience.

Is he so desperate to get home that he’s forgotten that Yakone is injured? A tiny jolt of anxiety stirred in her belly. I know he’s waited a long time to return to the mountains, but we have to look after our own.

Kallik and Yakone could have stayed by the Melting Sea, but they had chosen to go with Toklo and Lusa along the gigantic river, following the setting sun toward the place where Toklo had been born. Kallik insisted that until each of them found a permanent home, their shared journey was not over. Lusa looked down at Yakone, feverish and in pain, and wondered if now he wished he had stayed with the other white bears at the Melting Sea.

The sun sank behind the mountains, streaking the sky with scarlet, and stars began to appear, but the firesnake never slowed, roaring on into the night. Kallik and Toklo settled down to sleep, but Lusa felt as restless as if ants were crawling through her pelt. She sat beside Yakone, listening to his ragged, raspy breathing. She raised her head and gazed up at the sky, but her vision was so blurred from the wind that she couldn’t distinguish the patterns of the stars. “Are you there, Ujurak?” she called softly. “We need you so much!”

But there was no response from the darkness, and Lusa couldn’t feel the presence of their mysterious, shape-changing friend anywhere around her. Lonely and frightened, she crouched beside Yakone as the firesnake thundered through the darkness.

Eventually Lusa drifted into an uneasy sleep. After a while her friends’ voices roused her and she struggled to her paws again, blinking in bewilderment until she remembered where she was.

“Lusa, the firesnake is slowing down!” Kallik told her excitedly. “We must be getting somewhere.”

“But where?” Toklo asked, scanning the land ahead. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

I thought Toklo knew where we were going! Alarmed, Lusa fought her way back to full wakefulness and looked around. The firesnake was rolling slowly along the SilverPath. The wind had dropped, and she was able to see their surroundings more clearly in the pale, cold light of dawn. The flat plain had given way to ground that sloped upward into rolling foothills. The mountains, which had appeared as purple shadows on the horizon the day before, now loomed up ahead, looking much more solid and real. As the sun rose behind them, casting their shadows forward, Lusa could make out dark forests stretching up the lower slopes of the mountains, and snow still lying thick on the summits.

“Wow!” she exclaimed. “We’re getting really close to the mountains!”

The firesnake slowed down even more; Lusa staggered at the uneven motion, then lost her balance entirely as the firesnake shuddered to a halt. Yakone let out a yelp of pain as the pebbles shifted and pattered against his injured paw.

“Get down!” Toklo snapped. “Flat-faces!”

Lusa crouched down and peered around Toklo to see a huddle of flat-face dens several bearlengths away. The firesnake had stopped with its head beside a tall, shiny treelike thing. “What’s that?” she whispered.

No one replied. As Lusa watched, a flat-face climbed out of the firesnake’s head and detached a long tendril from the silver tree. He stretched it from the tree to the firesnake and somehow inserted the end into the firesnake’s head.

“Great spirits! What’s he doing?” Toklo muttered.

“I think he must be feeding it,” Kallik murmured uncertainly. “A firesnake as big as this must need a lot of food.”

Yakone let out a snort. “I wish somebody would feed us!”

The white bear’s words made Lusa realize how hungry and thirsty she was. She couldn’t remember the last time her belly had been full. “Maybe we should get off and look for food,” she suggested.

“Yes,” Kallik agreed. “We need to hunt, and find water for Yakone. He’s so hot he feels like he’s burning up.”

Yakone opened his jaws to speak, but before he could get a word out, Toklo was already shaking his head. “The mountains are still too far away,” he pointed out. “If we get off here, we’ll have a long walk in the open.”

“I know,” Kallik began, “but Yakone—”

“Is better off here where he can rest.” Toklo spoke curtly, as if he was in no mood for arguments. “We’ll have to put up with hunger and thirst for a while longer, until we’re closer to the forest.”

Kallik exchanged a glance with Lusa, then sighed. “If you say so. We—”

She broke off at the sound of flat-face voices and the stomp of their paws. Lusa spun around to see two of them walking along the firesnake, coming their way. They seemed to be inspecting its sides.

“They’ll see us!” she gasped. “Now we have to get off!”

“This way.” Toklo gave her a shove toward the side of the firesnake body that was opposite the flat-faces. Lusa half jumped, half tumbled to the ground through an opening in the body and crouched on the dusty earth while Kallik scrambled after her and turned to help Yakone down. Toklo brought up the rear, a low growl of annoyance in his throat.

“Come on,” Lusa urged. “Let’s get as far away as we can before the flat-faces spot us.”

“No,” Toklo said stubbornly. “We have to stay close by. The firesnake will start moving again soon, because it’s going to the mountains. I’m sure of it.” Flattening himself to the ground, he began crawling under the firesnake’s belly, beckoning to the others to follow him. “We can hide here until it’s finished feeding.”

Biting back an irritated reply, Lusa slid underneath the firesnake and poked her nose out on the far side to see what the flat-faces were doing. The two who were examining the firesnake were only a few bearlengths away, while farther up the SilverPath the firesnake was still drinking from the long silver tendril.

Kallik gave Lusa a poke in the shoulder. “Get under here!” she hissed. “They’ll see you if you stick your head out like that.”

Lusa drew back, hardly daring to breathe as the flat-faces drew closer. All she could see now were their hind legs and their clomping paws. At least they don’t seem to have firesticks, she thought, feeling slightly relieved. But she knew that if the flat-faces spotted her and her friends, their roars of alarm would alert the firesnake. And then what would it do to us?

“There’s slimy black stuff down here,” Kallik muttered, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “I don’t want it on my pelt.”

“Hush!” Toklo hissed. “It’s better than getting caught by flat-faces!”

Moments slid by in the gloom under the firesnake’s belly as the four bears huddled together. The flat-faces had halted nearby; Lusa didn’t know what they were doing, but she heard faint tapping sounds as they rapped the side of the firesnake with their naked pink paws. Then her heart thumped with terror as one of them stooped down and peered under the snake’s belly. He wasn’t looking in their direction, but as soon as he turned his head, he would see them.

The other bears had spotted the flat-face, too. Without a word they all began scrabbling frantically backward until they were clear of the firesnake and could stand up, panting and casting desperate glances around for cover. Lusa felt her belly churning with fear and knew they were all quivering on the edge of panic.

Kallik raised a paw and pointed to a stand of scrubby trees across a narrow stretch of open ground. “We’ll have to hide there,” she puffed. “If we don’t, they’ll spot us for sure.”

Lusa gazed at the trees. Kallik was right; they were thick enough and far enough away to give them the cover they needed, but she wasn’t sure that they should leave the SilverPath. “What if the firesnake starts to move again?” she asked nervously. “We might not be able to get back to it in time.”

“I know,” Toklo growled, glancing back over his shoulder at the flat-faces, who were coming closer still. “But we’ve got no choice. Yakone, can you make it?”

“I’m fine,” he rasped.

Yakone set off toward the trees, shambling awkwardly on three paws. Lusa could hear his breath hissing through his gritted teeth, and knew how much pain he must be in, but he kept going. Kallik and Toklo flanked him, supporting him as much as they could. Lusa followed, feeling terribly exposed as she crossed the bare, dusty ground, expecting at any moment to hear shouts from the flat-faces, telling them they had been seen.

But all was quiet as they reached the trees and plunged into the brittle grass. Yakone slumped down with a groan, while Toklo peered around a tree trunk to see what was going on. After a moment he let out a snort. “Look at that!”

Lusa wriggled up beside him. The flat-faces were crawling underneath the firesnake, right in where the bears had been hiding moments before. A shiver ran through her as she imagined what would have happened if they hadn’t moved in time.

“What are they doing?” she asked. “Do they think the firesnake is bleeding from its belly? Is that what that black stuff was?”

She felt Kallik’s warm breath near her ear as the white bear looked over her shoulder. “I don’t know, but if the firesnake moves, they’ll be crushed,” she murmured.

The air tingled with mounting tension as the bears watched the flat-faces emerge from beneath the firesnake. They straightened up on their hind paws and shouted something to their kin farther up the SilverPath.

“It seems like the firesnake is okay,” Kallik commented.

The flat-faces loped alongside the firesnake until they reached its head; then they swung themselves inside it.

“We’ve got to get back,” Toklo growled. “Now!”

As the bears burst out of the clump of trees, the firesnake let out a loud shriek. Before the echoes had died away, it gave a shudder all along its length, then started to drag itself very slowly along the SilverPath.

“Hurry!” Lusa gasped, glancing back to where Yakone was limping, his injured paw held awkwardly off the ground. Kallik was trying to help him, giving him her shoulder to lean on, and they were moving as fast as they could, but the firesnake was already gathering speed, and they were still only halfway there.

Toklo bounded ahead and clambered onto the firesnake’s back. “Come on!” he called urgently.

Is he so anxious to reach the mountains that he would leave us here? Lusa wondered, joining Yakone on his other side and trying to give him a boost.

At last they reached the side of the firesnake. The round silver paws began rattling faster and faster over the shining lines. Lusa tried not to think about what would happen if her fur got caught, dragging her down. . . .

“Come on!” Toklo barked again from above her head.

Lusa and Kallik gave Yakone a shove, while Toklo fastened his teeth in the white bear’s shoulder and helped him scramble up beside him. Kallik climbed up after Yakone, her forepaws slipping among the pebbles while her hindpaws waved frantically in the air. Toklo grabbed her and hauled her upward.

“Lusa, jump! Now!” he snarled.

Lusa ran alongside for a few pawsteps, then hurled herself into the air, scattering the loose pebbles as she landed on the firesnake’s back. “We made it!” she gasped, her legs trembling and her chest heaving.

All four bears flopped down among the pebbles, panting from the effort of running. The flat-face dens and the strange silver tree passed in a flash, and within moments the firesnake was thundering along as fast as before. The wooded foothills passed by in a blur, stretching briefly over them before rolling back into the distance.

Lusa sat up and gazed along the length of the firesnake to the looming green mountains. Her belly was so empty it felt like a hollow cave, and her mouth was as dry as sand. There would be prey in those forests, and streams to drink from. But would they get there in time? Lusa knew that before long she would be too weak to hunt, and her friends were no better off.

“I just hope we get there soon,” she sighed.

Chapter Two - Toklo

CHAPTER TWO

Toklo

Toklo sat up, his head still spinning from the race back to the firesnake and from the thundering noise of its paws along the SilverPath. Lusa and Kallik seemed to have recovered, but Yakone lay limply on the heaps of pebbles, his eyes half-closed. His struggles to get back onto the firesnake had opened up his wound again; it was bleeding sluggishly and Kallik was hunched over it, giving it an anxious sniff.

After a moment she glanced up at Toklo. “Yakone is getting worse,” she said quietly. “There’s nothing I can do for him when there’s no food or water, and no herbs to treat his wound.”

“I know,” Toklo began, “but—”

“Maybe we should have looked for something while we were hiding in the trees,” Kallik went on, as if Toklo hadn’t spoken.

“There wasn’t time,” Toklo protested. “If we’d tried to hunt, the firesnake would have left without us. I know you’re worried,” he added softly, “but when we get to the mountains—to the Sky Ridge where I was born—everything will be fine. Trust me.”

A spark of anger flashed in Kallik’s eyes. “Oh yes, everything will be fine for you!” she exclaimed. “But what about me and Yakone? This isn’t the right place for us, and you know it!”

Toklo bit back a furious response. He knew Kallik’s outburst was just because she was so worried about Yakone. I’m worried about Yakone, too, he thought. And I’m worried that Kallik is regretting staying with me and Lusa until we finish our journeys.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the day grew hotter. Toklo could see how uncomfortable Yakone and Kallik were. There wasn’t a scrap of shade on the firesnake. At least Yakone’s wound gradually stopped bleeding again, and he drifted into sleep.

Toklo crouched beside Lusa, facing forward, almost able to forget his own hunger and thirst as the firesnake drew closer and closer to the mountains. The light on the slopes began to fade as the sun slipped behind the topmost peaks. He drank in the view, feeling long-buried memories stirring in his mind.

I’m home.

The firesnake slowed down to navigate a tight curve in the SilverPath. As he peered through the half-light at the hills on either side, Toklo suddenly recognized where he was. Memories gushed over him like a flood, and he felt like he was staring down a dark tunnel to see a long-gone day lit up in bright sunshine.

This is where I came with Mother and Tobi, and we found the spilled grain!

Toklo remembered how proud he had been some days later when he found his way back to the grain. He pushed away the memory of the huge male bear who had driven them away from their find. This is home, and that’s all that matters.

Toklo sprang to his paws. “Come on!” he yelped to his friends. “This is the place!”

His voice roused Yakone, who raised his head, grunting in confusion. Kallik heaved her shoulder under him to help him to stand. “Toklo says we’re here,” she said soothingly. “We have to get off.”

While Yakone struggled up, gasping with pain as he put weight on his injured paw, Lusa leaped up and padded to the edge of the firesnake’s back. Her berry-bright eyes were gleaming with anticipation. “We’re really here?” she whispered.

“Yes,” Toklo replied. His fur tingled as he gazed out at the familiar slopes and woodland. For the first time in many, many moons, he had returned to somewhere he had been before. The feeling was overwhelming. “Go on,” he barked to Lusa. “Jump!”

The firesnake was still traveling slowly as it rounded the bend. Without hesitation Lusa launched herself through the hole in its side and into the air, and rolled as she hit the grassy slope beside the SilverPath, before bouncing back onto her paws.

“Are you okay?” Toklo called.

“Fine!”

Meanwhile, Kallik prodded Yakone over to the edge of the firesnake. “Just jump,” she said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Yakone gritted his teeth. “Okay.” He fell rather than leaped off the firesnake, and landed on the ground with a thump. Toklo winced; that must have hurt.

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