Клэр Белл - The Named - The Complete Series

“Song did it, not you. Here.” Thistle lifted the youngster and held the cub before Quiet Hunter’s eyes. “She’s not hurt badly.”

There was a thump behind the two as Thakur landed. Ratha knew that he’d sprung at Quiet Hunter but checked himself in midair.

Things snapped back to normal speed and Ratha’s view widened. Again the fight pressed in. Several renegades had noted Quiet Hunter’s recovery; eerily, their heads came up together, and they targeted him.

Thakur charged both, and then Ratha found her strength again and flew to his side. From the corner of her eye, she saw Bira take the cub from Thistle, then both Thistle and Quiet Hunter joined Bira’s defense of the cubs.

Then all was the confusion of fighting again, dust and fur and squalling litterlings, fluttering firebrands and panicked screams. Ratha sprang up, trying to see above the commotion to yowl commands at the female Firekeepers. The sound of deeper roars and the crown of fire on torches heartened her. Cherfan and the herders were coming, along with the male Firekeepers.

She saw Thakur bound through the fight to reach Cherfan and heard him yowl,“Did you get New Singer!”

“We beat off those renegades,” Cherfan panted, “but it wasn’t easy, even with the Firekeepers. We didn’t even get near New Singer — he’s still with that rat-eating bunch. I don’t know what he’ll do next.”

“If they want to keep their hides, they’ll run for home,” growled Mondir, behind Cherfan.

The enemy showed no sign of following Mondir’s advice. More hunter renegades spilled into the nursery. Ratha searched frantically for Bira and the cubs. She found them backed into a small hollow, aided by Drani, Thistle-chaser, Quiet Hunter, and a torch-wielding Fessran.

She jumped to Fessran’s side, grabbed a torch offered her by another Firekeeper and swung it in an angry arc, driving off a raider who had crept close enough to grab a cub by the leg. He flattened and spun around to flee, but then gave a strange jerk and flung himself back to try again, despite the fear in his eyes.

She knew she was witnessing the power of the song and those driven by it. She also knew the source was close by, and as she searched, she caught sight of New Singer’s dark-gray-striped pelt, now mottled with red. Thakur was right. To win this battle, the Named had to kill or capture New Singer. She passed her torch to Bira, freeing her jaws once again for command, telling Drani to soothe the cubs while Bira took up her place as torch-wielder. She also told Quiet Hunter and Thistle-chaser to stay behind the two flame-bearers and help Drani shield the cubs, the living treasure of the Named. Then she whirled and reared, roaring, “Clan males, Firekeepers, Cherfan, Thakur, and Mondir. To me!”

The Named all surged about Ratha as she launched herself at the guard around New Singer, determined to tear her way through his defense and sink her fangs repeatedly in his throat, one bite for every Named cub that died. The Firekeepers reared and plunged, swinging their brands down on raider backs and thrusting them into faces. However badly singed or blistered, the enemy held their ground, commanded by the intense power of the song coming from their leader.

Ratha knew that the effort was costing the Named too much and that even the powerful males would soon become exhausted.

“We can’t defend the nursery,” she yowled to Bira and Fessran. “Take the cubs to the fire-den!”

Thakur, who was leading Ashon, Bundi, and other young males at the edge of the fight, arrowed in with his group to Fessran and Bira. The two females loaded the young males with all the litterlings they could carry, cubs dangling from their mouths, clinging to their backs, their flanks, and even hanging from their necks. Ratha saw Thistle pick up a cub, start to pass it to Quiet Hunter, then hesitate, and finally give it to him. Ashon was so covered with his younger siblings that he could barely stagger, but he started out bravely. Bira stopped him, relieved him of some of his burden, and sent him off. She followed him, her torch flagging in the wind. More cub-carriers followed her.

Once the cub-rescue had started, Ratha led more attempts to tear away the guard around New Singer, leading a heavy charge made up of the older herders and the Firekeepers.

She thought she had won through when the rear of the line surrounding the enemy leader started to fragment. It closed again, making Ratha realize that New Singer had just released some of his core guard. To do what, was the question in Ratha’s mind, but it was quickly answered when the gang of hunter males homed in on the cub rescue. Evading Fessran, they surrounded Drani, who had just sent off another cub-carrier. Instead of trying to kill the few cubs remaining in the nursery, they jumped on Drani, subdued her, and then dragged her in an unexpected direction — toward the center of clan ground.

Three raiders separated from their gang, then, despite Fessran’s yowled warning, ambushed Bira when she returned to escort another cub-carrier, knocking her down and wresting the torch away from her. They pulled her away in the same direction they had taken Drani.

The renegades had changed tactics yet again, and almost instantly. Again Ratha felt caught off balance, not knowing what New Singer was up to. His guard seemed to fragment, but then reclosed, sending off another gang to take down and drag off another female Firekeeper.

Grinding her teeth with frustration, Ratha grabbed the fallen torch, jumped up on Mondir’s and Khushi’s backs, and, with a twist of her head, lobbed the firebrand over New Singer’s defenders right at the enemy leader himself. It hit, but bounced off, guttering to black smoke as it rolled away. In the instant it struck, though, Ratha saw and sensed a collective shudder go throughthe enemy fighters.

The blurred sight of a sandy coat told Ratha that Fessran had seen the same thing and understood it. Bounding atop Cherfan, the Firekeeper leader reared and flung her brand at New Singer, hitting square on. Another, deeper shudder ran through the hunter renegades, freezing some of them, but New Singer recovered.

With his warriors beating the flame out of his fur, even throwing themselves atop him to quench it, New Singer whipped his forces to greater ferocity, rage leaping in his eyes.

Fessran’s effort had been briefly effective, but it hadn’t stopped the hunter attack, and it had left the Firekeeper without her torch. Ratha was already leaping to her friend’s side as Fessran sprang away and landed, but brindled raider pelts blocked her way as the rogues surrounded and overwhelmedFessran. The air was filled with growling, spitting, and hissed cursing as the Firekeeper went into a wild flurry. Ratha could see the blood spray flying over the heads of Fessran’s attackers. She fought to reach Fessran’s side.

With a frantic glance behind, Ratha saw that the enemy’s staunch huddle of defense had transformed itself into two wings curving outward around the raging fight. New Singer was still protected in the midst of one wing. Ratha heard Cherfan’s bellow of annoyance when the big herder found himself clawing the air where the enemy leader had been an instant ago.

More enemy gangs leaped on Firekeepers and herders alike, but they were dodging the males to fall upon the females, who were encircled and either forced or dragged away by the scruff.

Other raiders seemed to be running away, but in the wrong direction, farther into clan ground.

Fearing that they were going after the cub-carriers, Ratha twisted her head frantically, eyes and ears straining to take in everything that was happening beyond the immediate fight.

She saw the rogues chasing the cub-rescuers, but instead of trying to pull them down and kill them, or snatch the cub away, the enemy was cutting them off, driving them away toward the borders of clan ground.