Shvate woke to the smell of smoke. His first thought was that the hut was on fire. He sprang up, looking for any sign of flames.
Mayla jerked awake beside him. “Shvate! Fire!”
Karni came rushing back from the children’s room. “Shvate, Mayla, the Krushan are gone.”
“Gone?” Shvate asked. “Where?”
“I don’t know,” Karni asked. “Something very strange is going on.”
All three of them picked up their weapons and rushed outside at once, alert and ready for danger. All three had bows as well as swords, while Mayla also carried a fist-sized clutch of metal darts and spears. The moon was just high enough for them to see by its light. The folk of the hermitage were also waking up now and peering out of their huts.
A white-haired hermit saw them and called out, “Is it an attack?”
“We don’t know yet,” Shvate called out. “Stay indoors. We are going to investigate.”
“Have you seen the Krushan?” Karni asked the priests.
Several shook their heads. Others were still staring around in bewilderment.
The smoke appeared to be coming from the forest. They could see thick plumes of it rising from several miles farther away. Mayla swung around as she walked, turning a full circle. “It is on all sides. A fire lit in a circle around our hermitage. A war tactic.”
“But it has been doused now,” Shvate said. “That means they did not intend to burn us out.”
“Then they have something else in mind,” Karni said grimly, notching an arrow to her bow as she ran. Though Shvate and Mayla both had bows, neither of them had used them in a while, the weapons still causing both of them painful memories due to the association with the accidental killing of Rishi Kundaka and his wife. Shvate had his sword in his fist, and Mayla was pulling a spear from the clutch, holding it in her free hand, ready to throw at the first sight of an enemy.
The three of them ran across the clearing to the forest, calling out the names of their five children as they went. But there was no reply.
They entered the dark woods and slowed, letting their eyes adjust to the greater darkness. Shvate was the first to adjust, his albino vision better able to handle low light than high. He waited for his wives to be able to see as well.
No sign of their children. Nothing that caused concern. They stood for a moment, getting their bearings, trying to listen and smell and sense what was happening.
From deeper inside the forest, then, they heard sounds. At the same time, they felt the vibrations. Shvate pressed his palm against the trunk of a tree and listened. “Soldiers,” he said grimly. “Many hundreds, perhaps thousands—it is difficult to say because they are moving with great skill and stealth.”
“An army, then,” Mayla said. “Who is it? Which of our enemies has come to seek vengeance?”
“What difference does it make?” Karni said, “Whoever they are, if they come to harm us, we fight back. But first, we must find our Krushan. Where could they be?”
Shvate tucked his sword under his arm for a moment and raised his hands to his mouth, shaping and funneling his lips to produce a low, piercing bird cry that carried a long distance in the night. He waited, then repeated the cry twice more. After the third time, an answering cry came to their ears, then repeated itself.
“Kula-Saha,” he said, smiling briefly, “They are only a few miles away from the sound of it. Let us make our way toward them.” He took up the sword again and pointed. “This way.”
They began running into the jungle, their weapons ready and senses alert. As they approached the place where the fire had burned and been extinguished, the air became smokier and more pungent. Their eyes began to sting from the smoke and ash, and they were forced to slow to a near-walking pace. Shvate’s eyes were watering, but he kept going, as did Mayla and Karni—his wives as stubborn and determined as he. Finally, eyes streaming freely, they came to a place where they saw the forest ahead thick with dark shadows and shapes. At once, they raised their weapons, ready to fight.
It was Shvate who swore and took a step forward, rubbing at his eyes to stare. “Impossible,” he said. “Those are not soldiers . . . They are . . . not human.”
Mayla and Karni stared as well.
“You are right,” Mayla said. “I can see tusks, and antlers, and the ears of a wolf, and of foxes, and . . . a lion? Yes, several lions!”
“And birds in the trees, and smaller creatures clinging to the branches and trunks . . . They are the animals and birds of the jungle,” Karni said. “Great numbers of them, all gathered together!”
“The beasts of the jungle do not simply gather together!” Shvate said, “For what purpose would they gather? And predators and prey side by side? It is unheard of!”
“They would join together peacefully to race away from a forest fire,” Mayla said. “I have seen animals fleeing a forest fire once. All different species together, just like this . . .” She paused. “But no—not like this. They were not simply standing together in one place.”
“It is as if they are waiting,” Karni said.
“But for what?” Shvate asked.