“Kreya, I think we—Fuck!” A croco-raptor leaped onto the side of the crawler. Its jaw clamped onto Zera’s coat, and it yanked her off the seat.
“Zera!”
Kreya lunged across the side of the crawler, but her hands closed over air. Her friend sailed backward, pulled by the monster, between the trees. Swearing, Kreya leaned hard on thesteering, forcing the crawler to pivot fast. Its legs shrieked in protest.
Behind, she heard the other croco-raptors gaining on her.
“Go, Kreya!” Zera shouted. She let out a cry of pain as she was dragged over rocks. “Get out of here!”
Not happening.She hunched down beneath the branches. “Raca! Raca!” The trees blurred around her as she focused exclusively on the river lizard dragging Zera. “Use strength! Break free of it!”
Ahead, she heard branches breaking.
And then suddenly silence.
“Zera!”
Behind her, they were still coming. She didn’t know how many. But where was the one who’d taken Zera?No, no, no,Kreya thought. She wasnotlosing her friend. Not like this!
The crawler burst into a clearing, and suddenly Kreya saw them:
Suspended above the clearing were webs, thick vinelike ropes that crisscrossed between tree trunks on either side of the opening. Caught in the middle of the web was the croco-raptor. Zera was prone on the ground beneath it.
She wasn’t moving.
“Get up, Zera!” Kreya called.
She lay staring up.
What’s wrong with her?Kreya wondered. “Zera! Snap out of it!”Please, stand up. Run!Every bit of her felt as if it were vibrating with the need to scream at her friend to movenow. A web in the valley—
Lifting her arm, Zera pointed. “Pretty as the sun.”
Kreya ordered the crawler to stop as she looked up. Sheexpected to see one of the wolf spiders, known for their size and their webs—this was obviously a wolf spider’s web. But what she saw was far worse.
Rare, very rare, the mindcloud jaguar was perched on a branch above a tear in the web, a dead wolf spider beneath one of its paws. She’d only heard descriptions of the elusive predator: shadow-gray fur, onyx-black teeth, and eyes... they were said to be golden.
You didn’t ever look in its eyes.
The mindcloud jaguar hypnotized its prey, before it killed them.
Only three feet in length, the cat had been known to take down river lizards many, many times its size, subduing them with the power of its mind before ripping them apart with its teeth. Behind her, Kreya heard the other croco-raptors burst into the clearing, see the mindcloud jaguar, and then retreat. They prowled just beyond the clearing, ready to catch her when she ran, unwilling to risk the stare of their enemy.
“Listen to me, Zera. I am your commander. Not that cat.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she kept her voice even and firm. “And I need you to get up and run. Run toward my voice.”
“I’m sorry, Kreya. I can’t move. It doesn’t want me to move. I can’t... I can’t stop looking at it. You have to go. You have to leave me. Or it’ll take you too.”
Not an option. “You’re looking at it right now, yes?”
“Yes. Said that.”
“Then you guide my aim.” Kreya drew one of her knives. She adjusted her grip on the hilt. Her palms were sweaty from clinging so hard to the controls of the crawler. Lifting the knife, she said, “Give me a position.”
“Raise it higher.”
She did.
“Left, twenty degrees. Less.”
