Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker #3)(105)

The Woven’s eyes skipped around in confusion. Rowan tried speaking to the Woven in Cherokee, but her eyes stayed clouded.

“I don’t think she understands much,” Rowan surmised.

“What do we do?” Lily asked. She looked up at the sun, already above the horizon, and remembered Toshi. She reached out to him.

I’m okay, Toshi replied. The Hive is keeping me here to watch over Grace. I get the feeling that as long as she doesn’t die, neither do I.

Wake her.

I’ve been trying to. I’ll keep at it. Aren’t there a bunch of rebels you should be claiming right now?

Are they ready for me?

Ready, willing, and able. They’re waiting to hear your call.

Lily smiled at Rowan. “Toshi’s people are waiting for me,” she said. She looked back down at the Woven. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Lily petted Spike’s talon. “Let her up,” she said.

Spike cautiously lifted his claws. The lion was uninjured. She sat back on her haunches, glowering at Lily.

“What do I do with you?” she asked, not sure if the Woven could understand her. “You’ve got too much will for me to claim you without your consent, but not enough to grasp any verbal argument I could make to convince you.”

The lion cocked her head. Her nearly human eyes narrowed. Maybe she understood more than she could say.

“I need your help,” Lily said. She moved closer to the lion and felt Rowan’s hand shoot out to pull her back. “Just let me try one thing,” she said, pleading with him.

Rowan’s grip on her arm relaxed but he didn’t let Lily get more than an inch away as she moved in closer, holding out her hand for the lion to smell. Lily tried to ignore the fact that her hand was shaking violently as it hovered in front of the lion’s saber teeth, and she kept it outstretched by force of will alone. After a moment that was filled with the sound of Lily’s heart pounding in her ears, the Woven allowed Lily to touch the side of her hulking face. Lily moved her hand onto the big cat’s forehead and closed her eyes, concentrating. She thought about Grace’s face as hard as she could, willing the image into the Woven’s brain, and whispered her name. She heard the cat growl.

“Enemy,” hissed the bushes all around. The rest of the Pride glided forward, surrounding Lily, Rowan, and Spike.

“My enemy, too. Fight her,” Lily replied, looking at each member of the Pride in turn.

The largest female came forward. She looked infinitely bored, like only a cat can, but her agitation was betrayed by the twitching of her tail. She sat down in front of Lily.

“My pride,” she purred, as if daring Lily to take it away from her.

Lily nodded in agreement. “Yours. But I can make it stronger.”

Lily fought her fatigue and filled Rowan’s willstone with as much strength as she could.

Her newly claimed Pride members watched as Lily and Rowan jumped up onto Spike’s back and he clambered up the trunk of a tall tree and took flight from the topmost branches.

Find more lions, Lily told her Pride. Bring them back here.

They rose, stretched, and rubbed their faces against one another languorously before melting into the trees.

Lily let the drake circle to find the best updrafts in the early morning chill. They soared over to the next valley and found what they were looking for. Three enormous raptors were riding the air currents, scanning the ground for something to eat.

“Get above one,” Rowan said.

Lily directed Spike to fly up, and he beat his wings and stretched out his neck, climbing a ladder into the sky.

When they were high enough and the raptor was just a dark shape beneath them, Rowan put an arm around Lily and swung his legs over to one side of the drake’s neck. Lily felt the hot and cold surges of terror as she took her feet out of the stirrups.

“Are you sure about this?” Rowan asked.

“No,” Lily shouted over the whipping wind. Her voice came out choked as it tried to get around her stomach, which was now lodged in her throat. “But it’s the only way.”

Rowan looked over the side, his face serene as he timed it. Lily saw his willstone pulse as every sense in him sharpened, and he pulled her tightly against his body and launched them off the drake’s neck into thin air.

Lily shrieked uncontrollably, clutching at Rowan desperately as they fell. Rowan spread his other arm out to the side like a rudder to steer them and slow them down. His willstone pulsed again as he changed the air—thickening it until it was almost as viscous as water. By the time they hit the raptor’s back, Rowan had slowed their descent enough to land gently on the Woven.

Startled, the raptor tucked its wings and barrel rolled. Rowan pressed Lily flat against the Woven, holding them tightly to it. Lily scrabbled through its feathers, trying to get her hand up to its forehead, like she had with the lion.

“I can’t reach,” Lily yelled.

Rowan inched them around while the raptor plummeted to the ground. Lily stretched and strained, and as she neared the raptor’s head she started talking, hoping that the raptor could understand.

“I need your help!” she yelled. The raptor shrieked in response. Lily grabbed handfuls of feathers and finally got close enough to lay her hands on the raptor’s head. She concentrated on sending images of Grace’s face, and a fantasy of Lily’s army fighting the Hive.