Page 20 of Sun Warrior

“I will,” Antreas said, nodding respectfully to Wilkes before he and his Lynx faded away into the forest.

“Our guest had a valid point,” Wilkes said. “Mari, will you help us?”

Mari’s answer was swift and clear. “Only if you’ll grant safe passage from Tribe territory to Rigel and me, as well as Nik and Laru and any other person or canine who wishes to leave with us when the fire is out.”

Wilkes’s startled glance found Nik. “You intend to leave? With the Alpha canine of the Tribe and the woman you say can cure the Blight?”

Nik answered with no hesitation, “I go with Mari.”

Mari saw the effect of Nik’s words on the Tribe. They seemed confused and not sure how to react. She felt for them—their city was burning, their friends and families were in danger, and now they were faced with her, a girl who was a stranger and an intruder, and their only chance at salvation.

Yes, she felt for them, but she wasn’t foolish. Mari raised her voice to a shout that carried over the whining of the wind and the noise of the fire as it ate its way ever closer. “I will call down sunfire and save you. I will give you my word that I will also return and tend to your wounded, sharing the healing arts of a Moon Woman with the Tribe, but only if your Council rules to never again enslave any Earth Walker.”

“Her word means nothing,” Thaddeus said as he tore the sleeve of histunic and began to bandage Odysseus. “If you let her leave, the only way we’ll get her back here is to track her and then truss and bind her like a wild boar.”

Mari looked into Thaddeus’s hate-filled eyes and spoke to him alone. “If you don’t shut up I’m going to silence you for good.”

“You dare to threaten me, Scratcher bitch!”

Rigel took two steps toward Thaddeus, growling ferociously. Mari felt Rigel’s anger—she fed off it. She let it fill her so that her own lips lifted in a snarl. Then her Companion’s anger shifted within her so that she was filled with heat, a yellow burning that seemed to be above, around, and within her all at once.

Nik dropped her hand as if it had burned him, but his smile was encouraging. “That’s it! You’re doing it again. You’re calling sunfire!”

“Everyone, get back!” Wilkes shouted. “Get across Badger Creek!” As the Tribe scattered, Wilkes went to Mari and Nik. “It isn’t safe for you to call down sunfire so close, not as much sunfire as it will take to stop this blaze. Nik, let’s get her up there to the raised side of the bank.” He gestured up where the creek wound lazily around and up into the heart of the Tribe.

Nik nodded and the three of them, canines following, hurried to the top of the bank.

“Nik, now what?” she whispered to him.

He spoke quickly and quietly. “The power to call sunfire is in your blood—it’s your birthright, just like calling down the moon is also your birthright. Accept what’s already filling your body. Let it use you, Mari. And then release it.”

Mari’s stomach felt sick with nerves, but she nodded and turned to face the direction from which the fire was making its way through the forest, devouring everything in its path.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply once, twice, three times, grounding herself by focusing on her breath and not on the heat and smoke, fear and hatred, that surrounded her. Mari imagined the smoke clearing above her, and within her mind’s eye she envisioned a fat yellow sun beaming proudly from a perfect cerulean sky.

She could feel the heat and the power. It was definitely there. She lifted her arms, reaching up. Mari felt the golden filigree pattern that slept just under her skin awaken, filling her body with more of the unique yellow heat.

But it didn’t boil within her. It didn’t build and expand and ache to explode.

She opened her eyes and let her arms fall to her sides. “I can’t. It’s not working.”

“You can!” Nik said, taking her shoulders and turning her to face him. “I know you can. You did it before, at the creek, when your mother died.”

“I didn’t think then, Nik. It just happened—like a second ago when I threw it at Thaddeus. It starts heating inside me until it suddenly boils over, but I don’t know how to get it to start boiling.”

“How about like you call down the moon? It has to be almost the same thing,” Nik said.

“But it’s not! I know the moon, and she knows me. I’ve been calling her my entire life.”

“What’s happening?” Wilkes had stayed several paces off, allowing Nik and Mari some privacy, but now he approached, a concerned frown on his face. “What’s wrong?”

Nik began to speak, but Mari’s gentle touch on his arm silenced him. “I don’t know how to call down sunfire. Not really. I’ve only done it twice, and both times it just happened.”

“You mean the sunfire you threw at Thaddeus was an accident?”

Mari nodded.

“The other time was when her mother died,” Nik said. “I meant to ask Sol to train her, but…” His voice faded.