* * *

  A whiskered mandible large enough to swallow Aurelia whole was inches from her face. She could smell blood’s metallic tang as it soaked into white muzzle-fur.

  The great beast pawed at the undergrowth, clearing away some of the greenery that Aurelia had covered herself with, then drew back. Predatory pupils thinned further, as if in contempt, and it bared its teeth, showing a mouth like one filled with so many sabers.

  But then the beast pawed at Aurelia herself, shoving her aside just as it had the leafy branches. Massive and deadly claws remained unretracted, but it made no move to cut her with them, as the enormous cat instead simply pushed her off Roskvir’s unconscious body, and into the dirt next to him. Then it opened its mouth, ready to take the first bite from Roskvir’s torso.

  It… doesn’t want to eat me?

  Before Aurelia had time to think, she scrambled back over onto Roskvir, placing herself once more between him and the cat.

  She clenched her eyes shut, ready to be eaten. But after a long moment, she hadn’t been swallowed.

  The beast drew back once more, snarling, while a fresh wave of sparks shed from its resplendent halo. It moved toward Roskvir’s legs, but Aurelia stretched her arms wide, trying to cover as much of him as she could with herself. With another rumbling growl, a paw once more tried to bat her away, but Aurelia clung to Roskvir, resisting as much as she might even as a claw then slipped onto her, drawing another painful yet superficial scratch along her cheek.

  The beast inhaled, then roared in frustration. Saliva rained over Aurelia, and she grimaced in disgust.

  Disgust indeed — but no longer half as much fear. And when the guttural bellow finished, she looked back up at it with hardening determination.

  The monstrous animal’s thin slit pupils stared her down for another long moment.

  Then the beast turned, and began padding away.

  At last, Aurelia let herself hyperventilate in the way her body had been demanding, allowing her fear again to show. But the aftershocks of that terror subsided in mere seconds, as she watched the beast depart.

  It walked with a limp. She hadn’t noticed it before, but every pace of its front left paw was ginger, and shortened.

  She glanced back down at Roskvir. His breathing had grown weaker still. He needed water, more than anything, she knew.

  But airship engines droned in the distance. More Albians would be hunting after them, very soon.

  She looked one last time between the eviscerated remains of those who’d first tried to track them down, then rose, and started after the beast.

  * * *

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  Aurelia came upon the great cat after no more than a few minutes searching the part of the forest into which it had disappeared. It was impossible for a beast that large not to leave behind a trail of its passing too obvious to be missed by even the most untrained.

  From behind a tree, she peered at the creature in its den, a shallow cave. Beneath the cave roof the beast lay on its stomach as might a housecat, where it seemed to lick the upturned paw that had given it trouble. Every so often, it bit closer at the paw, as if trying to dislodge a tick or stubborn clump of matted fur.

  Aurelia forced herself to take the first step out from her hiding spot, then another. She was halfway to the cave when a twig snapped underfoot, and she froze. The beast turned to glare at her, snarling, but then resumed its efforts on its paw, and Aurelia continued on, emboldened by the knowledge the beast was aware of her presence.

  Once beneath the cave roof herself, she swallowed, seeing the terrible claws and enormous canines up close again. But she saw as well that which the beast was attempting to dislodge: one end of a thick branch protruded from the paw, piercing a leathery footpad.

  The branch was weathered smooth by repeated licks of the cat’s coarse tongue. And when the beast tried with its teeth, its fangs were too large and unwieldy to snag a decent grip.

  Aurelia drew nearer. To get to the branch herself, she was going to have get between the two front paws, she realized.

  She started climbing over the first leg. The cat snapped at her, snarling, and she flinched.

  But then the beast drew back, and with slow care she came down into the space between the knife-clawed forelimbs.

  I’ve got no meat on me, she told herself, while trying to avoid thinking about the massive jaws above her head. I’m all bones. It doesn’t want a bite…

  When she grabbed hold of the branch, it was the beast’s turn to flinch, as it let out another dangerous growl. But Aurelia didn’t let go. Once she had the best grip she could find on the slimy log, she pulled.

  The beast roared in pain, and she pulled harder still. Setting a foot against the paw, she strained, stretching, before at last with a bloody squelch the branch slid free.

  She fell back against the sudden lack of resistance. But the beast was on its feet, standing over her, before she had the time to pick herself up.

  Its crown of fire had reignited, then twice as bright as it had been in the clearing.

  ‘Such bravery, little one,’ she heard echo in her thoughts. ‘Perhaps you truly are Maxadin’s heir. Tell me: why are you not more afraid of so terrible a beast as I?’

  “I… I read about something like you, in an old legend…”

  ‘Hm. Prior knowledge, accumulated by chance, that has assured you against the need to fear me, is really no bravery at all.'

  “I do fear you,” said Aurelia, as she trembled beneath the creature’s saber-teeth. “I am still afraid.”

  ‘Ah,’ said the beast. ‘Now that is bravery.’

  Aurelia had the sense it was smiling at her, even as its feline features couldn’t actually form the expression.

  ‘Long have I owed a debt to your forebearer. It has always bothered me, that I never repaid her in her own time. So tell me, little one: what is it that you desire? Speak your wish, and I shall grant it.’

  Aurelia thought for a moment.

  “I want… Roskvir’s wounds to be healed, and all the Albians except Roskvir to go away forever and never come back, and to bring back all the people who died in Atum-Ra, and to—”

  ‘That,’ said the beast, with a telepathic chuckle. ‘...is not what I meant. But why don't we start where we can, hm?’