he said. Cotton got up and went out on the porch, looking at the stars and contemplating
the collapse of all he knew.
Flashing across in front of him was Lou on the mare. A startled Cotton could only stare
after her, and then horse and girl were gone.
Lou rode Sue hard through the moonlit trails, tree limbs and brush poking and slapping at
her. She finally came to Diamond's house and slid down, running and falling until she
reached the doorway and plunged inside.
Tears streaming down her face, Lou stumbled around the room. "Why'd you have to
leave us, Diamond? Now Oz and I have nobody. Nobody! Do you hear me? Do you,
Diamond Skinner!"
A scuffling sound came from the front porch. Lou turned, terrified. Then Jeb raced
through the open door and jumped into her arms, licking her face and breathing heavy
from his long run. She hugged him. And then the tree branches started rattling against the
glass, and an anxious moan came down the chimney, and Lou held especially tight to that
dog. A window banged open, and the wind swirled around the room, and then things
grew calm, and, finally, so did Lou.
She went outside, mounted Sue, and headed back, unsure of why she had even come
here. Jeb trailed behind, tongue hanging low. She came to a fork in the road and turned
left, toward the farm. Jeb started howling before Lou heard the noises herself. The throaty
growls and ominous thrashing of underbrush were close upon them. Lou whipped up the
horse, but before Sue could get rolling faster, the first of the wild dogs cleared the woods
and came straight into their path. Sue reared up on her hind legs as the hideous creature,
more wolf than dog, bared its teeth, its hackles straight up. Then another and another
came from the woods, until a half dozen circled them. Jeb had his fangs bared and his
hackles up too, yet he didn't stand a chance against so many, Lou knew. Sue kept rearing
and neighing, and spinning in little circles until Lou felt herself slipping, as the wide
body of the mare seemed to grow as narrow as a tightrope, and was also slicked, for the
horse was lathered heavily after the long run.
One of the pack made a lunge for Lou's leg, and she pulled it up; the animal collided with
one of Sue's hoofs and was temporarily stunned. There were too many of them, though,
circling and snarling, ribs showing. Jeb went on the attack, but one of the brutes threw
him down and he retreated, blood showing on his fur.
And then another beast snapped at Sue's foreleg and she went up again. And when she
came down this time, she was riderless, for Lou had finally lost her grip and landed on
her back, the wind knocked from her. Sue took off down the trail for home, yet Jeb stood
like a stone wall in front of his fallen mistress, no doubt prepared to die for her. The pack
moved in, sensing the easy kill. Lou forced herself up, despite the ache in her shoulder
and back. There wasn't even a stick within reach, and she and Jeb moved backward until
there was nowhere else to go. As she prepared herself to die fighting, the only thing Lou
could think of was that Oz would now be all alone, and the tears welled up in her eyes.
The scream was like a net dropped over them, and the half-wolves turned. Even the
largest of them, the size of a calf, flinched when it saw what was coming. The panther
was big and sleek, muscles flexing under charcoal skin-It had amber eyes, and fangs
showing that were double the size of the near-wolves'. And its claws too were fearsome
things, like pitchfork hooked to knuckle. It screamed again when it got to the trail and
headed for the wild pack with the power of a loaded coal train. The dogs turned and fled
the fight, and that cat followed them, screaming with each graceful stride.
Lou and Jeb ran as hard as they could for home. About a half mile from the house they
once more heard the crash of the underbrush next to them. Jeb's hackles went north again,
and Lou's heart nearly stopped: She beheld the amber eyes of the cat out of the darkness
as it ran parallel to them through the woods. That terrifying animal could shred both girl
and hound in seconds. And yet all that thing did was run next to them, never once
venturing out of the woods. The only reason Lou knew it was still there was the sounds of
its paws against the leaves and undergrowth, and the glow of those luminous eyes, which
looked free-floating in the darkness, as black skin blended with stark night.
Lou let out a thankful cry when she saw the farmhouse, and she and Jeb ran to the porch
and then inside to safety. No one else was stirring, and Cotton, she assumed, had
probably left long ago. Her chest heaving, Lou looked out the window, but never saw a
sign of the beast.
Lou went down the hallway, every nerve still jangling badly. She paused at her mother's
door and leaned against it. She had come so close to dying tonight, and it had been awful,