Wish You Well(85)

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,