No True Way by Mercedes Lackey Page A

were fishes, even holders would feast.” He touched his Companion’s mane.
    Milla touched his shoulder. “We’ll make it. We’ve already come to the fork in the path. We’ve shifted onto the path of duty. The darkness is behind us.” She smiled at him and mounted Sorcha.
:Though
I wish I could be as sure as I sound,:
she sent privately to Sorcha.
    :I wish I could be as well. Foreseeing is a hard gift tohave. Even harder to control. It tells you just enough to scare you.:
    Milla leaned forward over the saddle to hug Sorcha’s neck for a moment.
:But now I have you.:
    :Yes, Chosen. You always will.:
    *   *   *
    The next attack wasn’t an ambush so much as a wave of evil headed their way. It was so palpable that they felt it long before they saw any sign of it in the dust stirring on the trade route. As one, the Companions turned from the road and bolted into the forest, Orun and Milla holding on for dear life.
    :There’s a hunter’s trail south. We can take it.:
Torin took the lead.
:We can use the trail to outrun . . . it.:
    Neither Chosen nor Companion knew what “it” was except that it was wrong in every sense of the word. Whoever was hunting those with the gift of Magecraft had worked a major summoning, and it was coming for them all. For a short while, it seemed as if their plan would work. Then the sounds of breaking branches, heavy footfalls, and snarling calls told them otherwise. Glances back gave glimpses of fang and fur on things almost too big to be real.
    â€œSplit up,” Orun yelled. “I’ll draw them off. They have my scent!”
    Milla realized what he meant—the creature that had bitten him, his blood on its teeth. He was going to sacrifice himself for her. “No!”
    :Yes.:
Sorcha and Torin were in agreement. As soon as they made it to the hunter’s trail, the Companions took off in opposite directions. Sorcha back north. Torin to the south.
    :I love you, sister-mine. I’ll see you at the Palace.:
Orun’s mind voice was light and false.
    Milla knew he was saying good-bye in the only way he knew how. Through tears she sent her farewell.
:I love you, brother-mine. I’ll race you. The loser does the winner’s chores for a week.:
It was the only thing she could think of to say.
    :Deal
.:
    Then they both hung on as their Companions ran for all of their lives.
    *   *   *
    Milla screamed and tumbled from Sorcha’s back as she felt Orun die by claws and teeth, torn limb from limb. The pain of his death was mercifully short. The pain of his loss was something she would never get over. Curled up on the ground, sobbing, Milla thought she’d die then and there. Sorcha nuzzled her hair.
    :Chosen, Milla, we must keep moving. Please, Chosen. Please!:
    Only the tone of fear in her Companion’s voice brought Milla out of grief long enough to clamber back onto Sorcha. Only the Companion’s skill kept the unseeing, inconsolable girl in her saddle as she galloped as fast as she could.
    *   *   *
    The demon still chased them. It seemed that Torin had killed the rest, but this one came for them when Orun and Torin were dead. This one knew its quarry and would not let it escape. Claws ripped at Sorcha’s hindquarters and she gave an all too human scream of pain, then whirled on the demon, hooves slashing at its face and blazing eyes.
    As Milla slid from Sorcha’s back and hit the ground hard, she saw the demon in all its wrongness. A cross between a bear and a bull, the horned monster had ahuge snout full of sharp fangs, a shaggy mane, and glowing yellow eyes. Its claws were as long as her forearm and slashed at the Companion as it went for the girl. Milla stood and stumbled backward. It still caught her side, the claws so sharp Milla didn’t feel the pain of the flesh parting until blood was already spilling down her leg.
    It focused on Milla. It