The Burning Shadow by Michelle Paver Page A

through the beautiful cool Dark?
    Now he was whiffling in the ferns, so she crept out from under the bushes.
    She was encouraged to find that he’d left his kill for her, and even playfully hidden some of the bits. The paws and tail were too furry to eat, so she had a wonderful game of toss-and-catch before drowning them in the hot wet. Then she attacked the carcass, which he’d slung over a branch. In one huge leap she caught it in her jaws, then pretended it was trying to get away, and pounced. Like a full-grown lioness hauling her kill, she dragged it about between her front legs. When she got bored, she ate as much as she could, and clawed the rest to shreds.
    After this, she climbed on a log and lay with her legs on either side, to have a nap. At last she was sure about the human. He was definitely the one.

    Hylas knows he is dreaming, and he doesn’t want it to end. He’s with Issi on Mount Lykas, playing bears and wolves. She’s the wolf and he’s the bear, and as usual she’s cheating, wielding her slingshot with deadly accuracy and pelting him with chestnuts.
    â€œWolves don’t use slingshots!” he shouts.
    â€œNeither do bears!” she yells when he pelts her back.
    Now Pirra is with them too, and she and Issi are ganging up on him, chasing him through the bracken with wild wolf howls as they hurl pebbles and sticks. He’s laughing so hard he can barely run. Then he has an idea, and doubles back to sneak up on
them
.
    He bursts out with a roar, and now
they’re
running away, squealing and sputtering with laughter. He glimpses a flash of fair hair, that’s Issi up ahead. He pushes through the undergrowth, he’s gaining on her—
    Hylas woke up.
    Moonlight slanted through the pines. He heard the night crickets and the bubbling spring. Dejection crashed over him. It had felt so real.
    Was Issi trying to dream to him? Was Pirra? Or was it one of those false visions the gods send to make fun of a mortal?
    Sometimes, down the pit, he had imagined what it would be like if he and Pirra ever got back to Mount Lykas and found Issi. At first, Issi would be wary of Pirra, but they’d soon become friends. And Pirra would like the mountains, and he would show her all his favorite places . . .
    Scowling, Hylas turned onto his side. Issi was far away, and Pirra was trapped in Kreon’s stronghold. He didn’t know what to do. If he managed to escape Thalakrea and went after Issi, then Pirra would never get free. If he went back to rescue Pirra, he might lose his chance of finding Issi.
    In the forest, an owl uttered a wavering
oo-hoo
. Much closer, something heavy fell with a thud.
    Hylas was instantly alert. Reaching for his axe, he crept out into the moonlight.
    His camp had been wrecked. Every part of the hare’s remains—even the offerings—had been savaged. What hadn’t been eaten had been shredded, flung about and trampled into the mud.
    A scavenger would have eaten what they could, then hidden the rest. This devastation must be an attack by some bad spirit . . .
    At the corner of his vision, he caught movement. There, behind that log.
    The lion cub wasn’t much good at hiding. Its bottom stuck out, but because it couldn’t see Hylas, it seemed to think that
he
couldn’t see
it
.
    â€œShoo!” shouted Hylas, waving his axe. “Go on, shoo!”
    For a heartbeat, the lion cub stared at him with big moon-silvered eyes: caught red-pawed in the ruin of his camp. Then it turned tail and fled.

    The lion cub didn’t understand what was happening. The human was barking and waving his forepaws. He seemed
angry
.
    Or was it a game?
    It didn’t appear to be; he was chasing her with a stick.
    Bewildered, she sped for the safety of the thickets.
    As she left the trees, she glanced back to see if he was still chasing.
    She stumbled. Suddenly there was no more ground beneath her paws and she was falling into