Free 1.5 - Destiny Unchosen by Lindsay Buroker Page A

forests of her New Mexico homeland.
    Jakatra pointed to the right of where Temi had been looking. Another fire was burning in the undergrowth over there. At the base of the tree, the creatures’ voices changed, concern in their unearthly yips for the first time. They turned, their furry snouts pointing toward the flames. Damn, there was a third spot fire now.
    “Is it just me,” she said, “or are your people lighting those fires in a circle? To make sure we can’t escape?”
    “This is not logical behavior,” Jakatra said. “If they wanted you, or for some reason wanted me, they could shoot from afar with a projectile weapon. To deliberately burn the forest is strange behavior for one of my people.”
    “Maybe a human got through,” she said. It was a joke, or sarcasm at the least, but he answered seriously.
    “It was ensured centuries ago that none of the portal keys remained in your world. Unless someone else brought a human here, one could not be present.”
    “Fires are good for hiding evidence, they say. Maybe someone wants to kill us without being obvious about it.” Temi shifted her weight, trying to figure out how they could escape without jumping into the jaws of death down below. Those creatures shouldn’t want to stick around for a wildfire, either, but who knew what those blue dots were commanding them to do? None of them had left yet.
    “Possibly. That would be in line with the animal attacks.” Jakatra faced the trunk and pointed up. “If they seek to surround us with fire, then we must leave first.”
    “ That way?” Temi also pointed up.
    “I believe that if we go out on that branch approximately twenty feet up, we can make our way to the next tree, and then the next. After that, we’ll reassess our route.”
    Temi stared at the orange flames dancing on the ground, already climbing numerous trees. The scent of smoke had reached her nose now. At least Jakatra wanted to go in the opposite direction from the flames, but she wasn’t a squirrel and those branches up there were thin. She and Jakatra were already more than thirty feet off the ground.
    “You are capable of this feat,” Jakatra said. “Sansolu said so.”
    “Who?”
    “Your healer.” Jakatra waved at her knee as he stepped past her. Without brushing her, he leapt and caught the side of the tree, his dexterous fingers easily finding holds in the cracks between plates of bark. “He said you would now be capable of swinging through the trees.” He paused, his head tilting in consideration. “In reflection, this may have been an insult in regard to the simian origins of humans.”
    Temi snorted. “I’ll bet.”
    Jakatra was already climbing, so she sheathed the sword and did her best to follow. The flames had already grown to the point that they illuminated the forest so that she could see without the silvery glow. A fact that was less comforting than one might imagine. “What did elves evolve from?”
    “Elves? Ah, yes, that is your word for us.”
    “I forgot your word.” Temi grimaced as her foot slipped on the bark. She should probably be concentrating on climbing.
    “We also share origins with a tree-dwelling species, but they were more elegant than your simian cousins.”
    “Were they snootier and more arrogant than our simian cousins too?”
    Jakatra paused to look down at her, the flames of the fire reflected in his violet eyes. She expected a haughty sniff, but he actually seemed to be considering the question.
    “The modern ones do seem to believe themselves superior to the other wilderness denizens,” he said.
    “Imagine that.”
    Temi was almost to the branch Jakatra had pointed to from below. A few more feet, and she could pull herself up to a safe spot. Too bad he wouldn’t let her stay there long.
    Bark crumbled beneath her fingers, and she lunged for the branch with her other hand. She grasped it at the same time as the bark gave way, splinters digging beneath her nails as wood fell. For a second,