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.Jostled, Star pitched on her rump into the grass, but Tafir's firm grip saved her from being trampled.As it was, she crabbed backward to avoid plunging hooves."Mount up," Tafir shouted as he struggled to hold both animals."They're after Gheq's horse! We must stay mounted.""What's after Gheq's horse?" Star asked.She scrambled up, unconsciously brushed her riding clothes, then grabbed for the pommel and swung into the saddle."That roar! Was it—""Hold tight or she'll bolt," Tafir interrupted."Let's go!"From saddle height, the two riders could see trouble.Across the heads of shimmering yellow-green lay a cavity where something thrashed in the grass.Gheqet and his mount had disappeared in that direction.Roars, snarls, another horse's scream, and a rending, tearing shriek resounded.The horses were too terrified to approach, so their riders wrestled the reins, kicked and squeezed their knees, and finally slapped the broad rumps hard.Cursing, Tafir shouted, "Go left.I'll go right.Gheq's got to be—whoa!"Afoot, Gheqet lurched out of the concealing grass.His white work clothes were disheveled and grass-stippled.Blood ran down his neck."Oh, thank Khises," he gasped."I got thrown and.there must be rocks."He felt his head and was shocked by the blood."It's just a scalp wound," Tafir said.He didn't want his friend to faint and have to be carried."Climb up behind Star, and hurry.We'll—""The grass," Amenstar warned, "it's stopped moving!"Amenstar spotted converging trails sizzling toward them like curved flights of arrows.Tafir shouted to Gheqet, but the dazed apprentice didn't move, only turned to see where Star was pointing.Tawny gold flashed like lightning from the yellow-green grass as the lion pride struck.Gheqet clutched his head and dropped to his knees as a scarred old lioness with one ear slammed down her great paws, scrunched her hindquarters, and vaulted higher than the grass tops.Eight wicked claws slashed at Star's mount, hoping to rip out the mare's eyes and blind her.Star jerked the horse's head aside, but one paw snagged the mare's jaw and raked it clear down the breast.Blood sprayed across Gheqet and the grass.The big cat rolled under the horse's belly and uncoiled on the far side.Star's panicked horse stumbled, then reared and bolted—straight into the next lioness.This hunter, young and spry, leaped high above the oncoming hooves.Snarling, dagger teeth gaping, the lioness's splayed claws slapped onto both sides of the mare's neck.Before she slid under the stampeding hooves, the lioness bit hard and clung to the horse's pink-white nose.Clenched tight in the saddle, Star looked over the horse's head into red-rimmed black eyes.The lioness's weight, over seven hundred pounds, immediately dragged down the horse's head.Star saw what was coming, let go of the reins, kicked free of the floppy stirrups, and catapulted from the saddle.As the horse stumbled and somersaulted, the lioness let go and skittered aside.Star barely had time to throw up her arms.Grass whipped her face, and she slammed into the ground on her shoulder, flipped like her horse, and thumped on her back.As she skidded to a dazed halt, grass pierced her skin like needles.From arm's length, with her head spinning, Star looked up into golden-brown eyes.A huge lion, king of the pride, studied her.Hypnotized, paralyzed with fright, Star watched the lion's nostrils twitch, ears flicker, and whiskers tick as grass caught behind them.The princess knew that lionesses did most of the hunting so were more feared, but this monster could break her spine with one paw and bite through her neck.Part of her mind calmly urged her to remain motionless and maybe live.The other part shrieked to scramble up and run.Staring, Star heard a curious keening whine coming from her own throat.Somewhere Tafir shouted, but the words didn't penetrate.The lion curled a whiskered lip.The samira saw yellow fangs long as her fingers, smooth as ivory tusks from cutting through living bone.A dragonfly zipped by and thudded into the lion's shoulder.No, not a dragonfly, one of Tafir's bird arrows.The shafts were longer than Star's arm, the feathers wide for stability.The head wasn't a steel point, but four thin prongs for catching birds on the wing.Such a pinprick couldn't hurt the lion, Star wanted to scream, it would only—The lion grunted as the arrow hit, then snapped at the shaft with its blunt black muzzle.It couldn't reach.Snarling, it whirled and turned smoldering eyes on its attacker.Star saw the lion settle on its back legs, then leap like an eagle taking flight.A horse whinnied again.Star twisted about painfully and parted grass fronds to see.Gheqet, with his torn scalp, had fled.Thirty feet away, Tafir fought to control his plunging black horse and hang onto his riding bow.Under the assault of three lionesses, Star's white horse was painted with blood, its face torn off like a mask to expose red-streaked bone.One of the lionesses ripped open its throat and the horse died quickly, but none of the females fed.As long as meat beckoned they continued to hunt.Leaving their kills, they split and melted into grass to encircle Tafir's black horse.A pair of yearling males with scanty manes had skulked that way, but they jumped aside when the old scarred matriarch coughed."Star," Tafir called, "run the other way, and I'll circle around to pick you up."Tossing the clumsy bow, the cadet yanked the black's head over and kicked hard.The horse laid back its ears and ran.Star wondered where the huge lion had vanished, but now it pounced on the spot Tafir had just vacated.The long bird arrow had been plucked from the lion's shoulder, probably by grass stalks, leaving four leaking holes.Star then blinked as all three lionesses, with no prey at hand, spun their heads and stared at her.Golden eyes glowed like six unwinking lamps.Gulping fear, Amenstar scuttled up and ran.Grass whipped and stung her face, cut her hands, arms, lips, and tugged at her tangled cornrows.She had no clue where to run, for she saw only grass and sky.Dashing, she almost twisted her ankle in a hidden hole.She recovered and pounded on, breath rasping in her lungs, burning.Suddenly Tafir's black horse, foam-sweaty, loomed ahead, its dark eyes rimmed with white.Tafir called, "Keep running! They're close behind!"Gasping, Star charged faster, then clutched at horse and rider like a drowning woman lunging at a boat.The strong cadet leaned, grasped the back of Star's baggy trousers, and hauled hard to dump her across his saddle
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