Paragaea Read Online Free Page B

the foremost of Leena's bearers, and from time to time she would catch a glimpse of the sunlight glinting off the polished metal of the case.
    Any one of a number of items in the case would be sufficient, Leenaknew. Had she believed in any higher power besides the State, she might have prayed; as it was, she only hoped that the universe herself might be watching, and would be willing to lend a hand.
    With the chrome-plated Makarov semiautomatic pistol, snugged in its nylon holster inside the kit, Leena might have held the creatures at bay long enough to make her escape, back at the banks of the river.
    With the signal flare, she might have been able to call for some assistance, or else set fire to one of the creatures, for all the good it would have done her.
    With the kit's folding knife, she might now be able to cut her bonds and free herself, possibly even making into the forest's wilds far enough and fast enough to elude her captors.
    With the emergency rations, she might not be as damnably hungry as she now found herself. When her stomach had first growled, hours before, she'd thought for a moment it was the call of the strange creatures.
    But the survival kit was carried on the back of one of the monsters, and Leena saw no clear way to freedom.
    They were taking her somewhere; that much was certain. If they intended to eat her, whether alive or cooked and prepared after her death, it appeared they didn't plan to do so immediately. From time to time one of the jaguar men would growl a few syllables, curt orders to the others Leena assumed, but for the most part the group traveled in silence. They padded along the forest track single-file, making hardly a sound. With her eyes closed, Leena found she could scarcely hear even the breathing of the creatures at her head and feet. The jaguar men moved through the forest like ghosts.
    Leena could not say with any certainty how long they'd been traveling. Her awkward position, hanging uncomfortably by bruised numb ankles and wrists from the pole, and the pounding of her pulse in her ears as the blood rushed up each time her head fell backwards, left her oblivious to the passage of time.
    There was only Now: this moment, with the pain, and the anxiety,and the fear of her imminent and unknown death, surrounded by the silent figures of the strange catlike creatures.
    After an eternity of that moment, something happened, and the tenor of her pain changed key. Leena had been on the edge of consciousness, straddling the border between delirium and sleep. Something changed, and she struggled to clear her thoughts enough to understand what.
    She had stopped moving, no longer gently rocking back and forth with each silent step of her bearers. The party had come to a halt.
    â€œTar’elmok,” she heard the creature in front say.
    It was dark, the bare moonlight painting the forest in indistinct grays. Some hours had passed then, at least, if not more. Was it still the same day? How long ago had Leena first glimpsed this strange world of monsters? How long since she'd lifted off from Baikonur towards the heavens and glory?
    â€œAlal’kasen’lak,” answered the creature behind, barely above a silent breath.
    The creature in the lead, who carried Leena's survival kit in the bag at its back, held up one hand, palm forward. Leena strained to see in the low light, and could just make out the glints of the retractable claws extending up and out from each fingertip.
    â€œTar’tamedt,” shouted the lead creature, and in an instant the configuration of the party shifted. The two creatures at Leena's head and feet released their hold on the pole, jumping one to the left, the other to the right, letting their captured prey fall unceremoniously to the cold ground. Leena struck the ground spine first, the breath punched from her lungs in a painful sigh, and looked up dazzled to see the strange creatures circle around her.
    Eight muscled backs of black-and-white-spotted