Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 703
flew from the tree over his head.
The signal was very close now. For the first time it
occurred to him that Calandria might be a prisoner. He cursed
and unholstered his laser pistol.
The horse had stopped. "Show yourself!" shouted the
rider in a thick accent Axel couldn't identify. He snuck a look
around the tree; three more horses were approaching.
"Don't shoot!" he yelled. "I'm just an innocent traveller."
"Then you've got nothing to fear if you come out here."
"Yeah, right," muttered Axel.
Something moved swiftly in the corner of his eye. He
whirled, in time to glimpse a giant cat-like form in mid-leap.
Axel fired without thinking, and then it knocked the wind out
of him and they tumbled over and over.
The furred thing fell away. Axel got to his hands and
knees, shaking his head. He'd lost his pistol, but the golden
cat-thing lay curled around itself, a black burn in its chest and
bright blood pumping out of the center of the charred patch. It
moaned, twitched, and lay still.
Where was the pistol? When he spotted it he scrabbled
in that direction. He stretched out his hand to grab it--and the
point of a sword came between him and it.
"Stand," said the man behind the sword. He wore the
bruised-blue and russet livery of a soldier of Iapysia. He
looked like he meant business. Four other soldiers had
dismounted behind him.
The others looked behind themselves as several more of
the cat-like creatures padded over, then stood up on their back
legs. They were all gold-colored, except one which was a
striking white.
This one's eyes widened and it hissed when it saw the
situation. It ran forward with surprisingly human grace, and