He frowned when a stealthy movement about a half mile behind the woman caught his attention. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he waited, trusting the sharp warning of his instincts more than his eyes. A short time later his patience paid off when a patch of what had appeared to be an area of dappled shade beneath a tree began to move stealthily up the woman’s back trail.Marl growled softly. A bear-cat. Big, fast, and deadly dangerous even to an armed and experienced Hunter in his prime. His gaze shifted back to the woman, mentally calculating how much time he had. For a fraction of a second he considered, and discarded, the idea of shouting a warning. Even if it didn’t frighten her, the sudden noise could incite the bear-cat into stepping up its attack. If she was, as he suspected, the Maiden of the Heart, he couldn’t take the smallest risk with her safety. That left only one option, and he’d have to move very quickly in order to implement it. Ren knew that she was being followed. She glanced behind herself several times, but with all the twists and turns of the trail as it wound its way up the mountain, she couldn’t see very far. She hitched her pack higher and kept walking, forcing herself to breathe evenly and keep her pace steady. Although dangerous wildlife was sparse on Nu Senna because of the humans who’d lived there for so long, there were some predators. She knew better than to start running. Only prey ran. She scanned her surroundings as she walked, searching for a suitable place to make a stand. A small cave, a large boulder, even a good sized tree. Anything solid that she could put at her back and, hopefully, convince whatever was stalking her that she was more trouble than she was worth. A stick or branch, something sturdy enough to use as a weapon, would come in handy as well. Unfortunately, with a deep ravine on one side of the trail, and a steep wall of dirt on the other, her options were severely limited. She rounded a turn and let her breath out in a relieved whoosh when she saw a deadfall at the side of the trail. She hurried to it, selected a likely looking branch already broken from the trunk and picked it up. It was heavy enough to use as a weapon, maybe too heavy for her to swing around for very long, but it would do. Straightening with the branch in her hands, she looked up to see a tall man with shoulder length black hair appear from around the next bend, running toward her with a spear poised at his shoulder. She froze, caught between shock and fear.“Down,”
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