Find Sol.
And then what…he’d figure out when he got there.
Zai considered this in his usual quiet way, keeping his thoughts to himself. Finally, he gave a slow nod.
“Aye. It is a sound plan. Taking you to one of the Beast Kings will be the same as taking you to safety. If it is Sol you want to find, we will need to consult the Tiger King first. I do not know on which mountain the Eagle King’s aerie is located now, but Goya would know. It would not make sense for us to climb every mountain to try to find Sol on our own.”
“Climb every mountain…ford every stream…”Ben warbled in his highest voice, taxing hisvocal cords with the attempt.
Both males, as well as the white fox, looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“It’s from theSound of Music,” Ben said. “One of my favorite movie classics.”
The liger growled and shook his great head from side to side, as if to say,strange human. I will never understand them.
“Anyway…” Ben said, waving his anachronism aside.
“Which way should we go? I’m ready when you are.”
Zai mounted the second horse and pulled it into position, setting out northward.
Ben quickly pulled up alongside him, while the white fox bounded beside them, the liger following behind at a distance.
“I suppose you know where we’re going?” Ben decided to ask just to be sure.
“Aye,” the Hunter answered brusquely.
“Should we be covering our tracks as we go?”
Zai gave a curt nod.
Ben looked behind them at the liger loping smoothly in their wake.
“Is he supposed to be following us? I mean, I’m glad you guys settled whatever differences you seemed to have, but…why exactly is he following us?”
Zai lifted one shoulder infinitesimally in the universal gesture that conveyed his lack of care.
“What he does is his choice. Perhaps he is answering the Tiger King’s call. It is no matter to me.”
It seemed to Ben that what the liger did very muchmatteredto Zai, but what did he know?
“You don’t suppose he’s stalking us so he could kill us when we’re not watching and eat us?”
Ben asked this while keeping his gaze warily on the Beast behind them, whose expression could only be termed as predatory.
Well, he was a feline predator, after all, so maybe that was just his deadly resting face.
“No,” Zai grunted.
Then decided to add—
“Maybe the fox.”
Said fox yelped a little and darted farther ahead, as if it understood his words.
“Hey,” Ben admonished. “That was mean.”
He thought he heard a barely suppressed chuckle vibrating from the Hunter’s barrel chest.