Jake tossed his backpack over his shoulder.
Marika remained silent, her gaze contemplative.
“What is it?” he asked.
“We’re forgetting something.” She looked at the others, then down to her wrist. “When we were given these bands, five of them were handed out.”
Jake nodded. “To the four of us and to my sister, Kady.”
“Then where is she? Where is your sister?”
Jake appreciated her concern, but he put her fears to rest. “She’s back in my own time.” He remembered Kady’s scream as the mummified grakyl grabbed his arm. Luckily she’d kept away and not been transported with him. “Don’t worry. She’s safe.”
From out of the desert, a girlish cry of terror rang out like a crash of cymbals, echoing from far away.
Okay, maybe not.
7
A PRICKLY SITUATION
Jake sprinted up the highest dune and searched the desert in the direction of the scream. The rolling sands looked like a storm-swept sea. Beyond the dunes, he again noted a strange blurriness to the horizon. But he saw no sign of his sister. As near as he could tell, the cry had come from the direction of the largest rocky peak. The pinnacle was shaped like a giant flat-topped mushroom. They could use that strange landmark to keep them on track.
“Hurry!” Jake said, and took off.
His friends raced behind him.
He bounded down the far side of the dune, half sliding in the loose sand. His fingers clutched the stone he’d picked up earlier. It was his only weapon.
Another scream echoed over to them, more angry than terrified now. Jake knew it had to be Kady.
With the sun beating down, he raced toward the mushroom-shaped rock. As he led the others, he quickly found out it was faster to run between the dunes than up and over them. The valleys offered firmer footing but also forced them to take a zigzagging path. The four of them ran in a line like a snake slithering across the blasted landscape.
Jake made tiny corrections with each cry from his sister. Finally, he skirted around a dune and discovered a bowl of sand ahead, as wide as a soccer field.
Kady danced in the middle. She had shed her pack and held her fencing sword, a wicked length of slender steel called an épée. With one arm balanced behind her and her sword facing forward, she turned in a wary circle. Her face glowed red with exertion; her lips were tight with determination. She maintained that same deadly focus during a difficult fencing match.
But who was she fighting?
The sandy bowl just held a few of those tall, cactuslike plants and nothing else.
“Kady!” Jake called to her.
She swung around, spinning like a startled cat. Her eyes locked on his, then flicked over to the others.
“Where the heck are we?” she hollered to him. “What is this place?”
Jake stepped toward her. “I don’t—”
“Stay back!” she snapped at him.
Not seeing any danger, he continued a few more steps.
Then to Kady’s left, the sand exploded. A whiplike stalk, covered in hooked spines, snapped out of the ground and swiped at her. Without even turning, she lashed out with her blade and severed it with a single swipe. The stump retreated, seeping a yellowish red ooze. Even the amputated section squiggled back into the sand and vanished.
The nearest cactus shuddered. It was shaped like a man with a single trunk and two sprouting arms. Only its head was a bulbous blood red flower. The petals opened, bent toward Kady—and hissed.
Jake stopped as if he’d hit a wall.
Since when did flowers hiss?
The cactus drew its roots out of the sand, and the entire plant crawled back from Kady.
Before she could take a step, another attacked her blind side. A pair of snaking, spiny roots shot toward her back.
“Kady!”
Jake whipped his rock, aiming for the plant’s bulblike head. The stone flew true and smacked into the crimson petals. The cactus was unharmed but surprised. The snaking roots faltered enough for Kady to duck and spin. Her sword cut through both roots. The severed stumps hit the sand and continued to squirm, digging back underground.
The cactus had clearly had enough and edged sullenly away, dragging through the sand.
“Who else wants some?” Kady growled, making a slow turn.
The other cacti lifted their roots and retreated.
“I thought so!”
She collected her bag with her free arm and headed over toward Jake, but she never let down her guard.
One of the plants made a halfhearted swipe at her, but it didn’t even come close. It was more like the cactus was waving her off, or maybe flipping her the bird. Either way, the plants were letting her go.
Kady quickly joined Jake and pointed her sword at the battlefield. “Okay, who wants to explain all of this?”
Before Jake could even begin, a piercing screech cut through the hot air, sounding hungry and distinctly saurian. Jake knew there were as many dinosaurs in desert climates as in any other. Worst of all, harsh terrains forged the fiercest predators.
Across the sands, other cries joined the first one.
A pack.
Jake stared back at his group’s footprints trampled in the sand. The cries were coming from that direction. Something had found their scent, locked onto their trail.
“We’re being hunted!” he shouted, and pointed across the sand. “Get to higher ground!”
As a group, they fled away from the sandy bowl and toward the mushroomlike pinnacle. It still lay another three hundred yards off. They pounded across the slippery sand. The heat fought them as much as the terrain. After only a hundred yards, Jake’s lungs burned as if he’d been sucking on a blowtorch.
“We’ll never make it!” Pindor gasped out.
“Keep going!” Jake yelled back. “Don’t give up!”
Ahead, a long, sandy dune blocked their way. Jake had no choice but to lead the others over it. They were soon all on their hands and knees, clawing up the steep slope. The sand kept slipping under them.
The yipping behind them got louder.
Jake twisted around and spotted the pack bounding toward them. There were eight of them, definitely saurian, each standing about Jake’s height, running on two legs. Occasionally one would hop high up in the air like a carnivorous kangaroo, cocking its head from side to side as it scanned the way ahead.
While it was in midair, Jake spotted a single sickle-shaped claw poking out from behind each leg. He’d seen fossils of that distinctive spur. As recognition struck him, fear strangled his throat. He scrambled faster to reach the top of the ridge.