Read Horizon for Free Online

working together. Squirrel darted in and out of combat, grabbing a satchel off one woman and pulling another Upgrader’s shirt over his head. She was a tiny blur of chaos, too quick and unpredictable to be hit.
    Mags, on the other hand, approached the fight with calculated precision. Aluna watched her load a needle full of red liquid into a tube, then lift the tube to her mouth. She blew sharply, sending the needle shooting through the air. It lodged itself in the fleshy leg of a huge Upgrader trying to race past Odd. He stumbled to the ground and twitched in the dirt.
    Zeelo, who Aluna had assumed was nothing more than a crotchety old woman, wielded her two walking sticks with deadly force and far more speed than seemed possible. Aluna could have watched her forever. She’d never seen someone turn such simple objects into weapons of such incredible power and versatility.
    The kludge may not have had any “slayers,” but they were clearly no strangers to fighting for their lives. Even so, they were outnumbered. The attackers were going to win.
    “There are too many,” Aluna said to Hoku. “We have to join in to give them any shot of surviving.”
    “Dash already decided that for himself,” Hoku said.
    Aluna scanned the battle until she found him, a dark-haired figure holding off two Upgraders who’d tried to sneak around the side. Dash’s sword blade flashed, sending a spray of red across his mismatched leathers and robes. The Upgraders — a man with a blackened helmet and a slender woman with silvery fists — were in for a tough day.
    She felt another sharp pang in her chest. She wanted to leap into the fray, talons spinning, and fight by Dash’s side. She’d been named the Dawn-bringer, after all, not She Who Watches from a Safe Distance.
    Reluctantly, Aluna tore her gaze from Dash and surveyed the rest of the fighting. Most of the attackers were still clustered around Odd, trying to break through his wild, vicious swings. An Upgrader barked an order and three others detached themselves from the pack and ran straight for the rhinebra.
    “Three on their way,” Aluna said to Hoku. “You and Calli get up here!”
    “No,” Hoku said. “If I hide, our plan is over.”
    She looked over the rhinebra’s side and saw Hoku searching in the packs for a weapon. Calli tugged at his arm, but Aluna couldn’t hear what she was saying. Probably something about certain death, because that’s what Hoku was walking into. It was one thing to be brave, but surviving fights also took skill and practice, and he didn’t have either.
    “Wait,” Aluna said. “I have a plan.”
    The rhinebra had clearly been trained to sit and do nothing during battles; it was too valuable a treasure to be harmed by either side. But a motionless rhinebra made a great barrier — not between them and their enemies, but between Aluna, Calli, Hoku, and the rest of Odd’s kludge.
    “Vachir!”
    Vachir looked up from where she was standing with the other horses. Her tail swished, her front hoof pawed at the earth. She wanted this almost as much as Aluna did. Without another command, she cantered over and stood by the rhinebra’s side, right under Aluna.
    Aluna maneuvered herself off the rhinebra’s saddle and slid down its flank. She grabbed Vachir’s saddle and twisted it onto her back. In two flashes Aluna had her tail wrapped around the front saddle horn and the end strapped to Vachir’s side. Vachir’s hair bristled. They were ready.
    “What are you doing?” Hoku said. “You can’t go out there! If the attackers don’t kill you, Odd or Mags will when it’s over.”
    “Hoku’s right,” Calli said. “But maybe I can fly us away, one at a time. I’ll start with —”
    “No,” Aluna said. “We stay here and fight . . . . We just don’t let Odd and Mags know we’re fighting. We can use the rhinebra for cover. Hoku, can you bring them to us?”
    It took Hoku a moment to figure out what she was asking. “I’m the