Tamza pushed the King’s daggers into the soldier’s back, just below his shoulder blades. Blood spurted onto her face. It was surprisingly easy, the blades sharp. Tamza had never stabbed anyone before, but knew she had one chance.

The soldier posted to watch the bear enclosure had been asleep in the long grass a few steps from the gate. He lay on his front, his arms crossed above his head and his forehead resting on the elbow of one, face turned away from Tamza.

The soldier yelped as the blades bit and tried to turn, his arms flailing, hands snatching at his attacker. Tamza was kneeling on the back of his thighs so he couldn’t stand. She pulled the daggers out and stabbed again, lower. And again, either side of his waist. The man yelled. I need to quieten him or he’ll have the entire Fert army on me!

She pulled a dagger from his side and, using all her strength, stabbed him in the neck. His torso slumped and blood gurgled from the wounds. Tamza was panting. She unpeeled her fingers from the hilt of the daggers and looked at her bloody hands. That was the third life she had taken that night.

She whispered to the stars, “Forgive me, Bear-God. But it is necessary, it is something I should have done weeks ago, but until now I was a coward.” She wiped the blood on the long grass and stood. “But I am not a coward any longer.”

Tamza barked to get her bears’ attention, to reveal her position. A noise that was often heard at night in Vaasar from the dancing bears, and one which soldiers nearby wouldn’t be alarmed by. She barked again and could sense the bears approaching the tree line.

Rae-bear answered her with a loud huff, blowing air through his nostrils.

“We leave. Now. Come, all of you. Be silent,” Tamza said.

Rae-bear ran to her, across the training ground, past her old home, past the headless body of Ursah-bear, ripped apart by the vultures and already stripped clean. Twelve more bears followed him. She opened the gate for them, and they slowed to pass through it one by one.

“Pilly-bear, please get Sumear’s bones. Jori-bear please collect Ursah. We take our loved ones with us and send them to Bear-God properly with a burn.”

Pilly-bear, the second largest male after Rae, ran around the fence and grabbed the skull of Sumear in his strong jaws.

The adolescent Jori snatched up one of Ursah’s huge paws, claws still intact.

“Rae-bear, may I ride you?” Tamza asked with a respectful bow.

He snorted and lowered his head so she could climb up.

Tamza looked one last time at her old home and whistled directions to Rae-bear. To the bears behind she clicked,

“Follow us, if you sniff any other human nearby, kill them. Do not let any live.”

They ran past the enclosure, away from the palace and towards the houses that sprawled up the hill. Rae turned up a steep, winding alleyway, the bears followed. The smallest, Fir-bear, lagging behind.

The alleyway was deserted, the houses dark and empty. The little procession of brown bears met nobody as it ascended the hill. The buildings suddenly stopped, as the slope became too steep to build on. This was where the mountains began. There was a strip of scrubland which led into large rocks and scree before a near vertical cliff. Above this cliff were tall trees, their roots growing over the lip of the cliff. This was the natural northern edge of town. Tamza tongue-clicked for Rae to pause and allow the others to catch up.

This spot afforded a magnificent view over the town, of the harbour and out to sea. Beyond, the dunes spread for as far as the eye could see. She used to come here with Ahmed, before he left on the boat with her brothers. To the east, the palace glowed with the candles burning there, and a line of lights glimmered in the south, along the new wall.

The bears waited her instruction.

“Up the cliff, into the forest!”

They scrambled over the rocks with ease. Using the long claws on their paws to find gaps and small ledges, they hauled themselves up the sheer cliff face, reaching the top and scrambling over the lip. Brea-bear was the first over, and he turned back to help the others up.

Rae-bear waited for the group to go before him, stood on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. He turned back to the town, his deep voice rumbling, “A man comes.”

Tamza clapped and a small blue circle appeared. She cupped her fingers around the doorway and held it in her hand.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” It was Burrington, his face coming out of the shadows at the edge of the town.

Rae-bear snarled, and Burrington stopped, twenty paces away from where the rocks began. He clutched two daggers in his hands. Tamza glanced back, all twelve of her bears were up the cliff, peering their snouts down at her.

Her voice steady, Tamza said, “The King is dead. We are leaving. You can try to stop us, and be mauled by my bear, or you can let us go. I do not want to take another life tonight.”

“Edgar is dead?” Burrington bent in half, as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

Rae-bear growled.

Burrington’s shoulders started heaving.

Is he crying?

No, he’s laughing.

The man stood up, chuckling, clutching his sides with his hands. They still clasped the daggers.

“What’s funny?” Tamza said.

“I came up here as it’s the only place in this entire town that doesn’t stink of fish and here you are, escaping. You tell me you’ve just murdered the King! What I’ve wanted to do for years! That means I, as his nearest kin in this shithole, take command. Lian-by-Sea is mine. You’ve done me a favour. By all means, be on your way.” Burrington gave her a little bow. “Just never come back.”

“Let’s go, Rae-bear.”

The brown bear turned and jumped at the rocky cliff, scrambling up. Tamza clung to him with one hand, her other still clutching the second doorway, looking up at the lip as it came nearer.

A sharp pain blazed between her shoulder blades and she lost her grip on Rae-bear. She fell fast, her body slammed on the rocks, head smashing. Her vision blurred, she struggled to breathe, the impact forcing all the air from her lungs.

Rae-bear roared.

Burrington shouted, “That brute Edgar kept me alive for two reasons. Not because I’m kin. He killed his father, brother, his cousins. First, because I’m clever, and second, because I’m a champion dagger thrower. Bet you didn’t know that... not as pathetic as you thought, eh?” He laughed some more and Tamza heard a whooshing noise. The second knife was flying for her.

Rae-bear stood over her and took the dagger in his chest. He huffed. That would barely penetrate his thick skin. A nick. Burrington, out of daggers to throw, started running back towards the town, shouting for soldiers, for archers.

Rae-bear attempted to pick up Tamza with his teeth, but she was too heavy and slumped awkwardly between rocks.

“Take this. When you’re safe in the forest drop it on the ground. I have enough strength to open it from here. Humans will come through the doorway, Vaasarians like me, protect them in the forest. Help them to find safe ground.”

Tamza uncurled her fingers, and the circle doorway glinted in the starlight. Her palm was singed and burnt raw from squeezing the smoky swirls. Rae-bear stuck out his tongue and she carefully dropped the doorway there. It floated a hair’s width higher than the pink flesh. He pulled his tongue back and carefully closed his teeth around it.

“Go, Rae-bear!”

The brown bear grunted and Tamza sunk back into her rocky resting place. I must stay alive long enough to open the portal…

She felt her body shift, lifting clear of the rocks. Bears surrounded her, biting her cloak. Hauling her up and over the rocks towards the cliff.

Pain shot through her and all was black.