Eden by Keith; Korman

the currents of air rising into their faces.
    â€œProve it. Take that step … and I’ll follow you .”
    Her master looked over the ledge into the stony abyss, an endless fall. Eden joined him, poking her nose over, but his arm blocked her from going farther. They retreated from the edge.
    â€œFollow whomever you wish,” she heard her master say, “but by your choice we shall know you.” And with that Eden’s hunger suddenly vanished. She no longer wanted that bit of meat that had seemed so delicious only a moment before. She sat by her master’s feet and felt his hand upon her shoulder. “You have free will,” her master told the Hollow Man. “ He gave you that. But you cannot have mine.”
    The creature sitting in the dark did not seem vexed. He shrugged and gazed out across the open abyss.
    Suddenly a vision seemed to grow from the depths of the emptiness. The very world itself lay like an endless carpet. Eden had no idea the world could be this big, this grand: open deserts, snow-clad mountains, lakes and forests, a thousand castles, a thousand palaces, a thousand streets and markets, ports and harbors overflowing with the goods of every land, nation upon nation, stretching beyond sight and out of mind.
    A sea of faces lifted upward all begging to worship those sitting on the ledge: the faces of the living, the faces of the dead, even the faces of all those yet to be born like eager spirits clamoring in adoration of those three figures perched above. The nameless throngs would slave for them, die for them, kill for them, make monuments to their magnificence, burn offerings and sacrifice the lambs of the world.
    The horizons of all Eden had ever known shrank to a paw print in the sand. The little village, the dried-fish seller, the clamoring children on the rooftops, the men in the fields and the sheep in the orchards, became the merest speck on this lush carpet of humanity and beasts and all their works.
    The very world.
    Offered to her master, offered to her …
    And she heard the silky voice of their adversary bargaining all for all, “Will this not make you follow me? For what is mine shall be yours and more besides …”
    Eden looked into the black void below, then into the black void above, and the stars stopped wheeling in their endless orbits. “Get away!” she tried to growl, but she found her jaws locked together, the cliff fading from her eyes. The stars blinked out one by one. The abyss opened at her feet.
    And she fell, falling, falling and knew no more.

    Eden awoke at the base of the cliff in the pit of the barren valley as if she had never been up high. The stones no longer mocked her, but lay mute on every side. She lay on her side in the dark, tongue swollen with thirst, eyes crusted with salt. The adversary of the high place was nowhere to be seen, his scorpions and serpent only a memory.
    The man lay beside her, exhausted, beaten. His chest slowly rose and fell, he barely breathed. And then to make things worse, Eden realized they were not alone.
    Three hyenas had padded to the lip of the dell and stared down. Their lips peeled back from their teeth and when they laughed at her, Eden’s bones grew cold.
    Nor did they wait to attack. Two came on as one, forcing her against the cliff, and the third went for the man on the ground. That one tore at her master’s cloak, and in the darkness Eden saw a flash of naked skin. Eden didn’t think—she ripped through the two hyenas, snapping one in the face and the other on the snout. The third tearing her master’s cloak yelped when her teeth clamped on his neck.
    But one dog against three couldn’t last for long. The hyenas cornered Eden again, and as each lunged, she’d snap, then snap at the next and the next. Panting, she finally missed one and he clamped on her ear. A flash of pain filled her head and blood ran over her eyes.
    Even so she struck out blindly, but