EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (63 page)

We ate our stew and said little else to each other.

‘I’m going to check the barn for skins. Need something to sleep on,’ Klawdia said after dinner.

She left with one of the lamps, and the silence inside the shack was thick and suffocating. It was too warm, so I put the door ajar. A light snow continued to fall, but the flakes melted upon touching the ground. I could hear the creek running in the distance, and a slight breeze rustled the remaining autumn leaves. Crickets chirped, and the cries of several animals echoed around the forest. Then something splashed in the distance. When I closed my eyes, all of those sounds grew louder, mingling into a magical symphony.

If not for the floating, ghostly lamp, I would have failed to notice Klawdia’s return. She was so quiet. As she grew nearer, she gave me an inquiring look.

‘Believe me, I
am
well,’ I said.

‘A lot has changed.’ And her lips spread into a thin line.

‘Yes.’ I let out a deep breath.

I was tired and mentally drained. But at least I didn’t have to run. Mayor Vawdon and Healer Euka didn’t know my whereabouts. I liked the idea of being unfindable.

‘Let’s get some sleep.’ She held up a bundle of animal skins, and while they had been treated, they were not yet fit for use in a home. But Klawdia had mastered wilderness survival.

‘You sleep in the bed,’ I said.

She looked a little alarmed for a moment, and then her face softened, and she nodded.

‘Thank you.’

I took the animal skins to the other side of the shack, far away from the chest of clothes, away from his smell.

‘Goodnight,’ Klawdia said.

‘Goodnight,’ I replied.

Sleep didn’t come for many hours.

Chapter XXVII

S
OFT
LIGHT
TRICKLED
THROUGH
THE
shack window, illuminating dust that lingered in the air. The previous night’s fire had reduced to a mound of coals. I added some twigs and leaves and jabbed at the dying embers with a branch. The flames engulfed nearby sticks, so I added more kindling until the fire smoked. I began preparing breakfast. I found a black pot and left to collect water.

As I pushed open the front door, I opened my mouth. The dark gloomy forest had become a wonderland. Trees seemed to blaze with their yellows, oranges, and reds. In the morning sun, droplets of water clung to grass and leaves, glimmering in the first light. In the distance, the river twinkled, and a fine mist rose from the creek. How could someone like Uncle Garrad have lived in such a pure place?

I followed the dirt track leading from the shack to the creek, only thirty to forty paces away. Further down, water trickled through a maze of rocks and boulders where birds were perched. They dipped their heads into the stream and then raised them abruptly. The action threw water onto their backs as they fluffed their feathers to bathe.

Upstream, where the water was calmer, insects hovered close to the surface. Fish leaped out at bugs and one caught a dragonfly in its mouth dragging it into the deep.

I filled my pot halfway and walked back to the shack. A vine crept along the logs, coating one half in red, trumpet shaped flowers, and small round leaves. The shack looked cosy and comfortable, almost like a cottage. Back inside, Klawdia stirred flour and water, blending the mixture needed to make pancakes.

I hung the pot of water from an iron bar suspended directly above the fire.

Klawdia nodded at me. ‘I should go to town today and spread rumours that I am leaving town. I will buy provisions to convince people but those supplies will be for us. I need to check on Capacia. She was to meet with Mr. Corgastor, and that meeting will be over. I think maybe you should stay here.’

‘I want to go with you. I’ll stay out of sight.’

Klawdia regarded me with sweeping eyes. ‘It is not a good idea.’

‘Why?’

‘All I know is that the events of yesterday have left much unfinished, and you are the trigger for most of it.’

‘I guess it is my fault.’

‘Stop pitying yourself. It is how it is. Your focus should be on survival.‘

‘Where will we go at the end of winter?’ I asked.

Klawdia took a moment to think as she fiddled with the mixing spoon. ‘Avo is the town before the Mountain Pass on the East side of Senya. It is peaceful there and a long way from the healers. Port Assania, the main trade port to the southwest of Juxon City, has a school. The nearby boats and traders would make a good escape if we ever needed it.’

I’d never seen the ocean, and the chance of seeing boats turned the skin on my arms to bumps.

‘Can you bring Butter back when you go to town today?’

Klawdia sighed. ‘I will try get him here as soon as I can. I worry he might draw attention to us.’

‘I understand,’ I said, feeling sad. Would I ever see him again?

After breakfast, we checked the barn’s condition. Klawdia said we were looking for tiny holes in the timber caused by wood-bugs. Despite a few rusted hinges and split frames, both the shack and barn seemed intact. The floor of the barn needed cleaning, along with a fresh floor of hay and woodchips. Klawdia said we could use the saddles and bridles, but the leather would need a thick oil coating made from glycerine, beeswax, and egg whites. She also found hooks in the barn we could use to hang animal carcasses.

We walked around the fringe of the property, looking for a main road that could carry a horse and cart. We found it overgrown with trees and shrubs. Klawdia cut down a tree and dragged branches thick with leaves to add to the concealment of the entrance.

‘We don’t use this road for another month,’ she said.

A large pine tree had fallen in the forest, allowing a pocket of sky to peep through. I angled my head and viewed a snowy mountain peak. I could hear the rush of water nearby and upon reaching the crest of a hill came across a waterfall. It flowed down a gully and met up with the creek in the distance.

Butter would love it here,
I thought upon seeing rabbits scurrying into the undergrowth. Deer crashed through the forest in the distance, and purple wildflowers grew around the base of thick mossy trees. A hundred paces away, we came to an orchard with many different fruit trees. Klawdia identified them as cherries, mulberry, pears, almonds, nectarines, peaches, and apricots. We found a square of dirt sectioned off by a knee-high fence railing. Klawdia dug into the soil and found carrots, onions, leeks, and peas.

Later that morning, we made our way back to the shack. There were footsteps outside, and Klawdia jumped to her feet and instinctively snatched her sword.

‘It’s just me,’ Jemely called. When she entered the doorway, her cheeks were flushed red, and her hair contained sticks and leaves. Her boots were muddy, and her breath came in gasps.

My stomach sank. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Everything.’ She walked inside.

Klawdia angled the dining chairs to face the bed. ‘Sit. Tell us.’

Jemely sat on the bed. ‘Capacia told the mayor you’d run off. He was mad as a March hare. There’s a gold reward for your capture, Adenine. All the soldiers are out looking for you. The mayor said it’s strained our relations with North Senya. Healer Euka has accused the mayor of hiding you. But it’s worse. When Mr. Corgastor visited Capacia, the mayor turned up, and Corgastor told the mayor you were sellin’ this shack. He asked Capacia where the shack was. When she refused to tell him, he said she wasn’t cooperating with the law. Now he thinks you’re here.’

‘What did he do? Is he coming here?’

‘Well, here’s the thing. The mayor and Mr. Corgastor don’t know where this property actually is. Mr. Corgastor said there’s a map of its location in some property archives of Juxon City, but he didn’t think it necessary to bring a map of the place for the sale. Lucky for you, Garrad was a loner. So no one in town knew its location either. I don’t think they’ll be here soon. I barely found the place, even with Klawdia’s map.’

‘And Mother?’ I asked. ‘Did they arrest her?’

‘Not exactly. Healer Euka is there keeping guard,’ Jemely said. ‘But that’s not the worst of it. Your little boyfriend Frooby is real sick. Varago said he won’t last the snows.’

I glanced at Klawdia. ‘I have to see him.’

‘If you go there, you’ll be captured.’

‘I have to!’ I cried. ‘If it were your friend, wouldn’t
you
go?’

She frowned and closed her eyes. ‘We should leave here and go to Avo right this moment. You’re not safe here anymore.’

‘She’s right, Adenine. You need to get far away. Go somewhere nice, somewhere warmer.’

‘I can’t leave Frooby. I can’t leave Butter. I can’t leave Mother!’ I said, beginning to cry. I looked through the doorway. The forest stood calm and serene while my head rushed with noise and disorder. Maybe I could heal Frooby before I left. It wouldn’t take much. I only had to lay with him. I could save my friend’s life. At that moment, I knew that I had to try. I had to do something.

‘I’m going to see Frooby
now
. Are you two coming or not?’

Chapter XXVIII

W
E
WALKED
,
THEN
JOGGED
AND
then walked again. All three of us huffing and puffing, then Jemely asked Klawdia to go ahead a little ways.

‘Adenine,’ she said, pausing.

She would always hesitate before telling me something bad. There seemed no end to the things I didn’t know.

‘I’ve… well, you know how your uncle…’ She paused upon seeing my reaction.

I looked at the ground and clenched my fists. It wasn’t the time to discuss it. In fact, I didn’t know if I wanted to talk to Jemely about it at all. Living in my uncle’s home was bad enough.

‘Wait, Adenine.’ She ran up beside me. ‘I know it hurts to talk about it…’

‘No, you don’t. You don’t know anything about it.’

Jemely was silent for a moment. ‘I know. But please listen. When I was in the shack, there were all those remedies and vials on the windowsill. And I noticed…’

I stopped to face her. ‘Yes?’

‘Never mind.’ She shook her head and stomped away.

I rolled my eyes and ran to catch up with her. ‘Jemely?’

‘I can’t believe this! Your parents were so stupid. I had no idea.’ She flailed her hands. Klawdia turned to regard us for a moment, but maintained her distance.

‘I know why he tried to lay with you,’ she said, halting to shake my shoulders.

I frowned at her. ‘So do I. He was sick.’

‘But what you didn’t know is that he had a disease called the Weeping Pox.’

‘I know what it is Jemely. He used to get it a lot.’

‘But the salves on his window sill, they’re harmful. He wouldn’t have taken them unless he was desperate. Unless he was going to die. Everyone knows that if you have the Weeping Pox for too long, you’ll die.’

Die? Death was worse than sickness. But did that justify his actions? No, of course not. Whether he was going to die or not, he shouldn’t have acted the way he did. But being that sick must have made him desperate.

‘There’s no cure for it. Well, apart from a healer healing. In fact, all those salves and treatments probably made things worse.’ Jemely turned and ran away, heading towards town. Klawdia tried to stop her but Jemely yanked her arms away, continuing on her path.

‘Where are you going?’ Klawdia shouted.

‘To yell at Capacia for being so stupid for leaving Adenine alone with a man who was dying,’ Jemely shouted back.

I couldn’t blame Mother for what had happened. She’d trusted Uncle Garrad. Why hadn’t he sought a healing from a healer? He could have asked my parents’ for money. And that made me wonder why he hadn’t asked them.

I focused on Frooby, my sick friend. I could cure him, and he would deserve it. But then I thought about what exactly curing him would mean, and I became scared. Not just that but it brought back the flashbacks to my uncle, staring me in the eyes, kissing me on the lips before pushing me down in the tub. The thought of any man touching me that way filled my throat with bile. I stopped walking and leaned over to catch my breath. I felt sick.

Klawdia moved to my side. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’m fine,’ I said, feeling a little weak.

The north side of town was quiet. Klawdia helped me through the woods on the west side. From there, we went south.

The closer we got to Frooby’s house, the more urgent I felt about seeing him. My distress reached its limit, and I shook. I felt as if I were a boat, wedged between rough waves and rocks on the shore. We ducked out of sight of any passers-by. After some time we came to a fork in the main road. The left path led to Klawdia’s house and Frooby’s farm.

Klawdia grabbed my arm. ‘I’m leaving you now. I need to purchase supplies and fetch belongings from my house. You have half an hour to see him. I will meet you at his house. Can you do this alone?’

‘Yes,’ I answered, and after one more moment of hesitation, she jogged towards her house.

After making sure the path was clear, I sprinted across the main road and onto the left divide. I looked back and saw Klawdia duck into her house. I kept to the trees until I reached the farm. The mountains seemed darker under the cover of stormclouds.

Knowing I wouldn’t be welcome, I climbed to Frooby’s window. I couldn’t see inside, so I closed my eyes and listened for footsteps or voices. My heart drummed in my chest. Would he even want to see me?

I knocked on the glass three times. When there was no answer, I tried to open it. The pane flexed under my hand, but the window wouldn’t budge. As softly as I could, I nudged my shoulder against it. There was a click, and I used both hands to slide the window up. Framing curtains billowed in the breeze. I climbed over the sill and into the room.

Frooby’s face poked out from under thick blankets. The skin around his eyes seemed the same colour as the storm clouds in the sky. His lips were not rosy but a pale cream, and his skin drew against his cheekbones.

‘Frooby,’ I whispered and nervously looked at his bedroom door. ‘Frooby.’ I shook him a little.

His eyelids fluttered, and then warm, brown eyes regarded me. ‘Adenine,’ he said and cringed while trying to swallow. His eyes widened. ‘You shouldn’t be here. You have to leave.’ Feebly, he lifted his arm to push me away.