Girl in the Red Hood (30 page)

"We were coming back-" Liesel tried to
speak, but Lothur held up his hand.

"I know, and I'm not angry, I promise. I
understand you were looking for your own answer to the spell, and
that I admire. But now that you're back, I need to make sure you
remain here for the time being. Now...Liesel, you look
exhausted."

Liesel hadn't felt exhausted until he
mentioned it. But as soon as the words left his mouth, she realized
she was close to fainting. It had been two days since she'd gotten
any decent sleep, and suddenly, it was as if she could hardly bear
to stand any longer.

Lothur caught her as she swayed, and much to
her chagrin, he had to support her as he led her down the hall to
her room. Inside her mind, she was screaming and crying to be
released so she could go find Kurt, but her body would have none of
it. It wasn't long before she was dead asleep.

***

When Liesel awoke, she had no way to tell
how long she'd been asleep. It appeared to be night from the inky
blackness of her window. No fire had been lit, and neither had any
candles. Groggily, she pulled herself out of bed, and holding her
hands out before her, Liesel made the slow trek to the wall where
the door should have been. The relief she found in locating the
door was quickly replaced by fear when she realized it was locked.
Why had they locked her in?

Just as the lock caught, however, she heard
soft footsteps outside. Scrambling through the dark, she climbed
back on the bed and waited. Fears raced through her head as she lay
there, heart pounding and breaths coming too fast. Where was Kurt?
And Johan? And why was everyone being so secretive?

All hope of breaking the spell had
dissipated as they'd escaped Weit. Now, Liesel thought miserably,
she would be grateful to simply be reunited with Kurt for the
wedding. Locked in a dark room without an inkling as to why,
however, made even that dream seem impossible.

Whomever it was walked up to her door and
stood there silently, as if listening. Liesel held her breath and
wondered if she should risk jumping back in the bed and pretending
to sleep. It didn't matter, though, because the listener eventually
walked away. Liesel let out a huge breath before her mind returned
to more somber thoughts.

If everything somehow worked out, and they
were simply allowed to be married, there was still hope for some
sort of new normal.

But as she tried to linger even on that
possibility, doubts crept in and reminded her it would be for only
a short time. The wolf would devour more and more of Kurt's mind,
and the magic would have Liesel dead before she was gray. Any
children they gave life to would be bound to repeat their
struggles, but sevenfold as the pack continued to grow, demanding
more order and more magic from them as it did. Any way she looked
at it, Liesel lost Kurt.

It wasn't fair.

Without warning, the door rattled and
clicked open. Agile steps crossed the floor swiftly, and without a
pause, a hand was thrown over Liesel's mouth. As she sucked in the
air to scream, a rough whisper was breathed into her ear.

"If you make a sound, my uncle will hear,
and you'll never make it out alive." It took Liesel a long moment
to recognize Keegan's voice, and an even longer moment to process
his warning. She wasn't sure she could trust the intentions of
Kurt's younger brother, but dealing with his uncle would be
decidedly worse. Reluctantly, she finally nodded, and he carefully
let her go.

He surprised her by taking her hand and
leading her from the room. She expected him to light a candle, but
instead they walked in the darkness, and it was all Liesel could do
to keep herself upright and to avoid bumping into the walls. Keegan
made no sounds has he moved in the darkness. After what seemed like
a century to Liesel, she heard the unmistakable click of another
unlocking door. Since no moonlight moved through the thick trees,
it was nearly as dark outside as it had been in the house. It
amazed and frightened Liesel how quickly she had forgotten the true
darkness of the forest.

Liesel gripped Keegan's hand tightly as they
moved, for she could see nothing distinguishable on her own. After
walking a brief distance from the house, they stopped. He took her
hands and placed them onto what she recognized was a saddle. As he
took her by the waist, she realized she was supposed to jump, just
in time to be hoisted up onto the horse. Still without speaking a
word, she heard his boots crunch as he walked a few steps away and
then somehow moved himself up to her height, which, she presumed,
meant he was on his own horse. She felt her horse's reins move
forward, and allowed him to lead her without question.

As they rode in silence, Liesel felt sick
trying to imagine where Kurt could be. If they were sending her
away in secret, which she knew Kurt must have had a hand in,
something must have gone wrong. The future Kurt had discussed only
an hour before his disappearance had still involved both of them.
If she wasn't going to their wedding, which she couldn't imagine
would be taking place so far from the town they were leaving
behind, where was she going? And where was Kurt? Liesel opened her
mouth to ask, when her eyes rested on the still form of the most
terrible creature she'd ever seen.

Her eyes, though not clear, had adjusted
well enough to see that it stretched out to be at least twelve feet
long. It lay just a short distance from their horses, and looked
like a wolf upon first glance. But the longer Liesel stared at it
in the dim light of the woods, the less recognizable it appeared.
It had gray fur like a wolf, to be sure, and the fangs sticking out
of its mouth were nearly as long as her hand. But the longer Liesel
looked, the more the creature appeared...almost human. And not just
human, but woman-like. Its torso extended out abnormally in the
front, and the animal's hips were wider than a wolf's. Likewise,
its front limbs were outstretched like arms reaching rather than
legs for running. The snout was much too short, which made its
fangs look even more grotesquely out of place. As Liesel noticed
for the first time that its eyes were shut, she also noticed,
hidden at first by the bushes it laid in, an arrow protruding from
the back of its neck.

"So that's where she went." Keegan's words
were nearly too quiet to hear. Cold bumps raised up on Liesel's
arms as she quickly sensed that Keegan not only knew what this
creature was, but that he had something to do with its demise.

"Keegan," she began in a low voice, but he'd
already turned and had begun to lead their horses away. "What-"

"Don't!" The force and rage in his words
surprised Liesel. He'd turned to glare at her with a look she'd
never seen on his young face before. Something in her heart warned
her not to press any further, despite her morbid curiosity. For a
long moment, the young man looked very dangerous as his nostrils
flared and his neck tightened, and as she decided she had no desire
to deal with a wolf at that moment, Liesel swallowed her questions
and nodded faintly before he began to lead their horses again. They
stayed silent for a long time before he finally muttered something
about that part of the woods being full of strange creatures.
Liesel rolled her eyes at the obvious lie, but chose not to push
the subject. Instead, she chose to ask the question that had been
burning in her mind since she'd awakened.

"Keegan," she whispered hesitantly. When he
didn't respond, she tried again. "Keegan! Where's Kurt?" Her only
answer was a soft shushing sound, which for some reason, annoyed
her greatly. Feeling for the reins, she found them and jerked them
out of his hands. She could hear his horse stop a few feet ahead of
hers. "I'm not going any further until you tell me what's going
on," she hissed. There was no answer at first, but Keegan finally
gave a small sigh.

"If I explain while we move, will you give
me back the reins?" Liesel sent him a skeptical look, which she
hoped he could see through the darkness, and finally acquiesced.
Somehow, their hands met, and he took the reins again. When they
began to move once more, his whisper was so low she could barely
hear him.

"My uncle has found a way to break the
curse."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Keegan paused
before answering.

"I thought he was doing something great,
sacrificing the good of one for the pack." An involuntary shiver
moved down Liesel's spine as Keegan's words to Kurt came back to
her from that first morning in the cabin.
She believes in magic!
She could end it once and for all if she was willing!
What did
her belief in magic have to do with sacrifice? "But," he continued,
interrupting her thoughts, "after witnessing what he truly meant to
do to you, I couldn't do it. Harming you would kill Kurt, human or
not." Liesel swallowed hard as she tried to imagine what Lothur
might have been planning. But then, she shuddered, perhaps it was
better that she didn't know. But that still didn't answer her
question.

The early gray of morning finally began to
peep through the great trees that surrounded them, which meant they
were close to the edge of the forest. Liesel didn't recognize this
part of the forest, however. They were going in a different
direction than she'd ever ventured in, south. As the light grew, so
did her ability to recognize the terror written all over the young
man's face. He wasn't telling her something.

"Where is Kurt?" Keegan just looked at the
ground and shook his head like a whipped dog. "Keegan," Liesel
worked to make her voice more authoritative while still in a
whisper. "Where is he?" As she spoke, they broke through the trees,
and the golden rays of the sun momentarily blinded her.

"This is as far as I can take you." Keegan
held out her horse's reins. Liesel took them as if in a daze.

"I'm free?" she whispered. Keegan nodded as
he turned his horse back towards the forest. "But what about the
spell?"

"Kurt says it's no longer your
responsibility. Because he's first in line, he has the authority to
grant you what you want." He paused at the edge of the woods. "He
wanted you to see the world." For the first time, Keegan brought
his eyes up to meet hers. They were far too sad for a man his age.
"My brother is sacrificing a lot for you," he said with a solemn
voice and pleading eyes. "Don't waste the life he's giving
you."

Liesel gazed out at the serene scene before
her in a daze. She was free. After fighting for seven years, she
was no longer bound to the destiny she'd feared so much. As she
blinked in the sunlight, she tried to grasp that she was going to
drink it in every morning after this. She would never have to wake
up again dreading the gloomy gray of the deep woods. She would see
the ocean. Her grandparents could see her grow and marry, and she
could show her children the world without dreading the day they
became the wolf.

Her children. But not Kurt's children. It
seemed highly unlikely to Liesel that Lothur would truly break the
curse, no matter how convinced he was that he'd discovered the
cure. Instead of gaining their freedom, Kurt's children would never
see the ocean from afar. They would never know what it meant to
step out onto a road and follow it, just to see where it went.
Kurt's children would be sentenced to a life of shadowy magic in a
giant forest without hope. His sons would have to abduct their
wives, girls with families and futures. And Kurt would be left to
drift away. He would marry some unsuspecting girl like the baker's
daughter, Karla, who would be haphazardly kidnapped for him after
Liesel's absence was discovered. And knowing Kurt, he would never
tell her about how the wolf would take his mind. He would simply
let it eat away at him, wasting away slowly until he was as rigid
and cold as his father. Her beloved friend and protector would be
no more.

Liesel looked to the west at the contour of
her beloved mountain. Freedom was hers. All she had to do was
stretch her hand out and take it.

And, she thought shamefully, live life as
her grandparents had, knowing her happiness had cost an entire
village its chance of escape. Forever the wolves would howl for
her, and with guilt she would think of the boy who had loved her
more than life.

Without another glance at the morning glory,
Liesel turned her horse and pressed back into the heart of the
woods. She prayed only that she could make it in time to stop the
wedding.

Pressing her horse hard, it took Liesel only an hour to cover the
distance Keegan had taken her. She had to slow though as she neared
the strange forest town, praying no wolves would accidentally
stumble upon her while she was alone. Her prayers were answered
when she spotted Lora in her human form, perched on top of a stump
on her beloved hill. Afraid to call out too loudly, Liesel climbed
off her horse and scampered up the knoll.

Despite her anxiety, Liesel's heart went out
to the girl as she got closer. Instead of the bright-eyed hope that
had been on her face the last time they'd spoken, Lora now looked
shaken and terrified, and even paler than usual, if that were
possible.

"Lora," Liesel called out softly as she
approached. The last thing she needed was for Lora to change forms
because she was frightened. "Lora, it's Liesel!" The girl turned
toward her, tear-streaked cheeks ashen and eyes puffy. They grew
large, however, when she recognized her.

"What are you-?" But Liesel gave her no time
for queries.

"Where is Kurt?"

"You shouldn't be here!" Lora shook her head
a little too emphatically, which annoyed Liesel. She didn't have
time for an argument.

"I'm not leaving! Now where is he?" Lora
studied her with troubled eyes before getting up and climbing
noiselessly down the hill. Liesel tried to follow her just as
quietly, but despite her efforts, Liesel's steps seemed
ridiculously loud as twigs snapped and leaves crunched beneath her
feet. They wound their way around the town and snaked through the
more open trees behind the cabin before coming upon another knoll a
few hundred paces away. Liesel's heart thumped nervously as she
began to make out muffled snarls and yelps that grew louder as they
walked. Lora led them into a large thicket that bordered the hill,
and carved into the side of the hill was a door.