Shadows of Sherwood (34 page)

Hi, Laurel!

Laurel looked at the screen but did not react. “Is it working?”

“Looks like it.”

“Cool.” The small girl rolled over and yawned, rubbing her belly in a great big circle.

Robyn smiled. “You hungry?” She offered Key's cold portion of the rice and meat from last night to Laurel.

“Not really,” Laurel said. She rolled back over and closed her eyes. That was strange. They were always hungry. Last night it had been all they could do to save the food. Granted, it was less appetizing now, but . . .

Footsteps on the stairs. Key was back.

He ducked through the tree house flap, and frowned.

“Oh,” he said. “I didn't think you'd be here.”

Robyn shrugged. “Well, we are here.” She should apologize, and she knew it. But Key was glaring daggers at her. He hadn't come to make up. He had stayed out all night and come back late trying to avoid her.

“I got the TexTers working,” she said tentatively, holding one up. “We can use them on our next shopping spree.” The smile she offered him felt forced.

“You mean so you can let me know before you ditch the plan to go rogue?” Key snapped.

Robyn's chest heated up. “Plans change, Key.”

“
You
change plans, you mean. And leave the rest of us hanging.”

He was partly right, and she knew it. But she didn't feel sorry. “I needed the wires,” she said, her voice rising. He had to understand. “My parents—“

“This is way bigger than you and your parents, Robyn. They're gone. Get over it.”

“They're not gone,” she shouted. “You don't know.” She grabbed the hologram sphere and held it up. “My dad left me these instructions. I have to know what I'm supposed to do.”

“None of us know what we're supposed to do,” Key shouted. “We figure it out. Together.”

“Find the shrines. Gather the Elements.” She echoed. “I don't know what it means, but—”

Key scoffed. “We're all trying. What makes you so special?”

“Trying what?” Robyn answered. “Who all?”

Key's expression hardened even further. “It's the moon lore. You either get it or you don't.”

Robyn rose to her feet and faced him. “Tell me what you know,” she demanded. Had Key been holding out on her? “Do you know about the shrines and the Elements?”

“I know enough to know not to waste time with someone who's only out for herself,” Key shouted. “Someone crazy enough to rub the MPs' noses in it.” He waved a small stack of green sticky notes, exactly like the ones Robyn borrowed from Tucker. “Taking solo credit? How selfish can you get?”

“I'm not out for myself,” Robyn shouted back. She had done it to
protect
the others. “I—”

“The moon lore's about all of us,” Key said, but didn't stop to hear Robyn's response. “The Crescendo is about all of us. All of Sherwood.”

Robyn stamped her foot as her frustration burst forth. “What is—”

Laurel was crying. “Stop yelling,” she said, in a tiny voice. Her eyes filled up with tears.

Robyn and Key shut their mouths and turned to her. The small girl lay listlessly on the floor of the tree house. Her body shook with sudden sobs.

“What's wrong?” Robyn blurted out, barely able to lower her voice. But Laurel was shaking, speechless. Robyn and Key glanced at each other. Their fight, for the moment, did not matter. Something else was very wrong.

Laurel began coughing and retching. Acting fast, Key kicked the rice pot closer to her. She lifted her head and
threw up in it. She wrapped her arms around the pot as the short gagging sounds continued.

Robyn knelt beside her. “I didn't know you weren't feeling well,” she said, patting Laurel's back. “I'm sorry.”

Laurel caught her breath and said, “We're going to be late.”

“Late?” Robyn frowned. Was the girl delirious? She pressed a hand to Laurel's forehead, like Mom had always done when Robyn herself was sick. Blazing hot skin.

“She's really sick,” Robyn said, looking up at Key. “What should we do?”

“You'd better go, or you're going to be late,” Laurel said again. She flopped back onto the floor. Her shaky, shallow breaths frightened Robyn.

Key knelt beside them. “Laurel,” he said gently. “Where does it hurt the most?”

Laurel lifted one pale hand and laid it on her stomach.

“Let me see.” Key held her wrist and moved her fingers aside, then raised the hem of her shirt several inches.

He sucked in his breath hard.

“No,” Robyn whispered. Laurel's stomach was a mass of red infection lines. It radiated out from a single stingbug bite about an inch above her belly button.
Bites to the abdomen are the worst
, the doctor had said.
The infection just spreads and spreads.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Stingbug Stomach

“We need to get you to the clinic,” Robyn insisted.

“Fugitives can't go to the doctor,” Laurel said, and Robyn knew she was right. “You're going to be late. Go see the girl. With the MO-DEM.” She said the word so hugely that Robyn smiled, in spite of the circumstances.

“That's right,” she said. “It's close to ten!”

“Go. Don't be late!”

“Not without you,” Robyn said. But it was clear the younger girl wasn't going anywhere. Not under her own steam anyway.

“We have to get her to a doctor,” Key said. “We can't care for her in the woods like this. We don't even have running water.”

Robyn did have to go meet Scarlet. She had to know what the modem could do. There was no telling how long the girl would wait for her if she was late—if she even would wait at all. But she couldn't abandon Laurel. She had promised never to do that again.

Robyn gave Key the keys to her bike. “Let's take Laurel to the cathedral,” she suggested. “Tucker may know what to do.”

Robyn helped Laurel climb onto Key's back. He carried her down the stairs. They climbed on the bike—Key driving, Laurel pressed against him, with Robyn clinging onto the back. It was still a tight squeeze for three on the long seat, but this was a bona fide emergency.

Key zipped them along through the woods and burst out onto the streets of Sherwood. He was a pretty good driver. Robyn's arms stretched around Laurel's sides, holding her upright, and gripping fistfuls of Key's shirt for balance. The smaller girl slumped against Key's back, and her body slid every which way in the momentum of each turn. The illness was taking over.

“Slow down,” Robyn cried, as Laurel's body pitched to the side and Robyn nearly lost her to the pavement.

Key complied, daring to glance over his shoulder. “You okay?”

“Just get us there,” Robyn said. “But take it easy.”

Key pulled the bike to a screeching stop in front of the cathedral. As he climbed off the bike, Robyn fought to keep Laurel upright. Based on Laurel's slack limbs and cheeks, her closed eyes, Robyn wasn't sure she was even conscious.

“I've got her,” Key said. He handed Robyn the bike key and scooped Laurel into his arms. Key wasn't such a big guy, but Laurel looked tiny and fragile cradled in his arms like that. “Here,” Robyn tucked one of the TexTers on Laurel's waistband. “They're working now. If she needs anything . . .”

Key nodded.

Robyn checked both ways then pulled aside the loose plywood to let them into the church. She didn't follow.

Robyn hopped on the scooter and raced toward the library. She jogged the bike into the alley behind the building. It was empty. No one in sight.

But she wasn't that late! Ten minutes, tops. And there had been an emergency. Surely Scarlet could have taken that into consideration. Robyn kicked the bike stand angrily. She ran a hand over her head. There was no point in being upset. If she had it to do over, she'd still help Laurel before anything. She leaned against the bike seat and thought about what to do next. Her path and Scarlet's seemed to cross accidentally often enough. Maybe if she just went about her day, the meeting would happen anyway, purely by accident.

“I wasn't sure you'd show,” Scarlet's voice said.

 

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Thoroughly Modem

Scarlet had taken a page from Laurel's book, apparently. Robyn looked up in the direction of the sound of her voice and saw the black-and-red-haired girl hanging upside down from the top rung of the fire-escape ladder.

“I'm glad you're still here,” Robyn said. “I had a bit of an emergency.”

“I would hang around all day to get another glimpse of that modem,” Scarlet said. She dropped down from the fire escape. Her moves were smooth and measured. More like a graceful ballerina than the scampering monkey that was Laurel.

Robyn patted her backpack strap. “It's right here.”

“We have to go inside,” Scarlet said.

Robyn started around the building.

“No, no.” Scarlet indicated the back door. “Through here.”

“That's a staff entrance,” Robyn said. It had an electronic keypad lock. “You need some kind of code to enter there.”

“Not if you're a hacker,” said Scarlet. “Just try it.”

Robyn levered the handle. The door came open.

Scarlet waved her hands with a cheesy grin behind them. “Surprise. That's what I did while I was waiting for you.”

“Cool.” Robyn was impressed. “Wish I'd known you a few days ago.” Her foot and shoulder practically still smarted from her efforts to smash the jailhouse door down.

They sneaked into the staff section of the library and hunkered down in an empty office. Empty of people, that is—the room was full from wall to wall with wires and consoles. “This is the server room for the library,” Scarlet said.

“That's a lot of wires,” Robyn said.

“Yeah, especially since everything is pretty much wireless at this point,” Scarlet answered. “BUT, the wires still work. And that is where the modem will come in handy.” She plugged the modem into a console and began clicking away.