The Farwalker's Quest (17 page)

If the steady uphill climb had left her with enough breath, Ariel would have sung. Even with the threat of pursuit, traveling toward home with a friend felt far different from marching as a prisoner. She watched the wildflowers nod as they passed. No breeze touched her face, yet the grass around her swooned and shivered in waves.

Zeke said, “Misha is with us again. Can you hear him?”

“No, but I wondered what was moving the grass. Why can you hear him and I can't? You could never hear ghosts at—oh! Maybe that's your new trade, the one Ash hinted at.”

Zeke's expression grew guarded. “How could hearing ghosts be useful enough for a trade?”

“It helped you find me.”

“That wasn't ghosts,” he objected. “It's different. The voices that helped me follow you were more like hearing a tree—a vibration inside. Misha I hear with my ears. Right now, and last night again, too, before I fell asleep.” Zeke appraised her. Ariel couldn't tell if the emotion tinting his eyes was jealousy or concern. “He kept calling your name.”

A thrill ran beneath Ariel's skin, and she wondered what the ghost wanted. She didn't know how to answer his call, or even if an answer was wise. But the prospect of seeing him again, awake or in dreams, filled her with uneasy excitement.

She and Zeke climbed a long way. When the sky blackened, they stopped where a huge slab of stone had slid down the mountain aslant, creating a nook underneath. Ariel eyed that gap, afraid to go inside lest the slab fall and crush them.

“It couldn't fall, the way it's resting,” Zeke said, knocking the rock with his arm splint. “Besides, it wouldn't smash us. It's friendly. I think it slid that way on purpose so visitors might come inside—foxes and such.” He disappeared underneath.

The gray granite looked jagged to Ariel, not friendly. “Any animals in there now?” she called.

Teasing, he growled.

Zeke's judgment turned out to be sound. Their makeshift cave blunted the wind and gave them a view of the moon. Feeling snug, the two friends ate some of the food Madrona had packed them. When Ariel reached for more, Zeke stopped her.

“We don't know how long it might have to last.”

Although she knew he was right, she didn't like what he meant.

“When we get to the sea, we'll find mussels and sea cucumbers,” she argued.

“When we get to the sea.”

A bolt of homesickness hit her. The sea, and all it meant, seemed only a Storian's tale. Needing tangible proof, she retrieved her whalebone needle from Zeke's pack, where she'd stashed it for safekeeping.

“The whale's spirit will help us get home,” she told him, clutching the bone and hoping her words would be true.

Looking thoughtfully at the stone all around them, Zeke said nothing more. As Ariel grew drowsy, she tucked her needle back into his bag so she wouldn't lose it in slumber. Nonetheless, its comfort stayed with her. The feel of the whalebone lingered on her fingers. She hoped it would call her mother into her dreams.

It wasn't her mother who answered.

Ariel dreamed she had never left Tree-Singer Abbey. She wandered alone through its halls until a figure moved out of the shadows.

“What do you want?” she called nervously. She couldn't forget that Misha was dead.

He reached both hands to her—either pleading or welcoming, she couldn't tell which. Slowly her hand rose to take one of his. The grip chilled her whole arm, like sinking the limb into snow.

The abbey shadows throbbed with the beat of her heart. Smiling now, Misha turned and led her toward an archway. That's when she noticed that the hand holding hers was stained red. It had to be blood. Ariel tried to pull away, but his grip was too strong, and her legs wouldn't obey her. She trailed him through one dark passage and into another until an imposing wooden door blocked the path. Misha raised one hand as if to push through.

Ariel did not want to go through that door. It was the door to his world, she was certain—a door to the land of the dead. Even if passing through meant she might see her mother, she was too terrified she could never come back.

At last she tore her hand from Misha's. He turned with a wounded expression. Then his gaze passed beyond her. Raising his hand to his eyes as if against a bright sun, he pointed.

“Ariel, someone is coming.”

She looked but could see only darkness behind them. His palm touched her shoulder, setting off a ripple of fear. But he didn't drag her through his doorway. Instead, he shoved her mildly back the way they had come.

The dark hall blurred into the dark nook under the rock slab. Ariel found herself sitting upright, still feeling that gentle push on her back. Zeke slumbered beside her.

“Someone is coming.” She heard Misha's voice again in her head, though from far away now. “See there.”

Ariel peered out of their shelter. The moon danced behind scudding clouds, now bright, now veiled. To Ariel's sleep-swollen
eyes, many of the shadows below seemed to waver. Two shadows, however, moved steadily toward her. Scarl and Elbert were finding their prey.

The squeeze of dread in her dream seemed a caress compared to what now crushed her chest. She couldn't breathe.

“Zeke!” She shook him. He started awake. “It's them! They're going to catch us!”

As he blinked himself alert, Ariel gauged the threatening shadows, already closer. They would arrive in less than ten minutes.

Spotting them also, Zeke groaned.

Ariel's gaze probed the darkness behind them. “Can we hide deeper inside?”

“I think they'll know we are here.”

“We've got to run, then! Back to the abbey!” As she said it, she could see that their pursuers would cut off their path. To circle around the men in the moonlight without being noticed would be nearly impossible. Their own moving shadows would stand out as much as the two she watched with such horror now.

“We'd have to be able to fly.” Zeke's voice had gone dull. That scared Ariel even more than the relentless shadows. If Zeke gave up, her will to resist would fade, too.

Racing the Finders over the mountains was not really a choice. Even if they didn't plunge over a cliff in the dark, they couldn't outrun the men. Still, Ariel would rather fall to her death than be ensnared by the Finders again.

“Ash said they wouldn't catch us,” she moaned.

“No, he didn't.” Wise to the partial truths that Tree-Singers sometimes had to tell, Zeke added, “He said they wouldn't catch us
until
. He just wouldn't say until what. It's not his fault. If this is the path before us, we have to take it.” Though his
voice still sounded flat, it held a resignation that echoed almost like strength.

“We can fight.” Desperate, Ariel scanned the debris littering the ground. “It's two against two. We can let them get close and then hit them with rocks.” She scurried to gather an armful of stones.

Zeke didn't move. He sat with his hands pressed to his eyes.

“Zeke!”

“Shut up!”

Even in her terror, Ariel felt his rebuff like a slap.

He added, more gently, “Be quiet a minute.” He got up, keeping his eyes closed, and wandered deeper into their shelter. One hand trailed along the rock that slanted overhead.

Unable to fathom his actions, she checked on the two shadows' progress and reached for more weapons. Even if Zeke wouldn't fight, she would. Maybe the men would decide she wasn't worth it, or be hurt enough that she and Zeke could escape.

Zeke's voice drifted from the darkness behind her. Ariel turned. He wasn't speaking to her. It was garbled and faint, but she thought he was singing.

Poor Zeke. Ariel's fear shifted to make room for sorrow. He'd lost first his maple, then his trade, and now this. His mind seemed to be straining apart like a rotten fishnet, spilling songs in a place without trees. She'd protect him, though, for as long as her arms could fling rocks.

Shortly the singing fell silent. Zeke hurried to drop to his knees at her side.

“Listen. I know what you must do,” he said. He took a deep breath. “Let them catch you.”

“Are you crazy?” Ariel hissed. “We—”

“Aagh!” he cried, so loud the Finders may have heard. Echoes bounced off the rock. “There isn't much time! Do you trust me?” He rolled his head, anguished. His eyes flashed. “Do you?”

“No,” Ariel wanted to say. “You're acting too strangely.” She had come so far from anything she knew that everything around her seemed warped. Her throat tightened. This was Zeke before her, she reminded herself, Zeke from home, and he'd never done anything on purpose to hurt her.

“Yes,” she said instead, forcing the word out. “I trust you.”

“Then let them catch you,” he repeated, snatching his blanket and pack. “If they think you escaped by yourself, and they don't know about me, we'll still have a chance. Don't throw the rocks. Don't fight at all. If you make them mad, they might hurt you.”

They would already be mad and they would probably hurt her regardless, Ariel thought, but she kept that fear to herself.

Zeke squeezed her hand. “I'll be near, and Misha will be with you.” Darting around the lip of the rock slab and hugging the rock, he vanished.

Ariel drew her blanket close, curled into a ball, and let loose the tears crowding into her throat. The two men would soon reach the shelter. Misha might be there to see them, but he couldn't stop them from punishing her. And bad men could do unspeakable things.

Trembling in the moonlight, she waited for the Finders to come.

By the time their feet crunched in the gravel before the stone slab, Ariel's weeping had worn itself out. She lay near the entry, balefully watching their approach. They came directly but not too close together, as if they knew where she was but were ready to stop any flight. Just before they arrived, she buried her
head in her arms and pretended to sleep. They may well have heard her crushed sobs, but if not, the less the Finders knew they'd been anticipated, the better.

The footsteps grew so loud she thought the men must soon tread on her. One pair of boots stomped past toward the back of the nook. All noise stopped. The silence was worse. To keep her eyes shut, Ariel had to clamp her lids so tight she saw shooting stars. She held her breath, awaiting a blow.

“She got a long way.” Scarl stood over her, from the sound of it.

“If I had a horsewhip I'd give her a stripe for every mile.” Elbert's voice echoed from the hollow behind her. “Plus a few more for the horse.”

“He was my horse, not yours. But I still have his bridle if you'd like to try that.”

“Don't tempt me. I might lash you for convincing me to take her in the first place.”

“I know,” Scarl said. “Listen. Why don't you go on to Libros straightaway in the morning? I'll follow with her. Save you the frustration.”

“We'll see,” Elbert growled.

The boot, when it came at last, only nudged Ariel's ribs. Overprepared for a kick, she jerked. She scrambled to her feet before her eyes fully opened. It wasn't hard to pretend to be panicked. She leaped for the entrance.

Scarl caught her arm, pulling her back and trapping her flailing body against his chest. Even once she stopped fighting, his arms remained doubled around her as though she were a sack of unruly potatoes.

“Princess! Forgive us for disturbing your rest!” Elbert returned from the back of the cave. Seeing his pale head emerge from
the shadows terrified Ariel more than anything she'd ever seen of the ghost. His lips pulled back in a sarcastic smile that would have befitted a skull.

“We missed you. Didn't you enjoy our company?”

Resentment boiled into Ariel, almost replacing her fear. “Not half so much as I'd enjoy seeing your grave.” Without thinking, she spat at Elbert.

Scarl laughed. Elbert's face buckled in fury. Ariel barely saw his fist coming. A flinch of Scarl's shoulder tipped her face away, but not far enough. Pain burst over one of her cheekbones. She slipped lower in his grip, the crook of his arm covering her face and nearly smothering her as she flung up her forearm. Knuckles glanced off the bridge of her nose, swept her arm out of the way, and ricocheted back across her eyebrows.

“Quit,” Scarl growled. “You're hitting me more than her, and I'm not liking it much.”

“Drop her, then, and give me a clean shot.”

Ariel stiffened. Instead of releasing her, Scarl turned and carried her deeper into the niche where the moonlight and the breeze didn't reach.

“She's bleeding all over me as it is.”

Ariel could feel blood from her nose drip over her lips. Although at least two of Elbert's blows had glanced off Scarl first, they still left her head buzzing. She sniffed back the blood in her throat.

“Best not to cry,” Scarl murmured at her ear. Already sobbed dry, she had no intention of starting again. With the hand that was loose, Ariel wiped away blood.

“Oh, I plan to see a bit more of her blood once the sun rises,” Elbert muttered. “In fact, we may see a grave, too, missy. Not mine, though. No indeed. I have a surprise for the morning.”

Ariel opened her mouth, trying to think of a cutting reply. Feeling her inhale to speak, Scarl shifted his grip. His quick fingers found her bloody lips in the darkness. His thumb hooked her chin and snapped her mouth closed. He was telling her to be quiet.

“Yes,” Elbert added. “We can all have a good time in the morning.” He repeated that promise half under his breath, his voice falling flat to the earth.

Scarl put her down. Wrapping her in the blanket from his own pack so he didn't have to leave her unguarded for even an instant, he trussed her like a caterpillar in a cocoon. Once she was bound, he slid her farther back into the tight space and curled himself between her and the fresh air. Even if she had been able to move, she would have had to crawl over him to escape. Her lungs struggled. She wasn't sure there'd be enough air in the close dark for them both.