Chapter 15
Linn could feel the rhythm of the galloping horse, but couldn’t see where she was going any more, she was crying too hard. She wiped at her face angrily with her sleeve. It wouldn’t help Blackie and Spot One for them to fall into a ravine or something. She did wish that she knew where they were headed, though. She was hoping Bes had guided the horse with his power, or something.
They had ridden out of the valley and the mare slowed and turned to climb up the low ridge that separated this valley from the next. Linn let her take the lead. She could sit up in the saddle now and take stock. She ached all over. Blackie and Spot One were both curled in the panniers, sound asleep. That had to be Bes’s doing.
But the house had been blown apart, by whatever those things had been. With two of her kittens inside. The tears started to flow again and she rubbed them away. Bes was still back there, outnumbered. She couldn’t go back... the kittens were her first priority. It had only been maybe a half hour since he’d sent her to safety, but running the horse any farther would have been insanity.
She rubbed the mare’s sweaty neck. The golden horse flipped an ear back at her, then focused on the trail ahead. Linn looked around. There was a trail, a faint one, through the sparse trees of the high forest they were making their way through. She didn’t know where they were going, but the mare did. Linn was going to trust that, for now.
She looked up at the sky. The sun was still high. They could travel for another couple of hours, then she would need to set up camp. Which meant by then they needed to get down the other side of this ridge and find water. She wasn’t going to urge the horse to go any faster, though. Only in movies and on TV did you make your horses run for hours. In real life, that would leave you on foot with a dead horse.
She took stock of what they had. One fourteen year-old girl, who knew probably just enough bushcraft to get them all in trouble, one enchanted horse (she hoped), two comatose kittens, the blanket roll on the back of the saddle, her belt kit, and Lambent, a magical sword. Her survival pack was back in the barn. There hadn’t been time to get it.
The sky was clear and it didn’t rain here often in the summer. That was a plus. Downside, it was going to get cool tonight. The mare was climbing higher into the mountains, and Linn started to look for signs of water. There was a waterskin strapped to the saddle, under her leg, she discovered. Bes had saddled with the intention of them riding quite a while, she guessed.
No milk for the kittens, no food for her beyond the protein bar in her belt kit. No rifle. Lambent was a sword. Useless out here, except for chopping kindling. She was going to have to figure out how to catch some rabbits. She was twisting around in the saddle looking at everything when the mare shifted tacks.
Linn grabbed at the saddle horn and looked ahead. They were headed down into a narrow valley now, and.... she squinted. That looked like a stream ahead. She was going to drink out of it, giardia or no. She’d read there were some high mountain streams that weren’t infected with it. Not that she had a choice, because the water treatment system was in her survival kit.
The mare picked up speed as they neared the little rocky stream, and then stopped at the verge of it to lower her head and drink deeply. Linn slowly slipped out of the saddle, gasping as she hit the ground. She was sore in places she didn’t think she’d had before today.
Linn stood by the drinking horse for a moment, letting the blood return to her legs. She rubbed her butt. It was numb. She lifted the waterskin off the saddle and knelt to fill it at the clear stream. Behind her, Blackie poked his head up out of the saddlebag and looked around, his ears flattened to his head. He wasn’t happy.
Linn heard his miaow and went to him. She took him water in her cupped hands, which he lapped gratefully. He didn’t seem willing to leave the cozy saddlebag, so she went round to the other and patted Spot One until he woke up, too. He lifted his head up and look around, then stretched out a paw to bat at her loosened hair. Linn kissed his nose and went to get him water as well.
The kittens cared for, she stood for a moment to take stock of her surroundings. She was lost, she knew that. She’d been in too much of a panic to take a compass sighting when they left, so she pulled it out now and looked around. No real visible landmarks. The stream ran to the west and a little to the south. If she followed it down, she would probably reach civilization.
Linn thought about that for a moment. Even if she did get to a town, with people, what would happen? Her grandfather was missing, and who knew what had happened to Bes? Her mother was trying to keep the world from blowing up. Her grandmother was too far away. Linn pulled out her phone. No service, which is what she’d thought. She turned it off to save the battery and slipped it back into her shirt pocket, buttoning it carefully. She might need it later.
For now, she would stay with the mare’s trail. She did seem to be going somewhere, and Linn knew horses tended to go home, left to themselves. Perhaps, then, the mare would take them to Coyote. She wasn’t sure she wanted to meet him. The legends she’d read were wild. But he would know how to get her to her grandfather, and he was Bes’s friend.
She looked at the mare, which was ready to go again, and decide she’d walk for a while. Holding the reins, she let the horse have her head, and they set off again, following the stream. Linn limped a little until her muscles loosened up. When they came to a shallow place the mare wanted to ford, she remounted. She wanted to stay near water, but it wasn’t time to stop yet. She didn’t know how far it was to Coyote’s, but Bes had gotten there and back in an afternoon with the truck.
Back in the saddle, Linn relaxed a little and felt how tired she was. Her bones ached. Everything hurt. The horse was headed uphill again...on a winding, easy way, but discernibly up to the top of the ridge. What lay behind that was anybody’s guess. Blackie pulled himself out of the saddlebag and, much to her dismay, made his way delicately into her lap. There he sat tall, looking in every direction.
“This is a high forest,” Linn told him, her voice hoarse from crying and not having spoken for a while. “The trees are spaced pretty far apart because it’s cold, and there’s not a lot of rainfall.”
The kitten flicked an ear back in her direction. Linn knew he was listening, but wasn’t sure how much he understood.
“I love the smell,” she told him, sniffing deeply. The forest smelled spicy, pungent with the resin of the spruce and fir trees they rode under. The kitten opened his mouth and she knew he was using the Jacobsen’s organ that allowed cats to smell very acutely, almost tasting the air.
Linn ruffled his ears. “No fair. I can’t smell as much as you.”
Blackie leaned against her chest and purred briefly, slitting his eyes. She sighed. She was the one who should be comforting him, and instead he was helping her. She’d lost his siblings... She wiped her eyes and promised herself that she would always carry a handkerchief from now on. Her sleeve was disgusting.
“It’s starting to get late. As soon as we get to the bottom of the next valley we’ll stop for the night. I’m afraid there won’t be any milk.”
Blackie was back to sitting upright, Linn could see his claws sinking into the leather of the saddle, as the mare scrambled up a slope to the ridgeline. She put her arms around him and held onto the saddlehorn and the kitten. He headbutted her jaw affectionately.
Linn turned in the saddle to look at Spot One, who was watching the world go by alertly from his bag. He mewed at her, a raspy sound. She looked down into the valley. “One more slope, and then we stop. It’s not going to be comfortable, but I’ll keep you safe.” Linn wished she felt as confident as she sounded. She was exhausted, and had no illusions about being able to use Lambent against an attacker, much less three of them. But she’d try. She squared her shoulders and sent the mare down the slope, letting the tired beast pick her way slowly.
The bottom of the valley held a tiny intermittent stream that held a few puddles of water, enough for the mare to get another good drink. Linn
decided that she’d boil the water if she used any here. She unsaddled the horse, which immediately found a dry, flat area, rolling luxuriously in the pine needle carpet. The kittens sat near the saddle, warily watching the big creature flop around.
Linn unrolled the bundle that had been tied behind the saddle. An eight-foot oilskin tarp, a ground cloth, and a down sleeping bag were revealed, along with enough rope to set up a small shelter. Linn drew Lambent and went looking for a good spot. She used the leaf-bladed sword to cut a slender sapling for a ridgepole, wincing as the merry dancing flickers of power bit deeply into the wood. It seemed wrong, somehow, to use her sword for this.
She chose two trees that were about ten feet apart and lashed the pole she’d cut to them at about head height to herself. Then she attached the tarp to it, angling it back to the ground. What little wind was coming down the valley would be deflected by the tarp. She chosen a slight slope toward the creek, close enough to the creek to build her fire in the rocky verge of the dry creek bed, where she was sure she wouldn’t start a forest fire. As she started the little blaze, she could almost hear her grandfather’s voice in her head telling her: “You planning on roasting an ox, or just staying warm?”
Linn sighed. They’d be warm, if hungry. Her tummy growled. She spread out her ground cloth and bag, and brought the kittens from the saddle, where they had stayed. They seemed to think it was a part of home. She could see their uncertainty in how they moved, and how they stayed close to each other, or her when she was still enough.
She broke off a chunk of her protein bar and offered a piece to each of them. They both sniffed, then gave her identical looks of disgust. Linn chuckled a little. “Sorry, boys, it’s what I’ve got tonight.”
Blackie turned and started to wash his brother.
“I guess that’s a no.” Linn ate the protein bar. “How about some water?”
That they deigned to lap from her cupped hands, giving them the water from the waterskin. She would have to find some birch bark so she could boil water before she’d use it from the puddles. And that would have to wait until morning. She didn’t want to go wandering around in the dark.
Pushing a stick a little farther into the fire and watching the sparks dance, Linn pulled her boots off and crawled into the sleeping bag. The kittens crept in on either side of her. She lay on her side looking at the fire, and slipped into sleep.
She didn’t dream at all that night. She awakened to a cold nose on her cheek, followed by a raspy tongue washing her face. Spluttering, she opened her eyes. Blackie was draped over her chest, bathing her. Spot One was a warm lump curled at the small of her back. Blackie started to purr.
“Poor baby.” Linn cuddled him in her arms. “You must be hungry, and wondering where your sisters are.”
She looked over to the fire, surprised to see that it was still alight. Then she saw the two rabbits hanging from her ridgepole. She sat up into the cold air, clutching Blackie, and looked around. The forest was empty and quiet in the dawn light. There were birds singing, and a far off chatter of a squirrel, but no movement.
Shivering a little, Linn climbed out of the sleeping bag and went to look at the carcasses. They had been killed with an arrow, she thought, shot through the heart, and then gutted and skinned. Tied with a bit of rawhide and hung over the ridgepole for her and the kittens' breakfast. She looked around. No sign anywhere, and nothing moving, as before. Still, she raised her voice and called, “Thank you!”
Leaving the kittens curled up in the warm sleeping bag, she cut a couple of sticks to cook the rabbits over the fire. Whoever had left her the rabbits had also pushed her sticks in and kept the fire going. As she prepared them, she stretched and tried to work the kinks out of her muscles. She might be young, but yesterday had been a very long day indeed.
The mare wandered over to have her nose patted. Linn loved the velvety feel of it and hugged the palomino’s neck for a minute, picking twigs and pine needles out of her mane. She didn’t have a curry comb, but she grabbed a handful of the long green pine needles and wadded them up and tried that. She didn’t know how much good it did, but the mare sighed and leaned into her, so it was making her happy, at least.
She stopped when she could smell the rabbit, and rinsed her hands in a puddle. The pine pitch was there to stay, but the horse hair she could get rid of. Poking the rabbit with her knife, she decided it was done enough. The kittens had ventured close enough to the fire to worry her about their whiskers. She cut the rabbit in half and offered them the parts. Blackie took it eagerly and carried it off to the side before beginning to chew on it. Spot One sniffed, licked, and then seized it. She watched both of them, worried they’d choke on a bone.
She ate hers much more delicately, as hungry as she was. The kittens were done before she was, and she cut a few bits of hers for them. While they were nosing about exploring, she broke down camp and made sure the fire was extinguished.
She thought she knew who had looked after them in the night, and wondered why he didn’t show himself. The mare stood docilely while she hefted the saddle on with difficulty. She hadn’t done much of the saddling before, and hadn’t been paying close enough attention the night before. Fortunately, the mare was content to just stand there and let her fiddle with the girth until she’d figured it out.
Tying the blanket roll and panniers on took a little more time. She was very warm by the time she turned to the kittens, who were pouncing on one another and wrestling. Linn sighed. Bes’s trick with the sleeping would come in handy about now. She tried to pick up Blackie, who danced away from her, obviously thinking she was joining the game.
Spot One pounced on her foot, attacking her boot laces, and she captured him.
He wriggled, wanting down.
“Sorry, little guy. We can’t stay here. Time to travel on.”
She put him in the saddle bag and he gave her a reproachful look, but stayed put. Blackie climbed her leg, making her yelp as his claws caught her.
“Be nice!” she told him as she took him around to the other bag. “Stay there, now.”
Getting on the horse without kicking the kitten in the face was interesting. She muttered under her breath as she settled. Checking her lashings one last time, she kicked the mare gently. The palomino looked around at Linn, and then pricked her ears forward, looking up the valley. Linn gave her her head, and they began moving slowly uphill again. Linn wondered how high into the Bitterroots they were going to go.
It was another lovely summer day. Idaho in the summer rarely gets too warm, and in the cover of the trees it was comfortable. Linn drowsed in the saddle, trusting her horse to know the way. The kittens had gone to sleep with full bellies.
Around noon, she dismounted and walked alongside the horse for an hour. The mare showed no signs of slowing, but Linn didn’t want to hurt her, either. She held onto the stirrups during a steep scramble up a slope, but mostly just tried to keep up. She stopped seeing much of the scenery, as her world narrowed to the next copse of trees, the next slope. They were traveling mostly east, but also slightly north, so they were crossing ridges and valleys.
Sometime in the afternoon she decided they weren’t headed to Coyote’s place. It wouldn’t have taken Bes that little time to pick up the horses if his lair were this remote. She was tired, the mare was tired. Linn patted her neck. “Good girl. Thank you for the ride.”
The mare just flicked an ear back at the crazy human. Linn wondered how much farther they could all go on like this. It was early, but she thought maybe they would camp at the next water. If the horse became incapacitated she and the kittens would be in dire straits.
She dismounted as they reached the crest of the ridge and climbed up ahead of the mare, worried the horse would fall on her or kick her. At the top she stopped and panted a minute while the mare joined her in a last scrabble of hooves on rocks. Then she looked down into the valley she realized she had been right the first time. They had found Coyote.
Chapter 16
She wondered if magic masked this valley from mortal eyes. Surely it would have been in the news, this valley of bones, if a satellite could see into it.
Blackie crept into her lap again, as he had done the day before. Linn wrapped an arm around him, grateful for his solid warmth.
There was little green growing in the valley, as though it had been blighted and never recovered. The bones loomed overhead as they reached the floor of the valley and the ribcage. Linn studied them. White, cracked, and incredibly ancient looking. She shivered a little. The monster that had died here had been bigger than any dinosaur, even.
They reached the skull, and she saw that a rickety staircase led to one nostril, and the smoke vented from the other. No one came to greet them, but the mare stepped livelier as they drew near, tossing her head a little. Linn saw something off to one side that somehow made her relax slightly. A small, neatly tended garden in square-raised beds flourished, flowers mixed in with vegetables.
The horse went right through the gap between teeth. The canine of the monster loomed next to Linn’s shoulder like a massive ivory column, and then they were in the gloom. The horse stopped. Linn’s eyes adjusted to the dim light and she saw stalls built against the wall of the upper jaw. The lower jaw was gone altogether, she realized.
She slid off the mare, feeling her legs wobble. Then the buckskin gelding put his head over his stall door and whickered to the mare. The mare moved to bump noses with him and Linn, taken off guard, lost her balance and sat down abruptly. If the buckskin was here, then Bes must be as well.
Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) Page 8