The Elders

by Inbali Iserles

  Time drained away on the rocks. Shadows lengthened, springing over the stone to be gobbled up by waterfalls.

  The fur tingled along my back. “What is this place?” A strange fatigue sank through my paws. I might have slept here, just where I stood. I might have stayed here forever. When I blinked my eyes, I could still see rainbows.

  “It’s beautiful,” murmured Haiki. I followed his gaze. Up ahead, where Simmi was walking, the rock rose into an arch. I caught the outline of a spider’s web. Each delicate thread dangled with tiny beads of water.

  Haiki’s ears were flat. “We’ve been here before.”

  Tao looked at him.

  “The web …”

  My whiskers twitched. “But we can’t have. We’ve been walking forward the whole time, along the edge of the cliff.”

  Simmi sniffed the glittering rock. “I’m not sure …”

  Haiki’s tail curled around his flank. “There’s something wrong.”

  I gazed across one of the waterfalls. “It’s so peaceful here. The water bubbles and chimes like a song.”

  Haiki cocked his head. “Don’t you find it confusing?”

  My ears swiveled and I listened intently. The music was twisting through my thoughts. I tried to quiet my mind but there was no escaping the waterfalls with their mesmerizing prisms. If anything, they were growing more lurid as the day drew on.

  Haiki was running his tongue over his muzzle. “I think it’s foxcraft.”

  My ears flicked back. “What’s foxcraft?”

  “The water, the rainbows …”

  Old forces defend the lands surrounding the Rock.

  Is this what Siffrin had meant?

  Rapid blinking sapped the power of a slimmer—there were things a fox might do against other crafts. My tail jerked and a murmur escaped my throat. I focused my mind and pushed the sounds away. With an effort, my thoughts grew clearer. The music subsided, leaving only a tinkle of water. The rainbows flickered in and out of view.

  My muzzle wrinkled and I watched Haiki thoughtfully. “Do you know, I think you’re right …” I shook my head. “I feel a bit muddled. It’s the waterfalls, isn’t it? All the colors.”

  “And the sounds too,” Haiki agreed.

  Simmi’s ears pointed out at angles. Her whiskers flexed. “It goes,” she gasped. “When you focus your mind, it goes. You’re right, Haiki, it must be foxcraft! But who’s doing it?”

  “Perhaps the Elders themselves.” I looked warily along the sharp edge of the rocks to the cascades of water. “It feels like a trap.”

  “We’re going around in circles,” said Haiki. “I don’t think we’re any nearer to the Rock.”

  The nagging returned, feathery like the pale hairs of my ears. Just out of reach.

  I’d forgotten something.

  Siffrin’s voice sprang into my thoughts. Jana knows about Isla, but she can’t know of your skulk. I need to go ahead to assure her that it’s safe. I can return for Isla, Simmi, and Tao if she agrees.

  Jana, I realized, not all the Elders. Why only Jana?

  That thought, just out of reach. I drew in a deep breath and slowed down my heart rate, as though I was about to slimmer. My vision blurred and I closed my eyes.

  With a jolt, I remembered what Siffrin had said back in the Snarl when he’d talked of the Elders.

  They are all from the Wildlands, from different skulks. They gather only rarely at the Elder Rock, a raised shaft in a circle of trees. It lies between the Darklands and the Upper Wildlands, but few who search will find it.

  “The Rock!” I hissed. “The Elders meet there only rarely—the rest of the year, they live secret lives among different skulks. That’s why Siffrin spoke about finding Jana, not the Elders—because the Elders wouldn’t have been at the Rock.”

  Simmi stared at me. “What are you saying? When will the Elders be there?”

  The tingling beat rose through my paws. Suddenly I knew. “Malinta,” I breathed. “Malinta and the gloaming—they’re the only nights the Elders meet.”

  Simmi’s jaw fell slack as she absorbed what I was saying. “But malinta … that’s tonight!”

  “Tonight?” The shadows were already long as our tails; the sun was hovering low. “We have to get off the cliffs!” I peered over the rock edge, trying to see beyond the water. Wondering how we would get away. “Where’s Tao?”

  Simmi’s ears flicked back. “Just behind me … or he was.” Her fur rose in alarm. “How long has he been gone?” She started quickly along the rocks, her paws slipping on puddles.

  “Careful!” I urged, close on her tail.

  Simmi hopped down a set of flat rocks, calling her brother’s name. “Tao? Tao, are you there?” The rocks rounded the cliff, curving beneath another waterfall. When I reached around the edge of the cliff, I caught sight of Tao’s brush. He was very close to a waterfall, extending his forepaw.

  “Get away from there!” snapped Simmi. Her back was arched in panic.

  Tao’s voice was soft. “I’m touching the colors.” He allowed the water to tumble onto his fur. At this angle, I could see his paw dangling over the edge of the cliff. He extended his foreleg, a dreamy look on his face.

  I padded cautiously behind Simmi. “He’s under a spell.”

  She turned back to me. “We have to do something!”

  I knew that with enough focus I could stifle the foxcraft—but how could I convince Tao to do that too? “We need to distract him. Make lots of noise!”

  Tao was edging closer to the cliff face. He touched his nose against the waterfall, showering the air with spray. A moment later he pushed his head through the stream so that it disappeared from view.

  Simmi was wild-eyed. “What sort of noise?”

  I threw back my head and started yelping a distress call. Simmi added her shrill cry to mine and Haiki began barking.

  Tao showed no sign of having heard us. Did the waterfall block every sound beyond its deathly whirl?

  Simmi squealed and pounced down to her brother. She clamped her fangs around his brush, still shrilling through her teeth. Tao’s shoulders jerked and he tugged at his tail. Simmi bit harder.

  Tao turned on her angrily. “What are you doing?” he howled over the yelps, but we kept going, our voices sharp on the air.

  Simmi shook his tail as though it was prey.

  “Stop that!” he squealed, trying to push his sister away.

  “Who are you?” I cried. “Who are you?”

  Tao shook his head in confusion. “I’m …” His jaw fell slack.

  Simmi chomped down on his tail again.

  “Ow!” he pulled against her ineffectually.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Tao from the Upper Wildlands!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure!”

  I let out a long breath. Haiki stopped barking and Simmi released her brother’s tail. He pulled it to him, licking the wound she had left. “You could have broken it,” he whimpered.

  “I should have.” Simmi’s face was twisted into a snarl. “Why did you wander off like that? Didn’t you hear what Isla said? We need to reach the Rock by malinta!”

  Tao looked across the edge of the cliff. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “This place is cursed,” I said. “You didn’t know what you were doing.”

  Tao frowned. “The sounds … the colors.”

  The tremble of malinta touched my paw pads. We had to find a way out of this beautiful maze. I wondered what Siffrin would do.

  Why hadn’t he returned to the den?

  My gaze whipped over the edge of the cliffs. I noticed a narrow ascent through two boulders. “This way,” I urged. I started climbing a series of rutted rocks, leading the others uphill. But as we reached the top, the path closed before us in a kaleidoscope of waterfalls. Beyond their rainbow colors I saw flashes of sky where the rocks fell away. The light was waning but the colors still danced in the spray.

  There was no way out.
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  Haiki spoke uncertainly. “We’ll have to go back … to go around.”

  “Go around what?” snapped Simmi, her patience fraying. “Haven’t you heard what Isla said? This is a trap. Someone doesn’t want us to reach the Elder Rock—maybe the Elders themselves. If we go back we’ll just be treading circles. We’ll never make it for malinta. How long will Tao resist the call of the waterfalls?”

  “I’m trying,” he whimpered, his voice thick with shame. “But it’s strong.” He ran his tongue over his muzzle. “I just want to touch the colors. If only I could touch them very quickly.”

  “Do you want me to bite you again?” Simmi hissed.

  Haiki’s voice rose sharply. “What are we going to do? If we miss malinta, the Elders won’t be there. This whole trip will have been for nothing … We have to get there for malinta!”

  I was hardly listening. Squinting through the spray, I caught a glimpse of the sunset. Light was gliding through the sky like a leaping fox trailing a crimson brush. With a start I remembered what Siffrin had told me.

  The journey to the Elder Rock is hazardous. There is the deathway, woodlands, and a path that appears with the last brush of dusk … Not all who search will find what they are looking for.

  As the sun began to sink from view, the orange foxtail deepened. The fox’s body stretched over the sky and its pale tip brushed the waterfalls. For an instant, it lit a passage through the water, a tunnel that flickered before my eyes. Then the fox’s tail descended and darkness came.

  “Quickly, follow me!” I started toward the waterfall that had revealed the passage.

  “Not you as well!” yelped Simmi, shoving in front of me. “I thought you were stronger than that.”

  Haiki was quick to jump in. “Don’t be fooled, Isla! You’ll fall to your death!”

  My ears flicked back. “There’s a path over the rocks. We need to go quickly, before we lose it—don’t stand in my way.”

  The whispering song of the water grew louder, crowding around me, confusing my thoughts. The memory of the passage was fading. If I lost my nerve now, I would start to doubt what I’d seen. I shoved past Simmi, ducking beneath the waterfall before the others could stop me.

  Cold water splashed against my muzzle. Its tinkling song rose sharply, bursting into a frenzied thrumming, screaming in my ears. I felt a bite of wind and in that wet, blind instant I feared I’d made a mistake.

  Was I stepping over a cliff edge?

  But my wavering forepaw smacked down on solid stone. The thrum of the water subsided in a hush of spray. Blinking away the droplets from my eyes, I saw that I was perched on a narrow shelf of rock that plunged down in a spiral. I spotted no waterfalls along its dark route, just a dizzying route downhill.

  I turned toward the waterfall. “I’m all right!” My voice echoed back to me.

  I was reluctant to approach the water, recalling the screeching thrum that had risen in my ears. Instead of nosing toward it, I pierced the spray with a forepaw. “Can you hear me?” I barked. “There’s a path here.”

  As I withdrew, Simmi’s snout stabbed through the water. “Are you sure it’s all right?”

  “Yes, steep but safe,” I answered.

  She drew back. I heard her barking instructions at Tao over the fizz of the waterfall. A moment later, he rushed through the spray to stand by my side. Simmi followed, with a terrified Haiki close behind her. As the gray fox shivered on the gloomy stone shelf, I wondered at how he had risked so much to distract the Taken. He was not a fox of natural courage, and yet he’d protected us.

  More than Siffrin has, I thought bitterly. Why am I surprised? Of course he was going to let us down.

  Unless … What if something happened to him?

  There wasn’t time to think about that now. The moon grazed the tops of the distant hills. The lurching path was growing darker as light faded along the edges of the world. We had to hurry.

  I led the way down as quickly as I dared, the others silent on my tail. My head felt clearer than it had since we’d left the forest. The strange enchantment of the rocks was drifting away. In its place, a rhythm rose through the earth, stronger now. The call of malinta.

  The air was moist, mizzling with rain. Canista’s Lights glanced between the clouds. I moved quickly—too quickly for the damp ground. For a moment, I lost my footing, and my paw skimmed the lip of the stone. I drew in my breath and slowed my pace.

  Soon, the path before me was close to black. Only a thread of silver light hinted at the steep descent.

  Eventually I felt the land level out beneath my paws. The path vanished in a crumble of pebbles. The smell of cedar filled my nose. As the last whisker of light fell beyond the horizon, I took my first cautious steps into an ancient forest. Giant branches reached overhead, hanging off trunks as thick as furless dens. The breath of the trees enclosed us.

  “This is the Elder Wood. This is where we’ll find the blood-bark tree.” I couldn’t explain my certainty, but it swelled inside me—the Rock was close.

  Tao was sniffing, his muzzle pressed against the soil.

  Simmi’s voice was wary. “It’s so dark. I’ve never known a night like this.”

  Haiki padded alongside me. “We can’t go now, not without light. We’ll have to wait till dawn.”

  The hum of the earth was stronger on the mossy ground. I blinked through the darkness. The vibration that touched my paw pads was growing more intense. Quivers rose through my legs and along my tail.

  “We can’t wait, malinta’s here.” I started bounding, my paws scarcely grazing the soft ground. “Quickly!” I barked, “We’re out of time!”

  “We’ll bang into tree trunks,” Tao muttered, though he started to follow.

  “How do you know the way?” Simmi called.

  “Look over there!” An amber light was blossoming over the Elder Wood, rising far in the distance. I could feel my paws tugging toward it with each thump of the earth. It’s the Rock, I thought. The Elders are there!

  I swung around, intending to say this, and stopped in my tracks. Haiki had fallen behind. He was frozen to the spot, gazing over the trees.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I saw him in silhouette. His ears were flat. “Maybe I’ll wait for you here.”

  “This was your idea!” I gave Haiki a hard look.

  He shifted from paw to paw. “It’s like you said, the Elders won’t help us. It just took me a while to realize that.” His voice trembled and his tail was stiff.

  I couldn’t understand the change in him. “Has something happened?” I blinked into the shadows between the ancient trees.

  Simmi’s hackles rose. “Haiki, are you crazy? After we’ve come so far?” She turned to scurry into the wood.

  “Come on!” Tao growled over his shoulder.

  I paused, cocking my head at Haiki. His whiskers trembled and he dipped his muzzle.

  “Tell me what’s wrong,” I said softly.

  The gray fox looked up. Our eyes met. “Isla, I …” A bat screeched overhead. Haiki shook his fur. “It’s nothing.” He hurried past me, following Simmi and Tao into the wood.

  The pungent smell of blossoms filled the air and the ground thumped against our paws. Amber foxtails billowed against a dark sky. I hurried as quickly as I dared through brush and ferns, feeling the soft slap of greenery against my face. Edging around a tree trunk I lost my footing, tripping over a knotted root. I gave a small yelp as I tumbled, rolling back onto my paws.

  “Are you all right?” asked Tao, close behind me.

  I shook my paw. It throbbed where I’d struck it against the root but I was able to put my weight on it. “Yes, fine.” Malinta thrummed. I felt its power radiating from the soil. The air felt charged, like before a storm. Canista’s Lights glanced between the clouds. They pulsed white against the velvet sky, illuminating the ancient wood.

  The light was further away than it seemed. We ran through the night but it scarcely seemed to grow closer.

  Bu
shes and leaves leaped into my path and I dodged them, panting hard. What if we missed malinta? If the Elders vanished, where would we go? I couldn’t think that way, not now. We would find the Rock. The Elders would help us.

  I pictured Pirie.

  They have to.

  I risked a glance into the sky and my breath snagged in my throat. The moon was bleeding into black, disappearing beyond the horizon.

  Moonset.

  The most dangerous time of night, when red-eyed foxes stalked the Wildlands.

  But not here. Not close to the Elders.

  The amber foxtails looped overhead. We weren’t far now. We’d make it. I slowed my pace, looking back to the others. Simmi and Tao scrambled to a halt, panting alongside me. Haiki stood a few paces behind, his tail drifting low.

  The light gave a strange tinge to the giant trees. Most had the same dusty hue to their leathery trunks, with upturned branches and small unfurling buds. They hunched toward one another, as though conspiring.

  But one tree was different.

  Its gnarly trunk was the deep red of dried blood. Its branches were so stooped that they skimmed the floor of the wood, so twisted they resembled angry beasts. Its tiny buds were small red tears.

  Around the great curving trunk of the blood-bark tree were more of the jagged, light-flecked stones, like the ones on the cliffs. A beam of amber pointed down from the sky. The stones sparkled beneath its touch, edging around a huge rock circle with a large, flat mount.

  My whiskers prickled. The Elder Rock. A swath of amber fog coiled around the shimmering stones. The figures on the Rock were blurred silhouettes.

  Haiki hung back, eyes wide with fear.

  Simmi and Tao exchanged worried glances.

  “What now?” Simmi whispered.

  For a moment I floundered. Was it safe to approach the Elders like this?

  The beat of malinta thumped against my paws, jolting me from these thoughts.

  Have you come all this way just to run and hide?

  I took a step forward. The amber light grew brighter, though the shapes on the rock remained fuzzy. I counted five … six … Had one of the missing Elders returned?