Anxiety squeezed Helix's stomach, forcing the relief away. "What's it like there?"
Iggy squared his jaw. "It's bad, Helix. They're taking in everyone who knew you. Your ma and pa, Mellerson and Silla... sehk, Minda."
"What?" Helix rasped. No... Oh, God... "Minda? Why? Minda doesn't know anything!" No one knew anything. I didn't do anything. Suddenly, the other names fell on him. Mellerson. Silla.
Mom and Dad.
"Oh," he said. His legs carried him to a log, and he sat down. "Oh, sehk."
I have to go back. They'll let them go if I go back, I have to go back.
Why are they doing this to me? I didn't sehking do anything!
"I..." Iggy had gone ashen. "I'm sorry. I thought, you know, I'm your friend too, they'll probably come for me next... so I got out. Last night." He swallowed and shook his head. "I left a note for my parents... I hope they saw it. I told them to get out, too."
"What about my mom?" Lyseira asked.
Iggy's jaw tightened. "They have her too."
Lyseira bit her lip and took a half-step backward, circling her heart.
"When?" Seth threw the word like a dart.
"Last night. Right away, seemed like, as soon as they got the fire out."
"M'sai," Lyseira said. "That's it. We go back." She grabbed her pack and slung it over her shoulder.
Iggy looked apologetic. "Lys... I wouldn't."
"You don't know everything that's happened, Iggy. I worked a miracle last night. God came to me. He'll protect me." Something in her tone sounded weaker than it had before.
She took a step toward the clearing's edge, and Seth grabbed her arm.
"No," he said.
She whirled on him. "What are you doing? He's talking about our mother!"
"I know," Seth said, "and you're not going back there."
"They could kill her!"
"And if you go back, they'll kill you." His eyes were like steel. "She heard the soldiers, Lyseira. She didn't invite them in and tell them to take you. She told you to run, and she told me to make sure you made it."
Lyseira's mouth worked, her eyes heavy with horror.
"I'll go," Helix heard himself say. He stood up.
"Oh, no," Angbar said. "No, you won't."
"They have my family, they have my sweetheart—sehk, Angbar, they have my boss." The words were fuel on a fire, the hysteria from last night suddenly catching flame. "I can't just—"
"They might have my family, too!" Angbar roared. It caught Helix like a slap, stamped out the hysteria as suddenly as a flood. He had never seen Angbar angry. "Who do you think will be most expendable, Helix? Hostages they can use to lure you back? Or a couple of nogs?" He stalked over, trembling. "I did this. I made this choice. I can't take it back. And you"—he stabbed Helix's chest with a finger—"are not going to cock it up trying to play hero."
"Hero?" Helix aped, but Syntal cut him off.
"He's right. No one should go. Especially not you."
"Syn," Helix sputtered. "Mom and Dad—"
"Mom and Dad wouldn't want you to come back and get yourself killed. And what'll the Church do to me, Helix?"
He glared at her. "They won't do anything to you. You're not coming."
She answered with a level look and a single arched brow. "Then you're not going."
Sehk, Helix thought. Sehk, sehk, sehk. He wanted to scream, or flail, or shove past everyone and run home.
The clearing fell quiet. Iggy lifted a hand.
"I got one piece of good news," he said. "They all think you went west for some reason. They're tearing apart the road to Newton looking for you."
Seth chewed on this. "Good," he said, "but that doesn't help with the arc hounds."
"Arc hounds?" Iggy asked. "Is that what I saw...?"
"We need to keep moving," Seth said. "We'll explain on the way."
Chapter 11
i. Helix
They returned to the road and walked.
Seth told Iggy what had happened. The others added as they saw fit, and nothing was left out. Helix said nothing. He felt numb.
His shocked mind had been rushing from one emergency to the next throughout the night, but he'd always been sure, somewhere in his head, that there was an end to it all. He just had to reach it. Yes, he'd been sentenced to death, but even now he couldn't shake the sense that it was all a giant misunderstanding, that it could be somehow remedied. Yes, he was running for his life, but the home he'd left was still there.
Except now, it wasn't. It sounded like everyone he knew had been taken in by the Tribunal. His home was gone. There was no turning back.
His thoughts were awash in little questions. What are we going to eat? Where are we going? But lurking beneath them, like the shadows of monsters beneath a lake surface, were the big questions.
Where is home now? Is there any hope?
Winter was nearly here. It was already freezing the creeks and stealing into his muscles, weighing him down like a hundred pound pack. When it comes in force, what will we do?
Are my parents still alive?
He had no answers, but the questions wouldn't stop. He trudged through them until the trees started to thin and Seth called a halt for lunch. The words hit Helix like a hammer, and he staggered to a halt and sat.
"Iggy, help me hunt," Seth said. "We should save what we have while we can."
I should help them hunt, Helix thought, just before waking to a firm shake of his shoulder and the smell of roasted pheasant.
"Here," Lyseira said, offering him a piece of steaming meat. He took it and ate, his jaw grinding like an automaton. It was good—delicious—the best meal he'd ever had. The taste ignited a renewed hunger in his belly that he hadn't even realized had been there, and his exhaustion faded somewhat to give it room.
The others discussed directions and plans. Angbar mentioned going to Coram to stock up on supplies. Iggy said they'd do best to stick with the old roads; something about Alynwood giving cover from a coming blizzard. Lyseira suggested a longer-term plan: going to Tal'aden, to meet with the Fatherlord and tell him what had happened. It all sounded equally pointless to Helix.
Someone asked his opinion. He gave them a grunt and a shrug. Beyond the fact that home was gone, he couldn't understand anything.
After eating, he climbed to his feet and winced as all the aches in his legs and back flared to life. Even his arms were sore. Why in Hel are my arms sore? I haven't been walking on them.
They made Alynwood an hour before dusk. Between the trees, the old road crawled over hills and ridges. It was nearly overgrown here, sometimes little more than two dull trails of beaten, brittle grass.
But at least Iggy knew where to take them. He didn't know these woods intimately, he explained, but he knew forests, and he had been to Alynwood before. If he wasn't confident of the best way through, he did an excellent job faking it.
As the forest's light started fading, Helix noticed a glow off the road ahead.
His stomach clenched; a memory of the wound that should have killed him pricked the skin at his throat. They were all exhausted and half-starved. They had barely managed to survive the last arc hound. If another one came now, or, God, a pack of them...
Iggy signaled a halt. "There's a cabin," he said, peering into the gloom. "Lantern in the window." He glanced back at the others, a question in his eyes.
Helix forced his terror down and stared, trying to see through the thin light. Just ahead, a little path wound away from the road and down a hill. At the bottom was a small clearing, and in the back of it stood a cabin, easily the size of the Rulanos' home back in Southlight. A lantern burned in one of the windows.
"We go around," Seth said.
Iggy shook his head. "That storm—"
A rustle of leaves interrupted the argument. A man emerged from the deeper tree cover, moving with the ease of a practiced woodsman. The crinkles at his eyes told of forty or more winters, but he was well built and steady on his feet. A longbow hung fr
om his shoulder. "I thought I heard voices," he said. "Good eve."
"Good eve," Iggy answered.
The man had a warm smile. "Don't see many hunters out this way."
Iggy nodded. "We, ah…" He glanced back at his companions. "We—"
"We got lost," Angbar put in. "We've been in these woods for days, we're starving and exhausted, and we're very happy to see you." He stepped forward and held out his hand. "Angbar Shed'dei, if it please you."
"Blane." He took Angbar's hand. "Haven't seen a northlander 'round here in years."
Angbar grinned and nodded. "As I said, lost."
Blane's eyes narrowed as they fell on the bloody rags of Seth's robes and Helix's shirt. "You've been hurt."
"We were attacked," Seth said.
The ranger's eyebrows lifted. "Attacked? In Alynwood? What happened?"
"Wolves," Seth said, at the same time Angbar answered, "Brigands."
Blane gave a wary smile. "Which is it, then?"
A woman's voice called. "Blane! What's keeping you? I've nearly got your supper up!" A woman of an age with Blane stood in the cabin doorway.
"Some lost travelers," Blane answered.
"Well, invite them in!" she called back, excited. "We've too much stew for the two of us!"
Blane looked them over once more. We must look a sorry lot, Helix thought. Bunch of starving kids, torn half to pieces. "It'll be cold tonight. We've got food and extra blankets, since the children left. Bandages. You can stay with us the night; come morn, I'll bring you up to the road."
Seth shook his head. "Thank you for the offer—" he began, but Iggy cut him off.
"Too kind. Thank you. We accept."
Blane's wife beamed at them from the door as they approached. "My! So many!" Her smile faltered when she saw the color of Angbar's skin, but only briefly.
"This is my wife, Leese," Blane said.
"Helix," Helix heard himself saying. Their hospitality felt like rain in the desert. He shook Leese's hand. "My cousin, Syntal, and my friends, Seth, Lyseira, Angbar, and Ignatius."
Leese's eyes trained on Angbar. It was plain she wanted to ask about him, but she was too polite.
"I've asked them to stay the night," Blane told his wife. "They haven't had a bite in days, from the look of them, and they're exhausted to boot."
"The night?" Leese said. "Well you'd best go dig up the children's things, we haven't had guests since Zeke left." Blane grunted and disappeared inside.
"You'll have to sleep on the floor, I'm afraid," Leese said as she showed them in. The two windows Helix had seen at the front of the house opened directly into a warm, dark room sporting a massive bearskin rug. A fireplace crackled busily at one end, framed by two rocking chairs. A stag's head was mounted above the mantle; a longbow graced the wall opposite it.
But the first thing Helix noticed was the smell, the rich, meaty aroma of a good venison stew. He had never felt his mouth begin watering—he'd thought it was just an expression—but he did then. Potatoes, carrots, onions, gravy… he could pick out each scent as if he were a wolf on the prowl.
"Oh…" Angbar moaned. "Oh, that smells… delicious."
"The floor will be more than generous," Lyseira said. "Thank you so much."
"It's nothing, dear. Akir favors a generous heart." Leese smiled again. "I'm sorry we don't have more chairs, but you're more than welcome to make yourselves at home."
Helix limped over to the hearth as the others trailed in, and slid down the wall to have a seat on the floor. The warmth of the cabin enfolded him. He'd had no idea how cold he was until his flesh started to thaw.
Blane returned and set an armful of worn blankets and pillows on the bearskin. "The kids'," he said. "Not enough for the six of you, but may be if you can double up."
Helix thought his chest might burst with gratitude. "Thank you," he said. The heap of thin pillows looked like the lap of luxury.
"You can thank me by getting a good night's rest," Blane answered. "And complimenting my wife on her stew."
Supper was as delicious as it smelled. Blane and Leese brought the wooden bowls out to them in the sitting room, each on a plate with a steaming crust of bread and a mug of cold water. He devoured his own meal as if it were his last and, with permission, went back to the pot for seconds.
~ ~
When they'd all finished, Blane and Leese settled into the rocking chairs as Lyseira and Seth began laying out the blankets. The sun had set, but the fireplace and the lantern in the window kept the darkness at arm's length. Syntal had fallen asleep, the light from the fireplace dancing across her features like manic shadow puppets.
"Your sister looks exhausted," Blane said as he tapped a small pouch of powdered bloodroot into a pipe.
Cousin, Helix thought, but there was no point in correcting him. "We all are."
"Your friend said you'd been in the woods for days."
Helix shot a glance toward his companions, but none of them seemed prepared to say anything. He nodded. "Got lost."
"Where were you headed?"
Again Helix looked at the others. His mind was blank. He didn't trust himself to say anything.
"Shientel," Angbar said, and Helix felt a pang of gratitude to the storyteller.
"And you're taking the old roads?" Blane arched a brow. "Quite a journey. Weeks on horseback, let alone by foot."
"We have family there," Lyseira said.
"All of you?"
"No. No, just… just me." Leave the lying to Angbar, Lys, Helix thought.
Iggy smirked. "We came with so she wouldn't get lost."
Blane's chuckle was amiable enough. "Know your way around the woods, do you?"
Iggy shrugged. "Thought I did."
"So these brigands and wolves that attacked you," Blane began, but his wife shushed him.
"Oh, enough already. They're guests."
Blane gave her an irritated glance and clamped his teeth over his pipe, but a minute later thought better of it. "Wolves," he muttered around his pipe. He puffed, took the pipe out of his mouth, and leaned forward. "And you said it was here, in Alynwood? I mean, head into Coram, and you'll always hear a good Wolfwood road story. Since the Storm some fool's always taking the road by Veiling Green and not coming back alive." He waved his pipe dismissively. "Nothin' this far east though."
Helix had heard some of the Wolfwood stories. They were pebbles in the beach compared to all the other tales since the Storm.
"A lot of strange things have happened since the Rending," Lyseira agreed, echoing his thoughts.
"Oh, you hear them tell it at the Coram tavern, the whole world's gone upside down. Winter's summer, summer's winter. Witches everywhere. Tribunal's going crazy. I even heard some stories from Bahir," Blane said, nodding at Angbar. "I'm sure it's all true. We just keep our heads down. Nothing happens out here; that's why we're still here. Ain't that right?" He elbowed his wife, who circled her heart.
Helix knew what he meant. He remembered being terrified, as a boy, when the Church had named the Rending the end of the world. He'd walked on eggshells for weeks, expecting every morning to be his last.
Back then, every sign had been gut-wrenching. The time the sun had disappeared in the middle of the day, he'd been certain it was over. He remembered sobbing in his mother's arms, wondering if he'd been good enough to avoid Hel.
The next day, the sun had risen like normal, and life had gone on.
Eventually, the signs the Storm had brought became... not normal, never normal, but at least expected. He didn't doubt the Church when they said the world was in its last days, but what was he to do about it? Give up? Quit breathing? Everyone had to keep eating; everyone had to keep living. So they did. When the world was ready to end, it would.
"So." Blane settled forward in his chair. "What are you kids running from?"
Helix fought for something to say. The silence in the room thundered with guilt.
Lyseira gave him a nervous smile. "Running? We don't—"
&
nbsp; "I'm no fool, girl," Blane said, not unkindly. "You're all torn up, got a hunted look in your eyes. Taking the old roads to Shientel of all places?" He scoffed. "It's no difference to me, but you give me your secrets and I'll keep 'em."
"No secrets," Seth said levelly. "Just a run of bad luck."
Blane locked eyes with him as the fire threw crackling shadows across their faces. Finally, the older man chuckled. "Forget it." He got to his feet. "You got your secrets, sure as the sun sets, but Hel, everyone does, these days."
"Blane," Leese whispered. "Language."
"Thank you again for the roof and the meal," Seth said. "We'll be on our way before you wake."
Blane brandished his pipe. "Now, there's no need for that. I said I'd guide you to the road, and I mean to. I'm like to be heading into town in a few days anyway; may as well clear a path up. Besides, between the wolves and the brigands and your friend's sense of direction, you'd probably just wind up here again in a few days."
"Thank you," Helix said.
"Well then." Blane cast a final look over them and nodded shortly. "Good night."
"Good night." Seth watched until the pair disappeared into a little bedchamber, then settled himself against the wall to finish his bread. His jaw worked mechanically, his eyes fixed on the window nearest the hearth. After he swallowed, he said, "Iggy."
The young woodsman looked at him.
"This wasn't a good idea."
"I told you, there is a blizzard coming. You won't be saying that if it hits tonight. You're worried about food? If we get caught in that storm, we're dead."
Storm? Helix remembered Iggy saying something about that earlier in the day, but he hadn't been listening.
"The more people see us," Seth pressed, "the more likely some Tribunal Seeker will be to track us."
Helix winced at Seth's raised voice. The two were still arguing quietly, but if he knew Iggy's temper, that wouldn't last. He cut in. "What's done is done. There's no use in arguing now—they've seen us, we're here, and we're warm. There's no harm in taking a rest for the night." Helix dropped his voice even lower. "We can leave in the morning before they wake, if that's what you want, Seth. We're better off staying away from the road anyway."
Children of a Broken Sky (Redemption Chronicle Book 1) Page 19