by A. G. Henley
The sounds of fighting grow behind me, echoing against the rock and nearby trees. Amarina lets out a battle cry almost as fierce as the Sisters’, her voice high, clear, and determined. An alarmed bird squawks at the tumult; wings beat the air as it takes flight.
I crawl as far as I dare, then crouch a few feet away from the ledge, listening. Gravel digs into my knees; my knuckles and palms are skinned. Dust, kicked up by the fighting, chokes me and stings my eyes.
Shouts of pain and the occasional yell of triumph fill the air. Are we winning? Or are they? I want to help, but I don’t know how. I’d be as likely to injure myself or one of my own group as one of theirs if I rushed in now. And I don’t want to make myself an easy target.
“Derain, behind you!” Peree yells.
Kai shouts with alarm.
A cry, followed by an ear-splitting shriek, rents the air a moment later. I can’t sort out who might be hurt. Please, please don’t let it be Derain.
A man, a voice I don’t recognize, calls others to him. Running feet move back toward the forest. Some footfalls are quick and light, others are slower, sliding unevenly across the ground as if the person is forced to limp. Are the attackers retreating? I wait, trembling, praying the fighting is over.
Footsteps come my way. I clutch the knife in front of me.
“Fenn… it’s me,” Peree pants from a few feet away. “They’re leaving.”
I drop the knife in my pocket and throw myself toward his voice. He catches me, gasping as if in pain. I freeze. Groping to find his face, I feel his features, his expression, keeping my touches soft. He’s wincing.
“Are you hurt?”
“A few cuts, some well-placed punches.” He slides his hands over my face, my shoulders, my back. “What about you? Are you okay? My shot was way too close; someone pushed past me up the trail and it screwed up my aim.”
“But it was effective. He let me go.” I kiss him. “Is he… dead?”
“Nah, I got him in the shoulder. He ran off with the rest. Moray, Cuda, and Conda followed to make sure they aren’t regrouping to come back.” He pauses. “The brothers are strong fighters. Tough.”
He sounds impressed, which reminds me that he still doesn’t know all that much about the Groundlings. The brothers were among our best. Bear, too. The Lofties practically lived on top of us, but we didn’t know any more about them. How could we all be so ignorant for so long?
“Who were those people?” I ask.
“No idea. They didn’t exactly introduce themselves. But they looked clean, well fed, and organized. And they were mostly men, only a few women.”
“So not Fire Sisters, then.” I bite my lip, disappointed. If it had been, we could have followed them back to the Cloister.
“Their clothes and weapons were different, and no feathers on the women.”
A pained moan drifts from down the bluff.
I clutch Peree's arm. “Who's that?”
“Derain. Amarina is checking him out.”
I hear her now; her voice is controlled, soothing.
“What happened?” I ask as we move that way. Peree guides me away from the edge.
“He had to fight with his knife in his weaker hand because of his injury. One of them got behind him and inside his defenses. He just wasn’t fast enough. Derain blocked the man’s knife thrust, but he came back and punched Derain hard in the side of the chest. I heard ribs break.”
I grimace—first his hand, now this. “Is anyone else hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
Amarina asks Derain questions about his pain, if he can move, if he can sit. He answers, but he gasps between words. Everyone else is silent.
I kneel near Amarina’s voice.
“Don't worry, Mirii… I’m alive.” He coughs. “And grateful to be so.”
“Ribs are broken,” Amarina says, “but I don’t think your lung was punctured.”
Someone grabs my arm from behind, yanking me up and spinning me around. A finger jabs my chest.
“This is your fault,” Kai says.
“What?”
“If we’d gone up in the trees where it was safer, where we could see, this wouldn’t have happened. It always has to be your way, doesn’t it, Fennel? Even if you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”
My hands curl. “We haven’t come across a single person out here! I couldn’t know we’d be attacked.” I pause. “Why are you always picking on me, Kai? What’s your problem?”
“You are,” she says. “You’re weak, vulnerable. You can’t even help in a fight.”
I’m shaking so hard, my voice trembles.
“I may not be able to fight, but I’m not weak. Which you would figure out if you bothered to get to know me. From the first day Peree and I arrived in Koolkuna, you’ve been mean, spiteful, and jealous. If no one listens to your ideas, then maybe that’s why.” She starts to say something, but I cut her off. “Don’t say another word to me, Kai. I don’t want to hear it. We might be stuck out here together, but as far as I’m concerned, you don’t exist. Back off.”
I stalk away, toward the forest. I’m breathing hard, my pulse pounds in my neck, and my stomach is a rock.
Peree follows me. His familiar footsteps stop nearby, allowing me room to pace back and forth. I don’t like losing my temper, but I couldn’t help telling Kai off. She better listen, too. She better leave me alone.
Someone jogs out of the woods, their feet pushing through leaves on the ground. I spin in that direction, but Peree doesn’t react, so I assume it’s the brothers coming back. One set of footsteps slows as it reaches us; the others keep on, heading toward the group.
“The boys and I followed ‘em a ways.” Moray’s out of breath. “They scattered. I don’t think they’re coming back, at least not for a while.” He pauses. “What? What happened now?”
I pinch my lips together, not trusting myself to answer. My face boils.
“Fenn had words with Kai,” Peree mutters.
“Damn. I missed it. Who won this round?”
“I did,” I snap. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
He snorts. “You two are making it our business, sweetheart. Can’t exactly pretend it’s not happening.”
“It’s not happening. Not anymore. I told her I don’t want to hear another word from her.”
He laughs. “That’s it? That’s all you said?”
“No. I said other stuff.” As my head clears, I can’t exactly remember what I said. I know I was honest about how I felt, though, and it felt really good.
“You have to put her in her place.” Moray’s voice grows serious. “Don’t let her intimidate you.”
“I am; I will. I’ve had it with her.”
Moray musses my hair. “Good girl. I was getting bored watching her push you around.” He leans in, still somehow smelling of possum stew, and says, “Pushing you around is my job.”
I make a face as he walks away. “Peree?”
“I’m here,” he says from nearby.
He slides an arm around my shoulders, moving carefully. My body wilts as the anger ebbs out of me.
“I hate to ever agree with Moray, but Kai needed to be told off, and you were the one who needed to do the telling. Good job.” He squeezes me. “Have you ever heard of a wolverine? I might have to add it to your list.”
I sigh. Peree loves to tell me all the unflattering animals I resemble, like lizards. “Do I even want to know?”
“A wolverine was a type of weasel. They were ferocious hunters, totally unafraid. They could take down prey a lot bigger than themselves—”
“A weasel?” I choke. “Are you kidding me?”
Bear caught a small, sick weasel once. He nursed it back to health, planning to keep it as a pet. As soon as it was healthy, it gave him a nasty bite and took off. He still grumbles about it.
“A wolverine. Forget the weasel part.” He massages my neck. “You only ever hear the name of the animals. Listen to the qualitie
s. Ferocious, unafraid. Good stuff.”
“Okay, okay.” I find his hand. “C’mon, I want to see how Derain’s doing.”
Peree clears his throat.
“What now?” I ask.
“I, um, I think we should go up in the trees.” He rushes on. “I’m not saying Kai was right! We didn’t know there would be other people out here, but now that we’ve seen some, and they weren’t too friendly, we should be more cautious.”
I throw my free hand up. I never argued that we shouldn’t go up. Only that we might move faster on the ground.
We walk back to the group. I’m still tense, waiting for Kai to start shooting accusations at me again, but she doesn’t. I’m not even sure she’s there. What I do hear is Derain’s tight breathing. At least he sounds like he’s on his feet now.
“I feel for you,” Bear says to him. “It’s going to be tough to move that arm without pain for a while.”
Bear broke ribs during the Summer Solstice competition last year. Marj fussed over him like a newborn. It took to the end of the summer for them to heal. Add this to his hand injury, and Derain is in bad shape.
“We must go on,” Derain says. “I’ll manage.”
Will managing be enough? How much farther will we have to go?
Peree helps me find my pack and walking stick as the others get ready to leave.
“Huh,” he says.
“What?” I ask.
“They didn’t take anything. I thought maybe they wanted our food and supplies. But nothing’s missing.”
I think about it. “Maybe this is their territory, and they were defending it.”
“All the more reason to get out of here. We’ll have to find a good place to climb.”
We start moving along the path again, staying close together. Everyone’s quiet, listening for the attackers.
“Look for the walkways,” Amarina says. She’s staying with Derain, behind Peree and me. Bear and Kai have moved to the front; I hear them speak to each other a few times. The brothers still walk to either side of our group.
Guilt creeps in every time Derain grunt in pain. I know nothing I said or did directly led to him being hurt, but my pushing to stay on the ground again had serious consequences, and it could have been a lot worse. Is Kai right? Should I just shut up and let others do the thinking, the leading? What do I know anyway? I’ve made so many mistakes.
And while I’m being honest with myself, I have to admit that Kai hasn’t exactly seen me in my shiniest moments. First, I washed up in the Myuna, bruised and battered, with a half-dead boy in tow. The next time she saw me, I was in the pit Moray pushed me into, cornered by a sick one and pretty much delirious. She singlehandedly pulled me out. Nothing I’ve done since we returned to the village has been all that heroic, either. There’s absolutely no good reason for her to respect my decisions or follow my lead.
But she’s never given me a chance to prove myself. Why do I still wish she would? Maybe Moray and Bear are right and I care too much. It seems a lot easier to go around like Moray, not worrying about what other people think. Although I don’t fully believe the act.
Peree spots a platform in the trees after a few minutes. We’ll have to climb a tree to get up, he says.
I’m not a great climber. The Lofties never allowed Groundlings to climb their trees; they saw it as a threat. Not that that stopped us, but honestly, I tried to avoid it. Between my tree-sickness and the fear of falling and crushing every bone in my body, it wasn’t something I enjoyed all that much.
The others ascend before Peree and me, ending with Amarina and Derain. I feel terrible for him. He must be climbing one handed, and maybe with his injured hand, too. I can almost hear his teeth grinding against the pain. If he can do this, so can I.
I take it slow but steady, trying not to think about the pitiless ground. Peree climbs after me, helping me locate the branches over my head. This tree isn’t a greenheart. I’ve never touched one like it before. The trunk feels as substantial as a greenheart, but its bark is smooth, and it has a fine coating that comes off dry and chalky on my hands. The trunk has no smell. I’ve heard the others comment on the strange colorless trees that began mixing into the forest as we traveled along the Restless. This could be one of them.
After some time, I manage to pull myself up onto the walkway overhead. Bear hauls me to my feet, and my stomach lurches as the tree sickness barrels into me. Swallowing, I try to get my bearings. Kai’s saying something; I missed the first part.
“…Good shape. They look a lot better maintained. We should be able to move quick.” She emphasizes the last part, as if for my benefit.
Peree joins us a moment later and takes my arm as the rest start forward. When I do take a few steps, the wood feels strong and firm, but I still sway, feeling disoriented.
“Steady.” He tightens his grip and holds me closer.
I hang on to him with one hand and sweep my stick with the other. Tap, tap, tap. For the first time, I can hear the sound it makes against the wooden platform, as well as feel the small impacts. Its easy rhythm soothes me. Through Aloe’s cane, I know there’s somewhere safe to put my feet.
Everyone comments on the walkways, agreeing they’re well taken care of by somebody. The Sisters? The mysterious group who attacked us? Or someone else? I really hope those people won’t track us up here. It’s even possible they live up here, although no one mentions seeing any signs of them.
The walkway follows the Restless for a little while like the path on the ground did. The river is farther away now, to our right, but I can still hear it as we walk. I can tell when we cross platforms, because everyone spreads out a bit. We squeeze together through tight passages when the walkway narrows. Thankfully, there are no broken sections, or fire gaps we have to jump over.
By late afternoon, a crisp wind blows in. Not as bad as the freezing rain the day before, but enough to raise goose bumps on my skin. I press myself against Peree’s warm body.
The trees are alive around us. Leaves rattle and shake, branches rasp together, and squirrels chitter, probably annoyed with the great, lumbering beasts in their homes. But most distinct is the smell: the sharp scent of the Sisters. It’s growing stronger. Everyone seems to notice it now; several people mention it, and there’s a nonstop medley of coughs and sniffles.
The smell—whatever it is—is a constant reminder that we’re running out of time. That maybe it’s already too late. It drives us forward past the point of exhaustion, into the first hours of evening.
Through the shadowy shapes of the tree branches, the sky beyond tugs at my attention. It’s wrong. The smoky stench is almost unbearable now; it actually makes my eyes water.
“Why is the sky lighter than it was before?” I ask Peree, wiping my cheeks. “It’s almost like there’s a—”
“Fire!”
Chapter Fourteen
No one moves.
“Forest fire?” I whisper.
“I don’t think so,” Peree says. “The blaze is beyond the trees.” He sounds more curious than worried, which helps me relax. “There’s a platform with an opening in the canopy coming up; we should be able to see better from there.”
He leads me forward. When we stop, I feel a horizontal, waist-high board in front of me. The slats here feels even sturdier than where we started—there’s almost no give or creak when I step or push on them—as if they're new. I fold my arms over the top of the board.
I can sort of make out the fire now, at least its intense light. It seems to be below and to the left of the platform we’re perched on, and it doesn’t sound particularly close, crackling and spitting in the distance. But the air around me feels heavier somehow, and the stinging scent of the Fire Sisters is all encompassing. It even leaves a strange, sour taste in my mouth. My eyes run like tiny waterfalls. The others clear their throats.
Finally, Bear whistles, long and low. “You don’t see a view like that every day.”
“Amazing.”
“T
he rocks are on fire.”
“How is it possible?” Amarina asks.
“And all that water,” Peree mutters.
“What do you see?” I try not to sound frustrated.
“I’m not sure where to start…” he says. “It’s a lot.”
“How about the fire? Is it growing? Coming toward us?”
“No, we’re okay. It’s not moving. First off, the forest we’re in ends up ahead, at a plateau. There’s a compound on top, although it’s still a good walk away. It must be the Cloister.”
“It is.” Kai's voice is quiet, reflective.
“There’s a ridge of rocks running unbroken along one side of the plateau, and they’re on fire, like Conda said. The flames reach high up in the sky, billowing smoke. A wall of fire. I don’t see any way through them.”
“The rocks are on fire?”
“I guess it just looks that way. There must be a fuel source somewhere underground,” Peree says.
“The Sisters call them the Eternal Flames,” Kai says. “I’d forgotten that.” She still sounds preoccupied. What else is she remembering?
“The smoke,” I think out loud. “That’s why the Sisters trail that smell.” When Kai first described the Cloister, she said the fire never dies out. The smoke probably embeds itself in every stitch of clothing, in every hair, in every pore, every minute of the day.
Peree goes on. “So the Cloister has the wall of fire on one side, and a sheer mountainside on the other. High stone walls connect them. We’re nearest to where the fire and one of the walls meet. The wall on this side is bordered by forest. It’s hard to see what’s beyond the wall on the other side. Looks like some kind of drop off."
"The question is—how are we going to get in there?" Cuda asks. "The place seems really well protected.” He sounds dismayed.
“Maybe the Sisters haven’t gotten the children and Frost inside yet. Maybe we somehow passed them,” Conda says.
“Perhaps.” Amarina sounds unconvinced.
“Can you still see the Restless?” I ask Peree.
“Only because the last bit of daylight is reflecting off the water. It’s downhill to our right. It runs away from the Cloister into a huge body of water, far off in the distance. Bigger than the water hole or the river. Much bigger.”