Terry said, “At least Merlin can hide Alia’s power, so those three won’t be as easily hunted as us.”
I remembered Ed Regis’s words about how professionals always put the mission first. “Maybe you guys will be better off if I’m not here,” I suggested. “There’s no way to hide my power from the Angels.”
“Together or not at all, remember?” said Terry, repeating what I had said to her before we jumped from the roof of NH-1. “Besides, how are we going to find the Historian without you to guide us, dummy? Don’t worry. We just need to get to Merlin before the Angels find us.”
We turned northeast now, heading in the general direction of the Historian’s power, and soon we were carefully making our way down a moderately steep, boulder-infested mountainside. I quickly discovered that descending wasn’t any easier than climbing: It used a totally different set of muscles and there was a greater risk of slips and falls. In less than two hours, we had to stop for the night. The night sky was nearly cloudless and the moon was just beginning to wane, which meant that it was bright enough for us to see each other’s faces without flashlights, but too dark to walk safely on the rocky slope.
“Break a leg out here and you’re dead for sure,” warned Terry.
Our trekking clothes were thick and warm, but not enough to keep us from shivering a bit in the cold night air. We took cover behind the largest boulder we could find, but it did little to shield us from the biting wind which began to blow soon after sunset. We huddled as closely as we could, shoulders touching, curled up and hugging our bodies to keep warm.
“It’s not so cold that we’d die in our sleep,” said Terry, “so we’d better sleep. I’ll take first watch. James can have the midnight shift, and then wake up Adrian. Try to sleep as much as you can. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“I thought it was a pretty long day today,” I said, and then suddenly I couldn’t help laughing to myself.
“What is it, Half-head?” asked Terry.
“Nothing,” I said, still chuckling. “I was just imagining Alia huddled up somewhere out there with Merlin and – and Ed Regis!”
Terry laughed too. “That kid has no fear.”
I stopped laughing and said quietly, “Only in the daytime.”
“We’ll find her, Adrian. Just get some sleep.”
It’s hard to stay warm on an empty stomach, and I doubt James and Terry slept any better than I did that night.
The dawn was cold and uninviting, but at least the wind had died down during the night.
“Let’s get going,” said Terry, and we did.
We plodded steadily along all day, mostly without talking, doing our best to ignore our parched mouths and rumbling stomachs. There was nothing edible to be found on these barren mountains, but early that evening, we were fortunate enough to come across a narrow river running between two slopes. The icy water was clean and refreshing, and I took hope in the knowledge that if Alia’s group was heading toward the Historian, they would no doubt have crossed this river too. We didn’t have any bottles to carry the water in, but the outer layer of our hiking clothes were nylon raincoats which, once we made some crude adjustments, worked nearly as well.
Water was a poor excuse for sustenance, however, and that night felt even colder than the first.
“I’d like to find Alia before her birthday if at all possible,” I said as I stretched out my painfully cramped muscles in the chilly morning sunlight. Alia’s finding day, March 24th, was the day after tomorrow.
“She’s going to be eleven, right?” asked James.
“Theoretically,” I said, since no one knew exactly how old she was. “And assuming she’s still alive.”
But we didn’t see Alia’s group that day or the next. Fortunately, we met no Angels either.
Terry had a theory on the lack of pursuit: “First off, we’re still a good long distance from the Historian, and very few people attempt to reach him from this side of the mountains. Most of the Angels are probably guarding the common access route from the east. They know we’re here, though, so it’s only a matter of time.”
“What about the guns that brought down our plane?” asked James.
“I still think they were Angels or hired by Angels,” replied Terry. “But they may be non-psionic, in which case they won’t be able to sense Adrian’s power. Or perhaps they can and they’re trailing us at a distance as they wait for reinforcements. Who knows?”
From then on, James kept looking over his shoulder as he walked. I didn’t have the energy left to bother. We had been going without meals now for three days, and it was taking its toll. I no longer had the strength to levitate myself over the difficult parts of the journey, and my legs felt as heavy as the boulders we had to navigate. Even Terry was running on vapors, and I feared for my sister’s group, which had also jumped without supplies.
We had no maps, and really no idea where we were. All we had was a heading, and there was no straight line to the Historian. Without ropes or any proper mountain climbing equipment, we had to carefully choose our routes, which often took us in wide arcs around the jagged peaks. Sometimes we would get to the top of a relatively mild slope only to discover that the other side was a sheer cliff, and I wasn’t about to attempt another controlled descent with Terry and James hanging on to me. The going was slow and we still saw no sign of the rest of our team. We spent another cold night on the rocks.
In the mid-afternoon of Alia’s eleventh birthday, as we reached the top of yet another gap between two peaks, Terry asked, “How far do you think the Historian is, Adrian?”
“I can’t tell,” I replied honestly. “We’re getting closer, but I don’t think we’ve even come a quarter of the way.”
“We need food,” said Terry. “We’re not going to make it much farther if we can’t find anything to eat.”
James, who had so far refused to complain about this basic problem with our forced march, nodded weakly. “I feel like we’re walking in circles. These mountains all look alike.”
We weren’t, but James had a point. And I knew that Terry’s real fear wasn’t dying of starvation, but how weak we might be when the Angels finally decided to pounce.
“We’ll just have to keep going,” Terry said resolutely. “We still might find something beyond the next mountain.”
That didn’t sound very promising, but as I let my eyes wander down the slope, across the miles of desolate yellowish-brown terrain that we would have to cross before we could even begin climbing the next mountain, I saw something that made me do a double take before I believed it.
“Alia has been here,” I said quietly.
“How do you know?” asked Terry.
“It’s written in the rocks.”
Terry stared at me. “Have you lost your mind, Adrian?”
I pointed downward to a collection of seventeen large brown rocks set in a pattern on the ground near the bottom of our slope. Terry couldn’t read them but she recognized the writing. “Braille,” she said, nodding. “That’s her alright. What does it say?”
“Hansel,” I read.
“There’s probably a message near it,” said Terry. “Let’s try to get down there before nightfall.”
We did, but only just. In the fading light, we discovered hundreds of little holes carefully patterned along the bottom of my Guardian call sign. The Braille dots looked like they had been made by pressing the tip of a bullet into the soft earth. Alia had chosen her words carefully just in case someone aside from me out here could decipher Braille, and I couldn’t help smiling as I read her secret message.
“Well, tell us what it says already!” Terry commanded impatiently.
“Happy birthday to me,” I read aloud. “Already got two presents yesterday, but I think more are coming. This morning I’m taking my dog to the swimming pool first and then we’ll head to the party. Hope to see you there. Gretel.”
“What the heck does that mean?” asked James. “Is there a lake around here
or something?”
Terry shook her head. “Today’s her birthday, so they were here this morning. There was a swimming pool a few blocks east from New Haven One. They’re headed east around the mountain before continuing toward the Historian.”
I glanced at the eastern slope, which was by far the easier climb compared to the steep north face.
“Clever girl,” commented James, shaking his head in wonder.
“Too clever,” I said dryly. Alia’s “dog” was no doubt the Wolf, while “presents” were probably Angels.
“She didn’t mention Merlin,” said Terry. “She thinks he’s with us.”
“Damn,” breathed James. “I wonder what happened to him.”
“He may still be alive,” said Terry, though she didn’t sound very convinced herself. “More importantly for us, if Major Regis bagged a pair of Seraphim, they’ll probably have food and water.”
“We’re a day behind,” I said. “We’ll have to double-time it tomorrow if we’re going to catch up.”
“Especially if they’re moving on full stomachs,” agreed Terry, “but that should be incentive enough for us to pick up the pace tomorrow.”
Incentive it was, but willpower alone couldn’t speed up our legs very much the next day. We were out of water again, and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one feeling dizzy with each step we took. We didn’t realize it at the time, but our average elevation was gradually increasing with every mountain we crossed, so the air was getting thinner.
But even altitude sickness, gnawing hunger, thirst, and the pain in our legs were not the worst of our problems on the mountains. To varying degrees, we had all learned to deal pretty well with physical discomfort. The real problem was the sheer monotony of the landscape compounded with the fact that we had to take each step carefully to avoid slips and possibly fatal falls. That, compounded with the constant strain of not knowing if and when we might come under fire, stretched our nerves to their limits.
Stumbling, occasionally crawling, we reached the top of the eastern slope in the early afternoon. I wanted to stop and catch my breath, but not until I had a look down the other side of the mountain where I hoped to see the distant shapes of Alia and Ed Regis.
“They’re following you,” said a rough voice from my left that nearly stopped my heart.
James and I spun toward the source of the voice, James drawing his pistol as I prepared to throw a blast from my right hand.
Ed Regis, sitting calmly on a large boulder, merely smiled.
Terry, equally composed, said, “I know that, Major. They’ve been following us for the last three days. But I don’t think they’re actually Seraphim. Just common Angels, or maybe even hired guns. They’re waiting for reinforcements.”
“Which will come soon, I’m guessing,” said Ed Regis. “The two scouts we ran into the day before yesterday were unmistakably Seraphim, and I’m sorry to report that they managed to give our position away before I got them.”
I had many questions, but the most pressing one was, “Where’s my sister?”
“Taking a nap under the sun,” replied Ed Regis, pointing at a large rock formation behind him. “We saw you three coming toward our little message yesterday afternoon and decided to wait for you here.”
Wanting to see for myself, I ignored the pain it was causing my weakened body and levitated myself up several yards. Alia was lying curled up on a sleeping bag spread out over a large flat rock. Next to her were two tall, dark gray backpacks.
“I’d let her rest, Adrian,” said Ed Regis. “I’m sure she could use it.”
I agreed and let myself drop back down. Then I said crossly to Terry, “You should have told us that we were being followed.”
James nodded in agreement, but Terry said coolly, “And the two of you should have noticed. They weren’t all that hard to spot, you know.”
I scowled at her, but James hadn’t seen anything either so at least I didn’t have to feel like a total idiot.
Terry continued, “Anyway, I didn’t want to worry you over a non-threat. They’ve been keeping their distance, always one mountain behind us. I’m pretty sure there’re only three of them.”
I asked Ed Regis, “You haven’t seen Merlin, have you?” After reading Alia’s Braille message yesterday, I wasn’t very hopeful, but I still had to make sure.
“We haven’t seen Merlin since our jump,” replied Ed Regis. “We had been hoping that he joined up with your group.”
“Our jump was delayed,” I explained. “Merlin should have landed closer to you.”
“He did, but not close enough,” said Ed Regis, shaking his head. “I pulled my chute pretty close to the ground, but I think Merlin opened his up the moment he left the plane. I saw his chute in the air. The wind took him over a different peak from where we landed.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And you didn’t try to find him?”
“The terrain was too rough in that direction to cross without our gear,” said Ed Regis, looking at me apologetically. “I had to look after Alia, too. And I figured that since Merlin could home in on the Historian just like you and Alia could, if we all set off in the same direction, we would meet up in a day or two. But the truth is that I’m not even sure if Merlin landed safely.”
“I hope he’s still alive,” said James.
“Me too,” said Ed Regis.
There was no reason to doubt the Wolf’s sincerity. He had, after all, brought Alia this far. I forced a smile, saying, “Hopefully we’ll meet up with Merlin soon.”
As worried as I was for Merlin’s safety, his continued absence presented a serious problem for us too. How were we ever going to get through these mountains without Merlin’s hiding protection? We were already being followed by a team of Angels or mercenaries or whatever, and no doubt more were on the way.
At the moment, however, we had far more pressing physical issues to resolve.
“We haven’t eaten in five days, Major,” said Terry, and James and I nodded fervently.
Ed Regis grinned. “I have some canned food.”
“We’d love some canned food.”
Ed Regis quietly retrieved one of the backpacks from Alia’s side and produced some processed meat that looked a lot like dog food but tasted divine. Ed Regis didn’t join our meal, explaining that he and Alia had already eaten just before Alia lay down for her nap.
As we ate the food Ed Regis had taken from the Angel scouts, I wondered if Alia had tried to stop the Wolf from killing them. What had my sister’s journey been like? Without Merlin, Alia’s only company in these mountains all this time had been Ed Regis. Though I hated to admit it, I now felt grateful to Ed Regis for having taken extra pains to get to know Alia before leaving Walnut Lane.
“Try to eat slowly,” said Ed Regis. “Alia says we’re still a good long ways from the Historian. We’ll have to ration this carefully.”
In addition to the canned meat, Ed Regis had acquired a fair supply of beef jerky, wheat crackers, chocolate bars, dried fruits, nuts and other hiking foods, but it was hard to guess how long the five of us could make it last. Fortunately, my stomach had shrunk so much that it didn’t take a lot to fill me up, and though I still felt physically weak after eating, at least my telekinetic power was nicely recharged.
“I suppose we should get going,” said Terry, and Ed Regis nodded in agreement.
“I’ll go wake her,” I said, levitating back up to Alia’s rock.
Landing beside my sister, I gently shook her shoulders, saying, “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.”
Opening her eyes, Alia instantly threw her arms around my neck, but I had been ready for that, so we didn’t go tumbling off the rock.
“You made it, Addy!” Alia cried in my head. “You’re here!”
“Happy birthday, Alia,” I said, holding her tightly and rubbing her back. “Sorry we were late.”
“I’m so happy you’re okay.”
Breaking apart from her, I gingerly fingered her horribly dusty hair. �
��You need a bath, Ali.”
Alia touched my chin and laughed. “You need a shave.”
My sister was equally thrilled to be reunited with Terry, and even gave James a hug.
Once Alia calmed down a bit, she looked around at us hesitantly, and I knew what she wanted to ask. Having seen us from this mountain yesterday, Alia already knew that there were only three of us.
“We haven’t seen Merlin either,” I told her quietly. “We always thought he was with you and Ed Regis.”
Alia nodded dully, and I wondered if she was about to sink into one of her silences.
Grasping her hands, I said firmly, “Don’t give up on him yet, Alia. We don’t know what happened to him, so there’s no use worrying. We still might run into him somewhere in these mountains. Who knows? We might even find him waiting for us at the Historian’s house.”
Alia slowly nodded, giving me a weak smile as she said, “I hope he’s not hurt.”
“Me too,” I said. “For now, we’ll just have to keep hoping for the best, okay?”
Alia nodded again, her smile a little more confident, and I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Terry nudged me with her hook and said, “Hey, aren’t you forgetting something, Adrian? Something small, green and needlessly expensive?”
“Oh, right,” I said, grateful for the change of topic. I hastily pulled out a wrinkly paper package that I had kept hidden in my pocket ever since leaving Walnut Lane. It was fortunate that I had it on me when our planes came under fire.
Passing the package to Alia, I said, “Happy eleventh, Alia. You probably think you know what’s in this, but you don’t.”
Carefully opening it, Alia pulled out her new bloodstone pendant. Hanging from a thin leather cord, the dark green stone speckled with red spots had been cut and polished in the shape of…
“A unicorn!” Alia exclaimed in delight. “It’s so pretty!”
“Happy birthday,” I said again.
“Oh, thank you, Addy!”
This hadn’t been an easy present to get, not only because I had to sneak out of the house in the daytime without Merlin’s hiding protection, but because unicorn-shaped bloodstones weren’t commonly sold at the local rare-stones dealer. I had my sister’s new pendant specially designed and made just for her, and the expedited service needed to get it done before our departure came only with Terry’s grudging consent to use some of the money that we had taken from the Angels’ house.
The Quest (Psionic Pentalogy Book 4) Page 25