by Abby Tyson
Savi jerked back, and was surprised to feel Pearl step back as well.
"Hold her!" snapped Amber, all trace of amiability gone.
"Aren't we taking her with us, goddess?" asked Pearl.
Amber brought the lighter back up to Savi's hair. "We have to make sure she's telling the truth first."
"I am!" shouted Savi, writhing to evade the flame. "I'm telling the truth!"
"I said hold her!"
Pearl locked her arm around Savi's neck -- not tight enough to choke her, but firmly enough that Savi couldn't move.
After a satisfied huff, Amber smiled. "Now, where were we?" She lit the flame once again.
Savi could try to get away -- maybe kick Amber and hopefully take Pearl by surprise -- but she doubted she could really break Pearl's hold, so the attempt would only serve to piss Amber off. At least it was only her hair. If she tried to make a break for it, who knows what other part of her would be set on fire. They'd stop before it went too far, right? They needed her, right?
Amber brought her lighter to the ends of Savi's hair. Savi tried to stay calm, but the sound and smell of her sizzling hair was overpowering.
"Stop!" she cried.
The fire spread quickly. Her thick curls straightened, reaching for the flame and then disappearing, as if undergoing heavenly rapture.
"Which way did they go?" Amber asked, watching the rising orange flame.
"I told you!" shouted Savi, trying to wriggle out of Pearl's grasp. "Upstream! I'm not lying! Let me go!"
"Is the torra with them?"
The flame was hot on Savi's chest. It was only a matter of seconds before it spread to her tank top -- or skin. She could hardly think straight, consumed by the need to stop the relentless fire.
"Yes! Please! Let me go!"
Pearl's arm around her neck disappeared, and abruptly she was being dragged to the water's edge. Pearl dropped Savi to her knees and submerged her in the river.
With her own hands tied behind her back, Savi was completely dependent on Pearl to get her out of the water. Savi hadn't had the presence of mind to take a breath before going under, and within seconds she began struggling for air. For a frantic moment she thought they were going to let her drown, but Pearl's large hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her up. As she gasped for air, she thought she heard Pearl softly apologize, but couldn't be sure.
"Come on," Amber called, sitting in the canoe.
Pearl set Savi at the back of the canoe, then went to their car to change out of her soaked clothes. When she came back, she brought a backpack and a towel with her. Dropping the pack in the canoe, she started drying Savi off.
"Leave her alone!" ordered Amber. "We've got to catch up."
"If you free my hands I'll be able to dry myself," said Savi. "I'm not about to try swimming to freedom in alligator-infested waters."
"The only way those ropes are coming off is if I burn them off," said Amber pulling out her lighter again. Savi recoiled, making Amber laugh. "I didn't think so."
Pearl shoved them off the bank and began to paddle upstream. Amber reached for the other oar, but when she bent forward she winced and stiffened straight again. Savi turned away before Amber could see her smile, remembering how Glenn had clawed at Amber's back the night before.
Glenn. Where was he?
Savi searched the dirt parking lot and the surrounding woods, but saw no sign of him. Her eyes fell on Marley. From this distance, all she could make out were his legs, two pale logs among the high green grass. She stared at that spot, willing him to be alive, long after his body was out of sight.
The breeze on the river that had been so refreshing before cut through Savi's wet clothes and made her teeth chatter. Pearl had put the towel over her like a blanket, but now it was damp and provided little warmth. She considered saying something, but that would likely only cause Amber to set something else on fire. Besides, there was nothing either of them could do even if they wanted to help, other than go back and get her some dry clothes, so Savi watched the landscape, trying to recall how hot she had been earlier.
Black vultures hunched high in the towering cypress trees, beating their broad wings but clinging fast to their perch. Every now and then she saw what might have been an alligator poking its head above water, but they were never close enough to know for certain. Savi let out a cry of surprise when a bald eagle zoomed past to snatch a fish from the water, but neither Pearl nor Amber were impressed. Less exotic were the water bottles, plastic bags, and other bits of litter floating in the water or caught in the reeds along the shore.
The sun was well below the trees when Pearl abruptly stopped rowing.
"Move," snapped Amber.
Pearl was gingerly peeling her hands, dark pink and spotted with blood, from the oars. Wiping at a tear rolling down her cheek, her voice hoarse, she said, "I can't row anymore."
For the first time Savi noticed the shadows under Pearl's red eyes, which were all the more noticeable against her white skin.
"You're such a weakling," sneered Amber. "If this were the Eye, I would have gotten us there in minutes. The boat would break from the strain."
"Yes, goddess," Pearl rasped.
Any pity Savi would have felt for Pearl was dampened by the image of Marley with a knife in his back. She didn't know who had actually thrown the knife, but she had no doubt Pearl would have done it if Amber ordered her to.
Pulling that same knife from the backpack, Amber jerked Savi around and sliced the rope on her wrists. The point of the knife dug into her back.
"If you try to get away," Amber said, "I don't care what Ebony says -- you're dead." The knife disappeared, replaced by her boot, shoving Savi forward. "Row."
Savi picked up the oars, the handles tinged with browning stains, and took over for Pearl. She hadn't been rowing for very long -- though her arms were already starting to get tired -- when Amber let out a shriek of impatience.
"Where the hell are they? It's been almost an hour." Her malicious eyes fell on Savi. "If you were lying to us..."
"I think I see something up ahead," said Pearl.
"Go faster!" said Amber, kicking Savi in the shin.
The eastern sky was already a pale gray by the time Savi pulled up beside the canoe she had rented only a few hours earlier. She brought in the oars and began stretching, but Amber seized her wrists and tied them behind her back again with a fresh coil of rope from the backpack.
Pearl started to stand, ostensibly to get out and secure the canoe to shore, but she collapsed back in her seat. Putting her head between her knees, she took deep breaths.
"What are you doing?" Amber asked without a trace of sympathy.
"Can't you see she's exhausted?" said Savi. "She almost fainted."
"You're pitiful," Amber said."
"Please, goddess," Pearl wheezed, "please don't tell Ebony."
"She needs food, or water," Savi said.
"She should have thought of that before we left."
"In the pack," said Pearl, "there's water."
"Yeah, which I'll need running around this swamp all night -- alone, thanks to you." Amber surveyed Pearl with contempt. "You won't even be able to stop her if she tries to escape, will you?" She took the length of twine that was dangling from Savi's hands and began tying her to the boat. "I told Ebony I needed more than just a weak keeper. She doesn't realize how pathetic you are."
Stepping out of the boat, Amber heaved it until it was well up on the grassy bank. Then she shoved Ren and Nissa's canoe into the river.
"Hey!" Savi protested, watching it drift away. "I'll get charged double if I don't return that."
Amber smirked. "Yes, the owner was very helpful, telling us where you were, and how friendly your pet wolf was."
She picked up the backpack and started to walk into the woods, but turned back around, eyeing Savi darkly. "If I come back empty-handed..." She took out her knife and stabbed it into the rim of the boat behind Pearl. "...I'm going to have a lot of fun feed
ing you to the river, piece by piece." Looking at Pearl, she said, "I'll do the same to you if you let her escape again."
After Amber had disappeared into the forest, Savi asked, "Why are you so tired?"
Pearl lowered a trembling hand over the edge of the canoe and cupped the murky water. "I haven't slept much the past few days." She sipped at the water in her palm.
"Welcome to the club," said Savi, although she'd obviously slept better than Pearl. "Why haven't you slept? Other than stalking me, of course."
Pearl took another handful of water. "Amber doesn't like driving."
"So you let her push you to the brink of exhaustion? How can you align yourself with someone like that? I thought you'd had enough of cruel and selfish people in your high school."
"Those kids only thought they were better than me." She glanced up at Savi, resignation in her eyes. "Ona truly are better."
"Please," scoffed Savi. "You're too smart to really believe that."
"They're worthy of Anwi's gift; I'm not -- not yet."
"It's a curse, Pearl, not a gift. A curse that kills them. Painfully. That's what you want?"
"No." It was more breath than word, but it was enough to make Savi think she'd actually made a dent in Pearl's obsession, until she added, "I'm too weak."
Savi laughed. "You are not weak. You're a freaking warrior. I wish I could fight like you. Marley --" She paused, pushing away the unhelpful image of Marley falling to the ground. "Marley told me about fighting you and how he needed his brother's help to keep you down. The ona make you feel that way so they can use you. They're the weak ones."
"I am weak!" Pearl cried in a sudden passion. "The ona are hard and cruel because they have to endure the pain of the altering. I'm too afraid to endure it. Amber pushes me to make me stronger."
The exertion of being angry drained her quickly, and she rested her head on her knees. "Ebony said that if I help bring the torra back to them, and if the ceremony works, I will have proven myself ready for Anwi's gift, despite my frailty."
"If it works?" Savi repeated in disbelief. "It might not even work? After all this?" She gave a mirthless laugh.
"If something goes wrong -- if the blood is drunk too late after sunrise, or if the ona drinks too much or not enough -- instead of giving new life, it takes it."
"Here's hoping," mumbled Savi.
"Please, Savi," Pearl begged, lifting her weary head. "once they're torra, they'll be free of the pain and won't have to be so hard. Help me find the torra. Then I can receive Anwi's gift and at last be able to protect myself. I won't have to be afraid anymore. I won't have to hide from the world, from the sun." She glared at the dimming orange glow behind the trees, fresh tears catching the faint light. "I'll be free of it all."
Savi stared into Pearl's manic eyes. Was she completely broken? Was there any chance of bringing Pearl back to reality?
Keeping as quiet and calm as she could, Savi said, "Pearl, please believe me when I say that I honestly have no idea where the torra are. Marcia's silver wolf is dead and buried. Only the human half is alive, and she has no powers left. The only reason I'm on this road trip was to escape you."
"You're lying," Pearl growled in despair.
"You murdered someone," Savi cried, unable to contain herself. "You killed Marley simply because he stood between you and your freedom." She sneered as she said the word. "And as I pointed out when you called me, you're the liar here, not me. You were probably lying about all of that high school stuff too. Giving me some sob story --"
"I wasn't lying!"
"You're no better than them!"
"Shut up!" shouted Pearl, covering her ears.
"You're ruining people's lives to make yourself feel better, just like they did."
"Shut up!"
"How can you live with yourself?"
Pearl's face screwed up in anger and she jerked the knife out of the boat. She leaned towards Savi and began to speak, but the word died on her lips in a weak sigh. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her body crumpled at the bottom of the boat, exhaustion finally taking hold. The hand holding the knife landed hard on the edge of the boat, and the knife fell into the water with a loud plop.
Savi nudged Pearl's arm lightly with her foot. "Pearl?"
When Pearl didn't move, Savi began jerking on the rope, wiggling and prying, but it was too tight. She tried the knot that bound her to the canoe, but not being able to see it made the task impossible. She peered down at the water where the knife had fallen. Even though the water was shallow, it was too muddy to see anything.
Pondering her situation, Savi watched the water roll past. A log floating about halfway across the wide river caught her eye. When it lifted out of the water to reveal a mouth full of teeth, Savi wished someone could be there to share the thrilling sight with her, but that reminded her of Marley, and that she didn't have the luxury of sitting and observing the wildlife.
Keeping her eyes on Pearl, Savi bent backwards, unbuckling and slipping off her sandals. Then she stood and shifted closer to the edge, grateful that Amber had brought the canoe so far up the bank that it didn't instantly flip over. The rope tethering her to the canoe prevented her from standing straight, but she didn't need to anyway. With a glance back at the alligator, floating in the middle of the river, she lifted one of her legs and started to put it over the side of the canoe.
It was an awkward motion, hunched over, with her arms behind her back, and stepping sideways. She lost her balance and the boat lurched as she fell back into the canoe, landing hard on her knee. Holding in her cry, she shot a look at Pearl, who remained prostrate on the bottom of the boat.
"Don't rock the boat, Savi, literally," she whispered to herself, though she was too nervous to smile. She tried again, this time getting a foot in the water.
At that moment she noticed her companion, the alligator, was no longer visible. The sign by the boat launch sprang to mind, and without thinking Savi started pulling her foot back up.
What else can I do? How else am I going to get out of here?
She gave herself ten seconds to come up with a different plan, but there was no other way. Feeling a lot less keen on being so close to the local wildlife, Savi brought her second foot into the water.
As she carefully searched for the knife with her feet, all of her senses spiked into hyperactivity. The tangy smell of the water, the cold mud and slimy rocks between her toes, the sounds of the birds fluttering overhead and settling into their nests for the evening, even the taste of her own dry mouth -- every sensation was sharper than she'd ever experienced, working in tandem to keep her safe from the three imminent threats to her survival: Pearl, Amber, and the alligator.
She cried out when her foot brushed against what she at first imagined to be the alligator's teeth, but turned out to be a prickly stick half-buried in the mud.
Pearl stirred, then lay still. Savi frantically continued her search, her toes at last landing on hard metal.
Now she needed to get it in her hands. Digging one foot into the muddy ground beneath the knife, and placing the other foot over the handle, she clamped the knife between her feet.
Not the handle!
She sucked in her breath at the sharp pain, and lifted her injured foot out of the water. A thin red line ran across the ball of her foot, but it wasn't deep, and the pain dwindled into a dull sting as she put it back in the water to find the actual handle. Once again she closed her feet around the knife, and began waddling backwards up the bank on her heels.
Pearl moaned softly.
This was taking too long. Pearl could wake up any minute. Savi had planned on going farther up the bank, keeping her nearly dry clothes from getting wet again, but she didn't have that luxury. She was about to drop to her knees when a shadow rose out of the darkening water.
The alligator. It had moved in closer. Savi wondered if the blood from her foot had attracted it, though there hadn't been much.
Get back in the boat! her instincts clamore
d. Take your chances with the human -- at least she has the capacity to reason!
Though her legs were numb with fear, Savi began to kneel in the water.
But the rope was too short; she couldn't kneel without it pulling her arms up. For her plan to work, she needed to be able to reach the knife. She needed to move higher up the bank. Clutching the knife between her feet, she again began the excruciatingly slow climb up the muddy incline.
Hardly any of the alligator was visible. Savi could almost make herself believe that the gray, foot-long lump floating atop the river was all there was to this creature. But the eyes -- the black beads that watched her as closely as she watched them -- those weren't the eyes of a small, innocuous animal. Those were the eyes of a man-eating, prehistoric beast who smelled blood.
Savi finally made it as high up the incline as she could go. Nearly out of the water, she knelt on the wet grass and leaned backwards. As her hands closed around the knife, the alligator sank beneath the water.
Heart pounding, her whole body trembling from fear or cold or both, Savi stood and began desperately cutting the rope that tied her to the canoe.
The boat rocked with every movement, but Savi didn't slow down. Her arms, already tender from rowing, burned from the unnatural motion of sawing behind her back. Even when Pearl began moaning Savi kept up her frantic pace, searching the calm water.
The single remaining strand of rope snapped. Pearl's eyes fluttered open, then closed again.
Savi gave herself a second to debate whether she should risk going back for her sandals. The alligator was still hidden, and Pearl was bound to wake if she went back in the boat, but Savi knew she wouldn't get far barefoot.
With a quick survey of the placid waters, Savi waded into the river. Leaning back over the edge of the boat, she barely managed to grab the straps of her shoes.
As she stepped onto the mossy ground, the alligator peeked above the water again, this time farther from the bank. Savi lay on her back and put her feet against the canoe, shoving it into the water as smoothly but with as much force as she could muster. Pearl would have the oars, but hopefully she wouldn't wake up until she was much farther downstream.