Sam scrunched his face up. “Why do you need to know that? You must have your own set! Or did you lose them and your gate key and you’re afraid of getting punished for it?”
I feared Sam had gone too far this time, but the man tilted his head and laughed. A deep, booming laugh that echoed around us. “You boys have heart, I grant you. But this is a time of great unrest, and Lost Realm folk fear the Dark Ages returning. Plus, you should be kinder to me if you want my help. And you have much to learn about traversing the Perimeter Lands. You make one move in the wrong direction and off you go. Over The Edge. Into The Great Beyond. Do you know what happens next?”
At the same time Sam nodded, I shook my head.
“You fall through space until you die of hunger and thirst. Then you float around forever. If you’re lucky, you shoot through a wormhole and crash down onto another Nostos realm before you die. If not, all that’s left will be your bones rattling together in space.”
It all sounded like some wild story to me, even on this place. Yet the purple sky, blue sun, and the mist that held flame-throwing beasts made anything a possibility.
“How do you know about wormholes?” Sam said.
“By the arrow of Artemis, I’ve seen one!” The man hurled a fist in Sam’s face. “And it’s not just The Edge you have to worry about.”
Sam shrugged. “We’ve dealt with the cadmean beasts. We can deal with the rest.”
The man’s expression tightened. “Perhaps. But what about the hydriads? They roam the Acheron creeks seeking prey to suck the water from their body.”
A memory of Sam’s fear of the creek, a snout rising above the water, and that feeling of being watched popped in my head, and my skin prickled. Danger lurked everywhere in this place. If I ever got home again I would cherish every minute being bored. Bored was better than dead.
“So, we’ll find a way around and won’t cross anymore creeks,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
“You have no choice. The Acheron creeks crisscross the entire Perimeter Lands.”
A biting breeze rushed over me, and its roar blew by like the very creek we’d crossed. We needed a friend, and this man might be a Child Collector, but he was listening to us and hadn’t blasted us yet—and he may have a way home. I raised my hand. “Listen, whatever your name is—”
“Call me Leandro.”
“Leandro. Why share this?” The man’s eyes were like a dark green sea mixed with blue, one eye shining bluer than the other.
“Because I can help you find your friend. And maybe get back to Earth.”
“And why help us?” I needed to trust him completely.
The man looked at me for a long while. His eyes shone intensely and held a yearning and power that scared me. He flung his hair back, and the scar on his face zig-zagged white across his skin. Finally, he answered. “Because I travel between realms searching for someone as well. Two someones. I want to get to Earth, too, but first must find my people. In helping you, perhaps I’ll find mine … and find a way to Earth.”
“You don’t have the codes to get to Earth then,” Sam said. The man said nothing, just crossed his arms.
“You’ve fallen away,” Sam said, more like a question this time. Still silence.
Sam, Charlie, and I nodded in agreement. This man was our one choice.
Leandro took our nods as approval and broke the silence. “I come from the Arrow Realm, ruled by the once-great hunter goddess, Artemis. And if you don’t quarrel with me, we won’t have a problem.”
With that, we all relaxed a bit and introduced ourselves. Leandro’s gaze held mine as he shook my hand. His palm had ridges on it like it had fought often and worked hard. I was the one who finally looked away. There was nothing fallen about him. He seemed god-like to me.
A horn trumpeted through the quiet woods. Three times. Its echo rang around us.
“The alert,” Sam said. “They’ll be looking for us now.”
“Even if they did catch us, with you being a prince and all, maybe they’ll go easy on us,” I said. It sounded good to me.
Sam shook his head. “I’m a traitor now, an ignorant Barbaros like you. I helped Reekers escape. Anyway, I have no special privileges. King Apollo does not favor me.” He said no more on the subject.
“That’s not all who’ll be looking for us. The cadmean beasts know we’re in here too,” Charlie reminded us. I glanced around us, expecting some new and unimagined horror to lunge at us, or a vine to grab my leg and drag me down into the dark earth and bury me forever. Anything could happen here. What would be next?
“Then we must head over the mountain now and find your friend,” Leandro said. “The bakehouse is half a day’s journey on foot from here.”
We were off once more, but Sam held me back as we slow-jogged, and he whispered in my ear. “He could be leading us right to Hekate or the king. And if we’re caught, we’re dead.”
“I don’t think so. He could have killed us already,” I whispered back.
“Oui,” Charlie jumped in. “I’m with Joshua.”
“We can take him down,” Sam said. “Three against one.”
“We wouldn’t win,” I argued in-between breaths.
“Then let’s run,” Sam said. “He can only catch one of us. Two of us would escape.”
I shook my head. “We need him.”
“We can do this on our own,” Sam said, his voice rising.
“I trust him.”
Charlie nodded, eager to follow along with me.
Leandro flashed us a stern look to catch up, and we all moved faster. My pant legs were almost dry, and I warmed up as we ran after Leandro, trying to match his pace as he dashed around trees. His heavy boots crushed fallen branches, and his cloak flowed behind him like a magic carpet. The air he stirred rushed past me with his earthy chocolate smell. Even though he had held a knife against my throat, I held no grudge against him. Not in this place. He had reason to be cautious.
He was a good man. A man I wanted to follow.
Chapter Fourteen
“There.” Leandro pointed ahead of us. “Where the light spreads out is The Edge. We go no further that way.”
We’d been walking for what seemed like hours. Leandro had allowed brief stops to eat and drink but not long enough for me. We finished Sam’s slug dogs and bong bongs, and at each break I quickly left my mark on this world with pictures of home. Part of me wanted to believe Bo Chez would come for me. If he did, would he find me through the trees that now told the story of the people and places in my life?
Another stop would be good as cramps shot through my calves, but Leandro had no idea to rest this time. “We must continue heading north, up and over Mount Parnassus. It’s perilous enough traveling the roads between realms filled with banished folk and thieves, much less these Perimeter Lands. Let’s hope we don’t run into strangers here with unwelcome agendas.”
He spoke too soon.
Three such strangers dropped from the trees, their swords pointed at us. Each had grimy long hair, stained cloaks, and wore Child Collector belts.
Leandro’s nostrils flared and he pulled out his knife, ready for a fight. Charlie, Sam, and I crept backward together.
“Stop right there, boys,” the one man said, his lips in a tight line.
Leandro puffed his chest out and brandished his knife. “We have no dispute with you. We merely want to cross over the mountain.”
“What’s in it for us if we let you?” The leader stole a look at his friends.
“I let you live, that’s what in it for you.” Leandro put his knife away. The men relaxed and dropped their swords. In a blur, Leandro’s cloak flashed open and he pulled off his bow and set an arrow to it, aiming it at the leader’s chest. Our attackers’ smiles faded, and they each took a wider stance. The leader raised his sword again. It sliced through the fog that curled along the glinting steel.
“I saw your belt, Child Collector
.” The leader moved toward Leandro, slashing his sword at him. “Do you know who we are?”
“Takers.”
“Good guess, child thief. And we’re here to stop your kind.”
“Don’t force me to hurt you,” Leandro said in a calm voice. “I’m trained to fight the likes of you.”
The man bared his teeth and flexed his arms. “And now you’re here with your nasty new recruits.” His eyes shrunk into black slits. “We heard the alarm. You’re on a training hunt, is that it?”
“We’re here hunting too,” the skinny one said, leering at Leandro. “No more lightning roads for you.”
Leandro drew back his bow, his arm steady. The men stepped in closer, and their unwashed stink mixed with my own rising sweat and fog that clung to my skin. I grasped the orb in my pocket, my pulse throbbing into it.
“You monsters stole a boy from each of us,” the leader said. “But we’ve taken from you, too, killed your own. And now we’re here to find our sons.”
Confusion spilled through me. Weren’t they Child Collectors, too?
“We’re not Child Collectors,” I blurted out. “Tell them, Leandro! We’re kids from Earth.”
“Shut up.” The leader waved his sword at me. “You would be at one of the workhouses if you were.”
Leandro didn’t respond, his arrow ready to fly. The veins in his hands popped as he pulled the bow’s string tighter.
The other men stepped forward, raising their swords high, and the trees crowded us in, no longer offering safety as they pushed us closer toward our new enemy.
“Before we kill you, we want all your weapons, including your travel belt, and that lovely cloak.” The leader punched his sword at Leandro.
We had one hope: the orb. But could we fully trust Leandro? Once he knew of it, would he steal it and slit my throat as first promised? But we must have some purpose for him—and he hadn’t killed us yet.
But then Leandro lowered his bow and smiled at the men. “Seems you outnumber my weapons here. I was hoping to trade these boys in for a reward, but you can have them. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”
He shoved Sam, Charlie, and I toward the bandits.
Then, quick as lightning, each of the three men grabbed one of us.
The leader gripped me tight, ragged nails cutting into my skin. “Figures you betray your own kind, monster.”
The other two held Sam and Charlie to their sides. I struggled to get away and grab the orb again, but the grip of my captor was too strong. Leandro slung his bow across his chest and put his hands on his waist. Sam was right. How wrong we were to trust him.
“Joshua, do something!” Charlie struggled with no effect, and his captor roared with laughter at his efforts. There was no way to get the orb with my closest arm painfully pressed into my side.
Leandro tossed his head back and laughed. “Go ahead. Throw them over. That’s the fun part.”
“Fun until it’s your turn,” my captor said, stepping back with the others.
But Leandro just smiled as anger and fear at his traitorous act boiled inside me. “Oh, I don’t think so.” The men cast puzzled glances to one another but continued to lug us to The Edge. I tried to dig my feet into the ground, scraping rocks along as I struggled, but the man’s grip was unbreakable. The purple sky of The Great Beyond waited to float me away forever with the bones of the dead or shoot me through a wormhole.
Leandro kept pace with them. Step by step he moved to The Edge with us. I now gripped the hand that clutched me, as it held me out closer into The Great Beyond. Charlie screamed, but Sam remained silent. He peered at me from above his captor’s fist.
“We’re trying to get back to Earth,” I pleaded. “Look at my brand, you idiots!” My foot slipped off The Edge and I yanked it in, clinging to my captor.
“Lies! Anyone could make that mark. Now shut your mouth,” the leader said, jiggling me for emphasis.
“Well, go on then,” Leandro prodded them with a sneer. Oh, why didn’t he just leave?
All three bandits leaned us further over The Edge. I dared a peek behind me. A skull floated past. A skeleton hand swirled as if waving. Vast purple space waited to claim me, its stars peeking through the endless void. The blue sun slipped below the edge and the orange moon rose low on the horizon, delivering another night.
Chapter Fifteen
We were going to die. Before finding Finn. Before seeing Bo Chez again. All this for nothing.
And then anger overrode my fear.
I bit my enemy’s hand. Charlie and Sam took my lead and did the same thing. All three men yelled in surprise and threw us down. We fell on sweet dirt and dragged ourselves forward.
As Leandro pulled all three of us in by our collars, I tugged out the orb and threw it at the men who sprung at us. They dodged. Dang! Missed! A blue-white explosion blazed, and a whiff of hot metal seared my nose. I hugged the ground and the startled men toppled over The Edge, reaching out for us.
The bandits fell.
And so did Charlie, Sam, and I—snatched by these Takers.
Leandro’s face hovered above, and I reached out my arms to grab him. But there was nothing. Screams filled the air. Were they mine? I kicked at the hand that held me. It let go. I floated slowly down into space, as if a force field surrounded me. The crisp scent of a hot pavement after rain struck me, and I heaved in great breaths, fearful the air would run out.
Leandro swung his arm out in a wide arc. A hot rope wound around my waist, seizing me to a stop, along with Sam and Charlie who clung tight to me. Charlie was crying and Sam’s head was bent over my shoulder. We rose through the air, pressed to each other, our body heat pumping thick between us. The muscles in Leandro’s neck bulged as he hauled us up until we stood next to him on the ground again and he unwound the long whip that bound us.
“You saved us.” I fell, hard, on the ground, my legs too shaky to stand.
“They screamed all the way down.” Sam peered over The Edge.
“I hope they’re still screaming like a bunch of babies.” Charlie wiped his face. It was over. We were alive.
Leandro looked at us with kind eyes. “All right, boys?”
We nodded. Leandro coiled his whip up and clipped it to the back of his belt under his cloak. “A fire belt. Grows as long as you need it and works better than any lasso.”
He never intended for us to die, but my insides still quivered. I’d lost my friend, been stolen from my home, made to work as a slave, on the run for my life, and was nearly killed by beasts and thieves. I’d experienced enough adventure for a lifetime in this place.
“Joshua, look.” Sam pointed behind me.
The orb came into view just beyond The Edge. It moved through the air in a direct path back to me. It fell onto my palm, its blue glow comforting me.
Leandro put his warm hand over mine, so many questions in his eyes. Was he going to steal the orb? I looked up at him, eager for him to be what I wanted him to be.
“Better put that away for now, Joshua. You can tell me another time how it came to be in your possession.”
I did as he said and slid it deep into my pocket.
“It’s best we keep moving,” Leandro said. “There could be others.” Sam, Charlie, and I just stood there, too shook up to move. Three horns blew again. Staying here was not an option.
Leandro studied us for a moment. “I think it’s time to try for some different transport, don’t you, boys?”
Leandro called to the sky, “We need your help, great golden ones.” Through the treetops, shadowy figures headed toward us. They moved silently, floating down. Four brown stags riding the air. They flattened their hooves and landed before us with antlers of sparkling gold.
Leandro bent his head toward the deer.
“Kernitians,” Sam said knowingly. “They’re wild and unpredictable, but can help folks in need.” He smiled at Leandro for the first time. The man could conjure animals
from thin air. Impressive.
Leandro pulled us toward the deer. “Quickly.”
“We’re supposed to ride these … ker-nee-chins?” Charlie squinted at the giant antlers that spun like glittery fingers from the creature’s heads.
“Would you rather walk with what’s on land?” Leandro looked at Charlie, hands on his hips. He wasn’t a big man, but his mass seemed to fill the space between the trees. We all shook our heads. “We’ll have to fly high so we aren’t seen.”
A kernitian grunted “hello” at me. These kernitians could talk to me too?
It bent its head. I placed my hand on its smooth neck and swung up onto its back. It wasn’t as tall as a horse, but large muscles rippled down its back and flanks. I hugged its neck, breathing in its lemon-pepper smell. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” it said, and I understood it perfectly.
Leandro watched me with narrowed eyes, but there was no explanation to give him. Charlie, Sam, and Leandro mounted their kernitians as well.
Then Leandro leaned in and said something to his ride that whinnied back to him. “He agrees with me.”
I shrugged. “About what?”
“That you could be one of us, malumpus-boy,” Leandro said.
Anger and exhaustion rolled through me, wanting to just go to sleep and wake up at home. “I’m just a Reeker, remember? An ignorant Barbaros! And one you were about to have tossed off The Edge!”
I glared at Leandro, but he just laughed. “Better than being a Taker at the moment.”
And with that we lifted off the ground. A steady breeze pumped over us, and I drew warmth from my ride as shapes moved below us in the woods. Cadmean beasts or more Takers to attack us? It didn’t matter now as the safety of the sky surrounded us. The setting blue sun glowed sadly in the purple distance, then fell away. Up here it was clear of mist, and stars twinkled and grew bright as the orange moon peeked higher.
“Who are these Takers, and how’d they get here?” I asked Leandro.
“Misguided Earth folks who lurk in the Perimeter Lands and have discovered what we do. They’ve banded together to lure Child Collectors on Earth, kill them, and use their travel belts to come here and find their missing children—and continue killing.”
Joshua and the Lightning Road Page 7