The Markings

by Catherine Downen

  “Where’s Toby?” I ask her and before I can fear the worst she smiles softly.

  “He’s helping James hunt some more,” Zavy says. “You were smart to picture us the night we left Leo’s because we have what little weapons and hunting gear still with us.” I nod agreeing that what we have is minimal but better than nothing.

  “We did lose the spears in the crash though. We tried to repair them, but the bow and arrows work better anyway,” Cooper adds.

  I move and hug Alexander and he whispers into my ear, “Thank goodness you’re okay, Adaline.”

  “You can’t get rid of me that easy,” I say back lightly. Since our talk on the boat the first night everything with him seems to finally be like it’s supposed to be. The awkward heavy air is long gone and I feel as though we are working toward a true, genuine relationship. Though I know it’s unlikely to become anything more soon, at least I have him as my friend. At least I have someone I can trust and depend on.

  “Cooper, did you tell her?” Alexander asks and I nod. “I’m sorry, Adaline. I wish we could’ve saved everyone.”

  I just nod because nothing we say will bring them back. It’s sad to say it, but I’m starting to get used to losing people. People are in my life and then they’re gone, and it seems to get easier and easier to just let them go. I turn to Cooper and ask, “So do you know where we are going?”

  “Not at all. Instinct tells me there’s got to be some kind of river or freshwater source running on this island, we just have to find it,” Cooper responds, and with that, we all turn and head deeper into the forest.

  Chapter 28

  “I think I can see a clearing up ahead. We can break there,” Cooper says from the front of our line. We’ve been hiking through tangled vines all morning and it has to be nearly noon. We are all dripping in sweat and are parched, but we are far too scared to take a sip of what little water we have left. This island seems to be much more humid than Dather. The air is extremely thick and my clothes are soaked.

  Cooper continues to swing his sword in and out of vines to clear a path for us to walk. Finally, he slashes the last few out of our way and we step into a clearing. We all freeze and scan the area at what lies ahead of us. None of us say a word to the others, and an eerie silence falls over the island.

  Scattered in rows across the clearing are large and small boulders that almost appear to be headstones as if this were some kind of graveyard. Finally, Zavy speaks up and asks, “What is this place?”

  “It looks like a graveyard,” I say, admitting my first impression of the clearing. I walk to the nearest boulder and kneel next to it. Alexander, Zavy, and Cooper follow and kneel next to me. I take my hand and brush away the vines and moss that are suffocating the stone. Martin Core is jaggedly carved into the rock. There’s some kind of symbol sketched under his name, and it takes me a second to recognize it as the symbol for a gifted with an enhanced sense of touch.

  “I don’t understand. All of these people died here?” Zavy asks to no one in particular.

  “I think there’s something more to who these people are,” Cooper says in a low voice. He stands and moves to the next boulder and brushes away its overgrown vines and says, “Sarah Temp, she had an enhanced sense of hearing.”

  “Thomas Shepard, enhanced sense of sight,” Alexander says as he kneels at another rock.

  I stand and walk through all the rows of boulders and glance over them. “They all have symbols of gifts on them,” I say and I try to work out the details in my head.

  “I thought Libertas was where everyone with gifts went,” Zavy says confused, and then asks, “Are we sure this isn’t Libertas?”

  “Are we too late?” I ask. I turn and see the shock set on Cooper and Alexander’s faces.

  “This doesn’t make sense, our father planned for us to come in seven years. We aren’t late. We are right on time. This doesn’t add up,” Copper says.

  “Then what is this place?” Alexander asks the open-ended question that we can’t find an answer for.

  “These markings look older than seven years,” I add and run my hand over one of them. “These look like they’ve been here for decades.”

  “I think you’re right,” Alexander adds. I watch as he places his hands on the stone. “I’ll try to use my gift to pull some information,” he starts to say, but suddenly there’s the sound of a branch snapping off to our left where we entered the clearing.

  “What was that?” Zavy asks in a low voice and takes my hand in hers.

  “Who’s there?” Cooper yells and him and Alexander both draw their swords. Suddenly, there’s another snap to our right and then another and another all coming from different directions.

  “We’re surrounded,” I say.

  “Who’s there?” Cooper yells again, but there’s no response.

  We all stand completely still, and the world falls back into silence. Just when I’m about to say that we should go back to the camp a large vine shoots out of the woods and twists itself around Alexander’s wrist.

  “Alexander!” I yell and run to him, but before I can get to him a large green vine has wrapped itself around my waist. “Cooper! Help!” I shriek and watch as he runs toward me with his sword, but it’s no use. Another green vine comes in and twists itself around Cooper’s ankles and pulls him to the ground.

  “What’s going on? It’s like they have a mind of their own!” I yell out to the group. Zavy runs over to Cooper and takes his sword from his hands. “Zavy, look out!” I yell at her. She whips around and slices through the vine just as it lurches out to her. She makes awkward stiff swings with the sword, showing she’s clearly more comfortable with her old bow and arrow. I try to wiggle free from the vine that has wrapped itself tightly around my waist, but the more I fight it the tighter it squeezes.

  Zavy starts running to me with the sword to cut me free, but as she raises the sword I watch another vine lurch out and twist itself around her wrists. “Don’t fight it, it just holds on tighter,” I say to them, but instinct has taken over and everyone is twisting and trying to pull their way free. The vines start to drag all of us in separate directions into the woods.

  “What are we supposed to do!” I hear Zavy yell, and before I can answer, a figure jumps into the circle. Her long golden hair peeks through the hood of her cloak. She pulls a long sword out from her cloak and starts slicing into any vine that launches out to her.

  The vines around my waist begin to weaken their grip and eventually drop me to the ground. I gasp for air and try to fill my crushed lungs. Once I’ve gotten enough air into my lungs I race across the clearing, pull out my own sword, and back up the mysterious woman.

  We slice our swords through every green image that falls into our path. I start to lose a grip on my mind and become completely engulfed in the battle. Vine after vine drops limply to the ground. My blood pulses through my body and my movements come in flashes. I never fully think of what to do, I just do it. At every flash of the green vines, my sword meets them instantly. Finally, the mystery woman says, “I think they’ve stopped.” I drop my arm with the sword to my side and take in deep breaths to slow my heart rate.

  “Alexander,” I say and run to him as he is dropped from the vine’s grasp. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” he says and rubs his wrists. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?” he asks me.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never even used this thing before without also using my gift,” I say, looking down to the sword and realizing for the first time that I actually didn’t use my gift. “That’s weird, my gift is always my first instinct,” I say.

  “You didn’t use your gift because you can’t use it against these vines,” the woman’s warm voice says to me. She turns to face Alexander and I, and for a moment we just look into her dark shaded face. Then, she takes her hand and brushes back her hood.

  Her blonde hair blows back and her frail face comes into view. Her hazel eyes shine in the sunlight. “Mothe
r?” Alexander asks, his voice cracking. Tears are in the woman’s eyes and Alexander leaps off the ground and throws his arms around the woman’s neck. “Is that really you?” he says between sobs.

  “It’s me. It’s really me,” the woman says into his shoulder.

  Chapter 29

  I can feel my own tears starting to fill my eyes because I can only imagine how happy he must feel to have her back in his life. Alexander’s mother breaks away from him and says, “It’s good to see some familiar faces.” She glances between Cooper and Alexander.

  When she gets to me she pauses and says, “Adaline, it is so good to see you.” She embraces me in a tight hug, and even though I truly don’t know who she is I feel as though I have known her my whole life. She just seems to be one of those people who are so welcoming to others. I can already tell she is so selfless and caring of not just her own family, but also everyone she comes in contact with.

  “Marin, we need some answers,” I say to her as I pull away.

  “I know,” she says and then continues, “I need some answers myself. I can start by telling you all that I know, but first I want to know what you guys are doing out here.”

  “The eels attacked our boat on the way to Libertas,” Cooper explains and Marin nods, seeming to understand. “Adaline got us out of the destruction and brought us here. We’ve been here almost two days now.”

  “Did you all make it?” Marin asks her question innocently.

  “We lost seven. Four you didn’t know, we picked them up in Sard,” Cooper says. “Cassandra, Sarah, and Andy didn’t make it either.”

  “I’m sorry, we knew this trip would be dangerous,” Marin begins to say, but Cooper cuts her off.

  “Marin, it’s all right. Everyone knew the stakes when we signed up,” Cooper says.

  “We’ve been looking for freshwater. We are running dangerously low,” Zavy says after a moment of silence, and then adds, “You must know where some is, right?”

  “I do,” Marin says in her strong voice, pulling her mind away from the deaths of the kids she left behind, and then explains, “I built my camp near a creek that runs through the island. I’ll take you there.” She places her sword back in her cloak and starts taking large strides back toward the woods. We all run and fall into step with her and then she starts telling us her story.

  “I’m sure that Cooper has told you all that he knows about the night that we brought everyone out into the woods, so I’ll just pick up from when we left the camp,” Marin says. “After we left you with Mio and Cinder, your father, Derith,” she says, looking between Cooper and myself, pausing for a second, “and I headed deeper into the woods for Sard.

  We got there without any trouble, and Leo had us on a boat in no time. Derith seemed oddly off the next day and I couldn’t figure out why he was like that, but when we were just a couple of hours or so from the shore of Libertas the creatures in the sea attacked our boat. Part of me thinks that Derith knew they were coming, and that’s why he was so on edge the entire time.” I nod, not completely surprised. According to Cooper, he was a Future Holder and probably did know they were coming.

  Marin continues explaining, “For awhile we managed to stay on the boat and keep everything in one piece, but that didn’t last long. The moment the creatures snapped our boat in half I was knocked unconscious and I can’t remember a thing. When I woke up I was on this island.”

  “We heard about the crash,” Cooper says and I watch him pull out my father’s compass that he had shown me. “We found this washed up with the debris from your boat.”

  Marin takes the old compass and her face sets in a soft smile before she hands it back to Cooper. “He wouldn’t go anywhere without that thing,” Marin says. “There was no one else here on the island with me, trust me I’ve walked every inch of this place. I had no way out of here so I’ve just been trapped here for seven years. Now it’s starting to make sense why Derith was so on edge and wouldn’t tell me why. He probably saw that you all would end up here on your journey to Libertas and he needed someone to be here when you arrived. I wish he just would’ve told me he needed me to stay here, but to be honest if he’d asked I would have said no. This island isn’t exactly the number one place for a vacation,” Marin says as she begins to make the pieces fit on her end.

  “What is this place?” I ask Marin, curious about what exactly those vines really are.

  “This used to be Libertas,” Marin starts explaining. “Those people who are buried back there are the very first generation of people who had fled from the Kings of Dather to save themselves. The problem was, when they died and were buried, their body decomposed and the atomic matter that was in their bloodstreams, what gave them their gifts, was absorbed into the island. This caused the island to literally come to life.

  That’s why those vines seemed to have a mind of their own because they kind of do. At this point, the people who lived here started to understand what was happening to their island, and so they were forced to flee and find a new place to colonize which is where the current Libertas is located.”

  “I don’t think I realized how long people have been fleeing from Garth,” I say, processing the information.

  “How have you managed to live out here?” Alexander asks, concerned.

  “I did just that, I managed. I only took what I needed from the island and nothing more. They’re very smart in that way. You try to use your gift to control them but then they use their gifts to control you. It starts to cancel itself out.” Marin finishes and pushes hanging debris out of the way before walking into a large clearing. There’s what must be Marin’s shelter near some trees. She’s managed to drape branches over each other to make a roof, and there’s a quiet stream of water running along the side of the clearing.

  “You can fill up your water here,” Marin says to us, and we each reach for our backpacks and pull out a couple dozen empty water bottles that we had brought from camp. I can tell Marin is doing the math with the water bottles and how many people she’d left in the forest seven years ago.

  “We’ve picked up a couple of people along the way,” I say to her. My heart drops, remembering seven of them are no longer with us.

  She nods her head sharply and says, “I figured as much when I saw Zavy with you.” We walk over to the creek and dip in each bottle one at a time, letting the cool water run into the bottle and over our dirty fingers.

  “Have you found a source of food?” Marin asks and I watch as she rolls up her belongings and packs them in her backpack.

  “Yes, we found what appears to be a groundhog. It’s a different kind of meat, but better than nothing,” Cooper says.

  “It’s the only thing on this island I’ve found that’s safe to eat also,” Marin adds zipping her bag and coming over to help us fill the last of our water bottles.

  “How’d you find us?” Zavy asks as she finishes up filling the last of her bottles.

  “I was heading that way to do some hunting when I heard you all screaming,” Marin explains. She adds, “I assume you all have some sort of plan or way to get off this island then?”

  “Well, we have pieces of our boat that we can put back together, but I don’t think we really know where we are going anymore. How far off course is this island? Do you even know?” I ask Marin.

  “We are less than a day’s trip from Libertas. It’s directly east of the island. If we leave tonight we will be there by morning,” Marin says, handing me the last of the now full water bottles.

  “Well, then we should go back and tell Mio now! The sooner we get off this island the better. I don’t know how much longer this island is going to allow us to stay here anyway,” Zavy says, flinging her backpack over her shoulder.

  “Slow down there, Zavy,” Cooper says. He walks over and clips an additional water bottle to her bag. “Some of us are still recovering.”

  “You can recover on the boat,” she shoots back at him and starts marching back into the woods.

  �
��She’s right Cooper. If we hurry we may get Bren to Libertas before it’s too late,” I say.

  “What’s wrong with Bren?” Marin asks, and I’m sure she’s picturing the ten-year-old boy she left in the woods years ago.

  “He was injured in the attack, and we aren’t sure he’ll make it without professional medical attention,” Alexander explains and Marin nods.

  “Then let’s move a little quicker,” Marin agrees, not wanting to lose any more of the kids she left behind. Without another word, we begin to file after Zavy and back through the woods toward our camp.

  Marin falls in step with Alexander and myself and asks with a stone voice, “Alexander, did your father make it out of the castle?”

  “He did,” Alexander says in a shallow voice.

  “And he found you guys?” Marin asks and nods up toward Cooper.

  Alexander squints his eyes in confusion. “No, I haven’t seen him since he left the castle.”

  Marin drops her head and says, “I was afraid of that.”

  “What are you talking about? Did he see something in the future?” Alexander starts to ramble off questions.

  “He told me he wouldn’t see me again the night I left,” Marin says softly. “I just thought maybe it still would work out.”

  Alexander reaches into his bag quickly and hands Marin the tattered piece of cloth. I don’t have to ask to know that it’s the note his father had left for him. “Can you explain this then? He said he would see me.”

  “Alexander,” Marin says and I watch as she transforms her emotions back into her stone front. She hands Alexander the note back and says, “The future changes in seconds. Every little thing changes the outcomes Future Holders see. George knew the plan, he knew where he needed to go.” Alexander takes the note back from his mother and places it in his bag. He doesn’t seem to get caught up on the fact that his mother is telling him his father must be dead. Alexander is in denial, and I understand the feeling.

  “What gift do you have?” Alexander asks his mother, trying to change the subject. Cooper already told us she had an enhanced sense of touch, but I know Alexander wants to hear it from her.