Authors: Nicholas Anderson
Wink nearly
bowled Joseph over as he broke from the underbrush. Then he was licking
him all over. Joseph felt good enough to lick back. He settled for
patting the dog’s head. He got to his feet. "Come on,
boy" he said, “Take me home.”
***
Rawl, Paul, and
Josie were seated at one end of the large table in the dining room of the
settlement. They, along with Mara, had returned later than all the others
from their work outside the walls and had found the dining area already
abandoned. Mara sat most of the way down on the other side of the
table.
Rundal Tillman
and Vick Crane, two of the ship's soldiers, had come in shortly after them and
sat in the far corner smoking. Occasionally, the room’s silence was
broken by Rundal's coughing. The sound annoyed Rawl. What annoyed
him more was the way Rundal watched Josie.
Why couldn't
the fool do his smoking outside and find something else to gawk at?
Rawl got up and
refilled his bowl and sat down on the opposite side of Josie from which he had
been sitting, so that he was between her and Rundal.
Feast your eyes,
jackass.
"I don't
understand what's taking them so long," Paul said.
"Maybe they
found something," Rawl said, talking as much to Josie as to his
brother.
"Or maybe
something found them," Paul said, ripping a roll in half.
Josie gave a
tense little start.
"Don't
worry," Rawl said, "Dane's a sheepdog in human form. He'll find
them and bring them back safe and sound." His voice felt stretched
as he said the last words.
"If there's
anything left to find," Paul said, popping his roll into his mouth.
Rawl aimed a
kick at his brother's shin under the table. He placed his hand over
Josie's and was more than a little surprised, and more than a little pleased,
when she didn't pull away. "We'll find them," he said.
Rundal, coughing more obnoxiously than ever, got up and crossed to
the door behind Josie.
"That's sweet," he said, flicking
the end of his pipe towards their hands. "Love on the
battlefield. You're sure that's not what you were really looking for when
you snuck onto our ship, girlie?"
Josie bit her
lip. She pulled her hand out from under Rawl's and placed it under the
table.
Rundal went out
the door with a laugh, Crane behind him.
Rawl shoved
himself to his feet and spun to follow them but Josie put her hand on his knee
and gave him a terse smile.
He sat back
down. There was a moment's silence. Josie leaned forward to look
around Rawl and addressed Mara, "Why don't you join us down
here?"
Rawl was not sure
how he felt about this. It was not that he wanted to exclude Mara, but
something about her made him uncomfortable. Earlier today, while they
were inspecting the garden which stood in the meadow on the west side of the
wall (it was in surprisingly good order, by the way) they had found a donkey,
alive but trapped, its halter tangled in some thornbushes. It kicked at
anyone who came near and Rawl cut his hands trying to pull the halter
free.
Then, Mara,
singing softly, walked slowly up to the beast. The donkey did a strange
thing; the closer she got, the calmer it became, until she placed her hand on
its fuzzy muzzle. She drew a knife and the donkey pulled back some with a
bray, but she kept her hand where it was until the animal came back to rest its
muzzle against her palm. She cut the halter and led the animal, not by
the halter, but by walking in front and it following her,
then
walking beside her, through the gate and right back to the stable.
Rawl wasn't sure
exactly why she made him uncomfortable, but the fact she charmed animals did
not help. He guessed she knew things about people, maybe about him, that
they hardly knew themselves. But she sat there, with her secret
knowledge, so calm and quiet.
Mara picked up
her bowl and came and sat down across from Josie. "Thank you,"
she said.
The girls
exchanged a brief smile.
Paul cleared his
throat and nodded towards Mara. "What do you think Dane will find
out there?"
"Oh, will
you shut up about that?" Josie said.
"Sorry,"
said Paul, leaning back and putting up his hands. “I’m just making
conversation.”
Mara looked at
Josie and gave the same small smile. "Tell me about your
nieces," she said.
Josie gave a
little laugh which sounded surprised and happy and a little nervous at the same
time.
"Nelly and Chloe.
The orneriest
little rascals you ever could ever meet. They can be so tired they can't
keep their feet under them, but if you put them to bed they won't stay there
until you give them butterfly kisses." She paused and looked up at
Mara. "Do you know what those are?" she asked with the same
little laugh.
Mara smiled,
"Yes, we have those on my island, too."
The door burst
open and Pratt Jennings burst in. "Rawl, Paul, where have you two
been? I've been looking all over for you. It's your turn on watch
and we need you at the gate."
Rawl rose with a
sigh. Pratt, he imagined, could hardly have turned the page on his
twenties, but he was already going gray and grumpy. He was habitually
high-strung and this mission wasn't doing him any favors.
It was full dark
and Rawl and Paul were on the wall when two men and a dog stepped out of the
woods. They opened the door to Bailus and Tipper and Dioji.
"What took
you so long?" Rawl asked.
"We were
making good time coming back until we found some tracks," Bailus
said. "We followed them until they disappeared."
"What kind
of tracks?" asked
Paul.
"The kind
people make with their feet," Bailus said.
"Human?
You found human tracks?" asked Rawl.
“Of course human
tracks,” Bailus said. “You think we’d spend all afternoon running down
rabbit trails?”
"We only
found one set," said Tipper. "And they were small.
Whoever he was, I think he was following us on our way out."
"But
where's the rest of your squad?" Paul said.
Bailus seemed
more annoyed than before, if that were possible. “You mean that trio of
jackasses hasn’t showed up yet?” He turned to Tipper. “We just have
all kinds of good news for Captain Hallander, don’t we?”
"He’s not
back yet either, sir,” Paul said out of the corner of his mouth.
Bailus
swore.
Then, "Tipper, go get you and your dog
something to eat.”
"Aren't you
coming, sir?"
"I'll be
along shortly."
Bailus mounted
the wall with the twins in tow. They stared into the darkness in the
direction in which Dane had set out that morning. The hills hunched
there, blotting out the stars, like a black hole in a black sky.
"Do you
think we should send out a party to look for them, sir?" Rawl said.
"No,"
said Bailus. "Eight men lost in the dark is
enough.
"
The
twins
devised signal flares by wrapping strips of wool
around the tips of their bolts, lighting them, and shooting them straight up in
the air. They tried to do this at regular intervals, but after the fourth
or fifth they realized they were doing it more for their own catharsis than the
benefit of the men in the woods and gave it up.
Bailus did not
leave his place above the gate.
A sudden scream
split the night air.
"What was
that?" Paul asked, stepping quickly to the wall to look out into the black
forest.
"That
wasn't human, was it?" Rawl asked.
Bailus just
stood there, never taking his eyes off the woods. "Do you boys
pray?" he asked.
"I know
some lines from a few old prayers," Paul said.
"Well, then
I suggest you get to it," Bailus said.
***
"We have to
move now," Bax said. The drums continued to throb in the valley
below them.
"No,"
said Dane, "We wait for the others to come back."
"They're
not coming back," Bax said. "Besides, we don't have time to
wait. He doesn't have time to wait." He pointed to Owen's
silent form.
Dane knew he was
right. Something was very wrong with Owen.
Of course,
Dane
thought
, the spikes were poisoned. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?
A scream tore
out of the valley again and Owen sat bolt upright. Dane jumped to his
side but Owen tried to push him away. Dane caught his hands and held his
quivering body against his chest. "Owen, it's me. It's just
me. It's alright. Everything's going to be alright."
Owen sank down
onto the litter again. His eyes had been wide-open, wild when he'd sat
up, but he closed them once more now. "They're coming for me,
sir," he said. His voice was feverish; half-crazed,
half-dazed.
"Who,"
Dane said.
"Them.
Every time I close my eyes, they’re there. They come out of the mist and
stand before me. Terrible black shapes.
Waiting.
Waiting for me."
There was a
sudden rustling in the brush to Dane's left. He dove between Owen and the
sound and brought his bow up. The sound rushed nearer. Dane’s
finger was squeezing the trigger when a small voice inside him said,
Wait
.
He relaxed his finger as a dark shape broke through the brush and bounded in
upon them. It was Wink. Dane sank down with a sigh. Bax
actually laughed out loud.
"Sir?"
a voice called out from the darkness in the direction the dog had come.
"Joseph,
over here," Dane called.
A moment later
and they were reunited.
"Where's
Rem?" Bax demanded.
"He's
gone," Joseph said.
"What do
you mean,
he's gone
?"
"He
left. He deserted us."
"You should
have stopped him."
"I
tried."
"You
tried," Bax mimicked.
"That's
enough," Dane said. "It's not Joseph who deserted
us."
Then they were
moving again. The dog and Joseph in the lead, retracing their steps the
best they could. Getting down the cliff-path was harder even then Joseph
had thought it would be. The path was so steep they had to take Owen off
the stretcher. Dane supported his top half by hooking his arms under his
armpits and letting Owen's head rest on his chest and Bax went in front with
his arms hooked around Owen's legs. They slipped and landed hard on their
butts several times, jarring their spines and their ward, but Owen did not
stir. This worried Dane more than ever. At the foot of the cliffs
they laid Owen back on the stretcher and sat down to rest. A stream
spilled over the cliff to their left.
Leaving Owen on
the stretcher, they filled their canteens in the pool at the base of the rocks
and returned to sit by Owen. They sipped from their waterskins in
silence. Dane felt a sudden chill creep across the back of his
neck. He instinctively hunkered down against the rocks and motioned for
the others to do the same. They were already doing it. They had
felt the same thing. Dane peered around the rock he crouched behind, back
to the cliffs they had just come down. Something was moving there.
It was dark,
black against the black of the rocks, and it seemed to be crawling along the
face of the cliff. Dane strained his eyes. It moved rather like a
giant spider, picking its way across the rocks. It was on the other side
of the little waterfall, but it was coming towards them. Its body was
terribly slender and instead of eight limbs Dane thought he counted four,
arched out above the body and each longer and more slender than a man's
arm. Dane felt the chill spread over him. It was a deeper and
nastier feeling than the damp cool of his sweat beneath his clothes. It
made his heart cold as though his insides were gripped by icy fingers.
The dog lay with its head between its paws beside him. It whimpered
softly. Dane placed his hand on Wink’s head. He felt frozen with
fear but he willed his fingers to scratch Wink between the ears. The
animal stopped whining and lay still.
The thing on the
rocks came nearly to the flow of the falls, then turned and crept down the face
to the base of the cliff. It skirted the pool and followed the stream
down the hill a ways as though looking for a place to cross. It paused as
though listening. Joseph brought up his crossbow. Then the creeper
did something that nearly made Dane shout in surprise. It rose up on its
hind legs. It was taller than a man, and very slender, but it was
impossible in the gloom to tell anything more about its form. Then it
moved off slowly in the direction of the drumming and disappeared into the
mist.
"Let's
go," Dane said after it was gone.
No one said
anything. There was nothing to say.
They hooked
around back to the main stream and followed it southward. Dane kept them
moving in as straight a line as possible while keeping the stream within
earshot. Joseph and the dog moved about on their flank, between them and
the stream and slightly ahead of them, making sure they took the best
path. Dane began to recognize things he'd noticed at the beginning of
their hike that morning. And there was an unmistakable salt tang in the
air, borne on a breeze which was pushing back the mist. For the first
time that night they could see a decent distance in front of them. They
were close.
Joseph came
trotting back out of the fog for a final time with Wink at his side and a smile
on his face. "Sir," he said. "I can see light
through the trees."
"They're
waiting up for us," said Bax, "How sweet."
Dane nodded to
Joseph to lead them on but at that moment a voice called out from the blackness
of the forest behind and to the left of them. It was Rem's voice.
He was calling for help. "Dane, Bax,
are
you guys out there? Is anybody out there?"