Hold Fast - Part Eight
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
“Aiden,” I murmur adoringly, my quiet words breaking against his side.
“Mmm?” comes the sleepy answer. “What’s goin’ on, Keane?”
“Nothing.” I draw in a deep breath, less than half awake. “Why?”
“You said my name all cute, like you had something to tell me.”
“Oh. No. I don’t know. I was still asleep.”
A deep, drowsy huff of laughter melts against my ears. “Dreaming of me, huh?”
I nuzzle my nose against his ribs, blushing before I’ve even opened my eyes for the morning. “I didn’t say that.”
“Heavily implied, though.” His words melt into more quiet laughter when I sleepily slap at him. “How’d you sleep?”
“Mmm… okay, but I’m all stiff… and don’t take that as – no, don’t take it like that, I didn’t mean it that way!” I let out a burst of drowsy laughter, fighting Aiden off as he eagerly starts to climb on top of me. “Have some sense, you dumb jock! We’re in a hammock, for god’s sake. Is sex even possible in a hammock? If we’re both in it?”
“Only one way to find out, right?”
“Stupid,” I laugh helplessly, giving him a final shove flat onto his back. “Don’t make me push you again, I’m all sore.”
I really am. Where did I get the strength to wrench open the cabin door yesterday, when Christian’s boat was sinking and the ocean had already flooded over it? I think that might have been sheer adrenaline, because I don’t seem to have that strength this morning. If anything I’m sharply aware of its absence. My arms weigh a thousand pounds, and ache like they want revenge on me for what I’ve put them through.
At least the warmth of Aiden’s body helps. Especially in the cool darkness of our cabin.
“Are we up before dawn, Sugar Maple?”
“Mhm,” Aiden murmurs, tracing my shoulder with his fingertips. “Think we’re both jonesing to help Faith get back to Robin.”
Must be. I certainly didn’t wake up because I slept until I was fully restored. I’m feeling the painful effects of yesterday all over, in every aching muscle. Even my vision is clouded, when I draw back and finally blink my eyes open.
So the sight of Aiden reaches me like a dream. A blurry, sexy dream, with a sweet smile and chestnut hair all tumbled up and biceps I wrap my fingers around without knowing what I’m doing.
“God!” I stammer, absolutely smitten. “Jesus!”
He tips his head to the side, giving me an even better angle of his face, goddamnit. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing!” I insist, blushing all the way to my ears. “I’m – fine. And normal. And regular. And fine.”
“Right,” Aiden says skeptically, silently laughing with his warm blue eyes. “If you say so.”
He leans down to softly kiss my collarbone. The tickle of his rich beard against my skin sends goosebumps down my body.
“I’m sorry you’re all sore, Linden. But you’ll feel better soon.”
“Oh, yeah?” I trace my fingertip down Aiden’s jawline, savoring the scratch of his beard, smiling sleepily up at him. “You have something to help me out with that?”
He arches his dark eyebrows up high, then breaks into a hopeful grin. “Depends. Did you change your mind about the hammock?”
“Maybe,” I laugh, shivering as he playfully runs his fingers through my hair. “No no, I’m just joking, we can’t… it’s too soft of a surface, and it’ll move around too m-”
I break off with a gasp as obviously unintentional, frosty blue magic flashes through Aiden’s eyes, glittering like crushed diamonds. The glowing hammock suddenly snaps into a flat, solid, rock-hard board, at a speed that instantly sends me and Aiden flying out of it.
I crash into the lower bunk with all the grace of someone tumbling through a table during a bar fight. Aiden somehow manages to land on his feet, but goes staggering backwards trying to keep his balance. He makes a desperate grab for the frame of the bunks, catches a handful of a blanket instead, and goes down in a tangle of long legs, bringing my book and my water bottle crashing down on top of himself.
“Whoa, Aiden!” I stumble back to my feet, nearly colliding with the solid rectangle of golden magic now taking up the better part of our cabin. “What happened?”
“God, fuck, I’m so sorry!” He scrambles back to his feet, too, panting hard and blushing hard. “I just got excited, you were looking at me so – look, I was trying to make it how you wanted it! And I wasn’t even really trying, it just happened!”
I let out a groan of pain, rubbing my screaming muscles. “Why did you tell me I’d feel better soon?”
“Because I intended to make you a really good breakfast and a nice hot cup of coffee, Keane! You’re the one who took it this direction!”
I bite my lip, then dissolve into sudden, helpless laughter. “Wild things happen when you get too excited, Callahan.”
“Then maybe I ought to be careful, dating you,” he fires back, then blushes again.
I find myself just standing there, smiling at him in pure adoration. Flustered as he is, it takes him a second to notice it, but when he does the blush deepens. He hastily swipes a hand at the flattened-out hammock, which dissolves into glittering golden dust and vanishes as it spills down towards the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he says meekly. “You okay?”
My lower lip is caught between my teeth, my heart molten with love as I look at him.
“It’s not my fault!” he stammers, still out of breath.
I let out a disbelieving laugh, widening my eyes at him. “Oh, it isn’t?”
“No!” he protests softly. “It’s you, you – get me all… it’s just, like…”
He trails off, having winced over every word. His cheeks are crimson, now, his blue eyes full of suffering.
“Oh my god, just come here,” I laugh adoringly, backing him up against the cabin wall.
Slipping my fingertips into his sweatpants to push them down, going down to my knees. He breaks into a surprised, eager smile, then starts to pant softly, burying his fingers in my hair.
It’s a very peaceful and smiling Aiden who I send off to get the coffee started a little later. I kiss his shoulder as I go past him in the passageway, headed outside. Robin’s cabin door is open, but she isn’t in there, and I want to see how she’s feeling this morning. We got a lot of new information last night. Some of it was really good news, but some of it was probably deeply painful for her to hear.
I step out into the cold dawn air, shivering and buttoning up my flannel over my shirt. The sun has hit the backs of the mountains, lining them in a citrusy orange-gold, casting the palest glow into the sky behind them. Everywhere else, though, it’s still pretty much nighttime. It’s dark out, the air tinted a deep blue. The only hint that dawn is approaching is the song of a few early birds, warbling and chirping off in the distance. Their calls echo down the length of the inlet, bouncing on the water. For some reason the little noise makes the vast landscape seem so much bigger, the forest endless, the mountains unbelievably tall.
I stand there looking around for a second, hugging myself against the cold, then spot Robin, who’s swiftly unknotting the rope holding Moondancer to the dock.
“Good morning,” I call out quietly, going over to watch her. “Wow, I thought for sure we’d be the first ones up.”
“Yeah, I heard some kind of giant crash from your cabin a few minutes ago?”
“Oh, that was – don’t worry about it!” I blush a little, quickly waving a hand at her. “Everything’s fine. We’d have come out to help sooner if we knew you were awake! Are we leaving right now?”
“Yep.” Robin hops back onto Moondancer, rope in hand. “Know we haven’t had breakfast, but I’ll just take us over now. We can anchor there while we eat. Who knows, maybe Faith will see Moondancer and come out to meet us, right? It’s possible. It’s totally possible.”
I stand there silently, my worried eyes searching Robin’s face.
She’s trying not to let me get a good look, which is admittedly a difficult thing to do in the blue sunrise light. Still, I can tell that she didn’t get much sleep last night at all. Her eyes are rimmed with dark circles. Lots of auburn curls are escaping from her braid to fall around her face. She wipes some of them off of her cheeks, already striding towards the helm station.
“Should be a smooth, quick little trip over there. For now.” She glances up at the clouds, scrutinizing them with her sailor’s eyes. “Think we’re in for grey and stormy weather for most of our trip. Sorry, I know it doesn’t make for good hiking around in the forest.”
“No worries,” I answer gently. “That’s the least of our concerns, I promise.”
Robin nods distractedly, only half listening. Her eyes are focused on the far bank of the inlet.
She starts up Moondancer, and we glide gently away from the dock. Weaving carefully around sunken rock formations, we leave the campground behind and make our way towards the mountains. The soft rumble of the engine and the swishing of the water around us combine to gently break the dawn quiet.
I know how hard Robin has been working to hold it all together, to put on a brave face. Even so, I can see the anguished fear and flaming hope in her eyes, all mixed up together.
“Are you alright, Robin?” I ask softly. And then, when she glances sidelong at me – “Worried about the curtains, I assume?”
Robin lets out a sharp, brittle laugh, then a groan of dismay. “Right, yeah, the curtains. Where the hell am I gonna find ones like what Maggie described? I didn’t expect her to have such a specific vision for them.”
“Have Rose make them for you!”
“Oh, yeah, that’s a thought. She knows her way around a sewing needle, huh?” Robin nods down at her faded, worn rain jacket, tugging on one of the buttons. “She tightened all of the buttons on my jacket for me while I was staying there. They’re on there so good now. Might actually get another few years out of this thing.”
“Sounds like Rose,” I answer cheerfully. “She makes all those beautiful clothes you see Leyla wearing, too. Maybe you should have her make your wedding dress.”
Robin glances over at me, then turns away again. I think I caught a tiny smile on her face, which I silently feel good about.
Maybe it would be wiser not to get Robin’s hopes up after Faith has been lost for this long, just in case, but… I’ve decided there’s no reason to delicately tiptoe around the subject of Faith, or the wedding. That makes it sound like she’s lost forever, and I think what Robin needs right now is someone to believe with her. To really believe that we’ll get her back.
I’m happy to be that person. It’s not hard for me, not if we have Aiden with us.
I don’t expect to touch down on the edge of the forest and have Faith come running out to meet us, though. I’m sure she didn’t risk staying close to the inlet, where Nigel might come looking for her at any time. If she set up some kind of hideout, she’ll probably have picked somewhere deeper in the forest, so. We may have to do a lot of hiking today.
A dismal prospect, given my aching muscles, foggy brain, and heavy-lidded eyes that I can barely keep open. I sit down in one of the lounge seats and stretch out my arms, flinching, trying to release some tension before my joints organize a mutiny.
The situation changes, though, once we drop anchor on the far side of the inlet and eat the breakfast Aiden whipped up for us. A heaping plate of scrambled eggs and buttered toast, along with a mug of sweet, strong coffee, deliciously hot – and I feel surprisingly restored. I can look around myself with clear eyes, at least, and get all the way to the end of a thought.
Sometimes the ghosts get jealous around food, so I wait until we’re done eating to summon Will. He arrives slightly less bright and defined than he was yesterday, but still glowing with energy, and with something to tell us.
“Jamie! I went to Ralph’s house just before dawn. Ralph was still awake, and, ah…”
“What?” I get up in alarm, handing Aiden his ghost glasses. “Did he figure something out?”
“I believe so!” Will says eagerly. “He didn’t tell me, for he didn’t know I was there. But something is going on. His house was in an uproar. It was quite exciting. He had lots of his men gathered together, and they’re all quite fired up. He was giving orders for some of them to go to Port Sitka, he sent out a small team-”
“To find out where Nigel is, hopefully!”
“Yes, that’s what it seemed to me. He’s also been at his desk with many papers laid out on it, from a file. I don’t think he’s slept all night for reading it. He tried to make telephonic contact with you and Aiden several times, just while I was there.”
I silently curse my lack of reception, then run a hand through my hair, thinking. We can’t go back over to the campground right now, but it sounds like Ralph figured out something important.
“Did anything he said to his boys give you some hint of what’s going on?”
“No. It’s all being kept very hush-hush. I don’t even think his people have gotten an explanation. There were just a lot of very quiet, very fast directions being given. I can tell you that Ralph seems very excited. Maybe also nervous? But mostly excited. He keeps shaking his head and laughing to himself like he can’t believe it.”
I stare at Will, baffled, then turn around to find Aiden listening with an anxious expression on his face.
“What the hell could he have found out to prompt a response like that?” I murmur, bewildered.
“Did Ralph forget that he can send messages to us through you?” Aiden asks Will, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.
“I suspect it’s a situation where he needs you to be able to answer him.”
“Oh, no.” I let out a soft, apologetic sigh, nibbling my lip. “Well, I hate to leave him hanging, but we’re already here, and we really need to-”
“What’s going on?” Robin asks, coming back up from downstairs, swiftly redoing her braid.
“Sounds like Ralph is making progress on his investigation,” Aiden explains, then turns back to Will. “He seemed okay, though, right? Not in urgent need of our help?”
“Certainly not in need of help, no. It seemed to me he had the situation well in hand, despite how, ah – rowdy some of those fellows are.”
Aiden nods, obviously relieved. “Was Noah there, too?”
“Yes. And Calla.”
“What were they doing?”
“Calla was looking through logs of recent boat purchases in Port Sitka on her computing device. Noah was…” Will pauses, then admits with a wince – “Looking at Sea-Doo schematics on his phone.”
Aiden groans loudly, wrenching off his snapback in dismay. “Come on, man!”
“Okay, we’re not worrying about that right now!” I jump in, gently pinching Aiden’s cheek. “Stay focused, Sugar Maple. Ralph and Noah can handle themselves. That’s just gonna have to wait until we get back. For now there’s someone else who needs our attention.”
~~~~
Robin stands on the bank of the inlet, slowly running her eyes over the soft sandy mud. Will, Aiden, and I stand at her back, doing the same thing.
There are no footprints or other signs of people being here, but that’s no surprise. It rained and stormed on our first day, and the grey morning sky is showing hints that we might be in for more.
“Faith?” Robin calls out into the trees.
No answer. A distant bird singing softly, but that’s it.
“Okay,” Robin murmurs, with a deep breath. “Guess we’re hiking, then.”
“As long as there’s no bears,” I agree, following her into the trees.
Deep, dense old-growth is on us immediately. The trees closest to the banks are the smallest, being the ones that can resist the most wind, but there’s no question of their advanced age. Each one is a moss-blanketed ecosystem, a silent beauty with hundreds of years to its name. I run my admiring eyes over them as we strike out into their forest.
A hushed, rainy autumn landscape unfolds around us. Bronze and golden and brilliant red leaves, dark evergreen needles, masses of velvety wildflowers… all gently dripping with the soft, flickering rain that begins to fall. The colors all look so glowingly bright against the stormy grey day. The cold air is so clear that every breath floods my whole chest.
There’s something so stirring about a forest like this, so old, so mysterious. Some deeply-felt sense of beauty and awe you can’t get anywhere else. I know we’re all experiencing it. We spend the first part of our walk in reverential silence, looking up at the distant canopy overhead with wide eyes.
The lovely forest makes my thoughts drift to the illusion who used to live here, before the Sorcerer struck him down and stole his power. Violet’s words drift through my head, heavy with heartbreak.
Yes… one of us has fallen. It was a great pity. He was my closest comrade among the Six. A dear old friend.
Walking through his land, I can’t help wondering what he was.
I think I’m starting to see the reasoning behind the placements of Rose’s illusions. Thorn in the forest closest to town, where a dangerous-looking plant or glimpse of a spooky spirit would be enough to put off the rookie campers. Past him, in the darkest depths of the forest where only a few would dare to go, the Sorcerer.
The forested coastline by the sea has a siren. The scary witch, placed closest to the spooky old hotel.
And what would Rose send to live here? For the person unafraid of those things, the experienced outdoorsman who would strike this far out into the forest? What would she have placed here?
I guess it doesn’t matter now. Whatever the illusion once was, he’s gone. All that’s left of him is the leather necklace with the wooden pendant at the end, currently tucked into Aiden’s back pocket.
The thought takes on a sadness for me as we walk deeper and deeper into his forest. The boundless landscape, the glittering pine needles and soft beds of fallen leaves, the overcast sky brightening the blazing orange and deep red leaves by comparison, the hush broken only by distant bird calls and the whispering of the wind… it feels like a magical place. Like somewhere that should rightly have an illusion.
He should still be here, I find myself inexplicably thinking, looking sadly around at his home.
Aiden must hear the change in my note, because suddenly a comforting arm is folded around my shoulders. I move closer to him as we walk, grateful for the steadying warmth of his body, the infinite reassurance of his presence. It seems to me so many things have gone terribly wrong in this part of the forest. Faith stolen back by her father, whatever it is Bruce is doing, the rightful illusion killed by the Sorcerer…
It just fills me with relief that there’s a Guardian here, now.
We’ll get this sorted out, I remind myself, snuggling up closer to Aiden.
“You know,” Aiden muses, to the group at large, “Now that I’m more awake, I’m pissed. Noah’s plan to handle this with an uppercut is starting to sound pretty damn good to me. Like where the fuck do Bruce and Nigel get off treating their daughters this w-?”
“Okay, thank you!” I shout in relief, as Robin whips around, her eyes blazing with rage.
“I know!” She makes a move like she’s going to kick something, remembers we’re in a beautiful old forest, and just barely manages to refrain. “I could kill both of them!”
“By all means, send them to my realm,” Will growls, cracking his knuckles. “Then I can have a go, too! The devils! I never could stand a tyrant!”
“They’re doing something shady,” Aiden says firmly. “I know they are. I just can’t tell if they’re in it together, or what the deal is, but – something is way off with both of those two.”
“You know, I was thinking about it,” Robin says, turning to start leading the way into the forest again. “Bruce must be the one who told Nigel where Faith lives. He has to be. I don’t know how. But he moved here, just a boat ride away from Port Sitka, and all of a sudden Nigel knew exactly where to find her. Bruce tipped him off.”
“Could Bruce have spotted Faith in Port Sitka while picking up supplies, perhaps?” Will offers. “Recognized her?”
I look at Robin, lifting a questioning eyebrow. “How would Bruce know who she is, though?”
“Yeah, I have no idea.” Robin blows an auburn curl out of her eyes in frustration. “But it’s the only explanation I can-”
She cuts herself off mid-sentence and stops dead, staring blankly off into the forest. Aiden, Will, and I exchange an uncertain glance, then come up to stand beside her.
“You okay, Captain?” I ask, concerned.
Robin takes a slow, unsteady breath.
“The – the newspaper,” she whispers, staring with unseeing eyes into the middle distance. “We got our picture in the newspaper, when we won that race with Moondancer… they printed her new first name, but her last name is still her dad’s… she was gonna change it to mine officially when we got married…”
Oh, no. I think I understand.
Nigel has no reason to read the local Port Sitka newspaper. He doesn’t live here. But Bruce does, at least for the moment, and he might read it. Faith’s last name and picture being printed… that might have been enough for Bruce to piece together who she is.
“Whoa, wait, so-” Aiden lifts his head, realizing something all at once. “If Bruce really badly wanted move again, but he didn’t have a boat to get himself and Maggie out of here… and he knew Nigel from way back when, and knew that he has a boat, and that he was looking for his kid… and Bruce had just lucked into figuring out where she was…”
“He traded Faith’s location for a ride out of the country,” I finish, my heart sinking. “Oh my god, that must be why Nigel stopped at the campground, to pick up Bruce and Maggie! That’s why Bruce was so pissed off that Faith and Maggie disabled Nigel’s boat!”
That’s why he was shouting at Nigel on the phone to hurry up and buy a new boat and get back here. It’s his ride out of here, too.
No wonder Bruce and Nigel hate working together. They’re only doing it out of necessity, because each of them had something the other one wanted. They’re using each other.
That doesn’t explain why Bruce always has himself and Maggie on the run, though. Or how Bruce and Nigel know each other in the first place. I don’t see how this connects to a sudden burst of excitement and activity within the Warlord’s ranks, either. What the hell did Ralph find out?
Robin is leaning heavily against a tree, one hand pressed over her mouth. Aiden, Will, and I all stop to look at her, noticing at the same time.
“The picture with me, in the newspaper,” she rasps, in a heartbroken voice. “The race I told her we should do…”
“Okay, no, you could not have foreseen this, Robin,” Aiden answers firmly. “Don’t think for one second this is your fault. This is nobody’s fault but Nigel and Bruce. Don’t do them the favor of taking it on yourself.”
“Besides, we’re going to get Faith back!” I insist, with fierce earnestness. “We will! That’s all that matters right now, getting her back!”
Robin looks up at me slowly. Blinking back tears, she straightens up from the tree and runs her sleeve under her nose. For a second she stands stock still. Then she spins around to stride forward again, fierce determination blazing back up in her eyes.
“FAITH!” she calls out, cupping her tattooed fingers around her mouth. “FAITH! WHERE ARE YOU?”
Aiden and I add our voices to hers as we walk deeper into the forest. Will floats up high overhead for a better view, a piece of silver brightness against the charcoal sky.
The day begins to grow brighter, filling up gradually with light. Eventually the clouds break, and the swirling grey skies open up to spill down deep golden sunshine. It’s warm against my face, feels good in the cold air. I fall asleep in a pool of it when we stop in a clearing to eat lunch, and I’m way too hot by the time I wake up. Must have been while I was passed out, too, because I was dreaming of the lemon popsicles my mom makes in the summertime.
“You gained a few freckles,” Aiden laughs affectionately, ruffling my hair as we set back out.
But the brief, hot afternoon is covered up by rain clouds again soon enough. My sunbaked face gets flicked with cold droplets of rain as we keep going. They fall right through Will, who sometimes walks alongside us, sometimes takes off up into the sky to see if there’s anything to report from above.
This kind of weather makes it difficult to tell what time it is, but I’ve noticed that Aiden has started keeping an eye on his Luminox. Presumably because he doesn’t want us stranded out here in the dark, and the day is quickly passing by. We’ve spent almost all of it crisscrossing the forest closest to the inlet, calling out for Faith. Now we’re just going in a straight line, headed deep into the trees, directly away from the water. I’m not sure if there’s a plan anymore. I think we’re all too tired to ask each other about that. I also think nobody wants to acknowledge that we’ve found nothing, not even a hint that anyone has been here before us.
We’ve been marching on this way for a long time when suddenly the wild landscape of the forest opens up to let us out into a vast, grassy meadow. The long grass has gone golden-yellow in its autumn variation, and it looks startlingly bright in contrast to this weather.
It stretches out before us on a gradual uphill rise. That rise eventually becomes steeper off in the distance, where big boulders are scattered in the wildflowers. Beyond that, the rise grows even steeper, turning mostly to rock and scattered brush, continuing upwards to form the sheer stone face of a mountain. We reached the base of one, completely by accident.
“This place feels weirdly familiar,” Robin murmurs, slowly letting her gaze travel around the meadow. “Can’t think why, though.”
We gaze up at the towering mountain for a long moment, then strike out into the meadow. We go up the rising slope a little ways, and pause there to catch our breaths.
Panting, I turn around to look behind us, then blink in surprise. We’ve been hiking uphill for longer than I realized. The forest is sprawled beneath us. We can even see the glinting waters of the inlet from here, its surface dancing with rain in the falling light. Around us are tangled sprawls of wildflowers, the hardy varieties that grow on mountainsides. Only the tough ones can live here, unprotected from the wind. Which we suddenly are, too, now that we’re out from the trees. I pull my jacket closer around me and hug myself as the freezing wind whips through my hair.
Violet’s voice whispers in my memory again.
Where the forest begins to grow up the mountain. He made himself a lair there.
Aiden’s eyebrows are drawn low and together, his blue eyes narrowed. He turns to face the mountain, staring up at it intently, then blinks hard and fast, like something just blew into his eyes.
I freeze to the spot, catching the glittering flash of icy blue sparkling in them. But when Aiden closes his eyes tightly and blinks them open again, it’s gone.
Will is light-traveling further up the face of the mountain, a streak of silver soaring up to the place where everything turns to rock walls and huge boulders. The streak comes to a sudden halt as a growl of distant thunder rumbles through the sky. A sweep of wind rushes across the forest, making all of the trees and all of us shudder.
Will rematerializes right next to me, his green eyes wide with alarm.
“Careful now, mortals!” he shouts warningly. “Meseems the weather is likely to turn on us!”
“There’s the weather we were worried about!” Aiden shouts at the same time, raising his voice above the wind.
“Don’t worry about it!” Robin yells back, putting her head down and forging on. “We’ll be fine!”
We start following the mountain around its enormous base instead of heading further up the slope. We didn’t discuss it, but somehow I think we all sense we’ve hit something here. What, exactly, I’m not sure. I keep glancing over at Aiden, who keeps abruptly lowering his head as glittering sparks sweep through his eyes at random. The faintest little bursts of magic, as if they’re just barely brushing his senses before they disappear again.
I can hardly focus on it, though. The wind is growing fiercer with each passing minute. The rainfall is still light, but powered by this kind of wind every drop is painful. The sun is setting somewhere behind all those dark clouds.
“Captain!” Aiden shouts, over the increasingly wild wind. “Starting to get pretty dark out here!”
“No, no, come on, this must be something!” Robin shouts back, her eyes desperately searching the mountainside. She cups her hands around her mouth again. “FAITH! IT’S ME, ANGEL, I’M HERE! WHERE ARE YOU?”
“There’s no way she’s going to hear us!” I have to cup my hands around my mouth just to talk to Robin, flinching as hard droplets hit my face. “We can come back tomorrow! We spent most of today zig-zagging around the whole forest, tomorrow we can come straight here!”
“But-” Robin begins, then breaks off with a little gasp as lightning darts through the sky, chaining together in swift paths across the clouds.
“Weather and visibility’s only gonna get worse!” Aiden shouts pleadingly to Robin, pushing his wet hair out of his face. “And we still have to get back to the boat!”
Robin hesitates, staring at him. She turns her eyes to the looming mountain, so enormous in the falling light. There’s no way we can explore it all right now.
She calls out for Faith one more time. When there’s no answer she lets out a heavy, shuddering exhale, then turns and leads the way back down towards the forest. Aiden and I fall in behind her, and Will appears when I summon him, looking frustrated to not have found anything from above. Nowhere near as frustrated as Robin, who’s chokingly having to drag herself away. My heart aches with sympathy as I follow after her. I know how badly she was hoping to find Faith today, and instead we’re leaving empty-handed.
But I don’t know… something about this place we found, where the forest melts into the mountain…
I can’t shake the feeling that maybe we did find something, after all.
~~~~
“Why were your eyes glowing?” I murmur drowsily to Aiden, sitting on the top bunk with my legs hanging down over the side. “Over and over again, but just the tiniest bit. Like magic tumbleweeds.”
“I know. I felt it.” Aiden is sitting on the floor, the only place in the cabin where he can stretch his long legs all the way out. “There are little scraps of magical energy blowing around the base of the mountain.”
I lean back against the wall, massaging my aching arms. “Why would that be happening?”
“Not sure… it feels like when I could sense magical traces from Violet, but less. Does that make any sense? I’m explaining it badly. It’s like a shadow of that feeling. Barely there. It’s so insubstantial that it’s literally getting blown around by the wind.”
I take a second to absorb that, twisting the malachite necklace in my fingers. “Do you think it’s left over from when the illusion was still alive?”
“Maybe… I’m surprised it hasn’t faded away by now, though. It’s not tied to anything, not anymore.”
We lapse into thoughtful, exhausted silence. We’re dried off and warmed up, but it was a difficult hike back to Moondancer. We’re all hoarse from shouting all day, aching from so much hiking. It was a tough little ride back across the inlet, too. The waters are worked up by the wind, even if the rain has stayed light. It was a deep relief when we were moored safely at the dock again.
I’m so wiped out that I just want to go to bed, but I still feel like there was something I was supposed to do. Eat dinner? I’m almost too tired for that. Aiden hasn’t even gotten up to start making it, and I haven’t even reminded him. Instead I’m sitting here dreaming of the cold chicken sandwiches and frosty beers and salty pickles we had for lunch.
“There was something I was supposed to do,” I sigh sleepily, resisting the urge to lay down flat on the bunk. I’ll pass out if I do that, and I still need to call – “Oh, shit, we were supposed to call Ralph when we got back!”
“Fuck,” Aiden groans, shoving himself regretfully to his feet. “Goddamnit.”
“At least it sounds like he has some information for us,” I yawn, practically dragging myself to the ladder.
I sling one leg gracelessly down over the side of the bunk. Aiden gently plucks me from it before I can tumble to the floor and a concussion. He sets me on my feet, pats the top of my head, and laughs when I pout indignantly at him.
I knock on Robin’s door, pushing it slightly more open. “Hey, Captain? We’re gonna go call Ralph really quickly.”
“Okay,” she calls back hoarsely, from where she’s sprawled across her bed. “Think I’m just gonna stay here and lay down for a little bit.”
Aiden and I exchange a swift look of sympathetic pain. Her back is turned to us, but we can hear the exhaustion and crushed disappointment in her voice.
“We’ll be back soon,” I tell Robin gently. “Won’t be gone for long at all.”
“Okay.”
Aiden and I leave her to have some alone time, and go staggering out onto the dock. The wind is way less intense here, now that we’re protected by the mountains again. But it’s still cold, and the breeze is sharp, occasionally carrying growls of distant thunder. It pulls golden leaves down from the trees, whips them away across the water in dancing swirls.
I shiver in the cold, my stiff muscles aching, then let out a moan of pure relief as Aiden loops his arms around me from behind, lets his Heliomancer heat melt into me. He laughs at my undisguised enthusiasm, but I can’t help it. My sore muscles instantly relax, so much so that I have to push him away after a minute. Otherwise I might melt to the ground and fall asleep right on the forest path.
Somehow, against all odds, we make it to the campground rules sign. The instant we do, a bunch of notifications of missed calls flood the screen of my phone. Noah tried to call me a few times, and so did Ralph.
I call Ralph’s number, then let out a startled laugh when Noah answers with his mouth less than an inch away from the camera.
“Dude! What the fuck!”
“Oh, oops – sorry, Keane!” he says, pulling back cheerfully. “Thought it was a voice call!”
“Then why was your mouth by the camera?”
“Had the phone upside down.” He gestures around at the vague inky blackness surrounding him. “It’s dark in here, as you can see.”
I narrow my eyes anxiously, trying to get a better look. “Where are you, dude? Nowhere near a Sea-Doo, I hope. I just want to remind you one more time that we don’t need one.”
“I’m nowhere near a Sea-Doo at the moment,” Noah assures me soothingly. “Don’t worry about the Sea-Doo thing, Keane, alright? I know we don’t need it. I’m not confused about the plan.”
I pause for a second, sharing a bewildered glance with Aiden. “What plan? We don’t have a plan yet.”
“Oh, good!” Noah looks deeply relieved. “That explains why I was so confused. How do you know we won’t need a Sea-Doo, then? If we haven’t settled on a plan yet? No need to get worried, Jamie, don’t make that face, I was just asking! Forget I said anything. Did you and the Captain track down Faith?”
“No, but we got a lot of new information from Maggie last night, and we might have found a place of interest today. Just sent Will home for the night.” Aiden stabs an accusing finger at Noah as he starts lighting up a joint. “What about you? Planning on stealing any kind of watercraft with Ripley tonight?”
“Me?” Noah asks innocently, coughing on a very deep hit. “Nah, man. I mean, I do got plans with Ripley, but we’re not practicing hot-wiring a Sea-Doo. We’re just gonna, um… go draw a bunch of dicks on election lawn signs for some politician that Ripples doesn’t like.”
Aiden leans closer to the phone, suspicion written all over his face. “I don’t believe you, but the fact that you had that story all ready to go makes me feel like you and Ripples did that on some other night.”
An irrepressible grin makes the corners of Noah’s mouth dimple up. “Okay, I know it sounds like some dumb seventh-grade shit to do, but it is funny, because Ripples is an artist, you know? He puts in so much detail. You should see these dicks, I’m telling you, they’re like museum quality-”
“What the fuck are you talking about, man?” comes Ralph’s bewildered voice from behind Noah.
Noah twists around to look behind himself, revealing that he’s sitting on the floor beside Ralph’s bed. Ralph just sat up on his elbow behind him, his blonde hair standing up in silly little spikes, his drowsy eyes only half open.
“Hey, he’s awake!” Noah says cheerfully, offering Ralph the joint. “You worked all night and slept through the whole day. You’re going fully nocturnal, dude. Been sitting around waiting for you to wake up for ages. Guess what, though? I finally got Jamie and Aiden on the line!”
Ralph snaps all the way awake in an instant. He snatches the phone from Noah, letting out a huge breath of relief.
“Jamie!” He sits up quickly, shoving the blanket off of himself and shaking out his hair. “Finally, thank fuckin’ god! You didn’t let Bruce take Maggie and run, did you?”
“No, why, what happened?” I ask drowsily, rubbing my eyes as Ralph switches on a lamp. “We’ve been across the inlet all day looking for Faith.”
Ralph gently pushes away Tycho, who’s busy trying to give him a few kisses for waking up. “Did you find her?”
“No, but we found a place where there’s some weird stuff going on. Scraps of magic blowing around. We’re gonna go back there tomorrow.”
Ralph nods distractedly, the way he does when he’s quickly absorbing information he’ll actually process later.
“Okay, keep going on that, but we need to talk about Maggie.”
“Yeah, tell us what you’ve got!” I force myself to wake up some more, focusing my tired eyes on Ralph. “What was in the file from that guy you mugged last night?”
“What?” Aiden widens his eyes at me, then turns incredulously to Ralph. “You mugged someone last night, dude? Jamie failed to mention that little detail.”
“It seemed like kind of a small thing,” I explain helplessly. “Given everything else going on. Anyways – what’s the word, Ralph? Are the police after Bruce? Is that why he’s running?”
“The police!” Ralph lets out a short, sharp laugh, then runs a hand over his face. “Okay, look, before I get into this… I confirmed what I remembered by reading that file, and I need you to confirm something for me right now. The girl, Maggie. What’s she look like?”
“Do you want us to send you a picture?” I offer, glancing at the cabin. “We’ll have to get her back outside, but-”
“No,” Ralph says impatiently, “I don’t need that. Just tell me, does she have really dark brown hair, darker eyebrows, and emerald-green eyes?”
Aiden and I both wake all the way up to stare at Ralph in confusion. All we’ve sent him is the picture of Bruce, who looks nothing like Maggie, so we’re both startled to hear such an exact description.
“Yeah, that’s – that’s exactly what she looks like. How did you know?”
Ralph’s grey-green eyes open very wide. I can’t tell if he’s excited or what, but it’s evident that there are a lot of thoughts swirling through his head.
“Because Bruce pissed off some very dangerous people,” he murmurs, “And I happen to know some very dangerous people, myself.”
“Uh oh.” I steal a swift, anxious glance at Aiden. “You speak Ralph, don’t you? What does that mean?”
“Means tell me everything that Maggie told you last night,” Ralph says urgently. “Everything.”
He listens in rapt silence as Aiden and I relay all the information we got from Maggie. He’s getting more and more excited with every detail we’re giving him.
“Holy shit!” he blurts out in disbelief, when we get to the end. “No fucking way! It’s really her!”
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