Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) (9 page)

She
sat back. “How can you be both?”

“Portals
don’t work the way you think,” he answered. “Each location here is linked to a
specific location on Earth. A portal connects those two locations but the
geography doesn’t line up. I could open a portal here and one a mile away and they
could be next to each other on your world or fifty miles apart. There’s an
intricate formula which would tell me where we are, but I don’t have it memorized.”

Her
mouth went dry. “So we could be half-way around the world from your village?”

Instead
of answering, he dropped his gaze to the ground again and Meaghan touched his
hand. “Please, Nick. Tell me that’s impossible.”

“Theoretically,
it’s possible,” he responded. “Although I’d prefer to think we aren’t. I’m not
in the mood to find our way across three continents and two oceans.”

“Me
neither,” she said, and then swung her other leg over the tree when he jumped
down from the trunk. He extended a hand to her and she took it, landing beside
him in the brush. She stepped from the greenery, following him through the
forest once more.

“So
we’re stuck wandering around here until something looks familiar?” she asked.

“Not
quite,” he told her. “As I said, I’m not lost. I recognize the mountain range
we’re walking toward, but I think we’re on the wrong side of it.” He helped her
over a smaller tree lying in their path, and then dropped her hand as they kept
moving. “We should be at the base of the first mountain by tomorrow night. If
I’m right, we’ll reach my village in a couple of weeks.”

“Weeks,”
Meaghan echoed, barely managing to form the word. She crossed her arms over her
stomach, slowing her pace and then stopping so Nick could not see her tears.
She closed her eyes to chase them away.

She
had never minded being in the wilderness and had often enjoyed it, but weeks
without proper food or a shower, weeks without a comfortable bed, and weeks
dealing with evil-looking animals and aching muscles did not thrill her.

Getting
lost did not either. She opened her eyes as a soft wind tickled her cheek, and
scanned the forest ahead. She caught sight of Nick, his form no more than a
distant outline scattering leaves, and she chased after it.

“The
wind brought me here on a gust of luck, I’d say.”

A
breezy tenor stilled Meaghan’s feet. She spun around, looking for the source of
the voice, but saw only the movement of loose vines dancing in the wind.

“Jumpy,
aren’t you?”

She
snapped her head to the left. An echoing laugh followed. She turned a full
circle, watching for any movement or a potential hiding place that would give
away the man’s location, but she found nothing.

“Earth,
water, fire, and air,” the voice sang as the breeze gusted stronger, swirling
leaves in a vortex around her. “They are your friends, but you’d best beware.
The forest path you travel along will soon bring you to a deadly wrong. Find
the way the water leads you, and you will find the man who sees you.”

The
words came from every direction. Meaghan’s heart raced in her chest and she
followed its lead, speeding after Nick through the forest. Fire scorched her lungs
and panic froze her mind.

She
had almost caught up with him when pain ripped through her, a bolt of
electricity that sent her screaming to the ground.

H
ER PALMS
hit the ground first in time to prevent her forehead from landing on a rock in
the path. She heard thrashing close by and somewhere in the distance, footsteps
running toward her. Pain shot through her again as something yanked on her
ankle. She screamed and tried to turn over, but her legs refused to budge.
Pressing up on her forearms, she felt something hit her on the back and fell to
the ground. She struggled against the pressure, wiggling and flailing to get
loose, but her attacker’s grip tightened. The tightness slid up her legs,
pinning down her waist before latching onto her wrists.

She
yanked them forward so she could see her attacker and then caught her breath in
disbelief. A vine writhed, thickening along her arms. It crawled over the
ground toward her head, slithered up her shoulders onto her neck, and
constricted. She opened her mouth to cry for help, but no noise escaped.
Blackness closed her vision into a narrow tunnel. She dug her nails into the
vines on her neck, tearing at them with the last of her strength, and then
dropped her hands, surprised when the vines went limp.

Air
rushed back into her lungs, sweet and powerful. She held it. Her eyes cleared
and the pressure eased from her body. She turned her head in time to see the
vine slither into the underbrush, trailing a thick liquid that looked like dark
blood. It coiled into a pile and stilled.

She
saw the glint of a silver knife in someone’s hand. It disappeared, then she
felt arms slide underneath her body. Too weak to struggle, she closed her eyes
and succumbed to them as they lifted her. When she felt a wool sweater brush
against her cheek, she opened her eyes again, relief flooding through her when
Nick’s face filled her vision.

“You
have the worst luck,” he muttered. He sat her on a stump so he could examine
her wounds. His cursory review seemed to miss nothing. His fingertips coasted
over the scrapes on her palms, then parted a tear in her sleeve to reveal a
long cut from her elbow to mid-way down her forearm. Red welts along her skin
had already begun fading, but his fingers tested them anyway, and she knew they
would turn into bruises by tomorrow. He ran his hands down her legs to look for
breaks, stopping at her ankle when she released a sharp hiss of air.

He
moved her ankle back and forth and side to side. “Does this hurt?”

“Yes,”
she groaned. He pushed harder and she pitched forward from the pain. “Don’t,
please.”

He
let go. Lifting her pant leg, he pulled down her sock to view the skin puffing
over the edge of her sneaker. He removed the sneaker, then resumed his light
prodding.

“Does
this hurt much?” he asked. She shook her head and he sat back on his heels.
“The color isn’t changing. That’s good news, though I think it’s sprained. I’ll
bandage it for now and we’ll know more by tomorrow morning.” He removed the
backpack from his shoulders, pulling open the zippers before glancing at her
again and frowning. “You’re not wearing your mother’s necklace,” he said. “Do
you have it?”

Panic
swelled a lump in Meaghan’s throat. She reached for her neck, searching for the
amulet with frantic fingers. When she felt its thin chain and realized it had
flipped around to her back, she sighed in relief. “It’s here,” she said,
tugging it forward. “It’s safe.”

“Good.
We’d better keep it in the backpack for now.”

She
pulled it over her head and handed it to him. Nick found the amulet’s velvet
pouch inside a front pocket of the backpack, stored the necklace inside, then
removed a plastic first aid kit from another zippered compartment. After
wrapping Meaghan’s foot and ankle with a bandage from the kit, he tended to her
other wounds, covering them with gauze and antibiotic cream. Once he had
finished, he sat back to study her.

“I
know it hurts,” he said, “but I can’t light a fire to make jicab tea right now.
As soon as it’s safe, I will.” He stowed the first aid kit and her sneaker,
then stood and slipped the backpack over his shoulders again. “I’m afraid your
injury will slow us down, so we don’t have time to take a break. Do you want to
lean on me?”

“I
can try.” She took his hand and allowed him to pull her up from the stump.
Balancing on her good foot, she leaned against him. He slung an arm around her
waist. At first, their movements were tentative and slow, but as they developed
a rhythm, matching each other’s steps, they were able to move at a quicker pace
through the forest.

Meaghan
focused on the ground in front of her, careful to avoid tripping over rocks or
roots. She did not want to slow their progress even further. When they
approached a thick curtain of vines, Nick tapped them with his stick, waited a
moment, and then started to walk through them. She hesitated and he tightened
his grip on her waist.

“They
won’t hurt you,” he said. “They didn’t react when I touched them. They aren’t
creeper vines.”

“Creeper
vines,” she echoed. A chill ran through her. “Why do you have to test them with
the stick? Why can’t you sense them?”

“Because
they aren’t magical.” He urged her forward with the slightest pressure from his
arm. “They’re a different species of vine which can think and react. They
attack when they’re provoked. You must have stepped on one.”

“I
was running. I,” she hesitated, swallowing hard when a vine brushed her cheek.
“I tripped.”

“Why
were you running?”

“The
man. He scared me and…” her voice failed her as another vine brushed her
shoulder.

“What
man?” Nick stopped and stared at her. A breeze stirred the vines. They swayed
around her, brushing her head, her cheek, and her neck. She felt sick. She
wanted to run, but her ankle throbbed and she knew it would not hold her.

Fear
quickened her breathing. “Please. The vines. I can’t…”

He
scooped her into his arms. The vines cleared from her sight as he carried her
through the curtain, setting her down on the other side in front of an oak
tree. She leaned against it, closing her eyes to calm her speeding heart.

“I’m
sorry,” she said.

She
felt Nick’s hand on her cheek and she opened her eyes. “I’m the one who should
be sorry,” he told her. “I’m not doing a good job of protecting you, am I?”

“So
far, I’d say you are.” She covered his hand with hers and smiled. “I’m still
alive, despite my tendency for getting into trouble. At the rate I’m going,
you’ll wish you’d never met me by tomorrow afternoon.”

“We’ll
see.” He chuckled, and then broke their contact, his face turning serious.
“Tell me about the man.”

“I
trailed behind,” she confessed, lacing her hands together in front of her. “I
shouldn’t have, but I did. That’s when I heard him. His voice came from every
direction. It made it impossible for me to find him, but he had to have been
hiding someplace nearby because he said he was watching me.”

“This
happened right before you ran into the creeper?” he asked. She nodded and he
slid a hand between hers. “Did anything else odd happen at the time? Was there
wind or water?”

“There
was wind,” she answered. “The more he spoke, the stronger it got. When it
swirled around me, I ran.”

“He
came on the wind,” Nick said and to her surprise, he smiled. “That’s fantastic
news. We’ve had wind since, which means he’s following us.”

“I
don’t understand. What do you mean?” She stood up straight. He brought his hand
to her waist to steady her. “Why is that good news?”

“Because
the man you heard has a power I’ve been trying to sense since we set out this
morning. He can use the four elements to send his presence somewhere else. He
can also use those elements to see, sometimes for miles.”

“So
he could see me and talk to me, but he wasn’t there?” 

“Right.”

“Can
he see the future?”

“No,”
Nick responded. “He’s not a Seer. He’s a Guide. He can’t see the future. He can
only see what’s happening now. But now that he’s found you, I can stop
concentrating on finding him. He’ll lead us to him.”

“That
is good news then,” Meaghan decided, though she had trouble finding relief when
her first meeting with the Guide had instilled her with so much fear. “Why did
you need to find him?”

“He’ll
be able to tell us where we are and what the safest route of travel will be.”

“I
see.” This time she allowed relief to take over. She met his smile with one of
her own. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day. You said he uses the four
elements. Do you mean Earth, Water, Fire, and Air? He used those words when he
spoke to me.”

“Those
are the four,” Nick confirmed. “What else did he say?”

“Something
about water and our path not being safe.” She hesitated, trying to focus on her
memory of the Guide’s song. She could hear the melody in the back of her head,
but found the harder she tried to remember the words, the more they stayed out
of reach. Her smile faded. “I can’t seem to remember. I was scared. All I could
think about was escaping from him.”

“I
understand.” Nick squeezed her hand. “I suspect you remembered the most
important part. If he said our path isn’t safe, we need to be careful. As far
as the rest, he’ll make sure we get the message again when we need it."

She
leaned into him and hoped so.

§

T
HAT NIGHT,
they set up camp in a
small clearing, both of them taking shifts watching for danger. The dense
forest surrounding the camp permitted a small fire for a short time, so Nick
made her a cup of jicab tea and a poultice from wide leaves he found in the
forest. The tea eased the pain and the poultice reduced the swelling so that by
morning, Meaghan could wear her sneaker again, even if she had to remove the
laces.