Joshua and the Arrow Realm (11 page)

“Free? Here in the trees?” Charlie said with questioning eyebrows.

“Free,” Ash repeated, her lips in a tight line. “If we survive the hunt, Artemis leaves us alone. I hope she keeps the deal even with us sticking one of her men.”

“She leaves you alone forever?” I said.

“Until we're eighteen,” Ash said. “Then we're Goners on our Leaving Day.”

Charlie shook his head. “Then you die?”

“Not the lucky ones.” Ash pulled out her knife and twirled it expertly in her hand. It flashed in the lantern light, spinning like a bullet. “We raid the WC—the work camp—for weapons and extra mash. It's easy for us to get in and out. We're protected in our tree community, unlike anywhere else on Nostos. As Wild Childs, we stay alive for a reason. We're stolen children once used as bait to hunt the great beasts—and we survived. Queen Artemis respects this, as did her ancestors. When the first group of Wild Childs started growing up, Queen Artemis of long ago sent an army to round us up. She got most of us, but not all. Those caught were sent to their death on a great hunt. Those that didn't get stuck were sent to the WC. So, the Wild Child leader in charge went to her and made a deal to save us. If we turn out our own to the ground for the WC on their Leaving Day, then the queen lets us all live. Payment for being left alone. There's no other place safer on Nostos for Earth kids. The Goners either get to the WC safe and work there … or they don't.”

“They get stuck and grounded as in—”

“Shot and dead.” Ash lowered her head. “The queen gets them either way—by hunt or by slave. Life in the WC is still imprisonment, but it's a life.”

“Not all the queens have honored this deal,” Apollo said. “My grandfather told me hunting stories about it from when he visited here as a young man.” He bent his head. “He loved the hunt.”

“Well, Leandro doesn't … or didn't,” I said. “In the Lost Realm, he told me he got in trouble for refusing to hunt kids. It's how he got his broken arrow scar—the queen branded him a failure.”

Ash handed me a wrap from a trunk filled with squirrel mash and ache cakes, bringing me back to this realm's unpleasant reality. “Time to leave.”

First, I needed more from her. “Why'd the old queen make that deal to save you?”

She sighed and talked fast, filling us in. “Hundreds of years ago, the son of that ancient Queen Artemis wanted to become a Wild Child. He hated how his people stole kids from Earth, and he went runabout to join ranks with the Wild Childs. His mother sent in her soldiers to bring him back, but there was a fight and the son was accidentally wounded by a soldier's arrow. The prince nearly died but the Wild Childs healed him and the queen agreed to let her son live a double life as prince and Wild Child. Now every Queen Artemis—with some exceptions—carries on the tradition of letting the Wild Childs live.”

“First they have to escape the hunt and live to become a Wild Child,” Charlie said.

“Yeah, until their Leaving Day. Then the hunt restarts,” I said, my voice rising. “You're no different from this world, Ash. You throw your friends to the wild beasts, and if they don't get
stuck,
they get to live as slaves in the WC?”

“They live, blockhead,” Ash said in a clipped voice
with flared eyes. “One Goner at a time saves us all. One for the many. You better be a Goner now too or we'll all be. Three for the many.”

“I'd rather be a Wild Child,” Apollo said quietly, fiddling with his square buttons. “Better to be imprisoned on your own terms than by someone else's.”

“That's flippin' right,” Ash said, punching fists to her waist.

Apollo rubbed the fur of his new coat and stared into the morning light spilling from the window. “Zeus will never let Artemis win. Once he finds out her plan—and he will—he'll swarm this realm. He'll have no tolerance either for the Wild Child community.” He turned back to Ash. “Then you'll all be Goners, for real.”

“We can hide from Zeus,” Ash said. “We can live in the Perimeter Lands.”

“He empties them out once a year and tosses people off The Edge. Do you want to float to death in the Great Beyond?”

“We'll cross into another realm then; keep moving if we have to. We can hide in the red desert canyons of the Dred Realm or in the Argos Realm where it never snows.” She threw her hands out to Apollo. “We built all this. We can build it again.”

“You'll still be living under Zeus's rules for Nostos wherever you go,” Apollo said. “We all will. And he wants the Oracle as badly as Artemis,” he shot me a look, “and for similar reasons: to control the Oracle. Zeus rules all of Nostos with a heavy hand, but if someone with the power of the original Olympians were to rise, they'd be a threat to him. Some Nostos rulers want Olympian powers and some want things to stay the same.” He lowered his voice. “We are a world divided.”

“Zeus didn't stop Hekate in the Lost Realm when she took over King Apollo,” I said. “Why now?”

“He doesn't care about the realms fighting each other,” Apollo said. “But if he finds out the Oracle is here and someone else is after him, he'll hunt them both down.”

He let these words hang in the air. I scrunched my shoulders in with them all looking at me as if I was the answer.

“Then Zeus will do what?” I said to Apollo.

His black eyes fired into mine, his jaw twitching. “Kill them.”

Ash bent her head, her long hair hiding her face. “My Leaving Day is coming. Someone else will lead the Wild Childs soon.”

“Why don't you escape on Leaving Day and head into the Perimeter Lands? Bribe someone to help you get to Earth,” I said. “My grandfather did. My mother did.”

She crossed her arms. “If we don't honor our deal, the queen rounds us all up for the hunt. It's happened once before. No member since has put our people in such danger. One group of Wild Childs tried to escape all at once. Too many died and the survivors returned to their home here.”

“It's been the way of the Wild Childs for hundreds of years, Joshua,” Apollo said matter-of-factly. “It's how our world works.”

“Your world stinks, King-man,” Charlie said.

Agreed.

“Ash, what about Leandro?” It hurt to say his name.

“He won't get grounded.” Ash shook her head. “He knows how to stick the beasts good. Some animals may fear him, and Artemis has a weakness for him too. After all, her daughter was fathered by a Wild Child.”

“What happened to them?”

“The father got grounded on his Leaving Day. The beasts got him before he reached the WC. Artemis found his torn apart body in the woods. Her daughter died years later in a hunting accident.”

“How do you know all this?” I said.

She waved a hand. “We see a lot from these treetops … I see a lot. Like Artemis visiting the Black Heart Tree and sharing secrets with that evil tree monster.”

She shook her head as if tossing those thoughts away. “Enough gossip. You've overstayed your welcome.”

She turned to leave when shouts burst from nearby.

Artemis and her men were back!

“S
cram and cram!” Ash pulled at me. “We have to get you out of the Wild Lands.” She ripped open the door, and we peered down over the platform that wrapped around the tree house. The lurid light of lanterns far below fought to find us through the thick of the trees.

“We'll get you to the Perimeter Lands and then you're on your own.” Ash dashed through the door to the platform outside. I slid along the tree house, wincing as I scraped against rough bark, splinters skewering my palms. Charlie cried out with pain behind me as a low hanging limb whipped him.

Ash urged us on with a grim face. “If you are the Oracle, Joshua, I'm sure you can come up with a new plan to survive.”

“I have no idea what that is.”

“Then you better flippin' plan fast.”

Charlie, Apollo, and I bolted after her on the plank
path. We ran across the top of the forest, dashing from one tree house to another. They were connected like roads through a hidden village. Wild Childs were positioned at windows with bows and arrows in hand.

“Nearly there?” Charlie asked between breaths.

Ash put up her hand to quiet him. The muffled calls of Artemis and her men echoed in the distance. It was hard to tell which direction they came from. They faded in and out.

“I'd hoped to scram to the Perimeter Lands, but it's too far and there's no time,” Ash said.

“Where are we?” I said, clutching a branch. Clouds flew across the fading moon, and wood smoke wafted up. Ash spread the branches apart, and a city of thatched roofs sprawled before us beyond the giant hedge fence that imprisoned the Wild Lands. Blackened chimneys puffed angrily with work in the early morning hours, and muddy paths wound between the mishmash of crooked buildings, their wooden features sagging with rot and age. Torches flickering on shack doors revealed rats running along the dirt ruts in the road.

“The WC,” Ash announced.

“Where they send grown-ups?” Charlie whispered. “I don't want to go there.”

“They'll be climbing up to us soon to look for you. Artemis thrives on the hunt and the WC is the last place they'll check,” Ash said, scanning the woods. Artemis and her men moved off in the distance, their calls growing faint.

“She's right,” Apollo said. “And I've got coins in my boot. We can bribe a guard to get out and make it to the Sea Realm. Poseidon may be my one ally left. Let's hope he hasn't turned on me like Artemis.”

“What if we try heading for the Perimeter Lands?”
Our choices were slim. “If we can avoid Artemis, we can find help there—maybe from other escaped people.”

Charlie shook his head. “Remember those Takers we ran into in the Lost Realm? They thought we were the bad guys and wanted to kill us, and they were from our own world!”

“Sometimes the people you think are on your side betray you,” Apollo said.

“Yea, and sometimes people who betray you really are on your side,” I said.

“True,” Apollo said in a low voice. “We need more of those right now.”

“The one I trusted is a Goner; he may be in there,” Ash thrust her hand to the decrepit city. “We call him Oak. He's tall with red hair. A friend from my country, Canada. If you meet the blockhead, say this spudhead Ash sent you to him for help.”

The dawn of our third day approached. The sky grew light lavender. The hint of a blue sunrise glowed on the horizon. A guard marched along one side of the wall, pacing the length.

“If you don't meet Oak, there are others,” Ash whispered. “An underground group has taken root in the WC. They may have ways to help you.”

“How do you know this guy Oak?” I said, wanting to keep the conversation going—wanting to stay right here on this branch and not head down into that sprawling darkness of muck and danger.

“I cured him from an injury and helped save his wife. In return, he risked coming here to give me news of what's going on in Nostos. I grew up in an orphanage on Earth and he … well, he became like a father I never knew. After my Leaving Day, I'll join him in the WC.”

If you don't become a dead Goner first.

Ash handed us each a vine.

“
Mon Dieu
! What am I supposed to do with this? Fly back to Earth?” Charlie said.

Ash didn't crack a smile. “No. Fly over the wall when the watch turns the corner.”

We all gripped our lifelines and stared down at the new world waiting to consume us.

Ash scanned above. “There's no other way. I'll watch for the korax. They answer to Artemis and hide in the trees waiting for us to escape. I've seen kids snatched up by them and thrown to the beasts.”

I imagined this new horror as tails flicked through the trees and grunts called up to us. “Ash is right, Charlie,” I said. “If we go down to the ground and try to cross the wall, we'll be eaten before we get out of here.”

“
Zut
!” Charlie shook his vine. “Death by flight it is.”

Building up the crazy courage to fly off the tree I asked, “Why save us, Ash?”

Her green eyes creased. “If the Oracle is real then Earth people can be freed. There'd be no more Wild Childs. The ones who grew up and are Goners out there,” she swung her arm toward the WC, “can go home or choose to stay. I can find my friend, Oak. We can be a family.” Ash hooked a hand to my shirt, her eyes boring into mine. “Are you him?”

“Him—who?”

“The one. The Oracle.”

I tried to back up but slipped on a branch. My foot slid. Twigs cracked and I clung to Ash. “I—I don't know. I could be.”

Saying those last three words sent an electric twang through my body.

I. Could. Be. The. Oracle.

The hunger snarls below grew louder. Ash pulled me closer, her leaf and earth smell washing over me. “I hope you are.”

“If he is, I swear to be the king he wants me to be,” Apollo said in a commanding voice I hadn't heard in a long time.

“You can do that anyway, King-man,” Charlie said, patting him on the shoulder.

Ash pointed to a darker spot in the corner of an alley. “Swing wide and aim for there. Today's market day where all realms come to barter for goods the slaves make. Most of the money lines the pockets of Zeus who watches over it all.” She spit out those last words. “If you're lucky, you'll find someone in the crowd to keep you safe.”

“If not?” I asked.

“If not, you may get turned in for a reward.”

“We better pick the right someone,” Charlie said.

She started to say more when the guard below turned the corner. “Go!” she urged. “Don't get stuck or grounded for good!”

Great advice
. “I'll make mash of them first.”