Sky Jumpers Series, Book 1 (19 page)

Since our faces were still red and frozen, it was hard to tell, but I think Brock blushed. “Aaren, Hope—I’d like you to meet my twin sister, Linet.”

“Um, hi,” I said. “I’m the first friend he made who’s a girl.”

Linet looked back and forth between us and grinned. Then her eyes got wide and she gasped. “You like her!” she said to Brock.

“What?” Brock and I practically yelled at the same time.

“You like her,” Linet said again. “I can tell by that look on your face!”

Brock’s face turned redder and redder, and by how hot mine felt, I imagined it looked pretty red, too. Brock’s mom saved us, though.

“Linet. Now’s not the time for teasing.” She gave me a look that apologized for Linet. “We need to hear what happened.”

Brock looked relieved at the change in subject. He explained to his mom what had happened with the bandits, how my dad said he was in charge and got shot, about the antibiotics, the deadline, our trip over the mountain, and that an outbreak of Shadel’s Sickness might be on its way.

The more the fire warmed me, the clearer my mind
became. All I’d been able to focus on during our trip was getting to Browning. Now my thoughts overwhelmed me. I couldn’t sit for another second. “We have to go. Right now—we have to go tell the guard.” I grabbed my coat, which wasn’t nearly dried out enough yet, and put it on.

Brock and Aaren stood up, too, but Aaren seemed less sure of himself.

“Go,” Brock’s mom said. “Do what you have to do. The soup and a warm fire will be waiting for you when you get back.” She looked at Aaren. “Don’t worry. We’ll take good care of your sister.”

As we stepped through the doorway and into the blizzard, a gust of wind hit, and my body shivered violently. The ten minutes we’d spent in Brock’s house had taken the sting off the cold, but I still felt frozen to the middle of my bones. I hadn’t slept much last night; then we’d walked, hiked, run, or slid over and down the mountain for seventeen hours. I wanted to sleep in a warm bed, not freeze on my way to convince Stott to load everyone up and go to White Rock with us.

This was Stott’s first year as Captain of the Away Guard. The Away Guard was usually just single young men—once people had families, they weren’t interested in leaving them for months at a time. Even so, guards never got promoted to captain so young. It had only been two
years since Stott graduated from Sixteens & Seventeens. For as long as I’d known him, people had done anything he asked. Probably because he was fiercely protective of everyone.

At the end of Brock’s road, we turned onto a street with houses almost exactly like the ones we’d just passed. I had a million questions to ask Brock about his family and his home, and even about whether Linet was right and he did like me, but I needed to think about what I’d say to the captain. I didn’t know how I’d be able to talk him into taking all of his men through the Bomb’s Breath, so instead I focused on figuring out the details of our trip. We’d left White Rock at five a.m., and we didn’t reach Browning until ten p.m. My cold brain worked through the math slowly. Mickelson had said the town had until sunset tomorrow, so we’d have to leave by midnight or sooner to make it back in time.

Hopelessness washed over me. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t turn around and make that same journey again in a little over an hour. Brock and Aaren looked as haggard as I felt. I wasn’t sure any of us could make it.

Brock led us through snow-covered streets to a long gray stone building he said was the barracks. The door was unlocked, so we walked inside. Bunk beds lined the walls on both sides, covered with quilts in a variety of colors. Round tables sat in the wide aisle down the middle.

Twenty guards, including Aaren’s brothers Cole and Travin, looked up from their spots around the tables, where they played Empty Basket with homemade dice. Their expressions quickly turned from indifference to recognition, then to alarm. Everyone got to their feet—several so fast, they knocked their chairs over. They weren’t stupid. They knew we wouldn’t have shown up in their building unless White Rock was in trouble.

“What’s going on?” Stott demanded as he walked into the main area from his office at the back. All sound in the building died as Stott’s eyes met ours and his face paled. The look was confirmation enough for the men. The room became as chaotic as snowflakes blowing in every direction. A low buzz of whispers filled the space as the men scrambled to their packs and supply closets. Cole and Travin stood frozen, like they couldn’t decide whether to rush to their own packs or to their brother.

Stott motioned us to his office, where he sat behind a wooden desk. “Have a seat.”

His eyes bored into us as he scratched at the stubble on his chin. “I’m guessing your parents didn’t exactly give you permission to come here.”

I glanced at Aaren. “Not exactly.”

He nodded once. “Bandits?”

“Yes.”

“Bandits in the winter
in
White Rock.” Stott shook his head and spoke with a tight voice. “While we sat here, our services barely needed beyond making sure people have enough firewood. How bad is it?”

We took turns telling all that had happened. Stott stayed quiet the whole time.

“So,” I said, “to make it over the mountain and to the community center in time, we have to leave soon.”

Stott leaned back in his chair. “I’m not taking my men over the mountain.”

Heat rose all through my body, especially in my face. “How can you say that? They’ve threatened to kill people if we don’t give them all our Ameiphus! And then they’ll probably take the Ameiphus anyway! My dad will die. Mr. Hudson will die. Melina too.”

“I didn’t say we wouldn’t help,” Stott said. “Just that I won’t take my men over the mountain. Every single one of them is brave, Hope. They’re ready to walk out that door right now and put their lives on the line to save White Rock. But you know as well as I do that there isn’t a man in there who’d go anywhere near the Bomb’s Breath, whether they knew you three could go through it or not. How’d the bandits get in?”

“There’s a hole in the mine floor that leads to the river,” Aaren said.

Stott nodded. “Then we’ll go around the outside of the crater to the west side and enter through the same cave.” He looked at each of us. “But none of you look able to make the trip. I recommend you stay behind, recover, and travel back home when it’s over.”

We stood up and protested loudly.

He stared at us for a long while, probably thinking about our parents’ reactions to finding out we were gone and, knowing Stott, how much he’d hate being left behind if he were us. Eventually he let out a huge exhale. “Okay. I’ll get you back. But once we reach White Rock, you will stay far from City Circle until the problem is resolved.”

“Stott?” Aaren said quietly. “Brenna came, too. She’s back with Mrs. Sances, recovering from hypothermia.”

Stott’s jaw flexed as he ground his teeth. “We’ll put her on a horse. That’s the best I can do.” He stood up. “I need to ready my men. We leave at four a.m.”

I’d be able to sleep soon, in a warm bed, and we’d still get to White Rock in time. Four hours of sleep didn’t seem like much, but since I hadn’t expected I’d get any, it sounded like heaven.

As soon as the barracks doors shut behind us and I was no longer worried about how to convince the guard to
join us, I blurted to Brock, “Why are you living in White Rock if your family’s here?”

Brock kept his head down, and for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he looked at me and laughed. “I can’t believe you waited so long to ask! I thought you would as soon as we got to my house.”

I laughed, too, and gave him a playful shove. “Just tell us.”

“My dad grew up in White Rock. He was my grandpa’s only child. After he finished Sixteens and Seventeens, my dad joined White Rock’s guard. He was promoted to Captain of the Away Guard just before his third winter. He was the first one to make captain as young as Stott did,” Brock said with pride. “During his first winter as captain, he met my mom. He stayed in Browning, they got married, and he joined Browning’s guard.”

I thought back to the hermit we’d guessed was Brock’s dad. Now that I’d actually met Brock’s family, it seemed so silly.

“My dad said he’d give his life for this town.” Brock was silent for a few minutes and looked up at the falling snow as we walked. When he spoke again, it was a whisper. “And he did. He was shot by bandits when Estie was a baby. Lots attacked at once. My dad and two other guards died, but they saved Browning.”

So we both had fathers willing to die for their town. We both had fathers who were shot by bandits. The difference was, mine was still alive. Yes, I’d snuck out to save all the people of White Rock, but a big part of me did it to save my dad. I hadn’t asked Brock to come, but I still felt pangs of guilt that he was helping to save my dad when there was no way to save his.

Brock led us down another street. “Last spring, when people from White Rock were here for the Planting Festival, we found out that my grandpa’s arthritis was so bad he couldn’t do things himself. He needed help, so my mom decided it would be best to move to White Rock. We could take care of my grandpa, be better protected from bandits, and have Estie closer to your mom, Aaren, since the doctor here can’t do anything more for her. I left to help him the next day with the people going back to White Rock.”

“So after your dad died, you were pretty much the dad in your family,” Aaren said.

“Yeah.”

“And then you had to leave them.” Aaren looked over at Brock. “It must’ve been hard.”

Brock looked down. He continued walking, retracing the steps we’d taken to get from his house to the barracks. “It wouldn’t have been safe to move all our stuff to White Rock in a small group, so my family was going to go with
the big group when they headed to the Harvest Festival six months later. But Estie’s tumor grew, and it made her legs less stable. Right before they were supposed to leave, she fell. There was swelling, and for a few weeks, they were afraid that if they moved her, they’d do more damage. By the time she was well enough to walk with crutches, they’d missed their chance to leave.”

Brock’s conversation at the inventions show with the man from Browning popped into my mind. “You found out your family wasn’t joining you during the Harvest Festival.”

“Yep,” Brock said.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Aaren asked.

Brock shrugged. “I wasn’t looking for people to feel sorry for me.”

We turned onto Brock’s street and walked in silence. I thought back through the eight months I’d known him. And about how far he’d been from his family the whole time, and we hadn’t even known it.

“I’m sorry,” I said as we stepped up to his door. “I hope you get to be with your family again soon.”

Brock shrugged and opened the door. Then I couldn’t think of anything but the warm house with the warm soup and the warm blankets.

A pair of hands shook me, but I was so deeply asleep I didn’t realize they weren’t part of my dream. In the dim light from the fire, I made out the face of Mrs. Sances.

“Time to wake up, Hope. It’s a little after three a.m.”

I groaned my way to a sitting position, and Mrs. Sances clucked. “I don’t think any of you so much as rolled over during the night.”

I believed her. Every single muscle in my body ached.

Brenna
. She’d been asleep when we got back, and even though Mrs. Sances had assured us she was doing better, I wanted to see for myself.

Brenna was sitting on the couch, holding a mug. “Brock’s mom gave me hot cider!”

Relief at her being alive and okay washed over me. She was still pale and weak, though, and it seemed like talking was hard for her, when normally it seemed hard for her to
stop
talking.

Aaren and I both climbed out of our bedrolls and hobbled to her, our muscles too sore to run. “How are you feeling?” Aaren asked as he put a hand on her forehead.

“She’s doing okay,” Mrs. Sances said. “She woke up a couple hours ago, starving, and ate two bowls of soup. Her body temperature is almost back to normal. She needs sleep, but she wouldn’t lie down until you three were awake.”