The Last Stand of Daronwy (8 page)

Jeremy poked a finger at his temple, concentrating. “That was supposed to be Tunis, right?” He left the room and returned with the “T” encyclopedia. He flipped it open to a picture of the flat-roofed, sand-colored buildings of Tunisia. “Kind of like this, but underground and dark?”

“Yeah! Cool.”

“So how many is that?”

Daniel picked up the notepad. “Kronshar has the one from the lighthouse, plus two more. We have the one from Tillianfeld, then there's one in Tamilik Bay, one guarded by the Dragon Lord, one in Des'an'dar, one in the Wasteland. Two are lost—one in the Shadow, the other destroyed in the Great War that created the Wasteland.”

Jeremy held his fingers out. “That's ten. There are two more out there somewhere.”

“Yeah, but I still think we should get one of those for ourselves, or Kronshar will get too far ahead of us.”

“Okay. We'll play that the Midnight Wizard found the other somewhere, and when we get the one in Des'an'dar, we'll have three.”

“Boys,” Jeremy's mom said, poking her head into the room. She blinked at the sprawl of encyclopedia volumes carpeting the floor. “Are you working on homework?”

“No, ma'am, just looking up some stuff.”

“Uh-huh. Daniel, that was your mom on the phone. Let me drive you home. Jeremy, make sure you put all those books back when you're done.”

Jeremy followed them into the garage and watched the car pull away into the rain. Leaning against the garage, he stared across the street into the black line of Twin Hills. Lightning flashed, illuminating the trees. A tall shadow moved among the trunks. Was it the Old Man? Jeremy squinted, leaning into the storm. When the lightning flashed again, it had vanished.

Part 2: Spring

Chapter Eight

Daronwy had heard the wind tell of places where spring was a rebirth and a true beginning; places where winter was deadly and the entire world exhaled once the cold season lifted. The tree did not know these places himself. For Daronwy, spring was the breathing space between the wet chill of winter and the tandoor heat of summer. Buds must sprout before the cold ends; otherwise, they would not reach maturity before the roasting sun dried them out. Flowers bloomed in forgotten patches of sunlight on the forest floor, lending the cluttered carpet of needles a breath of grace between the discarded husks of human machines. The wind grew warmer, and the human saplings were enamored with the growing light of the lengthening days and its promise of summer's freedom.

Jeremy wandered across Swamp Creek, but his mind sped toward tomorrow night. Daniel would spend the night and they would be able to go down into the caverns, searching for the lost city of Des'an'dar. He stopped to admire the bluebonnets growing in the protected lee of a rusted-out washing machine. Something splashed in the pond—something big. Then another splash. Jeremy froze. Voices. Had someone fallen into the pond?

He stayed low beneath the swaying yellow grasses of the Trash Clearing and hurried to the edge of the Mini Desert. He stared at the pond and saw nothing. Then, suddenly, movement. He squinted against the reflected glare of the spring sunlight on the water. A head bobbed up, then water splashed in its direction. Mom had always told him not to swim in that pond. With its fluorescent algae and the way it reeked of oil, he had no intention of ever doing so. Jeremy assumed everyone thought that, but obviously there were two people in it. Who would be that crazy?

Jeremy crept closer, staying low and moving slowly. He hid next to a lone skinny tallow tree on the edge of the Mini Desert. He couldn't go any closer without putting himself in the open. Jeremy watched as a head popped up from beneath the scum lining the surface, followed by another. It was Travis and Lee. Jeremy shuddered at the thought of being in that green scum; the tepid, tannic water dappled with little rainbow slicks of oil. He certainly wouldn't swim in it, but Travis and Lee could do whatever they wanted. Jeremy turned, walking toward the overgrown trail that led to the Tree.

“Hey!”

He froze, hair on his neck rising. He did not turn.

“Hey!” Travis' shrill voice karate-chopped Jeremy's eardrums. He had been seen.

Jeremy glanced back. They were getting out of the pond.

“Hey, Jeremy!” yelled Lee.

Jeremy judged the distance from his feet to the trees. He could make it before they got their shoes on.

“Jeremy! You better not tell on us!” said Travis.

“Why would I? I don't care if you're stupid enough to swim in that pond.”

Travis was out of the water now, completely naked, and bending down over his clothes, looking for something. “I'll make sure you don't tell on us!” Travis straightened, leveling a pistol at Jeremy. It looked like the guns the A-Team used on TV, but Jeremy didn't stare at it long. Heart slamming against his ribs, Jeremy dove into the thicket as Travis aimed. Jeremy rolled through the undergrowth, came up on his feet, and bolted for eight strides. Then he dropped, staying low and listening.

Lee was out of the water now, running naked across the sand.

“Get him, Lee! Get him! We'll teach him not to spy on us!”

Jeremy ran again. Vines and blackberry brambles bit at his skin, twigs and branches raked across his arms and tore through the simple cotton of his shirt. He pounded through the forest, weaving through the vines. He passed the trail to the Tree. Footsteps crashed behind him and he knew that Lee was not far behind. Ahead, the vines seemed to open, revealing a light-dappled path of ancient fallen logs ahead of him. Jeremy took it, vaulting over the logs, glancing right and left for a place to hide. He looked back. There was no trail. Behind him, the tangled morass of vines grew together even thicker than usual. A light, electric touch danced on the back of his neck, as though he were sitting with the Tree.

“Ow! Bring my shoes! Bring my shoes!”

Jeremy could hear Lee fighting his way through the underbrush and Travis running through the Mini Desert. “He's behind Twin Hills! I can see him! Come on!”

Jeremy didn't think they could see him; he certainly couldn't see them. He slowed, jogging along the path. The underbrush started getting thicker, and he had to walk as he picked his way through the growth, careful to move as silently as possible. Each twig he cracked, each dead leaf he shuffled, would lead them to him. Cold sweat beaded across his forehead. He estimated he was somewhere behind Twin Hills in the beginnings of Helter Skelter, but since he could only see a few feet, it was hard to tell.

“FREEZE!”

Jeremy jumped, his blood turning to ice. His shoulder slammed into a tallow tree with rotten roots. It began to fall, and he whirled, grabbing its slender trunk. He struggled to hold it up, praying that it wouldn't fall and crash. His biceps burned. How could such a small tree be so heavy?

“Whoa! Don't point that thing at me!” said Lee. Jeremy couldn't see them, but imagined Lee and Travis had circled the Twin Hills from each direction. He could envision Travis leaping behind the hills pointing the pistol, holding it with both hands like on
Chips
.

“What the—he was here!” Travis said. “He must be in Helter Skelter. Come on!”

Jeremy couldn't stand there and hold the tree upright forever. Footsteps cracked on the edge of the thicket. They were coming. His shoulders burned. He couldn't see them yet; the vines were too thick, but it wouldn't be long before they caught up to him. His breath came in ragged gasps. As sweat collected on his palms, the tree began to slip.

“No, no no.” He tried to hold it.

“Jeremy, where AAAARRRREEEE you?”

Jeremy watched the tree begin to fall, crashing into the other trees and vines in the thicket. Before it hit the ground, Jeremy was already diving through bushes and through thorns, sprinting as fast as he could in the dense wood.

“That way!”

He leapt over fallen logs, slogged through sucking puddles, and bounded over clearings of quicksand. He pushed trees down behind him, sending the rotten tallow trees to the forest floor in hopes of slowing his pursuers.

“Jeremy! We're going to get you!”

Jeremy veered right into a nasty tangle of blackberry bushes, leaping over most of them, then picked his way along a fallen log over a carpet of needles floating on the black water, careful to be silent. Quick-stepping from fallen log to fallen log, he stole across the top of the bog. Sprinting from there, he came to the top arm of Dry Creek and dropped inside its shallow depth. Travis and Lee crashed through the forest like stampeding boars.

“Jeremy, where aaaarrrreeee you?”

“I bet he was going to steal our clothes.”

“Or tell on us.”

“What were you going to do to us Jeremy? Huh?”

Jeremy bit his lip, not stupid enough to respond. He pressed his shoulder harder into the edge of the creek bed, tucked his chin into his chest.

“We're gonna find you Jeremy. You can't stay here forever.”

They weren't close, but they were definitely not far away. He didn't dare lift his head to see. Jeremy imagined them spread out through the thicket, wearing only their shorts, walking through the woods, Travis with his gun in hand.
How did he get a gun?

As if in answer, Travis yelled, “You spying on us again, Jeremy? This will teach you!”

Jeremy braced himself against the creek wall, flattening his body against the mud. Three shots ricocheted through the forest, BBs bouncing off trees. He had been running this hard from a BB gun? Jeremy shook his head as the sweat on his skin turned clammy. His shoulders relaxed a little, but his heart still hammered in his ears. Three more shots bounced through the trees, then Jeremy heard his pursuers' feet crunching away, moving back toward Twin Hills. Travis and Lee continued talking, but he couldn't hear them over the noise of their feet. They would watch for him at the entrance of Twin Hills, he knew, and wait for him to try to go home.

Raising his head with aching slowness, Jeremy scanned the woods. Pine needles scratched into his cheek. Nothing moved, but he could only see a few feet ahead of him. The only sound he heard was the berserk cadence of blood throbbing through his ears. Jeremy climbed out of the creek bed, but stayed low, creeping from root to root in his soggy shoes and mud-caked jeans. He bent no leaf, cracked no stick, rustled no needle, floating like one of the gnarled shadows of the vines in Helter Skelter. One with them, he wafted to the head of the woods, near the pavement of Nevada street.

Jeremy saw Travis and Lee walking alongside each other, now fully clothed. Travis still carried his gun. Rage boiled in Jeremy, his hands balled into fists. But what could he do? It might be a BB gun, but he was outnumbered and without a weapon. He didn't even have a rock.
Best to stay hidden,
Jeremy decided; he stepped back into the tangle of Helter Skelter.

The two boys walked past, so close he could have reached out and tripped them.

“Do you think he's still out there?”

“Probably out there peeing in his pants,” laughed Lee.

“Ha! Probably. I never seen him run that fast before! Wanna go find him?” Travis turned to stare at the thick line of Helter Skelter, arms askance.

Jeremy held his breath, pulling himself deeper into the shadow.

“Naw, let's go play Atari.”

The conversation continued, but the words were muddled by the wind. He waited until they walked down Nevada and turned onto Vermont. He waited a bit longer, knees aching from his crouch, back burning from the hunch. When he could no longer maintain that posture, he straightened and walked toward Nevada Street. He peered around the corner of Roland's house. Travis and Lee were halfway up the street, talking and waving their arms. The gun hung forgotten in Travis' hand. Jeremy had disappeared like Strider, gone invisible like Bilbo. And he didn't even need a ring to do it. He laughed, tension falling away from his shoulders, as he crossed the street to his house.

At recess, when most kids stood about and talked, Jeremy imagined himself as Eaglewing. He sprinted over the stair-stepped chunks of old telephone poles sunk in the ground, hoisted himself over the bright orange tractor tires, wobbled along the balance beams. Jeremy didn't see the boy's shoulder until it rammed into his chest. He landed on his back, staring up into Travis' face. A wild kick flew at him. Jeremy rolled and scrambled to his feet, walking backwards, eyes darting from Lee to Travis.

“You got nowhere to hide this time, Jeremy.”

“What were you doing yesterday in Twin Hills?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar! You were spying on us,” said Travis.

“No, I wasn't. Why does it matter so much what you were doing?”

Travis stepped forward, desperation in his eyes. “Who did you tell?”

“No one. I didn't tell anyone!”

“I think he's lying,” said Lee.

Jeremy backed into a balance beam. He'd have to climb over it to escape, and if he did, they'd catch him. He stood, looking from one bully to the other. “Who cares if you're swimming in that pond?”

“I do. And you're not going to tell anyone. Got it?” Travis said, punching his fist into his palm.

“I think we should teach him a lesson for spying on us.” Lee smiled an evil smile. “Grab him.”

“Hey, what's going on?” Mira pounced onto the balance beam next to Jeremy, towering over everyone.

“Nothing,” said Travis.

Lee squinted at her. “It's boy stuff. None of your business.”

Travis waved his hands. “Go away.”

“Okay.” She reached down, snaking a hand beneath Jeremy's arm. She pulled him up, and he clambered over the balance beam backwards. “Come on Jeremy. Let's go play Red Rover.”