The Orchard of Hope (34 page)

“You don’t have to apologize,”
Maggie insisted.

“Yes, I do. I get too focused on
my missions, and I forget that we’re all working together. Thank
you for what you did. You talked to the wolves and came up with an
answer. If it had been up to me, there would be a lot more lives
lost and hope would still be eaten alive. You made a
difference.”

“Now I know you’re running a
fever,” Maggie said with a smile. “You need to get something to eat
and to rest. We’re planning to leave tomorrow morning if you feel
well enough. Some of the Brothers of Discipline have volunteered to
come along to carry you.”

“No!” Kelsey shouted. “I’ll feel
better by then.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to
walk?”

“Yes,” Kelsey said as she nodded
vigorously, although she really wasn’t sure. However, the thought
of being carried was too humiliating for her. “I may not be as
quick as I normally am, but I can walk.”

“If you need help, we can get it,”
Maggie offered.

“No,” Kelsey replied firmly.
Maggie quickly glanced up and down Kelsey’s tired form and made the
decision not to push the matter.

“Nicholas and Megan tried to heal
you from the castle, but they can’t heal effectively without being
able to touch you. It’s a different process from growing plants or
casting spells. Healing is more personal. They tried a few things,
but we’ll need to get you back to the castle so that they can work
on repairing your broken hand and the scar on your arm.”

“It’s just a mark,” Kelsey replied
as she looked down at the flower petal on her forearm.

“No, it’s not,” Maggie said. “It’s
a spell. It was too complicated to explain via scrying, but the
king wants you back at the castle as soon as possible. Moss and
Nicholas think they know what caused the scar, but they want to
examine you and the plant to be sure.”

“Then we’ll leave in the morning.
We shouldn’t waste time.”

“Megan gave the Sisters of Mercy a
recipe to strengthen you. It took a while for them to locate the
necessary ingredients. They had to barter with some of the
merchants in town, but they’ve been working on it for the past day.
It should be ready by the time we leave.”

“Perfect,” Kelsey replied with a
smile. The thought about returning to the castle was a welcome one.
She was ready to go back to the place she now thought of as
home.

“I’ll see about getting you some
food so that we can build up your strength while we’re waiting for
the medicine,” Maggie said as she stood up.

“You really were great with the
wolves,” Kelsey said. “I never knew how powerful words could
be.”

“I wouldn’t have had the chance to
talk with the wolves if you hadn’t spoken up at the meeting,”
Maggie replied. “You got me that chance. We both did our
jobs.”

The next morning, Kelsey still felt
weak, but she would not allow assistance from anyone. She drank the
glass of medicine that the Sisters of Mercy had prepared. It felt
warm going down her throat, and it burned as if she were drinking
liquefied hot peppers. However, she felt some of her energy return
almost immediately. While it didn’t remove the pain she was feeling
from her broken hand, it did ease it somewhat, and Kelsey felt
better. She watched the sisters pour the rest of the medicine into
a canteen for her to take on the trip. Roland handed her a staff to
help her balance as she walked, and Kelsey reluctantly took it. She
had argued with him over accepting help from the Brothers of
Discipline, but in the end Kelsey had won. She was too stubborn,
and Roland knew that the energy she spent arguing would be needed
for the journey. They had agreed to take the journey slowly and
rest often.

Once they had climbed back up the
grassy hill and into the forest, Maggie spotted a few of the
reapers that they had seen on their journey to the
orchard.

“They’re back,” she said
aloud.

“There are fewer of them,” Kelsey
replied. “That’s something in our favor. They’re keeping their
distance also.”

“Are they the same ones, or
different ones?” Maggie asked. “I can’t tell.”

“Who cares?” Kelsey responded.
“They didn’t do too much to get in our way last time. Let’s ignore
them.”

“Wise decision,” Roland replied.
“There’s no use in worrying about them now. Anyway, they can’t ruin
our mission because we’ve completed it.”

The group moved slowly but made
progress. Kelsey sipped the medicine frequently, and each time she
drank, she felt relief from her pain. She also felt a burst of
energy with each dose of medicine, but there wasn’t enough of it to
last more than a few days. It was enough to get them to the Sea of
Laughter, but the crossing exhausted Kelsey.

Although the water was calmer than
the first crossing, it was a rough trip for Kelsey. She hung over
the side of the boat and vomited into the sea along with Roland. In
her weakened condition, the laughter had nauseated her.

“Doesn’t it feel great?” he
asked.

“No,” Kelsey replied. “I don’t
enjoy this.” She was fighting the urge to laugh, but the nausea was
too strong, and she succumbed to small fits at random intervals.
Because of the pain, the nausea and the uncontrollable urge to
laugh, she was miserable.

“Maybe you’d enjoy it if you
tried.”

“I don’t think so,” Kelsey said as
she leaned forward over the ship’s railing and felt a sudden surge
of pain in her broken hand when the ship lurched. She tried to
catch herself.

Maggie approached Kelsey, giggling.
She was carrying a brown paper bag. The crinkling noise from the
paper sounded louder than normal to Kelsey.

“Here, I brought you some ginger
snaps,” Maggie said through her laughter as she handed Kelsey the
cookies. “They’re supposed to calm your stomach.”

Kelsey took the bag of cookies and
nibbled on one. It calmed her stomach briefly, but when the next
fit of laughter came about, she felt ill again. The shaking motion
of the giggling upset her stomach.

“Can’t you laugh just a little?”
she asked Roland.

“No,” he replied. “It would be
wrong to abuse power of any sort, not matter how comfortable it
will make you feel.”

“Is he going to laugh for us? My
stomach muscles are killing me!” Maggie exclaimed with a
chuckle.

“No, he’s not.”

“You should have accepted help
from the Brothers of Discipline,” he said to Kelsey. “You’re too
weak from your injuries.”

“Just enjoy your illness,” she
snapped as she swallowed hard to prevent herself from vomiting.
“I’ll make it.”

When they reached the opposite
shore, they were all exhausted from the crossing, and they
immediately looked for an acceptable place to camp. It was a long
night, and Kelsey was restless for most of it. Although they were
very tired, no one slept well.

The next morning, Kelsey was in
severe pain. She opened her canteen and tried to take a drink, but
there was nothing left. It didn’t matter. She decided that it was
time to show how tough she was. She would simply brave the pain and
continue onward.

She stumbled a few times as they
crossed the prairie, but she managed to stabilize herself with the
staff Roland had given her. She forced herself to keep going and
tried to occupy her mind with thoughts to distract herself from the
pain and fatigue.

“I’m starting to miss those
lessons with the birds,” Kelsey announced after a long period of
silence.

“You’re too tired for lessons,”
Roland replied.

“I know. I was just making
conversation.”

“Save your energy. We’re not even
halfway back. We still have a long way to go.”

“I can’t save what I don’t have,”
Kelsey remarked as she tripped. She struggled to regain her
balance, but after a few staggered steps, she fell face down into a
pile of leaves.

Maggie looked around frantically.
She knew that Roland was there and that he could hear her, but she
still couldn’t hear him. It was the first time in her life that she
was at a loss for words.

Chapter

25

Unexpected Assistance

Maggie was panicking. She knelt
down on the ground and attempted to revive Kelsey, but it was
useless. She cradled Kelsey’s head in her lap as she looked
around.

“Mr. Roland, I know that you’re
here somewhere, but I don’t know how to communicate with you.” She
spoke loudly, as if not being able to see him had somehow also made
him deaf.

There was silence. Maggie listened
carefully, but she didn’t hear anything aside from the sound of the
wind rustling through the nearby branches. She turned her head in
every direction, but there was nothing for her to see. She wasn’t
even sure why she was looking, other than she didn’t know what else
to do. The sound she most wanted to hear – Roland’s voice giving
her instruction – was absent. She relied so much on her words that
now she felt paralyzed at not being able to use them.

“I don’t know what to do,” Maggie
said. “I can’t carry her. Are you strong enough,
Roland?”

Still no response. She watched for
any sign of movement that might indicate Roland’s location, but she
found none. Maggie wondered if Roland was still there or if he had
gone on walking and failed to notice that Kelsey had fainted. Maybe
he was miles ahead already. It felt very lonely.

“Mr. Roland!” she shouted down the
path. “Kelsey has fainted, and I can’t revive her!” When there was
still no response, Maggie started to cry. She didn’t know what else
to do. She glanced back down the path behind them and saw a group
of four reapers huddled together near a tree. They had been
observing her from afar. “Can you see him?” she called to them, but
they pretended not to notice her. “I need help,” Maggie persisted,
but they refused to acknowledge her.

She slumped down to the ground and
picked up Kelsey’s head to cradle it again in her lap. She felt
abandoned. Just as the warm tears were starting to flow down her
cheeks again, a bird landed in front of her.

“Stop watering the ground with
your eyes,” the bird said. “That water is too salty to be any good
for the earth.” It bobbed its head up and down as it spoke, as if
emphasizing the words.

“It’s good for me, though,” Maggie
said. “I need to get it out.”

“Don’t eat the salt and you won’t
need to sweat it out through your eyes,” the bird insisted as it
strutted back and forth in front of Maggie. It had a grand matronly
way of speaking, as if the whole world were her child. It suddenly
turned its head away and then looked back at Maggie.

“The fox is going to ask the
freaks for help,” the bird said abruptly.

“What about beaks?” Maggie
asked.

“Freaks. I said ‘freaks.’ He’s
going over to the group of freaks to ask them to carry your sick
friend.”

Maggie looked over her shoulder at
the reapers. They had ignored her, but certainly they wouldn’t
ignore their hero. There was still some hope. She dried her eyes
and then stroked a few loose strands of Kelsey’s soft hair. She
wished that Kelsey would wake up and be strong again. Maggie
worried about her friend, but Kelsey’s being sick also made it seem
as if something was wrong with the whole world. It just wasn’t
right.

“OK, good,” Maggie replied as she
blinked away more tears.

“Can I go now?” the bird asked.
“The fox told me to deliver this message. I’m done
here.”

“Where is the fox?” Maggie
asked.

“He’s with the freaks now,” the
bird responded. It cocked its head from side to side, as if
evaluating Maggie.

“Please wait with me. I don’t know
why, but I can’t see him or hear his voice, and if the freaks won’t
help us, I may need you to help me to communicate with
him.”

“Worms do not jump into my
children’s mouths,” the bird protested. “I have bugs to catch so
that I can eat them and regurgitate them into my little one’s
beaks. They need to eat to grow so that one day they can fly out of
the nest. I have preening that needs to be done also. I’ve been so
busy taking care of my children that my feathers are a mess. I have
a lot to do today!” The bird squawked the words rapidly as it
flapped its wings. Maggie had some trouble following the frantic
speech.