The Orchard of Hope (35 page)

“I’m sorry,” Maggie said. She felt
like crying again and took a deep breath to strengthen herself
before continuing. “Just a few minutes, please? Can’t you see that
we’re in trouble?” Just then, Kelsey stirred a little. She briefly
opened her eyes, but they rolled back into her head. She was
unconscious again. Maggie called her name, but there was no further
response. She didn’t know what else to do, so Maggie continued to
stroke Kelsey’s cheek with the back of her hand as she watched for
any sign of awakening.

“Five minutes. No more,” the bird
said sharply after she had watched Maggie’s concern over her
friend. “Is this one of your chicks?”

Maggie stared at the bird in
confusion for a moment.

“Oh!” she exclaimed as she
chuckled. “No, she’s not my child. She’s my friend.”

The bird bobbed its head up and
down to indicate understanding. It paced back and forth in an
awkward strut.

“Friends are nice, but chicks are
better.” The bird sounded more like she was making an
announcement.

“Not better,” Maggie politely
corrected the bird. “Different.” Maggie could see that the bird was
in a nesting phase and could focus on little else. Maggie studied
it thoughtfully for a moment and then introduced herself. “My name
is Maggie. This is my friend Kelsey. Do you have a
name?”

“I am Saint George,” the bird
announced.

“Saint George? That’s an unusual
name. Did your mother give it to you?”

“No. My nest is on the head of
Saint George, so all my friends know me by my location. I live
between Saint Thomas and Saint Stephen.”

“Are those statues or
birds?”

“Yes,” Saint George replied,
nodding affirmatively. Maggie interpreted this as meaning that they
were birds who lived on those respective statues.

“I’m very pleased to meet you,
Saint George. Do your chicks have names?”

“Not yet. They live with me in my
nest, so they’re known as the Chicks of Saint George.”

Maggie chuckled and felt a slight
pain from where her stomach muscles were still sore from crossing
the Sea of Laughter. She placed one hand on her abdomen.

“How many chicks do you have?”
Maggie asked.

“Three.”

“I’ll bet they sing beautifully,”
Maggie replied, and Saint George was immediately
flattered.

“Well, they do take after their
mother.” She flapped her wings and strutted a few steps in a small
circle.

Maggie looked down toward the group
of reapers and saw that they were moving in her direction. Roland
must have persuaded them to help.

“The Angel of Death has asked us
to help carry this girl to the next town,” one of the reapers
announced as they approached.

“I’d be so grateful,” Maggie said.
She gently slid Kelsey’s head from her lap and stood up to greet
the reapers. “My name is Maggie, and this is Saint George.” She
motioned at the bird when she introduced her.

“Right,” the first reaper said as
he raised his eyebrows. Maggie had forgotten that most people
didn’t speak with birds. She turned to say goodbye.

“Thank you for waiting with me,
Saint George. I know you have a busy schedule, and I appreciate
your time.”

“If you’re ever near the
cathedral, you may visit me.” The bird bobbed her head up and down
again.

“I’d love to meet the Chicks of
Saint George,” Maggie said as she bowed to say farewell just before
Saint George flew off.

“You’re not quite right, are you?
Is that why you can’t hear the Angel of Death?” the first reaper
inquired.

“Please don’t refer to me as the
Angel of Death,” Roland interjected. “She can’t see or hear me.”
All that Maggie witnessed of this exchange was the costumed reaper
turning to face an empty space.

“Does she know that you’re here at
all?” the reaper asked. He appeared to be the leader of the
group.

“Of course I know he’s there,”
Maggie replied. “We’ve been together for weeks. I can’t see or hear
him, but I can feel him when he gets close enough.”

“Right,” the reaper said
dismissively.

“Do you have names?” Maggie asked.
It would be difficult enough to tell them apart, since they were
all dressed alike and wearing the same makeup. About the only
difference between any of them was height.

“Just call us Grim.”

“All of you?” Maggie asked.
“Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“Not to us. We work as a
team.”

“It might be easier if I could
call you by different names.”

“That would ruin the
effect.”

“Effect?”

“Of dressing like our friend here,
the Grim Reaper.”

Roland cringed when he heard
himself referred to in this manner. However, since he needed their
assistance, he didn’t argue the point.

“Perhaps I could call you Grim
One, Grim Two, Grim Three, and Grim Four,” Maggie
suggested.

“Whatever makes you happy,” Grim
One replied with a shrug. “We’re supposed to carry this girl until
we meet up with your friend.”

“Friend?” Maggie asked. “Which
friend? No one tells me anything!”

“The Angel of Death told us all
about it a few … oh,” Grim One hesitated. “I already forgot that
you can’t hear him.”

“Who’s meeting us?” Maggie asked
impatiently.

“Margaret or something,” Grim Two
replied.

“I’m Margaret,” Maggie answered at
the same time that Roland corrected Grim Two.

“Her name is Megan,” Grim Two
repeated after Roland had said it.

“Megan’s coming?” Maggie asked
hopefully.

“Yes,” Grim One said as he nodded.
“She’s meeting us down the road a few days’ journey away. We have a
lot to do before we get started, so let’s get moving.”

The reapers set about constructing
a stretcher out of branches and vines. It took them a couple of
hours, especially since they kept asking Roland questions. Maggie
wondered what Roland was saying in response to the odd questions,
but she didn’t interrupt. She knew the reapers’ help was needed
more than her knowledge, but it seemed like a strange interview.
They were asking questions such as: “What’s the largest number of
people you’ve killed at once?” and “What’s the most gruesome way to
die that you’ve seen?” and “What’s the longest amount of time it
has taken anyone to die?’ The reapers’ fascination with Roland’s
responses made Maggie wonder if Roland was answering the questions
accurately or making things up just to entertain the crowd. When
Kelsey was conscious again, Maggie would have her ask Roland what
he’d said to these inquiries.

As soon as the stretcher was
complete, they lifted Kelsey onto it and began to transport her.
Now that Kelsey was being carried, the group moved much more
quickly. Maggie continued to listen to the questions being posed to
Roland, and these helped to pass the time as she imagined his
responses. They traveled for several days like this.

It was a tiresome journey for
Maggie. She walked alongside the stretcher and held Kelsey’s hand
for part of the time. She hoped that Kelsey knew she was there and
that this knowledge would be a comfort to her. She also spoke to
Kelsey as if she were awake. It helped Maggie pass the time until
they reached the Edge of Immortality. It was a tall mountain, and
it was mostly covered with pine trees. As soon as the reapers saw
the outline of the cliff ahead, they stopped moving.

“We don’t go there,” Grim One
announced.

“Why not?” Roland and Maggie both
asked simultaneously. They needed to walk along the edge of the
cliff in order to return to the castle.

“It’s not right. Nothing decays
there, and it gives us the creeps.” Grim One explained. “Besides,
we thought your friend was supposed to meet up with us before we
reached the cliff.”

“I don’t know where she is,”
Maggie retorted. “But we need to pass through there in order to get
home.”

“She was supposed to meet you
before we got to that place.” Grim One repeated with emphasis. He
turned to exchange glances with the other reapers. “Where is she?”
he asked Roland.

“She’s here,” Roland replied. “You
may set down the stretcher and leave.”

“Without saying hello?” Grim One
asked. “Any friend of the Angel of Death is a friend of
ours.”

“Is she on her way?” Maggie asked,
but the reapers ignored her.

“We’d like to meet this friend of
yours, sir,” Grim Two added.

“Megan may not quite be what
you’re expecting,” Roland replied.

“What’s going on?” Maggie asked,
but the reapers continued to ignore her as they whispered among
themselves. After a few moments, Megan stepped out of the
woods.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Megan
said as she slowly moved forward. Maggie felt so happy to see her
that her eyes started to tear up again. She ran forward and hugged
the leopard just as the reapers dropped the stretcher and scrambled
backward a few steps.

“Holy wildcats! You didn’t say
your friend was a giant kitten!” Grim One exclaimed.

“I’m a leopard,” Megan said as she
stepped forward and stared down the reapers. “Kittens are much more
playful and far less deadly. Leopards eat things your size, and we
love it when our food is in costume and full makeup. It makes the
meal more interesting.”

The reapers scrambled backwards as
Megan took large, deliberate, pounding steps toward them. For each
of her steps, the reapers took four or five smaller ones to keep
their distance.

“You’re not sticking around?
Because if I eat you, then Roland here can do his job, and you’ll
be able to see your hero in action. How cool would that be?” Megan
asked with a mischievous expression.

“Stop playing with them,” Maggie
whispered loudly as Megan was getting farther away from
her.

“I’ll stop when they’re gone,”
Megan whispered back out of the corner of her mouth. “I’ll bet
Kelsey found these guys annoying!”

“Yes,” Maggie said with a chuckle.
Megan studied the reapers for a moment. They were attempting to
keep a comfortable distance between themselves and
Megan.

“They worship Roland,” Maggie said
in a slightly louder voice. “And yet they don’t want to get near
you because they think you’ll kill them. How strange is
that?”

“If you die near the Edge of
Immortality, what happens then?” Megan shouted at the reapers as
she paced back and forth with authority. “Maybe you become
immortal, but I really couldn’t say. This cliff is simply at the
Edge of Immortality, and we don’t know on which side of that edge
you’re currently residing or where you might land. Shall we find
out?” Megan lurched forward with a loud growling noise, and the
reapers took off running.

“I don’t like it when my dinner
doesn’t put up a decent fight,” Megan said as she quickly returned
to Maggie’s side. She sniffed Kelsey’s unconscious body carefully,
paying close attention to both her broken hand and the burn marking
on her arm.

“Is she going to make it?” Maggie
asked with concern.

“Sometimes it’s better if they
don’t,” Megan replied. Then she turned to face Roland and spoke in
a language that Maggie couldn’t understand.

Chapter

26

The Healing

After her brief discussion with
Roland, Megan turned back to look at Kelsey. She instructed Maggie
to remove the bandages on Kelsey’s broken hand. Once the swollen
hand was exposed, Megan gently licked the back of it, running her
tongue along the bones from Kelsey’s wrist to the ends of her
fingers. Then she used her nose to gently flip the hand, and she
licked the palm. Within minutes, the hand was back to its normal
size, and the bruising was gone. The coloring was completely
normal. Maggie gasped.

Next, Megan examined the burn mark
on Kelsey’s other arm. She sniffed it very carefully, running her
nose up and down Kelsey’s arm from her wrist all the way up to her
shoulder. She paused when she reached the petal-shaped mark to
sniff all around the edge before moving on.