The Farwalker's Quest Page 24
“Oh, I’ve had so much trouble already, a bit more won’t matter.” Gust resumed walking directly toward Ariel and Zeke.
Bellam brandished Derr’s walking stick and started toward Gust.
Fingers darted from the darkness behind Ariel to grab at her collar. She wrenched herself free. Zeke sprang away to her right. A grunt of surprise was cut short by a dull crack. Derr groaned in pain.
Alarmed, Bellam glanced back from the entry. That lapse was enough. Gust dashed forward. Though he tried to resist, Bellam was neither young nor had spent his life working his muscles. Gust yanked the staff free and cracked it against the Storian’s legs. Bellam dropped. Stretching the staff between both hands like a rope, Gust slipped it over Bellam’s head to choke him. Bellam’s fingers clawed at the staff, but his face quickly glowed crimson.
Gust smiled toward Ariel and Zeke, frozen on opposite sides of the cave mouth. He stood between them and freedom.
“That wasn’t much trouble at all,” Gust said.
“No,” someone agreed.
Ariel whirled. Slightly farther back in the cave stood one of Gust’s Finders, who had failed to grab her. Derr slumped at his feet. Somehow the man had slipped in behind them.
Flapping his arms weakly, Bellam choked, “Run.”
“Only if you want to give these old men more pain,” Gust told Ariel. “If you’re smart, you’ll just sit. I don’t want to kill any old men, and I won’t—if you don’t.”
Ariel teetered on the balls of her feet. She couldn’t see a clear path to slip past him.
Zeke cautiously lowered himself to one knee. His frame remained taut. Ariel had seen him win enough footraces to believe he could still burst free. But she wasn’t nearly so speedy. Even if they bolted together, not more than one of them would escape.
To gain time, she mimicked Zeke’s stance.
“Good. You see, I’m not the killer your friend Scarl is.” A gurgle of pain squeezed through Bellam’s pinched throat. Ariel winced. “Not yet, at least,” Gust added. “Matthias?”
The Finder hauled Scarl’s grandfather to his feet. Derr’s eyes rolled, and relief trickled through Ariel’s terror. Groggy, the Storian couldn’t stand on his own, but he clearly fought to gather his wits. His captor dragged him between Ariel and Zeke to the front of the cave, joining Gust. Together the men blocked the entrance completely.
Ariel considered a dash back into the dark. If they hid, would Gust search? Or simply wait until thirst did his work?
“Pray to any god you like, boy, it won’t matter.” Gust sneered. Ariel stole a glance at Zeke. His eyes were on the stone over their heads. His lips moved.
“Tie up these geezers,” Gust ordered his companion. To Ariel and Zeke, he added, “I had a gift for the two of you. Perhaps we’ll give it to your friends instead, shall we?”
His sarcasm drew a curtain in Ariel’s head, veiling her terror and shock. Only hatred and instincts for survival were left in front of that drape. She watched coldly as Matthias bound first Derr and then Bellam. Gust drew a jar from one pocket of his coat.
“If you’ll come closer, you’ll have a better view,” he suggested. “We picked up a few pets in the Drymere.”
A rattling sound crossed to Ariel’s ears. Goose bumps rose under her clothes. She could guess what squirmed in the jar—the ugly brown creature that had skittered toward them when she and Zeke had lain buried in sand.
She found her voice simply to slow down the chaos. “What is it?”
“Scorpions.”
“No, thank you. I don’t want a pet.”
“I insist. I don’t make a habit of repeating mistakes. But your pets don’t enjoy their jar, I’m afraid. If we let them loose—say, into a collar—they’re likely to sting.”
Bellam struggled feebly. Matthias yanked loose the collar of Bellam’s shirt and took the jar, prepared to upend it. If he did, its contents would drop against the Storian’s skin.
“Don’t!” Though loud enough to echo, Ariel’s voice sounded distant in her ears.
“No? Very well,” Gust said. “Here is your choice. The two of you lock hands, march straight to my friend here, and stand still to be tied. If you do that, these old men can go home, or wherever they were headed before your paths crossed.
“If you don’t,” Gust added, “the scorpions sting. Watch them die. It’s painful, I’m told. And you’re next.”
Ariel clenched her fists. “What happens if you tie us up?” She had little intention of making a deal, but she grasped for every moment that kept the threat in the jar.
“I take you to Hartwater. Oh yes, I know where Scarl Finder lives. I will make sure he watches while Matthias ends both of your lives. I don’t know which of you he most wants to protect, and I don’t care. It won’t hurt much, I promise. At this point, I’m more interested in hurting him. He killed a man I admire and a woman I—never mind. But I will burn every little wooden house in Hartwater to the ground, if I must, to draw him out.”
Gust truly was a Fool, Ariel thought, if he expected them to submit to either awful choice he’d described.
“So what will it be?” Gust continued. “Here now? Or Hartwater later?”
“But what if Scarl’s not there?” She imagined villagers rising to fight.
“If he’s not there …” Gust shrugged. “Your deaths and some burning will hurt him enough. If I leave you there, I can be sure he’ll eventually find out. That isn’t true here. With that small satisfaction, I can go home and collect what I’m owed and be done with it.”
“You could just go home now,” she pointed out.
“No,” he said softly, “I can’t. Make your choice.”
Ariel drew a deep breath. If she screamed, would Misha hear and respond? But the ghost hadn’t made his presence known for days. As the breath left her again with nary a whimper, so did her resolve not to bargain. She couldn’t bear to watch her gentle Storian suffer.
Ariel forced the words out. “All right. We’ll go with you.” If Gust didn’t kill them right away, they might still escape. She rose off her knee and edged toward Zeke.
“Gust.”
Ariel jumped, startled as much by the end of Zeke’s silence as by the command in his tone.
Gust narrowed his eyes. “What is it?”
“I have a question for you first.” Even Ariel could see that Zeke was stalling. But a hard and confusing confidence lay over his face. In her distant, cool thoughts, Ariel realized she was glimpsing the man Ezekiel Stone-Singer might become, if he still got the chance.
“Ask it and be quick.”
“All right,” Zeke said slowly. “I will. Here’s my question, then: before you grabbed our Storian, and before you got the staff away from him, and before we were even really awake—how did your Finder get in behind us?”
Before Gust even opened his mouth, the answer came from the darkness behind them.
“The same way I did.”
CHAPTER
35
The familiar voice at her ear whisked aside the cloak over Ariel’s emotions. With a choked cry, she started to turn.
Derr blinked and said the name for her. “Scarl?”
A hand yanked Ariel farther into the dark. She felt his body glide past as he drew her behind him. Losing her balance, she started to fall. A screech stuck in her throat. More hands, Zeke’s this time, caught her. The instant Scarl had moved forward, Zeke had jumped toward her, keeping Scarl between them and the rest of the men.
“You wanted to see me?” Scarl’s voice lilted, soft and deadly. He slipped his pack off his shoulder. His knife was already out.
Sudden fury flashed in Gust’s face. A cold mask snapped overtop it.
“How convenient,” he said. “You’ve saved me a trip.”
Scarl’s gaze shifted between Gust and Matthias, the tip of his knife rocking lightly. He advanced.
Matthias asked, “What do you want me to—”
“Just get out of the way,” Gust growled.
“No!” Ariel’s scream and its echoes drowned any sound Bellam made. He jerked, either hearing or feeling the scorpions’ release. Gust shoved him aside and leaped with the staff raised for Scarl.
Still screaming, Ariel didn’t realize she’d jumped toward them until Zeke slammed her into the cave wall and pinned her. His voice joined the bedlam. Although he, too, was shouting, more than pure emotion poured out. The Stone-Singer was singing as never before.
The stone around them answered.
Zeke shouted just a few recognizable words. “Scarl, get back!”
With a thunder more akin to the sea than the sky, the cave mouth collapsed.
The blast knocked Ariel and Zeke to the ground. For a moment no air seemed left there to breathe. Ariel’s lungs fought to work, her eyelids clenched with the effort. Sheer will pried her eyes open again.
Dust swirled. The wash of dawn’s glow through the entry had vanished. In its place, weak light trickled down from above. Ariel pressed her chest off the ground with one hand. Grit clung to her face. Her elbows, knees, and hip bones throbbed where they’d jolted against the stone floor. No rocks crushed her, though. Her arms and legs informed her they were all still attached.
“Zeke?” Her voice trembled.
He remained splayed on the rock, but he coughed.
Ariel’s own coughing answered. As the dust settled and fresh air flowed in from above, their dry rattling faded. Only then did Ariel notice the utter stillness around them. Her eyes scanned the gloom where the cave entry had been. Jumbled rock filled the space from bottom to top. The adults had all vanished.
“The mountain answered,” Zeke mumbled. He sat up. Any trace of the man Ariel had seen in him a moment ago had departed. Stunned by what he’d unleashed, the boy stared at the pile of rubble. “I didn’t think …”
“Are they outside?” Ariel asked, not wanting to believe the report from her eyes.
Zeke’s lips writhed as he tried not to cry. He shook his head.
Ariel spied the tail of a coat sticking out from beneath a boulder. A man had stood in that coat. She didn’t know who.
Her propping arm folded beneath her. She fell back down to her belly with a whoompf.
“Storian!” Ariel wailed. Ever practical, her mind suggested that stones might have been better than whatever a scorpion did. She wanted to scratch that thought from her brain. “No!”
“Not Scarl, too?” Zeke moaned. “Please, I thought he was back far enough! Scarl?”
Something shifted near the edge of the rockfall. A stone clunked. An arm emerged. A cascade of rock crumbs slid off it, raising more dust.
“Scarl!” Zeke jumped toward the arm. Ariel remained frozen, too frightened of what she might see. Crushed bodies and gore lay invisible under those rocks. The vile knowledge washed through her. One of those squashed was the Storian she had known all her life. She didn’t hear the hitching, dry sobs that escaped her.
Zeke brushed mounds of rock shards from Scarl’s head and chest until the Finder’s one free hand grabbed the boy’s wrist so tightly that Zeke squeaked.
“Stop it.”
“You’re okay!” Zeke reassured him. Tears thickened his voice. “One of you, at least, is okay.”
“No.” Scarl wheezed, a tight sound filled with both dust and pain. “Dead would be better.” His head turned through the swirling murk toward them. The whites of his eyes popped from the grime coating his face.
When his gaze struck Ariel’s, he closed his eyes and turned his face back toward the ceiling. That silent rebuff stung. Nonetheless, she stepped closer, staring in shock.
Scarl lay on one hip. Zeke’s hands traced the lanky arms and legs amid the strewn rocks. At first he found only bruises, and Scarl drew both arms to his chest. But the Finder’s lower right leg disappeared completely beneath the edge of a slab.
Though Ariel’s stomach was already empty, her gorge rose to make certain. She could only imagine the crushing force on that unseen ankle and foot. A cold sweat popped onto her skin.
“Can you move this leg?” Zeke asked Scarl, his hand trembling over but not touching Scarl’s shin.
“I can see, so there must be some cracks overhead,” Scarl said. “Look around. Can you climb out from here?”
“Don’t know,” Zeke muttered. He sized up the rock on Scarl’s leg.
“If not, you’ll have to walk through the dark to the hole I dropped in through. It’s not far. Keep one hand on the side of the cave and go slow until you see sunlight over your heads. If you help each other, you should be able to climb out.”
“We might be able to lift this,” Zeke told Ariel. He positioned himself on Scarl’s far side. Hands skimming the anvil-shaped slab, Zeke raised his eyes to meet hers. “Are you going to help me or not?”
Zeke’s wounded regard jolted Ariel loose from her stunned disbelief. She jumped to join him.
“Don’t even try,” Scarl warned.
“What are you talking about?” Zeke demanded. “We might be able to get you out.”
“You’ll just hurt yourselves,” said the Finder. “Even if you can move it, Zeke, all you’re going to do is put me in a lot more pain. If I don’t bleed to death, the shock will probably kill me.”
“He might be right,” Ariel whispered, hating the words. She’d once seen a fisherman with a shark spear through his biceps. He’d hardly bled—until the spear was removed. By the time Luna had stanched what flowed then, he had barely survived.
“Does it hurt a lot, Scarl?” she asked.
He swallowed. Watching his Adam’s apple move, she could see him decide how much to lie. He chose not to answer at all.
“We’ve got to try,” Zeke argued. “You’ll die here for sure if we don’t.”
“There are worse things.” The bitterness in Scarl’s voice gave Ariel a chill. Not wanting to consider what caused such a tone, she moved to find a handhold on the slab. Acting was easier than thinking or feeling.
If she had said anything first to alert him, Scarl might have stopped her. Shifting without warning, she didn’t see him grab for her ankle until she’d already stepped past his reach.
“It’s not flat on the bottom.” Zeke showed her. “It’s big, but if we can tip it, we might be able to pull his leg out.” He slid his hands under the edge. Immediately he straightened to tear the bandage off his right arm. Dropping the splint, he flexed his hand and found a grip he liked better. Scarl lay silent, his eyes closed the whole time.
Ariel slid her hands under the slab, too, terrified that she and Zeke would fail.
“I’ll ask the stone to help if it can,” Zeke told her, without much hope in his voice.
“You could ask for a few more to drop from the ceiling instead,” Scarl suggested. “Pretty impressive the first time. Although it showed how little faith you had in me.”
Ignoring him, Zeke drew a deep breath and released it, his palms flat on the slab. Half words and nonsense flowed out on his breath.
“All right,” he added. “I’ll count.” Ariel braced.
With a sigh that ended in a curse, Scarl lifted his uninjured leg to press his boot sole against the lower edge of the slab. Praying that his shove might boost their power, Ariel let herself hope.
“One, two, three.”
She felt they were lifting the world.
CHAPTER
36
Grating, the slab tipped. One edge jumped a few inches before the contours of the underside stopped it. Startled by success, Ariel and Zeke shared a confused glance, not sure what to do next. They couldn’t ease off their effort, yet Scarl’s leg remained trapped. Aware that Zeke couldn’t possibly reach it, Ariel swept one of her own legs sideways and back. Her heel caught the Finder’s pinned calf and dragged his foot from under the rock.
A terrible cry rose from Scarl. It echoed. Ariel lost both her grip and her balance and stumbled backward over his leg.
But as the slab thumped back into its original place, nobody’s limbs smashed beneath.
“We did it!” Zeke crowed. Puffing, he whirled to Scarl’s slack face. “Did we kill him?”
“No,” Ariel said, confirming the slight rise and fall of Scarl’s chest. “He passed out.” Glad she couldn’t hear that scream again soon, she scrambled to right herself. Her hands found the crushed leg before squeamishness could stop her. Mercifully little blood oozed into his sock. The skin at its cuff looked as translucent and fragile as flower petals, but as near as she could tell, no leg bones were broken. The odd angle of his foot on his ankle, however, meant that one or both had been crushed. Bracing for another howl of pain, she drew his foot into a more normal position. Scarl remained unconscious and silent, but Ariel whimpered at the pulpy feel of the joint. Her fingers jittered over his bootlaces. She decided to leave the boot on.
“Find me something to wrap this up with,” she ordered Zeke. “Is our pack—?” Zeke thrust her the two halves of the splint he’d only just removed from his arm. Grateful for that good fortune, Ariel loosened Scarl’s bootlaces enough to slide the narrowest ends of the splints right into the boot on each side of his ankle. Zeke’s bandage she wound and tied overtop to hold them in place, trying to finish before Scarl woke up.
“Do we have any water?” she asked.
When he looked, Zeke found both their pack and Derr’s uncrushed, where they’d slept. Scarl’s rested nearby where he’d dropped it. Ariel grabbed a blanket, taking the steps she knew to protect Scarl from shock. She hoped they’d be enough. His shallow breathing turned to groans and his eyes began to roll under his lids.
Ariel glanced toward Zeke, who stood motionless nearby.
“I saw blood oozing from under a rock,” he said. His voice wavered. “It could have been Stor—”
“Never mind that.” Her heart broke at the guilt on his face. But she couldn’t join him in grief, insisted something inside her. Not yet. “We’re alive, Zeke, thanks to you. Scarl, too. Now, go find a way out. Or ask the mountain to make one.”