Rhea sat across from me and cleaned her blade with a strip of old cloth. Vesper checked the bones she had used and hummed under her breath, pleased like a sharp person is pleased when a plan turns out great
"What were those," I asked.
"Old field scavengers," Vesper said. "Not court pets,not a hunter from your princess. The kind that wake when wars go cold and then warm again. They smell heat,they eat memory. A scabbard looks like a feast to them."
"So they were here for Alma," I said.
"For her,for both of you. For anything that lights up like that." Vesper tapped the charm with a knuckle. "You are a beacon when you run hot."
I looked at the trees and each one looked like a spear aimed at the sky. I did not like being a beacon. Beacons die on walls while other people look at them and think about hope.
"We cannot stay here," Rhea said. She stood and rolled her shoulders. "They will come back with more friends or with something larger that they follow."
I nodded,my legs felt like sticks in a flood but they worked anyway. We put the fire out with dirt and kicked it until it went out. Vesper smeared a paste on the log where we had sat and she did it with care. The paste stank like mint and old milk.
"Tracks confuse," she said. "Smell lies,sight lies and taste lies. We can buy us an hour before they come back with more of them."
We took the skiff out of the hollow and pushed it along a thin creek that led into the river.It was slow but It was work and it bought ground.
The trees thinned near dawn and the sky turned into the color of old steel. We left the boat in reeds that looked like knives and climbed a slope of granite with thin soil and brave grass. From the top we could see the city in the far distance. It was only a stain of smoke on the horizon now.
I checked the charm again.
[23%]
Rhea looked east and west and made a choice without explaining it and We went west. The land there rolled well and had the kinds of rocks that like to hide low springs. It felt like we could vanish if we chose the right crease.
My legs learned a new kind of walking,light on the balls of the feet and soft on the heel. My breath came slow and deep without me thinking about it. When we needed to jog we jogged,when we needed to sprint we sprinted. The speed flickered in me again for small bursts. Each time it came, the world stretched and snapped and felt like it had watched me run before.
Vesper watched me from the side but she did not say anything for a long time. Then she did. "You need rules," she said. "The overflow will keep trying to help. If you let it help too much, you will cook your nerves."
"What rules," I asked.
"Short bursts," she said. "Only when you have to,Stop before your hands tingle. If your vision tightens into a tunnel, fall down on purpose for one breath. If the charm goes hot, press it against anything cold and living… Dirt is best."
"Dirt is living," I said.
"More than some kings," she said and Rhea tried to hide a smile.
We reached a broad belt of dead trees at noon. A fire had passed through here years ago,Ants had built monuments in the husks and the ground crackled underfoot. The wind curled around the trunks and made a sound like voices down a long pipe.
We stopped long enough to drink from a spring that tasted of stone and the color green. Vesper put a pinch of something in the water and stirred with a twig,it went cloudy and then cleared.
"Now it will not argue with your stomach," she said. "You are welcome."
I thanked her. I meant it.
We moved again and I carried more than my share for an hour because I wanted to see if I could and I could. The weight felt like a story someone else had told about me.
When the sun dropped behind a low ridge, the wind shifted. It brought us a smell I did not know,not ash,not animal and not the city. Something like hot stones after rain and copper cut thin.
Rhea stopped and raised her hand and we froze. Vesper slid a finger along a ring and the metal dimmed until it did not shine at all.
The smell got stronger and the sound came with it. It was a low hum you could hear with your teeth, the dead trees around us whispered and shed more bark. A fine dust lifted from the ground and drifted toward us as if it had been told our names.
Shapes moved between the trunks on the far side of the belt. They were taller than men and wrong in the joints, disjointed. Their skin looked like stone that had been taken out of a kiln too soon. They did not move like hunters,they moved like inspectors.
Vesper leaned toward me. "Not hers," she whispered. "Not the court,the world itself. This is the part where we leave or we learn something we cannot unlearn."
Rhea nodded once,she pointed at a break in the trunks. We shifted that way one step at a time. I kept my hand on the charm. It was warm now but not hot. Alma slept and breathed in small square lines. Her integrity crept one more point.
[24%]
One of the tall shapes turned its head. It did not have a face. It had a smooth plate where a face would have be,the plate tilted and it fixed on me or on the charm.
I held my breath and I tried to think of cold thoughts.I thought about river stones, I thought about snow, I thought about nothing. My heart did not listen, It hammered like it was trying to signal a passing plane.
The tall shape took one step,then another. The ground complained and the hum rose.
Rhea touched my wrist and that was all. A small pressure,It said we would run if we had to,It said we could fight if we had to, It said we were not alone.
The tall shape stopped and turned away and the hum flattened and melted back into the gray trunks like a bad dream that had found a better house.
We moved on soft feet until our calves burned. We did not speak until the dead trees gave way to young ones and the ground got springy again.
Vesper blew out a breath she had kept for too long. "I hate this forest," she said. It came out like a complaint.
Rhea checked the light and the lines of clouds and the feel of the grass with the back of her hand. "We can make the old watchtower by dark," she said. "Stone walls,one door,no courts. We sleep and we decide our next move."
The word sleep sounded like gold to me and the word decide sounded like a cliff.
We walked, I did not use the speed again. I wanted to, but the rules Vesper had given me rang in my head. My fingers still tingled when I flexed them,the charm had gone cooler.
When the tower finally rose out of the trees it looked like a broken tooth in a giant mouth. Half of it had fallen years ago,the other half leaned toward the west like it had something to say to the sunset.
We climbed the narrow steps and Rhea checked each turn with her blade tip. Vesper left small marks with a bit of chalk that looked like angry stars. I kept my hand on the charm and sent small thoughts into it like thank you and please keep breathing and I am sorry I pushed so hard.
Near the top we found a room with three walls and a view. The floor was stone,the roof had holes that let in clean air. We set down our packs and Rhea made a small fire in a brazier that had not seen it in years. Vesper drew a thin circle around the door and sprinkled crushed leaves along it.
"Nothing likes this smell," she said. "Not even me."
I lay down but I did not sleep, I watched the sky trade colors with itself,I watched Rhea's shoulders finally drop an inch,I watched Vesper's eyes go distant the way smart people do when they are counting too fast for words or overthinking thoughts through.
Alma breathed in my chest like a small bird under a coat.
Far below, in the trees, something howled again. It was not the same as before, It was larger,It sounded lonely and then howled again like It had found an answer and then howled three more time..
Rhea looked at me across the small fire. Her face was all edges and light. "Tomorrow we'll find food," she said. "Tomorrow we find out what is hiding in this forest"
I nodded and the charm pulsed once more and the little line moved.
[25%]
I let my eyes close,the tower would keep us safe for now.