Chapter Five: Old Friends

Evie tried hard to entertain herself on the ride by searching the forest for interesting creatures. The only problem was that she didn’t see anything at all. The trees were thick surrounding the narrow trail of rutted road they followed. The highlights of her day were the few times the cart got stuck and she got to jump out so it could be dislodged.

In the late afternoon, Elder Banied stopped the horse and jumped out to examine the woods around the trail. Except that Evie noticed that she didn’t see a trail anymore. It seemed like wood surrounded them on every side and she couldn’t help believing they were the first people to have ever come this way. She hoped that Elder Banied knew where he dragged them. With that thought, she remembered that he said he didn’t and the woods suddenly seemed a lot darker and more ominous.

The elder walked back to the cart and began digging out the blankets again. Before Evie could ask what was going on, he said, “Let us stop for lunch. I am not sure how much farther we should go today, but we all need a little rest.” Evie carefully climbed out of the cart and looked warily at the looming trees. It felt like they were staring at her. Firmly, she shook her head. In stressful circumstances, cold logic avoided disaster. She could reason around such nonsense. But as she walked over to where the elder had laid out the blankets, she couldn’t shake the feeling. It wasn’t the trees. It was something else. She really didn’t think her imagination could have come up with something so real-seeming, but being rattled from everything that happened, she needed some assurance.

“Elder Banied,” she said hesitantly, “I get the feeling that something is watching us. I know it’s silly, but I just can’t make it go away.”

His reply didn’t give the comfort she’d been looking for, “Many somethings, I expect. Let us just hope that they are not the things we do not want to see us.”

Evie didn’t speak for the rest of the meal. She just sat, listening to birds and rustling leaves, sure that some evil creature would descend on them any minute. While she reached for the water bottle Anna extended toward her, she heard a distinct pattern to the rustling. This wasn’t just unseen watchers. This was an imminent threat, she was sure of it this time.

As the rustling got louder Elder Banied jumped to his feet and grabbed his sword. The man looked like he knew how to use it! He headed toward the noise and Anna followed him. Evie could see something now. A long shape moved between the trees. Perhaps it was a horse of some kind. But as Elder Banied moved dangerously close to the thing, his sword raised, Anna began to run toward him, screaming incomprehensive words. A split second later, Evie understood. It wasn’t a horrible creature at all. It was two people, one seeming to drag the other. Both people panted as if they’d run for quite a while. In the next instant, the Elder was backing away and Anna had her arms around that peculiar boy from the carriage. He dropped the hand of whoever he was dragging.

Evie thought her heart would burst with excitement. She started running before she even realized she had moved. “Bridget!” she cried, knocking her cousin (she still thought of her that way) to the ground and hugging her as tight as she could. It was as if the creepy wood had moved back two feet and the sun had brightened. After all that she’d been through, she had begun wondering if she would ever be happy again. With her cousin in her arms, though, she suddenly knew it would all work out. She had her best friend with her and nothing else mattered.

Then another thought struck her. Would Bridget want to be her friend now that she might be a souray? Had her aunt known and taken her mother in anyway? She decided that bit of information probably ought to stay her little secret for a while. At that moment, she was happy.

It took a little while to get everyone settled and the welcomes over with. Evie and Bridget sat together on a fallen tree and the others were on the blanket used for lunch. The adults didn’t even bother to ask how the other kids had followed them. They seemed to think it perfectly natural. What they did want to know was if Bridget and Trevor were really okay. Evie had assumed they were, but after the question was asked, she noticed how bad they both looked.

The dirt that caked the kids on every inch of exposed skin was to be expected if they had made their way through the forest, rather than staying on the road, as it appeared. Sweat streaks made streams through the mud on their faces, the only break from pure filth anywhere on them. Trevor told Elder Banied that he and Bridget had walked all night, taking the “most direct route” until they had found the small party. That, Evie decided, was the problem. Exhaustion appeared plain on both faces. They hadn’t stopped moving since yesterday evening and they’d made their way through the forest, not along a path. Elder Banied started to set up camp while Anna tried to help wipe Trevor off. She only tried because the boy kept pushing her away.

Evie turned to Bridget. She really did look awful. But, as much as she wanted to let her cousin rest, she also wanted some answers. Gently she took Bridget’s shoulders and rotated her away, so that she could undo her braid and start combing through her tangled mess of hair. They sat silently for a few minutes while Evie pulled twigs and leaves out. Finally Evie spoke, “I think a couple of birds were building their nests in here.”

Bridget smiled faintly, but mostly she just looked haggard. Evie couldn’t wait any longer, she asked it straight out, “What happened?! How did you ever get here? Where are Trevor’s father and your mom?”

Bridget’s eyes glittered. She seemed to want to talk as much as Evie wanted to listen. Still, she turned around to face her cousin before speaking in a near whisper. “Trevor saved me,” she spoke if she didn’t really believe it herself. “Quite a while after you guys took off he came running up the road looking exhausted. I was sitting on the porch and Lance had gone back in to see if he could hear anymore. Trevor didn’t say a word to me. He just walked back and forth across the front of the cottage until he had caught his breath.” She gulped a breath of air. Now that she was talking it seemed as if she really did want to get it all out in a rush and she simply lacked the energy.

“Finally, he stomped into the house and banged on the door of the kitchen. I followed him in, but waited in the parlor when they opened the door. This big man dressed in black, his dad I guess, came out and asked why he had gotten out of the carriage. Trevor said, ‘I’m bored. It’s no fun without Anna there to talk to me.’ The man got really mad and muttered something about him spending too much time with servants. Then he told Trevor that his…” her voice got really low in imitation, “ ‘nurse was dead and he’d better just deal with it.’ Well, Trevor got all sulky and asked his dad how he knew that. And his dad said, ‘Because I saw it boy! Rebels killed her and your mother, and I’m sorry about that, but you need to grow up and move on.’ Trevor got all quiet and said, ‘You saw her dead?’ And his dad said, ‘That’s what I said, boy!’ After that he pointed at me and asked if I was you. When I shook my head he demanded to know where you were. I told him what Elder Banied told me to say.”

Her eyes widened, “I was scared to death, but Trevor never opened his mouth to disagree with me. His dad told him to guard me because I might be the girl they were after no matter what I said and Trevor pulled his sword out and pointed it at me. His dad hollered to mom, asking where the meadow was. Lance appeared and offered to take him there. After they were gone mom came out of the kitchen looking very frightened.

“Trevor put his sword away and told me he was going after Elder Banied. He said I had better come too. Mom was scared, but she told us to go quickly. She was crying by then. I didn’t want to leave her, but I didn’t know what else to do.” Bridget’s eyes brimmed with tears and Evie understood. It had to be horrible for her to walk away from her mother like that. Who knows what that man had done to her.

“Why didn’t Abby come with you?”

Bridget sighed and continued again, more slowly, “I don’t think she could leave Lance in that man’s hands. If she had come it would have looked like she kidnapped his son. This way she could claim that his son dragged me off.” It made sense, but it was still scary and very sad that they had no idea what had happened to her aunt and cousin.

“Okay, but that still doesn’t explain how you found me. You guys came right to us when you couldn’t possibly have been aware of where we were heading.”

Bridget smiled, she seemed to be getting her spirit back. “He’s a souray, Evie.” Her eyes flickered toward Trevor. “He’s nothing like we were always told. He’s young, though, and claims he doesn’t know much magic. Maybe he doesn’t, but he had a tracking stone. He said that it was one of two and he’d left the other in Elder Banied’s cart. He was telling the truth.” She pulled a small white stone out of her pocket and extended it to Evie. “I grabbed this out of the cart when we first got here. When we headed toward the other stone, the one he held turned red. So we kept heading wherever the stone instructed until we ran into you.”

Evie felt a sudden stab of embarrassment. She had been so scared to tell Bridget that her mother was a souray. Bridget hadn’t wasted a minute in telling her everything and she seemed genuinely delighted that Trevor had turned out to be one of the ruling class. Once again, her friend had proved to be a better person than she was. But even knowing that, and feeling silly about her reasons, she did not want to tell Bridget what Elder Banied had revealed. Surely it wouldn’t matter if Bridget continued thinking that Evie was her cousin for a little while longer.