16
FINDING THE TRAIL
“What happened?” Kale tried to keep the panic from her voice.
Dar ran a finger down Gymn’s back.
“Watch his tail,” he said, and again stroked the length of the animal’s back. When he reached the vertebrae at the base of the tail, Gymn’s tail tip twitched. “There! He’s unconscious, but there’s no bad damage if his reflexes are still good. He’s breathing, too, without any raspy noises or gasping. I think he’ll be okay.”
“But what happened?”
“I don’t know, and there’s not much point in guessing.”
Dar and Kale continued to watch the baby dragon. Soon his eyes fluttered, and he looked up at Kale. Immediately, he sprang to his feet and scrambled under the edge of her cape and into the top pocket.
“He’s afraid,” said Kale. “I can feel it.”
“What’s he afraid of?”
Kale thought about the sequence of events.
“I reached for Leetu, and that same ugly darkness met me,” she explained. “That must have been what happened.” She paused, cupping her hand over the cape where the baby dragon shivered in the pocket underneath. “I think he fainted.”
Dar chortled. “Well, I’ve never heard of a dragon fainting before, but he is just a baby.”
Dar got up and went to pack away the rest of his equipment.
“Do you want to go up a couple of layers in the cygnot? The air will probably be cooler and fresher.”
“Are you hot?” asked Kale.
“I’m not wearing a moonbeam cape, Kale. I am very hot!”
She stared at him, not understanding.
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Stick out your hand. Stretch it away from the cape. Feel the air.”
Kale did as she was told. Her fingertips touched the air a foot beyond the moonbeam material. The hot, moist atmosphere of the swamp coated her hand. She drew it back quickly. Within a circle around the cape, the air cooled to a pleasant temperature.
Startled, she glanced up at Dar and saw a peculiar expression on his face. She reached to his mind and caught the last of a thought.
“…lot to learn.”
I know. Councilman Meiger said I didn’t know anything.
“First off, it’s rude to come into my mind like that. You are supposed to be learning manners as well as controlling your talent.”
I’m sorry. I didn’t think first.
“Second,” Dar went on without acknowledging her apology, “there’s no crime in not knowing something. However, it’s a shame to turn away from an opportunity to learn. Not a crime, but definitely a poor choice.
“Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Just think about how much you’ve learned in the last few days. You keep up at this rate, in a week you’ll know everything there is to know in the universe.”
Kale watched a big teasing grin take over her friend’s face. Even if he was poking fun at her in his big brother way, she liked him, and she liked what he said. It was true. She had learned an awful lot since she left River Away. And now she was responsible for a baby dragon.
That thought made her smile. And she had seven more dragon eggs that would someday hatch. She couldn’t help the glow that settled on her. But her next thought snuffed out the light. She was also supposed to find one wizard who didn’t want to be found, a meech egg held by the evil Wizard Risto, and Leetu who might be dead already.
She saw Dar latch the straps of his pack and swing it onto his shoulder. He picked up Leetu’s bundles as well. One he handed to Kale. The other he tucked under his arm.
“Dar?”
“One thing at a time, Kale. We do the one thing that is in front of us to do and trust Wulder to lead us to the rest.”
“Are you sure you don’t read my mind?”
“No, but your face is pretty easy to understand. You looked happy, then worried, then panicked.”
Kale nodded.
Even encumbered by so many packs, Dar made a courtly bow in her direction. “Shall we go, my lady?” He swept one arm toward the treetops. “Our destiny awaits us.”
He had at least made her feel more cheerful. Kale softly laughed, patted the pocket holding the cowering dragon, and got to her feet.
“How do we get up there?”
“Climb,” said Dar. He walked closer to the nearest trunk and then peered upward. “There.” He bent his knees for a second and then sprang straight up, catching an overhead branch on the first try. Without a struggle, he chinned himself on it, and then poked his arms through the foliage. In only a moment, he wiggled through to the next layer.
Kale watched his feet disappear and almost panicked again.
Stop it! she told herself. He’s out of sight, not gone. You’ll be up there with him in just a minute. You’re taller than Dar, and you’ve climbed lots of trees. You can do this.
Dar’s smiling face appeared, hanging upside down from the hole he’d made.
“Coming?”
“Yes.”
She moved underneath him. He put an arm down to help.
“I can do it,” she protested.
The arm disappeared, and the branch trembled as he moved away. Kale’s head brushed the lowest hanging leaves. She pushed her hands and arms through the hole and realized the opening was only big enough for the smaller doneel. She’d have to force her body through, enlarging the hole as she went.
Twigs and rough limbs scraped and poked as she hoisted herself, using her arms.
I can’t get stuck. It would be too embarrassing.
She reached out and grabbed a branch woven into the cygnot floor, and by pulling on it, she inched higher over the edge. Another stout twig jabbed her stomach. Rolling sideways, she managed to unhook herself from that snag only to find her blouse caught again.
Well, I said I could do it myself, but he doesn’t have to ignore me.
She craned her neck around to the left. No Dar. She looked to the right. No Dar. Startled, she scrambled out of the hole, heedless of the grabby branches.
“Dar!”
“Up here.”
Kale looked up to see his face showing through the next layer of branches. Biting back angry words, Kale stood and leapt at the hole. This time the branches were more than a foot above her head, but her irritation toward the doneel gave her a boost. She squirmed through the hole quickly.
“Good,” she said. “You haven’t had time to vanish.”
He looked puzzled. “Vanish?”
“Never mind.” She stood and brushed loose bits of leaves from her clothes. “Are we going up again?”
“No, I think this will do. Let’s go.”
“I want to check on Gymn first.”
Dar sighed but didn’t object.
Kale opened the cape and peeked into the top pocket.
“He’s asleep.”
“Ready now?”
Kale didn’t answer. She looked around. “I can stand up straight here, and the upper limbs won’t catch in my hair. It’s lighter, too. More sun gets through.” She lifted her face and closed her eyes. “And there’s a breeze.” She opened her eyes to look at Dar. “Why didn’t Leetu bring us up here sooner?”
“Look down,” said Dar.
Kale immediately saw the difference. “Oh.”
These limbs were thinner with less foliage. Big holes gaped in the flooring, and some places looked as if the branches might give way under any weight at all.
“Leetu wanted you to have a chance to practice walking where it was easier,” Dar explained. “The cygnot floor is called planking. Each time you go up a level toward the sun, the planking is less firmly woven together. The branches are younger, more supple. They bend and slip to the side when you step on them. You’ve practiced below. Now with a little more practice, you’ll master this planking as well.”
“It would have been more comfortable for you and Leetu up here.”
“Yes, but not if we had to keep dragging you back up through several floors of the cygnot forest.”
Kale nodded agreement with Dar’s explanation, but she suspected Leetu had thought mostly of making the journey easier on a poor, untrained o’rant girl.
“Well,” she said, “let’s get started. Which direction?”
Dar pointed. “That way. Deeper into The Bogs.”
“Can the mordakleeps get up here?”
“Yep.” Dar headed out.
Kale followed, watching every step and cringing a little when the intertwined flooring sank under her feet. Several times she hopped to a bigger branch just as she felt she was sliding through the planking.
Kale stopped occasionally as the day progressed to peek at the newborn dragon. Mostly Gymn slept. Once in a while he stretched and turned over.
He seems comfortable. The cape is probably making his little pocket den just the right temperature. She slapped at a bug as it landed on her face. At least he’ll be able to catch enough food for himself. I hope he has a hearty appetite. She slapped at another insect, and waved her hand beside her ear where something small buzzed. I’ll have to ask Dar for that stick that keeps the bugs away next time we stop.
“Kale.” Leetu’s voice, weak and distant, called to her.
Kale stopped in her tracks. “Dar!”
“What?”
“I heard Leetu.”
Dar sprinted back from his position in the lead.
“What did she say?”
“Just my name, and then nothing.”
“Concentrate.”
“I am. I mean, I will.”
Dar stood perfectly still and stared at her. Kale closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to see him and his expression. He looked as if he expected her to know where Leetu was and whether she was all right and if they could get to her. And oh, how she wanted to know all those things too.
With her eyes closed, she reached out to Leetu. She hesitated. That awful dark emptiness might be out there ready to swallow her up.
It hits so hard when it comes. It hurts. It’s like a nothingness, an emptiness, a…something I can’t name. But it hurts all the way down to my heart.
Stop it! Stop it! I’ve got to quit thinking. I’ve got to try. Leetu spoke to me. She did. I didn’t imagine it. And if she spoke to me, she needs me. She’s someplace where Dar and I can help her. I’ve got to quit thinking about doing it and just do it.
Gently, Kale reached. Slow. Careful. Like reaching out in the dark, she felt ahead of her, not rushing. She didn’t come up against the ugly, terrifying blackness. She reached and stretched, and her mind penetrated all directions at once.
Then she knew.
Her eyes flew open and she looked toward the setting sun. Small pink splotches of sky peeked through the overhead branches.
“That way,” she said.
“That’s where we just came from.”
“Leetu is somewhere in that direction.”
“Are you sure?”
Kale started to say yes and then stopped.
Am I?
She reached with her mind again but focused west.
There. She felt it again. Leetu. Not her thoughts, but her person. No words, just a longing to be free, to escape.
“I’m sure, Dar, and we have to hurry.”
Tears filled her eyes. She didn’t know if the desperation was her own feeling or Leetu’s.
“We have to hurry.”