Royal Ransom (13 page)

“What are you doing?” Victoria demanded angrily as she jumped to her feet. I'd showered her and Andrew with dirt as I tried to douse the fire.

“The fire! We can't let them see the smoke!” I practically shouted. “It might show them where we are!”

“Surely there's not enough smoke for anyone to determine our whereabouts,” she said.

“We can't take that chance!” I yelled as I finished covering the burning embers and the last few wisps of smoke seeped up. “That's better.”

“Do you really think anybody could have seen it?” Victoria asked.

“There wasn't much smoke … probably not.”

“What time is it?” Andrew asked as he stood up and shook off the dirt.

“It's a few minutes before seven o'clock,” Victoria said.

“Seven o'clock!” I exclaimed. “We should have been up and gone an hour ago!”

“We were all so exhausted,” Victoria said. “We needed to sleep.”

“We needed to get going!” I argued. “We've wasted over two hours of light! Come on, let's move!”

“Can't we get something to eat?” Andrew asked. “I am so famished.”

“I've got some berries for you to …” I reached my hand into my pocket and pulled out a gooey, inedible mess. I must have rolled over on them in my sleep. “I
had
some berries for you.”

“Can we go back and get some more?” Victoria asked.

“We don't have time. We have to get moving in the right direction.”

“It's only a few minutes away,” Victoria said. “And I'm sure we would be better able to travel today if we had some food.”

I hesitated. We did need to get moving, but my stomach was growling as well. There would be more berry patches ahead … most likely.

“Please. We won't take long.”

“I guess it would be okay.”

“Thank you,” Victoria said.

“Yes, thank you,” Andrew echoed.

“But we have to make up the lost time … all the time we lost by sleeping. We'll be moving double time for the entire day until we reach the fishing lodge.”

“We'll keep whatever pace you set, you have our word on that,” Victoria said.

“Then come on.”

We started back down the slope toward the berry patch. It was only a couple of hundred metres away, but I hated the idea of starting the day heading in the wrong direction. Each step down the path was one more step we'd have to retrace to get back to where we'd started.

“Do you think we can make it to the fishing lodge today?” Victoria asked.

“If we'd gotten up and started moving two hours ago we'd have had a good chance. Now?” I said with a shrug. “I'm not so sure.”

“I do not want to spend another night in the forest,” Andrew said. It sounded more like a command than an opinion.

“We can't afford to spend another night,” I said. “We have to get to the lodge so we can get some help for Ray and Albert.”

“Do you think … do you think that they are—”

“They're all right,” I said, cutting her off. “I'm sure of that.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“I was thinking about it. Thinking about it a lot. They're still okay.”

“Why would you believe that … especially after what they did to poor Nigel?” she asked.

“That was different.”

“How?” Andrew asked. “How was that different?”

“Nigel was … was … well, what happened to him happened at the beginning. Probably when they first came in. Both sides might have been shooting. He was probably killed when they tried to capture everybody.
They've already captured Ray and Albert, so they aren't a threat.”

“That seems logical,” Victoria said hesitantly.

“If they were going to kill them they would have done it right away. Maybe they figure if they can't capture you two then at least they have somebody. Doesn't that make sense?”

“These people seldom make sense.”

I stopped and grabbed her by the arm. “These people? Do you know who they are?”

She shook her head. “Extremists of some type. Violence for one cause or another.”

“Sometimes people get desperate,” I said.

“My goodness, it sounds as though you are defending their actions!” Victoria snapped.

“Of course not. I'm just saying that sometimes people have things taken away from them—important things— and they're angry and bitter because, no matter what they do, they know they can't get back what belongs to them.”

Victoria looked confused and hurt.

“Look, I'm not saying that any of this is right, but I understand … I'm Native. Lots of Natives are angry.”

“People in your village?” Victoria asked.

“Sure … some, I guess.”

“Then that would explain it.”

“Explain what?”

“How those men knew my brother and I were here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Somebody in your village must have tipped them off,” she said.

“The only two people in the village who know who you are are my father and grandmother. Are you saying that one of them is responsible?” I asked in shock.

“Not them directly, but they must have told somebody who told somebody else, and so forth.”

“You're nuts!” This was going too far, and I was getting really angry.

“You cannot talk to my sister in that tone!” Andrew snapped.

“Shut up, you little twerp, or I'll
make
you shut up!” I said as I took a step toward him.

“You would not dare lay a finger upon him!”

“Then you'd both better shut up! First off, my grandmother and my father wouldn't have said a word to anybody! Second, even if they did, how do you figure that those people could have gotten here that fast?”

“Well …”

“Think about it!” I demanded. “It was less than thirty-six hours between the time you first showed up in our village and the time those men took over our camp. Somebody talked when they shouldn't have, but it happened before you even appeared in our village! It was somebody outside … somebody involved with you!”

“That is not possible.”

“Nothing else makes sense, and—” I stopped in shock. A flash of colour caught my eye, and then I saw a man emerge from the trees! Thank goodness he wasn't close. He had to be at least about a hundred metres away. Then a second and third man appeared. I grabbed Victoria with one hand and Andrew with the other and pulled them down to the ground.

“Unhand us this instant or—”

“Shut up and be quiet!” I hissed at Victoria. “Didn't you see them?”

“See them? See who?” she whispered.

“Three men. They're coming up the slope, following right behind us.”

“Did they see us?” she asked.

“I don't think so.”

I crawled forward into the cover of a bush. Andrew and Victoria followed behind. I pushed myself forward until I could look through the cover but remain hidden.

“I can't see them,” Victoria said.

“Neither can I now.”

“Are you sure that you saw somebody?” Andrew asked.

“Of course I'm sure—there they are!”

Three men were working their way up the slope. They were holding weapons—rifles—and carrying packs on their backs. They were moving slowly in our direction.

“Are they … are they the men who are after us?” Victoria whispered.

“Who else could it be?”

“Maybe it's somebody coming to rescue us,” Andrew suggested.

“Not likely. Who even knows you need to be rescued?”

“If Albert got free, then—”

“There were four men with weapons and he and Ray were tied up,” I said. “They weren't getting away. And even if they did, how could they get help so fast?”

As we watched, the three men stopped. They seemed to be studying something.

“We have to get out of here,” I said. “Come on.”

I started to move back up when I suddenly realized that just above us the entire slope was open and exposed. If we went that way we'd be seen for sure. I changed directions. We had to stop going up and head across the face of the slope, staying in the cover of the trees and bushes. Victoria and Andrew were tucked in right behind me. I had to fight the urge to run. We had to move quietly … slowly … staying out of sight. We started forward. As the slope increased, I dropped down on my bottom and slid down the hill. Victoria and Andrew came down right behind me, bumping into me when the hill flattened out. I tried to stand up but my legs felt all shaky and I tumbled back down to the ground.

“We'll stop here,” I said. “We're safe … at least for a minute.”

“How did they know how to find us?” Victoria asked.

“I don't know for sure. Maybe they saw the smoke from the fire. Maybe they were just tracking us, following our trail.”

“Is that really possible?”

“Some of my uncles can track a bear that way. We weren't being careful, we probably left a trail that was pretty easy to follow.”

“So what do we do now?” Victoria asked.

“We do what we were going to do. We have to keep going. We have to get to the fishing lodge.”

“Are we still headed in the right direction?”

“We're not exactly going the way I wanted, but we're not going in the wrong direction. We're just swinging off to the side. As soon as we put some more distance
between us and them I'll try to get us back on a more direct route.”

“Does that mean that we are not going to arrive tonight?” Victoria asked.

“I don't know. We're going a longer way, but I plan to be moving faster.” I stood up and started walking again.

I looked back. Andrew and Victoria were following, side by side, her arm around his shoulder. I could see that he was crying. I couldn't blame him. I was fighting hard to keep my emotions in check. The only chance we had was for me to stay focused, to stay in charge, to … I felt tears start to flow down my face. I couldn't let them see that. I bit down on the inside of my cheek and wiped away the tears with the back of my hand. I stepped up my pace and kept my face hidden from them.

Our path crossed a rocky creek bed. There was only a trickle of water running along the stony course. I bent down and cupped a handful of water, splashing it on my face, washing away any trace of the tears. I cupped them again and brought my hands up to my mouth. The water was cold and tasted as good to me as those berries had the night before.

I looked up at Victoria and Andrew. They both looked scared and shaken.

“Get a good drink. We're going to be going hard for a long time.”

“Will they be able to catch us?” Victoria asked.

“Not as long as we keep moving. Tracking isn't fast. We should be able to stay ahead of them. Come on, we're going to head down this creek bed.”

“But shouldn't we be heading up?” Victoria said.

“If they follow us here they'll expect us to climb. They'll waste a lot of time going up, looking for where we leave the rocks. By doubling back, heading down, we can gain some time.”

“That seems … wise.”

“Try and stay on the big rocks as we travel. That way there's no trail left behind.”

I bounded from rock to rock, and they did the same behind me.

“At least we know that Ray and Albert are still okay,” I said.

“We do?” Victoria asked.

“Definitely. There were only three men on our trail.”

“So?”

“The fourth must be back at the camp with them. If they'd done something to Ray and Albert they wouldn't have needed to leave somebody behind. Doesn't that make sense?”

“Yes … yes, it does. I am afraid that I'm not thinking very clearly,” she said.

“I know what you mean,” I said.

“You do?” she asked. “You have been so calm. So in control.”

“Me?”

“Yes. Without you, I don't know what we would have done.”

Obviously she hadn't seen the tears or the shaking.

“I am so sorry for the things I said. I know your family is not responsible. Please accept my apologies and my thanks.”

“The apologies I'll accept. The thanks had better wait.”

Chapter Fourteen

“O
KAY, WE
'
LL TAKE A SHORT BREAK
,” I said.

Victoria had her arm around Andrew and she tried to ease him to the ground. He seemed to collapse. His face was blank and he just stared into space.

“I'm going to go a little bit farther—scout to the top of the hill,” I said. Victoria looked worried. “I'll be right back, don't worry. Just rest and take care of your brother.”

She gave me a faint smile and nodded her head ever so slightly. “He needs something to eat.”

“Well, we all do. Maybe there'll be some more berries.” We'd passed through a couple of patches earlier in the day and grabbed berries as we'd walked.

“We need more than berries,” she said.

“We haven't passed any cheeseburger patches!” I snapped.

“But what about other things? Don't people live off the land?”

“Some people. People with a rifle and fishing rod and traps maybe.”

“In one of the books I was reading there was mention of edible roots and—”

“I don't want to hear about what you've read in a book because …” I stopped myself, remembering that she'd
been able to start a fire. “Actually, anything you can remember would be good … I'm hungry too.”

Her smile grew wider. She really was very pretty. Seemed to me she looked a lot like her mother.

“I'll be back in a few minutes.”

I slowly worked my way up the slope. The incline was taking a toll on my legs. They were aching and tired. We'd been pushing hard all day. I didn't have a watch and I hadn't asked Victoria the time for hours. The last time I'd checked it was five o'clock. Suppertime.