Selfish Elf Wish (24 page)

Timber’s eyes widen. “Really? You’d let me?”

“You’ll need it more than I will.” I point up to the top of the bluff.

“We’re going up there?” Timber asks.

Briar laughs as she gives Kenji a little nudge down the path toward Timber and me. “That’s right, city boys,” she tells them. “And you better get a move on.”

 

It takes nearly an hour to get to the top of the bluff, and I feel kind of badly for Kenji and Timber. Even though they both play soccer and run at home, they’re clearly not in hiking shape. At least my walking stick helps Timber tromp through the snow. I find a branch for Kenji to use, but because they haven’t slept in twenty-four hours, the hike is especially grueling for them. By the time we get to the edge of the cliffs to look out over the miles and miles of pine forests and lakes, both of them are red, wheezing, and totally exhausted. They flop down on a clear rock and groan.

“Dang, Zeph,” Timber says between gasps for air. “You’re like a freakin’ mountain goat.”

“Oh my God,” Kenji huffs and puffs. “I think my lungs are going to explode. How do you walk so fast in those boots? Aren’t your feet freezing? Even my Gore-Tex isn’t keeping my toes warm enough.”

“Poor little urban boys.” I pull some venison jerky and dried blueberries from deep in my pockets. “Here. Have some of this. It’ll make you feel better.”

As they devour the snack, I shade my eyes and scan the forest below. Alverland is perfectly hidden in a small valley beneath the canopy of trees, but if you know what to look for, you can find it and all the other elfin settlements in this area. I know where each one of my great-grandmothers lives by the depressions in the land and proximity to the rivers and lakes that I can see from up here. To the east is Mother Hortense’s land. Straight north is Mother Jonquil. Over to the west is Great-grandmother Lily. And six miles south of Alverland is where Willow will live after Mama Ivy passes on. Beyond that is where Willow’s fiancé Ash’s family lives. My mom is probably there now. I get goose bumps thinking about seeing my sister again. I’ve missed her.

As I scan the world below I catch a shadow moving through the trees at the base of the bluff. Thinking it must be Briar and my dad, I lift my arms and wave. “Hoi!” They don’t answer, so I start to call out again. When I look more closely I realize that it’s not my dad and Briar. These people are not in deerskin cloaks. In fact, they don’t look elfin at all. I crouch down and squint.

“What’s wrong?” Timber asks.

“Shhhh,” I hiss at him. I shade my eyes and watch the two people pick their way over rocks and through the trees. I need to get a better look to decide if we should stay here or get inside one of the caves so we don’t arouse any suspicion. “Wait here,” I whisper to Kenji and Timber as I move to the other side of the bluff. When both of them start to follow me, I get mad. “I mean it. Wait here and stay quiet,” I bark at them.

I stay close to the ground and move between the trees silently until I find a good sassafras tree with low-hanging branches. I scurry up halfway so I can get a better look down below. At first I can’t find the people and I think they’re probably just hikers who’ve gone off on another trail. It’s rare, but sometimes hard-core camping erdlers come this way. Usually not in the dead of winter, though. I keep scanning the woods until I catch sight of them again. That’s when I realize why they’ve been hard to spot. They’re wearing white so they nearly blend into the snow.

They’re picking their way through the trails pretty easily, except one of them is carrying something cumbersome. It doesn’t look like a backpack, but I can’t get a good look because they’re too far away. I glance toward the bluff where I left Kenji and Timber. I can see them lying down, resting on the rock, so I decide it’s safe to cast a spell. “Hawk’s eye,” I say, and zap myself.

My eyes zero in on the man and a woman, both blond, in white coats and hats, carrying a cage. “Thunder and lightning!” I gasp, and lose my grip, sending me crashing backward through the branches of the tree, grabbing for anything to slow me down, but every twig slides through my mittened hands. I see a hawk circling above me in the sky as I thud onto a bed of pine needles. Timber runs up the path and throws himself down on hands and knees beside me.

“Oh my God. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did you just fall out of a tree?”

The fall knocked the wind out of me, so I sputter for a few seconds while grabbing at his coat. “It’s them.” I say, my voice raspy.

“Who?” Timber asks, cradling my head.

The red-tailed hawk above screeches and veers sharply to the right, then dives straight for the sassafras tree. She swoops up again and spreads her wings, thrusting her talons forward.

“What the . . .” Timber ducks and covers his head, but I’m not afraid as she lands on the branch above us.

I look the hawk in the eye. My voice comes back to me. “It’s Clay and Dawn,” I say. “And they’ve got the fox!”

“Who? What? Where?” Timber looks all around.

The hawk spreads her wings and alights, screeching as she goes. I push myself up onto my elbows. “But it’s okay,” I tell Timber. “My grandmother knows they’re here.”

“COME ON.
We have to go faster,” I tell Timber and Kenji as I lead them through heavy snowdrifts and pine trees to a cave around the back of Barnaby Bluff.

“Zephyr,” Timber says, grabbing my hand to slow me down. His face is bright red and he’s huffing, but at least he’s keeping up. Kenji’s lagging twenty feet behind. “You’re not making any sense. What’s the big deal?”

I whip around to face him. At first I think I’ll just zap a mute hex on him, but then I decide that I’m tired of zapping people whenever a problem comes up, because I just end up causing myself another problem. But obviously I don’t have time to explain, so I talk over my shoulder as I push forward up a steep hill. “This is my home,” I tell him. “Not Brooklyn. Clay and Dawn are not safe.” I stop and reach out for his shoulder. “You have to trust that I know what I’m doing.”

Timber shakes his head. “But hiding? Why do we have to hide?”

Kenji has caught up with us now. He bends over, hands on knees, and pants like a dog. “If . . . I . . . had . . . known . . . this . . . is . . . what . . . you . . . guys . . . do . . . for . . . fun . . .”

“You’re hiding,” I say to Timber and Kenji as I point to the opening in the cave’s mouth. “I’m going for help.”

“You want us to go in there?” Kenji asks, his face screwed up like I just told him to walk down a dark alley in Newark at night.

“It’s perfectly safe,” I say, grabbing them each by the hand and tugging.

“What if there’s a bear?” Kenji asks.

“We come up here all the time. There aren’t any bears!” I plunge my hands back into my pockets. “Here, have some more jerky.” I shove dried venison meat at them, which they each take.

“But why can’t we come with you?” Timber asks.

“No offense,” I say, shoving them toward the cave’s mouth. “But you’re slow and loud in the forest. I can go more quickly and quietly on my own. Plus, I’ll know exactly where you are.”

“But you said that your grandmother already knows they’re here, so why don’t you stay with us?” Timber asks, dragging his feet as I push him forward.

This is seriously trying my patience. I consider a hibernation spell to knock them out in the cave for a few hours, but I stop myself. The more time I spend with Timber and the deeper my feelings grow for him, the harder it is to zap him. “Please,” I plead. “Please just do this for me and I’ll try to explain things later. I don’t have much time.”

“I don’t like it,” Timber says, but he ducks his head and enters the cave anyway.

“Do you have a flashlight?” Kenji asks.

“No I don’t have a flipping flashlight!” I say. “Just go in there and take a nap, for thunder’s sake.”

The guys crouch down and enter the cave, but then just as I’m ready to run off into the woods so I can track Clay and Dawn, Timber pops out and grabs my arm. “Zeph!” he says.

“What now?” I ask.

He pulls me into his body. Warmth emanates from beneath his coat collar, and for just a moment it’s wonderful being snug in his arms. He bends down and kisses me. “I love you,” he says.

I’m so startled that I feel like I’m falling out of the tree again. I stumble backward over a rock, stammering, “I . . . I . . . I . . .” I regain my balance and look up into his smiling but worried face. “I have to go!” I grab my walking stick from the side of the cave, then turn and run into the woods.

 

I circle back around the bluffs and slip up into the branches of a tall, slender birch tree. It doesn’t take me long to spot Clay and Dawn. They’re clearly lost because they’ve hiked in a huge circle for the past hour and are now standing, arguing, on an outcropping of rocks on the north side of the bluffs. They’ve set the cage down and the fox paces.

My mind is reeling. Timber said he loves me! My family could be in trouble. No one knows where I am. Why are Clay and Dawn here? What should I do? Does he really love me? Should I make a run for Alverland to get help or stay here and keep an eye on Dawn and Clay until someone else finds us? Do I love him? And how in the honey did everybody find us?

Clay and Dawn pick up the fox’s cage and start moving again, this time south, toward Alverland, but I doubt that they know this. I wish I had a good hearing spell so I could listen in on their conversation, but I haven’t learned one yet. Which reminds me that I’m a sucky elf. By now, my magic should be so much stronger, and if it were, I could probably figure out what to do. Since I don’t know what to do, I decide I should at least follow them so if they get close to Alverland before someone else finds them, I can warn everybody. I climb down the tree and move stealthily on the hills, being sure to stay hidden by the trees.

When I catch up with Clay and Dawn, they’re obviously lost again because they’re making another big circle, this time heading back up toward the bluff. This is good, I decide, because at least it’s buying time and wearing them out. By now Briar should have reached my dad, and soon they’ll be up on the bluff looking for Timber, Kenji, and me. Dad will know what to do. I decide to take a shortcut up through the steep gash in the side of the cliffs, which will put me out on top where I’ll be able to watch Clay and Dawn without exhausting myself tracking them. I head up through a rocky path, keeping low so they don’t catch a glimpse of me.

As much as I’ve made fun of Kenji and Timber for being lightweights up here, I realize now that I’m out of shape, too. I used to be able to run all over these cliffs and woods without ever losing my footing or running out of breath, but I’m starting to tire. I’m also hungry, but I gave all of my food to the city boys.

As I hike alone, picking my way over the rocks and ice, I have to smile at the thought of Kenji and Timber in the Ironweed Bait Shop eating eggs. What were they thinking? I can’t believe they followed us. In a way it’s very sweet, but it’s also pretty deranged. I don’t know how we’ll explain this to our mothers, especially because, deep down inside, I know that Briar and I caused this. I don’t know exactly how, but we did something in that dance that made these boys go gaga.

I scramble more quickly up the rocky path, hoping to reach the top before Clay and Dawn round the other side. But in my hurry, I misstep on the ice and slide. I grab for rocks or tree roots to stop myself, but the loose rocks on top of the ice begin to tumble along with me. I let out a shriek, then clamp my mouth closed, shoving my walking stick into the ground. But everything is frozen solid and the stick slips out from under me, sending me flat on my belly. Kicking and grabbing only makes it worse. Now rocks slide, picking up speed, tumbling over my splayed arms and legs as I try to get a toehold or roll to the side, but it’s too slippery to stop. I careen down the path like it’s a giant slide until I land in a heap at the bottom, curled up against the base of a huge, red pine tree.

“Fancy meeting you here,” a voice says.

I look up to see Clay standing ten feet away from me, a sick grin on his face. As I scramble to my feet, Dawn steps around from behind another red pine, holding the cage.

“Zephyr!” she says with a loud, fake laugh. “You left in such a rush the other night.”

I’m barely steady on my feet after the fall, and I can’t make sense of what’s happening.

“We knew if we just kept walking around we’d find someone sooner or later,” Clay says, taking slow steps toward me.

I search for my walking stick. It’s fallen three feet from me to the right. “What are you doing here?” I demand.

“Briar told us all about Alverland,” Clay says. “We thought it sounded like a perfect vacation destination, didn’t we, Dawn?”

Dawn laughs her stupid, fake, girly laugh again. “Any good skiing up here?” she asks. “Or only ice sliding?”

I move slowly to my right, inching toward my stick, which is thick and heavy and will give me at least a little protection from these two creeps. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Actually, we’re just here visiting our grandmother,” Clay says, and snorts at his joke. He continues toward me, slowly and carefully, as if he’s not sure what I’ll do. I wish I knew what to do. I don’t think my magic is strong enough to take on both of them.

“Your grandmother?” I ask, and reach down for my stick.

“You don’t know?” He narrows his vibrant green eyes and studies me. “You haven’t figured it out?”

I crouch and lay my hand on my stick. “You’re dark elves,” I say, standing up straight with the stick at my side. Clay is only about four feet from me now, and my heart pounds while I try to steady my breath and figure out how to protect myself.

He snorts again and rolls his eyes. “Took you long enough, duh.”

“Why are you here?” I ask. “What do you want from us?”

He steps forward. “We just need you to show us the way to Alverland. Can you do that for us?”