The Boys of Fire and Ash (15 page)

He'd told me that morning, and by dinnertime he was gone. But not before showing me where to go. Scared and nervous, I went with him to the South Wall, and he pointed to the tree line, where Nikpartok peeked over the Ikkuma Pit.

“They left him there,” Cheeks had said.

I was terrified. I'd only just turned seven and could barely throw a spear.

“No sense wasting time,” he said, slapping me on the back. “Now get on up there and keep an eye on him.”

Cheeks was anxious, eager to get going, to finally Leave. He'd been planning to go for months, but he couldn't. I wasn't ready yet. I was still useless, so he had to put off his Leaving Day longer than he wanted. And here I was again, holding him up.

“Don't be so useless, Urgle!” he'd said, pushing me up to the wall. “Get moving!”

So I did. I climbed up the South Wall, the highest I'd ever been, and stopped just before the top. I remembered looking out, the A-Frame just a brown pock on the black floor of my home and my Big Brother, Cheeks, barely visible as he made his way to the north…to his new life outside the Ikkuma Pit.

And then I heard it.

Just above me I could hear the cries of the little squirt, his raspy phlegm warble screeching for the monster of a woman that had abandoned him here. I risked a peek, even though my Big Brother had specifically told me not to.

“One night, Urgs” is what he'd said after he'd discovered the new arrival. “If he makes it through the night, he's all yours. If not, then he's not Ikkuma anyway. Don't let him know you're there. He'll cry all the more if he thinks someone's nearby.”

I peeked anyway. I'd never listened to my Big Brother before, so what did it matter now? He'd abandoned me. I was the Big Brother—well, I would be—and I didn't have to listen to anybody.

A tiny soiled bundle of cloth fidgeted in the undergrowth of Nikpartok Forest. I'd never been that close to the tree line, and I remember how scared I was that some predator would come and gobble me up.

The crying stopped and the baby lay silent.

Was he dead? I didn't know. And the idea that I'd have to leave the safety of the Pit to find out made me nearly wet myself.

Then he howled. The baby screamed and cried, demanding somebody, anybody, pick him up.

But this was his test. The first night their Mothers abandoned them on the fringes of the Pit was a night they spent alone. If they survived, they were Ikkuma and adopted by their Big Brother. If not—I didn't really know.

The day drew on and I made myself comfortable, pressed up against the South Wall. My eyes grew heavy, and I slept to the sound of the baby's lonely cries.

By morning, I heard nothing. I awoke to silence and felt my heart stop. Was he dead? If the baby died, then I'd be no Big Brother…. But my Big Brother had left…so I wouldn't be anyone's Little Brother. What would happen to me? I'd be all alone. Who knows how long it would take for another baby to be left for me?

Then I heard a snort—big animal, a predator coming to feast on the baby.

I held my breath and peeked over the top of the South Wall and saw the most massive beast I'd ever seen. My little imagination couldn't have dreamed up something so large. It stood on all fours, and its body was covered in a soft black fur. An Ashen Bear. It circled the baby, its black nose sniffing and probing.

I looked around for blood staining his snout, the ground, the blankets, but there was nothing. Then a giggle. The baby squealed with delight as the giant bear sniffed at his face. He'd survived the night at least. He was Ikkuma all right…if the bear didn't kill him now. Then the bear reared back and sat against a tree, licking her lips and scratching her belly. The baby continued to giggle, and the bear let out a low sound that to me sounded like a growl.

“Please don't eat him,” I whispered.

In that instant, her big, shiny eyes were on me. My heart stopped. How could I have opened my mouth?

The bear sniffed the baby again, then nuzzled him, like a Mother caring for her cub. She looked back to me, then waddled her giant form back into the cover of the trees until there was nothing left of her to see.

Trembling, I bolted from my hiding place and ran for the giggling baby.

Twigs snapped to my left, more to my right. The bear was out there. There could be more…or something else, anything else. The forest was watching, ready to pounce, and the baby was inches from my outstretched fingers.

The ground slipped out from under me and I fell, scraping my palms and my knees. I lay with my face in the dirt, listening to the silence and begging my pounding heart to slow down.

A quiet cooing tickled my ears and I turned my face to see a pair of big green eyes looking back. His mouth was open in a wide, toothless smile, and his skinny fingers reached for me. He was mine.

I sat up and pulled him into my arms. He was so small and floppy I couldn't imagine how anyone could place him down in the middle of the wild. He was silent in my arms and rested his head against my chest. I hugged him close and my cheek brushed his fuzzy blond head. He was my Little Brother. And I would name him Cubby.

We'd been paddling furiously for what seemed like forever, fighting the current as we made our way from the Beginners' Temple. I sat in the front of the little vessel Gorpok Juga had given us—a tiny boat big enough for me, Av, and Fiver—and stared into the distance, wondering how I'd ever complete my task. “Kill Belpheban Head,” Aju Krepin had said, “and you will get your Cubby back.” But how? I didn't know anything about them—where I'd find them, how many there'd be, how I'd do it. I was lost in a world I knew nothing about, with no one to guide me.

“Urgle!” Fiver barked behind me. “Pull in over there, we got to stop.”

I craned my neck round to argue, but when I looked behind me I saw his reason. Av was slumped still, his head collapsed into his chest, drool seeping down his chin. He was getting worse.

“We've got to find some fire moss!” Fiver yelled over the rush of the water. “That'll set him right.”

I slapped the water with my paddle. “This isn't the Ikkuma Pit! Where are you going to find fire moss?”

I turned around and kept on paddling, fighting the water with all my anger. We wouldn't find fire moss in the Baublenotts. We had to keep going.

“Urgle! Look at him!” Fiver roared. “We're stopping.”

I ignored him, pushing my arms to their limits, making up for Fiver's lack of paddling. Cubby was still with Krepin; I had to get him back.

“What is your plan here, huh?”

I didn't have one.

“You don't even know where you're going.”

I'd find my way. I had to.

“Do you want to kill Av?”

My stomach flipped and my face burned. No, I didn't want that. Av was my Brother, my best friend. He needed help.

Fighting tears and trying to swallow my frustration, I nodded, and Fiver and I made our way to shore.

We climbed out onto the soft muddy banks of the Baublenotts, the swampy vegetation engulfing us.

“Help me here, Useless!” Fiver barked as he tried to haul Av's limp body from our rickety boat.

I grabbed Av's arm and the two of us heaved him out and onto the mud, leaning him against a tree. His eyes were glazed and his tongue hung limp in his open mouth, like it was swollen. This was my fault. This wouldn't have happened if he hadn't come here to help me.

I kneeled beside him and reached out to support his neck. “Av?” I whispered to him. “Can you hear me?”

His head wobbled a bit and I steadied him. “Oh, Av. I'm sorry.”

A drop of blood slid down from his forehead, and he tried his best to sit up. That was how Av was, a fighter. I
readjusted his shoulders against the tree, trying to make him more comfortable.

“Av, you're gonna get better,” I told him. He had to. I couldn't do what I had to do without him. Av was the great hunter, the good Brother. “You just have to get better.”

But how? Crow was so far away, and Fiver and I didn't know much about healing.

“All right,” said Fiver, revealing a dagger hidden at his side. “Let's get looking for anything that looks like fire moss.”

“You can't just give him something that looks like fire moss, it might not do the same thing!”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“It could be poisonous!”

“He's dead meat anyway if he stays like this much longer.”

There was nothing I could say to that. My stomach felt sick; it had felt this way for so long, ever since the Tunrar grabbed Cubby from the Ikkuma Pit, and it just kept getting worse. I couldn't remember what normal felt like.

The battle cry of an angry Tunrar sliced through the silence, followed by a chorus of others.

“Blaze,” I breathed.

“What?”

My heart began pounding; the Tunrar screams were so close. “Krepin sent the Tunrar after him.” Fiver stared at me blankly. “Listen to them shrieking. They've found him, Fiver! They've found Blaze!”

“Good. To the Mothers with Blaze. I hope they rip him apart.”

“No, Fiver! Don't you see? Blaze knows this world, knows these people! He'll know how to find the Belphebans!”

Fiver grabbed me firmly by the back of my neck, his face
twisted in anger. “Forget about Blaze and the Belphebans, Useless! We've got to take care of Av.”

I shoved him off me, laughing from the hope that surged through my body. “He can help Av! He'll know what plants are good medicine out here, he'll make him better!”

I didn't know that. I couldn't be sure of anything I was saying. All I knew was Blaze got me through the Baublenotts. Blaze got me to the Beginners' Temple. Blaze knew to ask for Gorpok Juga. If there was anyone who could get me, Fiver, and Av through the rest of this, it was Blaze.

“Urgle, you're losing—”

“What other choice do we have, Fiver?”

He looked away, tired of arguing or out of things to say, I wasn't sure. But he said nothing, staring only at Av.

“All right,” he said finally. “We'll look for Blaze. But if those Tunrar have torn him limb from limb, I'm taking Av back to the Ikkuma Pit, got it?”

I nodded, knowing full well Fiver couldn't risk taking Av all the way back to the Ikkuma Pit alone. He was holding out for Blaze just as much as I was.

The Tunrar let out another shriek, and Fiver's head turned in the direction of the sound.

“Other side,” he said.

My arms felt heavy and my shoulders slumped when I realized we'd have to cross the river yet again. I reached down to help Av up but Fiver smacked my head.

“Leave him,” he told me. “Let him rest; we'll be back faster if we don't have to carry his weight.”

I hesitated. Part of me knew Fiver was right, but when I looked at how helpless Av was now, leaving him alone in the Baublenotts seemed like a risky plan. Before I could
argue, Fiver had already begun hauling the boat back into the water.

“Let's go, Useless.”

“We'll be right back, Av,” I said. He stayed slumped against the tree, giving no indication that he'd heard me.

Reluctantly, I ran after Fiver, leaping into the boat just as the current caught hold of it. We paddled hard, fighting our way across as we were pulled farther downriver. I glanced behind me and the shore was a mess of trees. I couldn't be sure where exactly we'd left Av; I could only hope Fiver knew.

The boat crashed into the opposite shore and Fiver leaped out, his body half in the pounding water.

“Help me!” he said as he heaved the boat ashore.

I lifted my legs over the side and slipped on the mud, landing hard on my stomach. Argh! Useless.

Blaze's belt slipped down my leg, and I readjusted, pulling it tighter than before. My leg began to throb at the wound.

Before I could help Fiver tie it up, he had the boat secured to a low branch and bolted off into the Baublenotts.

My leg still stinging, I got to my feet and followed. It had been a few minutes since we'd last heard the Tunrar scream, and I had no idea how Fiver knew where he was going—but he was going fast. He tore through the heavy undergrowth, sending branches whipping back into my face. I could barely keep up as he barreled on. Av had always told me what a great tracker Fiver was, much to my irritation, and as I tried desperately to keep up, I couldn't believe I was hoping Av was right.

As I plowed through a particularly thick, leafy bush, I emerged to find myself alone. Fiver was too far ahead, I
hadn't kept up. Every second of thought was time poorly spent and I continued on, my feet flying, hoping I'd find him again.

WHAM!

My body slammed against what felt like a wall, my nose squished into my face, and I fell back onto the ground.

“Shh!” Fiver hissed.

He was like a tree. I'd nearly shattered my body when I ran into him, but he stood poised and silent, as unaffected by the impact as one of the Fire Mountains would have been.

I sat silently, my ears scanning through the chorus of birds, insects, water, and other sounds for any hint of Blaze and the Tunrar. I heard nothing.

Fiver took a few cautious steps forward and crouched to the ground. I joined him, wishing that just once I could see whatever a hunter's eyes were supposed to see in the mess of mud, sticks, and leaves.

I saw nothing.

Fiver could tell and he rolled his eyes, tracing for me the vague outline of a footprint. When he pointed it out, I could kind of see, but whether it belonged to Blaze, Tunrar, or something else I couldn't have said.

His finger guided my eyes to a path of minute destruction: a few snapped twigs, several gouges in the trunk of a nearby tree.

As I tried to process what I was looking at, Fiver took off again, sharply to the left, and I was left sitting in the dirt. I jumped to follow but I couldn't see him. I could only follow the swinging branches he'd left behind.