The Farwalker's Quest (22 page)

“Should we act surprised?” Zeke had paused in his digging to listen.

Scarl's sinister grin set Ariel's stomach aflutter. “I'll try to work it so you
are
surprised,” he said. “I'll give you as many clues as I can what I've told them. But the less you say, the better. Cower and wail and don't fight too hard. If they're looking for you, that's what they'll expect. If they're not, we won't have to do it.”

Apprehensive, Ariel nodded. Scarl released the jar, but his fingertips rose to brush her scabbed cheek. The knife wound had begun to mend, but Zeke had told her it still looked bad.

“Lying is another thing I can do pretty well,” Scarl said softly. “You may start to believe I really have betrayed you.”

She gulped, but her dry throat refused to swallow her fear.

“I won't,” Zeke declared. Ariel looked over her shoulder at him, both grateful for his conviction and jealous of it.

Scarl spun and ran three steps, then turned back.

“One more thing. If I don't return at all …” He peered up at the sun and swore before he continued. “If I'm not here by dawn, retrace our steps through the sand and try to find your way back to Tree-Singer Abbey. That will be your best hope.” He sprinted up the rise and vanished.

“Do you really think he might leave us?” Ariel asked Zeke.

He gave her an odd look. “I wish you could hear the stones rumbling to one another as we pass,” he said, digging again. “If he doesn't come back, Ariel, it'll be because he is dead.”

When she saw where Zeke was digging, Ariel moved closer to the splayed roots of the snag. “Scoot this way,” she said. “We'll be hidden better.”

He studied her chosen location and then joined her. Together they scooped out a nest, settled their backs against the tree, and drew sand over their legs. It would have been fun to be buried alive if the possibilities Scarl had posed hadn't sounded so grim. As it was, the ground sucked at their limbs.

“Have you heard Misha around lately?” Ariel whispered.

Zeke shook his head. “I don't think he likes all this sun. He likes dark places.”

“Like dreams, I guess,” Ariel mused. “Maybe he went back to the abbey.”

“Maybe.” Zeke looked doubtful.

Silence swelled around them again. The sand and the sky spun out together, an emptiness that canceled everything else. Amid too many reminders of death, something stirred in a walled-off corner of Ariel's mind. Gingerly she allowed herself to think of her lost mother: silky hair, work-strong hands, a
quick embrace for her daughter. When pain seeped in, Ariel plied Zeke with questions to distract herself.

“So are you going to be Ezekiel Stone-Singer now?” she asked.

“I don't know. I guess so. Does it sound crazy?”

“Yes. I never heard of a Stone-Singer. Tree-singing is weird enough.”

“It's kinda the same and kinda different,” he said. “The stones are slower. More grumbly. And more … I hear them more in my bones. At home, I just assumed it was trees. Then when we slept in the abbey's goat pen, I told you I heard ghosts, and I did hear Misha. But now I'm certain the rest were the stones of the abbey.”

Ariel's eyebrows jumped. “Rocks in buildings, too?”

“Sure. They think it's funny that we stack them up.”

Ariel studied the grains of sand over her chest. She had enough trouble imagining a talk with a tree. Trees were like people—alive.

“I know it sounds stupid,” Zeke said. “But every time I feel desperate, they help. When Scarl and Elbert were coming to take you prisoner again, the big stone slab over our heads said, ‘Let the men have her. Letting them win for an instant, a blink, is the fastest way to regain your balance.' ”

“Balance?”

“Yeah. Balance is important for rocks. I figured it was good for us, too.”

“It was, I guess,” Ariel said. “But when you were singing back there in the dark—no offense, but I thought you'd gone nuts.”

“So did I, but I didn't have a better idea. And it worked.”

“All right, Stone-Singer,” she said. “I guess you'll be the first.”

Zeke's grin faded fast. “And Scarl seems to think you're the only. Farwalker, I mean.”

“That sounds crazy, too,” she replied. “The only message I have to carry or share is the one on the dart, and I don't know what it is.”

Zeke wiggled one foot, causing a small earthquake in the sand. “The stones don't know what it says, either, or they aren't telling me, so I sure hope the Storian in Hartwater can. But the big boulders know who you are—who we all are. I can hear them mutter about us as we pass. They speak of a great weight teetering with no certainty which way it will fall.”

So the earth itself gossiped about her. Ariel shivered. “Falling any direction sounds bad to me.”

“You're not a rock.”

Glad for that much, Ariel watched night seep over the desert. A swollen moon took the sun's place, and stars pricked around it as the air against her cheeks grew chill.

Zeke asked for the water. They sipped carefully. Ariel's eyes searched the shadowy line of the rise. Surely the Finder would appear again soon.

“The sand is really just a million teeny rocks,” she observed. “Can you ask them where Scarl is or what's happening?”

“Too many voices,” Zeke said. “It's like … I don't know, ants in a pile, or drops in the ocean. They all speak in a roar. If I listen too hard it makes my head hurt.”

A disturbance in the sand nearby caught Ariel's eye. What looked like a very large but half-shriveled spider dug itself out and scuttled toward her.

“Zeke! What is that?” She pointed out the yellowish creature with her chin. Its pincers made her think of a crab with no shell, but it had a sharp tail that hooked over its back.

“I don't know, but it's ugly,” he replied. “It might bite.”

“Stay still. Maybe it won't notice us.”

In fact, the scorpion skittered right onto their laps and paused there, weaving. Ariel held her breath, grateful for their blanket of sand. Luckily, the creature decided they weren't interesting and hurried away into the dark.

Still, it rattled Ariel's nerves. What if another sand creature tunneling beneath them found a leg in the way? She squirmed. Sand cascaded off her.

“What are you doing?” Zeke asked.

“Feeling crawly,” she said.

“Maybe we should try to sleep.” He closed his eyes.

Ariel scoffed.

If she hadn't been scanning for things that might bite, she might not have noticed the dimple in the sand near her knee. She expected another creepy bug to emerge. Instead, the dimple began twirling, grains of sand spinning loose. The dent flipped inside out and rose in a tiny cyclone.

Ariel turned to awaken Zeke and found his eyes open, staring.

“Is it a baby tornado?” she asked. She'd heard that a bad storm could rotate the wind until it lifted boats right off the sea.

Her question fueled the swirling. Sand whipped into the air. She clenched her eyes shut as grains scratched her face. Zeke exclaimed, spitting. Through a squint, Ariel saw the dust devil collapse. The whirling stopped. She'd pulled one hand free to wipe her face when Zeke touched the top of her head.

She turned. Both of Zeke's hands remained buried. Yet Ariel could feel fingers and a palm on her head.

“Hey!” She craned her neck to peer up and back. Nothing
blocked the light of the stars. “I feel this hand—Oh. Misha is here.”

The sand around them dimpled as if poked with a stick. Ariel wondered why the ghost hadn't made his usual handprints until she tried it herself. The sand was too coarse to hold any mark but a blob.

“Maybe I will try to sleep,” she told Zeke. “I can talk to him in my dr—”

A light glared into their faces.

The hands on Ariel in the next instant weren't ghostly. They were rough, and they yanked her and Zeke from the sand. Startled, but mindful of Scarl's instructions, she gasped and protested. It wasn't hard to sound frightened. Her gaze bounced from shadow to shadow, searching for his face. Those nearest her, all unfamiliar, grinned like barracuda—all teeth and no warmth.

When she spotted him at last, her insides went watery and nearly flushed from her body in an embarrassing way. A blindfold hid Scarl's eyes. His hands were thrust behind his back as if they were tied, while a stranger gripped his collar. His plans must have gone wrong.

“Zeke,” she wailed.

The hand clamped on her arm shook her. “Shut up.”

“Some Finder,” laughed the man holding Scarl. He was stubby, his features and hands almost comically large. He cuffed Scarl across the back of the head. Scarl stumbled forward under the blow. “They were right under your nose.”

Ariel looked at her feet to hide any hope in her eyes. Scarl
hadn't told these five strangers the truth. That meant they still had a chance.

She expected to be dragged across the desert, kicking. Instead, the group settled on the downhill side of the snag. The torches they bore soon set it ablaze, lighting a half circle in the sand. Ariel and Zeke were dropped at its center. Nobody bothered to tie them.

The man who'd struck Scarl kicked him in the back of the knees. Scarl dropped to the sand with a grimace. Anger flared in Ariel's chest.

“Take a rest,” the man sneered. “We'll deal with you later.” He jerked his head at one of his comrades, who approached to guard Scarl.

Ariel surveyed the remaining faces. One belonged to a woman. She wore men's garments and her narrow face was weathered, but a long gold braid fell from under her hat. This woman took the water jar from Zeke, drank, and then passed it around to her friends. Ariel's dry tongue, which felt too big for her mouth, clicked in dismay. She and Zeke might as well have finished the water themselves.

“So.” The leader approached Ariel and Zeke. His broad nose and doughy face reminded her of an old classmate's grandpa. If she hadn't just seen him kick Scarl, Ariel would have thought his round eyes looked kind. “My name is Gustav.”

“Tell them the whole thing,” Scarl called. “It's Gustav Fool, if I remember correctly.” He paid for the words with another quick blow from his guard.

“You can call me Gust,” the leader continued. “I understand you knew our friend Elbert Finder?”

Zeke shrugged. Ariel made no response at all.

“Where did you leave him?”

Gust awaited their answer for only a moment. Ariel saw the blow coming and ducked. Gust's palm grazed the top of her head to slap Zeke's ear. Zeke yelped.

“Perhaps that will quicken your tongues,” Gust said. “If not, I can do it again.”

“We got away from him in the mountains,” Ariel said.

“You must be clever,” he replied. “And you've come far without him. Where are you going?”

“I don't know. We were just running away.”

Gust turned a small circle in the sand, pursing his fat lips. “I don't blame you,” he said. “Elbert and Scarl are pretty poor friends. But there are others who would like to help you, you know. I think we can help you, in fact.”

“How?” Zeke demanded. “By drinking our water and beating us up?”

Ariel fought a crazy impulse to laugh.

Gust's fleshy lips found a smile. “I apologize,” he said. “I spend too much time around unpleasant men. No,” he continued, sinking to one knee. “I think we can lighten your burden. One of you has a telling dart, do you not?”

Uncertain of a safe answer, they merely returned his stare.

Quick as a snake striking, Gust clamped a hand on Ariel's ankle and jerked her forward. Sand plowed up the back of her shirt. She couldn't muffle a squeal.

“Answer me.”

“It's not the girl, Fool.” Disdain filled Scarl's voice. “It's the boy. The girl is a Finder.”

Gust froze. His eyes slid between Ariel and Zeke. His hand still tight on Ariel's ankle, he rose, arm extended, until she dangled upside down. Her hair swept the sand. Petrified he
would swing her into the flames, she wrapped her head with her arms and tried not to struggle.

“A Finder?” Gust repeated.

“How do you think she followed us to help him escape?” Scarl grumbled. “I'm not as incompetent as you'd like to believe. She wears her glass on a string around her neck.”

Gust shook Ariel as though pepper might fall from her head. The blond woman moved in, fumbled at Ariel's collar, and drew out Bellam's bead. Its green glass caught light from the fire.

Gust released Ariel's ankle. She dropped painfully in a heap.

“The dart's in that pack,” Zeke said quickly.

Ariel rubbed her neck and wondered how things could possibly get worse. The telling dart
was
in her pack. They were fooling Gust about small things, but the big things mattered more. She was terrified she might have to watch him hurt Zeke, which would be worse than bearing pain of her own. And Scarl could do nothing about it. In fact, Scarl was the one who had put Zeke in her place.

While one of the men rummaged through her pack for the dart, Gust pulled her to her feet. She cowered as he fingered her bead on its ribbon.

“Not much of a glass,” he muttered.

“She's not yet thirteen, what do you expect?” Scarl said. “That little vixen works on raw talent, not training.”

“She'll get a chance to test herself, then.” Gust shoved Ariel into the dark, where she stumbled to her knees on the sand. “Go on,” he ordered. “Find your way home. If you can.”

“She'll die, Gust, before she reaches the edge of the Drymere,” said the woman.

“You think so? Too bad. The world can be harsh.” Gust returned to the fire.

Ariel jumped up and ran before he changed his mind. She headed straight away so they'd think she was gone, and then she circled around to sneak up from the same direction they'd come. Dropping to the sand just below the top of the rise, she slithered like a snake to its crest. With the snag between her and most of the flames, she could spy down on them from the darkness.