Karl nodded. “Last summer I was up here every other weekend.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? We could have gone together.”
“I didn’t know you loved the forest so much or I would have.”
A few minutes later Steve and Cindy caught up. Then they needed to rest again. Cindy looked hot and sweaty; Steve was gasping. He dropped his backpack the moment he stopped. Paddy bent to pick it up.
“What’re you doing?” Steve asked the leprechaun.
“He wants to carry it for you,” Ali said.
Steve was relieved and unhappy at the same time. “I don’t want it to get out that I needed help from a leprechaun.”
“Like one of us is going to bring it up at school,” Cindy said, wiping her hair from her eyes.
“Would it be okay if I took your backpack?” Karl asked her.
Cindy had it off in a second. “Sure, if you want.”
Karl accepted the backpack, let it hang on the side of his own. At the same time, Ali took his map and studied it, feeling depressed. Her watch said it was three-thirty. The sun had moved a long way through the sky. If only they had gotten an earlier start!
“We have to pick up the pace,” she said.
“What?” Steve gasped. “I was hoping we could slow down.”
Ali gave the map back to Karl, said, “We’ll take a longer break a mile from here, when we stop for water. Karl and I’ll take the bottles down into the gorge and fill them up. You guys can rest then.”
Steve and Cindy nodded wearily, too tired to debate the issue.
They started out again. Ali reached into her supplies and took out a bag of dried figs. She ate three handfuls of almonds as well, washing them down with some of Cindy’s Coke. Next she tried a chocolate bar—that was the best part. The exercise had her starving. She ended up eating two candy bars. The almonds and chocolate were great together.
Karl was strong; the extra backpack did not slow him down. He kept up the pace. Paddy was not doing too badly, either. He lit his pipe as they hiked, blowing round smoke rings up into the trees.
“Is that safe?” Ali asked. “You said we shouldn’t make a fire. Couldn’t the other elementals in these woods spot the smoke?”
“No one blows smoke rings like a leprechaun,” he replied. “They’ll just think it is one of us wee folk, out for a stroll.”
She hoped he was not lying.
They reached the spot where Karl said they could hike down into the gorge. The slope still looked steep to Ali. The moment they halted, Steve plopped on the ground and closed his eyes. Cindy sat and stared off in the distance with a dull look in her eyes. Only Karl and Paddy were full of life. Karl wanted Ali’s water bottle.
“I’ll hike down with the leprechaun,” Karl told Ali. “That’ll give you a rest, too. Remember, we’re still only halfway to Overhang. And that’s a lot less than halfway to the top of Pete’s Peak.”
“But after Overhang we have only eight miles to the top?” Ali asked, handing over her bottle. She did need to sit down, she feared, her legs were trembling.
“That eight miles will feel like eighty,” Karl said.
Karl left with Paddy. They disappeared into the gorge. Ali sat near Cindy, but her friend had already closed her eyes. Soon Cindy was asleep beside Steve. Their breathing rose and fell with the faint breeze. Ali closed her eyes as well.
A minute later she opened them.
There was a noise behind them, back the way they had come. Thick scampering feet and foul breathing—sounded like trolls to her. Yet the noise was extremely faint—the creatures could have been either far away or else trying to be quiet.
Ali stood, not bothering to wake the others. They looked so peaceful, and she doubted either of them had the energy to backtrack.
All of a sudden she felt stronger. Her muscles were like steel. Was this a crisis?
She started back down the path. Overhead, the clouds had returned. In the absence of sunlight, the forest appeared black and white, empty of color. She wondered if the shade would give the trolls the confidence to attack. She wished she had quizzed Paddy more about the creatures, found out their weaknesses. She thought to shout for Karl and the leprechaun, but did not want to lose the element of surprise.
At the same time she was not scared. Concerned, yes, but she had handled the trolls before. Maybe all they had to do was see her face and they would run. Then again, they might run straight to Lord Vak and Lord Balar and tell them exactly where the stupid humans were hanging.
Ali did not even know if the elf and dwarf kings were in her dimension yet. They might not come through until the moon was full.
“When the moon is straight overhead. At that moment, the moon will begin to burn.”
Such an odd phrase Nemi had used.
Ali hiked down a quarter of a mile, staying on the path. Twice she heard footsteps off to her right, once on the left. But the trees were like curtains, and she saw nothing.
She sensed the creatures retreating at her approach, however. She was not sure that was a good thing. Why had Lord Vak sent elementals through the Yanti before his army? They must be scouts, she thought, or spies. For all she knew Lord Vak already knew what she had planned.
“We could hike all the way to the top and be killed,” she told herself.
Ali hiked back to her friends, but came up off the path, on the right side, to further check out the area. As a result she returned without their knowledge, and heard Steve and Cindy talking about her. Ali was not one to spy, especially on friends, but felt it was best if she knew their true feelings about their adventure. Standing behind a tree and feeling guilty, she listened closely. On top of everything else, since passing the tests of earth and water, her hearing had improved. They were still exhausted, they were talking quietly, but as far as her ears were concerned, it was as if she sat beside them.
“It’s gone to her head,” Cindy was saying. “Ali was never egotistical before but now she talks to me like I’m her slave.”
“You’re not exaggerating a little?” Steve said. “She has a lot on her mind.”
“I’m sure she does. But I notice the last few times she talked to you, it was like she was giving you orders. I mean, it’s not like we’re getting paid to do all this work.”
Steve sighed. “I don’t like it. But we’ve got to support her. Something weird is definitely going on up here. That green guy, Paddy, he sure don’t look human.”
“But is he really a leprechaun? See, we’re not even sure of that.”
“Whatever he is, he gives me the creeps,” Steve said.
“I’m more worried about the trolls, or the bigfeet, or whatever they are. Ali acts like she can protect us from them, but I haven’t seen any signs of her magical powers.”
Steve agreed. “That’s what gets me the most. She keeps talking about stuff that only she knows about. That makes it impossible to argue with her.”
“Why didn’t you tell her that back at her house?” Cindy asked.
“I did. Sort of.”
“Not! You agreed to come on this trip for one reason only. You’re jealous of her and Karl hanging out together.”
Steve got heated. “Why would I be jealous of him?”
“Because he’s good looking. Because he’s got money. Because he’s smart. Because she likes him.”
“She doesn’t like him. She hardly knows him.”
“Who was the first one she called to talk to about the talking tree?”
Steve sounded disgusted. “What was that all about? Karl hadn’t even seen the footprints, and she tells him this totally far out story, and he believes it.”
“Maybe he’s just acting like he does,” Cindy said.
“Like us?” Steve asked.
Cindy did not respond, and Ali felt she had heard enough. Naturally, their remarks hurt, and she was angry, but before storming out from behind the tree and yelling at them, she tried to see the situation from their point of view. They hadn’t actually seen th
e trolls, they had not talked to the tree. Yet she didn’t think she was acting like a princess. Those comments were unfair. But to challenge them on it, she would have to admit she had been spying on them, and that would just cause more hard feelings.
For the time being, for the sake of their goal, she decided to let it be.
Ali hiked back down the path a bit, circled around, then came back up. Steve and Cindy acted like they had just woken up, and she hid her own feelings well. Paddy and Karl appeared a minute later.
Karl had been unable to find his water filter before they left, but he had iodine tablets. He put one in each of their bottles. It made the water taste like . . . well, iodine. But he said it was better to be safe than sorry.
“The water’s probably okay to drink straight but we don’t want to get sick up here,” he said. “The iodine will kill any bacteria.”
“Where did you go while we were sleeping?” Cindy asked Ali.
“Just looking around.” She hated lying but didn’t want to alarm them. If they knew trolls were stalking them, they might freak. She decided to tell Karl later, though. One of them would have to stand watch while the other slept.
Karl stared at her suspiciously.
“Why were you looking around?” he asked.
Ali shrugged. “No reason.”
They resumed their hike. The ground continued to rise; they got no breaks. Once again Steve and Cindy fell behind, Steve in particular. Even without a backpack, he was dragging himself up the mountain. Ali found herself stopping more often than she wished to keep an eye on him. They could not let anyone get out of sight, not with the trolls nearby. Karl continued to push the pace.
Six o’clock came and went. The sun moved toward the horizon; the shadows of the trees lengthened. A couple of times the woods thinned and Ali was able to see all the way down to Breakwater and the ocean. She was stunned to see how high up they were. Her town resembled a collection of toy figures set out on a field, and the sea looked like another sky, only turned upside down.
Even as she watched, the clouds returned once more. The ocean turned dark and Breakwater seemed to shrink further. The higher they went, the cooler it got. She was sweating but she knew when they stopped to camp she would be cold.
At seven o’clock, with two hours of light still left, Steve plopped down and didn’t get up. Ali called to Karl to stop, then ran back to check on Steve. She cursed herself for having talked him into coming.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, as she knelt by his side. Cindy stood above, lost in her own exhausted zone. Flat on his back, Steve had closed his eyes and was breathing heavily. Ali’s earlier anger evaporated. How could she be mad at them when they were working so hard to help her?
“Wonderful,” he said.
“You need to rest.” She added hopefully, “It’s not much farther to Overhang.” Actually, it was another two miles. Maybe Steve knew that. He opened his eyes and shook his head wearily.
“You guys go on, I’ll catch up later,” he said.
“We’re not leaving you,” Ali said. But she could see he was finished for the day.
“What’s wrong with camping here?” Cindy asked.
Karl heard the question as he walked up with Paddy.
“Here’s no good,” Karl said, checking the sky. “It’s too open. It’s going to rain tonight. We’ll get drenched.”
Steve sat up, embarrassed. “If I could rest for ten minutes,” he said.
Ali did not like his coloring; he was a ghastly gray. “We’ve gone far enough for one day,” she said.
Karl crouched beside them. “I’m sorry to sound like a drill sergeant,” he said. “But the less distance we cover today, the more we’ll have to cover tomorrow. Like I said, we’ll be higher up then. It will get even harder.”
Steve struggled to get up. “I can do it.”
Ali stopped him. “No. We’ll get up earlier tomorrow, before dawn if we have to. We might be more used to the altitude by then.”
“People usually feel weaker the second day,” Karl said.
“You’re full of good cheer,” Cindy muttered.
Karl looked up at her. “Excuse me, it’s just the way it is.”
Cindy plopped down near Steve’s head. “It doesn’t matter, I can’t walk any farther. You guys go on, I’ll stay with Steve. We’ll be all right.”
“It might be a good idea,” Karl agreed.
“No,” Ali said. “We stay together. These woods are dangerous.”
“We haven’t seen any danger,” Cindy said.
“It’s here, I feel it,” Ali said. “Paddy?”
“Missy?”
“Do you think it’s safe to camp here?” she asked.
He set down the paper bags and scratched his huge head. “Off the path a bit might be more to my liking,” he said. “Nothing like a shallow cave or a clump of bushes to hide in. Pull up a bed of dried leaves and close the old eyes. Aye, that’s how leprechauns like it.”
Karl stood, unhappy. “I’ll scout around for a place,” he said, and walked off.
“Thanks,” Ali called, before turning back to Steve. She stroked his hand. “Don’t be embarrassed.”
He shook his head. “I hate being the weak one in the group.”
“I like it. It takes the heat off me,” Cindy said.
Ali glanced back the way they had come, down the winding path and the endless trees. She could not see or hear the trolls but knew they were near. Also, she sensed something else approaching—a heavy shadow, like the coming night, if a shadow could be called a thing. Once again, her dream came back to her. The Shaktra had appeared near the end of it, mocking her, calling her out to battle. But even in the dream she had not understood what it wanted, or even what it was. She had only known that it hated.
Ali suspected that it would be a long night.
CHAPTER TEN
They set up camp two hundred yards off the path, in a spot Karl had discovered. The place was partially sheltered, with high rocks on one side and thick trees on the other. It was not a cave, however; it was still exposed in two directions, and already that looked like it might be a problem. A nasty wind had begun to blow out of the east, and because they were afraid to build a fire, Ali worried that they were going to have a cold sleep.
They used the cell phones, called everyone they were supposed to. Ali felt guilty lying to her dad. He was somewhere in New Mexico. He sounded exhausted.
The pup tents Karl had bought were easy to set up. They assembled all four in a row. She felt bad they didn’t have a tent for Paddy, but he brushed off her concern.
“Rather sleep in a coffin than in one of those,” he said.
The sun had set by the time they sat to eat dinner. They brought out a bag of nuts, a loaf of bread, and opened two cans of tuna. Unfortunately, for some reason, the fish tasted old. Ali tried having a bowl of granola with water poured over it—yuck!—and quickly set it aside. She was surprised when Cindy took a bag of barbecued potato chips out of her backpack.
“I should have known,” Ali said. “Give me some.”
Cindy offered her the bag. “I should make you beg.”
Paddy was generous with his beef jerky. He passed around his supply. Ali would never have imagined that beef jerky and potato chips would taste so good together.
Pretty soon they were all chewing away. In the west the light faded, while in the east a white glow appeared. With the mountain in the way, they could not see the moon directly, but they all knew it was only one day shy of being full.
Overhead the clouds wrestled the stars. Looked like the stars were going to lose. The wind continued to be a problem but it wasn’t awful.
When Paddy had finished eating, he opened a fresh bottle of whiskey and filled his pipe. He offered the drink and tobacco to the rest of them but got no takers. Easing back onto a rock, he returned to blowing smoke rings into the trees, a hobby that continued to make Ali nervous. Yet it appeared as if Paddy felt at home in the group.
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“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Karl told the leprechaun.
“It’s okay, I think,” Ali said quickly.
“Others might see them,” Steve said.
“Paddy says they’ll just think it’s a leprechaun,” Ali said.
“Are leprechauns second-class citizens where you come from?” Cindy asked Paddy.
“Don’t understand the question, lassie,” he said.
“Why do you call me lassie and Ali, Missy?” Cindy asked.
“Missy has the power. She’s the boss.”
“Paddy,” Ali said.
“What I mean is, are leprechauns looked down upon?” Cindy asked.
“Aye. Short. Everybody has to look down to see us.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Cindy said.
“What she’s saying is, how are leprechauns treated by other elementals?” Ali said.
Paddy puffed away. “Treated like leprechauns, aye, that is what we are. But if you ask who is friendly to us folk, I say none. Elves take care of elves. Dwarves take care of dwarves.”
“What about the fairies?” Ali asked.
“There are nice fairies. There are mean fairies. Hard to tell them apart just by looking at them. My pa used to say, the only good fairy is a sleeping fairy.”
“Why is that?” Steve asked.
Paddy’s eyes lit up. “When they sleep, you can take their stardust.”
“You mean, steal it?” Cindy said. “That’s not right.”
“They have plenty, why not share some with us leprechauns?” Paddy asked.
“What can you do with fairy stardust?” Ali asked. Paddy had a drink of whiskey before answering the question.
“Many things, Missy. Fly for one.”
“Have you ever flown using the stuff?” Cindy asked.
Paddy thought it was a silly question. “Leprechauns can’t fly. Only fairies fly, and only if they have enough stardust.”
“How does it run out?” Ali asked. “On fairies, I mean?”
“Don’t know, it just does. Disappears quick when they are up in the air.”
“Where does it come from?” Ali asked.
“Fairies.”
“No. Where do they get it?” Ali asked.
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