by Amy Green
“Here,” Jesse said, pointing to Kayne’s home like Silas might not have noticed it. The old shack, sagging and groaning in the breeze, looked less than welcoming, but Jesse knew better. He wanted to get inside. The woods felt darker and more dangerous all of a sudden.
Silas started to enter the clearing, then stopped. “Did you hear something?” he asked, staring straight ahead.
Jesse froze and let the soft background noises of the forest fill his ears, the noises he had heard all his life. Silas was right. Something was different. It wasn’t a sound, though.
“No,” Jesse said slowly. “But I wonder….” He turned around. There was no one there. Nothing moved in the trees except a wing-tipped owl, landing silently on a nearby branch and staring at them. No one is watching us—at least, no one human.
Still, Jesse was relieved when Silas nodded and led them out of the trees. The forest wasn’t safe; Jesse was sure of that. He remembered the mysterious man who had shot Parvel. Silas thought he was a member of the Rebellion, a group sworn to fight against the king. He was dead, killed by Silas’ arrow, but Jesse knew the Rebellion had many members.
What if another one returned to find the rest of us? Jesse shook his head at his thoughts. It can’t be. The Rebellion didn’t know we would return at all, much less when.
They had reached the shadowy building, and Jesse knocked cautiously on the door.
No answer. Jesse’s heart began to beat faster, and he pictured the inside of the cabin, ransacked by Rebellion members who had dragged Kayne and Parvel away. Maybe the Patrol found out Kayne had helped Jesse run away and had taken him to prison. Or maybe….
No, Jesse corrected himself. Kayne is old, and we must have wakened him from sleep. He’ll come.
Sure enough, after what felt like an unbearable wait, Jesse heard the sound of shuffling feet, faint through the thin wood of the door. “Who’s there?” the familiar raspy voice barked. “I don’t have much kindness for those who interrupt the few hours of sleep an old man can get.”
Jesse grinned to himself. Yes. It’s Kayne.
Instead of answering, Jesse opened the door. Kayne stood in the doorway, holding a candle in one hand and a knife in the other, raised high and ready to strike.
“Kayne,” Jesse blurted, before the old man could use the weapon. “It’s me, Jesse.”
Kayne lowered the knife briefly, then stepped closer, prodding the candle at Jesse’s face. “Why, so it is!” he exclaimed, a hint of a smile creasing his wrinkled face. “Ought to have known, it being after curfew and all. Seems you get night confused with day fairly often, boy.”
“Where did you get the knife?” Rae asked, glancing at it with a frown of disapproval, most likely for the crude craftsmanship of the blade. The law of Amarias had forbidden peasants to own weapons. Kayne was no friend of the king, yet Jesse was surprised that he had a hidden knife.
“Made it myself,” Kayne said grimly, all trace of laughter gone from his face. “Didn’t mean to frighten you, but….”
“Never mind that,” Jesse interrupted. “Where’s Parvel?”
Kayne looked away. Then he looked up, and there was something dark and painful in his eyes. “Jesse, Parvel is gone.”
Silas and Rae immediately started firing questions at Kayne, like a barrage of arrows. “Quiet, you fools!” Kayne interrupted sharply. “Would you bring the whole village into the woods?” He motioned them inside.
Although he knew he must have moved, Jesse didn’t remember entering Kayne’s cabin, placing the packs of supplies down or sitting at the table. All he could do was stare in confusion.
The room still looked the same, welcoming and warm with its tapered candles and carefully crafted furniture. Even the smell, dirt and bark mixed with bittersweet tea, brought back good memories. But something felt terribly wrong.
Rae was the first one to break the silence. “Tell us what happened to him,” she commanded. “If he’s not here, then where is he?”
Kayne eased into one of the chairs, his ordinary blustering manner gone. “I kept Parvel in my own room all day, out of sight of anyone who might pass by. Not that anyone did, mind you. It was as quiet as ever out here, even quieter with you gone, Jesse.”
As far as Jesse knew, he was the only one who ever came to the rundown cabin, taking a few minutes in between chores at the inn to visit the old man. For a moment, Jesse wondered what it would be like to lead a life as lonely as Kayne’s. Having Parvel around must have done him good.
“I checked on him every hour, changed the poultice, brought him food. A good patient he was. Never complained, even on bad days. He seemed to get better all the time. Even stopped that muttering of his.” Kayne shuddered. “That was the worst of it, especially in the middle of the night.” He looked up at them. “Then he disappeared.”
“When?” Silas demanded. “When was this?”
Kayne seemed to think carefully about this. “Five days ago. Since Parvel was doing well, I let him sleep through the night without checking on him. That morning, when I went in….”
His voice died off. Rae cleared her throat. “What did you find when you went into the room?”
Jesse glared at her. “Can’t you see that he’s upset?”
“I can speak for myself, thank you,” Kayne shot back. He turned to Rae. “Outside of the room, nothing was out of place. But when I opened the door, Parvel wasn’t in his bed.”
Gone. Just like that, their squad captain had disappeared. But how? And why?
“At first I thought he might be getting a drink at the well, or something like that.”
“Parvel wouldn’t be so foolish,” Silas said.
“I didn’t think so,” Kayne said. “I’d warned him enough. But just a few days before, he’d been a raving lunatic. Never know what those raving lunatics are going to do. I searched everywhere I could think. Didn’t find a thing.”
“That’s all?” Silas asked in disbelief when Kayne stopped talking. Jesse noticed he hadn’t touched his food either.
“No,” Kayne said, shaking his head. “I went back to the room again—I don’t know—maybe thinking he was hiding under the bed. I noticed the sheets were all on the floor, like there had been some kind of struggle. And there was blood.”
Jesse couldn’t stop himself from gasping.
“How much?” Silas asked, keeping his eyes fixed on Kayne.
“Not a lot.” Coming from Kayne, who was the village doctor and had seen buckets of blood in his day, that wasn’t very comforting. “I don’t think Parvel was killed, and that’s not just me being hopeful.”
From the look on his face, Jesse knew that Silas desperately wanted to believe him. “Why?”
“Because,” Kayne continued, “whoever took Parvel left this behind.” He handed Silas a small object.
Jesse and Rae leaned across the table to look at it. It was a gray rock, with flecks of white speckled through it. In the very center was a carving of the king’s medallion, marked through with a vicious, deep X. In the half-darkness of the room, it glowed with a strange white light.
“The symbol of the Rebellion,” Kayne said, though they all knew it. It was intended to make a mockery of the symbol of Amarias, the same symbol that was branded on the shoulder of every member of the Youth Guard.
“Excellent,” Rae said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Now the king and the Rebellion are trying to kill us.”
Kayne stared at her, squinting out of his tiny, dim eyes. “The king?”
“We’ll explain later,” Silas said, tracing the grooves of the rock in his hand, almost unconsciously. “But you should all know that this stone is more than just the symbol of the Rebellion. It is the symbol of the Rebellion in District Two.”
“How so?” Kayne asked.
“Each district has its own distinct customs and way of life,” Silas said flatly. Rae,
Jesse, and Kayne nodded. They all knew that. “Members of the Rebellion—though they share the common purpose of destroying the king—are slightly different in every district. So are their symbols.”
Jesse frowned. “But I know here, in District One, their symbol is the same.” Though people rarely spoke of the Rebellion, everyone seemed to know certain things about it from whispered stories or rumors.
“Not a different symbol,” Silas corrected himself. “Different materials.” He held the stone up. “Rebellion leaders in District Two use the stone of the Deep Mines, common in our range of the Suspicion Mountains. District Four uses the orange sandstone we saw in the Abaktan Desert. District One, known for its farmers and blacksmiths, uses common iron.”
“District Three, home to the greatest forests in Amarias, uses wood,” Rae finished, speaking of her own home district.
Silas nodded grimly. “So you have seen it, then?”
“Once,” Rae admitted. “When the king’s storeroom was plundered and all of the deer taken, I saw the symbol carved on the door.”
“You know an awful lot about the Rebellion, boy,” Kayne said mildly, looking Silas in the eye.
Silas’ fist closed around the Rebellion stone, and Jesse could see his jaw tighten. “Is that an accusation?”
“Not a bit,” Kayne said. “But you young people seem to have a habit of being more than you appear to be. Care to explain?”
The anger on Silas’ face made Jesse shrink back in his chair. But they soon discovered Silas was not angry with Kayne. “I have seen this symbol before,” he said, clenching the rock in his fist. “At the place where they murdered my father.”
His father? Suddenly, all the hateful things Silas had said about the Rebellion made sense.
“So,” Silas said, setting the rock down on the table with a thud, “we know that if Parvel is still alive, he is in the hands of the Rebellion—the Rebellion in District Two, which is far worse.”
“Why worse?” Jesse asked.
“Each district has unique tactics,” Silas replied. “I’ve studied them. Those in District Three, for example,” he said, nodding at Rae, “often steal from the king and his officials. They rarely resort to violence. Not so in District Two. They are ambitious, well-organized, and harsh. They will do whatever is necessary to accomplish their goals.”
“Including traveling to another district to kidnap a lone Youth Guard member?” Jesse asked, not entirely convinced.
“Or kill him,” Silas said. Seeing the look on Jesse’s face, he hastily added, “But if they had done that, they wouldn’t have left a stone; they would have left his body. That would make a far greater impact.”
That reasoning didn’t make Jesse feel any better. Even if Parvel is still alive, how can we find him again?
“I have heard the Rebellion has a stronghold in the ruins of the Deep Mines,” Silas said, as if hearing Jesse’s unspoken question. “It’s very treacherous territory, and few who enter ever return. That is where they would take Parvel.”
There was another pause. “Well,” Kayne said, standing from the table. “I’d best get you some food, then. It’ll be another long trek, and you’ll need your strength.”
“I take it you think we should go after him, then,” Rae said dryly.
Kayne looked at her like she had a stone for a brain. “Of course. While he was here, Parvel was like a member of the family. Reminded me of my own son.” Jesse might have imagined it, but he thought he saw the hint of a tear in Kayne’s eye.
Kayne set his face in determination. “Even if you’re not sure where he is, even if you’re not sure he’s alive, you have to try to find him.”
Jesse glanced at Rae, and she nodded. He knew what Silas’ answer would be. Sure enough, Silas nodded solemnly. “We will go.” He stood up from the table and added, “Tonight.” He kept the Rebellion stone in his hand, gripping it tightly.
Kayne was already rummaging through drawers and in cabinets, finding food to give them for their journey. Jesse just hoped he wouldn’t slip in any of the nasty medicinal tea he sometimes brewed.
“I’ll draw water for our journey,” Silas said. “We’ll travel by the river as much as possible, but anything can happen.”
Jesse did not like the sound of that. But, really, we’re traveling to the hideout of a faction of radical, ruthless kidnappers. Running out of water would be one of the easier problems to deal with.
Jesse glanced over at Kayne. He was digging in the medicine cabinet, muttering to himself and pulling out a small canister of tea. Instead of taking out a few leaves, he put the whole thing in the already bulging sack he held. He must be emptying his entire pantry for us.
“This will be a short visit,” Jesse said, trying to laugh a little, “even for me.”
Kayne stopped and glanced up at Jesse. “Some things can’t be helped,” he said crisply. “You have to go after him. If I thought you’d need an old man to slow you down, I’d go along myself.”
Jesse almost laughed, picturing Kayne stumbling along a mountain path on a dangerous mission into Rebellion territory. Then again, he mused, I have very little room to laugh. I’m not much more than a cripple, and I’ve come this far.
Kayne set down the sack and gestured toward Jesse’s walking stick. Jesse handed it to him, and Kayne held it close to his eyes, examining it. “Hmm. It’s been through a lot, hasn’t it, Jesse?”
Jesse nodded. “I have many stories. Maybe I can tell you if we come back.”
“When,” Kayne said, handing the walking stick back to him. “You can tell me when you come back, with Parvel. Now, if you want speed, you ought to….”
A loud pounding at the cabin door cut off his words. “Open up, in the name of the king!” a voice shouted. “Patrol here.”
Captain Demetri. Jesse’s eyes darted to Kayne. “A Patrol captain is searching for us,” Jesse explained as quickly as he could.
That seemed to settle the matter for Kayne. “Run,” he commanded in a low tone, shoving the sack of supplies at him. “Out the back door! I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
Rae had already stood and grabbed their other bags. Her eyes were wide, but she didn’t make a sound as she followed Jesse to the small door on the other side of the cabin.
“You in there!” the muffled voice outside the door bellowed. “Open up!”
Before he turned away toward the loud voice, Kayne put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “God be with you,” he whispered.
Jesse blinked in surprise. Kayne had never believed in God, at least, not that he knew of. “Now go!” he said, pushing him toward the door.
There was no time to think, no time to wonder. The pounding continued. Jesse took one look back. Kayne was clearing away the extra dishes, all the while moaning sleepily, “Coming! Can’t an old man get his sleep? Or has the king made that illegal too?”
Before Jesse could say his last good-bye, a strong hand pulled him out the door. Jesse almost cried out, until he turned to see Silas beside him. “Into the forest,” he whispered. “It looks like we won’t get any rest tonight.”
Chapter 3
At least in the mountains we can’t leave a trail, Jesse thought wearily as he stumbled along the Way of Tears, the rocky road that led to District Two. That’s better than when we were running from Captain Demetri in…the place with sand in it. He tripped over a rock in the path. The desert. That’s what it’s called.
Even though his body kept going, step by step, Jesse knew his mind couldn’t last much longer. They had been running, then walking, all night, with only one brief rest. Jesse had fallen asleep even in those few minutes before Silas had pulled him to his feet.
“Once they search the place and realize we’re not there, they’ll come after us,” Silas warned. “And if they catch us, they’ll kill us.”
His blunt words had broken through the haz
e of exhaustion that hung over Jesse like fog in the early morning. Fear was what made Jesse keep going, leaning heavily on his walking stick. Despite Silas’ words, he had not seen or heard anyone following them. Not that my mind is very sharp right now.
How do they do it? he wondered, staring at Rae and Silas, who were a short distance ahead of him. If they had slowed since leaving Mir, he hadn’t noticed.
The sky was getting lighter, and Jesse heard the birds begin to come out, like they did every morning.
Morning. They had walked all night.
“Silas, wait,” he called, his words sounding stiff and lifeless even to his own ears. Silas turned around. “We need to rest. It’s almost….” What is it called when the sun comes up? “Dawn,” he finished. “It’s almost dawn.”
“He’s right,” Rae agreed, and Jesse blinked in surprise. I’m right? “We should not be out in the open during the day. We can continue on tomorrow night.”
“But where can we go?” Jesse asked, working up the energy to move his head around. Nothing but the towering Suspicion Mountains on either side.
“Just a little farther,” Silas said, continuing on. “The sign said we passed into District Two.”
The sign. There was a sign, wasn’t there?
“The Deep Mines are just ahead,” Silas informed them. “I know of a place there where no one will find us.”
He and Rae said other things, but Jesse stopped listening. All he knew was that he was not allowed to sleep yet. He groaned and followed the other two, feeling angry with them, but not remembering why. He kept Silas’ words in his mind. Just a little farther.
Most of the “little farther” was blurred in Jesse’s memory. Once, he must have fallen asleep, because his bleary eyes woke to Rae pouring cold water over his face. She helped him to his feet and dragged him along. He let her, because it would have been too much work to pull away.
From then on, he just focused on the bottom of his walking stick, placing it down on the ground, then picking it up again. He found a steady rhythm after a while, until Silas tore his attention away from the all-important task.
