by D P Rowell
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
Cameron sighed and shrugged, “Well . . . guess we better get some wood and take it back to Rio.”
Ace nodded and helped his brother.
After a brief silence, Cameron spoke, “Hey, Ace, what was on the letter?”
Ace jolted up from gathering branches, “What’re you talking about?”
“I saw Rio pointing at something on the letter to you before I went to my room. What was he showing you that he didn’t read to us?”
“Oh,” Ace swallowed, “Uh—nothing.”
“You know I would never side with the Peppercorns in a million years, bro, but it does seem a little strange. All these secrets between you and Grandpa, and then . . . this.”
“Hey, I know just as little about his disappearance as you do. That completely took me by surprise. In fact, because of the things he’s told me, it was the last thing I expected to happen.”
“What did he tell you?”
“I can’t tell you, Cameron.”
Cameron frowned and grunted. “Why not? Grandpa isn’t even here anymore.”
“That’s not why I can’t tell you. It . . . it . . . it’s more important than that. It’s bigger than that. It’s for your own protection that you don’t know, that’s what Grandpa told me.”
“My protection? What about yours? So, you can protect yourself, but I can’t? You’re younger than me!”
Cameron’s comment made him speechless. His older brother’s reasoning jabbed him like a bullseye. He was hardly the ideal candidate for trusting with such information. He had no clever response, and no real answer. He didn’t even have any answers for his questions.
“I don’t know why Grandpa told me what he told me. But I trust him. And you should too,” Ace said. Cameron scowled at him and returned to his chore.
They spent the next few minutes collecting what they could find on the forest ground and brought it back to the shoulder of the road, where Rio had set up a camp. The Peppercorns had already arrived with, Ace noticed, more branches and twigs than he and Cameron, and Rio had set them up in a teepee shape circled by piles of stones. Their sleeping bags lay around the fire.
“Took you long enough,” Julie said as the Halders approached. Cameron and Ace ignored her and tossed the branches next to fireplace.
Rio started a fire and cooked some small animals he had killed and skinned while the children got the firewood. The night continued in silence. But not the tranquil kind. They ate in silence. Stared into the fire in silence. Cried in silence, and the fire crackled in a wild dance with the tension in the air. Ace remembered plenty of rough days—mostly involving the Peppercorns—this family had before, but nothing like this.
He observed the shared horror in everyone’s eyes; all of them lamenting. Even though the Peppercorns fought their tears, they’d occasionally brush their shirt sleeves to their cheeks when their eyes brimmed.
His mind sifted through all they’d just been through, and his insides caved under the weight of it. He had to find the map Grandpa warned him he might pass up. He had to find a way to convince the Peppercorns he had to lead and protect them. He had to take over Grandpa’s business as a witch hunter. He had to fight the power of the seventh realm. Nothing made sense. Where was he even supposed to begin? The view of the fire distorted through the welling of his eyes, which followed the immense grief of losing Grandpa and Grandma. His stomach rose to his throat, and his heart quivered. He wasn’t prepared for this. Grandpa Marty picked the wrong grandchild.
CHAPTER NINE
Rio’s Grief
The sun had just barely crept above the horizon and peered through the trees. Ace hardly slept all night. A long day awaited him now. He sat straight with distaste at everyone else’s peaceful slumber. It didn’t make sense how Grandpa’s passing left their sleep undisturbed. Maybe for the heartless witches he called cousins. But not for Cameron. Even Rio was . . .
Where was Rio? An empty sleeping bag sat on the ground in his place. Ace stood and looked around. No sign of him. He stepped quietly through the campsite and a faint sound of breathing came from the drake’s bear. He tiptoed to the mount. Sniffling sounds grew more audible with every step forward, he peeked around the bear’s side to find Rio sitting with his back turned, facing the rainforest.
The drake turned and invited Ace to sit. Rio’s sad eyes didn’t take from his confidence. The drake grieved shamelessly.
“How long had you known my Grandpa?” Ace asked as he sat next to Rio.
The drake’s slimy green skin glistened all the more from his tears.
Rio sniffed twice, and his tongue clicked, “So long I can hardly remember, kid. He found me when I was just a boy.”
“Found you? What do you mean?”
“I was an orphan,” the drake wiped his nose, “Ever since I can remember I was living on the streets, eating scraps and doing whatever I could to survive.”
“In New Eathelyn?”
Rio shook his head. “In Adamsville actually.”
Ace shot up curiously. He had always wanted to visit Adamsville. It was the biggest city in Eveland. But Grandpa always warned him of the city’s dangers. He never understood why either. In movies and TV shows Adamsville seemed a life-filled city of glamor and brilliance. Not to mention the irony of Grandpa’s best stories taking place in big cities. His stomach shriveled at the thought of Grandpa again, and he wanted to stop thinking about it.
“Adamsville! That’s pretty cool. I’ve always wanted to go there. How did you end up there? I thought drakes were all from Oola.”
Rio rattled his tongue in a chuckle and patted Ace on the back, “Well, originally, yes. But the different kinds have dispersed throughout Yutara a lot recently. There’s plenty of drakes and jags in Adamsville. However, most of them don’t travel to the smaller areas of Eveland. People in the suburbs aren’t as welcoming to strangers as city folk. I was born in Adamsville, to answer your question; and trust me, it’s not the same as how people rattle on about it.”
Ace sighed. “Yeah, that’s what Grandpa used to tell me.” He remembered the drake in his dad’s office. Everyone treated her like she was a monster; the poor lady. She was awfully nice. She used to tell him stories about the city. “G’raka, a drake lady who worked in my dad’s office in Abes City, she told me a thing or two about Adamsville. She said there’s people who live underground and steal food and cause earthquakes and sometimes suck people in. Mostly just stories.”
Rio chuckled. “I’ve heard those rumors too. Just city lore though. When the Indies first were stationed in Eveland, they suspected those rumors may be witches, but we never found any sign of witches living underground. Turns out they really were just stories.”
Ace smirked. The change of subject seemed to be easing the drake’s grief, which made him feel guilty about asking his next question. Nevertheless, his curiosity persisted, so he needed to know. “How did Grandpa find you?”
Rio scratched his head. He turned his eyes to the sleeping grandchildren, then back to Ace. “Let’s just say I got mixed up with the wrong people, and your grandfather saved me.”
Ace nodded.
“Your grandfather took me in like I was his own child. He taught me how to fight the very evil I was mixed up in. Marty Halder will be remembered as one of Yutara’s greatest heroes.”
“Rio,” Ace whispered, “Why did Grandpa pick me?”
The drake stared into the forest wordlessly, and the wild animals howled in the distance. Seconds passed . . .
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Ace whispered. “He’s never picked the Halders for anything. Especially me. Why trust me with such a huge burden? Why trust me at all? What in the world made him think I would be the best candidate for a witch hunter?”
Or trust me with The Emerson Stone? Or trust me to fight the seventh realm? But he couldn’t say those things, of course.
“I’m sorry I was so cruel to you on your first day
of training. Us drakes can be irritable at times,” Rio replied. Ace was slightly taken by this response, and a little aggravated, as it answered none of his questions.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
“Your grandfather had some wild methods sometimes, Ace. I don’t know why he chose you for this task. But let’s just hope he didn’t take his wild methods too far this time.”
“I guess we’ll find out once we start training again,” Ace said as he shrugged.
“Guess so,” the drake said. He looked around to make sure no one was listening again, then leaned in to Ace. “There’s more than one reason I’m taking you to Gathara, you know. It’s the Capital of The Indies. The best witch hunters in the world are trained in Gathara. If there’s anything you can learn about witch hunting, it’ll be there.”
Ace scratched his head, “I’m kinda confused, Rio. Most people, at least as far as I thought, don’t even believe in witches. And Gathara is known as a fake place in Eveland. Up until yesterday, I thought witches were just a part of Grandpa’s stories. Now you’re telling me not only does Gathara exist, but it’s a city dedicated to hunting down witches?”
Rio sighed and patted Ace’s back. “There’s a lot you don’t know about. You’ve had it all thrown at you at once. Your grandfather had much more to him than meets the eye. Everything about him had some hidden message. I learned that pretty quickly about him. The stories he’s been rattling about to you probably weren’t just stories. The reason people don’t believe in witches is because they are masters of deception. They live amongst us and cast spells right before our very eyes every day. They’re hard to find, and only the most skilled hunters can pick them out in a crowd. They’ve even gotten so skilled as to convince an entire country, namely Eveland, that a real city doesn’t exist.”
“Are you saying I could have met a witch before and didn’t know it?” Ace asked.
“I’m sure you have plenty of times. And if you haven’t met a witch, I’m sure you’ve met a parcel.”
“A what?”
Rio sighed, and before he could respond something rustled behind them. The grandchildren might have been awake then. Too dangerous to keep talking. The drake shushed Ace anchored his weight on the bear as he stood, and looked towards New Eathelyn. The boy stood as well and set his gaze over the mountain. The sun had just climbed above the ocean, and a beam lit up Cameron, who had begun rolling his sleeping bag, in an early-morning orange.
“Rise and shine!” Rio said. Julie and Tamara rolled around and moaned before waking. “Come on now, let’s get going. The sooner we leave the sooner we get to shore. We should arrive before nightfall if we leave now.”
Cameron stretched his arms high in the sky and yawned a big yawn. “Something just came to mind,” he said. “Why did we leave Grandpa’s ship in New Eathelyn? Oola is an island, and we’re going to need a ship to get from here to Heorg.”
Julie and Tamara peered skeptically at the drake. Having already expressed their distrust, Ace perfectly imagined how this unnerved them. But it didn’t set too well with him either. Damion! What about him? The boy remembered Grandpa whispering something to him before they left. Did the crewman know about Grandpa disappearing too?
“It’s quicker this way,” Rio said as he pulled the sleeping bags from under the Peppercorns. The drake kicked piles of dirt where the fire had been and covered the area in twigs and sand. “And your grandfather’s ship is such a strange sight, it could be spotted miles away on the open sea. We’d be a perfect target. A sitting duck. We’ll attract much less attention by taking a drake ship in Myrka.”
“What’s after us, Rio?” Julie said.
“Yeah,” Tamara staggered to her feet. “You keep rushing us and talking about this ‘evil’ chasing after us. But I haven’t seen anything. It’s just a little sketch is all I’m sayin’”
“Oh,” Rio placed his hand over his mouth, “I didn’t realize I was rushing you. I’d just thought that seeing Grandpa Marty gobbled up by fire would be enough to concern you a little bit. I’m sorry.”
Julie teared up, and Tamara pulled her little sister close to her side. “Way to be sensitive, frog boy,” Tamara said.
“Your grandfather didn’t ask me to be sensitive. He asked me to protect you. It’ll be hard to do that if you don’t listen to me.” The drake packed the sleeping bags in the pouches of his bear and hopped on the saddle. He glared at all the grandchildren and began marching down the trail. Tamara sassed him silently behind his back.
“C’mon, we better go,” Ace said as he untied his wolf. He hopped on the saddle, and Cameron hopped on next behind him. Rio was getting ahead, nearly disappearing as he trailed down the mountain. “He’s not stopping.”
“Whatever,” Tamara said. “I still don’t even know if we should trust him.”
“Me neither, Tamara,” Cameron said. Ace scrunched his face in confusion and looked back to his older brother. How could Cameron not trust Rio? More importantly, how could he side with a Peppercorn? “But we don’t really have much of a choice. If you and your sister want to stay back and starve or get eaten by some animal, then be my guest.”
He kicked the wolf’s ribs, and they leaped along the mountain trail. Good thing for the Halders wolves were faster than bears. But Ace hardly paid attention to how fast they were catching up to Rio. For his eyes were glued to the rainforest of spirited teal the newly risen sun now commanded.
The trail twisted and turned down the mountain through the greens and yellows of the Oola Rainforest. The spaghetti vines, now resembling a threaded linen in the full day, allowed the sunlight not but the width of a needle’s eye to pass through. Broad, oval leaves slumped over the sides of the winding trails with a glossy shine.
Luckily an irregular breeze swept by every so often to offer a break from the weight of the muggy air. It blew back his hair and traveled through his shirt sleeves as the wolf huffed and puffed and kicked dirt from the path. Ace liked to watch the moist sand splatter on the glossy leaves and tumble back down to the ground. He looked behind, having to move his head a few times to see past Cameron, but eventually he caught a glimpse of the Peppercorns. They were a good bit further behind, and he was tempted to tell Cameron to lose them. But he wasn’t cruel. Even though he thought the Peppercorns would do it to him in a heartbeat. They caught up quickly. Something about the look in their eyes made Julie and Tamara intimidating. It was the same way they looked when they did anything, really. Determined. Despite all the recent trauma, they still had the demeanor he’d known since he was little. It spoke clearly.
We’re better than you, and we will always be better than you.
Apparently, competing with he and Cameron was still a priority in the midst of having to run for their lives. But what bothered him even more than their determination to be better than the Halders was, ironically, how much it bothered him at all. His heart played tug of war. One side told him being better than the Peppercorns wasn’t important. It told him Grandpa loved all his grandchildren equally, no matter how good or bad they were at some sport or skill.
Yet he still couldn’t shake the daunting shadow hanging over him every moment he spent with them. They really were better than him. At everything. But Grandpa chose him for some odd reason. And as Julie and Tamara mocked them as they caught up and passed by, the boy felt a little determination of his own begin to rise. He was going to prove them wrong once and for all. He was going to shut down the Peppercorns and put the Halders back on top. This was the true reason Grandpa chose him, and he was not about to let the old man die in vain.
CHAPTER TEN
Secrets
An hour’s worth of traveling brought them halfway down the mountain, where trees and shrubs grew more timid. A sharp turn took them to a space visible between a split of the palms. An entrance to a short path ending in a ledge, overlooking a valley. Small stone structures poked their heads from the forest ceiling in the distance, and a hint of purple grazing the horizon’s top layer sugges
ted their journey’s approaching end. Where the beach city of Myrka awaited them.
The trail wound again and brought them back around to the meager valley. A waterfall spilled from the cliffs and into a spring. Ace may have been impressed with it if he hadn’t just spent the past few days in New Eathelyn. This baby waterfall was a far cry from even the smallest New Eathelyn waterfall. Rio pulled off the road by the spring and hopped off the bear.
“We can rest and eat here for a moment,” the drake said. The wolves and bear went straight to the spring and lapped the water. The grandchildren weren’t far behind. They all kneeled beside the spring and cupped the water to their mouths. Except Ace.
The unbearable sun had beaten down on him long enough. He leaped from his wolf and splashed in the pool with a perfect cannonball. The perfectly cooled water wrapped his body in a refreshing sensation. Once his head broke the surface, he swam to the waterfall, opened his mouth, and let the water slide down his tongue. One sip turned to a hundred gulps, and as the crystal pure water continued to slip down his throat, he closed his eyes and experienced bliss for a moment. He heard a few more splashes. His eyes opened to his grandchildren joining in the merriment.
“Man, this feels so good,” Cameron said as he floated on his back.
Julie and Tamara giggled and splashed each other, and Cameron swam to the waterfall next to his little brother.
“Ace,” Cameron said. Ace kept his eyes closed and tongue out towards the falling water.
“Whaa?”
“What did you mean when you said Grandpa picked you?”
Ace jolted his head up and looked at his brother eye to eye.
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh c’mon, don’t play dumb anymore. I heard you talking to Rio up there.”
Ace looked over to the drake with concern. Rio swam on his back while the sun gleamed from his shiny drake skin. He looked back to Cameron.
“What did you hear, exactly?”
“All I heard was you ask Rio, ‘why did Grandpa pick me?’ The rest was all mumbled and I couldn’t make it out. I was kind of half asleep and I thought I was dreaming at first. When I woke up you guys had already stopped talking.”
