Instead of replying, Audra simply cackled loudly and continued past us, heading back toward the exit of the giant dome.
“I don’t like her,” Darby said, her face scrunched up in anger. In truth, I wasn’t even thinking of Audra. I was realizing just how much I liked Darby. She was right. We were friends. With a smile on my lips, I reached out and patted her on the back.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll get her.”
Darby gave a light chuckle. “Yeah. I shoulda slapped that bucket out of her hands.”
We both laughed at that, forgetting our urgency for a moment as we reached the trees. As soon as I saw them, though, I dashed straight for the hazelnuts, quickly jogging over to the nearest tree and plucking a few fallen ones from the dirt. Darby, meanwhile, had ventured into the row beyond mine, dropping to her knees to collect gigantic, green nuts that looked similar to the ones Audra had gathered.
The buckets we had been given weren’t very big, maybe four quarts in size, but I immediately could see that Darby had made the right move. The larger green things would fill the bucket much faster than these little hazelnuts. They were slightly bigger with their shells on, but I still wasn’t going to find enough of them on the ground to reach the top of the pail. In the failing light, I could make out bunches of them still clumped between the leaves of the tree above me, and I began jumping. I frantically swiped at the lower-hanging branches, trying to clutch as many as I could in my fingers. Fortunately, the more I smacked at the tree limbs, the more nuts I rattled loose from their hold. All around me, they were plopping to the ground, landing with small thuds in the dirt. There was barely enough light to see, but on my hands and knees, I was able to scrounge up large handfuls of them.
When I was roughly two-thirds of the way finished, Darby joined me in the dirt, helping to scoop up whatever hazelnuts we could find. In that moment, I could not be more amazed by her. When she had suggested a partnership, she had truly meant it. She could have easily taken off and left me there to fend for myself, but she hadn’t. She was on her hands and knees with me, picking things off the ground. I once again found myself with the urge to hug her tightly.
As we worked, more of the racers began filtering into the orchards. First was John Deseo, who didn’t even acknowledge us. He simply made his way into the trees and started gathering, using his oversized metal fist to rake across the ground. Next was a man I didn’t recognize. In the dim setting, I could only tell that his pants were a beige color, he wore a bulbous, tan helmet, and he had noticeable mutton chop sideburns. Whoever the man was, he was followed closely by Grace Buchannon, who couldn’t help but glance my way. She and I exchanged looks of mutual distaste as she passed, but we said nothing to one another. I didn’t hate her like I hated Audra, but I still didn’t like her. She was the rich, spoiled princess kind of girl that I’d always been resentful of, after all. She didn’t even need to be in the race, just like Audra.
I urged my hands to move faster. The more contestants I saw, the more panicked I felt. I had had a decent lead on all these people, and now they were all catching up to me. Meanwhile, Audra was getting further and further away. I couldn’t let her get away! Finally, with only twilight remaining, Darby and I finished filling my bucket with hazelnuts and got to our feet, both of us feeling the weight of exhaustion pulling at us. I thanked her for helping me as we hustled our full buckets back to the entrance of the dome. As we got there, most of the workers were filtering out for the night, which created another jam up of people that only slowed us down.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered urgently, bouncing back and forth with impatience.
Beside me, Darby was looking down at her pail. “Who is Willow Timbre, anyway?” she asked.
“I don’t even know.” I replied. I had no idea, truly. The clue in the bucket had said to give the nuts to Willow Timbre, but that didn’t mean anything to me. I wasn’t even sure it was a person.
In front of us, though, one of the workers turned his head and spoke to us. “Willow’s shop is right down on Main Street, isn’t it?”
Darby and I exchanged wide-eyed glances. “Is it?” she asked, directing her question at the worker in front of us.
The worker, who was a tall, thin young man, turned his body so that he could see us. “Yeah, she’s-” as his gaze fell on us, his words caught in his throat. Helmets, goggles, buckets of nuts, it was clear that we were race contestants. Instantly, the man’s eyes went wide and he snapped his body straight ahead once more. Obviously, he didn’t want to be reprimanded for talking to us. It was too late, though. Darby and I had both heard what he’d said. Willow Timbre was a person, a woman, and she apparently had a shop on Main Street, which was right outside of the dome we were under.
Ahead of us, the guy who had slipped up was shoving his way through his coworkers, probably trying to distance himself from us. Unfortunately for him, we fell in right behind him, letting him cleave a path for us to follow. As soon as we were in the out of the arboretum, Darby I broke into a run once again. Without the residual heat of the dome, the night air suddenly felt quite cool across my skin, but I did my best to ignore it. We had more important things to worry about.
Main Street was lit up like a tower beacon. It gleamed so brightly that the rest of the city seemed dark in comparison. Streetlamps buzzed over our heads as we shuffled awkwardly along the crowded sidewalks. Storefronts were also blazed powerfully, spilling out light into the street. It seemed that the Archons were making it easy for the first stop. Either that, or they didn’t want a bunch of contestants scrambling blindly around New Eden after dark.
In our mad waddling, making our way through the townspeople, we almost missed the shop we were looking for. I was weaving around a young boy when I happened to cast a glance to the left. There, with the windows shining like a star, was a shop called “The Weeping Willow”. If the name wasn’t a big enough clue, the small group of people standing around the door was the giveaway.
“Darby!” I shouted, causing her to stop so suddenly that several of her large green nuts toppled to the ground. Together, she and I scooped them back into the pail and hustled across the street toward the shop. As we passed by the crowd of people, I could hear them muttering to each other.
“Darby?” one of them whispered. “Darby Quinn?”
“I need to change my bet!”
“Who’s that with her?”
“She looks familiar…”
Ignoring them all, Darby and I burst into the shop door, cradling our buckets in front of us. The place reminded me a little bit of Alice Butterfield’s shop back in Adams. Various random objects were lined neatly on some shelves by the door, and if I hadn’t been in such a rush, I would have liked to look through them. My main focus, though, was the olive-skinned elderly woman that rested her arms serenely on the glass countertop in front of us. Behind her, there were several barrels full of various nuts, none of which I recognized. In front of those, bushels of seeds and beans sat full and ready to be sold. We were definitely in the right place. As we approached the silver-haired woman, I cleared my throat.
“Are you Willow Timbre?”
The old woman smiled, wrinkling the dark skin of her face. “vous avez raison,” she said, letting the foreign words roll smoothly off her tongue. “That’s me.”
Her accent was one I’d never heard before, but her voice was soft and buttery, and for some reason I imagined that it would be wonderful to listen to her tell a story.
“You have something for me, demoiselles?” Willow asked, her grey eyes sparkling with sharpness.
Darby stepped forward. “Yes, ma’am. We’ve been told to bring these to you.” She lifted her pail of green nuts onto the counter and set them down as gently as she could.
Willow nodded. “Oui, I believe I can be of some assistance.”
She pulled Darby’s bucket toward her and lifted one of the large green spheres from within. It. “Black walnut,” she said immediately. “Eight tokens per pound. You
get a number two clue. Less detail, less information.”
From behind her counter, Willow retrieved a large envelope similar to the one we had received at the start of the race. She placed it on the countertop and slid it towards Darby, who reached over to take it. As she did, though, Willow’s wrinkled, cracked fingers moved deftly up to cradle the hourglass pendant that hung around Darby’s neck.
Willow studied it for a moment, looking almost amazed. Her eyes darted up to Darby’s. “LeJeune?” she asked.
Darby blinked at her, but then nodded. “Yes! How did you know?”
Willow smiled up at her. “Il est tres vieux et tres magique, ma fille,” she whispered.
Slowly standing up straight, Darby swallowed loudly. “Your language is lovely. What does it mean?”
Willow only gave her a wink before turning to me. “May I have yours, chere?”
I was also puzzled by her strange appraisal of Darby’s pendant, but I wanted my clue more. Stepping forward, I plunked my bucket down in front of her and watched her pluck one from the top.
“Ah, hazelnuts,” she said. “Eleven tokens per pound. You get a number one clue. More detailed. More specific.”
Just as before, she produced an enveloped from behind her counter and slid it towards me. With a sly grin, which was missing more than a few teeth, Willow cocked her head slightly to the side. “Say hello to Monsieur Nichols for me.”
“Nichols?” I echoed. How did she know Nichols? For that matter, how did she know me? Did the two of them correspond to one another? Had they once been friends? Or more than friends? I made a mental note to definitely ask Old Man Nichols when I got back to the Gap. I don’t know how long I stood there looking at Willow in confusion before Darby shouted the thoughts of my head.
“Elana, come on!” she called from the door. “We need to go!”
Without any of my new questions answered, I turned and fled the shop, once more running through the group of gawking spectators on the street outside.
“Elana Silver!” one of them exclaimed.
“Holy foxtrot! That’s the Blood Racer!”
“I want a hundred on her!”
I was past them before their words could sink it. Once they did, I wished that I had shouted at them to not bet on me, to save their money. I didn’t want their hopes and - heaven forbid, their livelihoods - riding on me. I had enough to think about, the most substantial of which was catching up to Audra, who now had a marginal lead on us.
Together, Darby and I pressed our tired muscles into another sprint, barreling down the brightly lit Main Street toward the docks. Without the heavy buckets in our hands, we were able to pick up more speed, even with the people crowding the walkways.
My lungs were burning by the time we got to the docks. There was a brutal stitch in my side, too. I didn’t usually run so much, and my body wasn’t exactly in peak physical condition, so this leg of the race was really taking a toll on me. Darby looked to be in the same way. Her mouth was hanging open just like mine, gasping for air as we neared our ships. On the docks, more racers were disembarking into the city. As we passed cradles seven and eight, two familiar faces stood out amongst the citizens and workers. Rigel and Killian were standing in place in front of the Alpha Red, their heads huddled together over the confusing first clue.
“Killian!” Darby called, causing him to look up.
“Darby! Elana!” he shouted merrily. “Good to see you both!”
Beside him, Rigel said nothing, he merely blinked at me as we ran toward him.
“Which way did Audra go?” Darby asked him urgently.
Spinning around, Killian pointed his hand into the dark sky. “She went north!”
“Thanks!” she shouted.
With Rigel right next to me, I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I stopped running and suddenly grasped his elbow, causing him to look over at me in alarm.
“The arboretum,” I told him, keeping my voice low so than only he and Killian could hear me. “Get a bucket full of nuts. All one kind. Take them to The Weeping Willow up there on the main street.”
He and Killian only looked at me, clearly surprised by my sudden offering of help. In truth, even I was surprised. Darby was one thing, but now I was potentially extending my alliance to two more people.
For another moment, they continued to gawk at me, as if wondering whether or not they should believe me. Finally, Rigel gave me a lopsided smile, his teeth gleaming in the darkness. If anyone could tell I was being truthful, it was him.
“Thanks,” he said honestly. In that moment, he wasn’t my competition, he was just my friend again, and I was glad to see it.
I smiled back. “Go!” I shouted, sending both he and Killian sprinting towards Main Street.
“I am in your debt, Elana!” Killian yelled back at me.
Together, Darby and I jogged the last few meters to our respective ships. She stopped before me at cradle three, and I continued on to cradle two, frowning at the empty space ahead of me where the Mistress had been sitting.
Next to my hatch, there was the same young dockworker that had been there when I landed. He gave me a nod as I approached. “Your main fuel tank has been replenished, and the hydro tanks in the back have been refilled. Just so you are aware, you have the option of staying the night here in New Eden.”
“Thanks for your help,” I said, prying open the door to my ship. “But I’ve got to catch someone.”
The dockworker scrunched his lips together to suppress a grin, but nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I’m pulling for you, Elana.”
I paused halfway through the hatch of the Kicker and looked over at him. “You really shouldn’t,” I said honestly.
Still stifling his grin, he nodded once more. “I know.”
With nothing further, I dogged the hatch and cranked the metal handle to seal it. Next to me, I could hear Darby firing up her ship as I plopped into the pilot’s chair and strapped in. Not wanting her to leave without me, I cranked up my VTOL turbines, using only the front ones as I mimicked my takeoff from Rainier. Once again, I felt my insides lurch toward my throat as I performed the graceful backflip off of the New Eden docks, plummeting down into the dark sky below. It only took a few seconds before I was able to kill the turbines, power up my main engine, and climb back up to twelve thousand feet with Darby. Together, we pointed our ships north. According to Killian, that was where Audra had gone. At the moment, she was far enough ahead that I couldn’t see her lights, but if we were lucky, we might be able to catch a tailwind and make up some time.
Darby and I had been so busy worrying about Audra that neither of us had bothered to read the clue that Willow Timbre had given us. Leaning back in my chair, I reached into the pocket of my pinstriped slacks and retrieved the envelope she had given me. I made sure my yoke was steady, and quickly tore it open.
Immediately, a small, metal key fell out onto my lap. I picked it up and looked it over, hoping I would somehow miraculously be able to tell what lock it belonged to. No joy. Grimacing at it, I tucked it in my pocket and removed the small slip of paper from the envelope. Just like the first clue, it was printed in a clean, decorative font, and had been fashioned into a riddle.
“If your compass is spinning, you’ve gone too far. Sixty is all you need. Straight due from Eden, to the frozen star, you’ll have one chance to catch what you see.”
I lowered the clue slowly to my lap. Unlike the first one, I didn’t feel an empty hopelessness inside me. As ridiculous as the riddle was, I felt like parts of it made sense to me. Somewhere in my mind, I knew what it meant. I just needed to piece it together. With an eye on my compass, I centered the needle on due north before turning my focus back to the clue.
“Compass is spinning…you’ve gone too far.” I spoke slowly and clearly, hoping the words would make a bit more sense out loud. I had never been there, but I had heard that if you went as far as the North Pole, a compass would spin. So I at least knew I was going in the right d
irection.
“Sixty is all you need,” I read to myself. “Sixty what?” I chewed my bottom lip, searching my brain for any latent knowledge that might be able to help me. Of course, I found nothing. The frozen star obviously meant Polaris. It was the only star in the night sky that never moved, after all. As a pilot, you learn at a young age how to tell your position of the globe using the stars, and Polaris - or the North Star, as Old Man Nichols called it - was the one that was most crucial to learn. It was one of the things my father had the patience to teach me. I had spent countless nights out on the docks with him, staring up at the stars, learning to identify the different shapes and constellations. Strangely, the thing I remember most was being disappointed that none of the constellations looked anything like their name.
Eventually, though, I learned how to find most of the useful stars to navigate. Polaris was easy, so was the Big Dipper, and I could always find Orion, because Rigel - the star after which my best friend was named - was a part of it. I leaned forward and looked out my windscreen into the purplish darkness. Peering upward, it took me only a moment to find Orion’s belt, and then Rigel, shining blue and white, down in the corner.
“Holy foxtrot,” I whispered suddenly, feeling my adrenaline starting to spike. The stars! That was it! That was the clue! Almost wriggling out of my seat with excitement, I bent down to the hidden compartment under my dash. I needed my sextant, the device that enabled me to take determine my position in the air. I needed to find out what latitude I was. That was what “sixty” meant. I needed to follow Polaris, the frozen star, until I reached sixty degrees north latitude. A straight shot from New Eden, whatever this longitude was, and 60 degrees north, and I would find the next clue.
As I popped open my compartment, the gun that Nichols had given me tumbled out, startling me a little as it fell into my hand. I had honestly forgotten that I’d had it. Luckily, with the race about the start, the inspector didn’t have much time to thoroughly check my ship before I pushed off. He probably would have found this, otherwise, and I’d have been disqualified.
The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1) Page 12
