She tried to push them away and imagine seeing him again, taking him home. With a sickening lurch, she realized she could never take him home. Where would they live? Maybe the Desecrators would give them shelter? She felt something shift inside her, a dropping feeling as though she had jumped from a cliff and down below her was nothing but darkness, uncertainty, and fear. What future did they have?
They had stopped again. Finn went off to investigate the new pathways while, somewhere in the distance, an animal roared. A wolf? A bear? She looked around her, wondering again what was out there, what lurked in the dense mess of trees and rocks.
“This way.” Finn nodded to his right, and they were walking again. Hours passed. The sky was streaked with mauve, and the sun had disappeared. Would they find him before nightfall? A few minutes later, Finn called a halt, and they sat on a fallen tree to eat their meager rations. From his bag, Marlo took bread and a hard, gray-looking cheese along with an apple for each of them. Letta handed around water, and they sat in silence, glad of the respite. As soon as the food was eaten, Finn was on his feet again.
“What time is it, do you think?” Letta asked.
“Evening,” Finn said and started to walk again.
Half an hour later, he stopped.
“What is it?” Letta said.
“Don’t you smell it?” Finn sniffed the air loudly.
Letta inhaled too. “Smoke,” Letta said. “Could it be smoke?”
Marlo shook his head. “Out here?”
“This way,” Finn said hurrying in the direction of the sharp, acrid smell.
A few minutes later, he held up his hand and gestured for them to be quiet. Letta sniffed the air, turning her head to where the wind carried the smell at its strongest. Wood smoke.
Finn hurried them on, moving stealthily. Letta followed him, trying not to make any extra noise. She could hear it now. The crackling of a fire. Finn waved them in behind an enormous oak. Letta leaned against the great tree and looked to where Finn was pointing. Letta stretched her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. A ring of fire. Someone had built a circle of fire in the middle of the forest.
“There’s someone in there,” Marlo said, raising his voice to be heard over the crackling of the flames.
Finn moved forward as far as the next tree. Letta and Marlo followed him. There was someone there, moving around. A small figure dressed in black.
Finn beckoned, and they moved again. This time, they could see her clearly. A small woman in dark clothes. Long hair streamed down her back, giving her the appearance of a girl until the light from the fire caught her face, and then Letta could see the deep lines on her tanned skin and the splashes of gray in her hair.
The woman was pouring water from a rusty can along the line of the fire. In the middle of the circle was a bundle of rags.
Finn signaled to Letta and Marlo to stay while he stepped forward. Letta watched him as he approached the circle of flame.
“No harm!” she heard him shout.
The woman didn’t answer.
“No harm!” Finn said again. “Can you help us?”
Slowly, the woman turned to look at them. “Who you?”
The woman’s voice was rusty, the words struggling out of her throat as though they were causing her pain.
“Outcasts,” Finn said. “Looking for a friend who was banished.”
“And how is it I am knowing that what you say is the truth?”
The woman bent down and picked up a stout wooden branch, the top of which was swathed in cloth. She thrust the branch into the flames, and it lit at once. She said nothing, but Letta could see this was now a weapon.
“It is the truth,” Finn said. “We are not gavvers. We are here to find our friend.”
“How many you be?” The woman lifted the torch, lighting Finn’s face, but her eyes scanned the environment.
“There are three of us,” Finn said.
Marlo took Letta’s hand and they stepped out into the light. Letta could feel the heat coming from the flames and stroking her face.
The woman looked at her. “Who you looking for?” she said.
“My master,” Letta answered. “Benjamin Lazlo. We know they dumped him near here.”
There was a long silence. The woman never took her eyes from them. No one moved.
Then the woman picked up her watering can and doused the flames in front of them.
“Enter!” she said.
Letta followed Finn into the circle.
“Over there,” the woman said, pointing at the bundle of rags.
For a second, Letta didn’t understand. She turned her head slowly to the bundle at the heart of the circle. The bundle moved.
“Benjamin?” Letta crossed the distance between them in three strides and threw herself to the ground beside him.
His face was drawn and gray, half-covered in a scraggy beard. His hair clung to his head, damp and matted. His eyes were closed. She gripped his hand. He moaned, a deep guttural sound that pierced her heart. Instantly, the old woman was beside him. Letta watched as she lifted his head and pressed a small flask to his lips.
“Hush now. Hush, my friend,” she crooned. “All is well.”
Benjamin’s face relaxed. The old woman put his head down on the hard ground.
“What did you call him?” she said without looking at Letta.
“Benjamin,” Letta said, stroking the skin of his hand, trying not to look at the bloody mess that was his fingers.
“And you?”
“Letta,” she answered.
“I be Edgeware,” the old woman said. “Now we need to move him. The fire keeps away wolf and his friends but not for long. They came last night for look. The fire jittered them, so they not stay around too long, but they be back. Their hunger will be stronger than their jittering.”
“We will carry him.” Finn had suddenly appeared beside them. “Where do you live?”
The old woman hesitated.
“You don’t know whether to trust us or not,” Marlo said.
“I want no dealings with Noa’s kind,” Edgeware said. “I rather live here with the beasts. At least they be what they seem to be.”
Marlo nodded.
“I have heard of you. They call you the Black Woman of the Woods. I just didn’t believe you existed.” He smiled. “We have met people you rescued.”
“They save selves,” Edgeware said. “I just give them helping hand. Like this one.” She nodded toward Benjamin. “I couldn’t move him, so I keep vigil with him. I thinking he would die here. Now, maybe no. I be taking you to my dwellin’. Follow me.”
Without a word, Marlo and Finn leaned down and picked the old man up. Letta kept a firm grip on his hand. He muttered something and then went quiet.
Stepping out of the fire circle, Letta felt the cold again. It had grown dark, and the air was now frigid. She couldn’t imagine anyone living in this place. How did Edgeware survive? Where did she get food and water? She glanced at Benjamin. She had thought she would never see that face again.
He had been in her life for as long as she could remember. A steady, gentle presence. Always there, never faltering. It had taken this to make her realize she loved him. He had been mother and father to her, friend and mentor. In the first days, after her parents left, he had distracted her, taking her on long walks, talking to her about his craft. Later, when they didn’t come back, he had started to train her as his apprentice, directing her, giving her a purpose. She’d always thought of him as a stopgap, someone who would take care of her till the people she loved came back. Now she realized he was the person she loved, and he was the person who loved her, and she didn’t want to lose him. She bit her lip. She wouldn’t lose him. Somehow, they would come through this.
The forest thinned out as they walked until they came to a clea
ring. They followed the strange woman across an open field. In the half light, Letta could see that the ground was rutted and covered in a carpet of dense white flowers, making it look as if a heavy mist had fallen on the starved scutch grass.
Before them lay the remains of a village, clusters of deserted houses crouched behind waist-high weeds, brambles, and tattered shrubs, with their eyes blinded and their little doors kicked in. Letta had never seen a place as lonely.
Edgeware led them on till they came to a cottage set away from the others. It was a sturdy little house, with a reinforced wooden door and small windows. Around the perimeter was a dry-stone wall, and Letta could see torches set in the stone at regular intervals. They followed her through a gate in the wall and up the winding path to the door. There, they stopped.
Edgeware lifted the heavy beams that guarded the door, kicked it open, and went through. Then she beckoned them in. The men had to bend their heads to enter. Letta followed, glad to be in out of the cold. Inside was a small room, neat and organized. There was a makeshift bed in the corner, and there, Edgeware told the men to leave Benjamin.
As soon as he was settled, Letta knelt on the floor beside him.
“We need bandage for fingers,” Edgeware said.
Letta could only nod. Her throat felt tight and constricted, and she felt tears prick her eyes.
Edgeware slipped away.
Letta stroked Benjamin’s hand. “You’re going to be all right, master,” she whispered into his ear. “You have survived worse things than this.”
Edgeware came back with a basin and old rags. She took a piece of cloth and soaked it in the water. Then, very gently, she started to remove the black clots that clung to the nail bed. Benjamin groaned.
“Can you take over here, child?” Edgeware said. “I need to get him potion for the pain.”
Letta nodded. She took the cloth and very tentatively started to clean away the dried blood. In her heart, a fire of pure rage was burning bright, but she ignored it, focusing on the work at hand. A few minutes later, Edgeware was back with a herbal drink. She pressed the cup to Benjamin’s lips. He opened his eyes for a second.
“Just drink,” Edgeware said.
As soon as he had swallowed the liquid, he fell back into his comatose state.
“He be right weak.” Edgeware said. “Right weak.”
“Can you make him better?” Letta said, stopping with her work to look straight into the other woman’s eyes.
Edgeware shook her head. “I can nay make people better or worse,” she said. “They do that their own selves. He be an old man. He be badly treated by ignorant people that can nay see themselves for the fools they be.”
“Why would they do this?” Letta asked. “Why?”
The old woman shook her head. “Who knows?” she said. “Maybe he tell us when he be able to.”
Time passed slowly after that. They cleaned his hands, and Edgeware put a salve on the raw flesh.
“What’s in that?” Letta asked, looking at the thick cream clinging to the open wounds.
“Oak bark, lobelia, comfrey, marshmallow root, mullein leaf, skullcap, black walnut, aloe, and calendula in a base of beeswax.” The old woman recited the list of herbs like a mantra.
Letta had never heard of most of them.
“Oak bark be natural antiseptic. Mullein leaves ease pain. I still have small store of beeswax since before the wild bees became extinct.”
“You are a healer,” Letta said.
Edgeware smiled. “If you like,” she said. “Now let him sleep. Sleep be the greatest healer of all.”
Edgeware moved away, but Letta stayed there holding the old man’s hand. In the background, she could hear the gentle hum of conversation between Finn and Edgeware, and she could smell garlic cooking, but she didn’t move. She remembered a night long ago when she was about nine or ten. She had woken from her sleep with a fever. She had called out for Benjamin, and he had sat there all night with her because she was afraid to go to sleep.
She looked at his worn old face, and her heart filled with love for him. He had been through so much. Was it all to end here in this cabin deep in the forest? As if in answer to her question, the old man opened his eyes.
“Letta!” he said. “Letta!”
Chapter 16
#357
Remember
Keep in mind, no forget
“How are you, master?” she said gently.
He looked up at her, the old gray eyes unusually bright. With difficulty, he spoke.
“I have so much to tell you, so many things you should know. I promised your mother you would have nothing to do with politics. It had cost her so much already.”
His eyes had grown dull, and his breathing more labored. Letta shook her head.
“It’s all right, master. Be calm now.”
The old man turned his head toward her, and even that little movement seemed to cost him great effort. She had to put her ear to his mouth to hear him.
“John Noa is not what we thought. He wants to make us all wordless, Letta. Permanently. We would never be able to communicate again. Never.”
A fit of coughing shook the old man’s body, and he lay back on his pillow, defeated.
“What will happen to us?” Letta asked. “Will we become extinct?”
“‘Extinction’ is the saddest word,” Benjamin said. “Noa told me that when I first met him.”
“Why did Noa hurt you, master? Why did he arrest you?”
“He wanted to help me, save me.”
“Save you from what?”
“You don’t understand. In the old days, before the Melting, no one would listen. No one. The politicians just talked and talked. They used words to keep the people in ignorance.”
“It’s all right, master,” Letta said, laying her hand on his arm. “Don’t upset yourself.”
“What Noa wants to do is insane,” he whispered. “I couldn’t agree to it. I don’t want to be one of the elite. I don’t. What have I done, Letta? I trusted him.”
“Don’t worry, master. It will all work out.” She tried to make her voice soothing, but he was so weak, she couldn’t be sure he was hearing anything she said.
He grabbed her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh. “Don’t drink the water. Remember that, child. Don’t drink the water. Don’t let anyone drink it.”
His hand fell away, and he closed his eyes. Soon, he was asleep, his labored breathing replacing the silence. Letta watched him, noticing the deep lines in his face, the gray in his hair. She stroked his cheek, talking softly to him, reassuring him, comforting him.
Later, she walked out of the house feeling shocked and numb. He’s ill, she thought. Why else would he talk the way he is talking? John Noa plans to make us wordless? Don’t drink the water. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Letta!”
Marlo’s voice cut across her thoughts. Letta watched him stride across the yard toward her. The air was heavy. She looked up and saw that the sky too seemed loaded, as if it would soon snow. Somewhere overhead, a bird screeched, and Letta realized how quiet it was. A silence had fallen on the forest, broken only by the moaning of the wind.
“There you are!” Marlo said, putting his arm around her. She shivered despite herself. “How is he?”
“Weak,” Letta said more to herself than anyone else. “He thinks Noa plans to make us wordless. He keeps telling me not to drink the water.”
She looked up at Marlo, trying to judge his reaction.
Marlo shrugged. “Let him rest. Talk to him again after he’s slept.”
Letta nodded.
The day passed slowly, with Benjamin lapsing in and out of consciousness. In the background, Letta was aware of Marlo and Finn coming and going, talking in hushed tones. Edgeware continued to dose him with her various concoctions,
leaving little bottles beside the bed, mixing potions that filled the house with strange smells, but nothing seemed to help.
“He be an old man,” Edgeware said to Letta. “You can nay expect too much. Old people get tired, you know. After a while, they nay care so much.”
“But he will get better.” Letta pushed her.
“Perhaps,” Edgeware said, but Letta didn’t like what she saw in her eyes.
As night fell like a thick blanket, Letta again went to sit with Benjamin. Edgeware bandaged his hands again and left a noxious brew for him to drink when he woke.
“I sleep now,” she said to Letta. “I come to you in a few hours. Call me if you be jittered. The wolves might come close to the house. You’ll hear them, but Finn lit the torches outside earlier. That will keep them at bay.”
“Thank you for everything,” Letta said. “I still don’t understand why you’ve done all this for us.”
The old woman sighed. “I can nay do much for your kind,” she said. “But I try to show them that there are people who can behave like humans were meant to behave. I remember the old days. The human race made a lot of mistakes, but we did good things too. We had minds of our own. We made decisions. It wasn’t all bad.”
Before Letta could say anything, the old woman turned and left the room. Letta went over and sat beside Benjamin. His breath was coming in soft little gasps like the rabbits Letta had seen in the wheat fields as a child.
Soft, little puffs of air.
Outside, she thought she could hear moaning. It could be wolves gathering, she thought. Or maybe the wind.
That night, Edgeware had insisted Letta sleep for a few hours while she kept watch, and to her own surprise, Letta had slept. When she returned, she found Edgeward nodding by the bed, her chin bouncing gently on her chest. Letta had sent Edgeware to her bed and resumed her vigil. The old man had been restless but had not regained consciousness until he woke just before dawn.
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