“It all ended. Liv’s grandmother, the queen mother, discovered our friendship and threw me in the hunting pit.”
“That’s how you got here.”
“Yes.” She spoke in a stony voice. “It’s hard to believe.”
“Believe what?”
“Liv’s dead. A hunting accident. The queen mother took her hunting. She’d often take Liv out hunting, something Artemis couldn’t do. One day they got trapped in a ring of cretans.” She rubbed a thumb to her trembling bottom lip. “Only their bones were found.”
Grounded into mash for good. Artemis lost her mother and daughter all in one day. I almost felt sorry for her.
“Liv wanted her mother to free all the children. It was our plan.” She sighed again. “Silly to think two kids could change the world.”
Silly. Yeah. The same thing once occurred to me.
“People change, Joshua, and you can’t ever really know someone.”
Yeah, everyone I knew.
Like Leandro. He’d risked his life to save me.
Like Apollo. Who once lost faith.
Like Charlie. Who vaped those guards in the Lost Realm to save us. It’s not our day to die, he’d said then. Could it be now?
Ash whispered goodnight and went off to her own house and bed. Soon, I drifted off to sleep and dreamt of my bedroom on Earth where nothing could hurt me. The safety of home covered me as thick as the quilt on my bed. All too soon it faded to black and cold crept over my body, leaving me with a lonely ache gnawing at my insides.
Chapter Thirty-Four
I spent the next two days working harder than ever. My time was spent hauling water, hunting, washing, whittling arrows, and sewing my own outfit of a shirt, pants, and moccasins from animal skins. My fingers were dotted with sores from poking myself with a wooden needle, but my helper said my work was decent. By the end of the second afternoon, I dressed like everyone else.
Blisters covered the insides of my hands, and every muscle hurt from manual labor, but I was too tired to care, crashing on my cot each night. Here I was a Wild Child. I’d survived the hunt. These kids were my family now—until my Leaving Day.
On the evening of my eighth day in the Arrow Realm, we were eating squirrel stew in the main house when a kid burst in. “Strangers!”
“Scram and cram!” Ash ordered. “Keep on the runabout and stick whatever moves.”
The kids jumped up, nabbed bows and arrows from the wall, and eased out the windows and door. I picked up my bow and pulled out an arrow from the new ones I’d crafted that day, as Ash put a finger to her lips and urged me to follow her. I felt strong and ready to fight.
The kid who’d called out the intruders pointed off to the right. Ash nodded and waved at the others to spread out. Like silent ghosts, they melted into the trees.
Over the planks, Ash and I crept into the murk.
“Keep on the runabout,” she murmured to me. Wild Child eyes darted from the trees around us, waiting for a sign to attack.
A whisper signaled danger ahead. Ash hunkered lower and fit an arrow to her bow. I did the same with shaky hands. This was no rabbit hunt. A cutting wind sliced across my face, bringing the chill of the night while sweat rose under my new animal skins. My heart throbbed faster with each deliberate creak of a branch by someone—or something—out there. A faint moan snatched my breath.
“Show yourselves!” Ash drew back her bow.
Bodies carved themselves between the leaves, moving closer.
“Tree Girl!” a familiar voice called out.
Two faces appeared before us.
Oak and Charlie! They staggered sideways toward us on the planks between trees—and they carried someone in their arms—Apollo!
“Need Moria plant!” Oak rasped out.
Ash sprang into action on a new mission, shouting orders. “Take them to the empty house. I’ll bring the plant!”
The Wild Childs swarmed in to help as Ash grasped a branch and swung into the darkness.
Stunned my friends were alive, I gripped the rope rails and watched them being led away. Charlie’s eyes met mine for a brief moment. He raised his hand but I held on to the rope harder, unable to greet my friend. He dropped his head, illuminated by a shaft of moonlight, before getting folded into the mass of kids.
Apollo lay still as death on a cot when I entered the house where he rested. Lanterns shed a sick green glow in the room. Oak grabbed me in a big hug, smelling of sweat and mud. “Joshua, you’re alive!”
“How’d you get here?” I squeaked out as he squeezed my ribs.
“I hid in a hole in the cave wall when the soldiers came, heard their talk of blowing up the cave, and knew I had one way out of there.”
He let me go and I glanced at Charlie, who avoided my eyes and shifted on his feet as Ash knelt next to Apollo, working on his injuries. “The river?”
“Yep. One guard caught me but I bribed him with Apollo’s coins and jumped right in!”
“How’d you survive?”
He rapped his chest with a grin. “I’m strong as oak and oak floats!”
“For a flippin’ blockhead,” Ash said with a snort.
“Better than being a flippin’ spudhead like you,” Oak teased back, tugging her ponytail.
“I’d be happy to be a spudhead if we could go back home.”
“O Canada, our home and native land,” Oak sang in a low voice.
“Keep our land, glorious and free,” Ash sang softly back.
“As waiting for the better day, we ever stand on guard … ” Oak’s song faded off, and quiet filled the room as he and Ash smiled at each other with a look only a shared country could inspire.
I broke the silence. “And Apollo?”
Oak’s face sagged and he tugged on his moustache. “Smashed up pretty bad.”
“He’s not grounded yet,” Ash said as she stood. “There. I’ve packed all his wounds with the Moria plant. Now we wait.”
I took Ash’s spot by Apollo’s side and put a hand on my friend’s chest. A gash tore down his forehead. A mottled bruise painted his left cheek and jaw. His pale skin felt like ice and he shivered as he dreamed.
“Don’t die on me again,” I whispered.
Charlie cleared his throat. “Joshua, I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run away—”
I nodded. “I get it. I ran away too.”
“I couldn’t live with what I’d done.” His voice cracked and he swallowed hard.
“I know.”
“I’ve abandoned two brothers.”
He was right. A great canyon filled the space between me and Charlie. Was there any crossing it? Uncomfortable feelings came with seeing my friends again—and shame for giving up on them and myself.
“Evil is hard to fight,” Oak said. “You don’t always win but you don’t give up.”
“I won’t give up again,” Charlie said, knocking his knuckles together, an appeal for forgiveness on his face. “Promise.”
A promise is a promise. I guess sometimes friends let each other down, but it’s what you do in the end that matters. If you can’t stand up for your friends, what can you up stand for?
My heart chinked open, letting our friendship back in, and I smiled at him. “Brothers.”
“Friends.” He smiled back.
“Heroes,” a faint voice said.
“King-man,” Charlie yelled.
We all helped Apollo sit. Even in the green light, there appeared new color in his cheeks.
“We thought you died in the river!” I said.
“I almost did. If it hadn’t been for Oak and Charlie here, I’d be dead by now.”
“Sorry … and about your flute,” Charlie said.
“I told you before, it’s all right, Charlie.” Apollo gave him a tired smile. “The flute saved you and that’s what matters.”
“But it was the one thing you had of your mother’s.”
“Not so. I have my memories.” He looked at me. “I got to hear it make music agai
n through Joshua in my kingdom—and I got to see you both again.”
“How the heck did you survive the river?” I said.
“My crate smashed to pieces, and I was hanging on a ledge at the fork when Oak came racing down river and grabbed me—”
“See, told ya this Oak floats!” Oak rapped his chest with a grin.
Oak patted Apollo on the shoulder. “We were lucky to get out of the river alive. I helped Apollo along for a ways, heading for the Lost Realm, but it was slow going trying to keep undercover from rough folks roaming the Perimeter Lands. We holed up for two nights in a cave, hoping Apollo would recover. Instead, he grew worse. We needed the Moria plant to heal him, and the Wild Lands were the one place I knew that had it.”
“How’d you find Charlie?” I said.
“I ran right into him,” Oak said. “He told me what happened and, after I shook some sense into him for running away, said he must come with us.”
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Ha! More like grabbed me by my neck and dragged me with them.”
“I couldn’t have gotten Apollo up and across the treetops without you, Charlie.”
Charlie half-smiled.
“I never thought I’d see any of you again,” I said.
“Second chances,” Ash said looking at me.
“Meant to be,” Oak said with a nod.
“That outfit wasn’t meant to be, Joshua,” Charlie said. “Why wear it?”
I ran my hands over the soft hide of my new shirt, not sure how to answer.
“You’d only wear it if you planned to stay,” Apollo said, sitting up taller. “Wouldn’t you?”
Everyone looked at me.
“You can’t stay here!” Charlie threw a hand out, then let his hand fall and said in a quieter voice. “We’re all together again. You. Me. King-man. Apollo is freed like we wanted. Now we can go back home. Don’t you want to go home? It’s our second chance.”
They’d found their way back to me while I hid away here to forget my old life, including them. In wanting to forget my friends, I’d abandoned them too. I wouldn’t again.
“Sometimes we have to get lost to find our way, right, Joshua?” Oak bent his head to me. “I thought I was dead for sure, by soldier or by river. But here I am.”
“All of us got second chances,” Apollo said. “I can make my way to the Sea Realm now and convince Poseidon to raise an army and defeat Artemis. It’s not far.” He stood and put a hand on my arm to steady himself. “We’ve stopped evil before. You and me, Joshua. We can do it again. Then perhaps my people can see me as their true king. Will you help?”
I didn’t want to let my friends down but couldn’t will myself to respond.
Ash frowned at me. “Are you so lucky, blockhead, that you throw second chances away?”
I shook my head but couldn’t answer.
Apollo squeezed my arm. “You believed in me when I didn’t. Let’s believe in each other now.”
“I do,” I said with truth in my words but doubt in my heart that it could make a difference.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Apollo quickly grew stronger from the Moria plant’s magic, and we stayed up late making plans to get to the Sea Realm. The days here had been a blur, but in counting them, we’d been here well over a week. It’d be less time on Earth as time moved faster here.
The planning continued. Apollo believed that Poseidon and the people of the Sea Realm would be inspired by me, the Oracle, and band together to attack the Arrow Realm. Meanwhile, this hero business sat heavy on my shoulders. I didn’t deny I was the Oracle but nor did I share my recent experience of animal transformation. I pretended to listen to their planning as a different plan formed in my head.
After making the decision to head out in the morning, Charlie and Oak bunked in with Apollo, and Ash went off to a leader meeting to report the new events.
Charlie followed me onto the platform. “I could stay in your house, Joshua.”
I shook my head, wanting to be alone and figure things out. “I’m really tired. I just want to sleep.”
He nodded but caught my arm as I turned. The lantern light through the window behind us cast him as a hulking figure. “How can you do it?”
I pulled away, not understanding. “Do what?”
“Go on?”
“What’s the other choice?”
“Run away.”
“I did. There is nowhere to run to on this world. This is everywhere. You told me in the Lost Realm there was no getting home.”
“I was wrong. You got us home.”
“Not anymore. There’s no getting home this time.”
“I want you to be wrong.”
Silence fell from the little house as Ash and Oak stopped talking.
Charlie leaned against the building and shoved his hands in his pockets. In the moonlight, his squinted eyes bled a sick orange. “I think about someone else being a big brother to my brother, you know? At first it made me mad but now I think … if it were someone like you, I’d be all right with that.”
I breathed in the scent of dewy wood and leaves. “Thanks, Charlie.”
He nodded and went back inside. I headed down the plank path to my guesthouse and tucked myself under the blanket, listening to the goodnights of the Wild Childs. It struck me that fitting in and belonging were two separate things. I fit in here but I didn’t belong here, like Ash said. I was hiding here. Hiding meant avoiding. We weren’t so different, Nostos and Earth people. We all wanted the same things: freedom, family, friendship.
My friends may have gotten second chances … but would they get a third? I couldn’t risk their lives again. Leandro’s journal said the Oracle alone must save Nostos. I must deal with Artemis. There was only one way: command my powers and stop her.
I’d steal the lightning orb back from Artemis, end the spell she was under, and end this evil that plagued Nostos and Earth. Somehow.
Sometimes we have to get lost to find our way, Oak said.
I wasn’t lost anymore.
I opened Leandro’s journal for a sign of what to do. The book fell open to a short passage.
My Homeland
Journal Entry 63 on Nostos
By Leandro of the Arrow Realm
I wear armor from head to toe, my impenetrable Armor that neither sword nor the sharpest of arrow can penetrate. My Armor is as hard as the strongest steel ever forged by a master blacksmith. With this Armor, I march willingly to battle—my fearlessness is resolute. Tough triumphs in the wearing of this Armor—this Armor is my Faith!
With Leandro stripped of his armor, faith would be my armor. I’d claim it for both of us. I threw back the cover and scribbled a short note on bark using Ash’s quill dipped in berry juice. I can’t be the hero you want me to be. Go. Raise an army against Artemis. Don’t try and find me.
My chest ached to write it but I had no choice. They’d have to believe I deserted them. They couldn’t think I planned to face off with Artemis alone. If so, they’d follow and face death again.
I left the note on Ash’s desk along with Leandro’s fire belt. She’d find a good use for it. I changed back into my Earth clothes, took my bow and quiver of arrows, filled my canteen from the jug on the desk, and left the comfort of my friends behind. The dark rushed around me. I dug into a branch while my eyes adjusted to the night, estimating which way to head based on the direction Charlie, Apollo, and I’d first come from out of the castle’s pit.
I couldn’t risk taking the lantern with me. I had to trust my new abilities to navigate the woods to get into Artemis’s castle from up high.
All the tree houses sat dark except the house where Ash held her meeting. A lantern shone from it, and Ash paced back and forth in front of the small window, talking with her hands. She’d get my friends to safety in the Sea Realm.
“Time to scram and cram,” I whispered to no one.
With those final words, I crept away through the treetops. Memory told me it was a few hours journey. After a
while, I huddled in the crook of a tree, exhausted from navigating my way across the Wild Lands and Perimeter Lands. I’d slept fitfully for a few hours, waking up to daylight with a huge pain in my neck from curling up against rough wood.
Twigs filled my lap. In my fuzzy sleep-filled state, I went to shove them off when the words they spelled caught my eye: POWER … WITHIN.
Awake now, I stared at them, filled with comfort. My aloneness seeped away a bit.
Every muscle ached and my head throbbed, but it was time to move on. I drank my remaining water and set off in the canopy of green. I backtracked several times, finding myself near The Great Beyond.
The spires of Artemis’s castle finally poked through the trees in the distance, and a road appeared below. I trusted it’d lead me to the castle and it did. I clung to a tree and watched Artemis ride across the moat bridge with her army into the castle’s courtyard. I searched through the group but didn’t see Leandro. Villagers moved back to let them pass, steering clear of the angry queen who cursed at them as she dismounted. A girl my age peered around the edge of a doorway to watch the royal arrival. She reminded me that Artemis used to have a daughter with the ancient power to transform into animals. Ash’s words came back to me. All she had to do was will it. She wanted us both to be birds and fly away together.
A line of cadmean beasts trotted in behind the soldiers on horseback. I flicked my eyes between them and the girl in the doorway, my idea for a disguise forming. I twisted my way down the tree. The castle grew larger. Its towers pierced the leaves below and the trees curled away from them, as if not wanting to touch such evil stone. Soldiers patrolled the walking bridges between the towers, but no one stood watch on the towers themselves. Hiding behind a burst of leaves, the closest tower revealed a round balcony with a wooden doorway. My way in.
Chapter Thirty-Six
When the patrol faced away from me, I leaped and landed hard on rough flagstone. I rolled to a shadowy corner, waiting for shouts or a warning that an intruder was here. Nothing. My heart slowed and I crept toward the door, trying to lift the heavy iron latch but the wood didn’t budge.
Joshua and the Arrow Realm Page 16
