The she kicked herself for even thinking that. The Avitras could fly. They could take to the air and cover more ground above the canopy than the Lycaon could cover on foot at full speed. No doubt these guard’s kept looking up because they heard their people in the branches above them. Besides, they’d traveled deeper into the heart of Avitras territory. They could call on their compatriots to help track down the runaways down and recapture their prisoners.
She looked around again, but when she spotted Allen and Tara walking hand in hand, she faced front. Turning around showed weakness. She shouldn’t have bothered. Tara was weak if she had to hold hands with some Ursidrean at a time like this. How would it look if Aeifa held hands with Ari right now, to bolster her spirits? She snorted at the idea of it.
At last the Avitras stopped walking and formed a ring around a tree trunk so wide Aeifa couldn’t see the faces on the other side of it. No trees grew so big in Lycaon territory. The guard’s no longer menaced the group with their weapons, but stood them on their ends on the ground. The young guard nodded to Ari. “Climb this tree.”
Chapter 2
Ari cocked his head. “How are we supposed to climb this tree? The bark is straight up and down.”
The Guard swung his staff up in his hand, but he didn’t jab it at Ari’s neck the way he did before. He pointed the blade at the tree trunk. “There are foot and hand holds cut into the bark. We keep this tree for those who cannot fly. The human women who came to us used this, and visitors from other factions use this tree to get up and down—when they come.”
Ari squinted at the sky. “What’s at the top?”
“Our village,” the Guard replied. “We build our houses in the trees.”
Ari raised his eyebrows. “It must be very tedious climbing up and down all the time.”
“Only foreigners climb up and down,” the young man replied. “We fly.”
Ari nodded. Aeifa shook herself and took a step forward. “Come on, Ari. We’ve climbed enough trees to be able to handle this.”
An iron hand closed around her elbow and pulled her back into her place. She whirled around and found Taman holding her back. “Wait, Aeifa.”
Her eyes flashed. “Get your hands off me. If none of the rest of you will go up, I will. I’m not afraid to climb a tree.”
She tried again to tear her arm out of his grasp, but he was stronger than he looked. His fingers closed around her arm in an iron grip and dug into her flesh. She rounded on him with gnashing teeth when a crash startled everyone out of their wits. The Avitras fluttered off the ground, and Ari and Allen jumped back out of the path of a thick branch crashing into the ground at the base of the tree.
Leaves and twigs rained onto their heads. The Avitras hovered above their heads and gazed down at the branch. It rolled to rest in a cloud of dust in exactly the place where Aeifa once stood. The whole group stared at it. Aeifa sucked in her breath. She peered into Taman with new curiosity. “How did you know?”
He dropped his hand and lowered his eyes with a shrug. “I don’t know.”
She caught his elbow and turned him toward her. “How did you know that branch was going to drop? How did you know it would hit me if I tried to climb that tree?”
He blinked at her. “I don’t know how I knew. Something just told me it wasn’t safe.”
She narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t say anything. He looked different to her now. She always considered the Ursidreans hapless city-dwellers, but they must have retained some primal instinct for Taman to sense that danger.
The Avitras drifted down to the ground. “My deepest apologies. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I wouldn’t have suggested you climb the tree if I’d known.”
“Is there any other way up?” Tara asked.
“I’m sorry, no,” he replied. “We might be able to carry the smaller women, but not the men. You would have to climb.”
Ari chopped at the air with his hand. “We won’t be separated. We’ll all climb.”
No one argued this time. Ari put his hand into the first handhold and pulled himself up onto the trunk. He hoisted himself off the ground and scaled the tree. Aeifa would have gone next, but the fallen branch still dominated her mind. She stared at it, and the pain of Taman’s crushing fingers still burned her skin. Something huge, something untamed and animal and forbidden, lay hidden beneath his mild exterior. Did anyone but she know about it? Had anyone but she felt that hand digging into her flesh?
Tara came forward next, and in an instant, she rose from the ground after Ari. Allen followed her, leaving Taman, Aeifa, and Reina on the ground. Taman murmured into Aeifa’s ear, “I’ll go last.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t say anything. He would go last to separate her and the others from the Avitras. He wanted to protect them.
Reina sucked in her breath. “It sure is a long way up.”
Aeifa turned toward her. “You go next, Reina. I’ll come after you. If you get into trouble, I can help you.”
Reina smiled. “Thanks, Aeifa, but I think I can do it.”
“Are you sure?” Aeifa asked. “It’s a big climb.”
Reina put her hand on the trunk. “I can do it. If the rest of you can do it, I can, too. Besides, what’s the alternative?”
“Let one of the Guard carry you up,” Aeifa suggested. “You’ll get there before us.”
Reina snorted and stepped up into the first foothold. She didn’t climb as well as the others, but she climbed. Aeifa waited until Reina got a good way off the ground before she climbed up, too.
How high a climb was it?. After some minutes of puffing and straining, Reina stopped. Aeifa called up to her from below. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Reina replied. “I’m just taking a rest.”
Aeifa peered into the canopy. “Can you see the top?”
Reina started climbing again. “The sun’s overhead. I can’t see a thing.”
They didn’t talk again. Once, Aeifa looked down toward the ground and spotted Taman right behind her. He returned her gaze with calm attention. Not a bead of sweat marked his face. He paused when she paused and climbed when she climbed. Aeifa couldn’t see the ground or the Avitras beyond him.
Aeifa’s arms and legs ached when Reina gave a grunt and a cry. “What’s wrong?”
Reina didn’t answer. She doubled over with a groan and disappeared. Aeifa hurried higher and found Reina standing on a platform of logs lashed together across the intersection of two branches. Aeifa struggled onto the platform, too. Triumph radiated from Reina’s sweat-streaked face. She’d done it.
Ari and the others stood behind her, and they helped Taman and Aeifa onto the platform. The clear blue sky sailed over their heads, and the sun dried their sweat. The verdant canopy stretched away in a bright green carpet in all directions. While they looked around, the wind shook the trees and the Avitras flew up to land on the same platform. They nodded at the friends. “This way.”
The young Guard in charge walked away across a branch to another platform and onward to a quaint little house set amongst the trees beyond. Tara crossed the bridge first. The others ventured after, one behind the other. Aeifa waited until Reina made it safely across before she crossed, and Taman insisted on coming last again. Before they got to the house, an old man came out and leaned over the balcony. He showed no surprise at all at seeing them there.
The young Guard said something to him, and he stood up straight to meet Tara. He waited until everyone stood on the platform in front of the house before he spoke. “Is it true you come on a mission to negotiate for your factions?”
Tara and Aeifa exchanged glances. Tara shifted from one foot to the next. “Well, not exactly.”
The man frowned. “Then what are you doing here?”
“Are you Piwaka?” Allen asked.
He stood up straighter. “Yes, I am, and I’m Alpha of this faction. If you have some business with me, you had better state i
t quickly, because the Avitras don’t take kindly to strangers invading their territory.”
Ari shot a quick glance at the young Guard standing nearby. “We gathered that.”
“We aren’t strangers,” Tara told him. “My brother and I are the children of Turk and Chris of the Lycaon, and these two twins are the children of Caleb and Marissa. These young men are the children of Emily and Faruk of the Ursidreans, and this is Reina, the daughter of Renier and Carmen of the Felsite.”
Piwaka frowned even more. “Then what are you doing here?”
Ari took a deep breath. “Something’s gone terribly wrong. Our parents vanished from our village, and we were left alone. We decided to travel to Ursidrean territory, but we got lost. We escaped capture by the Outliers to the north, and it was Lilith who helped us escape. She told us to come to you and tell you we’d seen her. She said you would help us.”
Piwaka glared at him. “I don’t know anyone named Lilith.”
Ari faltered. He glanced at his cousins for help. Tara spoke up again. “She said she was the daughter of you and Aimee Sandoval. She said she and her brother got lost when they were barely old enough to walk, and the Outliers took them in.”
Allen murmured to Tara, “Maybe he doesn’t know about the Outliers.”
“I know perfectly well about the Outliers,” Piwaka snapped, “and this is just the sort of tale they would make up to deceive you. You can’t believe a word they say. If you spent any time with them at all, you would know that.”
Ari slapped his thigh. “I knew it all along. I knew we should never have trusted Lilith.”
Tara shook her head. “She was part Avitras. She had small feathers all over her head, and she helped us get away because Aeifa reminded her of her mother. She remembered her very well.”
Piwaka studied Aeifa. “She looks nothing like Aimee.”
The words rushed out of Tara’s mouth. They couldn’t have come all this way for nothing. “She also remembered the circumstances of her initiation into the Outliers, and it wasn’t pretty. She made a special point of sending us to you to tell you where she was. She was insistent on it.”
Piwaka shook his head and turned away. “I can’t help you. You had better go back to Ursidrean territory.” He swept the twin boys down and up again with a cold glare. “That’s where you belong.”
Ari took a step after him. “But Lilith is your daughter. You can’t leave her out there alone.”
Piwaka spun around with his jaw set. “I don’t have a daughter. Aimee and I have no children.”
A gasp went through the group. “That’s impossible.”
His feathers stood out on end and made him look bigger than he was. “Aimee is gone at the moment. She went to Harbeiz to take a message to her cousin Anna. Otherwise, I would call her here to tell you the same thing, maybe she could talk some sense into you. That woman you met was no daughter of mine or Aimee’s. She spun you a yarn about being my daughter to take you in. Maybe she thought you’d make a tasty meal.”
The friends looked at each other. He knew all about the Outliers. Reina sighed. “She lied to us.”
“Then why did she free us?” Taig asked. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Aeifa waved her hand. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t stay here.”
“Go to Harbeiz,” Piwaka told them. “If you are who you say you are, Donen will help you.”
Ari lowered his eyes. “We don’t know the way. We already got lost trying to find it on our own. We don’t want to run into the Outliers again, and Lilith said they would search the trails to Harbeiz for us.”
“That would be another one of her lies.” Piwaka waved toward the young Guard listening to their conversation. “But if that’s your worry, I’ll send Roshin to show you the way. You won't get lost again."
"And the Outliers?" Tara asked. "How do we know they won't capture us again?"
Piwaka shrugged. "I wouldn't worry too much about them."
The group exchanged glances. Tara broke the silence. "Could we stay here?"
Piwaka shrugged. "It sounds like you have a plan to go back to the Ursidreans. You should stick to that."
Tara sighed. "I'm sorry we intruded on you like this. We thought you'd be happy to hear about your daughter."
"I told you," Piwaka replied. "I don't have a daughter. I don't have any children. That woman cooked up that story to take advantage of you. Now, unless you have some other business with me, I'll have my Guard show you the way over the Divide."
Ari turned away. "Come on, guys. We better get going."
Piwaka turned his back on them and said something under his breath to Roshin. Roshin murmured back, but Piwaka chopped the air with his hand and walked away.
Chapter 3
The group sat in a line on the platform in front of Piwaka's house. "We're not going all the way back with nothing to show for it," Aeifa muttered.
"What choice do we have?" Ari asked.
"I still can't believe Lilith lied to us," Tara exclaimed. "We trusted her."
"Maybe you trusted her," Allen replied. "I never did."
"You can't tell me she lied to us," Taig broke in. "If she lied to us, why did she help us get away? I would be dead right now if she hadn't."
Aeifa rounded on him. "How can you defend her after the way she treated you? You should be the maddest of us all at her."
"I should be," Taig admitted, "but for some reason, I'm not. I can't forget the way she talked about her brother and her mother, and that's the reason she decided to help us. She remembered them, even if Aimee and Piwaka aren't her parents, and their memory made her realize the Outliers were wrong. That's why she helped us." He shook his head. "I keep remembering her face. I can't get it out of my head."
Aeifa snorted. "You've got to be kidding me. She's infected you with her insanity."
"Maybe." Taig sighed. "Anyway, we're here, and we have her to thank for it.”
Piwaka came out of the house with a stack of wooden bowls balanced between his hands. He handed them one at a time to the young people crowded on his balcony. “Here you must be hungry.”
Aeifa peered into the bowl at a collection of nuts and seeds she couldn’t identify. “Don’t you have any meat?”
Piwaka gave her a wry grin. “This is what we eat, and it’s all there is to eat in the whole village. If I’d known you were coming, I could have hunted you up something from the forest floor, but you won’t be here long enough for me to bother. Eat this while you can. It might be the only food you get for a while.”
He walked into his house again. Roshin leaned against the railing and glared at them with his arms crossed. Aeifa set her bowl aside. “I can’t eat this. I’ll wait until we get out into the forest again. Then we’ll hunt our own food.”
Allen pushed the mixture around the bowl with his finger. “It doesn’t look too bad.” He took a pinch of nuts between his thumb and finger and chewed them carefully.
Aeifa turned away and gazed out into the endless trees. What were they doing here, anyway? None of this cockamamie scheme to walk to Ursidrean territory made any sense. They should have stayed in their own village, no matter how long it took for their parents to get back. They had food and water there, and all the houses intact. They could survive there indefinitely. If the others listened to Ari when he tried to reason with them, none of this would have happened.
A presence crowded her on one side. She glanced over her shoulder to find Taman moving closer to her. She stiffened. “What do you want?”
“I just thought you’d like some company,” he replied. “You don’t seem very happy.”
“I don’t need company from a puppy like you,” she shot back. “Leave me alone.”
“We’re all worried,” he went on. “None of us knows what will happen to us out here. It’s normal to be concerned. I understand that.”
She shifted away from him. “I’m not worried or concerned or whatever you want to ca
ll it. We’re going to be just fine out here.”
“Just imagine how Taig feels,” he went on. “He almost got killed. And Tara almost lost her brother, and now Piwaka won’t help us the way we thought he would. We’re all on edge.”
She turned her back on him. “You might be worried, but I’m not. Do you think I want you cuddling up to me?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I only thought you might want some company. You don’t have to sit alone all the time.”
She spun around. “Is that what you thought? I know what you really thought. You thought after the way I kissed you in the cave there was going to be some romance between us. Well, you can put that idea out of your head. That game was nothing but a joke. You’re not my mate, and you’re never going to be.”
“It wasn’t a joke,” he replied. “Look at Tara and Allen. They kissed twice in the cave, and look at them now. I’m not so stupid that I can’t tell when people kiss each other and mean it. You kissed me in the cave. You can’t tell me there’s nothing between us now.”
“There is nothing between us now,” she shot back,” and there won’t ever be anything between us. Get that into your head and leave me alone.”
He didn’t say anything else, but he didn’t move. He sat there next to her, nibbling his twigs and leaves, and driving her mad. She refused to turn around again, but she couldn’t ignore his presence. She kept her eyes fixed on the trees so she wouldn’t see him or anyone else.
Piwaka left them sitting there, under the torturous glare of Roshin, for hours. He gave them what food he had and water to drink, but he didn’t dain to speak to them again. The others didn’t talk, either. Allen put his arm around Tara’s shoulders and hugged her against his chest until she fell asleep with her head on his lap. Taig leaned against the railing and closed his eyes, but Ari and Reina remained watchful.
Aeifa seethed in inner turmoil. She couldn’t control her frustration. Everything anyone did tormented her until she couldn’t bare the sight of her own brother and cousins. Why did they have to be this way? Why did any of this have to happen? Why couldn’t they all just live their lives in their home factions? Why did they have to get ripped away from their parents and loved ones, to trek over miles of wasteland for nothing?
The New Angondra Complete Series Page 9
