“How’d you get yours off so easily?” Holly asked Noelle.
“I told Edward I wanted to help them find the fortune, and that it wasn’t necessary to tie me up because I wouldn’t run away. I guess he believed me,” Noelle said.
“I saw you shake. Are you okay?” I asked.
“I do that when I dream sometimes.” Noelle looked away like she was embarrassed, so I took the knife from her and returned it to Edward’s belt. Having a knife for protection was probably a good thing, but I’d never be able to use it.
I decided we should keep following the path we were on before we’d camped. We tiptoed around the side of a large tree and heard a rumbling sound.
Holly gave me a look, as if to ask, “What is that?”
“Wait here,” I whispered. I peeked around the tree. In the moonlight, I could see Trent slumped on the ground, sound asleep and snoring. I waved the girls on, and we passed with no problem.
“Wait until Morgan finds out he let us escape again,” Holly said once we were too far away to wake Trent.
“Forget Morgan. Garret will kill Trent long before Morgan gets to him,” Noelle told us.
“Why aren’t you staying to help them find the fortune? You told Edward you would,” Holly said. Her voice was full of attitude. “It’s not like you even cared that I almost died in that stream. You haven’t said two words to us in hours.”
“Sorry, but I’ve been trying to figure these guys out. Like Edward,” Noelle said. “He’s—odd. One minute he’s all wrapped up in his dad and the search, and the next he’s being nice to me.” She kicked a pebble on the ground. Did she feel bad about breaking her promise to Edward by escaping with Holly and me?
We walked for a few minutes in silence. I hoped we were heading toward the park, and the familiar sight up ahead let me know we were. Unfortunately, it was a familiar sight I didn’t want to see. About twenty yards in front of me were the three green, leafy bears Holly had accidentally created on our way into the forest days ago. I froze, hoping the bears wouldn’t be able to see us in the darkness, but I heard them snort. They’d picked up our scent.
“What do we do? We don’t have granola bars this time,” Holly said, grabbing my arm.
“We’ve got to climb this tree and fast!” I motioned to the oak tree beside us.
The bears turned and charged. I pushed Noelle after Holly.
“Hurry!” I shouted, climbing up the tree behind Noelle.
“Bears can climb trees!” Holly yelled. She was having trouble climbing. Morgan’s jacket was weighing her down.
One of the bears was already climbing the tree. Holly was right. It was a good climber. The bear stopped just below me and swung its huge paw at my leg.
“Go higher!” I yelled.
“I can’t! The branches are too thin,” Holly said.
The bear growled and swatted at my leg again. My jeans ripped, and razor sharp claws sliced my skin. “Ow!” Warm blood trickled down my right calf.
Holly squirmed out of Morgan’s coat, almost falling in the process.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“Lean as close to the tree as you can. I have an idea,” Holly said, holding the jacket away from her body.
Noelle and I hugged the tree. What was Holly doing? The bear wasn’t going to chase a coat.
Holly dropped the coat, and it fell on the bear’s head. The bear flailed its paws and tumbled to the ground, jacket and all.
“That was awesome!” I said. I watched the bear wiggling on the ground, whining from the fall.
My celebration was cut short because the other two bears had reached the tree. They fought for a minute, but the larger of the two won and started to climb.
I was about to become dinner, but then I heard a loud noise. I looked down and saw someone hiding behind a big boulder. He was banging a canteen against the rock. The noise startled the two uninjured bears, but they didn’t back away. They advanced on the rock to investigate the sound. I heard wood snapping and saw the flicker of a flame. Whoever it was lit a tree branch on fire and waved it at the bears. The flames licked at the leafy bears, and the one’s nose caught fire. It whined and ran off with the other bears following.
Trent walked out from behind the boulder. I hadn’t thought the sight of a Grimault thief would make me even a little bit happy, but we would’ve been bear food if it weren’t for Trent.
Trent yelled as he stormed up to the tree. “You kids have made me look bad for the last time!” He threw the flaming tree branch to the ground and stomped out the fire.
Holly gave me a worried look and squeezed the tree.
“You can’t hurt us,” I said. “If you do, Morgan will know you let us escape again. What do you think he’ll do to you if he finds out?”
“Yeah, maybe he’ll tie you up and leave you to the wolves,” Holly taunted. I suspected her confidence would disappear the minute she stepped back on the ground where Trent could reach her.
Trent stared at us. Morgan would never forgive him for losing us a second time. Trent needed to get us back to the camp before everyone woke up.
“This is what’s going to happen,” he said. “You’re going to climb down from that tree and come with me back to our camp. Then, I’m tying you up again, so no one will know you escaped.” He took his knife from his belt and pointed it in our direction. “If you even so much as think about telling Uncle Morgan what happened here, I’ll kill you before you can get the words out.” He looked at Noelle. “Got that, sweetie?”
“Don’t call me sweetie,” Noelle growled back at him.
We didn’t have any choice, so we climbed down from the tree. Trent picked up Morgan’s jacket and threw it at Holly. “Put this back on.”
“It’s ripped,” she said as she placed the jacket on her body. A large gash ran down the side from the bear’s claws. “Morgan is definitely going to notice a rip this big. What are we going to tell him?”
Trent thought for a moment. “Tell him you rolled on a sharp rock while you were sleeping. Now come on! We have to get back before anyone notices you’re gone,” he said, shoving us in the direction of the camp.
The others were still asleep, so Trent used new bandanas to tie our hands. He was really rough and tied the bandanas so tight my wrists burned.
“Tight enough for you, sweetie?” Trent said as he tied Noelle’s wrists. She looked like she was about to scream, but she turned and walked back to the tree where Edward was sleeping. Her eyes flickered in my direction before she shut them.
Trent shoved Holly and me to the ground. He sat against a tree facing us and polished his knife with a bandana. I knew he was trying to intimidate us with the weapon, but he was also keeping himself busy so he wouldn’t fall asleep again. He wasn’t going to let us get away a third time.
Chapter Fifteen
Those bears weren’t far from where we were camped. Even if the one burned into a pile of ashes, it still left two out there. That thought wouldn’t allow me to keep my eyes closed for long. When I finally did shut my eyes, I had one of my visions, and I didn’t even try to sleep after that. I was actually happy when Morgan woke up at the first crack of dawn.
He ran around, kicking his sleeping sons. “Get up! We need to get an early start. Today is the day we find my fortune!”
Garret and Edward moaned, but they got up and put on their boots. Noelle sat up clumsily, her hands firmly tied behind her. Edward drew his knife and cut her loose. They whispered back and forth, but I couldn’t hear a word of it. The only one who wasn’t getting ready for another day’s search was Trent. He was asleep against the oak tree facing Holly and me. Morgan was too excited to notice Trent, but Garret saw him and stormed over. He smacked Trent on the side of the head with his canteen. The cap was loose and water splashed all over Trent’s face.
“Ouch! What was that for?” Trent asked, wiping his face with his sleeve.
“You fell asleep again! I’m no
t sure why Dad keeps you around. You’re worthless!”
I elbowed Holly and smiled. Seeing Trent get in trouble almost made up for my hands being numb thanks to how tightly he’d tied them.
Trent jumped to his feet and yelled in Garret’s face, “How do you expect me to search for the fortune all day and stay up to patrol all night?”
“You weren’t supposed to patrol all night. You were supposed to wake Edward for the second shift!”
“How do you know I didn’t? Maybe Edward fell asleep!”
“Don’t lie to me!” Garret said, shoving Trent in the chest and knocking him into the oak tree.
I stepped in front of Holly to shield her if a fight broke out.
“What’s going on?” Edward asked, walking over to Garret. Noelle tagged closely behind him. “Dad wants to get started.”
Garret nodded. “This isn’t over,” he said to Trent and stormed off to his father’s side.
Edward glared at Trent. “What’s in your hair?”
I squinted at the chunky, white goo on the side of his head.
“Oh, it’s owl poop,” Trent said, using his bandana to wipe the rest of the remains from his hair.
Edward gave Trent a disgusted look, and he walked off to catch up with Garret and Morgan.
“So that’s what woke you last night. You were sound asleep when we passed by,” I said, trying not to laugh.
Trent’s eyes burned into mine. He reached into his pocket, and I backed up, afraid of what he might do. Luckily, Garret returned.
“We’re almost ready,” Garret told Trent. “Remove their bandanas before we go. It’ll be too difficult for them to keep up if their hands are tied.” Out of nowhere, Garret turned to Holly and grabbed hold of Morgan’s jacket. “What happened to my father’s coat?”
“Oh, I—” Holly looked to Trent for help.
“You had something to do with this?” Garret accused Trent.
“They tried to escape again last night. I had to get a little rough with the girl,” Trent said.
Holly’s jaw dropped. I nudged her with my foot, warning her to keep quiet.
“Fine. Keep a closer eye on them so they don’t try anything while we’re searching for the fortune. Dad won’t be happy if anything goes wrong, and you don’t want to have to answer to him,” Garret said, and he walked away.
Trent cut the bandanas from our wrists. I waited until he put his knife away before confronting him about what he’d told Garret.
“If you get us in trouble with Morgan, we’ll tell him what really happened last night,” I said.
“The only chance you had to get me in trouble with Uncle Morgan was if he caught us returning to camp last night. Now it’s your word against mine, and there’s no way he’d believe you over me. So, I’d watch the tone you take with me, or you might have an unfortunate accident on our journey today.” I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Holly and me if he thought he could make it look like an accident.
Holly gulped, and I was almost happy to see Edward walking back over to us.
“Dad said you’re supposed to go on up ahead. I’m going to watch them,” Edward told Trent.
Trent didn’t hide his disappointment, but he did what Edward told him. Everyone was ready to start the search again, so we headed toward the park to find the last piece of the treasure map.
“I never should’ve trusted Trent to keep his word. I should’ve told Garret I ripped the coat in my sleep,” Holly whispered.
I looked at Edward to see if it was safe for Holly and me to talk. He was talking to Noelle again. His face was serious, and he was keeping his eyes straight ahead of him. He probably didn’t want his family to notice he was being nice to Noelle. At least Noelle was keeping him preoccupied so Holly and I could talk. “You can’t trust a thief,” I finally answered.
“You can say that again.” Holly’s eyes dropped to the ground. No question about it, she was thinking about Dad.
“We don’t know for sure if—” I didn’t want to mention Dad’s name in case anyone was trying to eavesdrop. “I mean, we don’t know what You-know-who is doing in the forest, so don’t jump to conclusions.”
“He acted just like one of them!” Holly said, forgetting to keep her voice down.
Garret glared at us from up ahead. “Shut up before I shut you up!”
Holly and I bowed our heads and kept our eyes down. After a few minutes, Garret walked over to talk to Edward. Garret looked in my direction once before he and Edward got caught up in a conversation. Noelle stepped away from them.
“What about Noelle?” Holly whispered. “I don’t get her at all.”
“Me either. She’s getting pretty comfortable with Edward, but she tried to escape with us last night. It doesn’t add up.”
“Talking about me?” Noelle whispered, coming up alongside me.
Holly turned away, refusing to acknowledge Noelle’s presence.
“What’s the deal with Edward?” I asked her. “You’ve been talking to him a lot.”
Noelle raised her eyes to mine. “He’s different from the rest of his family. He’s nice, and he keeps Trent off my case.” She glared in Trent’s direction. “If he calls me sweetie one more time, I swear I’ll punch him.”
I nodded. “Edward does seem different than the rest of them. Nicer.”
“It’s hard to explain, but I know he wouldn’t hurt me or let the others hurt me either.” Noelle gave me a half smile and walked back over behind Edward and Garret.
“I don’t like her,” Holly said, stepping closer to me.
Edward and Garret stopped talking, so I motioned for Holly to be quiet. We walked in silence for hours. Garret watched Holly and me so closely that we weren’t able to talk anymore. Our pace slowed. We were all getting tired of the search. Our feet practically dragged from boredom and exhaustion.
Morgan noticed everyone’s attitudes and shouted, “This is a celebration! My fortune will soon be at hand! Let’s have a song!” He was the only one who was still excited about finding the fortune, but the others joined in and sang anyway.
After four verses, I realized I was humming along. Holly gave me a dirty look.
I shrugged. “It’s kind of catchy.”
“Where do you think Dad is?” Holly asked.
“Shh! Don’t talk about him in front of the others. Until we find out what’s really going on, we can’t let them know he’s our father.”
“Don’t worry. They can’t hear us over their singing.”
“I thought I told you two to shut up!” Garret said.
“No, they can’t hear us,” I mumbled sarcastically. I turned to Garret and said, “We were singing along.”
“You should be celebrating. It’s a wonder Dad’s letting you come along. It’s not as though you remember how to get back to the park.”
I stiffened. I’d been hoping no one would notice that. “Actually, I remember passing through here. Don’t you, Holly?”
“Oh, yeah.” Holly nodded, following my lead. “We’re definitely heading in the right direction.”
I was trying to play along so Garret wouldn’t convince Morgan to get rid of Holly and me, and the sound of the growling wolf sticking his head out of the cave up ahead let me know that we really were retracing our steps.
“What do you want us to do, Dad?” Garret asked. He stopped the group and stood face to face with the giant rock wolf. He held up his knife in defense. Edward was behind him, standing protectively in front of Noelle.
“Get rid of it! That’s why we brought weapons!” Morgan said. He was at the back of the group now. Some fearless leader.
“No!” I yelled. “That thing will mangle your puny little knives. We need something bigger and stronger.” I looked at the pile of rocks on the ground near the cave, and I had a feeling it was the remains of the other rock wolf. That must have been some fight Holly and I missed when we ran away. “We need another rock wolf.”
/> Holly wrinkled her forehead. “You can’t be serious! After what almost happened last time?”
“Dad, what do you want me to do?” Garret asked more urgently.
“Create another wolf,” Morgan said, looking me in the eyes.
“You’re taking advice from him?” Trent asked.
Morgan glared at Trent. “I’ve been hearing a lot of negative comments about you lately. You’re falling asleep on the job, questioning my orders, and speaking ill of our family’s fortune,” Morgan counted off on his fingers like he’d forgotten about the wolf that was ready to eat us all. “I’ll give you one chance to defend yourself, or we’ll be feeding you to the wolf.”
I didn’t think wolves—even stone ones—understood English, but this one sure seemed to. It crouched low to the ground, ready to pounce.
“The wolf’s going to attack!” I yelled. I didn’t wait for a response. I stared at the pile of rocks and shouted, “Those rocks look like a giant wolf ready to attack one of its kind.” I hoped I’d chosen my words carefully enough. The pile of rocks shifted and rumbled as they transformed into a giant—poor choice of words on my part—wolf in a low crouch. It let out a deep growl and lunged at the other wolf. Their jaws locked on each other, and pieces of rock flew everywhere. “Run!” I yelled.
No one hesitated. We ran past the cave and didn’t look back.
Chapter Sixteen
I was more than a little surprised to see a bunch of tough thieves running away from a fight. I was even more surprised that Morgan had listened to me, especially since my plan involved creating another rock wolf.
“Uncle Morgan must be losing his mind!” Trent mumbled under his breath.
“Dad?” Garret said in a low voice. “Trent should be punished for his lack of loyalty to you, and I’d be happy to carry out any punishment you see fit. But, I can’t help wondering why we’re taking these kids with us. We don’t need them.”
Curse of the Granville Fortune Page 8
