“Merrilu!”
Mary Lou turned her head to see a small cluster of the People waving at her. They had finally noticed that she was standing.
“Prince,” she said as she turned back to him. But he was gone. “Merrilu! Merrilu! Merrilu!”
The People gathered together in the middle of the platform, calling to her but waiting before they approached.
The crowd parted, and their Chieftain, complete with his many-colored beads of office, walked in front of them. He approached her, and the rest of the People followed. They called her name over and over again.
She tried to smile at the approaching entourage, but couldn’t help feeling disappointed. She and the prince had barely begun to get to know each other.
“Hello again,” the prince’s voice said at her side.
She turned to him. She wouldn’t have any trouble smiling now. He came back so quickly. Was it her thoughts that had brought him back?
“The People have called me this time,” he explained quietly. “Now I have a job to do.”
And, Mary Lou realized, she had something to explain to the People as well.
“First,” the prince began, “I extend a morning greeting from the tribe. They are very happy that you could be with them.”
“You should thank them for coming to my rescue last night,” Mary Lou replied. “It was a very confusing situation. Dangerous, too. But—”
She hesitated, unsure how to put what she wanted into words. “But?” the prince repeated gently.
“But not all of those on the forest floor were my enemies. Some of those I saw last night were my friends. Friends that I very much would like to see again.”
The prince nodded, and then paused for a second, as if listening. At last he added: “The People want to make sure you know how pleased they are that you have chosen to join their tribe.”
Mary Lou nodded, smiling at the Chieftain and those around him.
She still hadn’t let them know what she really wanted.
“But you have to understand,” she added quickly, “I need to find my friends again.”
The prince frowned slightly, then remarked: “Nothing could have been better than your arrival at this most propitious of times.”
“But I can’t stay here,” Mary Lou said a bit more forcefully. “I need to find the people whom I came here with.”
“It is so important that you arrived now, before the Ceremony,” was the prince’s answer. “Nothing else would have done.”
“Why aren’t they answering me?” Mary Lou asked. “Don’t they know that I want to leave?” She almost felt like screaming at the People again.
“Merrilu!” the People cheered.
The prince spread his hands in a gesture of total helplessness. “I am trying to tell them, the best that I know how. They seem incapable of understanding. Or maybe they simply don’t want to.” She felt calmer the minute the prince talked to her in his own words. “It has something to do with this Ceremony?” she asked. “What kind of ceremony?”
“It is a great event,” the prince explained with a frown. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt this excitement in the People over something that was yet to come.”
He looked over at the quiet yet expectant crowd. “They do get excited when their hunters return with a kill, or when they have a victory like the one of the day before. But the People never seemed to plan for their future. Their lives always seemed as timeless as my own existence, until you came along.” He turned back to Mary Lou. “But this Ceremony? I don’t know a thing about it. It has never happened in all the time I have been here. Maybe they had to wait for someone like you before it could occur.”
And, she thought but didn’t say aloud, now that they had found her, they weren’t going to let her go.
She didn’t know what to do. She knew that Todd was somewhere in this part of the forest. Maybe other neighbors were out there, too.
She remembered again what Nunn had told her. She seemed to have a purpose in this place, far greater than anything she had ever had at home. Or so everybody said. She wished she could learn what it was for herself, beyond Nunn’s plans and the People’s ceremonies. And, she realized, she didn’t want to wait around for the People’s wishes any more than she wanted to satisfy Nunn.
If the opportunity presented itself, she might have to try to contact Todd and the others on her own. She might have to leave this place without the People’s permission. For some reason, that made her feel guilty.
She looked back to the Chieftain again and did her best to smile. But her mind was turning over everything that had happened. She wondered if Todd had seen her in the trees. She wondered if the others were searching for her now.
She looked over at her companion, his bright robes turned to pastel by the morning sun. She seemed to have broken through whatever spell or curse the prince was under. He said his life would come back to him slowly. And she wanted to be there to share it with him.
She could feel her heart beating quickly in her chest. Maybe, Mary Lou thought, when she left, she wouldn’t have to face this world alone.
Maybe the two of them could leave together.
Twenty-Six
Todd didn’t like the silence. Back home, this kind of quiet meant there was going to be a fight.
“So how do we rescue this—Nick?” Thomas asked abruptly, as if he had decided to cooperate for all of the Volunteers.
“I should be able to do it,” Obar replied, “as soon as Nunn turns his attention elsewhere.”
Wilbert laughed. “So what do you need us for?”
“I need you to find the Anno,” Obar replied simply. “We have to rescue the girl, too. Mary Lou. The only way we’re going to win is if we work together—the way we did before.”
“Oh, there we have it at last,” Wilbert said as he shook his head. “There’s something else you can’t do. I knew the little creatures were talented. So the Anno really are wizard-proof?”
“I can no longer see them,” Obar admitted. “They seem to have found a way to deaden my spells.”
“We can find them, easily enough,” Stanley volunteered as he looked up at the trees. “Wouldn’t be surprised if they were closer than you think, hey?”
Obar started. “Nunn is letting down his guard. There he is. Nick, I mean. He’s been fighting the wolves. I’ll only be a minute.”
The wizard light blinked out as Obar disappeared.
“Gone again,” Stanley said. He paused a moment to spit. “You sure this is such a good idea, hey?”
“Admit it, mate,” Wilbert replied gruffly. “You were getting tired of day-to-day survival, anyway. Besides, how much sand lizard can a person eat?”
“Mary Lou,” Thomas said as he moved silently off into the darkness.
“Let’s go meet our fate,” Wilbert agreed as he followed Thomas down the path. “Bobby and Todd, my boys, I trust you know your way around a knife.”
What did he mean by that? Todd had played around with a switchblade for a little while, but never in a fight. Before this, he’d never used anything but his fists. Maggie followed Wilbert, and Stanley waved for the boys to follow.
“Maggie’s good at this,” Wilbert went on. “She’ll show you how to get in close, slash ’em quick.”
“What’s that?” Maggie said, as if she wasn’t really listening. “What are you talking about? I can’t really train the boys in the dark, can I?”
“Then they’ll have to learn on the job, like the rest of us.” Wilbert laughed. “You see, fellows, the Anno don’t trust the four of us much. Comes from certain disagreements in the past.”
“And the fact that they’re filthy, murdering swine!” Stanley added. “Well, that, too,” Wilbert allowed. “The Anno recognize the four of us. And they know how hard we are to take advantage of.”
“That’s where they come in?” Maggie asked.
“We need bait,” Wilbert agreed jovially. “Newcomer bait.”
This time Stanley lau
ghed. “Against the Anno. Bobby and Todd, you got my respect, hey? You folks are about to become full-fledged Volunteers!”
“Geesh, Todd, what are they going to have us do?” Bobby asked softly, as if there was any way Todd could know what was going on.
“Enough talk,” Thomas ordered from the front of the line. “Gettin’ close.”
Todd didn’t like this silence any more than the earlier one.
Even the greatest wizard in all the seven islands would have to sleep.
Nunn laughed, half from the feeling of power within, half from the giddiness of exhaustion. Furlong’s energy had revitalized him, given him the kind of warmth he could only get from those fully alive. But he had so many uses for that living energy, and that small portion of him that held onto its humanity needed regeneration as well.
There were so many things to control. –Too many, perhaps. Even when the two dragon eyes—his two eyes, more a part of him now than those feeble orbs in his skull—even when the eyes would let him split his consciousness in two, it was not enough. So many pieces, and all had to be manipulated before the dragon arose to reclaim his seven jewels.
And that pitiful woman—that meddling woman—Smith. Oh, she had a certain raw power, which was undeniable. She might become a formidable foe if given time to learn the arts. But it was time that Nunn was not ready to give. Soon, after he had rested, he would gather his awareness into a single sphere and cause the old crone to wither in front of all the others. Nunn chuckled. Oh, yes, that would be most pleasant. Her death screams would be so satisfying. He would attend to it first thing, after he had rested.
A second giggle came from within him, from a throat that wasn’t his.
Nunn felt the familiar shiver as the separation began. If Furlong’s life had filled his veins with warmth, Zachs’ passage through his form filled the wizard with ice and electricity. Nunn took a ragged breath, steadying himself against a chair, letting his whole self be taken, if only for a second, with the pleasure and the pain. Zachs had stayed within him, sharing in Leo Furlong’s gift, but the wizard had things for his creature to do. A single scarlet flash, and Zachs would flow out from his brain to regain his almost solid flesh. The wizard always considered this moment a sort of rebirth. His light-child was leaving him, ready to do Nunn’s bidding.
“They hurt me,” the light-creature whined. “Zachs will kill them all!”
“No, you will not,” Nunn replied with more patience than he felt. It would not do to let his exhaustion lead to anger. “You will find those among the newcomers who have escaped. And you will bring them to me, one at a time.”
“You want the girl!” Zachs cried in sudden excitement. “You need Zachs to get the girl!”
Nunn took a deep breath. Everything his creature said made him want to fly into a rage. It was his exhaustion, surely, or maybe that the light-child told the truth. It was more difficult to reclaim Mary Lou than he had imagined. Even with two dragon eyes, he could only get the faintest hint of her whereabouts. Then, when he had sent some of his creatures to capture her, it had not gone well. He lost too many of his troops, too quickly.
Not that it really mattered. Nunn controlled so many, he could attack the Anno a hundred times, killing every one of them, and smashing whatever childish device they had contrived to cloud his vision. Except for the dragon. Nunn had to be ready for the dark one, whenever it chose to appear.
“Yes,” he said at last. “I want you to bring me the girl.”
“Yes! Yes! Nunn will let Zachs capture them all! Zachs gets to bleed them! Zachs gets to feed!” The light-creature screamed with pleasure, and disappeared.
Nunn sat heavily on the pallet he used for sleep. Things would be simpler after he had captured all the newcomers and had a chance to study them, and to dispense with those that had no special talents. Their little lives would give Nunn strength for what was to come. These little setbacks would seem very small once he had rested.
Nunn would have everything, after he had slept.
Twenty-Seven
“I know one thing,” Evan Mills said to the neighbors grouped around him. “I’m not going to take this anymore. I don’t think any of us should.”
“Just like that?” Carl Jackson laughed derisively as he paced around the others.
“Mr. Vice-principal. You’ve been running your students’ lives too long. Just what do you expect us to do?” Margaret Furlong looked up from her misery.
“What would Nunn do to us if we tried—” She couldn’t find the words to finish the sentence.
“Nunn isn’t here now, is he?” Mills retorted, more toward Jackson than Mrs. Furlong. Every time Jackson spoke, Mills wanted to have less to do with him than the time before.
“I’m not sure it’s as simple as that,” Constance Smith interrupted from where she still sat upon the bench. Everyone, Jackson included, stopped to listen to her. In a way, she had become their real leader.
“It’s difficult to remember exactly what happened,” she continued. “One minute, Nunn was leading us to his hut. Perhaps we even stepped inside. And then?”
No one tried to explain the rush of events that had followed.
“I can’t argue that Nunn can do remarkable things,” Mills answered after a moment of silence. “But he only seems to be able to do them for a very short period of time. Have you noticed that he limits his time among us, abruptly appearing and disappearing?”
Jackson rolled his eyes at that remark. “What are you talking about? So he can show up here whenever he wants to! And look what happened to Leo!” He smacked his fist against his open palm. “That guy Nunn can do anything!”
“That’s certainly what he wants us to believe,” Mills replied quickly. “But I think his entrances and exits are designed to startle us. He’s obviously a man with great power in this place, but I don’t know where his power ends and his sense of drama begins.” Mills looked at the unconvinced faces gathered around him.
“Look.
Mrs. Smith has been able to stand up to him, and she has barely begun to understand her own potential.”
“We are out in the woods again,” Joan agreed with the slightest of frowns. “Constance seems to have completely stopped whatever Nunn was doing to us.”
Good old no-nonsense Joan. Of course she’d see what Mills was talking about. Now, if he could only convince the others, maybe they could do something constructive.
“And this time,” Mills pointed out, “we’re all alone.”
Rose Dafoe turned to look outside their little group. “The soldiers are gone, aren’t they?”
“Actually,” Harold Dafoe admitted, “I’d feel better if the soldiers were here. They seemed to know when Nunn was going to do something. Why aren’t they guarding us, anyway?”
“Perhaps it’s because we actually beat Nunn,” Mills insisted, “if only for a minute. I wonder if anybody’s ever done that before. It might have been the one outcome he didn’t expect.”
“And how long will that last?” Jackson shot back. He started to pace again. “I imagine someone like Nunn doesn’t make many mistakes.”
“He seems able to show up whenever, and wherever, he wants to,” added Harold Dafoe as his eyes followed the restless Jackson.
“I think Evan has a point,” Constance Smith said softly. “Nunn is powerful—far too powerful for me. But he does seem to have his lapses. I think we’d be foolish if we didn’t take advantage of them.”
“Advantage?” Rose Dafoe asked. She patted nervously at her well-combed hair.
“Let’s get out of here,” Mills answered. “I say we leave here together. See if we can find the kids, and maybe even that fellow with a mustache who visited us last night.”
“But look what Nunn did to Leo,” Margaret Furlong insisted. “Won’t Nunn get angry if we try to leave? What will he do then?”
“Poor Leo,” Mills agreed. “I imagine Nunn will do that sort of thing to all of us if we stay here. And to our children as well, if he c
an catch them again.”
Rose nodded her head at that; little, no-nonsense lines formed at the comers of her mouth. “I want my children back.”
“We all do,” Joan agreed. “Nunn hasn’t been able to find them, either. Maybe, if we get out of his camp, he won’t be able to find us.”
Constance Smith considered this. “There may be some way to find the children, but only if we leave this place. There’s something about this place where we stand that—isn’t right.”
“Nunn will kill us,” Harold Dafoe whispered.
“There’s no way to tell what will happen next in a place like this,” Mrs. Smith continued. “The best we can do is guess. And not give up.”
“Nunn rules through fear,” Mills added. “If we let that fear overcome us, he’s won.”
“So what do we do,” Jackson demanded, “just walk out of here?”
“I don’t see anybody stopping us,” Joan replied, looking sharply at Jackson. Mills was glad that others were getting annoyed with his attitude.
“I’m afraid somebody will have to help me,” Mrs. Smith said, her tone suddenly apologetic. “I still can’t walk very well.”
Mills looked around, but saw no sign of the litter the soldiers had fashioned to bring Mrs. Smith here.
“We’ll just have to take turns carrying you,” Mills said with a smile. “Harold, why don’t we put our arms together and give Constance a seat of honor?”
“Well,” Harold murmured. He shuffled forward slowly, as if reluctant to do anything at all. “Where do you want my arms?”
Mills showed Dafoe how they could grasp each other’s arms above the elbow to give Mrs. Smith a firm place to ride while distributing the weight between the two of them. It seemed to be the most dignified way to transport her. After a bit of fumbling, they got their arms organized and squatted before Mrs. Smith. Joan helped to guide the old woman the few steps from the bench to her new seat, and Mills and Dafoe rose to a standing position with her between them. They could probably travel some distance with her weight distributed like this. She was remarkably light. Mills guessed she couldn’t weigh much above ninety pounds.
Dragon Sleeping (The Dragon Circle Trilogy Book 1) Page 21
