“I have a map,” Lady Evelyn said. When neither of them looked excited by this confession, she added, “Do you children know what a map is?”
Rollan and Conor exchanged another dismal look.
Lady Evelyn spread a map over Tarik’s sleeping chest. She pointed to a town near the top. “This is Glengavin. The rumor says that Rumfuss is near here. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, that’s far north, and up there they paint their faces blue and eat foreigners.”
That hadn’t been what Rollan or Conor was thinking, but it sure was what they were thinking about now.
Lady Evelyn continued, “But the Lord of Glengavin is amicable toward the Greencloaks. He should provide a welcome, or at least no hindrance. The surroundings are quite wild and I doubt you’d be able to find it without this.”
“Where are we now?” Rollan asked.
Lady Evelyn traced a line southward. “Here.”
“Oh!” Conor said in a surprised, glad sort of yelp. “We’re near Trunswick. It’s on the way.”
“What’s Trunswick?” Rollan asked. “And why does it make you say ‘oh!’ like an overexcited pigeon?”
“It’s where I used to be a servant,” Conor said. “And my family works the land near there.”
“You don’t have time for detours, Greencloak boy,” Lady Evelyn said. “Stick to the task.”
Conor’s face fell. “Right. Sure. Of course.”
Rollan couldn’t help it. He hated to see Conor looking so crestfallen. “Maybe we could still spend the night in Trunswick tomorrow. Not home, but close, right?”
Immediately Conor’s face brightened. “I’m sure they’d give us a warm welcome. And my mother —”
Lady Evelyn interrupted with a vague frown. “I feel as if I have heard a rumor about Trunswick.”
“Good or bad?” asked Rollan.
She tapped her remaining teeth with a stick. “Something about Greencloaks and the Devourer. Or maybe it was Trynsfield. Or Brunswick. Trunbridge? Was that the one we were talking about?”
Conor pointed to the map. “Trunswick. Right there.”
She said, “Lovely place, I’m sure.”
6: Hawkers
THEY — FINN, MEILIN, AND ABEKE — WERE HIDING.
Along with Uraza, they were tucked between two boulders. As far as the eye could see, which wasn’t very far in the darkness, there were man-sized, teeth-shaped stones pressed shoulder to shoulder. While Abeke marveled over the strangeness of the landscape and listened to the night, Meilin and Finn argued.
“Tonight is not a night to die,” Finn whispered hoarsely.
Meilin’s voice was cross. “I wasn’t suggesting we die. I was suggesting we go back for the others.”
“At this point, both of those things are the same,” he muttered back.
“Shh,” Abeke shushed them as quietly as she could. She jabbed a finger into the darkness.
Finn and Meilin turned to look where she pointed. Uraza was already looking, her ears swiveling to and fro. The black night kept most of its secrets, but Abeke could hear the wet squelch of a man’s footprint on stone. One of the Conquerors. Close by.
Meilin opened her mouth. Abeke held her finger to her lips.
It had taken them hours to rid themselves of the group they’d first encountered in the forest. By then they had lost track of Conor, Rollan, and Tarik, and would have lost their way as well, if not for Finn’s knowledge as a guide.
The sound of the man’s footsteps came closer. Uraza stiffened. Abeke felt the vibration of an inaudible growl through the leopard’s ribs pressed against her. Finn stretched out a hand: Don’t move.
Holding their breath, they listened to the man climb over the boulders near them. All he had to do was clamber over two or three more, and he would discover them and alert his allies.
The Conqueror scraped over another boulder. His breath huffed out noisily as he landed at the base of it. Abeke suspected that he wasn’t truly looking for them, or he would’ve minded how loud he was. But then again, maybe not. Abeke was always surprised by most people’s ignorance of their own noisiness. It was one of the reasons why Finn’s deliberate stealth impressed her.
Suddenly the Conqueror’s breath was quite near. He was on the other side of the boulder Abeke knelt behind. If there had been any light at all, she probably would have been able to see his face through the gap between the rocks.
Every muscle in Uraza’s body was knitted solid.
Abeke’s heart pounded so loudly in her ears that she could barely hear anything else. She pressed her fingers into Uraza’s fur. Slowly, her pulse calmed. Now she heard the sound of the man’s palm as he felt his way along the stone.
He was so close.
Finn closed his eyes. Strangely enough, he looked quite serene. One of his arms hugged his chest so that his fingertips could touch his upper bicep. Is that where his spirit animal is? Abeke wondered.
Needle-fine claws scritched on stone as the Conqueror’s spirit animal joined him. Abeke heard the click of hungry jaws. Somehow, a small, hungry spirit animal seemed more terrifying than a large one in this darkness. As if you maybe wouldn’t notice it until it was right on you.
Then the Conqueror’s voice sounded roughly. “Come on, Tan.”
His footsteps receded as he headed away with whatever sort of animal Tan was. After a very, very long silence, Finn blew out a relieved sigh. Abeke released her handful of leopard fur. Uraza’s tenseness oozed from her.
Meilin turned to Finn. “Do we have a regroup point? To reconnect with Tarik and the others?”
Abeke was unsurprised to hear her sounding efficient and strategic. That girl’s heart was a battlefield.
“We did,” Finn said. “A local Greencloak waypoint. But we’ve passed it, and we’d have to risk fighting back toward it. I think we should continue on to Trunswick. Even if the others aren’t there, we can try to get a message to Greenhaven.”
Abeke thought of the terrible fight in the woods and shuddered. She hoped the others were all right. “Message? How?”
“Gilded pigeons carry messages from many large towns in Eura,” Finn answered. “Most Greencloaks know where to find someone who runs the birds.”
I wonder if I could send a message to my family, Abeke thought.
Finn must have sensed her interest, because his expression softened and he added, “I will teach you how to send messages if it comes to that.”