Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) by Kristen Taber Page B

explain
what he had found. He had no time to point out what the Guide had been trying
to show them. Hand over hand, foot over foot, Nick focused on grabbing the next
rock, the next hold, pushing his muscles to work harder until he reached the
ledge halfway up the hill. Blocked by a large boulder, the Mardróch would never
see them there. He only had to bring Meaghan up in time.
    He
reached into the river. The flow broke, and then disappeared, revealing a flash
of angry green. Tightening his fist around the creeper vine, he whipped it
toward Meaghan, and let it do its job. It twisted around her waist, but before
it could tighten any further, he yanked on his end, pulling her up to the
ledge.
    Retrieving
his knife from his pocket, he cut her loose before pulling her behind the
boulder. She shook from fear, and panic turned her face white, but she was
safe. He held her as the Mardróch rounded the bend and continued on their way
down the path. Without the river to guide their focus up, they could not see
their prey only feet above their heads.
    Nick
shut his eyes, sensing them until they were no longer close, then he forced his
heart to calm. Meaghan stirred in his arms, pressing her face into his neck.
Tears wet his skin and he buried his hands in her hair, consoling her until her
crying stopped.
    “I’m
sorry,” he said when she lifted her head. “It was my only option.”
    “It
had to be a creeper vine,” she muttered, wiping the last of her tears from her
face. “That was too close. I thought for certain I’d be learning what it’s like
to be frozen by them.”
    Nick
slipped the backpack from his shoulders and rested it against the rock. “It’s
not pleasant, but I don’t think you’ll ever experience it. I have a feeling
you’re immune.”
    “Why
would you think that?”
    “Because
you can smell them.” He opened the pack, then pulled out two apples and handed
her one. “Their power works by transmitting fear through their eyes. It’s so
intense it’s paralyzing.”
    “And?”
    “And
you can’t sense emotions from them. You said you didn’t think they had any, but
they do. They’re malicious creatures and their emotions match their intent.
Given your power, I imagine sensing them would be overwhelming for you.”
    “I
see,” she said. “So I can’t sense them, but I still don’t understand why I
would be immune to their power.”
    “I
didn’t say you can’t sense them.” Nick set his apple down and took her hand in
his. “I said you can’t sense their emotions. At least, not in the same way you
do everyone else’s. With regular emotions, you can understand and interpret
them because you experience them. With the Mardróch, you have no way of
understanding the depth of their evil, and the emotions stemming from it. Your
power receives them, but it has to translate them into something you can
recognize.”
    “The
odor comes from my power?”
    “As
you said, you think of their odor as vile and rotten, which is what they are.
The smell is your power’s defense mechanism. Without it, you wouldn’t be able
to function when the Mardróch were around. The same defense mechanism should
block their freezing power by filtering out the fear they project.”
    “So
they don’t smell?” she asked. He shook his head and she took a bite from her
apple, chewing with slow purpose and swallowing before she responded. “Your
theory makes sense, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather not test it.”
    He
laughed. “I’d rather you didn’t as well. The stream has started again.” He
pointed toward the middle of the ledge. Water flowed around another, smaller
boulder into a break in the rocks they had missed before.
    “A
hidden path,” Meaghan said. “It looks like we can avoid climbing the rest of
this hill.”
    “And
the creeper vines,” Nick remarked, grinning when she glared at him. “Shall we
get going?”
    §
    T HEY TOOK the path, a narrow shortcut through a section of the mountain, and