with the same mistrustful hostility as they did me. A spare horse was brought forward and he was bound to the saddle so that he wouldn’t fall. The old bearded man took charge of leading his horse.
Looking at Rune, slumped over his saddle, barely alive, it struck me what a fool I’d been. I had blundered into risking my life over a person I hardly knew. My compassion for the injured was suddenly small beside my desire for self-preservation. What was I thinking? I should have first blamed the curiosity that drove me to search for a way out of Haven Valley. I should have stopped at the cemetery, or the tomb, or the warnings on the wall, or the aquamarine pool. Who would submerge themselves into a pond with dry water anyway? Was I insane? Why couldn’t I have stopped there?
Why did I jump off of that cliff?
Why did I help Rune?
A very subtle pang of guilt stabbed at me when I remembered his helplessness, how in his fevered state he kept thinking that I was a ghost or an angel. He even thanked me for speaking to him like a person... for acting like a friend.
But what good would it do? It might be too late for him, and there I was, being abducted in a world no one had seen in seven hundred years.
The flare was stamped out, a rider was sent up ahead and another behind to scout. The lantern Rune had given me was extinguished, and we were enveloped in darkness that was flawed by a great many stars. The riders pulled on goggles that glowed dimly through blue, green, or yellow lenses. I guessed that they allowed the wearer to see in the dark, because none of the riders carried lights.
I couldn’t see anything but black shapes obscuring the stars as we rode through the trees at a purposeful canter. There was no color in this outside world, only night, and there were no friends, only strangers.
I wanted with all of my heart and soul to be home, and I could feel my lucky sense, like a beacon, always telling me which direction would take me back to Haven Valley… back to Rivermarch . But as we rode, I could feel the growing distance as keenly as I could feel the rope binding my wrists.
Grendel would still be wreaking havoc on the cemetery hedges, but the grumpy pony wouldn’t stray. My dad would leave the living room light on for me. The clay heron I didn’t finish would be sitting on my desk. My bed with my pillows and blankets were warm and awaiting my return like everything else. But how could I get back when I was being stolen farther away by the second?
By tomorrow my dad would notice I was missing. Ruby and Kyle would realize I was gone. They would go looking for me. Someone would find Grendel at the cemetery in the morning and return him to my dad. It was a clue! It was somewhere to start looking. Even Professor Block knew I had been asking about a way out of Haven Valley. There was a perfectly good trail to pick up. If they found the badger hole in the mausoleum they’d see the candles leading down to the empty tomb. They’d find the pool and they’d have to check it out.
They’d send people after me, wouldn’t they?
No, they wouldn’t.
My heart sank into the depths of my gut. Tears began to trickle from my eyes and soon flowed freely down my cheeks.
No one would come looking for me. I knew it as well as I knew the sun would rise at dawn.
I was notorious for disappearing at a moment’s notice. I’d hitched rides to Pinebrook and gone off to explore so many times, everyone had come to expect it. I knew for certain Ruby would look for me, up to a point. Once she realized I had already gone off, she’d accept it, like she always did, and wait for my stories when I returned.
An ill feeling set in when I remembered the last thing I’d said to my father, and my tears surged. I told him I was going to find my mother, my real mother. She lived far away, at the westernmost edge of Haven Valley. Once he realized I was gone and entirely unaccounted for, he’d assume I had followed through with my threat.
Looking at Rune, slumped over his saddle, barely alive, it struck me what a fool I’d been. I had blundered into risking my life over a person I hardly knew. My compassion for the injured was suddenly small beside my desire for self-preservation. What was I thinking? I should have first blamed the curiosity that drove me to search for a way out of Haven Valley. I should have stopped at the cemetery, or the tomb, or the warnings on the wall, or the aquamarine pool. Who would submerge themselves into a pond with dry water anyway? Was I insane? Why couldn’t I have stopped there?
Why did I jump off of that cliff?
Why did I help Rune?
A very subtle pang of guilt stabbed at me when I remembered his helplessness, how in his fevered state he kept thinking that I was a ghost or an angel. He even thanked me for speaking to him like a person... for acting like a friend.
But what good would it do? It might be too late for him, and there I was, being abducted in a world no one had seen in seven hundred years.
The flare was stamped out, a rider was sent up ahead and another behind to scout. The lantern Rune had given me was extinguished, and we were enveloped in darkness that was flawed by a great many stars. The riders pulled on goggles that glowed dimly through blue, green, or yellow lenses. I guessed that they allowed the wearer to see in the dark, because none of the riders carried lights.
I couldn’t see anything but black shapes obscuring the stars as we rode through the trees at a purposeful canter. There was no color in this outside world, only night, and there were no friends, only strangers.
I wanted with all of my heart and soul to be home, and I could feel my lucky sense, like a beacon, always telling me which direction would take me back to Haven Valley… back to Rivermarch . But as we rode, I could feel the growing distance as keenly as I could feel the rope binding my wrists.
Grendel would still be wreaking havoc on the cemetery hedges, but the grumpy pony wouldn’t stray. My dad would leave the living room light on for me. The clay heron I didn’t finish would be sitting on my desk. My bed with my pillows and blankets were warm and awaiting my return like everything else. But how could I get back when I was being stolen farther away by the second?
By tomorrow my dad would notice I was missing. Ruby and Kyle would realize I was gone. They would go looking for me. Someone would find Grendel at the cemetery in the morning and return him to my dad. It was a clue! It was somewhere to start looking. Even Professor Block knew I had been asking about a way out of Haven Valley. There was a perfectly good trail to pick up. If they found the badger hole in the mausoleum they’d see the candles leading down to the empty tomb. They’d find the pool and they’d have to check it out.
They’d send people after me, wouldn’t they?
No, they wouldn’t.
My heart sank into the depths of my gut. Tears began to trickle from my eyes and soon flowed freely down my cheeks.
No one would come looking for me. I knew it as well as I knew the sun would rise at dawn.
I was notorious for disappearing at a moment’s notice. I’d hitched rides to Pinebrook and gone off to explore so many times, everyone had come to expect it. I knew for certain Ruby would look for me, up to a point. Once she realized I had already gone off, she’d accept it, like she always did, and wait for my stories when I returned.
An ill feeling set in when I remembered the last thing I’d said to my father, and my tears surged. I told him I was going to find my mother, my real mother. She lived far away, at the westernmost edge of Haven Valley. Once he realized I was gone and entirely unaccounted for, he’d assume I had followed through with my threat.
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