Clutching the rifle, Matt ran until he caught up with Valiant. As they soft-stepped side by side, Matt stared into the forest. Heavy coats of dark ice still covered the lower parts of the trees, bending the boughs. A breeze shook the higher branches and cast off ice in a curtain of sparkling gray. The crunching cascade masked their own footfalls. The danger alarm blared at a screaming pitch. Yet, no one moved in the forest. Valiant’s senses were probably keener than his own. It was best to rely on him.
Valiant marched past the front line of trees and plunged into a dense area, dark and quiet except for the occasional splatter of falling shards. After pushing aside a broken branch filled with icy needles, he halted, raised a finger to his lips, and concentrated on the branches above.
Matt looked toward the village. The huts were now out of sight. Would Listener be able to find them here?
The danger sensation boiled to an explosive level. Matt slid his finger over the trigger. Whoever was out here wouldn’t attack two armed men, would he? Valiant kept his rifle strapped to his shoulder, not exactly a ready position, but warning him verbally might spook their stalker.
Valiant slowly withdrew his sword. The metal barely made a snick as the blade cleared the sheath.
Matt sidled closer to him and looked into the branches. Nothing appeared besides ice-encrusted wood and greenery. The danger alarm strangled his throat and nearly cut off his air supply. The stalker had to be almost within reach.
CHAPTER 19
NIGHT WATCHES
Bonnie walked up Grackle’s tail and settled behind Marilyn on his back. His scales radiated heat, a welcome contrast to the cold breeze. After shifting Excalibur at her belt to make sure it wouldn’t stab her scaly steed, she wrapped her arms around Marilyn, careful to avoid the potted plant in her hands. “We’re ready!”
Grackle flapped his wings. At first, nothing happened, then he grunted and flapped harder. Bonnie opened her own wings and gave them a flutter, canceling her weight’s effect on the aging dragon. Grackle lifted into the air. As he struggled to ascend, Bonnie continued flapping and elevated herself an inch or so above his body. It was best to stay close to her seat, both for the warmth and to be ready to catch Marilyn in case of a spill.
The ground drew away—gray expanses with green trees protruding in the forests that the lava hadn’t destroyed. The sun sank toward the horizon, half of the disk now blocked by a distant mountain.
Nightfall would soon arrive. They had to hurry. After being absent from Second Eden for so many years, finding the right place to plant Clefspeare might be difficult in the dark, and Marilyn certainly didn’t know where to go. That left a wordless dragon as their only source of help. Still, he was a huge blessing. Since sooty ice covered everything in sight, they would need his guidance to find the garden.
Also, decreasing light would hamper another effort—watching for people on the ground. Mardon still lurked somewhere, and the darkness would veil his presence. Not only that, they hoped to spot some Second Edeners who could help with their task of planting Clefspeare at the garden. With the gray-on-gray backdrop covering everything, that hope seemed like a pipe dream.
Soon, they passed over a dense forest. Although ice coated the lower parts of the trees, the upper boughs had shaken free of the shackles. Ahead and to the left, a collection of dark lumps came into view. Bonnie pointed that way. “Probably Peace Village.”
Marilyn turned her head. “Do you see anyone?”
“No. It looks deserted.” Something moved in the corner of her eye. She looked down into the forest, but the frozen floor zipped by in sporadic gaps between the boughs. No sign of people. It was probably just the trees shedding ice.
Bonnie shifted forward again. Apparently the storm had forced everyone inside, and Mardon could easily hide in the trees. Conducting a search would be futile. They had to move on.
* * *
Wings beat over Matt’s head. He looked up. Above the tree branches, a blur of purple flashed by, too fast to distinguish. “Did you see that?”
“Just a vague flash of color. The limbs blocked my view.” Valiant pointed at a small clearing a few feet away. “Perhaps we can get a better look from there.”
“I’ll go.” His finger ready to pull the trigger, Matt took a cautious step forward. The danger alarm squealed, but not from the trees. It seemed to come from—
“Matt!” Listener called from far away. “Valiant!”
Matt spun toward her voice. Valiant turned with him, both hands on the hilt of his sword. Silence had been shattered. No use staying quiet now. “Over here!” Matt called.
Listener pushed aside a bushy branch. With her rifle poised at her hip, she scanned the area. “Did you hear the wings?”
“We did,” Valiant said. “Wings would explain our pursuer’s ability to elude us so easily.”
Matt checked the danger level. It had subsided quite a bit, though it still hovered at a high plateau. “Well, it won’t be easy to find him now.”
“Agreed,” Valiant said. “We should go straight to the portal. There is no need to tarry here.”
“What about your blood sample?” Matt asked.
Listener waved a hand. “Dr. Conner said not to worry about it. My sample will do, at least for now.”
They walked single file through the forest, Listener at the front. When they broke into the clear, they hiked abreast up a gentle incline. All along the way, the danger sense stayed fairly constant, no sharp spikes.
Listener nudged Matt with an elbow and touched her jaw.
He nodded and tapped his jaw twice. The tingle returned, and the surrounding noises echoed within his mouth, an odd sensation, but he could adjust.
After a few minutes, they came to a wall of rock with a small opening—an arch that looked like a cave entrance with ice in front of the lower two-thirds. Recessed within the cave, the top of a wooden door stood visible above the accumulated ice. It appeared to be sturdy, as Listener had mentioned.
“I assume that’s the weapons cache,” Matt said.
“It is.” Listener narrowed her eyes. “That’s strange.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Stay here.” She lowered herself to her stomach, belly-crawled over the ice, and rolled down to the cave’s floor level, out of sight. A step or two past the arch, the door rattled hard. Then it swung open. A moment later, it closed again. A duffle bag popped up from the gap and slid a foot or so down the ice. Listener hoisted herself up, grabbed the bag, and walked back, her stare moving, as if following something.
“What troubles you?” Valiant asked.
“A set of footprints. They aren’t ours. And the last rifle is missing, along with some ammunition.” She set the bag down and opened it. “I brought three extra magazines. We might need them.”
After they each picked up a rifle magazine and stowed it in a pocket, Matt eyed the cache’s entry. “Any sign someone forced the door open?”
Listener shook her head. “Ashley’s system says that someone entered the correct code a few moments after Valiant and I left.”
“How many people know the code?”
“Just Valiant, Dr. Conner, and I. Everyone else is incapacitated or dead—Steadfast, Eagle, and Candle.”
“And I was with Dr. Conner,” Matt said.
Valiant looked toward the birthing garden. “I assume the giantess and the white-haired boy have no access.”
“Correct.” Listener ejected her rifle’s ammo magazine, checked it, and shoved it back into place with a loud snap. “We just have to be ready. I’ll be listening for any signs that we’re being followed again.”
After Matt and Valiant checked their ammo, Matt nodded. “Let’s go.”
The trio jogged side by side up a gentle slope. Since the sun had melted the surface layer, their feet penetrated dirty slush and gained good traction in the remnant ash. As before, the sense of danger never wavered. Their stalker was somehow keeping pace, but
if he really did have wings, eluding him might be impossible.
Ahead, the plume of smoke rose beyond a ridge, maybe a mile away. As the exertion created warmth, sweat pooled under Matt’s shirt. Listener no longer shivered, though the air stayed chilly as it swirled down from mountain peaks that loomed ahead and at each side.
At times, she called for a halt, listened for the stalker, and looked around with her spyglass, but she found nothing. Whoever it was probably halted every time they did.
When they reached the crest of the ridge, Listener pointed down the next slope. “The portal is behind that wall.” The slope led to a brick-and-mortar wall, about ten feet high and eighty feet long. It arced in front of an indentation in a mountain—a bite out of the towering cliff—leaving a two-foot-wide gap at each end, probably access points for the enclosed area. Smoke billowed from behind the wall and shot into the sky. “We built it to block the wind, but we didn’t include a ceiling. Otherwise smoke would accumulate.”
“If ice snuffed the fire,” Valiant said, “relighting it did not open the portal. The flames merely keep it open if it is already in that state.”
“That’s true, Valiant, but this storm had unusual properties besides ice.” Listener touched her ear. “It made a horrific noise that only I could hear, obviously something that Mardon included in the storm. I know what a functioning portal sounds like, so I hope to listen to this one for a … a healthy heartbeat, I suppose. Even if the fire is unable to open the portal for our warriors, perhaps it will make the portal easier for them to open.”
“A reasonable course to take.” Valiant spread a hand toward the portal wall. “Kindly lead the way.”
Listener gave him a hard look. “You want me to enter first?”
“I realize that this is not our custom, but you are more fully informed than I am.” Valiant pointed at her rifle. “You have a weapon. There is no need for alarm.”
“If you say so.” Listener inhaled deeply and let the air out in a stream of vapor. Spreading her arms, she skied down the slope and stopped her momentum by bracing against the wall. Matt copied her moves, then Valiant did the same.
Keeping a hand on the wall, Listener followed the curve to the right for about ten paces until she reached one of the gaps. After looking back briefly, she walked through. “Watch your step,” she called back. “The ice melted near the fire, so there’s a drop.”
Matt followed her through the gap. Once inside, he slid down a slope to bare rock in a circular depression, perhaps forty feet in diameter. A stack of wood blazed near the wall’s center with a few sticks of kindling sitting in a pile at the far side of the fire.
“Two sets of dragon tracks.” Listener pointed at claw marks in the ice near the kindling. “Both Karrick and Grackle have been here.” She stooped and set a finger on a scorch mark that drew a black zigzag line across the rocky floor, maybe ten feet long.
“A burn?” Matt asked as he approached.
She nodded. “But even dragon fire isn’t hot enough to scorch rock like this.”
Valiant joined them. “What have you found?”
“A burn mark.” She touched a pool of red at the end of the line and rubbed her thumb and finger together. “And a lot of blood. It’s sticky. Probably less than a couple of hours old.”
“Dragon blood?” Matt grasped Listener’s wrist and helped her rise.
When she stood upright, she immediately slid her hand away. “Considering the claw marks, that stands to reason.”
Matt pretended not to notice the recoil. Why was she avoiding the slightest touch now?
“Speaking of blood …” Valiant nodded toward the gap they had entered. “I noticed a trail of blood on the ice outside. Once you discern whether or not the portal is functional, we can follow the trail.”
“I’ll listen to it now.” Standing several paces away from the stack of burning logs, Listener faced the flickering light and the man-made wall behind it. She waved a hand in a circular motion. “The portal is right about here—maybe three feet off the ground. If you need to find it later, just step off five feet from the compass painted on the mountain wall behind me.”
A log fell down the stack. The fire surged briefly and sent a blast of scalding air across their bodies. Listener stared at the flames. “The high-pitched static I usually hear around portals is coming through. I don’t hear anything from the Earth side, though.” She unfastened her spyglass, expanded it, and aimed it at the portal as she looked through the eyepiece. “I see a field of grass and two men huddled over something, but their backs are facing me.” After a few seconds, she collapsed the spyglass and hooked it to her belt. “The portal is here, but it’s not open.”
“The fire has cleared most of the ice,” Valiant said, “so perhaps Sapphira will be able to open it. Only time will tell.”
Matt looked at the compass that had been painted in red at the center of the mountain wall. “Why a compass?”
“It’s a symbol of destinations.” Listener walked to the wall, rose to tiptoes, and touched the northern point, the southern one at her knees. “North represents Heaven, so we always head in that direction.” She then shifted her finger clockwise from point to point. “The rest represent the six days of creation plus a day of rest. Your father drew something similar for us years ago, so I copied it here to mark the new portal. That was before we built the wall. Now it’s easy to find.”
Valiant looked at the sky. “Nightfall is upon us. Are you two tired?”
“Exhausted.” Listener stretched her arms and yawned. “Aren’t you, Matt?”
Matt read her expression. Her eyes said to play along. “Definitely.” He copied her stretching arms and let out a yawn.
Valiant laughed. “You two should sleep while I stand guard. It might take a while for Sapphira and her company to come.”
“I was hoping you would watch for Karrick,” Listener said. “He can tell us about the burn mark and the blood, but I don’t think you’ll be able to see him from in here.”
“You raise a good point. Once you two are settled, I will step outside and watch for him. Perhaps I will also follow the trail of blood, though it will be difficult when it becomes fully dark.” Valiant picked up one of the larger logs and tossed it onto the portal fire.
Listener sat on a dry spot on the rocky ground about five paces from the flames and just a few steps from the wall gap they had not entered. “This should be close enough to stay warm.” She set her rifle down and pointed at the fire. “Matt, I’m sure you can find a good place on the other side.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Matt gave the portal flames a wide berth and settled on a spot several paces from the crackling logs, closer to the opposite entry gap. He, the burning logs, and Listener made an uneven line parallel to the wall, though he was able to see her as he looked across the front of the fire.
When he laid his rifle down, she cupped a hand to her ear, then pulled her hand down and lay curled on her side. She closed her eyes but kept a finger on her jaw.
Matt lay in the same position. The cupped ear probably meant that she was ready to converse. “What’s going on?” he said, his volume low enough to keep Valiant from hearing. “We slept quite a bit.”
Her eyes still closed, she covered her mouth. “I am speaking as quietly as possible. Can you hear me?”
Her voice came through the tooth transmitter. He covered his own mouth and whispered in return. “Yes.”
“What does your danger sense tell you?”
“The level is about the same. Something’s close. If the stalker has wings, maybe he’s perched right outside. Why?”
“Let’s wait for Valiant to leave. Pretend to sleep.”
Matt closed his eyes to a narrow slit. Valiant used a long stick to arrange a new log on the fire. As he grimaced at the heat, light from the flames illuminated his square-jawed face. With evening now settling into nightfall, the fire would soon become their only source of light but plenty bright
enough to see Listener.
Matt again spoke in a whisper. “I think he’ll leave soon.”
“Yes. He will.”
“Do you think he’ll follow the trail of blood he mentioned?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Shhh.”
Valiant stepped back from the fire and drew his sword. He crouched next to Listener and leaned close as if checking to see if she had gone to sleep. His blade glimmering in the firelight, he set his ear in front of her face, then rose and marched out of the portal area through the gap closer to her.
The moment he left, Listener climbed to her feet and skulked toward Matt, her back bent low and her eyes darting between the two entry gaps. She dropped to her knees at his side and clasped his hand in both of hers. “I’m so sorry I treated you that way,” she whispered. “I didn’t want him to think we were romantically involved.”
“Are we? … I mean, why not?”
“If an enemy perceives that two people are inclined toward each other, he can use a threat to one to persuade the other to do whatever he wishes.”
“So you think the stalker has been watching us for any sign of romance?”
“Not the stalker. Valiant.”
“Valiant? I noticed that you’ve acted suspicious about him. What makes you think he’s an enemy?”
“He’s acting strangely. For a while I attributed his behavior to the recent resurrection. He wasn’t quite himself. But whenever I asked him about old memories, he always had an excuse for not remembering, and I have never seen him allow a woman to enter a blind chamber without checking its safety first.”
“So you think he’s been causing my danger alarms? He’s someone else in disguise?”
“No disguise is that good. When I laid my head on his chest, I smelled Valiant’s smell. I heard his heartbeat, slower than most. It thrums with a unique series of sounds.”
“But who could corrupt Valiant? And if he means us harm, he could’ve easily killed me in the forest a while back. What possible reason could he have for coming all the way here when he could have killed us at any time?”