“What was that?” A man’s voice sounded loud even though he was speaking softly.
“What?” a second man said.
“I thought I heard footsteps.”
“You been hearin’ things all night.”
Penny stepped back into the woods, fading into the darkness rather than stepping out onto the road.
“Well, there was a bear.”
“Yeah, so you say, but shut up. You think this patrol is just for fun?”
“I got no idea. All I know is I’m cold and tired, and this is stupid.”
“Dumb ass. Commandant says jump. We say how high.”
“It’s still stupid.”
“Just shut your gob. Thomas and Ervin will be along any minute to relieve us and we can get back for a warm meal and some shut-eye.”
Rebecca and Tanyth lowered themselves to the ground and watched.
As if from far away they heard a woman’s voice. She hummed a lullaby, occasionally changing up the humming with la-la-las. It grew nearer and in a moment, Penny stepped out from the trees across the road and started walking away from town, singing away and scuffing her feet in the gravel.
“Halt!”
Penny squeaked and spun around. “Who’s there?” she called.
“That’s my line, lady. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“Martin? Martin Gluckman? Is that you?”
A voice muttered “what the—?” and two garrison soldiers walked noisily up the road. “Mother Oakton?”
“It is you. What are you two doing out here this time of day? Commandant punishing you for drinking again?”
“Naw, we’re on patrol. Bunch of us out here.”
“Shut up, you idiot,” the second voice said.
Penny held her hands high over her head. “Well, you caught me. Now what? You have to march me back to town or something?” She giggled a little.
“No, put your hands down. We’re just on patrol because we’re supposed to be looking for somebody trying to sneak out of town.”
“Me?”
“No, ma’am. Not you. Some newcomers just came on the ship. Commandant said to make sure these two ladies didn’t get into any trouble out here in the backwoods, and to bring ’em back if we find ’em trying to leave town.”
“Well, I never,” Penny said. “Why would two women be wanderin’ around out here in the woods in the middle of the night?”
“That’s what I bin sayin’,” the first voice said.
“Oh, shut up, already,” the second voice said.
“Well, if you’re not going to stop me, can I put my arms down and go?”
“Where are you going, mum? If you don’t mind me askin’.”
“Spring mushrooms down around Four Mile Creek. Good for women’s problems, and I can only get them early in the season. Now that Audry McGilvry’s had her baby, I can get away for a bit and gather in peace.”
“What’d she have?” the first voice asked.
“Little boy. Spittin’ image of Ed.”
“Aw. That’s great. Ain’t that great, Marty?”
“For cryin’ out loud, we’re supposed to be on patrol, not yappin’ about babies and women’s problems.”
“I’m just sayin’—” The voice cut off with a meaty thump. “Ow.”
“Speakin’ of babies, stop bein’ one, all right?”
The sound of marching feet came from somewhere down the road, along with the jangle and squeal of tack. “That’ll be our relief,” the second voice said.
“Well, good luck to you on your patrol. Sounds like you’re heading back to town soon?”
“Yes’m. We get the dark and the cold and that—ow. Why’d you hit me for that time?”
“Shut up,” the man’s voice practically hissed with frustration. “Sorry, Mother Oakton. You’re free to go. Don’t get too close to the creek. It’s still running pretty high.”
“Thank you, Martin. You boys have a good day.”
The two soldiers tramped past the opening again, going in the other direction. Neither of them so much as glanced in Tanyth’s direction. In a few moments their footsteps began to merge with the sound of the oncoming patrol, and Penny ducked between the two trees.
“Come on before somebody with a brain shows up,” she whispered and pushed past them down the trail.
Chapter Ten:
Flown
At mid-morning Penny called a halt. She slipped her pack off and sat down on the ground at the base of a spruce, bracing her back and stretching her legs. “Water, small snack. We’ll take a proper break at lunch.”
Tanyth followed her example and found a tree to lean on while Rebecca simply flopped on the ground after dropping her pack beside the trail.
“We more than three miles from town?” Tanyth asked.
“More like five or six,” Penny said. “We came across Four Mile Creek about an hour back.”
Rebecca looked over at her. “Really? I don’t remember crossing any creek.”
Penny fished a bar of pressed grain from her pack and gnawed at the end. “Remember that soggy swale? The one where you slipped in the mud?”
“Yeah.”
“That was it.”
“Really? I thought it was running high.”
“We’re at the headwater. You’d be surprised how big it gets about a mile to the south of us.”
Tanyth fished an apple out of her pack and chewed on the juicy flesh. It lacked the crisp bite of a fall apple, but the sweet juice felt good rolling down her throat.
“You doin’ all right, mum?” Penny asked, concern writ large on her face.
“Oh, my goodness, yes.” Tanyth took another bite. “This is just a warm-up.”
Penny snickered. “You may be more right than you know. We’re goin’ to be on the trail for the next three days.”
“Yeah, but tomorrow morning, we won’t have garrison troops trying to stop us from leavin’,” Rebecca said.
“Well, that’s prob’ly true, although I wouldn’t wanna be Prince Robert when your father comes ashore and finds out you’ve been there and gone.”
Rebecca snorted a short laugh and pulled a canteen from her pack. “I’d almost like to be a fly on that wall.” She took a single deep swig and strapped the canteen back onto her pack.
Penny scrambled to her feet and brushed the seat of her trousers off with her hands. “All right, then. Daylight’s burning. Time to move.”
They struck off down the path once more. Tanyth noted they moved generally north and west as the path wound around hillock and through valleys. At midday they broke out on an alpine parkland. Craggy mountains bounded them on the north horizon, their rocky slopes still showing patches of snow on the lower elevations and solid snow fields toward the peaks. Far to the south, the shimmer of ocean illuminated the horizon while treetops ran nearly as far as they could see.
Tanyth felt the land under her feet, the swelling power of it. “It’s lovely,” she said, her eyes trying to drink it all in at once.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rebecca said.
“Wait’ll you see the pretty stuff,” Penny said with a sideways grin. “Come on, let’s stop makin’ targets of ourselves and get off this ridgeline. There’s a campsite just down here. We can put our feet up for a bit.”
She led them down a narrow ravine cut into the side of the ridge. A heavy stone upright stained with soot marked a fire pit lined with small rocks. Several slightly larger ones made handy seats.
“Can we make a fire for tea?” Tanyth asked.
Penny looked at the sky and seemed to sniff the air. “Prob’ly keep a cold camp here. I’m not sure who’s out and about right now.”
“Problems?” Tanyth asked.
“Prob’ly not, but why risk it? We’ll have a fire tonight and a hot meal then. Best we move as fast and light as we can right now.”
They settled around the cold fire pit and dug out travel rations of pressed oats and dried fruits. The tangy smell of
pines offered the only condiment besides their hunger. Cold water from canteens helped moisten the dried fruit in their mouths.
“Rabbits?” Rebecca asked as she licked the sticky remains of the travel bar from her fingers.
“What about ’em?” Penny asked.
“I’ve my bow. If we see some, can we take them?”
Penny eyed her with new respect. “You can hit a rabbit with that thing?”
“Well, of course. Not much sense carryin’ it all this way if I didn’t know how to use it.”
Penny looked to Tanyth, who nodded in confirmation. “She’s really rather good with it.”
“Well, sure then. Although we’re likely to see more grouse than rabbits. Ever hit a bird on the wing?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Rabbits’ll be a bit lean after the winter, but we can stew ’em if you can take ’em.”
“Fair enough,” Rebecca said and took another long pull from her canteen.
“What about water?” Tanyth asked. “We’re goin’ through what we got pretty fast.”
“And you’re right to do so,” Penny said. “We’re gettin’ up there and the altitude will dry you out a lot faster than you’d think. There’s plenty of water around. Prob’ly too much in places.”
Tanyth took a final swig from her own canteen and stood, strapping it back on her pack. “Well, in that case, we best get movin’. Robert knows we’re heading for the hermit. He might take it in his head to follow and try to catch us.”
Penny laughed and stood, shouldering her own back. “He might if he knew where she was.”
That stopped Tanyth and made her cock her head to one side. “He doesn’t know where she is? I thought everybody up here know about her.”
Penny shook her head and sucked in a deep breath. She held it for a moment before blowing it out. “Everybody knows about the hermit of Lammas Wood. She’s almost a legend. My gran is only the latest one. There’s been a hermit up here as long as there’s been people.”
“How’s that work?” Rebecca asked.
“I don’t know,” Penny said with a shrug. “Granny Gert has been the hermit as long as I’ve been alive. I don’t know who was hermit before her or how she came to be. All I know is, she’s the hermit.”
“And you know where she lives,” Tanyth said.
“And I know where her cottage is,” Penny corrected.
“Close enough,” Tanyth said.
Penny shrugged. “Might be. Point is, not a lot of people know that. Almost all of them live out here in the backcountry. Trappers, hunters, lumberjacks. There’s prob’ly fifty or a hundred of them that know. Few of them even visit town. Them that do haven’t a lot to do with the garrison.”
“So Robert doesn’t know,” Tanyth said.
“No way to know for sure, but it’s not likely. He’ll know generally, but there’s a whole lot of nothing out here but woods and mountains and trees. It’d take a long time to find her unless you knew where to look.”
“We’re leavin’ a pretty plain trail,” Rebecca said, pointing to their footprints in the soft earth around the campsite.
Penny grinned. “Looks like it, don’t it?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“We’ll be heading out across that parkland we saw from the ridge. There’ll be a lot less trail to follow when we get to the other side.”
Tanyth nodded. “Grass doesn’t stay bent over very long.”
“Not as wet as the ground is here,” Penny said, nodding in agreement.
“Well, let’s get on with it,” Tanyth said. “Sooner we make camp, sooner I get my tea.”
Penny grinned and headed back up the trail.
Chapter Eleven:
Followed
The silvery light of the waning moon limned the snow fields. They almost glowed against the dark sky. Across the park the male hooted once, a territorial call that made her shift her talons in frustration. The noise might warn her prey to danger and she hungered. The cold time had not been kind. She needed warm meat.
A rustling in the grass below alerted her to prey. A small, dark gray shadow moved among the dried stalks and then froze. She waited until it moved again, the faint whisper of stalk against stalk helping her focus on her meal’s location in the grasses below her perch.
There!
She launched—wide, heavy wings made no sound as they carved the air toward her meal.
At the last moment the noisy male hooted again, his territory warning loud in the still night. The meal disappeared down a hole a split second before her talons could reach it. She nearly hooted in frustration, but silently flipped her tail feathers and tilted her wings to sail back up away from the ground and into the clear night sky.
She leveled off after she cleared the treetops. Another park lay just beyond the next ridge. Perhaps it was far enough away from that ridiculous male and his bragging calls that she could find a meal worthy of the name.
A glimmer of fire shone through the trees, and she saw the pillar of smoke rising from the ground. A faint breeze at altitude clipped the plume at an angle, sending it toward the big water far away. She changed course to fly nearer. She was no scavenger, but perhaps a meal might appear in the light.
In moments she came to rest on a limb overlooking a small clearing tucked into a ravine. Blackened stone and a glowing fire dominated the view, but patience paid off when a man moved in the shadows. He crossed to the fire and dropped a piece of wood onto the coals, sending a shower of sparks upward into the night. It smoldered, and then flames began to lick the edges.
In the additional light, more shadows resolved themselves into more men stretched out on the ground. One shifted, rolling from one side to the other. Not dead, then. Sleeping. She found it interesting but hunger drove her. Perhaps they would leave something to draw prey. She would have to return to see, but later. She needed something to fill the hollow in her belly and she’d need it soon.
She launched into the treetops and drifted over the ridge. In the far distance, the male hooted again. He would not be feeding very well making that much noise. Perhaps he had already fed, so could afford to brag. She clicked her talons—flexed them as if sinking them deep into a rabbit. Yes, a young rabbit or one of the larger ground squirrels would be an excellent meal.
Clearing the ridge, she drifted along the treeline on silent wings. Her eyes scanned the ground, but her ears would find her prey first.
Tanyth clawed her way to consciousness. The same moon shone through the spruce tops above her. The small fire had burned down to a few glowing coals in a bed of ash. Across the fire pit, Rebecca’s tousled hair showed above the edge of her blankets. Penny lay curled in a ball on her side, knit cap still on her head and her face down in her bedroll.
She ran her tongue around her mouth, tasting the sourness of night breath even as she tried to recall the images of her dream. Soldiers slept in the same camp they’d had lunch in. At least four, perhaps more lost in the shadows.
“Bother,” she muttered and rolled over, pulling her blanket over her face against the chill night airs. The pad of blankets protected her from most of the lumps under her, but the cold seeped through in places. She shifted to try to find the warmest spots, then let sleep claim her once more.
“Rise and shine, campers. The day awaits,” Penny’s cheerful voice made Tanyth smile as she crawled up from slumber.
“You gonna be all cheerful in the morning every day?” Rebecca asked.
“Prob’ly, but cheer up. Only three more mornings and we’ll be at Gran’s cottage.”
Tanyth crawled out of her bedroll and stretched her back, arching it and then bending left and right to try to release the crick. She fished in the blankets and came up with her boots, sitting on the padded ground to slide them on.
Rebecca eyed her blearily, then cast her gaze to where her own boots stood next to the pack that served as pillow. “Why didn’t I remember to do that?” she muttered.
“Outta practice?” Tan
yth asked.
“At least.”
Penny snorted and pushed a few more twigs onto the growing fire. “Tea will be ready shortly.”
“Don’t build that too big,” Tanyth said. “Soldiers camped in our lunch spot last night.”
Penny gave her a startled look, her eyes wide. “The campsite in the ravine?”
Tanyth ran her fingers through her hair in an effort to get some of the sleep-tangles out. “I think so. Any other places with a big, smoke-stained rock like that around here?”
Penny stared into the fire for a moment before shaking her head. “Not that I know of. There could be.”
“Then we got soldiers on our back trail.”
Penny stuffed another handful of twigs into the fire and watched the smoke puff upward and dissipate against the overhanging ledge above them. “How do you know that, mum?”
“She had a dream,” Rebecca said. “Didn’t ya, mum?”
“Yeah.”
“’Nother raccoon?”
“Owl.”
Penny’s gaze went back and forth between the two women. “An owl.” It was a statement more than a question.
“Yeah. Female and hungry. Looking for a bit of warm meat, but the big male on the next ridge kept hooting and spoiling her hunt.” Tanyth’s gaze stayed fixed on the fire but her focus was miles away. “She spotted the glow of the fire and went to look.”
“And you dreamed this?”
Tanyth glanced at Penny. “Well, sorta. I was asleep. It felt like a dream, but I was seein’ through her eyes. Feelin’ the wind in her feathers and the hunger in her belly.”
Penny looked at Rebecca who watched the midwife with a silly grin on her face. “Odd, huh?” Rebecca said.
“It’s mad,” Penny said.
“That’s what I been sayin’,” Tanyth said. “But the truth is I saw them guards outside the inn with the help of a raccoon, and those soldiers should be coming through the park in an hour or so.”
“How do you know they’re followin’ us?” Penny asked.
Tanyth shook her head. “Don’t. But what else would they be doin’ out here?”