I gotta think, I says.
No, you don’t, she says. C’mon, we gotta find out what happened. C’mon!
She runs towards Auriel’s tent, draggin me along behind her. Auriel hurries beside us. Tracker too. Em dives inside. Auriel blocks my way. Her face so young an so old. Her wolfdog eyes that see everythin.
You ain’t ready fer this, she says. We didn’t finish. Yer too open, Saba. It’s dangerous.
Open. I do feel different somehow. I feel bigger. I feel more than myself. Like I’m part of the air around me. Like I go on ferever an ever. Nero swoops down to land on my arm. I gather him in, hold him close.
I’m fine, I says. Stand aside.
They’re jest layin Maev down on Auriel’s cot.
Tell me everythin, I says. All of it. From the beginnin.
Hey, steady on, says Lugh. She’s had it, she needs to rest. You can talk to her later.
I’ll talk to her now, thanks. I shoulder him outta the way. Tommo’s lightin the lamps an Em’s fussin her with blankets an such. We prop her up. I crouch beside her.
So, everybody was asleep, I says. Jest you an Ash an Creed still awake. Then what?
Maev touches Nero’s head with a gentle finger. Strokes him a couple of times. Then she says, You know what it’s like there, Saba. At night. In the hills. In the trees. The silence there, it’s . . . so deep. So vast. We’re talkin around the fire . . . keepin our voices low, almost whisperin an then . . . outta nowhere . . . it’s like the night rips open. The Tonton’s on top of us. So many of ’em an . . . it’s all so confusin, the . . . the horses an the screamin an they’re tramplin down the tents with people still inside, still asleep an . . . pullin people out an . . . shootin ’em in the head.
What about you? I says. Ash an Creed?
We’re on our feet right away, she says, but this one Tonton’s already ridin me down. He corners me, then he jumps down an grabs me. An I’m fightin him off, no weapon, jest – Maev holds up her hands – but then I look at his face. He’s dressed like the rest of ’em, in the black robes an the armour an all of ’em’s got their faces covered, but I can see his eyes. They’re Jack’s eyes. It’s him.
I hold out the heartstone.
He pressed it in my hand, she says. He whispers, Find Saba, give it to her, tell her – but he couldn’t finish what he meant to say becuz all of a sudden, there was another Tonton right next to us, he was—
She stops fer a moment, collects herself.
Anyways, he could of heard, there was Tonton all over the place, so Jack lifts his knife, like he’s about to kill me, an he says, loud so’s anybody could hear, You’ve lost an yer the cause of it, so full of pride. You should of seen us comin by the moon, had more’n three on the watch.
But his eyes are movin, lookin this way an that, then he lets his arm go loose an I know that’s my chance. He means fer me to run. So I duck an run an the horses, they’ve all fled into the trees away from the trouble, an I jump on the first one I come to an I take off. I didn’t look back. But I heard. Sound carries a long ways at night.
She ends on a whisper. We fall into silence. Led by her words to that mountain forest. On that quiet, moonless night. An I hear. I see. I smell. I feel. The chaos that came from the darkness. The panic. The terror. The pain.
The dreamers who won’t ever wake. The dead who now walk with Maev.
My place was with them, she says. To stay an fight an die with them. I ran. Saved my own skin. All my fine ideas about myself. Every one of ’em a lie. This is who I turn out to be.
So he’s joined the Tonton, says Lugh. I told you, Saba, Jack does what’s best fer Jack.
That ain’t true! says Emmi. He helped Maev git away, he saved her life!
I stare at the heartstone in my hand. No message, I says.
It was all so confusin, says Maev. Before I knew what was happenin, they’re on us an I’m fightin this Tonton an I see it’s Jack an then I’m runnin, I’m on a horse an . . . it’s animal. The need to survive. I jest . . . went. The whole thing couldn’t of took more’n three minutes.
Yer lucky you got away, says Tommo.
Am I? says Maev.
Of course, says Lugh.
Emmi kneels down next to me. What Jack said to you, she says. You’ve lost an yer the cause of it. That don’t seem like somethin he’d say. He don’t talk like that.
Maev shrugs. He was right, she says. I am prideful, always thinkin I know best, not listenin to what nobody else says. It was – is my fault that they’re dead. I should of had more people on watch. Right from the off, Jack an me never liked each other. It must of pleased him to rub my nose in my own defeat.
But he let you go, says Em.
I couldn’t kill somebody I knew. Tommo’s eyes go to me as he says it. He’s thinkin of Epona.
He wanted you to bring the heartstone to Saba, says Emmi, to tell her somethin.
Tell her what? says Maev. That he’s a Tonton now. That he don’t care fer her. There you go, there’s the message. Consider it delivered.
An there’s this aginst him too, says Lugh. Darktrees is well concealed. You gotta know where it is, to know where it is. That’s what y’all told me, right?
Maev nods.
So? says Emmi.
So, how did the Tonton find it? he says. Hidden away, deep in the forest, on a dark night. Somebody must of told ’em where it was, how to find it. Somebody must of led ’em there. Someone who’d bin there before an knew the way. Jack.
A voice inside me whispers, Jack knows where Darktrees is. Remember how he tracked you there from Hopetown? How he slipped between the trees, deep into the forest an past the Free Hawk guards? I close my ears to its sly malice.
He wouldn’t do that, I says.
How did the Tonton find it? Lugh lays his words out gently. They drift in the air an I breathe ’em in. What d’you know about him? he says. Really, I mean. Nuthin. He plays whatever side suits him at the time. He’s a hollow man. A trickster. He’s betrayed all of yuz. Betrayed you an deceived you.
Emmi’s eyes fill with tears. I don’t care what you say, she says. I know Jack in my heart. Saba’s heart knows him too. He ain’t no deceiver.
So, he’s always told you the truth, says Lugh.
Like you, you mean? Auriel’s cool voice. Our heads turn. It’s the first time she’s spoke. She’s bin stood by the door all this time, watchin.
Lugh gives her a hard look. I ain’t the one ridin with the Tonton, he says. He turns back to me. I will give him one thing, he had the decency to send yer necklace back. You seem a lot better. More like yerself. We’ll rest today, pack tonight an be gone by first light tomorrow. C’mon, everybody, cheer up. We got the Big Water waitin fer us. A fine new life in a fine new land an I, fer one, cain’t wait to git there. Whaddya say?
Let’s go, says Tommo.
That’s the spirit. Yer welcome to come with us, Lugh says to Maev.
She says naught. Jest lays herself down an turns her face to the wall.
Lugh an Tommo go off. The set of Lugh’s back can say more’n most people’s mouths do. Right now, it’s shoutin to the world that he’s right an that’s that. His shoulders so certain. His arms so sure.
There’s only one thing I’m sure of. Lugh’s wrong. I cain’t say how or why or what. But he is. He must be.