Chapter 11. No Going Back.

Three days later, Jarod sent a wagon of Endowas bark–guarded by Protectors and led by Delta, Fitzel and Trayor–to the Sour Marshes, allowing Jango and Tess to begin making their vaccine. The day after, Gale and Silvan left on their own journey for Denengear. “We’ll be watching for a raven,” Jarod told Silvan and Gale. “Remember, secrecy is our only weapon in this battle. No one can know who you are or why you’ve come. Keep your swords sheathed and your mouths shut.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Gale said with a smile that turned into a frown. “We won’t let you down.”

“Don’t worry Jarod,” Silvan said, “this will be as easy as peeling a lemon.”

Jarod’s frown deepened with hidden disgust. “If you say so. Don’t get yourselves killed.”

Two weeks later it came, with a flapping of heavy wings. The bird soared into the wooden tower erected by the Protectors, and the crow keeper pulled a rolled-up note from a pocket on the bird's leg, unsealing it for all to see. “Tell our friends to come south. Denengear awaits.”

A shiver of stress wriggled up Manie’s throat as Jarod turned and looked back at her. “It’s time to go home,” she said. “All these years later.” The words haunted her like some specter from the past.

“It seems so,” Jarod said back, his voice dark and deep as an empty well. He looked back at Manie with eyes like death.

By the end of the next day, they were ready to set off on their journey. Jarod grabbed Manie and Shawn’s shoulders, looking them both in the eye. He had dark circles under both of his own. “Now remember, if anyone asks about the Protectors or a vaccine: say nothing. No one must know what we’re planning, least of all your father. If he learns that you’ve been helping us, all of your lives will be in extreme danger, and that means Silvan and Gale as well. He’ll torture them for information; he’ll use Shawn to get to you, Manie. We can’t let that happen.”

“Don’t worry, we won't mess this up,” Manie told him, the fear bending the features on her face like she’d tasted something sour.

“I know you won’t,” he said, squeezing her arm and taking a breath. “Be careful down there. And come home soon.”

“Where is home?” Manie asked, her voice distant.

“I can’t wait until this is over,” Shawn said, sounding far more afraid than he looked.

Jarod seemed to notice the uncertainty in Manie. He tightened his eyes and said, “Find the cure and get out of there as fast as you can. We’ll win back our home tomorrow, together. We’ll be watching for a raven. Silvan will alert us once you’ve arrived in Denengear. Once Jango gives me that vaccine, you won’t have long before the rest of the Protectors come south to put an end to this mess one way or another.”

The stress of imagining all that was waiting ahead made Manie close her eyes. “We’ll find the cure, and then we’ll make everything go back to the way it was before.”

Jarod nodded, allowing half a smile. “You’re the only one of us here who knows what that world looks like.”

The memory of that world made Manie shiver. She could still smell the food of the festival on her last night of freedom. I’m just an echo of a dead girl from seven decades in the past.

“I said it to Silvan and Gale and I’ll say it to you as well: good luck–though I know you won’t need it.”

“I wouldn’t be standing here right now if it wasn’t for luck,” Manie responded.

“I don’t believe that for a second. Go out there and do what you two do best, be heroes. And Shawn…remember, be gentle on your prisoner when you get to Denengear. Those cuffs are for business, not pleasure.”

Manie gasped and grabbed a chunk of snow, tossing it at Jarod’s chest, feeling her cheeks grow hot. “Stop showing off for yourself! I’d never let him do that. I’m a princess,” Manie said, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Shawn snickered and tried to hide his smile. Manie shoved his arm. “What are you laughing about?”

“I was just thinking about how I was your prisoner when we first met, and now you’re going to be my prisoner. Weird how things turn out sometimes.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Manie told him, trying to bite away her smile as she shoved a finger in his face.

Shawn laughed as he climbed into the back of the wagon. He reached down and took Manie’s hand, hauling her up and into the back under the cover of the cloth hood. “Thanks, Shawn.” Manie settled into the back where the furs had been set up beneath the nets of food and supplies as a bed for her and Shawn to rest on during their long journey south.

“Well, anything else?” Manie asked, sprawling out against the pillows and blankets.

Jarod’s smile slowly melted into a frown. “Everyone’s depending on you all to get this done. The future of Talmoria hangs in the balance.”

Manie’s happiness was swept away by Jarod’s cold words. “I know,” she said, leaning up.

“Tens-of-thousands of lives will be lost if we fail.”

“I know,” Manie said again, the severity of his words washing over her like icy water.

“I know you know. But I need you to not forget.”

Manie looked into Shawn’s eyes and saw the same sense of dread she felt in her own heart. “We won’t forget,” she said.

Shawn nodded. “We’ve got this, Jarod. Don’t worry.”

“I’m sure you do.” Jarod smiled and looked up into the sky. “It’s a beautiful night tonight. You can even see most of the stars. Maybe it’s a good sign.” Torch-Wings fluttered one way and another over his shoulder, leaving sparkling trails as they flew. Jarod reached up and slapped the frame of the wagon. “Stay warm, and stay together. I’ll see you soon.” Jarod put his fingers in his mouth and whistled, and at once the wagon jolted forwards, making the net of supplies above Shawn and Manie swing.

Shawn stumbled and sat down beside Manie, getting into a more comfortable position for the journey. Jarod turned away as the wagon jostled and rumbled down the snowy road, he and Sentansi growing farther and farther away, disappearing behind the rows of trees into the dim, shimmering light of a thousand colored flames. For Shawn it felt like he was leaving another home behind, just like the day he’d come through the door.

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“Well, that wasn’t ominous or anything,” Shawn said, taking a deep breath. “How long do you think it will take us to get to Denengear?”

“I’m not really sure. It can be a quick journey by horseback in spring, but by wagon in winter, I don’t really know. I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

“I wonder what we’ll see along the way,” Shawn grabbed Manie’s hand. “It can’t be all bad.”

“I remember Milly said something like almost everyone in Denengear was dead. A graveyard of gold and glass.” Manie said. “I’ll never forget the way she said it... What that means is anyone’s guess at this point. So many things have changed since I died. I wonder if I’ll even recognize it.”

“I want to see what it’s like,” Shawn said, “where you’re from. You’ve seen my home, and met my family. I guess it’s my turn.”

“We truly are going through all the stages of a relationship, aren’t we?” Manie asked, laughing and squeezing Shawn’s fingers. “I’m glad you’re coming with me.”

“I’ll always be coming with you,” he said back.

For the first time in Manie’s life, those words seemed true. She turned her neck and kissed Shawn’s cheek, then leaned her head against his shoulder, staring out at the snowy world bouncing away between skeletons of dead trees, under a black blanket colored by thousands of falling stars. “I know you will,” she whispered.

***

The wagon stopped only to warm the horses by the campfire and cook meat, or when the weather became too treacherous. Only a small force had been sent to deliver Manie and Shawn to the capitol, so their journey would attract less attention. But it made the roads far more dangerous. Every speck of light they saw in the darkness ahead was a threat, a mortal danger, and the driver would douse the lanterns and bring the horses to a halt each time, daring not to even whisper, and if the light approached from behind, the driver found a different road.

Very often there were troughs of flame surrounding the larger towns, like the ones Shawn and Manie saw in Market Town. From distant hills and valleys they could only assume these fires to be burning corpses, and they dared not go closer to confirm. The air smelled different south of the Beacons–smoky, rotten. It was sometimes too foul to breathe, and it only became worse the farther south they traveled, like a choking poisonous fume hung over the entire island. The black clouds above the fires bled ash with the falling snow, turning the landscape a frosty gray. And dead trees were all around them, stabbing up into the night like shadows of forgotten giants, watching and judging all those who passed beneath their charcoal branches with unseen eyes.

A week later, the wagon groaned and slid to a stop. The cloth behind the driver’s section flopped open. “We’re low on water,” the driver named Pod said as he twisted back.

“What about the snow?” Manie asked.

Pod shook his head at her. “Can’t drink it. Ash has poisoned the frost with the flesh of dead men. Creeks and lakes, too. Gotta find water from a covered well these days. We’ll be stopping in a small village outside Weaterton. You two just sit back there and stay quiet. If anyone asks who you are, you say you were orphaned by the Gray Death and not a single word more. You got that?”

“Got it,” Manie said, looking at Shawn.

“We’ll be as quiet as the wind.”

“Quieter,” Pod said, pointing a calloused finger back at them.

The Protector named Ramsay who’d come as a guard chuckled. “The girl hid from Talmoria’s king for seventy years and you think she needs your advice on how to stay hidden?”

“Well, I don’t, but he might,” Manie said, cocking her head at Shawn. “Couldn’t even keep himself from saying my name in front of everyone in Ferengul the first time I came back to the island.”

Shawn pulled his neck back. “You were dead, that’s not hiding, Master Spy.”

“Right. Says the person who ran straight home after stealing my Crystal and leaving me for dead.”

“You passed out, that’s not what I’d call dead,” Shawn said.

Manie gasped and put a hand on her chest. “I was rendered unconscious by your inability to follow directions.”

“Wow. That is literally not what happened at all, but okay.”

“Okay,” Manie said in a stupid voice.

“Enough you two,” Pod snapped. “We’re nearly there.”

The wagon bounced and rumbled into the village, springs rocking gently in the falling snow. There were no other sounds but the wind and whining wheels.

“It’s too quiet,” Pod said, his voice muffled by the thick cloth cover.

“They could be sleeping,” Ramsay suggested.

“No, they aren’t sleeping.”

“What does that mean?” Shawn asked, leaning up to peek through a crack, but Manie pulled him down.

“Stay quiet.”

The wagon came to a stop and the drivers dismounted in two loud thumps against the snow. Manie waited with Shawn, hidden from sight. All that could be heard outside besides the footsteps of the driver and his partner was the light crackle of falling snow.

“Look at him, he’s frozen solid,” Pod said.

“So is this one,” Ramsay added.

“No cuts or stabs or bruises. No blood in the snow. The wolves haven’t even feasted on ‘em.”

“Look, they all have blood in their eyes,” Ramsay said.

Manie turned to Shawn, who looked no less afraid. She put a finger to her lips to be sure he wouldn’t speak.

“Hello!” Pod shouted. “Come out if you’re alive!”

For a long deafening moment there was silence–nothing but breath and frozen wind. But then, a whimpering, and footsteps.

“There’s a girl!” Pod shouted.

Shawn shot up at once and lifted the cloth to see. Manie rose with him and looked outside. In the blue moonlight stood a girl in the open doorway of a hovel, her left arm black with frost. Her blonde hair hung stiffly against her shoulders, scalp frosted by ice. Ramsay and Pod approached slow, and Ramsay drew his sword.

“What’s your name?” Pod asked.

The girl opened her mouth to answer, but her lips stayed sealed by frost. After an effort, she broke the seal and blood ran across her chin. “Helki.”

“What happened here, Helki?” Pod asked.

The girl looked around at the frozen bodies in the snow. “Everyone died.”

“Why?” Ramsay asked.

Helki looked up at them with her pale blue eyes, eyelashes crusted with frost. “Because they drank from the well.”

“Someone poisoned the water,” Ramsay deduced.

“A girl came with her friends. They said I could be their friend, too. But she told me I had to put a magic potion in the water so everyone would drink it. I didn’t want to do it, but I wanted a friend so badly. She told me not to drink it. She told me it was only for them.”

“Where is this girl, now?” Pod asked.

“She’s right there.” Helki raised her arm to point, her clothes crunching and cracking as her hand came up.

Pod and Ramsay looked where her finger was aimed, but there was nothing there to see. When they twisted back, Helki was sitting in the snow on her bare knees. She rubbed white fingers across her one black arm like she was trying to clear away the ice, as if it was only dust.

“I’m very tired now. I think I’m going to sleep.” Helki leaned over in the snow and closed her eyes.

Pod and Ramsay looked at each other.

“You can’t stay here, sweet girl,” Pod said. “You’ll freeze to death. We’ll make you a fire to warm you…”

Helki didn’t respond. Pod reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, trying to rock her awake, but her eyes wouldn’t open. No foggy breath came out from her lungs.

Pod stood and turned away. “Come on. We won’t be finding any water here.”

Ramsey sheathed his sword. “What about her?”

“She’s gone,” Pod said as he moved back towards the wagon.

Ramsay looked at Helki without a word, then began to follow Pod. Manie let the cloth fall back down as they climbed onto the driver’s bench. She slid back to her seat and watched the white breath come out of her own lungs, trying not to think.

“Let’s get out of this place,” Pod said.

“What happened to her,” Manie whispered up to them from behind the driver’s section.

“She died.” Pod said, slapping the reins. The wagon bounced forward and began to roll. And those were the last words spoken for many miles.