Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) Read online

  Meaghan yawned and flopped onto her back. “Why was I on Earth?”

  “That’s your third question and I only promised to answer one. I’ll explain it all in time, but not tonight. You need to sleep.”

  “One more question,” she said, then pushed forward when he did not object. “Does your group of people have a name?”

  “Guardians,” he replied. “We’re called Guardians.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  DAWN CAME too soon. Meaghan watched the sun push a crimson curtain through the sky, then waited a few extra minutes before she turned on her side to search for Nick. He stood over her, studying the forest with an intensity that left her wondering if the shadows blanketing his face had little to do with the disappearing night. Her sleep had been plagued with dreams of her parents and she had woken several times with tears soaking her cheeks. Nick had stirred beside her each time, drawing an arm around her body to offer comfort, and she doubted he had slept any better than she had.

  His eyes drifted from the trees to meet her gaze. Understanding passed between them before he sat down next to her, taking her hand with the movement.

  “Is it time to go?” she asked, sitting up.

  He nodded, squeezing her hand before standing and pulling her up with him. “I found some fruit for breakfast. It’s over by the log. Why don’t you go eat while I fold the blanket?”

  She did as he asked, and soon they found their way deep into the forest. The leaves overhead formed a canopy so dense Meaghan felt dawn had slipped back into twilight. There appeared to be no set path and at times the vines and overgrowth made passage slow. Nick used a stick to push limbs out of their way as they moved. Only an occasional noise greeted them from the depths, the warble of a bird or leaves rustling as a small animal ran from them, and it added to the darkness pressing down on Meaghan’s senses.

  Her heart ached, squeezed by memories of her parents’ deaths and she gave in to the pain, allowing a sullen mood to fill the hours. Neither of them spoke until Meaghan caught sight of a bright blue bird flying overhead. By the time a second and a third darted past, recognition had brought a smile to her face. “Those look like blue jays,” she said.

  Nick glanced up without breaking their pace and nodded. “They are. I’m surprised to see them. They’re usually skittish around people.”

  A noise rustled to their left and Meaghan turned in time to catch the tuft of a white tail. A few seconds later, a flash of brown bounded in front of them, almost knocking Nick over. The brown paused long enough for Meaghan to recognize it as a deer before it disappeared into the forest as fast as it had appeared.

  She took one look at Nick’s ashen face and the oppression that had eclipsed her all morning dissolved into laughter.

  Nick scowled at her, and then chuckled as he rubbed at the back of his neck, his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I should’ve seen that coming. I was concentrating too much on sensing my way, I guess.”

  “You couldn’t sense him?”

  “Sensing deer is not one of my skills. I didn’t know he was there until he jumped in front of me. I think we scared him.”

  “Not as much as he scared you,” Meaghan teased, and then curbed the urge to laugh again when Nick narrowed his eyes at her. “I didn’t realize so many of the animals would be the same here. It’s comforting to think this world isn’t so different from my own.”

  “Some of them are the same, but some aren’t, even if they appear to be. You need to be cautious until you’re certain of what you’re facing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean being too comfortable with something which appears familiar can get you hurt.” Nick placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. “Look into the higher branches.”

  She scanned the trees surrounding them. When a blue bird twittered at her from a high branch to her right, she frowned. “Are you trying to tell me the jay is dangerous?”

  “Not the bird. That,” he pointed at a spot above the bird. At first, Meaghan saw nothing, but then a flicker caught her attention. A small monkey, no bigger than the size of a kitten, hung from a branch by a long, thin tail. It watched them, cocking its head back and forth with interest. She took a step toward it, stopping when Nick’s hand tightened on her shoulder.

  “Don’t get too close,” he said.

  “Is he really dangerous?” she asked. “He doesn’t seem big enough to cause harm to anything larger than a banana.” She took another step so she stood underneath the tree. The monkey swung on top of the branch, scurrying away from them. “Darn it. I scared him.”

  “Not quite,” Nick said. The monkey reappeared in a lower branch, only feet from Meaghan. It crept toward her, and then froze again.

  “I’ve never seen a monkey this close before,” she said. The monkey chattered in excitement. It extended a small paw toward her and she reached up in turn.

  “Don’t!” Nick snatched her hand from the air seconds before the monkey’s fingers had the chance to close around her wrist. The animal leapt from the tree limb, catching the branch with its tail so it swung in front of them before it turned its focus on Nick. Its eyes glowed red and it hissed, baring a mouth full of jagged teeth.

  Meaghan jumped, and then clutched her hands in front of her heart as the monkey swung back onto the branch, screeching in anger.

  “That’s not a monkey, is it?” she whispered, refusing to take her eyes from the animal. It spotted the jay moving through the tree and swung after it, an unnatural silence masking its movement.

  “It’s a type of monkey called a dranx,” Nick answered and put an arm around her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” she assured him, though her voice shook. “Could it have hurt me?”

  “Its teeth are laced with poison. It wouldn’t have killed you, but it would have made you ill for a few days.”

  Meaghan trailed her eyes to a limb further up the tree where the bird had found a new perch. The dranx landed in front of it.

  “You’ll want to look away,” Nick told her, though the warning came too late. The dranx pounced on the bird, sinking its teeth into the feathered body of its prize before disappearing with it into the canopy of the tree.

  Meaghan gasped, and then turned, burying her head in Nick’s chest. “That was terrible,” she said, her voice muffled against his sweater. He wrapped his arms around her.

  “I’m sorry. I needed you to understand the danger here, but I didn’t mean for you to see that.”

  “Not everything’s the same,” she repeated his previous warning and stepped out of his embrace. She glanced toward the tree once more to ensure the dranx had gone and then returned her attention to Nick. “Why didn’t the bird fly away? It had time.”

  “It couldn’t. The dranx monkey has the power to paralyze its victims when they look into its eyes.”

  “But you looked at it and you’re fine.”

  “Its power is in proportion with its size. It only works on birds and other small animals. Its poison is deadly to those animals as well.”

  “Oh.” Meaghan crossed her arms over her stomach, controlling the shudder that crept up her back. “So it’s poisonous and it has the ability to paralyze its victims. Can it do anything else?”

  “It can move without making any sound, which is why you didn’t notice it at first. This particular dranx has been trailing us for a few miles. We heard it only when it wanted us to hear. Let’s start moving again,” he said. “We have a long walk ahead of us today.”

  Meaghan nodded and he turned, leading the way again. She stayed close behind him, scanning the forest with more vigilance and wariness than she had when they had started out in the morning. Although she could no longer see the monkey, and she had no doubt it had fled the area, it refused to leave her mind.

  “How did you know it was there?” she asked after a minute. “If you couldn’t hear it, how did you know?”

  “My ability to sense things isn’t limited to people,” he answe
red. “And it isn’t random. I can tune into magic when I want to, like the pulse stone I left at the portal, and danger triggers that sense automatically.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Even the smallest forms of malicious magic can trigger my power.”

  Worry lines creased Meaghan’s forehead, and Nick stopped again. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m confused,” she said. “Is your village magical?”

  “Not to the point where I can sense it from here.”

  He reached a wall of vines. Tapping them with the stick, he waited a moment before parting them with his arms. He let her through and then followed.

  “But you know where you’re going,” she said when he took the lead again. “You told me last night you weren’t sure where we were, but it was dark. You seemed more certain this morning, so I assumed you were following the trail again, like you followed the pulse stone at home.” She hesitated. “You do know the way, right?”

  “Not exactly.”

  They stopped at a tree lying across their path. Its trunk rose higher than Nick’s shoulders. Its length disappeared in both directions through the thickening forest, its ends nowhere in sight.

  “You need to boost me over,” Nick decided. “I’ll pull you up from the top.”

  “All right.” Meaghan crouched on the ground and cupped her hands, launching him into the air when he stepped his left foot into her palms. He straddled the tree before leaning down to grab her hand, and hoisting her up beside him.

  She faced him, swinging one leg over the tree to mimic his posture. “What do you mean by ‘not exactly’?” she asked. “When we were on Earth, you said we were five miles away from the portal to your village. We’ve travelled at least that far today, so we should be close by now. Are you lost?”

  “Not exactly,” he repeated. He looked over the side of the tree and she followed his gaze. Thick underbrush hid the ground, as well as any rocks that might pose a danger to their landing. He frowned. “I think it’s best if I—”

  “Stop,” Meaghan begged. She pressed her hands into the tree and leaned forward, not caring about the pain the rough bark brought to her palms or the surprise that overtook Nick’s face. “You promised you’d answer my questions. ‘Not exactly’ doesn’t answer anything. Are you lost or not?”

  “I’m not lost,” Nick responded and then sighed when she raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not,” he reassured her. “I just have no idea where we are.”

  She sat back. “How can you be both?”

  “Portals don’t work the way you think,” he answered. “Each location here is linked to a specific location on Earth. A portal connects those two locations but the geography doesn’t line up. I could open a portal here and one a mile away and they could be next to each other on your world or fifty miles apart. There’s an intricate formula which would tell me where we are, but I don’t have it memorized.”

  Her mouth went dry. “So we could be half-way around the world from your village?”

  Instead of answering, he dropped his gaze to the ground again and Meaghan touched his hand. “Please, Nick. Tell me that’s impossible.”

  “Theoretically, it’s possible,” he responded. “Although I’d prefer to think we aren’t. I’m not in the mood to find our way across three continents and two oceans.”

  “Me neither,” she said, and then swung her other leg over the tree when he jumped down from the trunk. He extended a hand to her and she took it, landing beside him in the brush. She stepped from the greenery, following him through the forest once more.

  “So we’re stuck wandering around here until something looks familiar?” she asked.

  “Not quite,” he told her. “As I said, I’m not lost. I recognize the mountain range we’re walking toward, but I think we’re on the wrong side of it.” He helped her over a smaller tree lying in their path, and then dropped her hand as they kept moving. “We should be at the base of the first mountain by tomorrow night. If I’m right, we’ll reach my village in a couple of weeks.”

  “Weeks,” Meaghan echoed, barely managing to form the word. She crossed her arms over her stomach, slowing her pace and then stopping so Nick could not see her tears. She closed her eyes to chase them away.

  She had never minded being in the wilderness and had often enjoyed it, but weeks without proper food or a shower, weeks without a comfortable bed, and weeks dealing with evil-looking animals and aching muscles did not thrill her.

  Getting lost did not either. She opened her eyes as a soft wind tickled her cheek, and scanned the forest ahead. She caught sight of Nick, his form no more than a distant outline scattering leaves, and she chased after it.

  “The wind brought me here on a gust of luck, I’d say.”

  A breezy tenor stilled Meaghan’s feet. She spun around, looking for the source of the voice, but saw only the movement of loose vines dancing in the wind.

  “Jumpy, aren’t you?”

  She snapped her head to the left. An echoing laugh followed. She turned a full circle, watching for any movement or a potential hiding place that would give away the man’s location, but she found nothing.

  “Earth, water, fire, and air,” the voice sang as the breeze gusted stronger, swirling leaves in a vortex around her. “They are your friends, but you’d best beware. The forest path you travel along will soon bring you to a deadly wrong. Find the way the water leads you, and you will find the man who sees you.”

  The words came from every direction. Meaghan’s heart raced in her chest and she followed its lead, speeding after Nick through the forest. Fire scorched her lungs and panic froze her mind.

  She had almost caught up with him when pain ripped through her, a bolt of electricity that sent her screaming to the ground.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  HER PALMS hit the ground first in time to prevent her forehead from landing on a rock in the path. She heard thrashing close by and somewhere in the distance, footsteps running toward her. Pain shot through her again as something yanked on her ankle. She screamed and tried to turn over, but her legs refused to budge. Pressing up on her forearms, she felt something hit her on the back and fell to the ground. She struggled against the pressure, wiggling and flailing to get loose, but her attacker’s grip tightened. The tightness slid up her legs, pinning down her waist before latching onto her wrists.

  She yanked them forward so she could see her attacker and then caught her breath in disbelief. A vine writhed, thickening along her arms. It crawled over the ground toward her head, slithered up her shoulders onto her neck, and constricted. She opened her mouth to cry for help, but no noise escaped. Blackness closed her vision into a narrow tunnel. She dug her nails into the vines on her neck, tearing at them with the last of her strength, and then dropped her hands, surprised when the vines went limp.

  Air rushed back into her lungs, sweet and powerful. She held it. Her eyes cleared and the pressure eased from her body. She turned her head in time to see the vine slither into the underbrush, trailing a thick liquid that looked like dark blood. It coiled into a pile and stilled.

  She saw the glint of a silver knife in someone’s hand. It disappeared, then she felt arms slide underneath her body. Too weak to struggle, she closed her eyes and succumbed to them as they lifted her. When she felt a wool sweater brush against her cheek, she opened her eyes again, relief flooding through her when Nick’s face filled her vision.

  “You have the worst luck,” he muttered. He sat her on a stump so he could examine her wounds. His cursory review seemed to miss nothing. His fingertips coasted over the scrapes on her palms, then parted a tear in her sleeve to reveal a long cut from her elbow to mid-way down her forearm. Red welts along her skin had already begun fading, but his fingers tested them anyway, and she knew they would turn into bruises by tomorrow. He ran his hands down her legs to look for breaks, stopping at her ankle when she released a sharp hiss of air.

  He moved her ankle back and forth and side to side. “Does this hurt?”

  �
�Yes,” she groaned. He pushed harder and she pitched forward from the pain. “Don’t, please.”

  He let go. Lifting her pant leg, he pulled down her sock to view the skin puffing over the edge of her sneaker. He removed the sneaker, then resumed his light prodding.

  “Does this hurt much?” he asked. She shook her head and he sat back on his heels. “The color isn’t changing. That’s good news, though I think it’s sprained. I’ll bandage it for now and we’ll know more by tomorrow morning.” He removed the backpack from his shoulders, pulling open the zippers before glancing at her again and frowning. “You’re not wearing your mother’s necklace,” he said. “Do you have it?”

  Panic swelled a lump in Meaghan’s throat. She reached for her neck, searching for the amulet with frantic fingers. When she felt its thin chain and realized it had flipped around to her back, she sighed in relief. “It’s here,” she said, tugging it forward. “It’s safe.”

  “Good. We’d better keep it in the backpack for now.”

  She pulled it over her head and handed it to him. Nick found the amulet’s velvet pouch inside a front pocket of the backpack, stored the necklace inside, then removed a plastic first aid kit from another zippered compartment. After wrapping Meaghan’s foot and ankle with a bandage from the kit, he tended to her other wounds, covering them with gauze and antibiotic cream. Once he had finished, he sat back to study her.

  “I know it hurts,” he said, “but I can’t light a fire to make jicab tea right now. As soon as it’s safe, I will.” He stowed the first aid kit and her sneaker, then stood and slipped the backpack over his shoulders again. “I’m afraid your injury will slow us down, so we don’t have time to take a break. Do you want to lean on me?”

  “I can try.” She took his hand and allowed him to pull her up from the stump. Balancing on her good foot, she leaned against him. He slung an arm around her waist. At first, their movements were tentative and slow, but as they developed a rhythm, matching each other’s steps, they were able to move at a quicker pace through the forest.