The Girl in the Woods

Chapter 9

I didn't want to keep moving, but Apollo was adamant. He was tight lipped as he explained that the figure that had attacked Mona meant business.

"It's clear he's been tracking us, I just didn't notice because of his scent." Apollo shook his head sorrowfully, as if everything that had happened was his fault.

"What did he smell like?"

"Kalleb." Apollo said simply. "You remember it, right? I remember Tether showing it to you last summer, at the reunion. It can be used to hide one's true scent, and that's what our mystery man is using to mask his presence. Everyone uses it, so I didn't think much when I smelt it; he's extremely clever and covert."

He paused on the crest of a deep green hill. It matched his cloak, and I wondered if he could be seen from the sky. I followed his gaze as we looked around; hills rolled on forever like clouds, and the occasional pillar of smoke marked where lonely cottages sat.  In the distance, a flock of sheep roamed around like small fluffy cars. The sky was clear and blue above us, and fluffy clouds dotted them like cotton candy. One cloud looked like a pair of fairy wings.

"Do you think he's the one doing all the murders?" I asked Apollo.

He didn't answer for a while, his clear eyes fixed on the horizon. "I've considered it. However, I hate to admit it because of the ramifications."

"The what?"

Apollo took my hand and continued forward, our feet slipping slightly on the smooth grass. "Let's say hypothetically that our suspicions are correct. It is the murderer, and he's chasing after us."

"Okay." I said slowly.

"And the only reason he would be after us, waving around his great curved sword and stabbing innocent old women, is because he knows we're out to stop his plan from falling into place."

I didn't answer. We both knew what his plan was - to cause a world war and wipe out all magical races.

"But the question is, how did he know?" Apollo's perfect eyebrows were drawn together into a frown. I could practically hear the cogs working furiously in his head. "How did he know I was travelling around trying to bring people together? One, he has to have connections to know all our movements, two, he was probably in Feloix Felaii."

My legs stopped moving, drawing Apollo to a stop. We were in the little dip between hills now. "So he was there?"

Apollo shook his head, looking disgruntled. "He had to be. How else would he know so much? And it makes sense." We began moving again. "Someone like him is bound to be prideful. Where else would he be except in the council, smiling to himself as the effects of his carnage ran rampant?"

I had no answer to him, my own cogs grinding fast. He'd been at Feloix Felaii probably to monitor the direction the magical world would take - Apollo said so himself; the murderer was clever and covert. We'd probably walked by him, Apollo could have even introduced him to me.

"The thing is," Apollo spoke, following my thoughts, "who is he?"

Neither of us spoke for a while.

My head felt like it was going to crack open. We'd been travelling since Laen had taken my grandmother back to the kren. I was worried sick about her; more than once I'd scowled at myself darkly, cursing the odd hooded figure for taking her away the minute we'd been reunited. It just wasn't fair!

Now there was all this speculation about the murderer, and my stomach churned uneasily at the fact that he was tracking us. With an evil plan this huge, he would do anything to get rid of us. I looked around at the rolling landscape uneasily. It would be easy to catch sight of him, but it would be easy for him to see us too.