Shadow Army: A Shadows Rising Novella

19. Refuge

Cress

The low, hulking roof of Da's hunting lodge was nearly impossible to see, half buried by a fall of rocks and the massive trunk of a dead pine. It was little more than a lean-to under there, built more to avoid detection if anyone were fool enough to come all the way out this far into the bush. There was hardly any way to track a person to it, much less find it without knowing it was there. Da hadn't been good for much, but he had certainly been good at hiding things from lawkeepers.

But somehow, the Ikaryans knew right where it was.

I topped the rise above the lodge and took a deep breath of the wild mountain air, pausing to look down across the small clearing on the edge of a weed-choked gulley. The lodge, with its dead-tree roof, was tucked right into the hill I was standing on.

"Beat ya to the water hole!" Jamesh suddenly shouted, barreling past me and down the hill, weaving through the clumps of flowering mountain bluespire and hogbush, shedding his shirt as he went.

Nox reached the top of the rise, then, coming to a stop next to me, pulling an exhausted Beckett on a makeshift pallet of saplings.

After a moment, Beckett sat up, then got to his feet with an old-man sigh. "Yeah, well, you're cheating," he called, trudging after Jamy. The lure of cold water was too strong, and he was moving quickly by the time he got to the flat rock we used as a jumping point.

I tensed up for a moment, but then pulled a mug face and relaxed when Becks didn't take a flying leap off the rock, and just waded down into the shadowy pool that Da, Jamesh, and I had spent a summer digging out of the creek bed.

Lolarose and Ephie arrived then, and Lolarose asked, "What's a water hole?"

There was a splash from the creek, and Jamesh let out a hoot of laughter, followed by Becket's quieter, raspy chuckle.

"Why don't you go on down and find out?" Doc asked, grinning at her as he climbed up the hill and stopped next to Nox.

Ephie, who had been following Jamesh, looked tired and cross as a bee-stung harpy but didn't object when Lolarose skipped off after the boys with a bright, "Wait for me!"

After a moment, Ephie's curiosity must have gotten to her too, because she huffed out a breath and trailed her sister, arms crossed tight over her chest. She took a wide detour around the group of Ikaryan soldiers who had gone ahead of us and were gathered by the cooking pit.

Nox picked up Beck's pallet and started down into the clearing, heading for the Ikaryans and Captain Arramy.

Then it was just Doc and I, standing there beneath a faultless late afternoon sky.

We hadn't spoken for a while. In fact, once we left the gorge behind, he had stayed quiet, walking with his head down as if he were deep in thought.

Every once in a while I caught him glancing at me, a serious look on his face. Now, though, he took a step closer, turning to face me, those green eyes darkening in a way that did something funny to my insides. "Cress... Can we talk?"

I swallowed, my throat gone suddenly dry. "Yeah," I nodded. "Sure... Now?"

A shriek split the air. "Snake! Oh, there's a —" this was followed by the loud, gulping slosh of something sizable hitting the water. Ephie had fallen in and was flapping about, apparently inhaling half the swimming hole.

Jamy was shouting, "Just stand up, it's not that deep, stand up," and several of the Ikaryans were running to help.

Another blood-curdling but gurgling scream made us both wince.