Rebecca Enzor

It’s here, the final installment of Aleda’s Story! I suggest grabbing a tissue before you read, and if you really want to rip your heart open you can listen to “Do Not Hang Your Head” by Elizabeth and the Catapult, which is the song I wrote this scene to. When you’re done, and you’ve dried your tears, please let me know if you’d like me to keep going with the children, or if you are ready for something new

Catch up on the story here

Carrick lifted his head and coughed at the dust and ash thick in the air. The children were crying in the distance, from fear or injury he didn’t know.

“Lea, are you okay?”

He looked down at her face, still and gray with ash. “Lea?” He put a hand to her cheek. Warm. “Aleda?” He bent over, ear on her chest, but it didn’t rise. There was no sound.

“No, Lea. Please. Don’t leave me yet. I can’t do this without you.”

He wiped her face clean of ash and saw the blood, still seeping from the wound in her back. He tried to lift her, to cradle her and rock her, but her hand was stuck under a boulder. Claimed by Mountain.

“Give her back!” Carrick screamed. “Give her back to me. Please.” He broke down, collapsing on top of her and crying until he heard Lisel calling for them and the cries of the children getting closer.

They couldn’t see her like this. They couldn’t see her. They…there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t move her, couldn’t hide her, couldn’t even clean the blood away. The children would see the wrath of Mountain.

Alaric got there first. He froze when he saw his mother, and Lisel arrived right behind him, Gissy still in her arms. “Oh no,” she breathed.

“She’s…I can’t…” Carrick swallowed as Lisel put Gisel on the ground and came over to kneel next to him. Her eyes swept the scene and Carrick finally found his voice. “Her hand is trapped.”

“What do we do?”

He didn’t know. Aleda would have known what to do. She always knew what to do. He bit down on his lip until it began to bleed and the pain brought him around. “We’ll have a pyre.”

Lisel nodded. “That seems appropriate.” They looked in the direction of Mountain, but the ash in the sky hid Him from view.

“Momma?” Alaric had crept forward and was standing behind Carrick. “Is she okay?”

Carrick pulled him into his lap and hugged his son hard. He didn’t know how to answer that. Alaric pulled away. “Is the man dead too?”

Carrick followed his son’s gaze and saw Coyle, face-down on the ground, the back of his head caved in. “Yes. The man is dead too.”

“Did he kill Momma?”

He looked down at the blood soaking the ash-covered ground. “Yes. He killed your mother.”

“Because we stole his babe?”

Carrick shook his head. “No, Ally. He was an angry man. He wanted to kill Mountain and your mother was the closest he could come.”

Alaric looked up into his eyes and spoke very quietly. “Is Momma is a God too? Like Mountain?”

Why not? Aleda had always seemed a goddess to Carrick. In those final moments she seemed to command Mountain, rather than Him commanding her. He had claimed her for Himself, and they would give her a funeral pyre, to send her ashes up into the sky to join His.

“Yes, Ally,” Carrick whispered into his hair and held him close. “Your mother was a goddess. She was the Mother Goddess Aleda.”

He held his son as Lisel checked on her daughter and the other children. Gisel was alive, but hadn’t woken up yet, and Elise busied the other children with collecting wood. Carrick and Alaric placed the wood over Aleda’s body, covering her until she could no longer be seen, and at nightfall Carrick lit the fire.

It was the longest night of his life, standing by the fire, one hand on his son’s shoulder and the other gripped tightly in Lisel’s, watching his wife turn to ash and join Mountain in the sky. Carrick’s throat tightened as he thought of his life with her.

Playing as children in the water. The first time she looked at him with a different light in her eyes, then ran giggling back to her friends. When he finally got up the nerve to kiss her, and how soft she had been. Their wedding ceremony. The joy on her face when she told him she was pregnant with Alaric. The fear when Mountain first exploded and the pregnant women began to die while giving birth to the changelings. Listening to her screams from outside the hut and knowing he would lose her. His joy when he heard the babe cry and her voice asking for him after she miraculously survived. The steadiness when she first stood up to Coyle and the others who wanted to kill the children. The terror when they finally ran. And her constant presence through the past seven summers on the mountainside, finding their way together. Raising children that no one else wanted, but she was willing to die for.

A loud crack echoed through the mountainside as the wood of the pyre fell in on itself, sending up a furl of sparks that lit the sky. Tears fell from Carrick’s eyes at the knowledge that her body was gone, even if her spirit stayed with him always. His Mother Goddess.

Catch up on the story here!

“Run, Momma, run!”

Aleda’s blood chilled at the fear in Alaric’s voice. She couldn’t see what was happening, but she’d heard the man yell. Gisel flew into the trees, the bundle in her arms wailing as she dodged limbs and flew out of sight. There was a crash in the trees, and Aleda ducked behind the brush as Coyle ran past.

Gisel stole Coyle’s child? This could not end well. Gisel could outrun him easily, but if Coyle knew they were still close he wouldn’t rest until he found and killed all the Children of Mountain. It was only a matter of time.

She ran after him, feet stepping quietly through the brush. They had all learned to walk silently through the woods in the past several summers, and Coyle was determined to catch Gisel. He didn’t look behind.

“Come back here you little monster!” He ran blindly towards the mountains. Aleda had to do something. If only Carrick were here she was sure he could stop Coyle.

Instead, Mountain rumbled low and long, shaking the earth so they both fell. She was nimble, up and on her feet first, but she should have stayed low. He caught sight of her as she ran along the bank of the river.

“Stop!” He yelled. “Give me back my child, witch!” He was running after her now, and he was faster. She was too far away to be heard but she screamed anyways.

“Carrick!”

Coyle caught her and they tumbled into the mud. He pinned her hands behind her back and smiled. “If it isn’t Mountain’s little concubine.” His eyes screamed murder as Mountain shook the earth beneath them. “Give me the children and I’ll silence Mountain forever.”

“He won’t let you kill them,” she said, and his hand burned across her face.

“Leave her alone!” Alaric’s little voice broke between them, followed by a branch that cracked over Coyle’s head. It stunned him enough that Aleda was able to scramble away. She grabbed her son as Alaric lifted the branch again.

“Get your father. Quickly.”

Alaric looked up at her in surprise.

“Now!” Aleda pushed him toward the cave as Coyle groaned and began to pull himself up. As Alaric flew back home Aleda followed on foot. She had to get a good head start – Coyle would be on her again in no time.

The mountains loomed up slowly as she ran – much too slowly. Coyle, unsteady as he was, gained on her and she was still too far from home. With every step Mountain grew more angry – ash spilled into the air, hiding the sun, making it hard to see and harder to run. She felt like she was trying to run in a boat at sea, but it was slowing Coyle down too.

She broke into an area clear of trees and there was Gisel, turned away and calling into the woods. “Over here!”

Aleda looked behind her as Coyle turned toward the little kidnapper. “Gissy, move!” she screamed, but Gisel was too slow. The girl jumped into the air and Coyle caught her by the ankle. He pulled her down so hard he knocked her senseless and she went limp on the ground.

Aleda froze. She was scared of Mountain, of Coyle, of how quickly the situation had veered out of control. Coyle’s hand shook as he picked Gisel up and held a knife to her limp throat. Aleda was desperate.

“Give her to me, Coyle. You don’t want to anger Mountain. Give the girl to me and I’ll tell Him to stop.”

Carrick and Lisel arrived. She screamed wordlessly at Coyle as Carrick held her back. Coyle ignored her, focusing on Aleda.

“I lost two wives to these monsters. It’s time they were destroyed.”

Mountain bellowed and the ground shook beneath them. Coyle’s eyes were wide with fear. Aleda saw her chance to scare him into submission and stood up straight, lifted her chin, and spoke in her best mother-voice.

“You will leave this place, Coyle.” She took a step forward as the ground trembled. “You will leave this place and never return. I am the Mother of Mountain’s Children and he will bring down a fiery rain upon you if you harm that girl.”

He looked around wildly. The sky was dark and angry and Mountain’s rumblings had turned into a constant complaint. “Tell him to stop. Tell him to stop or I’ll kill her!”

Aleda walked forward, confident in Coyle’s fear. “You will not kill her. Give her to me and I’ll make Mountain stop.”

He looked around, uncertain, but when a violent tremor shook the ground he made a terrified noise and held Gisel out. Aleda grabbed her and turned away as Lisel ran over for her child. Aleda looked at Carrick and finally let her fear show.

“Get the children out of the cave before it collapses!”

“You lied!” Coyle yelled and lunged.

“Lea!” Carrick screamed, but it was too late. Coyle’s knife plunged into her back and Mountain exploded. The children screamed in the distance and a loud crack rang out before the cave collapsed in on itself.

The last thing Aleda saw before Carrick threw her down and covered her from the falling rock was a piece of Mountain smashing into the back of Coyle’s head.

Catch up on the story here!

Mountain rumbled in the distance and Alaric motioned to Gisel to get down from the sky and back into the trees. The Gaerloms never looked into the trees, but they were sure to see her hovering above them if they looked to Mountain. He’d been hungry lately, and it was making the People of the Sea nervous.

It was making Alaric nervous too. He and the other Faye were supposed to be the Children of Mountain but that didn’t make him feel better about the shaking in the ground or the nervous agitation of the birds. His parents talked of Mountain exploding again, and he could hear the fear in their voices. Anything that could scare his parents scared him.

“Did you see anything?” he asked Gisel.

She shook her head. “We just got here.”

“But are the canoes gone?”

“Not all of them.”

He didn’t’ know what that meant. Momma said the men would be going out to hunt the big fish with the canoes soon, but did they take all of the canoes? Did they leave some behind? He and Gissy hadn’t grown up in Gaerlom, they didn’t know what it would look like once the men left for the hunt.

Alaric peered through the leaves as Gissy flapped her wings slowly. She was a better flyer than he was, although she had broken more bones and ripped her wings more times than he had learning. He could beat her in a straight race above the trees, but she could weave between the branches without getting slapped in the face by the leaves. Momma said that was why Gissy was the one flying up out of the trees to look for the canoes, but Alaric knew it was because his father didn’t want him out here. Father said it was too dangerous.

“Stop flapping, Gis, you’re making the limb move.”

She bounced a couple times and fell backwards off the limb in a fit of giggles when he tried to swipe at her. She landed easily on the branch below his and crawled out to the edge of the limb to peer through the leaves. “Do you see anything?”

“I see huts and the ocean and some canoes, but not as many as last time.”

“Are they looking at Mountain anymore?”

“No.”

Gissy shot out of the tree and hovered above his head. “I wish we could get closer. I can’t tell if those are women or men.”

A scream pierced the air and Alaric grabbed her back into the tree and held her on the branch. The deep, grunting screams of labor had been audible since they arrived, but this was different. It was the bright, final cry of evisceration. Momma told him when they arrived and heard the labor noises that it might happen. She said that sometimes the babes wouldn’t come, especially the babes like him with wings, and they had to be cut out.

A babe cried, and Alaric knew that was what happened.

“Ally?”

He looked down to the shaded ground. “We’re okay, Momma.”

“Do you see any canoes?”

“Yes.”

She sighed. “Let’s go then. It’s too dangerous with the men there.”

Alaric looked to Gisel, but she had crawled out to the edge of the branch and was peering down. “Comon Gis.”

“Wait.”

He followed her gaze to a man carrying what must be the new babe out of the village. “What is he doing?”

Gisel was silent for a moment. “The same thing they did to Montie.” She slipped out into the air and began to follow the man.

“Gissy!” Alaric hissed as Mountain grumbled and shook the ground. He belched a plume of smoke and Alaric tried to call her back again. What was she doing? They knew where the cove was – they could get the new babe when he left it there and not risk being seen.

“Ally, what’s happening?” His mother called from the ground.

Alaric could only watch in horror as Gisel swooped down out of the sky like an eagle for a fish and grabbed the babe right out of the man’s arms. He yelled, first in surprise and then in anger as she flew as fast as she could with her burden to the safety of the trees. He chased her, and Alaric yelled down to the ground.

“Run, Momma! Run! He’s coming!”

Before we get started: I want to apologize for getting this up on Saturday instead of Friday. Our washer machine broke right after we got home from our trip and flooded our house. So I’ve been dealing with lots of phone calls, really loud fans, strange people tramping all over my house ripping up flooring, and my poor dogs having stomach issues from all the stress. My floor is currently a cement slab (which looks cool in an industrial loft kind of way) and I can’t sleep because of the noise.

At least I’m not living in a cave with twelve children who are trying to learn to fly

I also want to thank everyone who helped get the word out about my posts while I was gone! I had an awesome time on vacation, and was so pleased to find all this love in my inbox when I got back Thank you guys!

And now on to the story. If you need to catch up, you can do so here: Aleda’s Story

Aleda and Carrick were sitting outside, a short way from the cave so they wouldn’t disturb the children. Dark had fallen long ago, and there were hints of a storm through the trees.

“Elise says there are three others who will give birth by the end of the summer.”

Carrick was silent, watching the wind shake the leaves as the air thickened with humidity, but he nodded that he was listening.

“It we return during the hunt the men will be gone. I can speak to the women, tell them that if they need to they can come here.”

“No.”

Aleda looked at him in surprise. “No?”

“You can’t tell the people of Gaerlom where we are.”

“But Elise-”

“Elise found us on accident. You can’t just invite the others in.”

He was right, of course. What was the point of hiding if they were going to tell the Gaerloms where they hid? But Aleda couldn’t let them kill the children. “We can tell them to use a signal then, and we can come pick up the children when they are born. A fire in the cove maybe. Or a noise that would carry over the tress.”

Carrick rubbed his eyes. “Most of the mothers die, Lea. You can’t save them all.”

“I know that.” She stood and walked to the edge of the little grove of trees. The wind was picking up now and the rain would follow soon enough. “I just can’t stand by and let them die if there is something I can do to help. The women will be more sympathetic, and if I could just talk to some of them – let them know the children can survive…”

She trailed off as Carrick stood and put his hands on her arms. When he spoke it was very soft. “If they were on our side they would have followed us in the beginning.”

“But we all thought no more changelings would be born!” She turned to face him. “What if Mountain kept us here – led us to this cave – so we could watch for the birth of His children? Why give us a safe haven so close when we were so determined to move on? Why bring Elise and her children right to us unless it was to save them?” She grabbed Carrick’s hand and squeezed. “Most of the Gaerloms don’t want to kill the children, but they see no alternative. We can give them that alternative. Please, Carrie. Just let me talk to one or two of them.”

His lips pressed together as he looked down at her. She wasn’t winning this argument.

“It will be easy,” she promised. “I’ll wait for the men to go on the hunt, and I’ll sneak into the village – I’ve done it once before. I’ll find someone I trust and we’ll come up with a signal. When the changelings are born the midwives can put them in the cove, just as they have been doing, and the signal will let me know that it’s safe to come and get the babe.”

Carrick groaned and ran his hands through his dark hair. “There are so many thing that could go wrong. How will you even know when the men have left? It’s a different time every summer.”

“Alaric can fly up and look. He can tell me if the boats are gone.”

The looked in Carrick’s eye’s made her take a step back. His groan turned into a growl. “He’s just a boy. How dare you use him like that?”

Heat lightning flashed over Mountain and Aleda clenched her jaw so she wouldn’t let out a sob at his harsh words. She wasn’t going to use their child – she couldn’t keep him out of the trees in his effort to learn how to fly. And once he could fly he was safe from the Gaerloms.

“He’s almost six summers. That’s old enough to go out on the boats-”

“I won’t let you sacrifice our son for a few other changeling babes.”

“It’s not a sacrifice!”

“It’s not safe!”

Aleda crossed her arms and frowned. “I’ll be right there. I just want him to fly up and see if the boats have gone out.”

Carrick turned away and stared at the flashing sky. “I don’t want you going out either. You did it once, and I thought I lost you.” His voice caught and he wouldn’t look at her.

She followed his gaze. The misshapen hulk of Mountain was black against the angry white flashes of the storm. Things couldn’t stay like this for long – Awena and Mountain would have a final battle. Gaerlom and the changelings would be caught in the middle.

Aleda wrapped her arms around Carrick’s waist and laid her cheek on his back. “He can’t fly yet anyways. He may never be able to. It’s not something we need to decide right away.”

For the first time since they were married Carrick didn’t reply.

Catch up on the story so far: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5,  #6, #7

“Elise.” Aleda stopped as all the fury over her son’s recklessness dissolved. He was bleeding, but standing, and looked almost as fearful as the night they ran from Gaerlom.

“Alaric.” Carrick motioned to his son and the boy ran over, hiding behind his father as his muddy, bleeding fingers left stains on Carrick’s pants. “Run home and tell Lisel to get the children inside.”

Alaric looked at Elise once more, then ran back the way they came. Carrick barred the way behind him and stared down the woman from Gaerlom. “Who came with you?”

“Only my daughter.” She pulled back the blanket in her arms to reveal a newborn.

“Wings?” Aleda asked.

Elise nodded and covered the child, gaze not leaving her precious bundle. “They killed my firstborn. A boy. Left him in the ocean to drown.” She looked up at Aleda, her eyes pleading. “I couldn’t let them take my baby girl.”

Aleda looked to Carrick and he nodded. She turned back to Elise with a small smile. “I think we have someone you should meet. Come.”

Elise gave them a curious, wary look, but followed Carrick as he lead the way home. Aleda took the pack from Elise’s back. The poor woman; to give birth and almost immediately leave home and walk to the mountains, loaded down with fear and supplies. It must have been harrowing, to say the least. Aleda thought a dozen children were difficult, but at least she’d had time to heal.

From the look of the dried blood running down Elise’s leg she had left right after the birth.

“Have there been others?” Aleda never thought the changelings would continue to be born. Not after so many summers with Mountain silent.

“A few. Most of the babes have been normal, and the ones who weren’t…” Elise shrugged. “Stillborn, is what the mothers said. What I said. But I can see it in their eyes, and in their mannerisms. The few who survived wish they hadn’t.”

Aleda sighed and shook her head. If only there was some way to get word to the mothers – and keep it away from the fathers – that the changeling children could be kept safe. If only Aleda knew when the changelings were born, and could go back and steal all of them from the Sea.

She touched Elise’s shoulder as they reached camp and the brush-covered entrance to the cave. “It was brave of you to come.”

Elise looked at her, relief and fear warring in her eyes. “I didn’t think I would find you, but it was better to die together in the mountains than to lose another child to the Sea.”

Aleda smiled again as they walked through the tunnel and into the cave. One little boy, two summers younger than the rest, toddled over to her and she scooped him up and sat him on her hip.

“Elise. I would like you to meet Montie. I found him in the cove three summers ago.” Aleda turned her smile on the little boy, who was looking at Elise with naked curiosity. “He’s your son.”

*****

If you enjoyed this week’s Aleda’s Story, please let others know! I’ll be home this weekend and can respond to comments then

Catch up on the story so far: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5,  #6

“Alaric! Get out of that tree! How many times must I tell you?”

Alaric reached for a higher branch. He could barely remember breaking his leg when he was two, and now he was a whole five summers old.

“Ugh!” His mother threw up her arms in agitation. “I’m telling your father. I’ll make him climb up there after you if I have to.”

Alaric giggled. There was no way his father could climb a tree. The last time he made it only a few feet before he clambered back down, face drawn and pale. The adults didn’t like heights, and they couldn’t keep Alaric and Gissy out of the trees.

“Alaric!”

That was his father. Alaric pulled himself up until the branches bowed under his weight, then crept out to the edge of the canopy.

“He’s going to break his leg again.” His mother.

“At least he won’t be able to climb for a few moons.” Father.

“Be careful Ally!”

That was Gissy, excitement and worry mixed in her voice as she called up from the ground. She’d broken her arm a moon ago trying the same thing, but the two of them were determined to learn how to fly. The baby birds started from way up in the trees, so that was where Alaric was going to start too.

He flapped his wings, experimenting with them from this height. He had never climbed this high before. This time it had to work. He took a deep breath and flapped harder, waiting until the branch beneath him lifted under his feet, then let go and jumped.

His mother screamed. “Alaric!”

He fell, all of his energy going to his wings until he neared the rock wall of the mountain and an updraft lifted him. He let the wind fill the shimmery-thin tissue and soared along the wall, shifting to miss branches and startled birds. He was flying!

He had no idea how to stop.

A rock jutted out from the wall of the mountain in front of him and he shifted away from it, losing the updraft. He started flapping his wings again as he dropped towards the trees, and did his best to miss the thick branches as he fell through the canopy. Twigs slowed his fall and ripped through one wing, and he landed hard on the ground, rolling with his body tucked into itself until something stopped him.

Alaric unrolled with a groan and sat up, dizzy.

“Great Awena.”

It was the soft voice of a woman and he looked up to find himself against the legs of a stranger. She had long dark hair like his mother, and wore a silkie-skin dress like hers, although it was not patched over from years on the mountainside. She stared down at him, her eyes as huge and blue as the ocean he could barely remember.

“Are you okay?” She said.

Alaric backed away from her, hands leaving bloody marks on the damp ground. She was from Gaerlom, and they weren’t supposed to talk to the Gaerloms. The People of the Sea were dangerous.

“I won’t hurt you.” She bent down and there was something in her arms, along with a large pack on her back. “I’m looking for Aleda and Carrick. Do you know who they are?”

“Mother and father,” he whispered, still crouched down in the moss. His heart was racing. What was in her arms?

Her smile was full of relief as she looked around. The river wasn’t far away and the cave was on the other side. Alaric could probably outrun her if he needed to. His hands and wings hurt, but his legs felt fine.

He began to stand slowly, prepared to run, when he heard crashing in the trees behind him and his parents came running out from the brush. They stopped when the woman stood up, and Alaric looked from her to his parents. Their eyes were huge.

“Elise?” his mother said.

*****

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Catch up on the story so far: #1, #2, #3, #4

Aleda reached Gaerlom before nightfall. It was disconcerting how quickly a person without a group of children could travel from the mountains to the sea, and she knew Carrick was right. They couldn’t stay where they were for long.

She hid in the trees until dark and the stillness of sleep overtook the village, then pulled her hood up and walked to her hut when she was sure no one was out. It was dark inside without the constant glow of the hearth fire, but Aleda knew the hut as well as she knew the weight of Carrick’s arms around her stomach as they slept. She knelt down next to their cot and reached under it for a bowl to boil water in. Her hand grasped air. She swept her arm the length of the cot and it didn’t hit any of the things she had stored under it.

Aleda pulled back the door flap to let in the moon and her heart sank. Everything had been looted. The hearthstones and cots were the only things left.

She dropped the flap as someone began crying in a tent nearby and darkness closed in on her again, mirroring the feeling growing inside her. But there must be something left. She stood on the cot and reached up to the ceiling, her fingers running along the support beam until she found the crack in the wood and the leather-wrapped package within. Thank Awena they hadn’t found it. She tucked it into her belt and continued to search.

There was an unfinished hood that she had dropped behind the cot and forgotten, and a bone knife in the ashes of the hearth. She couldn’t carry the cots out, but she used the knife to cut away the leather and folded it up to take with her.

The crying continued – a muffled sound that put Aleda on edge. Carrick kept a small bundle of emergency supplies in a nearby cove, so she waited in the dark hut until she was reasonably sure no one was out, cut down the door flap, and bundled it into her arms as she left the village and headed back into the trees. She would stay in their cover until she was closer to the cove.

The moon was just past full and it was easy to see, otherwise she would not have spotted the man leaving the cove until she had left the cover of the trees. Aleda crouched as he passed. She couldn’t tell who it was, but his hands were empty and he walked with a tired step and slumped shoulders. He was not coming from a long day of fishing.

When she was sure he was gone she crept to the edge of the cliff where the path was and looked down. There was no one else in the cove, but he had left something in the sand near the water. Something that would be swallowed by the sea at high tide. An offering to Awena? If so Aleda wouldn’t steal it – she did not need the wrath of the Mother against her.

The small pack of emergency supplies were tucked back in a fissure in the rock, wrapped in a waterproof silkie skin. Aleda reached her arm in until her shoulder pressed into the wall, her fingertips grazing the package. She tried to find a place to grab it but her arm was shorter than Carrick’s.

A sob escaped her as she leaned her forehead against the wet rock. How were they supposed to survive in a strange land, with no supplies and a dozen children? She told Lisel that Awena would provide, but how could she believe that? Aleda had said it more for her own ears, because she couldn’t imagine a mother – any Mother – giving up her children. But as Coyle said these children weren’t of Awena. They were Mountain’s. And she had seen the father’s of her tribe give up on their own children. Who was to say Mountain wouldn’t give up on them also?

Aleda pulled her arm from the rock as a gull cried behind her. Wiping away her tears, she watched it hop over the sand to the offering and hang back, head cocked to the side. Was even the gull too scared to upset an offering to the Mother? No. He hopped closer and pecked at the middle of it.

The offering cried. In a distinctly human voice.

Catch up on the story so far: #1, #2, #3

Carrick looked up at the trees as Aleda crossed her arms, hugging them to her chest. “We can’t stay here, Lea.”

“We have no choice. Alaric broke his leg; he can’t walk right now.”

“I’ll carry him.”

“Erie is sick. Who will carry her?”

Carrick looked at her and she pursed her lips. “And what about the next sick child? And the next? They are two summers, Carrie. They can’t hike through the mountains for days on end. Give them a rest.”

Carrick looked to where the children were playing in the stream that would become the North River. He was a good man, always sensitive to her, but he didn’t like it when he was not in control of a situation.

She touched his arm. “Why don’t you scout for something to hunt?” She realized as she said it that he was used to hunting fish and other creatures from the ocean. “Or build a roof above the fire, so I can keep the tea going?”

It wasn’t raining now, but the clouds that came in off the coast would dump rain so often that the fire went out before the next small cup of tea could boil.

“It’s too close,” he said, but his shoulders drooped and she knew she would win.

Aleda put her hands on either side of his face and looked up at him. “There’s a stream, trees to keep the worst of the rain away, and the threat of Mountain to protect us.” She kissed him and let him go without dropping his gaze.

The lines around his eyes and lips softened. He stared into her eyes and touched her cheek, then nodded. “I’ll make you a shelter.”

“Thank you.”

He made it big enough for two children to lay underneath with the fire, and covered the top with a whale-skin cloak to keep the rain from seeping through. When Alaric and Erie were underneath and the fire re-lit he piled a few piece of wood next to it to dry. Aleda hung her bag of herbs under the roof to keep them from turning moldy.

The tips of her fingers were red and blistered from handling the hot stone cup and trying to keep the fire going. She needed a bigger vessel to boil water in. If only they hadn’t been in such a panic to leave she could have packed properly.

“Lisel, can you tend to the children on your own for a while?”

Lisel was watching the healthy ones play in the shallow caves as she fed the babe. “Of course. Will you be gone long?”

Aleda looked around. Carrick was at the river seeing what fish he could find, and she lowered her voice. “Yes. I’m going back to get more supplies. Food, blankets, something to boil water in.”

“Carrick won’t like you traveling alone to a dangerous place.”

Aleda looked in his direction again. “We don’t have a choice. We need more than what we brought.” She turned back to Lisel. “When he asks where I am tell him I’m out gathering herbs. Don’t tell him where I’ve gone until night falls. He won’t leave the children in the dark, and I’ll be back tomorrow.”

Lisel looked from Carrick to the children, to Aleda. “What if you don’t return?”

Aleda was trying not to think about that. Without the hindrance of the children she should make it to Gaerlom by dark. She could sneak into the village while they slept, pack the things she needed, and make it back upriver before dark settled tomorrow. Even if someone saw her surely they wouldn’t try to kill her, would they?

“You know the herbs well enough.” Aleda swallowed her fear. “And Carrie’s a good man – you’ll take care of each other. Don’t let Alaric use his leg until the next full moon, and don’t let the others climb into the trees.”

Lisel nodded and Aleda brushed the hair from Alaric’s sleeping forehead before kissing him. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Awena protect you on your journey,” Lisel said and rocked the babe.

Aleda smiled. “I think I’m under the protection of Mountain now.”