Ice Country(34)
I take a deep breath. “Look,” I say. “I didn’t sign up for kidnapping.” Kidnapping. That’s what it is. Taking kids from their homes. Just like…
I don’t need to finish the thought. I don’t want to finish the thought.
Because I already know.
If there’s a King who’ll take kids from another country, then he’ll take kids from his own country too.
“It’s just business,” Abe says, but there’s no conviction in his voice. “They give us kids, we give them the Cure. It’s not our job to think.” I might not know Abe that well, but I know enough to realize he’s more than just hired muscle. He’s got a brain. So why does he refuse to use it?
Brock moves to step around me, but I shift to block him. “What does the king do with them?” I ask, my sister’s face dancing around the question. I don’t want to know, but I have to know. If Jolie’s behind those palace walls, I need to know if she’s in any immediate danger.
Abe says, “Not my busin—”
“Tell me!” I explode, feeling veins popping out all over my forehead. Jolie. Jolie. Where are you?
Abe steps away, taken aback by my outburst. The kids huddle together even tighter.
“For the love of the Mountain, kid. Can you get a grip on yer temper?” Abe says. “Honestly, I don’t have a freezin’ clue what he does with ’em, and I don’t ask. He’d kil…” He leaves the thought hanging, unfinished. Instead says, “He pays me too well for that. And he’d kill me if I ever asked. Do you really not understand who yer dealin’ with? It’s the Heart-icin’ King for Heart’s sake! He’s got a whole freezin’ army of men just waitin’ to crush anyone who gets in his way. Do you think we’re the ones who killed Nebo? Do you really think we’re so heartless to not feel bad about what happened to him, too? He was strange, yah, but we liked him. I even shed a few tears for the stumpy little man. Ice, kid! Are you really so clueless? He’s got spies watchin’ us all, just waitin’ for us to make a wrong move, to cross him in any way. After all yer icin’ questions, I had to stick my neck out for you so he wouldn’t kill you, too!”
I raise a hand to my aching head, massage my temples. Abe stood up for me? The king’s watching us? The king trades the Cure for little kids—little kids just like my sister? Everything’s so tangled, like the forest, all knotted and growing and twisting together, vine-covered and spiky and windblown. I turn to look at the kids, who are hanging onto each other, whispering something that sounds like a prayer, to the Heart of the Mountain, or whoever it is that they pray to.
Turning back, I say, “They’re watching us right now?”
“Yah,” Abe says. “You try anything stupid and you’ll be bird-feathered with arrows before you get more than two steps.”
“Where?” I say, looking around.
“For Heart’s sake, kid, don’t look around. Ice!”
I bring my gaze back to Abe, repeat the question. He says, “They’re good at hiding. Even when you know they’re there, you rarely ever see ’em. They’re in the trees and in the brambles and under the leaves. They just watch…and wait.”
“Ice it!” I say. “We don’t have a choice here, do we?”
“No,” Abe says, his single word filled with regret.
~~~
Every step up the mountain is like an arrow in my heart.
Before we leave, we wrap the kids in heavy, full-length coats that Abe has in his pack, so at least they’ll be warm.
But everything else is awful. The brown children whimper and cast fearful glances around them as if everything in the forest is new to them, scary. Maybe it is. Do they have trees in fire country? Probably not, as they send their prisoners to ice country to chop wood.
Even though the kids are clearly scared, they’re like little soldiers, never complaining or crying. They just march on, taking sips of water when we offer them, clinging to the rope that tethers them together like it’s the only thing holding them up.
How can I be doing this? I ask myself at least a dozen times, swishing around a taste so bitter it’s worse than yellow snow. For Jolie, I keep saying in my mind. Getting myself killed now will ensure everything I know is lost, and then she’ll have no chance at all. My only option is to continue to play along, wait for the right moment. Be smart. I feel bad about the kids I’m taking from their families, but I can’t help that either, can only hope that later I’ll be able to help them, along with Jolie.