Seeker (Riders #2)(85)

Not true, I think. One of them is awake.

"And we have to move quickly. Strange noises and scents-either will wake them. Are you ready?" 

Daryn nods, never taking her eyes off the cluster of Harrows. "Yes."

Off they go.

Away.

In moments, I can't see them. The way Cotton has me pinned, the trunk is blocking the view to my right, where Daryn and Samrael are headed.

Fortunately, my new buddy gives me highlights.

"Walk, walk, walk. The bag close to girl. Close. Close. Ah, she find it. She wear it. The boy, Gideon, not close to girl. Boy with Cotton. She find boy?" Laugh. Hiss. Laugh.

Daryn and Samrael must search for fifteen minutes before they reappear. This time, almost directly below me. The day is fading. Dusk is approaching.

Daryn pulls her backpack off her shoulders, crouches on the ground, and removes the orb. It's a damaged thing now. Disintegrating, almost like she's holding dust in her hands.

I'm glad she found it. It could still get her back out. At the very least, it'll give her leverage with Samrael.

"Okay," she says. "It's here." She stuffs it back in her bag. "But I didn't see Gideon anywhere."

Her voice cracks.

My heart cracks.

"Neither did I," Samrael says. He actually looks like he feels bad for her. "Wait here. I have an idea."

He disappears again. In my ear, quiet as a moth's wings, Cotton says, "Girl pretty," and I want to make myself into a grenade and pull the pin.

Ten feet below me, Daryn is saying something over and over under her breath.

I think it's "Where are you?"

If she looked up, she'd have her answer.

If she turned the other way and walked thirty paces, she'd see the pond and Riot.

She doesn't do either.

Her Where are yous stop. She goes quiet, like she's thinking.

Quickly, she removes the orb from the backpack again and darts to the trunk of the tree, pushing the orb into the hollow of a knot. Then she jogs away and ties a scarf she finds inside her backpack around the branch of a nearby tree, marking it, looking between the two.

All of this without ever seeing me.

Then she zips up her pack and waits.

Samrael comes back a couple of minutes later towing a Harrow. The creature is in a similar state as me. Knife to throat. Mouth covered. Forcibly restrained.

Cotton begins to purr almost imperceptibly by my ear.

"Yell or make a sound and you will cease to exist." Samrael removes his hand from the Harrow's mouth. "Tell her about the rider with the red horse."

The Harrow turns empty eyes on Daryn. "Rider and fire horse escape."

Daryn stifles a gut-wrenching sound. "Where?" she says. "When?"

"In woods," the Harrow says. "In trees."

Daryn asks again and again, but the reply never changes.

I want to yell that I'm in the tree. Right now, right up here.

"I'm sorry, Daryn," Samrael says, "but we can't stay here. Go. I'll deal with this. I'll be right behind you." The Harrow in his grasp will need to be silenced; otherwise it'll wake the others. Silenced, in this case, probably means killed.

Daryn whirls and runs. Bolts, like she's trying to escape feeling.

Samrael releases the Harrow and sheathes his blade. "Back to the others," he says. "Go."

The creature shrinks away like a punished dog.

Samrael looks up, right at me. "No luck finding the rider and his burning horse. Such a shame."

Even if I could speak, there would be nothing to say.

We're past words. Now there are only two outcomes. Life and death.

One for each of us.



       
         
       
        

"Tree, look inside," says Cotton. "Look in hole of tree?"

Samrael sees the knot. He reaches inside and removes the orb.

"Clever girl, isn't she?" He slips it into the pocket of his coat. "Bring him," he says to the Harrow pinning me. "I want him there tonight."





CHAPTER 33

DARYN

"Daryn?" Samrael says, pulling me out of my daze. "We'll walk from here."

We've been riding for hours. They blur together. I can't remember any of them clearly. It was dusk for an instant as we left the Harrows. Then it was night and the fog rolled in-through the woods and inside my mind.

It makes me wonder if I've totally peeled away from reality.

I think I might have.

Gideon is still out there. I have to find him.

The need feels like an urgent siren wailing inside me, but I have to be smart about this. Samrael said he has resources at Gray Fort. People who can help in the search and increase the odds of finding him. I have to accept the help. Anything to find Gideon.