Wrass said, “You probably won’t see me until nightfall, but no matter what, keep going.”
“I will,” she said, but he saw the tears glitter in her eyes as she turned to Auma and Conkesema. “Follow me.”
She walked to the slanted hickory trunk, and Auma said, “What are you doing?”
“Climbing this tree.” Zateri spread her arms and balanced on the slanted trunk until she reached the heavy branches; then she climbed with the grace of a squirrel into the sycamore.
Auma and Conkesema continued to stand at the base of the hickory looking up.
“I’m not going up there,” Auma said. Her catlike face with its broad nose and long eyelashes shone in the sunlight. “They’ll see us.”
“No, they won’t. They’ll be looking at the ground, and besides, we won’t be here for long.”
“Why not?”
Zateri pointed to the branches that laced over her head, connecting to another sycamore. “We’re going to travel through the trees for as long as we can. So they won’t have any trail to follow. Now, hurry. We don’t have much time.”
Auma nervously flapped her arms. “All right, but I don’t like it.”
She climbed, and Conkesema followed, her long black hair swaying.
Wrass watched long enough to see them move through several trees. When he lost sight of them, he started walking back along their trail, scooping leaves to fill in the rut they’d made.
His heart was pounding, and each beat felt like a hammer swung against his skull. He’d started to reel on his feet.
He propped a hand against a basswood tree and looked up. It stood twenty times the height of a man, and its branches snaked into five or six adjacent sycamores and oaks.
For a few blessed moments, he leaned heavily against the trunk and breathed in the sweet scent of the damp bark. His nausea had returned with a vengeance. More than anything, he longed to lie down in the leaves and close his eyes.
“Keep moving. Don’t think about it.”
He grabbed the closest branch and pulled himself into the tree. As he worked his way across the connecting branches, heading north, he thought he heard voices, men calling to each other.
Sick with fear, he hurried, practically running across a huge oak limb.
In his desperation to get away, he hadn’t realized that the sunlight was warming the branches, melting the frost. When his foot slipped, it surprised him. He gasped and lunged for the nearest branch … but he was so sick. His arms moved too slowly.
The fall seemed to take forever.
Twenty-five
When Zateri heard the scream, she swung around.
Auma, who was right behind her, hissed, “Was that Wrass? It sounded like a boy’s scream.”
In the distance, a man shouted. Dakion.
“They caught him!” Auma grabbed Zateri’s arm in panic. “Hurry, we have to keep moving, or they’ll catch us, too.”
Auma tried to force Zateri to keep walking across the branch, but Zateri’s heart was thundering in her chest, making it impossible to think.
“Don’t push me!” Zateri hissed.
Auma stopped, but she stared at Zateri with panicked eyes. “He told us to keep going,” she reminded. “He said no matter what, we shouldn’t stop!”
Zateri’s fingers tightened around the branch. The bark felt cold and rough. From their height in the big sycamore, she could see all the way across the forest to the river. Elder Brother Sun had coated the wide blue surface with a sparkling layer of pale gold. She thought she knew about where the camp was. Would Gannajero leave without them?
“What are we waiting for?” Auma whispered, on the point of tears. “We have to get away!”
Zateri said, “Move back to the trunk. I need to climb down.”
“Climb down? But it was hard getting up here. We should keep moving over to that sassafras tree!”
Zateri tried to climb around her, but couldn’t. “Move back!” she ordered through gritted teeth.
Auma and Conkesema turned around, made it to the trunk, and then one by one climbed down, using the branches like a ladder. By the time they had all jumped to the ground, Zateri felt light-headed with fear. She tried to force herself to think.
“Zateri, please,” Auma pleaded. Her thin doehide dress clung to her slender body. “We have to keep running, or they’ll find us just like they did Wrass!”
Zateri’s gaze darted around the underbrush. Windblown leaves piled against every trunk and bush. No matter where they went, if they were on the ground, they’d leave a clear trail.
Tears welled hotly in her eyes. She rubbed them away and turned to the two other girls. “I want you to hide here until I get back. If anyone comes, cover yourselves with leaves and don’t move.”