Chapter 11

11.

         The pain had started to fade into a soft ache and Kara had managed to convince herself the worst of it was over when she realized that it was very possible her body was healing. Around the branch. Looking at the wound it seemed much cleaner and the skin in the vicinity of the site was pale and smooth, not at all how damaged, inflamed skin should look. Kara felt a sudden spasm of fear, that the branch was going to be somehow absorbed into her body and she would be stuck with it forever. It took every effort of willpower to keep herself from hyperventilating and passing out again. She had to stay calm, be levelheaded. Like her father and her uncle and Ranos. They never panicked. Even when things were falling apart, they always had plans, they were always thinking. They never sat there and whimpered and let the entire world roll over them just because the day had gone horribly wrong. Never. They went and made it right. That’s what she had to do. She had to sit back and consider her options and pick the most reasonable, levelheaded one and do it. Simple as that.
         So Kara grabbed the wood firmly with both hands, and nearly biting through her lip, yanked it forward as hard as she could.
         Kara swore it ripped itself from her body with a tearing sound and the bloody end of the branch nearly swatted her in the face. The pain hit almost immediately, lancing up to the base of neck and as far down as her chest, even as fresh blood flowed freely down her side from the gaping wound, causing her eyes to water and the taste of bile to revisit the back of her throat. Her entire side felt warm and her head was spinning and for a second she was afraid she was going to bleed to death. It became oddly difficult to breathe all of a sudden.
         Suddenly scared, Kara went to clap her hand over the wound in an effort to staunch the bleeding. In the process she made the mistake of looking at it, and the sight of the gruesomely torn hole in her own body, with lacerated and bludgeoned muscle and ligaments clearly visible, made her head go light again and without warning her vision went completely dark.
         The smell of dirt and decomposing leaves was her next firm memory and she woke up with her face to the forest floor, lying on her side in a twisted position. Opening her eyes, all she saw was more darkness, which caused her heart to race again. Oh God, had she gone blind? Someone had told her that the first thing to go when you lost a lot of blood was your sight. But then a small breeze rustled some plants nearby, a motion of lighter objects waving against a darker background, and she realized that it was now nighttime and her eyes were still adjusting.
         Stiff, Kara shifted back to a sitting position, wincing as cramped muscles protested the motion. Her entire right arm was numb when she had slumped over it and she shook the arm for a minute a before painfully tingling sensation crept back into it. Her hand had been lying over the wound the whole time and her palm was covered in dried, encrusted blood. Making a face, she scraped it off, taking note of how dirty she felt all over.
         Moving her other arm reminded her of the wound and in the darkness she tried to get a sense of what it was like. Probing gently, her fingers found only unbroken skin and more dried blood, coating the area almost like armor. It was sore to the touch but otherwise seemed all right. Swinging her arm experimentally she concluded that it was nearly healed. Weird. Kara still wasn’t used to the concept of regeneration, even though she hadn’t really known anything else. Little cuts and bruises that disappeared within minutes or hours she was able to accept but to see larger wounds just heal over in a matter of time as opposed to days or weeks was a strange idea to wrap her mind around. She wished her father was able to do the same thing, especially since he seemed to get hurt so much more often than her. She remembered asking him one time a few days after he had cut his hand doing something why the cut was still there. Shouldn’t it have gone away already? He had just smiled and told her it took him a little longer, that was all. What can I say, I’m getting old was what he had said.
         Thinking of her father forcibly reminded Kara of her situation. I’m not playing hide and seek in Legoflas, she thought. This is real. Taking stock of her surroundings, she realized that the darkness around her was nearly absolute, her eyes really only detailing subtle contrasts. The forest chittered and clattered and rattled and rustled from all sides, slightly unnerving but a tad comforting as well. Kara didn’t know if she could handle absolute silence. Even at home the muzzled roar of the ocean was always present.
         Kara tried to go through her options and found them to be depressingly small. What limited her was the fact that she had absolutely no idea where she was. Her run through the forest had been chaotic at best and even in the daylight there had been no clear path. Finding her way back to the road wasn’t impossible but it was also highly likely she would just wander around in the dark in circles for hours. And even if she made it back to the road, all the soldiers had been killed (the memory caused a small shudder of fear to ripple through her) so the chances of them still being there were slim as well. Either they had recovered and walked away (unlikely, Kara suspected they probably would have found her by now) or had been captured. Either way, she couldn’t help them by stumbling haphazardly in the forest.
         Yet they were her only link back home. Teleporting was completely out of the question, even if she knew how, Legoflas was in a totally different dimension, if what her father had taught her was correct. She only grasped the barest concept behind teleporting, adding dimensional travel to it only infinitely complicated matters. So no, that was out. Perhaps if she was able to contact Ranos or her father . . . Kara closed her eyes and tried to reach out but all her straining only caught pieces of dead static, the slow mournful rattle of hydrogen atoms near absolute zero, the leathery rustle of a solar wind, the tiny patter of meteorites striking the outer atmosphere and disintegrating. After a minute her head began to throb and she stopped. Nothing. They were too far away, or she wasn’t doing it right.
         She felt a brief pang of regret that she hadn’t allowed Ranos to teach her how to set up a mental link between her and her father. Her father had tried to convince her that it would allow them to stay in contact and he would know faster if she was in trouble, but Kara had felt uneasy about the whole idea. The idea of her father, or anyone having access to her head all the time, even in a limited fashion, just didn’t appeal to her. Ranos had taken her aside and explained to her, in a tone of voice she had never heard from him before, how he and her father had once had a similar link, and how it had been useful when they were separated or unable to speak outloud. But he also told her how it was sometimes a burden and how emotions tended to spill over the link in both directions even when the person didn’t desire such a thing. Kara had asked him if he and her father still had theirs. Ranos had avoided her eyes for a second and told her no, they hadn’t in a curt voice and wouldn’t explain further. But for a split second his face had looked somewhat sad and it was the first and only time Kara had ever seen Ranos look like that. One day she would have to ask her father about what had happened between the two of them. One day.
         Now she had more pressing concerns, frankly. The man who had attacked the soldiers had definitely been a “mindbender”, as her uncle liked to say. Kara wasn’t sure if she had killed him with the tree, but that didn’t mean there weren’t others who would be out looking for her. Having been captured by mindbenders once, Kara had absolutely no desire to repeat the experience. The thought of running into someone like Mandras again chilled her and she refused to be a prisoner again. She was sure they didn’t have enough people here to subdue her completely, and she was sure as hell not about to let them get a foothold. She had to keep moving.
         Her eyes had become as adjusted to the dark as they would be, but the surroundings gave her no clue as to a direction. Kara considered throwing up a small light globe to illuminate the area but discarded it immediately, figuring it would only make her a bigger target. He best bet would be to find a village and try to blend in until help arrived. Maybe she could even convince someone to mend her clothes or give her a new set. Someone would eventually be along to see what had happened to the other soldiers, everyone had known where they were going, Kara was certain of that. Maybe her father would even come. Knowing she was involved, he probably would come, if only so he could punish her. Kara wasn’t exactly looking forward to that conversation.
         First things first, though, she had to get to safety. Cautiously, Kara began to walk, stepping gingerly among roots and plants, keeping an arm out so she didn’t walk into a tree. The going was worse than it had been in the daylight, and she nearly fell a number of times just in the first few minutes. Maybe I should rethink the no-light thing. She stumbled and swore under her breath, twisting at the last second to avoid cracking her head against a tree trunk.
         There has to be a better . . . Kara thought just as her boot hooked around an exposed tree root. The ground tilted and began to rush up at her. Startled, Kara put her arms out to halt her descent, inwardly bracing herself for the impact.
         It never came.
         What the . . . Kara found that her feet were pedaling empty air. She went to twist herself upright and nearly spun in circles. “Whoa . . .” she muttered, grabbing the nearby tree and using the support to right herself. A moment’s experimentation allowed her to figure out how to move around, albeit slowly. Aha. She was flying! Or levitating, more appropriately. Whatever. But it was better than staggering about like an idiot and bumping into things all night.
         Vaguely she remembered Ranos teaching it to her, but also remarking that it wasn’t very useful since you couldn’t maneuver very well. Kara tried to concentrate on just floating and found that she could drift in whatever direction she wanted, and if she kept her arms out it warned her in time to keep from bumping into anything. This was great! Kicking her feet she tilted her body forward as if leaning into the wind. She had to cover her mouth with one hand to stifle a giggle. There was a bright spot to this day after all.
         It occurred to her that she might be able to float higher and get an idea of where the nearest village was. At least that would give her a sort of goal, which was more than she had at the moment. All she had to do was focus on rising, on taking herself higher. How hard could it be?
         The first attempt was too fast and she had to throw her arms over her head to keep from knocking herself out on a low tree branch. Taking a deep breath, she ascended again, more slowly this time and doing her best to avoid the branches and leaves that seemed to be trying to form a cage around her. More than once she had to keep a stray leaf out of her mouth, although there was a certain coziness to the growing canopy around her. It made her feel hidden, which was a nice change from earlier.
         Gradually it became a little brighter, the pale shimmering light of a moon, and the branches began to thin out. Kara paused for a moment to try and see if anything more was visible. If she could she wanted to avoid going all the way up, just in case someone spotted her. But all she saw were more trees and more leaves and the shadows of the same. All in all, it was a fairly boring forest.
         “So what’s the secret to it, kid?” said quite clearly in her ear.
         Kara yelped, spinning toward the sound while at the same time plunging swiftly toward the ground. Her fingers clutched at the branches around her for support but she wasn’t able to get a good enough grasp to halt her descent. Twigs tickled and scratched at her face on the way down, throwing her concentration off. The wind battered at her, frail invisible fingers slapping at her weakly.
         A short distance from the dirt she managed to stop her plummet, though the sudden jolt made her teeth rattle painfully. Once halted, she was able to get herself to the ground in a gentler fashion, her feet lightly touching the soil a second later, her knees bending as she fell into a light crouch. At least Ranos would have been proud of the landing, I think.
         A clattering above her head made her look up, although the woven canopy of branches gave up no secrets. Shadows moved and danced but she couldn’t see anything solid. Her pulse quickened as she tried to get a sense of who was up there, if anyone. Perhaps she had been imagining the voice? But what an odd thing for her imagination to say.
         “They say the best thing to do is not think about it,” came the voice. “At least that’s what I hear. Sorry if I called too much attention to it.” The voice sounded more amused than sorry.
         “Who are you?” Kara called up. She threw her mind out like a net, trying to see what she could snag. If it was the mindbender from before she had the best surprise for him . . .
         “Ah, ah, ah . . .” the voice called out and Kara winced as a shower of acorns and leaves fluttered down to her and the clattering shifted to a different tree. Above her the trees rattled, but that might have been the wind. “Anybody teach you about privacy?” the voice said from behind her now.
         “That only applies to people I know,” Kara countered, scanning the treetops, not seeing anyone. Was it just a voice? She had seen Ranos make his voice come out of other stuff but he was generally nearby. She couldn’t sense anybody in the area at all. “I don’t know you.”
         “Indeed you don’t,” the voice chirped cheerily. “Though I suppose we’ll become acquainted eventually. My colleague is out looking for you now, I imagine, so it’s really only a matter of time.”
         What? Her breath caught in her throat. Suddenly the darkness was almost choking, and seemed ready at any second to give up a clutching hand or murderous expression. “What are you talking about? Who’s coming after me? How did you even find me?” It occurred to her that the person could be stalling her so that his friend could come and get her, although if they knew where she was now, all they would have to do was track her. Squinting into the darkness, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. No. She wouldn’t run. Let them find her. I’m ready this time. They wouldn’t find it such an easy fight.
         The voice gave a sort of tittering laugh. Something scratched at the bark above her, sending another shower of leaves down to her. “You want me to give up trade secrets? For shame . . .” it paused for a second, “Though actually I’m rather proud of this one. Anyone ever tell you that you’ve an inferno for a metabolism?”
         “Uh . . . no,” Kara responded, a bit confused. What the heck did that mean? “Not that I remember.”
         “I guess that makes sense. Anyhow, your body apparently burns an incredible amount of energy and if one knows how to look, you stand out like a big bright bonfire in a place like this. Nothing you can do about it, unfortunately, but it’s a good fact to know, I think. Don’t you?” Without waiting for her to answer the voice continued, “The bad thing is that, honestly, I couldn’t say where the hell you are right now. I mean, I know it’s a forest and I know where the forest is but frankly all these damn trees look exactly the same. So if I were you and was looking for a positive side to all of this, that’s where I’d focus. Unless you prefer to dwell on the negative, in which case I guess you have plenty to think about.”
         Kara wasn’t exactly sure she was following all of this. Geez, make some sense, why don’t you? She felt a tingling somehow underneath her skull, like tiny ants marching through her hair, but she found if she could easily ignore it. “So what do you want, then?” There was no answer, and Kara wondered if the person had gone. “I said, what do you want?” she said again, a little louder, though part of her said she was mad to do so.
         “Hm, what . . .” something shifted above her, but more to her left this time. The voice sounded distracted. “Oh, ah, do? . . . well if I were you I’d march to the nearest village and give myself up. That would be the smart thing to do and it would save everyone a lot of trouble.” There was a tiny snicker. “However, I rather doubt you’re going to do such a thing. And with so many trees around too . . .” the voice trailed off and sniggered again. Kara was honestly finding all of this very strange.
         “Why should I give myself up?” Kara asked. “What do you want with me?” She did her best to keep her voice calm, although the thought of getting captured again, by mindbenders no less, was not a good one for her nerves. She reminded herself to keep her breathing even, like Ranos had taught her. I wonder if he ever gets worried or upset. “You’re not the same person who attacked me earlier, are you?” She wasn’t sure what made her say that. The prickly feeling increased suddenly but just as quickly died away.
         “Alas, no, that was my colleague,” the voice replied, skittering from one tree to another. “Though I should thank you for giving us something to talk about. It has been dreadfully boring around here lately.”
         “You keep saying us,” Kara interjected. “How many of you are there? And you never said who you were?”
         “Nor am I about to,” the voice responded coolly. “I had to do some sleuthing to find you, now it’s your turn. It’s about time you learned that if you want something badly enough, you’ll figure out a way to work for it.” Kara couldn’t tell if the voice was being sarcastic or not. “And as for numbers or identities, as I said, you’ll be finding out soon enough, I trust. At the moment I’m just curious as to what you look like in color. But really, you’ll find we’re not so terrible, all told.”
         “You killed those soldiers,” Kara accused, thinking about lifting herself into the trees again to find the source of the voice. “You tried to kill us all .”
         “Firstly, it wasn’t me,” the voice said peevishly, “and secondly, that was a pre-emptive strike, so to speak. Purely in our own self-defense, I assure you. Besides, it’s not like anyone was hurt permanently by it, hm? Am I right?”
         He knows, Kara thought, her eyes widening.
         “After all, I see you are no longer sporting that lovely branch cruelly jutting from your young body,” the voice added, sounding almost gleeful. “Certainly you folks have little to fear from such a mundane thing as death, right?”
         “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara said slowly, choosing her words carefully. “You killed those soldiers,” she said again, trying to sound both vengeful and anguished. “You won’t get away with it.”
         “How coy,” the voice said dryly. A shadow swooped above her and there was the sound of claws scratching and scraping at the branches overhead. Kara spun on her heels to trace the sound, putting a hand out to maintain her balance. All this spinning was making her dizzy.
         “Well, if that’s the way you want to play it . . .” the voice said, echoing behind her, and sending her whirling around again. “. . . then at least answer me this one question.”
         The movements stopped again. Kara stared at the darkness, willing a shape to form from the opacity draped like a cloth before her. Enough of this , she thought, slowly closing her fist and gathering her wits.
         “When did Ranos join the Time Patrol?” came the cheerily hushed question.
         “What?” Kara said outloud, taken off guard, while at the same time she threw her hand out, puncturing a ball of brightness in her mind and releasing it into the air. A spark went off in her head. The entire area flared into daylight, illuminating the trees and casting sharp, jagged shadows over everything, giving the forest a hollow, washed out appearance.
         Two beady eyes reflected back at her like miniature headlights as a small furry creature raised tiny hands to cover its face, staggering and nearly toppling off the branch of the tree before her. Kara swore she heard someone curse and then the little animal scampered away, out of the radius of her small globe.
         Kara extinguished it immediately after, afraid she had already given herself away. The darkness clamped down on her vision again and she spent a tense moment waiting for the forest to partially resolve into something viewable. All the time her mind was racing. She had absolutely no idea what all of that had been about. The only thing she did know was that they knew she was out here and were searching for her. And they knew about the Time Patrol. And Ranos. What else do they know? she wondered, biting her lip. Crap. What had the man meant by that question? She felt even more lost than before, awash in mysteries that she had no time to solve. I need to get help.
         Already moving, she tried to figure out where to go. The villages were out, but she couldn’t hang around in the forest the whole time either. Sooner or later they were going to find her. Perhaps it was best to start planning for her defense now, or even consider going after them herself. She could improvise if she needed to. Ranos didn’t do anything impossibly difficult, he just had more experience. Her greater strength might be able to offset that aspect. It was a long shot but it was better than running around like a maniac and jumping at shadows.
         But she was only able to take a few steps before tripping on the uneven ground, the sudden loss of balance sending Kara to her knees. Dammit! Kara swore, relieved her father wasn’t around to tell her to watch her language. This nonsense was getting her nowhere. She was better off finding a place to hide and wait until morning. Before I break my neck and then I have no choice-
         Suddenly there were heavy footsteps, almost like someone running, and a splintering sound as someone crashed through the forest. Oh no , Kara thought, they’ve found me . She tensed, easing back into a crouch, staring intently into the darkness as the thrashing came closer, growing louder every second. She thought she could hear a voice too, calling out a name, but it was hard to tell, the voice was so garbled.
         “It’s not . . .” a voice hiccuped, very close. There was the sound of a body slamming into a tree and bouncing off and a muffled sob as the person flailed about for a way around.
         At least I’m not the only one , Kara thought with a gleeful malice.
         “. . . not . . .” the voice said again, and a shadow reared on her, seemingly leaping up out of nowhere before her. It was clearly a woman’s voice, which was curious, but she had no time to dwell on that.
         “ . . . see, it’s not . . .” and a body crashed into her, hot breath washing over her face, sending Kara tumbling backwards, causing her to yell and throw out her hands. “It’s not mine . . .” a voice screamed at her.
         “Hey!” she shouted, startled. Instinctively she grabbed the person and twisted her body, using their momentum, already off kilter, and sent them sprawling onto the ground, the person nearly pulling Kara down on top of her. But Kara maintained her posture and put her hands down hard on the person’s shoulders, keeping them on the ground. They kicked and struggled but seemed to have no real strength. A brief scan sent a hail of chaos screaming across her brain like a faceful of white noise. “Cut it out!” she ordered the woman. Concentrating, she summoned a small light.
         The woman stopped struggling, went limp. “It’s not mine . . .” she sobbed, as if exhausted. She was trembling violently, and her voice was nasal and congested. The light revealed a young face soaked with tears, but also covered in blood, much to Kara’s surprise. And her nose looked misshapen and slightly bent, as if it had been recently broken.
         Wide, frightened eyes fixed on her. “Don’t you see . . .” she cried, her thin hands clutching desperately at Kara’s forearms. “It’s not my name . . . it’s not . . .”
         “What do you-“
         ”It’s not my name . . .” the woman shouted in her face, spraying spittle at Kara. The woman tore her arms away and covered her face, shaking quietly. “Oh . . . it’s not my name . . .” she cried, half laughing, almost triumphant, “it’s not . . . my name is not Jula . . .” her eyes were closed tightly, and tears were leaking out from the cracks, “I know . . . Jula . . . it’s not my name, my name isn’t Jula . . .”