Blood Red Road

what?
    Mercy says naught fer a moment, thinkin.
    You know nuthin of the world, she says at last. It’s a hard place. A dangerous place. Your ma an pa knew somethin of it. Enough to make em settle so far out of the way at Silverlake. Not many passersby. No neighbors. Like here at Crosscreek.
    I think about how hidden away Mercy is here. No trail from the trackway, no way of knowin where to turn off if you didn’t know about the windchimes high in the tree.
    Are you … hidin from somebody, Mercy? I says.
    I wouldn’t say hidin, she says. More like … keepin out of the way.
    I frown. Outta the way of what? Is that why Pa kept us at Silverlake? To keep us outta the way?
    He meant to, says Mercy. It didn’t turn out that way, though, did it?
    Somethin in her voice, in the way she says it makes me go all still inside. I stand up, my fists clenched. D’you know somethin? I says. About who took Lugh?
    I don’t know, she says. I …
    Tell me!
    She glances at the cabin where Emmi lies sleepin. Let’s walk, she says.

    Tracker starts to git up. Mercy raises a hand. Stay boy, she says an he lays hisself back down with a sigh.
    I follow her over the bridge an into the meadow. We keep to the creek bank an head on up the little valley. The moon lights us a silver path. The creek sparkles an murmurs over the stones. I breathe in the sharp, sweet air of the night.
    Tell me what happened that day, Mercy says. Tell me everythin. Don’t leave anythin out, no matter if you think it’s important or not.
    So I do. I tell her what happened that day. From Lugh an me goin to the landfill at dawn to Lugh shoutin at Pa an then the duststorm an the four horsemen showin up with Procter John.
    Four of ’em, she says. Dressed how?
    In long black robes, I says, with … like, heavy leather vests over top, an leather bands from their wrists to their elbows.
    Body armor, she says. It sounds like the Tonton.
    The … what? I says.
    The Tonton, she says. They’re … well … they’re all kinds of things—couriers, spies, informers, bodyguards. Sometimes even executioners.
    What? I says. I dunno what yer talkin about. How d’you know about these … Tonton?
    Your ma an pa wasn’t always at Silverlake, Saba. An I wasn’t always here at Crosscreek. We came to know each other at a place called Hopetown.
    I ain’t never heard of it, I says.
    It’s a town, she says. If you’re lucky, a week’s hard walkin’ll get you there. That’s if you’re lucky. You have to cross Sandsea an it don’t welcome nobody.
    Sandsea, I says. Pa used to tell us stories about it. The men … the Tonton … headed across there with Lugh. Their prints turned north off the trackway. D’you think they took him to Hopetown?
    They might have done, she says. Hopetown’s where the scum of the earth wash up. Every robber, every cheat, every lowlife who’d stab you for lookin at him the wrong way … they all find their way there eventually. It’s run by bad people for their own ends. An they got the Tonton to keep all the scum in check. They control the place with violence an somethin called chaal.
    That’s them leafs Procter John used to chew, I says. Pa told us never to touch it.
    He was right, she says. Chaal slows you down. Makes you think you’re smart when you ain’t. Too much of it an you get all hopped up, go wild. Allis an Willem an me, we weren’t there for long. We saw what the place was like an got outta there before it could suck us under. We got as far away as we could. We never wanted to hear of chaal or Hopetown again.
    But why would the … Tonton take Lugh? I says.
    Tell me more about that day, she says.
    They came lookin fer him, I says. One of ’em said to Procter John, “Is this him? Is he the one born at midwinter?” Then they asked Lugh the same thing an they checked that he was eighteen. Procter John says to ’em, “I told you he was the right one.” So … they knew all about Lugh. They came to find him.
    Mercy don’t say naught. Jest stares up at the night sky.
    But how could they know about him? I says. An what’s so important about him bein midwinter born? We’re twins. Why didn’t they take me too?
    I don’t know, she says. But let’s think it through.
    We’re both quiet fer a bit. Then she says, Maybe they didn’t want a girl. Maybe they wanted a boy. A boy born at midwinter eighteen year ago.
    But why? I says. An how did they know where to find him? Like you said, Silverlake’s nowhere.