Blood Red Road

Jack says.
    That’s the boy! Ike winks at me.
    I got a funny feelin inside me. A flutter in my belly. Jack gone. Not bein able to see him no more. I hadn’t really thought about it before now. What might happen after we find Lugh.
    Ike! calls Jack. Saba! Move it! We ain’t got time to stand around yappin.
    I bin so busy listenin to Ike that I ain’t noticed that Jack an Emmi an Ash an Epona’s already on horseback, ready to go. Tommo’s on the sturdy little donkey, holdin the reins of Ike’s big piebald mustang.
    Nero caws impatiently from his perch on Jack’s shoulder. Traitor bird.
    We’re comin, I says.
    Ike looks up at the head on the faded tavern sign. Gives it a shove an starts it swingin.
    So long, you one-eyed bastard, he says.
    Then him an me mount up an we move out.

    Seven days to midsummer.
    I cain’t stop thinkin about Lugh. Worryin about how he is. Worryin that he might be hurt. I wonder if he thinks I ain’t comin. I wouldn’t blame him if he did. Lugh knows I keep my promises, knows I’d grow wings an fly to the moon to git him back, but it’s bin so long he might think somethin’s happened to me. He might even think I’m dead. I’d hate it if he thought that.
    Ike an Jack both swear that the quickest way to Freedom Fields lies through these mountains, the Devil’s Teeth. There is another route, the one that’s most used, but it ’ud mean retracin our steps almost back to Darktrees. So here we are, an all because Jack jest had to have Ike join us. He better turn out to be worth the trouble.
    This may be the quickest way but it ain’t well traveled an no wonder. These ain’t mountains that deal kindly with people who try to cross ’em. They’re steep an jagged with no way of keepin to the high ground. They force us to climb up an then lose the height we jest gained by climbin down agin. It ain’t good ridin country, that’s fer sure. The goin’s so hard that we mainly hafta walk the horses.
    An it ain’t jest the mountains. There’s the fog.
    It come down on us the day after Ike closed the door of the One-Eyed Man an it ain’t showed no signs of liftin. It lies on the mountains night an day, heavy, dank an bone-chillin. It swirls around our legs an strokes our faces with its clammy fog fingers.
    I hate it. I cain’t stand it if I cain’t see the sky. No matter how bad Silverlake was, at least you could count on big skies, always high an wide, comin right down to meet the earth. A person could breathe there.
    We go along without talkin fer the most part, huddled in our cloaks, heads down. When somebody does say somethin, they talk quiet. Even big Ike with his boomin voice talks soft. A normal voice sounds too loud, almost shockin, in this muffled fog world. There ain’t no birdsong. No rustle of animal feet. It’s like we’re th’only souls alive.
    Emmi’s made friends with Tommo.
    They ride along together. He talks to her in his strange hoarse voice. Or he’ll use his hands an fingers to speak. She seems to unnerstand what he means, jest like he’s talkin like normal folk do. Like it ain’t no different.
    It’s gittin so’s they’re almost brother an sister, Tommo an Em. I’m glad. It’s good fer her to have somebody near to her own age. An she’s lookin happier, not peaky like she’s bin fer so long. Ever since we left Silverlake really.
    But it’s all changed between Jack an me.
    It started at the Wrecker city an got worse after he pulled me outta the river. The last time we spoke to each other was when he told me not to smile at Tommo.
    We’ll say one or two words if we hafta, but he don’t tease me no more or let his hand brush aginst mine an both of us make sure our eyes don’t meet. It’s like I only dreamed that he held me an kissed me till my spine melted.
    Well, what did you especk? Every time he came near you, you pushed him away .
    Oh, it’s a waste of time thinkin about Jack. Soon I’m gonna be back with Lugh. Then him an Emmi an me’ll find ourselves somewhere good to settle. A place that’s green an kind, by runnin water. Maybe near to Mercy. An we’ll be a family agin. That’s all I care about.
    I shiver an pull my cloak around me tighter.
    It’s so cold in the fog.
    Even colder without Jack’s smile.

    It’s bin two whole days of fog but it’s finally startin to thin out some. It ain’t lifted entirely, but the wind’s picked up an it’s gone all wispy, like long gray feathers driftin lazily around us. The air’s still