Blood Red Road

pushes away from me an picks up the torch from the ground. It’s still lit. C’mon, he says. We gotta git movin.
    Jest like that? I says.
    Saba, he says. Yer brother. He’s waitin fer you.
    He heads off. I jest stand there. My lips is tinglin. I can still taste him.
    I’m glad he called a halt. He’s right, this ain’t the time or place. An him an me both know there never will be the right time an place. Once I’ve got Lugh back, that’ll be it. I’ll head to Crosscreek with him an Emmi, or maybe somewhere else entirely, and Jack’ll go off with Ike an Tommo an we’ll never see each other agin. We both said what our plans is an that’s what we’re gonna do.
    But I’m glad we did it. Kissed. It was our only chance. An I’m glad he stopped it when he did.
    Liar. Liar, liar, liar .
    Saba! he yells. C’mon! Hurry up!

    It gits lower here, says Jack. Mind yer head.
    The torch throws jagged fingers of light up the rough stone walls. We’re makin our way through the tunnel an I reach a hand out, feelin where the top is. I gotta duck every now an agin so’s I don’t bang my head.
    It seems to go on an on an on. I’m gittin to the point of thinkin it ain’t never gonna end when I start to see light an it gits brighter an brighter, spillin into the darkness. Then the tunnel ends an we step outside, into the golden sky of a midsummer afternoon.
    Everyone’s waitin fer us. Emmi, Tommo, Ike, Ash an Epona. Hermes is over to one side, tearin at long tufts of grass. He lifts his head an whickers when he sees me.
    What took you so long? says Emmi. We bin here fer ages.
    Ike, Ash an Epona look at each other an grin. They look at me an Jack.
    Pretty dark in there, says Ash. Did you git lost?
    I feel a hot flush crawl up my neck. Lucky fer me, Hermes trots over an I busy myself strokin his neck.
    It uh … took us longer’n we thought to put out the fire, says Jack.
    Saba, says Emmi. Come an see! She grabs my hand an pulls me over to the edge of the ridge we’re standin on. The ridge runs all around the edge of the valley, like the rim of a bowl. It’s covered with thick stands of oak an tall pine trees. A wide flat valley lies spread out below us. It’s covered in rows an rows of low bushes covered with shiny dark green leafs. Lots of workers in white tunics move between the rows, bendin, pickin the leaf from the bushes an puttin ’em into sacks on their back. Slaves.
    Helen was one of these once. An Jack an Ike.
    It’s a land of plenty. Lush an beautiful. Like Pa told us it used to be back in Wrecker times. Paradise, he called it. When the air was sweet an the earth was good. When they grew so much to eat that they heaped it in mountains an if they needed some they’d jest go with their bucket an fill it up.
    But this ain’t no Paradise.
    There it is, says Ike. Freedom Fields.
    Ash points. Across the valley, on the far side, a wall of rainbow light shimmers. An that, she says, that’s the King’s Palace.

    Jack pushes somethin into my hand. Here, he says. It’s half of the long-looker that Emmi broke back at the Wrecker city.
    Jack fixed it! she says. Jest like he said he would!
    I put it to my eye.
    Be careful! she says. It’s awful bright!
    Directly opposite where we are, on the far side of the valley, a big house, the biggest I ever seen, sprawls out half-ways between the valley floor an the ridge above it. The walls is completely covered in shimmer discs. As the sun hits ’em, they shoot off rainbows of light. Red, yellow, pink, green, purple. The colors streak out, like shootin stars, sparkin an dancin so bright that black spots appear in front of my eyes.
    Ohmigawd, it’s amazin! I says. I never seen nuthin like it.
    They’ll be keepin Lugh there unner guard, says Jack. Ain’t that right, Ike?
    Yup, says Ike. An they’ll be takin good care of him, seein they went to all that trouble to git him.
    D’you really think so? I says.
    You can bet on it, says Ike.
    The Palace. I squint at it sidewise. Now I can see it’s got many windows. Tall posts runnin all along the front of it. Two massive front doors made of hammered copper. Wide steps lead down to a path made of crushed white rock. It winds through a garden to the fields below. I think of Ma with her garden of stones at Silverlake. She would never of dreamed that there might be a garden like this one.
    There’s a great carved basin with jets of water sprayin way up into the sky. There’s flower an vegetable beds laid out in fancy