I breathe and wipe the sweat from my forehead. “I’ve never been in trouble for anything in my life.”
“You also thought you never had a father or held a gun.”
“Or had a husband.” I look at him. “Why have they been able to get away with all of this here?”
“Like we said—it’s Forbearing Land.”
I look at him curiously. “I know you said that, but why can’t everyone—all humans—figure it out so that this can’t happen.”
He laughs. “Ego gets in the way every time. Why is there ever an impasse to anything? Ego. If one gets it, the other is left wanting and that’s just never an option.”
“Make everyone have jurisdiction over all of the Bryers. Or separate them out.”
“They’ve tried over the years, but it just seems to be a technicality in our history that we can’t solve, among many other things.”
“So, there are more than just Navin and Japha’s men out here?” I start looking around as though the forest has eyes.
Arek laughs. “Oh, how times have changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I used to have to beg you not to come and try to win these people over.”
“I would do that?”
“Yeah. You thought everyone could come back to their right mind, if just coaxed enough. No fear. You just believed.”
We are quiet for a few more feet, as we pass by three trees made from one. Several birds sit along the branches while watching us march in the gray mist.
“You said Navin was pardoned.”
“Somehow he knew the right people in the Powers. But Navin will never be sinless. He knows he’s guilty of a myriad of things, and so do the Protectors. If the Powers wanted us to arrest him, we’d arrest him. Honestly, I think they’re afraid. The rebels have been building power and popularity during the last few years, making the Powers weary of rash decisions—especially after everything that has happened with you. It’s a game. It always has been.”
Finally, we reach a rushing river that plummets nearly a half mile down a cliff face.
“Arek . . .” Diem and Kilon want to speak with him.
The edge of the waterfall calls to me. My shoes push dirt over until it hits the wind and blows away. The gigantic rumble of the crashing river is deafening and mists my face even from high above. A brown and white eagle, its wingspan longer than six feet, flies in circles midway down the falls. A paralyzing numbness travels down my arms, yet the eagle keeps my attention. Suddenly it turns to two eagles, then three . . . and so on. The fatigue can’t be rubbed out of my eyes even with my palms, and the bird multiplies. My eyes grow heavy just trying to examine the expanding flock of birds.
Peter is near me also taking in the view.
“Do you see them?” I ask.
“Them who?” he asks.
“The eagles.”
He watches me carefully, his face backdropped by an army of trees that come in and out of focus. “There’s only one.”
“Peter . . .” I whisper, “something’s wrong.”
“Willow?” Peter asks as he comes forward. “Arek!”
My balance is lost, and the earth seems to rock back and forth as Peter reaches out and takes my hand.
“Peter, help . . .” My voice wobbles like my knees until there is nothing that can keep me upright, not even Peter’s young hand. The burn of his pull on my arm is no match and soon my body falls heavily over the edge.
Arek’s arms try to reach me, but he is too late. “Remy!” he yells.
I am weightless. My arms hover wide and the ground is coming soon yet there’s no fear. My mind feels hacked—someone else has control. Will it hurt when my body hits the water?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I wake when my body crashes against the water. The icy river immediately paralyzes me so that my breath sticks in my chest and can’t get out. The rush of the dense liquid rolls me again and again, making it nearly impossible to reach the surface. My body convulses with desperation. My lungs scream as my hands frantically claw the water. I’m getting nowhere!
Then a large fist plunges into the water and pulls me out. When fresh air hits my wet cheeks, the pain of my lungs expanding makes me cry out. Soon I lie on a hard surface with my eyes closed and my arms wrap around my chest, painfully gasping for breath.
“Quite the fall,” the man’s Scottish brogue echoes.
I open my eyes to find my shirt torn and soaked as the cascading waterfall covers the hidden tunnel where we are. To my right, the rushing white water pounds, but to my left, the rock wall is covered in mineral deposits and moss. A man’s black boots stand just inches from me, but when I follow his strong body to find his face, I don’t recognize him. I crawl away until I am close to tumbling into the falls again.
“How did you do that?” I ask, my voice scratchy.
He kneels, “Make ye fall?” He smiles but doesn’t answer. “We need to go.”
“Where?”
“Come on.” The man yanks me to my feet. My body is already in the early stages of hypothermia, my skin is hard and goose bumped. The coat Sassi gave me now weighs twenty pounds and it sounds like a heavy weight when I drop it.
