Lucius rose before daybreak, bathed and dressed as swiftly and silently as he could, and snatched a few mouthfuls of food. He hoped he'd be out of the house before his mother woke, so he wouldn't have to face questions about the missed dinner or the appallingly late hour he'd gotten home.
He was opening the door when she called, "Lucius!"
Sighing, he turned back. "Yes, Mother?"
Alice was standing at the foot of the stairs, fully clothed--in the same dress he remembered her wearing the previous day. She...never went to bed? Because she was worried about me? The circles under her eyes seemed to support that interpretation.
But she smiled, and said only, "I think you need your jacket." She held it out to him.
He came back, took the jacket, and then impulsively pulled her into an embrace. He kissed her on the forehead and blurted out, "I love you, Mother!"
She clung to him briefly, whispering, "I love you too." Then she let him go.
As they parted, he thought he saw tears in her eyes. He also felt smarting in his own.
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Ungodly hour though it was, he headed for the Walker house at a dead run. He meant to sit on the porch till Ivy emerged.
But while the house was still far away, he saw another runner coming toward him. Cane extended before her, auburn hair flying in the wind. "Lucius!" she cried out. She'd seen his color again.
"Ivy!"
They closed the space between them until the cane bumped his thigh; then they both came to a stumbling halt, and Ivy wound up in his arms.
"Lucius!" she panted. "I'll tell you the secret! No promise required. But--" She had to pause to catch her breath. With him equally winded, she still managed to deliver the next line: "I want you to know I'm not 'giving in.' Not going against my beliefs. I've decided you were right all along."
"Wait, Ivy! You don't have to tell me." He brushed his lips against her hair, then said gently, "I was on my way to tell you I've discovered the truth on my own. I know you killed Noah--"
She stiffened. "I...what?" She jerked away from him, and he saw that she'd gone deathly pale. "Lucius, wh-what are you saying?" She took a few steps backward, trembling.
"Oh, my God. Ivy, I thought you knew!"
She covered her face with her hands and let out a muffled shriek. Lucius caught her as she was about to crumple to the ground.
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An hour later they sat side by side on the Resting Rock, grappling with the new reality. It went without saying that they were as much in love as ever, and still hoped to marry and spend the rest of their lives together. But in all other respects, their world had been turned upside down.
"I know you had to be told about Noah," Lucius said contritely, "but I should have done it in a better way. It seems I'm always slow to speak--except when I shouldn't."
Ivy sighed. "It's all right, Lucius." She locked her arm through his. "You had no reason to suspect that was the one thing Papa hadn't told me."
"He may have wanted to spare you--"
"No." She shook her head. "I think he may actually have been glad Noah was dead, because it gave him an excuse to keep things as they were. To convince me there would be no point in exposing the lies he'd admitted.
"I can't let myself grieve over having killed Noah, not when we have so much to discuss. This changes everything! I've been assuming the forest creatures really exist. Now we know they don't.
"We've been lied to all our lives," she continued bitterly. "This community is built on lies! All because our parents wanted to retreat from a world that had hurt them. They had no right to force that on us!"
"No," Lucius agreed. He was still puzzling over details. "Ivy...I'll never forget that you volunteered to go through the woods, for my sake, before your father told you the threat was a fake. But if I have this right...by the time you went, you believed it was a fake. Your companions didn't know that, and the 'magic rocks' were a device to reassure them.
"Here's what I've been wondering. You didn't really have any 'magical' protection. So how did you get home safely, when the men had deserted you and you had to go all the way through the forest alone? Weren't you in danger of losing your bearings, getting turned around?
"I understand that you were following the stream. But within our borders, at least, the flow of water in that stream makes very little sound. It seems to me that if you stayed close enough to be sure of hearing it, you'd be in constant danger of falling in."
Slowly and reluctantly, Ivy said, "I didn't have to do it alone. When I came back over the wall, Papa was waiting for me. He'd been appalled when the men returned to the village. Not only did he help me get back, he carried me part of the way." She grimaced. "He said he thought he could compromise, come that far without breaking an oath he'd taken, as long as he went no farther. But he insisted we separate so he could sneak back into the village ahead of me. Suspicions would be aroused if anyone learned he'd ventured into the woods, when I supposedly had the only 'magic rocks'!"
The tightness in her voice told Lucius there was more to the story. "Wh-what do you think he would have done if you hadn't returned? Hadn't come back over the wall?"
"I know what he would have done. I asked. He didn't want to answer. But when I pressed him, he told me. He would eventually have given up and gone home."
Despite all he already knew, Lucius was stunned. "Just...given up and gone home? Abandoned his own daughter, when you might be injured or dying somewhere? When he'd already gone most of the way, was just inside the wall? This is a man who knows there are no creatures in the woods, and the only threat beyond it comes from humans like ourselves!"
"You must remember," Ivy spat out, "he'd sworn an oath. Made a promise!He couldn't have faced my mother if he'd broken it!"
Lucius held her tight. So that's why you've realized conscience should take precedence over promises. And you still had to battle your upbringing for weeks.
At last she pulled free and turned her face up to his. "What do you propose we do now? I imagine you've been thinking about it all night."
He hesitated. "We still don't have a good enough understanding of what we're dealing with. I want to explore those woods by daylight, perhaps even see what lies beyond--visit one of the towns. Are you willing to wait till I've done that, before you speak to anyone else?"
She was silent for a few seconds. Then she said, "Lucius, there's something I should tell you. All along, I've been thinking mostly about the forest creatures. But the world outside...sounds strange."
That took him by surprise. "Sounds strange? What do you mean?"
"I can't describe it any better than that. Kevin seemed like a kind man. But there were odd noises when he came and went. He said they were made by his truck. I asked if I could touch it, and he said I probably shouldn't. I think my finding the noises odd made him uncomfortable."
Lucius frowned. "His truck?" They both understood that large vehicles called trucks--not needed in the village--were used in towns, to deliver necessities like bread and milk door-to-door. "I've never seen one except in pictures, but I can't imagine why it would make odd noises."
"It did. And at the same time, it didn't make the sounds I expected. The horses never whinnied. And I never heard hoofbeats!"
Lucius was as perplexed as she. "I suppose one could discipline or muzzle or even maim a horse to keep it from whinnying. But there's no way to suppress the sound of hoofbeats. Certainly not when the horses are pulling a heavy truck..."
If the outer world "sounds strange," what does it look like? Was I right in suspecting Edward Walker had a reason for wanting only a blind person to go there?
"In any case," he said, "I need to explore the forest before I go farther. I think there's something strange there too. But I haven't seen enough of it, by daylight, to be sure."
He started to get up, but Ivy clutched at his hand. "You asked if I'd wait while you do that."
"Yes?" He was puzzled. "Aren't you willing to wait?"
"Of course not," she said calmly. "I'm going with you."