"The rumor you've heard is true," Alice Hunt said bluntly. "Lucius and Ivy are missing."
She waited for the chorus of gasps and groans to subside. Before she could continue, Finton Coin was on his feet. "Should we mount a search, Mrs. Hunt? They may be here in the village somewhere, injured!"
Poor Finton, she thought. Still trying to make amends for having left Ivy in the forest, all those months ago.
"No, no, Finton. But thank you for thinking of it." She looked around to confirm that she had everyone's attention. "I'm sure they're not in the village."
More gasps.
"There certainly is reason for concern," she went on. "Their lives may be in danger. But we mustn't panic, or despair. One thing I know: they have not been taken by...those we don't speak of."
That brought the response she'd expected. There were a few audible sighs of relief, but most of the young adults at the meeting looked skeptical. The elders merely looked glum.
"Let me explain," Alice continued. "There are certain facts you all know. Everyone has heard of the well-attested Miracle of the Violet-Scented Blood. That was a sign from God--an indication that my son Lucius is a saint, given to us for a purpose."
There was a murmur of assent; many villagers piously fingered violet-colored scarves and belts.
"You also know Lucius and Ivy are in love. It's no secret that there's been an estrangement. Apparently, they disagreed on a course of action. But Ivy was last seen, early yesterday morning, by her sister Peggy. She told Peggy she was going to find Lucius, and they were almost certainly going to reconcile!"
Amid a louder buzz, Peggy sat up straighter in her chair, pleased as punch with her new celebrity. Alice reflected that this was the most inclusive village meeting she'd ever seen. Children and even infants were present, because no adults had been willing to stay home to babysit.
But while Peggy Walker was smiling, her parents were distinguished by their gray faces and downcast eyes. More than any of the rest of us, Alice noted, they act as if they're waiting fatalistically for the world to end.
At least they weren't interfering with her attempt at damage control.
"I think we can safely assume that within a half hour of Peggy's having seen Ivy, Ivy and Lucius were together. Ivy was with my son voluntarily, and they had reconciled. The question we need to ask is: where did they go, and why?"
She looked around again, meeting one pair of concerned eyes after another. "There's something else we all know, though we seldom discuss it. We elders had a reason for taking the drastic step of settling here. We were fleeing the horrendous violence of the towns. We felt that menace justified using even Covington Wood, with its own terrors, as a buffer.
"But as Lucius had pointed out before he was wounded, there are times when we suffer from a lack of medicines that may be available in the towns. Isolated as we are, we don't know whether those towns are changing, perhaps becoming less threatening."
This heretical idea was greeted with stunned silence.
"Until the crisis last fall," she went on, "the elders had thought it best to keep secret the existence of magic rocks that can, in an emergency, assure safe passage through the forest." More accurately, it was only last fall that Edward dreamed them up. "They had, after all, never been tested. But now we know villagers can negotiate the forest. It's not easy, not a thing to be undertaken lightly, but it can be done--"
"Wait a minute." Young Morgan Collins rose now. "Ivy had the magic rocks with her, and she was attacked."
"Yes," Alice said smoothly, "but she wasn't harmed. She fought her attacker off and killed him. That's the power of the rocks. They don't guarantee that the bearer won't be attacked, only that he or she will prevail."
Morgan sat down, looking decidedly unenthusiastic about those rocks.
"So," Alice went on, "the question becomes: has the outside world improved enough that we should risk sending an occasional messenger for medical supplies?" She took a deep breath and dropped her bombshell. "I believe Lucius and Ivy have taken on the mission of finding the answer to that question. They've gone to visit the towns!"
There were cries of horror, but she raised a hand to silence them. Her audience was still anxious to hear what she had to say.
"I'm convinced they've gotten through the forest safely. Beyond the forest...yes, they may be killed. They've heroically chosen to take that risk, for the good of the community.
"We can't know what they'll find out there, how much exploring they'll think is necessary. We should wait at least a year b-before"--her voice broke, and the emotion was unfeigned--"before we...g-give up on them."
She steadied herself with an effort. "If we conclude they're dead, killed by wicked outsiders, we should honor them both as saints who sacrificed themselves for the village. And we should wait for a generation before anyone tries again."
Several people were waving their hands, as she'd known they would be. She acknowledged a bright young woman in the front row. "Joanna? A question?"
"Yes! Won't it be impossible ever to try again, if the magic rocks have been lost with Lucius and Ivy?"
"No," she replied. "Lucius and Ivy didn't take the magic rocks!"
When she was able to make herself heard over the tumult that followed, she said, "Remember the Violet-Scented Blood? Lucius is special! He and only he--and Ivy now, because she's under his protection--can be safe in the forest without the rocks. I'm sure he came to understand that, through prayer. And he spent most of the night before last in the forest, alone, to confirm that he was right.
"The creatures there can't harm him. We know from sad experience that misguided humans can harm him. Both he and Ivy may be killed in the towns, but they freely accepted the risk."
As the crowd settled down, it seemed her story was being well received. So she added a final embellishment: "If they don't return and we're forced to wait for a generation, God will surely send another saint who'll be able to venture out and investigate without taking the magic rocks."
.
.
.
.
.
She'd hoped the Walkers would join her when the meeting broke up. We have more in common than we've ever had before, with this shared fear for our children. Who else can we talk to as freely? But Edward never met her eyes. He and his wife rushed away, herding Peggy and their other little ones before them.
Sighing, Alice turned to meet the quizzical gaze of August Nicholson. After checking that no one was within earshot, August said, "Were you--" Then he broke off, with a pained look on his face.
"What?"
After a reluctant pause, he said heavily, "I was about to ask, 'Were you telling the truth about what you think Lucius believes?'
"And then it hit me that we've come to a sorry state, when it's not an insult to ask a friend whether she's lying. We've all told so many lies that most of the time, we think nothing of it."
Alice winced. "You're right. I'm not proud of myself."
They walked out of the meeting hall together, trailing behind the others. "To answer your question," she admitted, "I wasn't telling the truth. I don't think Lucius imagines the strangeness of his blood gives him any miraculous protection."
August stopped walking, and tugged on her sleeve to make her turn and look at him. "Does that mean he's aware no one needs 'miraculous protection' in those woods?"
She gave a slow nod.
August went pale. But after a second he said, "I'm not surprised. Lucius has always had a keen intelligence. I suppose Ivy told him what she'd been told, and he figured out the rest?" Frowning, he continued to think aloud. "After Edward's admissions, the only evidence for the existence of 'forest creatures' was that Ivy had supposedly killed one. She wasn't likely to question that, because the alternative was to realize she'd killed Noah. Lucius wouldn't have had the same problem in facing it."
"No," Alice acknowledged. "But I don't think he learned anything from Ivy till after he'd discovered the truth on his own. He really did roam the woods most of the night before they reconciled." Thoughtfully, she suggested, "He may have become suspicious, checked out the nearby woods, and found those tunnels we never bothered to camouflage. But...children had seen him go into the Quiet Room the previous day, and no one noted when he came out. I think it's more likely he found that tunnel entrance."
August grunted in disgust. "And we thought we were protecting ourselves so well, when we hid our costumes more securely after Noah had gotten his hands on one. The tunnels alone are damning!"
Then he took a keen look at Alice. He asked gently, "You truly do fear for Lucius's life, don't you?"
She nodded. "Oh, yes. His father--" Her voice broke again, and she gave a long shudder. At last she got the words out. "His father was murdered out there when he was younger than Lucius is now."
"God. I'm sorry."
She knew, without being reminded, that August had lost a brother "out there."
But he's lost the rest of his family here in the village. Most recently, his son. His only child, who could so easily have been saved...
They resumed walking, slowly. "If they don't return," August said kindly, "it may not mean they're dead. They may decide to make a new life for themselves." When she didn't answer, he continued. "Even if they don't want to hurt their parents, they may come to feel they'll hurt you--and everyone else--more if they return, and can't keep secret what they've learned. They'd be spending so much time with their own age group that with the best will in the world, it would be next to impossible to keep the truth to themselves."
"I know," she said forlornly.
I want, above all else, to know whether Lucius is safe. But if he and Ivy return, this world we've built will come crashing down around us. And Lucius may well hate me...I will have lost my only child in any case.
She came to a halt. Trembling, blinded by tears.
August slipped an arm around her, offering his shoulder to cry on.
And suddenly, as she accepted it, it dawned on her that Edward Walker was not the man with whom she had most in common.