"There's another visitor in the forest!" Lucius kept his tone light so as not to alarm Ivy. But when he looked at her, he saw she was smiling.
"A robin," she announced, tilting her head to listen to its song. "A good omen!" Villagers welcomed robins as harbingers of spring, their coloring not vivid enough to be condemned. "Can you see it?"
"Yes. It's in a tree just ahead." They'd stopped walking, and Lucius admired the bird for the minute until it flew away. Then he said more soberly, "We must be near our destination."
Ivy nodded. "I'm sure we are. Let's hurry--I'm eager for you to see what's out there."
Another five minutes of walking brought them to the hidden road. Then, hand in hand, they broke into a run. Lucius yelled "Stop!" just as Ivy's extended cane touched the wall.
While they paused to catch their breath, he studied the vine-covered barrier. The vine was sturdy, though in early spring its leaves were few in number, small and light green. The wall itself was formidable. As his heartbeat slowed to normal, he asked indignantly, "Did your father know about this? How did he expect you to get past it?"
"It wasn't here when the village was founded," Ivy explained. "After my trip outside, Papa told me it had occurred to him that someone might have put up a wall. But it would have been meant to discourage people from entering the woods, not to trap anyone who had. So there would be gates, and they'd be easy to open from this side." She made a face. "Who knows, maybe there are gates--somewhere. But Papa thought this would be a logical place for one, near the old road. And he was wrong."
"He's been wrong about a lot of things," Lucius said dryly. Then, still inspecting the wall, he admitted, "We could have given this more thought ourselves, before we left home. I know you managed the climb once wearing long skirts, but it would be easier in pants. I could have found a pair of trousers to fit you."
Ivy frowned. "I would have liked that, but what would people in the towns have thought of me?"
Lucius looked her up and down, appraising the initially blue-and-white dress on which her sister Kitty had lovingly embroidered clusters of violets. (He himself never wore the "holy color": his wardrobe was mostly black and gray.)
Being a plain-spoken man, he said, "As it is, what they're likely to think of both of us is that our clothes--and our bodies--need a good washing."
"Oh," Ivy said in a small voice. "I suppose you're right. I got into more dirt the other time, but most of it was on my safe-color cloak rather than my dress."
The other time...
Lucius took another look at the stains on her dress, the twigs in her hair, the smudge on her nose. "You're beautiful," he said softly, "dirty or not." Then he drew her into his arms and kissed her.
.
.
.
.
.
They climbed side by side, clinging to the vine. Any nearby robins must find me a strange sight, Lucius reflected. He'd been unwilling to part with the first human skull he'd found. Now, to free his hands for climbing, the skull was wrapped in his jacket and the bundle hung on his back, tied loosely around his neck by the jacket sleeves. Ivy's cane was precariously hooked onto it as well.
He hadn't decided what to do with the skull. But he knew he wanted it on the same side of the wall as himself.
Peering over the top, he could see there was less vine on the other side. It was pure luck that Ivy hadn't broken an ankle on her prior visit. "Let me make the drop first!" He was over and down before she could argue; he landed safely, then caught her and broke her fall.
"Is anyone else in sight?" she asked urgently as she scrambled to her feet.
"No." He got up more slowly, looking around.
"Tell me what you see, Lucius!"
"Nothing startling. There's a road, well maintained. And on the other side, more forest, not walled off. The wall, the road, the forest across the way, all stretch as far as I can see, in both directions." His eyes narrowed. "But the forest is green, all the trees in leaf. It's much healthier than the one we left."
They fell silent, neither of them sure what to do next.
Lucius unwrapped his bundle and donned the jacket again.
"The other time," Ivy said uncertainly, "Kevin came along right after I got here. But the whole time I was here, no one else passed by. Not unless they were so quiet I didn't hear them..."
They both knew her hearing was acute.
At last Lucius said, "Do you feel able to do more walking? It's late afternoon--perhaps we should keep moving. We may be safer if we reach a town before nightfall."
Or we may notbe safer. It's maddening to know so little! I have no idea in which direction a town may be closer, or if one is more dangerous than another.
Ivy said, "You're probably right. And I'm ready to go on. It will be a relief to walk on a smooth road."
He reached a decision. "There's one thing I want to do first," he told her. "Remember the skull I brought with me? I'm going to bury it, right here."
Before he could explain, Ivy was nodding. "So assuming we don't tell anyone about the skull--or even if we do--it will help us find our way home! You'll be able to locate the spot where we came out of the forest by finding the recently disturbed earth."
"That's right." He gave her another quick kiss, then knelt and began digging with both hands. Ivy dropped to her knees beside him and tried to help.
They rearranged just enough soil to conceal the skull. As he got to his feet, wiping his hands on his already grimy trousers, Lucius said sardonically, "Did that remind you of something?"
"Yes." Rising, Ivy gave a grim nod. "Those poor young villagers rushing to bury every inoffensive flower of the bad color, never guessing their parents are making fools of them." She shuddered. "We can't let that go on."
"No."
If we get back safely, Lucius thought as he pondered the mystery of the skull, we can't let that go on.