Neither one of them looked back since they had fled the church. They ran as far as they could—or as much as Ky's knee could take. He was beginning to slow down. He just couldn't run anymore. For the first time in his life, his body failed him. But he wasn't going to fail her. Never again.
"Hold on, Dizzy. Hold on."
He grabbed a hold of the side of a building while Dizzy kept him upright. She had her arms around him, leaning into him so he wouldn't fall when he found his leg couldn't hold him. He glanced at her before he looked down the dirt road to a pair of gates that had them closed in. He pointed a finger at it.
"That's our way out, Dizzy," he said. "We're almost home. There's just one more thing—" He looked around himself.
"What."
He turned his head back to her. "Your wings and tail." He looked back to the gates and pointed up towards the flames flickering in the darkness by the left post. "You see those lights? Those are torches belonging to men called Postmasters. They guard the towns from Gears."
"That means they won't let us go?"
"If they know we're Gears. After we get past those gates, we can go home. I can take you back to the pirates. We just need something to hide your wings and tail to get past." He looked around again taking in what he could of the resident area that had greeted him when he had walked through its grounds with Nora. There had to be something she could use, something left out—
He pushed himself off the corner he had been leaning on and began limping backwards until Dizzy tried to pull on him to keep him from losing his balance. She followed him and watched him carefully as he limped along the walls of the building until he reached the end of it. He kept his grip around Dizzy's delicate hand, with her still close by his side while his eyes scanned the yards and grounds behind the quiet and sleeping buildings. There were things like carts, birdfeeders and piles of winter lumber left out, but it was too dark to make out any details.
He soon noticed something ghostly hovering in a yard away, fluttering lightly with the breeze that brushed up against it. He realized it was a sheet left out to dry. He pointed to the white sheet hanging on the clothes line that ran from the trunk of a tree to the back of the house. "There. I think that sheet will cover you. I'm sure they can part with it."
She glanced at him, and with his suggestion, she began to ply her hand from his grip. "I'll get it." She pulled away from him and trotted through the first yard and into the net to grab the sheet. She moved smoothly.
She quickly ran back to him with a corner of the sheet dragging the ground.
He passed her a light smile. "Good." With Furaiken tucked under his arm, he took the sheet and wrapped it around her shoulders like a cape. They adjusted it until her Gear features were covered. "How's that?"
She pulled the sheet close and put her nose to a handful of fabric in her hands. "It smells good."
Ky snickered and brought a hand up to hide a smile. "I think with that, we can go now." He then turned and began to hobble back towards the gates. As she noticed him start off by himself, she quickly joined his side and supported him.
They moved back into the streets gradually, while Ky hobbled nearly on one foot, down to the center of the road that lead to the large gates. His eyes focused on the two torches that burned in the darkness. They were the only ones on the streets, thankfully. They were too close to the gates to start worrying about being captured.
He then noticed a saddled horse standing by the far end of the gates as they walked up to it. For a moment, he thought it was one of the hunters', but there was a part of him that didn't want to believe that. What was the chance of one of them picking themselves up and wanting another swing at him? Besides, wouldn't Kiske stop them?
"Ky, is that Nora?" Dizzy asked, mentioning the horse by the gates.
He soon thought of the dark horse he had attacked and left the base of its neck slashed open until he saw the muscle beneath its gaping flesh. The features, the coloring—
"No."
"Did you bring her?"
He bit the inside of his lip. He suddenly felt numb with the fact that he could have killed his own horse, a creature who kept him sane in his solitude and a creature Dizzy adored.
"No," he said. "I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her since the hunters attacked us in the woods. Here we go."
The two of them stopped at the heavy gates, steps away from escaping this nightmare. He gazed at the bar that braced the gates together, then picked his head up to one of the posts. He saw both men were looking down on them.
"Hey. You're back." one said.
"What's the news?" the other said.
Either they thought he was Ky Kiske or they were just eager to hear the news within the walls of their town.
"It's over," Ky said, "You can open your gates again."
"Did you get the Gear?"
He shook his head. "There was never a Gear. The report was false. Your hunters—Evan Redd is an unjust man. It's his fault this whole thing happened. Now, please, open up your gates."
The men above shifted in their posts. Eventually, the fires went out, then both of them climbed down the latters back onto the ground. The one on the left was younger. Ky limped backwards to move out of their way while they went to the gates, unbarred it and began to pull each side open. The wooden gates must have weighed several hundred pounds each. The men grunted and strained as they slowly pulled them open.
Ky fidgeted lightly in anticipation. He even glanced over his shoulder a few times to make sure that no one noticed them. He certainly didn't want to see his original again. He knew he was too busy with the hunters to go chasing afer him.
He then turned his head back to the postmasters as they continued to pull the gate open. He saw the trail and the woods between the gap. He wanted to grab Dizzy and run, but running was out of the question now—so he placed a hand on her shoulder, and together, they passed through.
"Thank you," he said to the men. "Tell your people they're safe."
One of them paused and poked his head from behind the gate. "Hey, what did Evan do?"
Ky placed a hand on Dizzy's back as he continued to hobble down the dirt road. He felt one of her wings under the sheet. "He kidnaped this girl. He might be escorted by the police soon."
And with that in mind, Ky hobbled a little faster.
Seeing the Black Forest again was actually a relief. The sounds came back, the howls, the noises of something following them. He knew by the time they climbed up the hill to it—which wasn't so easy on Ky, they were safe. Its evil was surprisingly their only protection from the outside world. And he wouldn't want it any other way.
He let out a deep sigh of relief as the pirates' ship came into view, sitting out there in the field like a sleeping dragon. His knee was throbbing painfully and the exhaustion was starting to take over his body. He wanted to collapse but he couldn't do that in front of Dizzy. He felt his face sweating, despite the chill in the air.
He saw movement at the deck of the flying ship. A few moments later, he saw a group of girls running towards them, screaming, "Dizzy!"
The Gear beside him gasped when she saw them and suddenly let go of him, as if he wasn't there anymore. She ran for the girls, laughing. Ky was sent flailing for balance the moment she let go of him and landed on the grass on his backside. "Ow." He placed a hand on his damaged and bleeding knee. He leaned towards it, his head bowed forward.
Soon, finally realizing she had left him behind, Dizzy ran back to him. She stopped in front of him with her hands on her knees. "I'm sorry. Ky, are you okay?"
He didn't know why, but he laughed. "Yes." He never laughed in that sort of way before.
Then, "Dizzy's over here. That guy brought her back."
He looked up to see Captain Johnny walking through the grass towards them, trailed by a small group of girls. For the first time, he saw him without his shades on. He looked at Dizzy, then looked at Ky sitting on the ground. He scratched at his ear and passed him an awkward glance.
"What are you doing on the ground?" Johnny asked him.
"Ky's hurt," Dizzy answered for him.
"Oh." Johnny turned his head to her. "We were starting to get worried about you. It was getting late and we didn't see either of you at the cabin." He then looked down on Ky on the ground, his hands on his hips. "Where you've been with my girl?"
Ky suddenly felt like a teenager who had brought Johnny's daughter home late. He sighed deeply and bowed forward into his knee again. "It's a long story."
Dizzy then turned around to the group and excitedly began to explain, "Ky saved me! There were these hunters, they kidnaped me. . ."
Dizzy explained the story, making him sound like a hero, when he was just lucky and doing what any Gear—or man would have done. While she explained, Johnny looked down on him and smiled. He wasn't sure what it was, but the way he was looking at him, it seemed as if his eyes were trying to tell him something. It made Ky uneasy.