Last time, Elisheva recovers from her sickness thanks to Nurgabog in the burrow.
In the Fork! Facory! Sarah overheard that the next sunrise Zev would be involuntarily transferred to Castle Throg. Janner is let out of the box then the escape plan is put into action. The Overseer was ready to leave for Tilling Court (hoping to catch Elisheva) while Mobrik escorted Janner away. While in the hallway, Janner seized Mobrik and tells him that if he keeps quiet while he escapes, he can have the rest of his "apple stash." Mobrik however attempted to alert the Overseer and Janner is forced to tackle him and trap him in a barrel.
Hearing the commotion, Zev used his secret project as a diversion: homemade firecrackers.
Sarah and the boy who helped Janner earlier raised the gates but refuses to leave. So Janner and Zev escaped (after Zev furiously forced Mobrik to let go of Sarah by throwing a firecracker) into the night.
Dugtown was a much bigger city than the boys had imagined. Janner only told Zev that he had to stay close once they reached their destination, warning him about the Stranders.
"Who, or what are they?" Zev questioned.
"Dangerous thieves and murderers that live along the River Blapp. We're gonna have to get past those on the East bend if... " Janner cut himself. "I'll tell you more once we reach the hiding place."
"It's cool." Zev nodded. "Along the way, you can also tell me later how you met my sister too."
The carriage careened through the streets of Dugtown. Zev kept his eyes peeled while seated to Janner then he spotted the torch towers. "Oh-oh, watch tower!"
"Better take cover!" Janner hissed.
And Zev ducked right inside the carriage. Good thing the door was open.
The horse finally stopped. The carriage had stopped in the middle of an inter-section of two streets: Green Blossom Avenue and Vineyard Avenue. It looked much the same as the other streets he had seen—tall buildings with dark windows slept in the glare of the torch cowers, and trash littered the gutters. Nothing moved.
"Oy there! Overseer!" came a voice from above.
Janner froze. He squinted up at the torch tower to his right. A Fang crouched at the edge of the platform, silhouetted by the fire.
"Where are ye off to tonight, eh?" the Fang called.
The top hat. It sat on the seat beside Janner. As casually as he could, he placed it on his head. "Er, Tilling Court, sir," he said gruffly. "More children to exchange."
"Good. The boss will be glad about that."
"Yes. Er, yes, he will."
"Well, then," the Fang said, "get on with it."
Janner nodded and pulled away as quickly as he dared. He turned the carriage onto Green Blossom Avenue. If he remembered correctly, Green Blossom intersected with Riverside Road, and then he just had to turn left and follow it out of Dugtown. A few minutes after he turned onto the wide road, a regiment of Fangs marched by. Janner fought every urge in his body to leap from the carriage and flee. Instead he lowered the hat and drove on without looking at the Fangs. They marched by without a glance.
Once the Fangs were out of sight, Zev peeked out from inside the carriage, opening the door a couple of inches. "Whew! That was too close!"
"I should say so," Janner replied.
The carriage rolled past boathouses, past the place where Elisheva and Janner had last seen Tink, past Crempshaw, the shortcut that had sent Janner to Tilling Court.
As they rolled by, the torch towers hissed and crackled above, but none of the Fangs on watch said a word, though the two boys sensed their eyes on them. To the right, blacker than the night sky, lay the Mighty Blapp. Aware of it only as a stretch of darkness with a fishy odor, and now and then he heard a splash of water or the thunk of a boat against a dock.
At the edge of Dugtown, the buildings grew sparser and the roads rougher. Missing cobbles jarred the carriage again and again, until Janner found himself bouncing down a muddy road pocked with potholes. He reined up the horse and looked back at the town. They had been traveling gradually uphill for some time, and the river now lapped at the bottom of a steep bank that dropped away to the right. The carriage had passed the last of the torch towers and felt much safer in the darkness on the edge of town. Judging from the view of the city below, the house with the Strander burrow should be close.
"Please be here." Janner mumbled.
It had been days—Janner wasn't sure how many—since their separation at the Roundish, Widow, and the rational part of him knew they couldn't wait forever. Podo had Leeli to think about, not to mention Nia and Oskar. But how could they just leave? And what of Elisheva? No, they had to still be there, waiting.
Janner forced such thoughts away and dismounted the carriage, Zev stepped out. There was nothing to do but find the burrow and pray his family was still there. He swatted swatted the horse's rump and watched him gallop away.
Then at Janner's urging, the two boys ran too. They hopped over potholes as they trotted up the hill, Janner keeping a close eye on the buildings to his left. He worried he wouldn't remember what the old house looked like, but then he saw it. Janner stopped in front of the house and grabbed Zev's arm, wondering where the old snoring man might be, and listened.
There was great silence of the river behind them. Goats and chickens fussed in their sleep nearby. Frogs chirped.
And a bell rang. Zev nearly jumped, but fearfully clapped his hands over his own mouth. Janner looked down the slope at Dugtown and saw movement. The bell clanged and clanged, then more bells joined it. The sound rolled up the hill like an invisible wave.
Zev glanced back. "That doesn't sound good."
Suddenly the fires on the torch towers flared, first one, then another and another, until all of them burned twice as bright as before. Even from this distance, the two boys felt exposed. Then, like a long, many-eyed serpent, a host of Fangs with torches moved through the streets and coalesced on Riverside Road.
"Definitely NOT good!" Zev croaked. Wherever Janner was taking them, he'd better make it fast.
The Fangs were on the move and coming straight for them. Already there was the thud-thud-thud of the march.
Janner shoved Zev inside then ducked into the darkened house. The Fangs were already near enough that they could hear the pacekeepers bellowing a chant and beating a drum. It was hard to believe the two boys were the cause of all this trouble.
Do they really need a whole army of Fangs to find two different boys? Was what Zev thought.
"Mom? Grandpa?" Janner loudly whispered, walking about the house. "Leeli?"
Zev hesitantly croaked out, "Lish?"
Then Janner's foot bumped the iron ring of the trapdoor that led to the cellar. He flung it open. "Mama?" He softly called into the tunnel.
No one answered. Janner lit a lantern and began to climb downwards. "Zev, down here!" he urged.
Zev didn't need telling twice.
The two climbed down, and Janner pulled the trapdoor shut. In the dark Janner groped his hand to the wall where Podo had triggered the mechanism that opened the secret door. Zev trembled next to him.
Finally, the older boy felt a tiny metal wire with a loop in the end. He stuck his finger in the loop and tugged. He heard a click, then the creak of the trapdoor swinging open somewhere behind. Janner dropped to his hands and knees and crawled to the hole in the floor, motioning with his head for Zev to do the same.
There was no glow of lamplight, no sound of breathing. A black, empty silence awaited in the burrow. Maybe they just snuffed the candle, or maybe they're hiding in the tunnel. So the two boys swung into the hole and climbed down.
After a moment of searching, Janner found the lantern beside the ladder and the box of matches with it.
When yellow light from the strike of the match filled the chamber, Janner and Zev nearly jumped out of their skin.
Someone sat against the opposite wall, staring at them. And there was noticeable bulk that rose and fell, right behind the individual. She was dressed in rags, her skin leathery and caked with grime, and her eyes were bottomless pits set in the wrinkled landscape of her face. She looked familiar, Janner mistook her for one of the hags of Tilling Court. Zev mistakenly thought she was a ghoul or something.
Janner dropped the match and everything went black. She laughed. It was a dry, papery laugh, a dead crackle.
"Children," she whispered.
Janner was too terrified to move. He imagined her crawling toward him in jerking movements, those wide, black, spidery eyes able to see in the dark somehow. Zev backed up against the wall.
When Janner heard the woman grunt and drag herself across the floor toward him, his breaths came in short, desperate gasps. His head seemed to thicken; bright points of light danced across his eyelids. Her hand touched his foot, and Janner tried to scream, but his voice made no sound.
And to Zev's shocked concern, the older boy sunk backwards into a dead faint.
"Janner!" Zev loudly whispered, watching Janner fall.
A few minutes later, the younger boy was trying to shake Janner awake. He was afraid the boy who'd escaped with him had hit his head, or worse.
"Jan!" Zev whispered hoarsely. Elisheva's little brother was on one knee, looking around wildly.
Finally Janner sat up sputtering.
The woman the two boys had seen sat against the wall, the lantern at her side. "Children, ye forgot to cover your tracks." Noticing their confused expressions, so she pointed. "The string. Always pull the string."
Janner looked up at the ladder and saw a string dangling near the wall. He remembered Podo had pulled it to release dirt from the ceiling to hide the trapdoor. "Sorry, uh, I forgot. The Fangs," he said, "they're gone?"
"I think so. I don't hear 'em anymore." Zev remarked, looking up.
"Oh, they're always nearby, slitherin' about their murderous work." The old woman paused, looking carefully at Zev before addressing Janner. "Don't know who yer friend is…You don't remember me, do ye?"
Zev waved hesitantly at the old woman. "Name's Zev, but yeah, we hadn't met, ma'am."
Janner shook his head. The old woman's face was familiar, but her accent was much thicker than Gorah the hag's. She was so dirty she may as well have been wearing a mask.
"I knew yer grandpa, remember?"
Recognition then filled Janner's face. "Nurgabog?"
"Aye." She sighed.
"You knew his grandpa?" Zev questioned Nurgabog. "I'm still kinda lost here."
Nurgabog nodded. "I wager you be looking for answers."
"What's goin on?" A girl's voice questioned groggily in the dark behind the old Strander woman.
There was a brief light by a match, and Zev felt his heart skip a beat. "Lish…?"
Janner looked relieved to see her. "Elisheva!"
Elisheva sat there with bags under her eyes, but alive. Her eyes widened when her gaze fell on the boys. No, it was too good to be true. "…Zev?"
"Lish!" Zev hurried forwards.
The ten year old boy tackle hugged his older sister so hard, they both fell back onto the dusty floor, laughing. At long last, the two Bennet siblings were reunited.
When they finished, Elisheva turned to Janner with a tearful squeak. "C'mere, you!" She pulled the boy up in a hug. Words weren't enough to express how happy and grateful she was to Janner in that moment.
Janner hugged Elisheva back, feeling a sense of relief wash over him. He had been so worried about her, and seeing her safe and sound was a huge weight off his shoulders.
"I'm so glad you're alright," he said, his voice choked with emotion.
Elisheva pulled back and looked at him, her eyes filled with gratitude. "Thank you, Janner. I don't know what I would have done without you."
Janner smiled. "I'm just glad you're still here."
"I searched all over Dugtown, that's kind of a long story. How did you find Zev?" Elisheva asked.
"That's a long story." Janner replied.
Nurgabog watched nearby, smiling sadly.
"But where are the others?" Janner said to Elisheva when she released him.
Elisheva's face became gravely concerned. "That's what I wanna know too. When I got here, I only found Nurgabog and some packs."
"Easy up on the questions, young'uns. First things first. I'm a guessin you're here lookin' for yer kin?" Nurgabog pointed to Janner.
"You know where Janner's family is, ma'am?" Zev inquired.
Nurgabog shook her head. "First things first." She coughed, her breathing was shallow and watery.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Claxton. He's mad as a blat." Her chin quivered. "Hurt his own mother, he did."
Zev's eyes went wide. Elisheva's eyes fell to Nurgabog's side and she gasped. In her sickness, she hadn't noticed that the woman had been injured.
The old woman waved her hand in the air. "No matter. Right now I need water, and I need ye to help me change the dressing on me wounds." She held the lantern up so that he could see her side. Blood soaked her ragged dress.
"Claxton did this?" Janner asked quietly.
"I told you that guy was a whackjob." Elisheva muttered.
"Aye. Now scurry up the ladder and find a cup or a bucket. Creep down to the river and bring back some water. All the supplies here are gone—gone with your family."
"Please, tell me where they are," Janner said.
"If ye don't get me any water, I might faint and never wake up. It's been days, lad. Go. Shouldn't be hard to find a vessel in all that junk. And be mindful of the Fangs. I've heard naught of 'em since you took yer little nap." She laughed again, that weak, crackly laugh that set her coughing so badly she toppled over and lay on her side in the din.
Janner didn't wait to be told again. He scrambled up the ladder. At the top he listened for movement and heard none. When he pushed the trapdoor, it didn't open. He pushed again but was afraid to break the latch. "Er, Nurgabog?"
"It's behind...the ladder," she moaned. He found another looped wire behind the top rung of the ladder, tugged it, and the door clicked open, spilling dirt into the shaft.
When he emerged from the house, Janner found dawn fast approaching. No Fangs marched past, and no old man snored on the stoop. In the rosy gold light of the sky just before the sunrise, Janner searched the debris around the house until he found a large clay pot.
Nurgabog was unconscious when Janner returned. He nudged her, then he and Zev helped her to a sitting position. She smelled awful and looked even worse, but Janner felt a surprising affection for her. She had known and even loved Podo in his younger days, which made her less like a hag or a Strander and more like a long-lost grandmother.
Elisheva had tried to get up, but felt wobbly in her movements.
"Much better," Nurgabog said after she had a long drink "Now tear off a bit of that shirt you're wearin' and clean it good." Janner hated to ruin his only shirt, but he did as he was told and set about changing Nurgabog's bandage. The wound in her side reminded Janner of Podo's the night in Aklejelly.
"Better," she said when they were finished. Her eyes were dearer. "I didn't want ye runnin' off without takin' care of old Nurgabog first. Can't trust a soul on the Strand."
"You can trust me," Janner said. "Same with Elisheva and Zev."
"That's true. I haven't forgotten what you've done for me." Elisheva confirmed.
Nurgabog studied them for a moment and smiled. "Aye. I believe I can."
"Where's my family? Where's Tink?" Janner questioned.
"Tink?"
"Kalmar, I mean. Where are they?"
"Well, lad," Nurgabog said carefully. "Headed North to the Ice Prairies."
Janner looked as though he'd been punched in the stomach. "They, didn't wait for me?" He got up with the lantern looking lost and sat down against a wall. "They just... left?"
"If they'd waited son, they'd all be in chains by now." Nurgabog pointed out. "Stranders and Fangs nearly had them in their claws."
Elisheva felt reassured that the others in their travel group were safe for the moment, she leaned against the wall. "They're okay. Alive, there's still a chance."
Though she also felt concerned for Janner, she can only imagine what he must be feeling in that moment.
"Aye. And he said that with you boys and the older girl missing and like as not caught by the Fangs, it was their job now to keep her safe. They waited as long as they dared, then they set off to the Ice Prairies with many a prayer and a tear for you."
"They left me," Janner said, pushing down the lump developing in his throat.
Zev looked to Janner sympathetically. "Sorry man. If I'd known, I'd have jumped that jerk Overseer sooner."
"Podo was right when he said there was nothing else for 'em to do," Nurgabog told Janner. "He would've come for you, lad. Believe that. But he didn't know where you were, and even if he did, he couldn't storm Fort Lamendron or the Palace Torr with a little girl, an old bookseller, and a bereaved mother to tend to. Maybe in his younger days—ah, lad! You should've seen him in his younger days." Nurgabog wore a toothless smile and a faraway look in her eye.
"Hey, we'll catch up to them." Elisheva assured Janner, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You found my brother, it's only fair I help you locate the rest of your family too."
And if Zev was alive, most likely Samuel Bennet was too.
"Least we know where his family is. But how'd you find Lish here?" Zev piped up, directing his gaze to Nurgabog. "My sister, Elisheva."
Elisheva shook her head. "I was searching for you, Dad and the boys -Janner and Kalmar- for days in town with no luck. I had to stay out one rainy night to avoid the Fangs, but when I got to the Strander burrow…"
"She fell in, she did. Days ago." Nurgabog said, shaking her head with doleful worry. "Her forehead hot as a furnace, had to lay her down best I could. Even then she kept mumblin' and thrashin', the fever was giving her nightmares. Whatever she saw… didn't bode well. She be needin' a change of clothes soon unless you want her sick again."
Janner and Zev looked to Elisheva in concern. She'd been sick?
"Guys, I'm fine." The young woman held up her hands, then frowned. "Do I wanna know where those extra clothes came from?"
She motioned to some cloth items atop her side bag and sword.
"Ya might as well make good do, lass. The owners abandoned them and the house years ago, they won't be needin' em." Nurgabog said grimly.
"Wait." Janner lifted his head. "What about Tink? What about Kalmar? You didn't mention him. He's with them, right?"
Nurgabog sighed and shook her head.
"Then where is he?"
"He made a choice."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"He followed the road here, same as you." Nurgabog paused. "But he kept walkin'. Never even stopped to see if they were still here," she continued. "And the worst part of it? They were. Yer whole family, sitting down here in the din and the dark, sendin' up prayers to the great silent Maker that you'd both show up safe and whole. And Kalmar Wingfeather marched right past with nary a look back, four days ago."
"He what…?" Elisheva hissed. "You mean he ditched us?!"
Zev's jaw dropped, he felt his insides churn with angry shock. "Why? Why would he do that?"
He'd only heard quick mentions of Tink from Janner, and Zev couldn't fathom leaving his family behind no matter how much responsibility fell on him. Not since he and Elisheva had to deal with… but that was from way before the Bennets were abducted into Aerwiar by the Fangs.
Nurgabog elaborated. "Because whatever it is inside a man that calls him to the edge of things, calls him to the shadows and away from the light, must have been mighty loud in his ears. Yer brother is a Strander now, lad. That's what he wanted. He showed up in the East Bend with a fire in his eye, swinging Claxton's pone about like he owned the place."
Janner wasn't happy with the news either, his own tears soaked the ground of the Strander burrow. Why would Tink do such a thing?
Zev remembering Janner warning him about Stranders as they headed for the burrow, curled his hands into fists.
"So that's it?" Zev scowled. "Tink just ditched his whole family – his mom who's still alive, just so he can join a gang of-of… Amalekite wannabes?!" He was so angry he compared these Stranders to the first awful people he could think of, regardless of whether people believed or not.
"Who be these Amalekites you speak of?" Nurgabog questioned.
Elisheva folded her arms and huffed bitterly. "Like the Stranders, they're pretty much vicious cutthroats. Except they once lived in the far desert of the middle East during Ancient times. So the old tales of – my people goes, they attacked unprovoked, ambushed the entire nation of Israel, from behind in the desert just as they had just finished crossing the Red Sea escaping slavery…"
"They went after kids, old people and the disabled, all those who couldn't fight back!" Zev added furiously. "You'd think they were scale-less Fangs without claws or venom!"
Janner was shocked, he remembered the stories behind the holidays the Bennet family celebrated that Elisheva had relayed up in Peet's treehouse. "That's…awful."
Nurgabog shook her head sadly. "Aye, sounds like a right bunch of Stranders to me."
Elisheva glared at the ground. "And Tink wants to be one of them? After what they did to us?"
She could almost imagine her father's voice trying to calm both her and her brother: 'He's just a boy. He doesn't know what he's doing.'
Zev folded his arms. "I just can't believe he'd just abandon his own family."
Nurgabog put a hand on Zev's shoulder. "Now, now, lad. We don't know his reasons for sure. Maybe he was scared. Maybe he was just plain foolish."
Zev looked like he wanted to argue, but he held his tongue.
Why would Tink choose to join such people? The High King of Anniera. Both Janner and Elisheva knew Tink was afraid, that he didn't want to be the king.
But the Stranders were vile, thieving, murderous cutthroats—like Fangs without scales. It explained why Elisheva had been so… sharp-tongued with the Stranders and Maraly. She didn't trust them.
Janner stood and looked down at Nurgabog coldly. "How do we get to the Ice Prairies? We have a long way to go," he said.
Nurgabog stared at him with a sad look in her eyes. "So you're leavin' him behind?"
"You said he made a choice," Janner spat. "I'm not risking my life or that of my friends' here to try to convince him to do something he should want to do. I'm tired of chasing him, tired of his jokes and his selfishness. I'm tired of him. If he wants to be a Strander, I can't stop him. He would have made a lousy king anyway."
"If I ever meet him, Imma punch his face in!" Zev snapped, slamming his fist into an open palm for emphasis.
Nurgabog said nothing. "You gonna tell us or not?" Elisheva demanded.
"North of here," the elderly woman said after a moment. "After about a day's walk, you'll come to the Barrier. Go east till ye find an old dead Glipwood tree. Thirty paces past it, you'll find a breach in the wall. The dead tree is a snickbuzzard's roost, so be wary. Move quick, or they're likely to make food out of you. It's easy enough to slip through when the Fangs are lookin' elsewhere, especially now that the patrols are so few."
"Why are the patrols fewer?" Janner asked as he crossed the room to the ladder.
"Don't know. But the Fangs seem less and less worried about Skreeans slippin' through to the Ice Prairies, which makes me a fair bit worried about what old Gnag the Nameless is doing that we don't know about."
"Thanks for your help, Ms. Nurgabog, ma'am," Zev said, getting up. "What are you gonna do?"
"Old Nurgabog will be fine, lad." She smiled again. "Thank ye for the thought, though." She paused, looking at the three like she wanted to say more.
"What?"
"I've a mighty argument kickin' around in me head. I don't know much about Anniera. Not even sure there is such a place. I don't pay much mind to what's happenin' in the great world that don't affect me. I let things pass as they will," she said. "But yer Podo did somethin' for me that nobody else ever did. I care about 'im, see. Which is to say that I care about what he cares about. I know he cares about you and your brother, so now I've got to wonder if he'd want you lot gettin' safe to the Ice Prairies alone or you doin' what's right—and maybe neither you nor your brother makin' it."
"I don't understand," Janner said.
"Don't ye want to know what happened to me? It's not every day I get stabbed by me own son."
Janner was ashamed he hadn't bothered to ask about Nurgabog's wound. "I'm sorry," he said. "What happened?"
Elisheva and Zev listened carefully, this was something they wanted to know too.
"Your brother may have quick hands, quicker than any Strander I ever saw, but old Claxton's got talents too. Didn't take him long to find out Kalmar Wingfeather was back on the Strand. Quick hands don't make a boy invincible, do they?" Janner's anger at Tink cooled a little, and he felt a prick of fear. "What happened?"
"It's the Black Carriage, lad."
"What about the Black Carriage?"
"The Fangs swing through once a week, thanks to an agreement Claxton made with 'em. He wanted the Stranders of the East Bend to rule more than just our little section of the river, sec. Wasn't content with the way things have always been. Ye may not know it, but the Fangs are under heavy orders to collect more and more children, and children are gettin' harder and harder to come by. The Fangs allow those of us in the East Bend to carry daggers and leave us be—as long as we give 'em a few fresh children each week for the Black Carriage."
Both Elisheva and Zev were aghast. The Stranders handed children over to the Fangs in exchange for carrying weapons?!
Janner tried to keep solemn. "What does this have to do with Kalmar?"
"Claxton's got 'im in a cage, waitin' for the Black Carriage right now. Kalmar thought he'd be welcome in the East Bend like a long lost son. But like I said, ye can't trust a soul on the Strand. No sooner had your brother strutted into the East Bend than Claxton beat him near to death and took back his pone."
Zev scoffed. "So much for his dumb gang initiation."
"It's true. And old Nurgabog tried to stop it all. Didn't want to let me old sweetheart's grandbaby get carted off. But Claxton is mad as a blat, like I said. Stabbed me in the gut and kicked me into the river. His own mother." Nurgabog covered her face with her hands.
Elisheva knew the Stranders were shameless criminals, but this was worse than they had imagined. And that moron Tink wanted to join them?! This made her resentment grow.
"I survived, of course," Nurgabog said with a sniff. "Got word Podo was holed up in this burrow, so I came as fast as I could. Too late, you see. They were gone by the time I got here. The older girl fell in here not long after. And yer brother will be gone after tonight, when the Black Carriage rolls in."
Elisheva then questioned. "Madam Nurgabog, I don't suppose you know where they – the Fangs that is, might have taken my and Zev's father, Samuel Bennet?"
Zev nods worriedly. "Yeah, just months ago, the Fangs told the jerk running the Fork factory about new orders and they just took Dad, saying he was being transferred. I'd just found out they're calling my sister here 'The Key', I don't even know what it means." He said this with a confused shrug.
"I'll explain everything else about that last part later." Janner said to Zev.
Nurgabog became gravely perturbed. "Dunno nothing about keys, but if they put 'im in the Black Carriage, it'd be Throg or the Phoob islands where he's headed."
Janner gasped and looked to the Bennet siblings.
"But I don't get it. What's in Throg?" Zev questioned.
"Is that No man's land or something?" Elisheva was just as confused. She'd never heard of the places.
Janner was aghast. What happened to his brother was bad enough, but the fact that Elisheva and Zev's father could be either one of those awful places…
"Don't ya know?" Nurgabog was shaking her head glumly at the two Bennet siblings. "That's where the worst of 'em lives. It's ol' Gnag's lair."
Both Elisheva and Zev felt as though a bucket of ice scold water was dropped on them
"HE'S GOT DAD!" they yelled.
Nurgabog nodded solemnly. "Aye. And if he's in Throg, it'll be hard to get him out. So, you see my dilemma. If I kept quiet, ye'd scoot off past the Barrier and have at least a chance to find your family again. But now that I've told ye Kalmar's in a cage, you're gonna do what any good brother would. You'll try to save 'im. And you'll be caught, and you'll both be carried away." She sighed. "And now I've doomed not one but two boys and one young lass to the Deeps of Throg. Of course, ye could forget what I told ye, run to the Ice Prairies, and leave Kalmar to whatever fate the Maker has for 'im, as you said you would."
Janner stood at the foot of the ladder with his head bowed low. He couldn't leave his brother. "Thank you, Nurgabog," he said. "I'm glad you told me everything."
"So you're goin' to try and save 'im, then?"
"Yes ma'am. I have to. I'm a Throne Warden."
"Then you'll need these." She triggered another hidden latch in the wall, and a small, square door swung open. Janner gasped. Inside were two leather backpacks, the ones Nia had made for him and Tink, complete with swords and bows.
"I reckon Podo left 'em for ye. Proof the old man believed you'd make yer way here sooner or later. The dried diggle meat is gone. I ate it. My apologies." She gave him a gummy smile.
Elisheva's pack was still with her, everything was in place as was confirmed.
In his pack, Janner found a folded parchment with his name on it in his mother's handwriting. He slid to the floor and opened the letter, heedless of the sad way Nurgabog watched him. Elisheva and Zev waited patiently, feeling it best for the boy to read them himself.
My dear Janner,
I have been forced in my life to make many difficult decisions. The decision to marry your father, though it meant leaving the Green Hollows and most of my family. The decision to leave your father as the castle burned. The decision to keep his memory hidden from your and your siblings. And now I am forced to make the hardest decision of all.
We can't stay here forever. The Fangs prowl, and the Stranders are an ignoble brood. Their lips flap like a flag in a storm, spreading news of our flight from here to the edges of the maps. It is only a matter of time before the Fangs discover this burrow. We must, though it is more painful than I can bear, leave you.
Your grandfather assures me that you, your brother and your friend Elisheva are more capable than many men he has fought beside and that you will find you way. My tears have wet the ground, and I have fought him, but I have lost that fight. Your sister must be safe. We must move on. My hand trembles as I write this, so great is my fear for you. Keep your brother safe. Above, all keep yourselves safe.
I trust Elisheva will somehow find her family if she'd made it this far. Find your way. Know that a fire of welcome burns for you in the Ice prairies. Maker help you.
Love, your mother.
Podo's letter warned Janner to stay away from the roads and to find a breach in the Barrier, then push through the mountains. The Stony mountains might look tamer to the west but that is a lie of the land. The only way through is east to the crags. Find the trail over the right shoulder of the Highest peak called Mog-Balgrik which means the "Witch's nose". Once past, the land slopes into the ice prairies.
Under it was a brief message from Oskar saying he still had the book, keeping it safe until Janner's most assured arrival.
While Janner read the letters, Zev had turned away to let Elisheva change into the fresh clothes laid on her pack. She'd put on a deep blue bodice over a white poet blouse, and blue grey breeches.
Janner tossed one pack over his shoulder and told Zev to hold on to the second one, Elisheva took her things. Next the three youngsters hugged Nurgabog (careful not to breathe through their noses while doing so). The Bennet siblings bid her a blessing.
She pinched Janner's cheek and told him where to find the lever to open the cages, then the three clambered up the ladder and through the tunnels to rescue the High King of Anniera.
To be continued…
Author's note: And there you have it, Janner and Zev made it back to the Burrow where they reunite with Elisheva, but their works' cut out for them.
Don't miss the next chapter were they head for the East bend Strander camp.