Читать книгу Shifter's Destiny - Anna Leonard - Страница 9

The sun was high overhead, and the Saturday flea market was in full swing.

“You like? It’s twenty dollars, but for you, sweetie, eighteen. No? All right, fifteen!” The vendor held up the brightly patterned silk scarf, letting the breeze ripple it invitingly.

The girl he was addressing gave the scarf a longing look, but shook her head, backing away from the table. Just that hesitation had cost her—she looked around, frantic for a moment, and then hurried to catch up with the woman who, not realizing that her companion had stopped, strode through the crowded flea market several paces ahead. The woman’s gaze darted back and forth, scanning the crowd as though she was looking for someone—or looking to avoid someone.

“Libby?” the girl called, her voice high and thin with worry.

Elizabeth stopped, looking back with alarm that subsided when she saw her sister was not in trouble. “Maggie, come on! Stay with me, baby.” Elizabeth’s voice was calm and soft, but it carried through the crowd, and there was a note of tension running through it that her sister heard as clearly as a shout, and obeyed immediately.

“I’m sorry,” Maggie said, running forward and slipping her hand into her sister’s. “I’ll stay close, I promise.”

The two girls were obviously related; both of them were slender, with long legs, although the preteen Maggie’s were more coltish than her older sister’s. Long black hair, braided in Maggie’s case and pulled into a long ponytail for Elizabeth, and wide-set brown eyes with a vaguely exotic cast, further stamped the family resemblance. Their looks hinted at Spanish blood, or Arabic: an exotic edge that spoke of distant lands and warmer climates than their current New England location. Although they wore plain jeans and unadorned sweatshirts, and Maggie had the same backpack over her shoulder as half the kids around her, something more than their looks set them apart from the others milling around them; something obvious, but difficult to identify.

It was a way of looking around, of observing without being part of the crowd, a difference that identified them—if an observer knew—as residents of an enclave that some cynics called a cult, or a commune, but most people simply called the Community.

Good folk, neighbors would say if asked. Founded, oh, near fifty years ago, wasn’t it? Bunch of them came and bought old farmland, built it up nice with houses and gardens and a proper downtown with stores and whatnot. Pay their taxes on time, send their kids to the local schools, mostly. They don’t seem to like technology much, but otherwise perfectly normal. Not a cult at all, no. No, there was nothing particularly strange about the Community.

Six months ago, Elizabeth would have agreed with them. Now, she was less certain.

“We have to hurry,” she told Maggie. “They saw us come in here, but they can’t keep track of us so long as we keep moving.”

Maggie nodded, and the two moved on, weaving through the shoppers and sellers, moving around the overladen tables and backed-in vans that filled the parking lot of the makeshift flea market.

“Here, this way.” They slipped behind an oversized van near the end of one row, between two racks of brightly tie-dyed summer dresses, and found themselves at the far end of the lot. Behind them, the bustle and noise of a warm Saturday afternoon. In front of them, a muddy field, cars parked in a squared-off pattern. To their left was the bulk of the local regional high school, a redbrick-and-chrome building. To their right, a large and dense-looking wooded area, green with new spring undergrowth and full-branched evergreens, enclosed by a mesh fence with official-looking signs posted at regular intervals. There was one place where the mesh was torn, exactly the right size for a high school student—or a slender adult—to slip through.

Elizabeth studied the distance between them and the fence, and then looked down at her sister. “Do you think you can make it, baby?”

Maggie set her jaw, judging the distance, then nodded. “Just keep up,” she said with bravado that Elizabeth knew was faked. Her sister had been sick recently, her body wasn’t as strong as it used to be. She got tired too easily now, needed more rest, more often. But they couldn’t afford to rest, not yet.

“Just nonchalantly at first,” her sister advised. “Walk like you’re just stretching your legs, no hurry, no worries, okay? Come on, follow me.”

They stepped out off the pavement, the muddy grass sucking at their shoes, their backpacks slung over their shoulders casually, as though they were just walking back to their car after a morning of shopping.

“Going somewhere, Libby?”

The two girls stopped cold, Elizabeth instinctively putting her arm around her younger sister as though to protect her from the man walking toward them. Damn.

A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she saw two other men circling around them, as though to herd them somewhere. Somewhere they definitely did not want to be.

Maggie let her backpack slide down her arm, taking the weight in her hand as though to use it as a weapon if need be, and shifted her weight, mimicking her sister’s movement.

“Really, Libby,” the first man said, exuding compassion. “Look at poor Maggie, she’s exhausted. Don’t do this to her. Why don’t you tell us what’s wrong? We’re your family, we’ll help you. Isn’t that how it’s always been?”

Elizabeth’s shoulders tensed, but she otherwise didn’t move. “Go to hell, Jordan. You’re no family of mine.” All of her family, save Maggie, were dead.

“Oh, Libby.” Jordan was in his late forties, a handsome man in jeans and a dark blue polo shirt. He could have been someone’s father, heading to a soccer game or baseball practice. But his gaze was intent, steady and cool, like that of a jailer. “Why do you insist on doing this? Come home with us. I know that losing your parents was a shock—”

“Leave my parents out of this.” The pain of that loss was still bone-deep, six months later, but it only made her more determined to go nowhere with these three. “If they knew what was going on…”

Jordan looked hurt and surprised. “Elizabeth, nothing is going on! Nothing except this foolishness. Please, my dear. It’s been a terribly stressful time, everyone knows that, but you’re overreacting. Let us take care of you, you and Maggie both.”

The other two men moved closer, blocking any chance of escaping into the crowd. They were dressed like Jordan in weekend-casual clothing, sturdy hiking boots under their jeans. If it came to running, Elizabeth and Maggie, in sneakers, might be able to escape… if they could run at top speed. Elizabeth didn’t let herself look at her sister, didn’t dare glance down at the leg that was still weak, after her bout with the terrible illness that had taken their parents earlier that year. She would not show fear, not in front of these men.

But the truth was there. Maggie would never be able to keep up.

Maggie leaned in against her sister, so that an observer might assume she was seeking reassurance—or offering it. “I can do it,” she whispered, as though knowing exactly what her sister was thinking. Knowing Maggie, she did. Her sister was only thirteen, but she knew far too much, for her age. “I don’t want to go back with them.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, still holding Jordan’s gaze. Neither of them were going back. The thought of the sleepy little village where they had grown up, once the source of only happy memories, was enough to make Elizabeth ill. There was only death and fear there, now.

She gauged the distance again, and her heart sank. Maggie, she thought, as hard as she could. Maggie, be ready….

Jordan saw both their gazes flicker toward the trees, and shook his head sadly. “Elizabeth. Maggie. Don’t be idiots. You’d never make it, and then we’d all be out of breath and cranky. That’s not good. Our van is right over there, why don’t we walk over there like civilized people, and let the Elders sort all this unpleasantness out?”

“The Elders can bite me,” Elizabeth said through gritted teeth. Before he could respond, she darted toward Jordan as though intending to tackle him. He flinched, and she pivoted away from him, daring him to catch her, even as Maggie was sprinting for the dubious safety of the woods. Good girl, Elizabeth thought. Good girl, run!

Even as she cheered inwardly, one of the other men lunged at Maggie as she went past him, grabbing her by the elbow and jerking her off her feet.

“Get your hands off her!” All thoughts of distracting Jordan fled, and Elizabeth went after the man holding her sister, intent only on freeing her from that hard grip. She had barely taken two steps when her arms were caught behind her back, stopping her forward motion and preventing her from taking further action. She swore, and struggled, trying to free herself.

Jordan’s breath was warm in her ear as he said, gently, “There’s no need to make a fuss, Elizabeth. Just—”

Elizabeth had no intention of going, quietly or otherwise. Leaning forward with all of her weight so that he had to lean back to steady himself, she gave a quick prayer that his grip would hold, and then kicked back with both feet, aiming up for his groin. The move sent her off balance, as expected, but she landed a solid blow and had the satisfaction of hearing him grunt in pain, and feeling his grip on her weaken. But her satisfaction was short-lived as he grabbed her long ponytail with a hand and yanked hard enough to bring tears to her eyes.

“Stupid, Elizabeth. Very, very stupid.” All pretense of gentleness gone, he nodded curtly to the third man, who went off, Elizabeth assumed, to get their car. The man who had grabbed Maggie now had his arm around her neck in a choke hold. Their pose might, from a distance, look like a friendly roughhouse move, older brother to bratty little sister, except for the white-faced expression of fear on Maggie’s face. Elizabeth felt her heart racing painfully, and all she could think was that she had failed; failed her parents, failed her sister, failed everyone and everything important to her.

An ordinary-looking black van pulled up to the edge of the parking lot, its wheels churning the grass into more mud, and the driver got out and slid open the side doors. Nobody seemed to notice, going about their buying and selling and socializing like it was any normal weekend. Maggie’s eyes closed, and she looked like she was about to pass out.

Elizabeth’s heart squeezed tight, and a sense of panic swamped her, worse than the pain of her hair still being held fast in Jordan’s fist. She could not allow them to take Maggie. Whatever else happened, she could not let them have her sister.

Trying to dig her heels into the mud, she prepared herself to make another attempt to get free, now that it was two against two. The odds were still bad, but she had no choice. Once they were in the van…

Even as she was trying not to imagine what would happen then, there was a thudding noise, distant but coming closer rapidly, as though a lone drummer had gotten lost from his band and was heading their way. The noise shouldn’t have even registered, and yet it set up an answering reverberation in her bones, starting in her spine and sliding down to her knees. Rather than making them weak, though, it seemed almost to give her strength.

It also distracted Jordan. He swore, and the grip on her hair loosened so that Elizabeth was able to turn her head just enough to see a huge white form barreling from the trees, heading straight for the man holding Maggie.

The drumming filled her ears until she could hear nothing else, not the buzz from the crowded flea market behind them or Jordan’s cursing, and all she could see was the inevitable impact about to happen.

Sure enough, the white form slammed into the two figures even as Elizabeth cried out in horror. The man went sprawling, the white figure rearing over it, coming down with hooves—hooves, it was a horse—even as Maggie rolled out of the way; free, if muddy.

Maggie was safe.

Sound came back in a rush, and Elizabeth heard Jordan shouting an order to the man driving the van, and felt him reach for something at his back. A gun? A phone? She couldn’t take the chance. She used her elbows and the back of her head, ignoring the tearing pain of her hair being yanked out long enough to scramble free, falling onto her hands and knees in the muddy grass. She looked up, pushing the tangles of her hair from her eyes, and saw the horse pivot on its hind legs away from the now-downed man and come after Jordan, ignoring her completely.

“Maggie?” She scrambled forward and gathered her sister to her, then got them both to their feet. “Sweetie, run!”

Her sister, the knees and butt of her jeans now covered in mud and grass stains, managed to scramble forward and start running, Elizabeth staying just behind her in case she fell. She would carry Maggie, if that’s what it took.

They’d only managed a few yards when the drumming noise got louder behind them. Elizabeth let herself take one look back, and saw the white horse come up alongside them, slowing down to keep pace with them. Somehow, instinctively, her hand was grabbing at the coarse hairs of the horse’s mane, and pulling herself up onto its back in a move she’d read about in books, but had never done herself before now. The horse’s back was broad, and her legs ached immediately from the effort of staying on, but she managed it, however gracelessly.

The horse moved forward, reaching Maggie, who had not paused in her flight. Elizabeth put down a hand, and Maggie grabbed it, like they had practiced the move for years, and she hauled her sister up. The horse checked itself midstride until Maggie was safe, clinging to her waist, and then lengthened its stride again.

And then they were traveling impossibly fast, the drumbeats sounding beneath them, hooves muffled against the ground, leaving Jordan and his companion behind. Elizabeth ducked forward against the thick neck of the horse, pulling Maggie with her and flinching in anticipation of bullets from the gun Jordan might have had. The warm, musty smell of the horse reached her nose, bringing an odd sort of comfort, and then she felt the muscles underneath her bunch up, tensing in anticipation of something….

Instinct and a distant sense of anticipation made her clench her legs even tighter around the horse’s barrel-shaped ribs, and cling to the thick mane under her fingers, even as Maggie strengthened her grip around her waist and the horse’s ears flicked forward, intent on the fence ahead of them.

And then the tensed muscles released, and the horse lifted as though, for an instant, they were flying, sheer power taking them over the mesh fence and landing with a surprisingly soft, if jarring, thud of hooves against dirt. Elizabeth barely had time to release a surprised “whoof” of breath before they were out of the open air and into the cool, shaded depths of the woods.

Within minutes, the sounds of civilization faded, replaced by the occasional burst of birdsong that paused as they passed, and then started up again. The horse’s gallop changed to a steady, almost careful trot, but Elizabeth kept her face down and her hands tight in the horse’s mane, acutely aware of her sister’s arms around her waist. She didn’t dare look up or try to control the horse, for fear of dislodging that precious, precarious cargo, or falling off herself. Her legs were sore from gripping the animal’s sides, and her arms ached from holding on, and her scalp stung from where Jordan had pulled her hair, but all she could think was don’t fall off. Don’t let Maggie fall off.

Her heartbeat slowed slowly, her breathing less raspy-sounding in her own ears, but the fear remained a constant, expecting any moment to hear Jordan’s voice shouting behind them, the roar of the van as it tried to follow them. But with every stride forward they took, and the lengthening of silence, Elizabeth dared hope that they had made good their escape.

The trees were thicker together now, and the horse had slowed to a cautious walk, allowing Elizabeth to relax her legs a little, and sit up enough to see where they were going. They were following what looked like a deer path—she didn’t dare twist to look behind her, but it was unlikely anything wider than the horse would be able to follow them. If Jordan and his men came, they would have to do so on foot, and they could not keep up with a horse, even if they managed to get past that fence.

For the moment, they were free.

“You okay, baby?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Her sister’s voice came back, shaken but strong. The arms around her waist gave a reassuring squeeze. “I might throw up once my stomach catches up with us, though.”

That made Elizabeth laugh a little, the way Maggie intended. Her sister was always there with a joke or tease, no matter how bad things got. It was one of her many gifts.

The ground sloped downward slightly, and then evened out into a clearing. The horse, tired, or just finally bored with carrying riders, stopped, its head dropping low. The message was clear: end of the trip. Elizabeth felt Maggie slide off, and, once she was certain her sister was safe on the ground, unclenched her fingers from the mane and swung her leg over the horse’s back, sliding carefully down to the ground. The horse stood steady throughout, and she patted it on the neck, feeling a layer of sweat on the surprisingly soft, warm skin. “Thank you.”

The horse snorted as though it understood, and she stepped away, testing her wobbly legs and trying to hear if there were any sounds of pursuit.

The only noises were birds twittering and calling in the branches overhead, and the quiet trickle of water somewhere nearby. Maggie, contrary to her threat, was not throwing up. Elizabeth stood still and let out a deep breath. It wasn’t safety, not really, but it was closer than she’d felt in months.

“Where are we?” Maggie asked, looking around in wonder at the huge trees surrounding them.

Elizabeth had to stop and think for a moment. They’d ridden their bikes from home, and abandoned them by a middle school in the hopes that someone would take them and muddy the trail. Obviously, that hadn’t worked. They’d walked west from there, the rest of the morning, and had ducked into the flea market to get something to eat when she’d caught sight of Jordan following them. In the mad dash after, she hadn’t been paying too much attention to the surroundings, but…

“I think it’s a reservoir preserve,” she said. “State land.” If so, that was better than she had hoped for—the treed area would be large enough that they should be able to evade being observed, at least until she figured out their next move. And even if there was a road through it, only state vehicles would be allowed in. Hiding in here would give them a little time to breathe. She didn’t think she had really relaxed since the day before, when the notice from the Elders had come.

Being summoned before the Elders wasn’t a huge deal—it could have been anything, from wanting to discuss the plans she had submitted six months before to enlarge the bakery she owned, or discussing what would happen to the house she had shared with her parents, now that they were gone. It was too large for only two people, and there were others in the Community who could have used the space. That was all the normal course of events, the sort of thing the Elders would summon her to discuss.

But she had known, the moment she opened the envelope, that it had been none of those things. She wasn’t gifted the way Maggie was, but she’d had a dream the night before, and the sense of menace had been centered on a white square of paper—the same paper she held in her hands, mere hours later.

Her parents were dead, victims of the terrible flu that had swept through the Community at the beginning of the winter. Cody—her best friend—was dead, just a week past. One by one, everything, everyone who mattered, had been taken from them. She didn’t know why, but she knew it for a fact; and that Ray, who led the Elders, was at the heart of it. Ray wanted Maggie for himself.

Her dreams were certain of that. They just didn’t know why.

“So where did you come from, big guy?” Caught in her memories, Elizabeth barely listened to her sister talking to the horse, until the younger girl let out a gasp.

“Maggie? Wha—”

She turned and looked at her sister—and by inclusion, looked at the horse, too.

It was white, she had noted that already. Sleek and muscled, as tall at the shoulder as she was, with a thick golden-white tail and shaggy mane, and large brown eyes looking directly at her, a darker golden forelock falling over its forehead and above that…

Above that…

Her brain stopped, refusing to formulate the thought, refusing to acknowledge what she was seeing.

“Libby.” Maggie’s voice, hushed with awe. “It has a horn!”