put his face at her level. "Listen, you're Grandpa is fine. They just wanted his help to find the Token."
She shook her head. "No." She turned towards the mountains beyond the night gate. "They were hurting him. Because I helped him run away. They were punishing him."
Handers felt a sudden knot of guilt welling up. Bedic had helped him twice now, and still he was reluctant to rush into the mountains to help him. He imagined that he was the reason that Valance was interested in Bedic in the first place. Valance must have been watching him when he visited Bedic’s church.
"Do you have any family here?" He asked her. Surely he couldn't drag this little child up into what was sure to become a dangerous situation. But who could he leave her with in the middle of the night?
"No.” She answered.
Then again, maybe he was just looking for reasons not to go. Either way this was bad.
"Lets go look for your Grandpa." He said.
She reached up and took his hand. "OK."
-
Handers hurried up the mountain road caring Sinesh in his blackened arm. He slowed at each switchback to check up ahead. He didn't think they'd catch up to them for quite a while. But it didn’t hurt to be cautious.
A half hour up the winding steep road, he froze. His heart started pounding in his chest. Above them, through the trees, a single torch light made a swipe in the air then vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Shhhh!" He whispered. "There's someone up there."
He knew they couldn't keep going up the road without being spotted. So what did they do now? Should they hide somewhere a little further down and wait for morning? What if it wasn't Valance and they waste the night waiting?
They had to get a closer look to confirm what it was they were dealing with. Bedic needed them now. If they waited out the night, they might loose him. He knew this, yet he couldn’t seem to convince his body to move forward. He heart was still pounding.
Sinesh squirmed out of his arms. "Let’s go look." She put her fingers to her lips. "Shhhh!"
She was braver than he. And that, as he thought about it, was a little shameful. He was being led through a dark forest, in the middle of the night, towards what was most likely a source of extreme danger, by a 6 year old girl.
He shook his head and stepped past her, taking the lead. They covered the distance quickly and, to his surprise, rather silently. When they had gotten pretty close to where he thought he saw the light, he reached his hand out to stop Sinesh.
A flash of lightning from the storm still raging at the top of the mountain lit the mountain side for a brief moment revealing one of Lord Valance's shiny black carriages about a dozen yards in front of them.
Beyond it there was a small collection of tents. There were no fires, no lamps, no torches. Everything was dark and quiet. Apparently they were intent on not being noticed.
There was a pretty decent chance that Bedic was in that camp. He had to think of what to do now. He hadn't really formulated much of a plan. Perhaps he should take a minute and think this out, he thought. Should they wait for morning, so they could see where he was? But then they’d be easily spotted as well.
He glanced over at Sinesh. The thought actually crossed his mind to ask the six year old if she had any ideas. But to his horror, she was gone.
"Sinesh!" He whispered. Wow, this little girl was so much trouble! Then he spotted her as she snuck under the carriage. He knew bringing her up her was going to be a mistake. What was he going to do now? Follow her. Again?
He hurried through the bushes and then pushed up against the carriage that she had crawled under. He dropped down to look under it, but she wasn’t there. She had already moved on. He got up and crept around the side. There she was! She was peering in the back of another carriage. She hoped down from the bumper of one and then climbed up on the bumper another, peering in quickly before jumping down again..
He shook his head. She had no idea what would happen if she actually got caught. He convinced himself that that was the source of her courage. If she knew what he