Trickster s Girl - By Hilari Bell Page 0,23

can do. You can't do more. No one can."

Was that an offer of forgiveness? Or a plea for it? Either way, Kelsa couldn't deal with it now. "I'll call you when I get in."

She went into the terminal, and her mother got into the car and drove away.

She ate lunch in the airport and spent an hour trying to read some of the zine flimsies scattered around the waiting area. Then she put her bag into a locker, paid for a month, and boarded a shuttle bus headed home.

Her timing was perfect. As the bus pulled up to her stop she saw her mother in her car, taking Joby to his play date with the son of one of her closest friends. Her mother didn't even glance at the bus as she drove by.

Kelsa entered the house and went up to her room to fetch her pack. The empty silence was soothing, and she'd be home again in a few weeks.

She went into the garage and pulled her bike out from under the storage shelves where she'd parked it. Then she maneuvered her father's bike, which had been parked behind hers, forward so her bike's absence wouldn't be obvious unless someone looked closely.

Her mother paid no attention to the bikes, anyway. It was her father who'd taken Kelsa up the wilderness trails to camp as soon as she was old enough. Her father who'd taught her to drive his bike before it was strictly legal, helped her get her probationary permit, helped her buy her own bike - used, but still serviceable - the day she turned fifteen.

"I'll take Joby," she promised him aloud. "As soon as he's old enough to enjoy it. We won't forget. Either of - "

"Who are you talking to?" Raven's voice made her jump.

"How did you get in?"

"The door was open." He looked around the garage curiously.

"No, it wasn't."

"It wasn't locked. Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes." Kelsa unplugged the charge cord, and it coiled back into its socket. "Are you riding with me? I thought you'd ... I don't know. Fly?"

"Flying for a long distance at the speed your bike travels would be very tiring. And if I travel with you, there's less chance we'll be separated."

And less chance she'd change her mind?

"I don't mind your coming along," she said. "But my tent's not big enough for two."

It had been big enough, barely, for her and her father. It wasn't big enough for her and a strange boy. A too-good-looking boy, who according to the old myths had no scruples about seducing human women.

"That won't be a problem." Raven's face was grave, but a cocky smirk lurked in his eyes.

Kelsa handed him his helmet. "Then let's ride."

***

Just passing through the greater Salt Lake metro area, which extended from south of Springville to Ogden, took the rest of the afternoon.

It was dinnertime, and the bike's charge was running low, when she pulled into a flash charge center.

"This will take about twenty minutes," she told Raven, running her account card over the scanner, then pulling out the retractable plug. "We'll have plenty of time to go to the bathroom and see what kind of flash food they've got for dinner."

She nodded toward the service center - she could see signs for only McPlanet and Go-food. Her favorite flash food was Green Machine, but she didn't spot their swirling logo on the building's ad run.

"It doesn't seem to take other vehicles that long." Raven gestured to a levcar that was now pulling out.

"They have a different kind of battery," Kelsa told him. "It's faster, but if they run out of juice they can't fill it with a solar charger, like I can."

The ability to take a solar charge was optional in off-road vehicles, especially the older ones, and her father had insisted on it.

"A solar charge," said Raven slowly. "If you can run it on sunlight, why pay here?"

Kelsa, who'd been about to explain what a solar charge was, took a second to change gears. He might be ignorant about some aspects of modern technology, like silent alarms, but he wasn't stupid.

"It takes about eight hours, on a very sunny day, to get a quarter charge," she told him. "If it's cloudy, forget it. A solar charger is for emergencies, if you get stranded. Or you can use it to keep your charge topped up if you're spending the day in camp. But when you're traveling long distances it's not practical."

The big trucks' stabilizing jets buffeted them as