We ran for a long time. Sometimes we carried Marianne alternately. Sometimes she ran with us. We ran until we simply had no strength left to run anymore. Finally we dropped down on a felled log. I laid down, breathing harder than I ever had in my life. I had no idea how many miles we’d traversed. We’d zigged and zagged from time to time as well, in a weak attempt to make it harder for them to track us. Or at least buy us a little time. I coughed. Alex looked like he wanted to throw up.
“Don’t do it,” I gasped. “You need the energy.”
He held up a hand in a clear statement of “Shut up. I know.”
“Marianne. How are you?”
She stared back the way we’d come. Probably looking for wolves. “I’m all right. I’m thirsty though.”
“I can relate to that,” Alex managed.
“We’ll have to find a creek or a river,” I said. “We don’t have any water left.”
I opened Wolf’s coat, forgetting that I no longer had a shirt on underneath it. Just my sports bra. I hoped one of the werewolves choked on that shirt.
“What happened back there anyway? With the wolves?” Alex said.
I pulled out the old map from one of the pockets, then buttoned up the coat again. I unfolded the map to see if there were any waterways drawn on it. “That was the pack from when you were asleep.” I paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. “Wolves and werewolves don’t get along. Whatever is going on, the wolves aren’t party to it.”
“Can we be sure?”
I knew who he meant by that. I pushed myself up. Marianne inched closer to me on the log. I examined the map.
“You saw them fighting, didn’t you? Besides, Wolf isn’t a full.” A tiny chill went through me. “For all we know, he’s an aspiring werewolf.”
I pushed the thoughts away. The map had a few thin lines running through the land. They might represent sources of water. Then I realized I had no idea where we were. I rubbed my face, wishing I knew landmarks and had my compass. Wishing that I had a gun or bear spray at least. I’d long since tossed the crossbow and quiver; no sense in keeping the weight if I couldn’t use them.
“Is that were we came from?” Marianne asked, pointing at a small building on the map. It sat beside the sea, at the edge of the forest just like the fortress.
I blinked. “Maybe.”
The three of us studied the map.
“Is that a castle?” Alex asked, pointing at another building deep in the woods.
“That’s the Kingdom of Red,” Marianne said.
“That’s where we want to go,” I said.
“What about Marianne’s village?” Alex peered at me.
I shook my head. “We need some serious help now. The Sentries come from the Kingdom. I don’t want them to kill off the wolves, but they’ll be better able to handle the werewolves. Besides, we can’t lead that kind of stuff into her village.”
“Yeah. Right. Sorry.” Alex rubbed at his eyes and heaved a sigh.
I gazed at the sun through the trees for a moment. “Okay. Assuming when we left the fortress, we ran in this direction,” I traced my finger over the map, “because we’re not anywhere near the ocean anymore. We need to head this way to get up to the castle. On the way we’ll bump into a few streams. The first one shouldn’t be too far from here.”
“Hell, sis, we could miss that castle by five miles or more.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
He remained silent.
“Besides, there aren’t any settlements listed on this map. We might run into some on the way. We hit two on the way down here.”
“And I’m good at climbing,” Marianne suddenly piped up. We both looked at her.
“Climbing?” Alex said.
“You know, up a tree?” She glanced back and forth between us before making a disgusted face. “You can see farther up there, you know.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes kids were so much smarter than adults. I gave her a one-armed hug.
“You’re right. That is a good idea. Are you really that good of a climber?”
She gave me a tiny smile. “I’ve always loved to climb trees.”
“That sounds like a plan then.”
After a few more minutes, we set off again. Marianne walked between us, one of her small hands in mine. No one spoke. What was there to say? We certainly looked a haggard group. Me in nothing but