Presently, she stopped and sagged over a hanging bough, gasping for breath in the humid fug. A single sunbeam cut down from the sky and lit the ground around her feet, its golden radiance alive with pollen and dust motes. Above her head, birds twittered under a baby blue sky, and higher up, she caught a trace of a whistling breeze. But it all seemed so far away, another world.
Her feet itched. She had to go on. If she stayed here, she would never get out.
She steeled herself, let go of the branch and put one foot in front of the other. She made it only two steps before crashing to the ground, sinking into a pile of mulch and brown leaves. The world revolved around her in a nauseating blur. Her head throbbed to the beat of her pulse, and for a few moments all she heard was a dull ringing. When it cleared, she managed to raise her head just a little, enough to take in her surroundings afresh.
A carpet of green and brown, woven together by twisting vines and embalming lichen, lay basted over everything, in every direction. Black shadow smothered any gaps in the foliage, and the air was alive with swarming insects, desperate to suck away the last of her body’s moisture. The air was heavy and stank of rotting plant matter. It all looked the same. There was no telling which way would lead to bright open escarpments, which to killer bogs, and which led ever deeper into its eternal mass.
She couldn’t even tell which way she had come any more. Yet still her feet itched. Still, she knew which way to go. It was almost as though a glowing line in the compost was drawn out ahead of her, cutting right through a thick screening of ferns and vanishing into the darkness. Her destination lay beyond.
But how far? A warning voice in her head told her that if she didn’t get up soon, she never would. But even if she moved now, she wouldn’t get far. She could feel her senses withering, her mind numbing to reason. She could keep walking perhaps, but what if she ran into danger? By then, she might have become a gibbering idiot, walking mile and mile until her body gave out.
Daddy was counting on her. He was back there in the cabin even now, fading even more. She had to get back to him. Without her to bring him more food, he would starve. And if she failed … well, the Panda Man had promised he would die for sure.
She felt new life steel into her legs—just a dribble, but enough to push her to her feet. Mud and leaves clung to her face, but she didn’t bother wiping them away. Her arms were like lead blocks. Instead, she staggered forward, following the glowing line that was at once not there, and yet blazing with the intensity of a bonfire before her eyes.
She shuffled on for a long time, how long she had no idea, with the endless trees slipping past and her dirt-caked feet plodding away beneath her. But just as she had known, she didn’t last long. Soon she crashed to the ground again, and this time, she was too weak to even break her fall. A branch gashed her across the cheek, but she barely felt her skin tearing.
The awaiting bed of leaves was as welcoming as the softest mattress. Suddenly the forest seemed very far away, as did her thirst. All the worry about Daddy didn’t seem so bad anymore. Even the itch in her feet had faded to a distant winking pearlescence in her peripheral vision. Silence enveloped her. It was alright; she would stay here.
The silence stretched on for what seemed an eternity. Then there were voices around her, unfamiliar and excited.
“What’ve we got here?”
“Poor thing! Sweet little angel’s all alone, she is.”
“Alone, indeed, my dear friend. All alone …”
She tried to lift her head, but all she managed was to open her eyes a fraction. Blurry faces loomed over her, studded with smiles full of yellow teeth, and a sticky stench filled her nose. Then she felt hands gripping her arms, and she was being lifted into the air.
They were laughing.
CHAPTER 5
Alexander stood before the wall-height window and glimpsed his own haggard reflection in the weathered glass. He had ascended close to the tower’s peak, hundreds of feet up, climbing dusty stairs that hadn’t seen another person for