bounced off the ground and breezed into his face as the pressure around his chest loosened.
Tucking the scabbard under one arm, Walter dug out his cell phone and flipped it open. No signal at all. He drooped his head and walked far enough from the pit to avoid a view of the bottom.
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “She’s thousands of feet down. You wouldn’t be able to tell skin from scales from this distance.”
Walter shoved the cell phone back into his pocket. “Aren’t you worried about your sister?”
“Worried sick.” Gabriel clenched Walter’s shoulder. “But we have to do what we have to do.”
“And what would that be?” Walter turned in a slow circle, eyeing the surrounding trees for any sign of movement. “There’s nothing to do around here.”
Gabriel zipped his lightweight jacket all the way up and pointed at the grass. “These should give us a clue.” He pressed his foot into one of the giants’ tracks. “The ground’s probably wet for miles, so we should be able to follow their trail, at least for a while.”
Walter smirked. “On the ground or in the air?”
“I’m not about to carry you all over the countryside. You take the ground, and I’ll patrol from the air. With all the crazy stuff going on, I don’t think anyone’s going to think twice about a winged teenager flying around.”
“Sounds cool.” Walter slung the scabbard back on and jerked the strap tight. “Tangling with massive, laser-eyed giants who laugh at Excalibur’s beam is a great way to pass the time. That’s my kind of party.”
Gabriel pumped his fist. “Now you’re talking!”
Walter glanced back at the enormous pit but could see only a dozen or so feet of the sheer wall on the opposite side. He turned in the direction the tracks led and pumped his own fist. “Let’s get going.”
With three wing beats, Gabriel lifted off the ground, and, a few seconds later, he was circling from about a hundred feet overhead. “Can you hear me?” he called.
“Yeah! Loud and clear!” Walter marched alongside the huge tracks, glancing up at Gabriel every few seconds. When the path led into the surrounding forest, he grabbed a thick walking stick. Every several yards, he plunged it into the ground and gouged out a fist-sized ball of earth. “Hansel and Gretel have nothing on me,” he mumbled.
The tracks became harder to find, but scattered leaves mixed with mud usually led him in the right direction, and Gabriel frequently swooped closer and pointed out muddy patches farther ahead that gave away the giants’ distinctive prints.
With rain and sleet pelting his hair, Walter pulled his jacket tightly closed and began to trot, pausing every twenty steps to gouge the earth again. He hoped the effort would keep him warm, but after three or four miles, he had to slow to a walk. “You have to keep going, you lazy bum,” he chided himself while puffing heavy plumes of white vapor. “You can’t stop now.”
He glanced up and caught sight of Gabriel getting buffeted by the worsening weather. His verbal self-urging felt good, so he continued. “If Gabriel can keep going, I can, too. He’s old enough to be my grandfather, and he’s doing fine.” He slid down a grassy slope, then resumed a quick trot. “I gotta find the creep that’s causing all this. I owe it to Ashley to stop him. If she dies, I’ll …” He swallowed a lump in his throat and stayed quiet.
Finally, Gabriel landed in a clearing about fifty feet ahead. He stooped low and examined the path.
Walter hustled to join him. “What did you find?” he asked, trying to slow his breathing.
“They split up here.” Gabriel waved his finger across the muddied leaves. “It looks like they’re all going in different directions now.”
“Look for the biggest footprints. That should be Chazaq. If we follow him, maybe he’ll lead us to that Mardon guy.” Walter pointed his walking stick at one of the trails. “There’s the biggest one. You agree?”
Gabriel nodded. “Looks like Bigfoot’s heading toward the highway. I saw a road from the air. It’s about a mile away.”
Walter tapped his walking stick on the print. “If he walked on pavement, we won’t be able to follow him.”
“True, but there’s a huge power plant down the road at a waterfall. I’ll bet I know where he was heading.”
Walter grinned, in spite of his gloomy mood. “To find the biggest outlet and plug himself in?”