TWENTY-SIX

Caitlyn had been instructed to look for the third post on the downstream side of the railing. A small cross would be scratched into the paint at the base of the post.

She saw it there, even without her vidpod GPS confirming this was the location.

A pile of jagged, fist-sized stones also sat by the post. Nothing in her instructions had mentioned this, but to Caitlyn, as to anyone else in Appalachia, the stones were an ominous reminder of Bar Elohim’s power.

“Stop here.” Relieved as she’d been to see the small cross scratched at the base of the post, the jagged stones compressed her urgency.

Billy complied. Theo felt warm as he leaned back against her on the horse. He had spoken little since they’d resumed their ride down the road, with Billy still walking and holding the reins.

They stood by a bridge with white railings, some thirty feet over a small river lined with trees on both sides.

“It’s here,” Caitlyn said. The accuracy of the instructions she could obviously trust, but she’d spent the last few hours of silence wondering if she could still believe the same about her father. He had abandoned her. Yet she still agonized over wondering if he was still alive, and she could hardly deal with the guilt of surviving. And the guilt for doubting him. But the secrets he’d kept hidden haunted her. Why? What was ahead?

Billy, she noticed as she drowned in second thoughts, seemed unburdened by hardly a thought at all. He lifted the sleeping Theo down and set him at the side of the road. Caitlyn began to swing off the saddle, and Billy moved immediately beside the horse, holding up his arm for her to lean against. She made sure that her cloak was covering her arms and the hunch on her back before she accepted his help. Her ankle spasmed in pain, and she transferred most of her weight to the other leg. Yet another reminder that Papa had abandoned her.

“This is what we’ll do,” Caitlyn said, choosing action to hold the thoughts at bay. “We keep the saddle and send the horse down the road. The next town is over the hill. Someone will find the horse soon, and without the saddle, it’ll look like a runaway horse.”

Billy began to unbuckle the cinch of the saddle. They’d taken this horse from the bounty hunter. He couldn’t report it; they’d left him tied to a tree. “We go through the woods?”

“No,” Caitlyn said. “We’ll take the river.”

“How?” Theo’s voice was dull, barely audible.

“Canoe. It will be hidden in a bush below.” Caitlyn had instructions for where to find and eventually leave the canoe and look for a trail.

“Where to?” Theo asked.

“The Clan.” Just two words. But they felt so heavy.

“I don’t want to go,” Theo said.

“After everything else you’ve done to get here?” Caitlyn glanced over. Theo rolled to his side, tucking his hands as a pillow beneath his head.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go.” His words had begun to slur. “I just said I don’t want to. I’m afraid. But not afraid enough to keep me from trying to get Outside. I’d rather be barbecued than go back.”

Billy held the saddle under one arm. “Now?”

“Now,” Caitlyn answered. “Let’s hide the saddle under the bridge.”

With his free hand, Billy smacked the horse solidly on the hindquarters. It bolted forward, and at the other end of the bridge, it settled into a trot.

To Theo, she said, “Wake up. We’re ready.”

Theo opened his eyes. “Can you hear it? Drums. Coming down the road.”

Caitlyn couldn’t hear anything, but she had learned to trust Theo’s ears.

“We need to hurry. Into the trees.”