Red's Untold Tale (18 page)

Now I smiled at the note in my hand and made a plan. In the morning, I'd go to where I'd found the bilberry shrubs six years ago. Maybe, with a little luck, I'd find the wizard
who enchanted my cloak, and Granny's mysterious scar would ache no more.

The ground drops out from under my feet, melting into sludge. As the earth swallows me, I spread my arms, grasping for something to hold on to. I clutch what feels like a
branch, and I'm bathed in relief when it breaks my fall; but as I hang, it bends and cracks.

More branches loom below me, only now I see that they are torches. The farthest ones glow the brightest, and as the flames grow, they ignite the torches above them. The light creeps up the
walls, illuminating golden-framed paintings of kings and queens, coats of arms, and elaborate tapestries. The torch just below me ignites. I kick, trying to keep it from burning my soles.

Thursday, May 17

I walked down the road and into the village just as I did on any other typical Thursday morning, but it was all just a show to keep Granny from worrying about my whereabouts while I embarked on
my quest to find the wizard. Though Granny was the only person I knew who'd actually met a wizard, I'd heard many tales, and one that seemed to come up time and time again was that
their magic always came with a price. So I brought the money I'd been saving for the time when I would leave the village in search of my happy ending. It was all I had, so I hoped it would be
enough. With every step, I reminded myself that if it was possible to find the wizard, and if he was able to use magic to help Granny's pain go away, it would be worth every last halfpenny in
my wooden box.

When I arrived at the schoolhouse, I hid behind the climbing tree and watched through the window as my schoolmates found their seats. I was glad not to be stuck in there with Violet and her
friends, especially after the Tucker incident.

Sadly, Peter's desk was empty. Knowing him, he was just tardy again. As time went on, he seemed to show up later and later. Ever since he'd turned seventeen, I was surprised he came
to school at all, though. Granny would approve of his decision to stay in school longer than most people if she ever cared enough to reconsider her opinion of him.

I would've liked seeing Peter from afar, even if it was just the back of his head. I still wasn't ready to be one-on-one with him, because I feared he'd be able to tell I was
falling for him. I'd had enough humiliation and awkwardness to last a lifetime.

“You look as if you're up to no good.” The deep voice came from behind me, startling me.

I whirled around, covering my heart with my hand. “Really, Peter. You shouldn't sneak up on people.”

“Are you going to tell me where you're off to with your basket and bow? Surely your granny isn't making you skip school to do deliveries.” He leaned against the tree and
crossed his arms. I couldn't help noticing that his biceps bulged beneath his sleeves, or that he'd left his shirt lace un-cinched and untied, giving me a nice view of his broad,
muscular chest.

He tilted his head and squinted his right eye, making me wonder if he'd caught me ogling him. I promptly peeled my gaze off his amazing body and stared down at my boots, feeling the heat
rise in my cheeks. “I can't tell you. It's a secret. A secret quest, if you will.”

I must have sounded stupid, but I felt stupid standing there with my bright red face, trying to act like he was only a friend to me.

Pulling a sad face, Peter hooked his thumb at the schoolhouse. “Miss Cates will be very disappointed. I'm certain she has a thrilling mathematics lesson planned today.”

“You best run inside, then. You've already missed a good ten minutes of it.” I straightened my skirt and turned to leave. When I glanced over at the little stone building, I
spotted someone peering out the window. “And it looks like somebody is eagerly waiting for you.”

His gaze followed mine. “She'll be waiting in vain, then. I'm coming with you, wherever you're going.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but as Violet leaned closer to the glass, her hands on her hips, I could only imagine how furious seeing the two of us together made her. Suddenly, skipping school
with Peter seemed like the best idea ever, even if attempting to track down a wizard wasn't. “All right, but on one condition.”

Smirking, he pushed away from the tree and closed the space between us. “Name it.”

“You cannot, under any circumstances, tell a soul where we're going, or what I'm about to do.”

“I wouldn't dream of it, Red. Those are the rules of every secret quest—as any given storybook dictates. And I have one condition for you, as well.”

“What is it?”

“We have to be back well before sundown. I have to shoe a pair of horses in town, and then Mama's making lamb stew for supper because my papa and I are going after the
wolves.”

The idea of Peter going out with the hunters made my stomach drop. However, I had to remind myself that boys his age had been part of the Wolfstime hunting parties for many generations.
“If I got home after sundown, my granny wouldn't need to worry about the wolves getting me—she'd kill me herself,” I said.

Before Peter and I headed into the village, I gave Violet a little wave, and I could tell by the strained look on her face that she was none too happy. We picked our way through the side roads
and alleyways until we found ourselves in the bowels of the forest. I kept taking wrong turns, and I began to earnestly question my memory of the place where I'd picked bilberries so long
ago.

“Forgive me for asking, Red,” Peter said after I'd made him backtrack for the tenth-or-so time, “but have you any inkling as to where we're going?”

“I thought I did. Now I'm not so sure.”

“Maybe you should stop and ask for directions.”

“What a grand idea,” I said. “As soon as you find someone to ask, let me know.”

“The only person we'd encounter way out here is one of these bandits,” he said, tapping a sun-bleached wanted poster on the trunk of a tree. He then launched into an anti-thief
rant worthy of the village soapbox. Though I nodded and made agreeable noises whenever proper, my gut knotted because at the market three days ago, I'd proven that I, too, was nothing better
than a two-bit thief.

The brush grew dense, and Peter forged ahead of me, deftly slicing through the thicket with a branch, as if it were a sharp blade. “Red, come over here. Shhhh.”

In a small clearing lay a doe and her twin spotted fawns. Peter stood only a few feet away from their grassy bed, waving me in. Although I tried to be as discreet as humanly possible, the deer
sprung up and fled. In the blink of an eye, they plunged deep into the woods and disappeared.

Peter and I walked a while longer, until we found ourselves in a gully. “This little guy wouldn't have a prayer if my brothers were here to capture him,” he said, shaking his
head at a chubby frog on a log. The instant the frog turned its bulging eyes on me, it promptly hopped away. “My, oh my, Red. You sure have a way with woodland creatures,” Peter said.
“You're a regular storybook princess.”

“Don't be daft,” I said. “Animals adore me every bit as much as they do Snow White or Cinderella.”

He had a point, though. When we were children, all kinds of critters had been drawn to me. When we'd walked through the forest, bluebirds and butterflies had fluttered above me, and
squirrels and rabbits had loped at my feet. In town, horses, cats, and dogs had nudged up to me. Now animals seemed to be fearful or at least wary of me: the squirrel outside my bedroom window,
Amos Slade's and Priscilla's dogs, our chickens, and, as Peter had mentioned, the woodland creatures.

I was considering that oddity when it struck me that the spring the frog had jumped into resembled the one I'd taken a drink from on the day I'd discovered the bilberries. Beyond the
glistening spring loomed the cave, just as I remembered. My spirits lifted when I spotted the bright green bushes laden with little, round, midnight blue berries. Now that I'd found them, I
could only hope the wizard lived nearby.

I set my basket beside the spring. “Have you ever tried a bilberry?” I asked, presenting Peter with a freshly picked handful.

“Can't say that I have.” He popped several into his mouth. “They taste like blueberries,” he said, smacking his lips and gathering more. “Now, don't get
me wrong. These taste great, and I always enjoy a long stroll in the forest with you. Especially in lieu of going to school. But, I have to ask, is this teensy little berry the ultimate goal of
this important secret quest of yours?”

He tossed a bilberry high into the air. I tried to catch it in my mouth, but it bounced off my lip and rolled to the ground. “Not quite. Come along.” I pulled him away from the
shrubs and, holding both of his hands in mine, closed my eyes and took a very deep breath.

“Red?
Hallo
, are you all right?” he asked after a few seconds.

When I opened my eyes, his forehead creased as if he thought I'd toppled off my rocker.

A cool breeze rippled through the leaves. The time had come to tell him. “I'm searching for a wizard. I think he might live around here.”

“A wizard? Oh. Well, then, why didn't you say so in the first place?”

“You know how to find a wizard, Peter?” I asked hopefully.

“The only way to find a wizard is if he
wants
to be found. Everybody knows that.”

I sighed as I lifted the basket. “I know. I just…” I could practically feel the hope draining from my heart and out of my toes. Peter was right.

He tilted his head and grinned. “What's in the basket?” he asked.

“A rhubarb pie for the wizard, and some crumpets for us to snack on when we get hungry.” I didn't mention that I'd also brought the box holding my lifetime savings. I
knew it would be difficult to hand it over to the wizard, but that was a moot point. I was naïve to honestly believe I ever had a chance of finding a wizard.

“A pretty girl
and
a rhubarb pie? This wizard you seek—he'd be cracked not to want you to find him. I'm shocked he's not right here in his pointy purple
hat, tooting a horn and doing a jig.” Peter pumped his fists and bent his knees up and down, doing a horrendous little dance.

“Thank you for trying to make me feel better, Peter. But you're right. This quest to find a wizard is ridiculous. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. I'm sorry I
wasted your time.” I sighed. “We should just go home.”

“Go home.” The voice sounded much more gravelly than Peter's.

My heart raced as my eyes darted about, seeking the stranger among us. Oddly, Peter wasn't reacting to the mysterious voice at all; he just danced a couple more seconds and then gave me a
blank look.

“Peter, didn't you hear that?” I nocked an arrow and pointed it at the rocky ledge above the cave, where the words had come from. “Tell me you heard it.”

“Heard what?” Peter asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him pick up a rock the size of his hand. “What did you hear? Red, tell me what is going on.”

“I don't know. I heard a voice. A really…I don't know,
peculiar
voice. Somebody is up there!”

“It's probably just a bird, or maybe a bat. Perhaps that frog heard you're a legendary cliff jumper and wanted to show you his skills.”

“Peter! I'm being
serious
,” I said through the corner of my lips, keeping my eyes trained on the rock ledge. “Someone is watching us. I heard him speak. He said,
‘Go home,' as clear as day.” Surely I hadn't imagined it!

A single black feather floated in the air, peacefully and silently. Blowing my hair out of my eyes, I drew my bow as a scruffy bird lifted off from above the cave, flapping and flopping through
the air.

“See there? It's only a crow.” Peter chuckled. “Though I confess it's a rather dastardly one, so you might want to keep your bow drawn.”