Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (15 page)

I shook my head. That wasn’t good to think about right now.

He seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be showering. At least, I didn’t hear any sounds of him showering. No water splashing extra hard for a moment as he rinsed his hair or anything.

Eventually he spoke up. “I know you don’t know where it is, but are you going to help me try to find the book or family instruction manual thing today?”

I paused, turning to face the shower curtain again, where he’d stuck his head out. “I’m sure going to try. I have absolutely no idea where it would be, though.”

I looked into his eyes, trying really hard to not get pulled into them. It was distracting me so much that I had to look away. Only then could I seem to think straight, about anything other than Drake. It seemed like he possessed my every thought.

“Okay. I’d like your help. You’re the smarter one between us. Any ideas?” he asked.

Now that I had broken eye contact, I moved closer. Not that there had been much room between us to start with. It was only a bathroom, after all. I moved up close, not quite touching, but definitely inside his personal space, finding my body doing the movement without my brain telling it to. With only a shower curtain between us, I smelled him then, the way that everyone has their own scent. No matter how clean they are, how much scented product they use – their personal scent comes through to those that know them well.

Now, it was mixed with something else. Something I couldn’t identify. I found that it excited me.

He tried to back up a step, slowly. Almost like he was trying to do it subtly. He made it a few inches before he was pressed against the cool shower wall.

“Does it seem to you that the shower and the bathroom seem to be our favorite places to talk?” I asked him, part of a distraction.

He nodded, but looked like he was concentrating on something else. He wouldn’t even look at me. “Yup. I was thinking that, too.”

“But, it’s kinda fun, isn’t it? Don’t you think it’s fun?”

He gave me an unidentifiable look.

In turn I gave him a fake pouty expression. “You don’t like hanging out in here with me? Like old times?”

He shuddered, and his skin crawled with goose bumps.

I continued, fighting a grin. “Like, when I first moved in here and we would hang out in here to shorten shower time to conserve water because of shortages.”

I couldn’t help but remember some of the fun times we’d had. Two kids, no one else in this world but each other. Literally raising each other and fending for ourselves. That was the way it was in these times. You learned to provide for yourself at a very early age. Very few adults lived passed forty and that left what few kids there were to raise themselves. Unless they were too young, of course. But once you hit ten, that was it. We had his father’s house to grow up in though.

“Anyway…let’s get down to business,” he said.

I started racking my brain, trying to think of a place or a hint. Somewhere his father might have left a perishable family book. “Where would he put a book that is susceptible to moisture and rotting?” I was thinking out loud now. “Did you ever see him leave any old-looking boxes somewhere? Like maybe a hidden compartment in his dresser or something?”

“Not really. But…well, maybe. I remember him acting suspicious once. I walked in on him during the middle of the night. He had slid the bed in his room to the side and was kneeling on the floor. When I walked in, he looked guilty and stood up quickly, pulling the bed back into place.” He gave me a triumphant smile.

I started to turn away.

“Hold up real quick,” he said, stopping me. “You have some hair on you.” He reached over and took a couple of tries trying to get it to break free from my wet skin. The whole time it took him to do that, we were pressed up very close together as he leaned out into me. As he kept plucking at the long hair adhered to my shoulder, his body was making a subtle rocking motion into mine.

Out of the blue, he threw his arm around my waist and pulled me even tighter to him before I knew what was happening. One thing I was very aware of, though, the shower curtain and my towel were all that were between us. I gave a faint girly squeal and laughed.

“Drake, what are you doing?” I asked, a smile on my face. I didn’t know, but I did know I liked it.

He released me just as suddenly, blinking rapidly. “Nothing.”

“We can check it as soon as you get out,” I said, looking at him teasingly. “
If
you ever get out of the shower. You’ve been in there forever.”

He glared at me, slapping the shower curtain shut.

I laughed and left the bathroom to put some clothes on.

I WAS OUT OF the shower and dressed nearly at the same time as Kelsie, though she’d started before me. We went into my room, which had been my father’s, and tried to push on the bed. To no avail.

“Wow. We are way weaker than I thought,” Kelsie exclaimed.

“Yeah, or I just forgot that I had bolted it down.”

“Why’d you do that?”

I got down onto my stomach. “Because it was squeaking incessantly. I think we can crawl under it. You coming? Oh hey, throw me that light over there, would you?”

She tossed the light down next to me and started to crawl under. We got about halfway under the bed and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” Kelsie asked, cocking her head to look at me with eyebrows arched.

“I was just thinking. I bet we look funny as hell right now. Sticking out from under this bed with only our legs showing.” I laughed again, picturing it. This time she joined in with me. Our laughing ended up blowing dust from under the bed up into the air, causing us to go from laughing, to coughing, to sneezing.

Once we were done blowing up even more dust as a reaction to the dust we stirred up first, I saw a faint indentation in the floor in front of me and to the side. I shined the light over there and wiggled my way to it with Kelsie following.

“Hmm. Well, there’s something here. That’s for sure.”

I started digging around the edges with my fingers, trying to find a lip, or a hole. Anything. Once my fingers reached the far edge, they found a round dimple. I pushed a finger down into it and lifted. Up popped the lid to a hidden compartment.

Kelsie and I shared a look that said it all. My heart was beating faster and faster with excitement and curiosity. I turned back to look at the square compartment, roughly the same length and width that my foot was long. I couldn’t really see into it due to the bed being over my head and the lid being in the way. I reached on over into it. I found it to be shallow, maybe twenty centimeters deep. I fished my hand around, and it closed around a small box. I pulled it out and then fished around inside the secret compartment one more time. There seemed to be nothing else in there, so we closed the lid and grabbed the box to scoot back out from under the bed.

Once clear of the bed, we took a closer look at the box. It was a dark wood and looked hand carved with symbols and designs, most of which I didn’t recognize. There was a half-moon and a tree and what looked like a fire-pit. Other than that and some stars, I had no idea what the rest were.

I turned the box over and around. I didn’t see any seam, or latch or hinge. I was starting to wonder if it was only a block of wood. After a few moments of looking, Kelsie grabbed it out of my hands and started doing her own inspection.

After a minute or so, she said, “Ah-hah!” and pushed a finger into the side. Somehow she found a hidden latch because the top popped open.

Inside was a knife.

“Whoa…” we both said in unison.

I reached in and lifted it up out of the box. I turned it over and around and on end. It was beautiful. It was covered in engravings much like the box, both on the hilt and on the blade. In the end of the hilt was a blue gem of some sort. The whole knife was around twenty centimeters long and both edges were razor sharp as I demonstrated when I touched the point and drew blood at only the slightest pressure.

“What’s it made out of?” Kelsie asked, taking it from my hands and tracing the etchings on the blade.

“Silver, I think. Though I don’t know why they would make a knife out of silver. It looks old. So maybe it’s from when people were careless with the Earth’s resources.”

“Well, it’s not a book. Though it does seem that your dad had it hidden for a reason.”

I agreed with her, taking a last look at the knife before putting it back in the box. It raised more questions than it answered. Now I had a cool knife, but not the book that might tell me what was going on.

We went about our normal morning business – breakfast – and we both went for a run. Kelsie didn’t have to work today, and I had nothing scheduled until sneaking onto Briln Land that night.

I continued to rack my brains, with the constant prodding of Kelsie, for any clue as to where my father might have put something else. I was about to give up when it hit me. Like a boulder to the head.

“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed to Kelsie, causing her to jump and spill her mug of water.

“Got what?” she asked, an irritated look on her face while she wiped up the mess.

“What the hell do you think? I figured out where my father may have put the book. I’ve only been there once, and it was a long time ago. Let’s go, dress for the woods.”

I didn’t even turn to see if she was going to say anything. I rushed to my room and threw on some of what I called my
action
clothes, grabbing my usual: a knife, gun, light, and small bag in case I found anything useful. I also put on my leather moccasins. I could balance on anything in them and be absolutely silent.

When I got back out to the main room, I found Kelsie waiting for me. She was wearing lightweight shorts and a tank top.

“That’s what you’re going to wear? We’re going
outside
the Gates, you know.” I gave her my most disapproving look.

She nodded, so I went with it. She was going to regret it later. Oh well.

We headed out the West Gate, going to a little-used part of the island. As always, we had to be as quiet as we could. That’s no easy feat when you’re pushing your way through remarkably dense undergrowth. Everything was wet, too, from a rain last night. Within minutes we were both soaked to the bone. Kelsie looked flat-out miserable. Though, to her credit, she didn’t complain. She was getting scraped up and cut up and all around messed up.

We climbed a mountain, entering into No-Man’s Land. It was free territory. Neither of the land-hungry Guilds wanted it because it just didn’t feel right. The creatures stayed away from it, too.

The mountainside we were on leveled out, and a new hill took off in front of us about six meters away. Kelsie started towards it, ever the trooper.

“Hold up, Kelsie. It’s not that way, I don’t think. I think it’s around over here.” I pointed to where a narrow, nearly invisible ledge-like embankment ran around the side of the next hill. It wasn’t very wide, and below it was a drop so steep it might as well have been vertical.

We made our way to the ledge, stepping carefully onto it since the ground was slippery and wet. One slip on a wet stone and that was it. We walked sideways, our backs to the hill and arms outstretched for balance. The ledge curved around the side and out of sight.

We made it to wider ground with Kelsie letting out a big breath that she’d been holding. The ledge opened to a semi-flat spot three meters across or so. The steep hill rose up on either side of it. But in the back and in the middle, it looked a little like the hills met in a V-shaped narrow ravine. There were trees and large roots blocking the front of it.

“Okay, I know this is a location my father liked. But I don’t have a clue to where he might hide something,” I said, looking around.

Kelsie took that as her hint and started walking around, searching the area. I mirrored her on the opposite side of the clearing. I had no idea really what to look for. Maybe a cluster of rocks or hollowed out stump. I started turning over rocks and kicking chunks of wood out of the way, finding nothing. I wished we had more to go on.

I was getting exasperated. I had made it around to where Kelsie had started when I heard an “Ah-hah!” I went over to where she was frantically motioning at me. Over in the center of the back where all the trees were and the opening to the ravine was located.

“Hey! Look at this,” she said, pointing to a narrow tree. I bent down and saw why I had missed it before. Carved into the tree only a half-meter off the ground was a symbol.

“Hey, that looks like one of the symbols from the knife!” I exclaimed, pointing out the obvious.

The bark had long since almost grown over the cuts, and the only real indicator to draw your eyes to it was all of the sticky sap that had oozed out and dribbled down.

“I wonder what it means?” Kelsie asked.

“I don’t know, but maybe it’s a marker to point us in the right direction.”

I didn’t wait for a response from her. I pushed past the tree and started looking at all of the other ones staggered behind and around it. I didn’t find anything else until the very last tree in the back at the mouth of the ravine. A different symbol was carved into the tree but instead of a rough star shape, this one was more round. It had overgrown enough that I couldn’t quite make it out.

Encouraged, I maneuvered past it into the ravine. The ravine was narrow and the sides so steep and covered with deadfall trees that it was difficult to walk in. I had to straddle the center with a foot placed on each side and kept slipping on the wet surfaces. I went down hard a couple of times. The first time I went down, Kelsie burst into laughter behind me. As I opened my mouth to deliver a smartass response, her left foot slipped out in front of her causing her right foot to shoot out behind her. She slammed down hard doing the splits.

“Karma’s a bitch,” I said, turning to give her a hand up.

Twenty meters in, the ravine narrowed even more, becoming like a crevice. Vertical sides of rock with a flat floor and so narrow I had to turn sideways to fit my shoulders through. Kelsie didn’t, however. Having a girl’s petite frame could be handy sometimes.