The Island (5 page)

Rachel noticed Tom’s knife, hanging from a belt around his waist; she saw Hannah had one, too. They were like the knife Sarah had used to cut the rope from her ankle; not crude, hand-made blades like the ones Away. She remembered how scarce knives had been there and wondered if all of the people here had weapons. “How many of you are there?”

“There are around—”

“Enough.” Hannah cut Tom off. She glared at him for a moment before she turned to Rachel. “Look. We’re not supposed to tell you anything much. At least not yet. It’s nothing personal.”

“Nothing personal? You attack me and Pathik, you abduct me and bring me here and tie me to a cot and—”

“Nobody attacked you, did they?” Hannah looked genuinely worried.

“What do you call using gifts against people?” Rachel spat the words.

“Jim just dozed you.” Tom stepped up, as though he thought Rachel might strike Hannah. “That’s not attacking you. It doesn’t even hurt.”

“I was taken against my will. And what did they do to Pathik?” Rachel narrowed her eyes at Tom. “You people don’t have Usage, do you?”

“What’s Usage?”

The thought of Pathik made Rachel stop talking. She felt like if she spoke another word she would either cry or scream, right then. Hannah had said they hadn’t hurt him, wouldn’t hurt any of them, but Rachel didn’t trust it. These people didn’t even practice Usage. People with no rules about how they could use their gifts might do anything.

A scream sounded then in the dim cavern. A long, angry scream, echoing off the rock walls.

T
he trail led them treacherously up the mountainside, crumbling rock and switchbacks making the journey difficult. Once, Vivian lost her footing and nearly fell off the disintegrating edge, but Daniel caught her hand and hauled her back up, scraped and bruised. When they finally reached the place where, from below, it had appeared that the trail just vanished, the terrain told a slightly different tale.

The main trail
did
end, but there were signs—a scrubby bush with a broken branch, an area of compacted dirt among the stones—that revealed where others had traveled. Still, that scant path didn’t take them anywhere much before it disappeared as well. Even Nandy, a fairly expert tracker, had no suggestions. She headed back the way they’d come to see if she had missed anything.

The others used the time to rest. Malgam took the water bottle from his pack and drank from it. He watched his son pace back and forth in the tiny area available, then capped the bottle and tossed it to him. “We’ll figure it out,” he said.

Pathik caught the bottle and drank, too. “I don’t understand. They had to bring her this way—the prints halfway up were definitely theirs. But to where?”

Daniel looked as frustrated as Pathik. “Maybe if we push on, there’ll be more signs ahead.” He took the water bottle Vivian held out to him.

“I think we’re looking in the wrong place.” Nandy was back, a sly grin on her face.

“You found something.” Pathik smiled, too. He felt hope for the first time since Rachel had been taken.

“Back there, about fifty feet.” Nandy took the water bottle Malgam offered her. She gulped from it, wiping perspiration from her forehead with her other hand. “This,” she pointed at the faint signs they had followed to a dead end, “is nothing but a ruse. They made it look like they were hiding the rest of the trail, but the entrance is really back there.” Nandy tilted her head back the way they had come.

“The entrance?” Vivian frowned. “The entrance to what?”

Nandy shouldered the pack she’d left on the ground when she left to backtrack. “The entrance to the mountain.”

“See?” Nandy pointed to a mass of scrub brush, just off the trail. They’d passed many just like it on the way up the mountain. This one looked no different, upon first inspection.

Pathik stepped up to the shrubs and peered down, looking for whatever it was Nandy had seen. “What about it? Just looks like a bunch of dead bushes to me.”

“Exactly.” Daniel stepped up next to Pathik. He touched one of the leaves; it broke off in in his fingers. “They’re dead. Those,” Daniel pointed back down the trail at another clump of bushes, “are alive.” He tugged at the branch. The whole thing came loose, revealing a cut end with twine wrapped around it.

Pathik grabbed a branch and pulled. It, too, came away easily. Soon, with all of them working, the whole clump of what had looked like bushes was strewn at their feet—all cut branches that had been tied into place.

“Look.” Vivian whispered the word, as though someone they didn’t want to might hear. She was staring at a trap door, made of old, dry wood, covered now with a scattering of dry leaves from the branches they had removed.

“A hatch.” Malgam bent over and picked up the metal ring set into the heavy wooden door. He turned and looked up at his companions. “Here we go.”

“Wait.” It was Nandy. She unsheathed her knife—an ancient, pitted thing with a handle that had been repaired countless times. She readied it to strike and nodded to Malgam. “Now.”

Malgam pulled, finally taking hold of the ring with both hands in order to lift the door. Daniel helped him lift it up off the frame it was set into, and the two of them leaned it against the rocks behind it. There was a gaping hole in the stone at their feet. The wood frame that had held the door was obviously hand-made and very old.

“Stairs.” Pathik started to enter the hole the hatch had covered, but Malgam took his arm.

“Not so fast, Pathik.” Malgam squinted into the hole. “We don’t know what we’re getting into here.”

“We’re getting Rachel back.” Pathik jutted his chin out. “That’s all we need to know.”

“Pathik.” Vivian stepped closer to him. “I want Rachel back just as much as you do, but we need to think about this, make a plan. Whatever’s down there—”

“Rachel’s down there.” Pathik said the words evenly. He put a foot on the first step, then turned back to Vivian. “And the plan is we get her back.” With that, he began to descend the steps.

Vivian and the others exchanged glances. Finally Daniel smiled and shook his head. “Well, he’s right, really. We already know we’re probably up against more than we can handle, but that’s not stopping me from going after her, either.”

“Let’s go, then.” Vivian stepped in front of Daniel and started down the stairs after Pathik.

It was dark, darker the deeper they went. The stairs were solid, built long ago but built sturdily. There were cobwebs here and there, but not many.

“Used fairly often, I’d say.” Malgam slid his hand along the rock wall. “Doesn’t look like this was formed naturally, but it wasn’t chipped out by hand, either.”

“Could they possibly have power here?” Daniel examined the wall, too. “It looks almost too fine for a drill, though.”

The steps descended at a steep angle and ended at a small, stone landing. From there, two tunnels extended, one to the west and one to the north, black holes that gave no clues.

“Which do you think?” Nandy didn’t look too happy about either option.

Before anyone could answer, three men emerged from the depths of the west tunnel. Nandy drew her knife and turned toward them, joined quickly by Malgam. When Daniel and Vivian added their blades to the show of force, the men just stood watching, unimpressed.

A sound at the north tunnel entrance explained their lack of concern. Five more people emerged—three women and two men. Each held a knife or a club.

Pathik hadn’t drawn his knife. He stood with his hands held out to his sides, palms open. “Just let her go.” Pathik took a step toward the men in the west tunnel. The one in front, a man about the same age as Malgam and Daniel, cocked his head.

“At least this one has some sense.” He looked past Pathik at the rest of the group. “In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re at a distinct disadvantage.” The man nodded toward the other tunnel.

“We don’t want any trouble.” Daniel lowered his knife. “We just want our girl back.”

“Why are you here?” The question came from one of the women. She was tall, as tall as any of the men and she held a knife, low in front of her like a fighter.

“We came because we heard this place was safe.” Nandy scowled at the woman. “Obviously we were wrong.”

“Came from where?” The woman kept the blade of her knife pointed right at Nandy.

“Away.” Pathik stepped closer to Nandy. “We came from Away.”

“We’re not playing here.” The woman shot Pathik a look that clearly expressed her impatience.

“Neither are we.” Pathik sounded angry. “Where’s Rachel?”

“When you answer some questions we might be able to talk about that, boy.”

“I’ve answered your question. Now where is Rachel?” Pathik bristled, ready to spring at the woman.

It was Daniel who finally understood the problem. He put his arm out in front of Pathik, who looked ready to fight. “He
did
answer. We came from a place called Away—that’s what they . . . what
we
know it as. It might be more familiar to you by another name, depending on what history you still know. It’s on the mainland, part of the area that was left out when the bombs hit.”

The man considered that information. He caught the woman’s eye across the landing and something imperceptible passed between them. “Like us. Left outside the boundaries, like no more than garbage.” The man nodded. “But why come here?”

“We heard it was a place where we might be able to live without . . .” Daniel shrugged, at a loss to explain.

“There were people Away, people who wanted to run things in ways we didn’t.” Malgam watched the man absorb his answer. “There was another group, too, that made trouble for us.”

The man stared at Malgam for a long time.

“You know I’m speaking truth,” said Malgam. “You’re reading me.”

For a split-second, the man looked surprised. Then he grinned. “So you
do
know about talent.” He raised his eyebrows at his companions. “It was detected in only two of you, and weak talent at that.
Everyone
here has talent. Made us wonder who you might be—if you meant us any harm. We’ve seen trouble before, from people with no talent.”

“Talent?” Vivian looked to Daniel, to see if he understood what the man was talking about.

He answered her unspoken question. “Gifts, I think.”

The fierce-looking woman laughed. “Is that what you call it?” She snorted. “Doesn’t seem like such a gift to some of us.”

“Enough, Tamryn.” The man looked stern. “You go tell the others we’re on our way.”

Tamryn gave the man a look, but she did what he said. When she’d disappeared down the tunnel, the man turned back to the group and spoke to Pathik. “Your girl’s fine.”

Pathik, who had never spoken aloud of his feelings for Rachel, at least not to anyone but her, and
barely
even to her, found himself blushing. He gritted his teeth and held the man’s gaze.

“Take us to her, then.”

The man pointed to the others who had come from the north tunnel with Tamryn. They were already turning, heading back the way they had come. “Follow them,” he said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

Pathik did so, with no hesitation. Malgam and Daniel conferred with their eyes for a moment, but they, Vivian and Nandy weren’t far behind Pathik. The three men from the west tunnel brought up the rear.

Pathik wished they would move faster. He wanted to run, run ahead of these strangers who were leading him to Rachel, run as fast as he could to her side and see her safe and alive.

He hoped that these strangers really
were
leading him to Rachel.

I
thought they decided to kill it.” Tom didn’t sound at all concerned about the screaming.

“Maybe that’s what they’re doing.” Hannah shrugged, equally indifferent.

Rachel listened to their comments with growing horror, because she
knew
that scream. She’d only heard it once before, Away, on the night one of the Roberts had almost killed her, but she knew it.

The scream sounded again, even louder. This time it didn’t stop.

“Where is he?” She couldn’t see where the cries were coming from, but she ran toward the sound. “That’s Nipper!”

Rachel ignored Hannah and Tom, who ran after her. She hurried through groups of people, shocked faces staring at her as she went. She heard Tom reassuring those she passed, heard Hannah entreating her to stop. The cave was so large she couldn’t see from one end to the other. Finally, she glimpsed another alcove of sorts along one wall. A crowd had gathered in front of the opening—the screams were coming from inside. Rachel pushed her way through the people to the front of the crowd. 

There was a cage in the alcove, a metal cage that reminded Rachel of the one her father had been imprisoned in by the Roberts. Inside, pacing back and forth, lashing his tail and baring his fangs, was the Woolly she and the others had feared was dead.

“You’re alive!” Rachel fell to the ground, holding on to the cage bars. “Nipper. We thought you were dead—all the blood back at the trail.”

Nipper stopped screaming. He lifted his head, sniffed, opened his mouth halfway and sniffed again, his head bobbing ever so slightly.

“I’d get your hands away from the cage.” A man stepped up to Rachel, extended his hand in an offer to help her stand.

Rachel stood without accepting the man’s assistance. She saw the loop of rope at his side, the pointed stick he held. “Why do you have those? What are you doing to him?”

“We wanted to see if he’d be useful for hunting, but he’s too wild. He’s going to hurt someone, so we’re—”

“You’re going to kill him.” Rachel repeated the words Tom had said earlier.

“He’s vicious.” The man poked his stick through the bars at Nipper, who slashed at it with his claws. “We can’t just let him roam the island.” The man studied Nipper. “Never seen one like him here before.”

“He’s not vicious. He came with us.” Rachel put her fingers inside the cage and whispered to the Woolly. “Nipper, it’s me, Rachel. Nandy is alive, Nipper, she’s fine. She’ll be so happy to see you are, too.”