“Nancy, I’m right underneath you.” Bracing himself against the trunk of the pine tree, he cautiously balanced on the very top rung of the ladder. “Can you edge my way a little?”
Nancy shook her head in vehement denial, clinging to a branch just out of reach. “Noooo! It’s too high!”
“You’re perfectly safe. I’m not going to let you fall.” He lowered his voice, so the goggling ring of onlookers below wouldn’t overhear. “Nancy, I know you can do this. Just like we practiced, all right?”
“But I’m scared!” Nancy declared, possibly for the first time in her entire life. “I can’t move. You have to come get me!”
“Don’t worry, Nancy!” Finley called up. “Conleth’s almost there.”
“Everybody stay calm and quiet,” Beth ordered. “We don’t want anyone startling Nancy so she jumps even higher.”
Estelle sucked in a deep breath. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Pine needles showered over him.
“Sorry,” Estelle added, not sounding at all remorseful. “I thought I saw a…scorpion.”
“Heeeeeeeeeeelp!” Nancy screamed enthusiastically, now ten feet higher. “Conleth, save me!”
Her mother let out an equally dramatic shriek, swooning back against her mate’s chest. “She’s going to faint! Somebody catch her!”
“No, Otis!” Diana snatched her son away from the base of the ladder. “The last thing we need is for you to go up there, too.”
Otis wriggled, stretching his arms up. “Want Uncaleth!”
“Uncle Conleth doesn’t need any more distractions right now.” Diana clamped the toddler in her arms. “Are you sure you’re all right up there, Conleth?”
“Fine,” he replied through gritted teeth. He tested his weight on a branch. “Nancy, stay right where you are.Please.”
His pegasus nudged him. Sensing two newcomers, Conleth risked a glance down. Hetta and her dad had returned at last, joining the group gathered at the base of the tree. Thankfully, there was still no sign of Ignatius or his uncle. Conleth did not think Lord Golden’s opinion of either the camp or himself would be improved by discovering him struggling to return a stray child to ground level.
Mr. Rosecomb tilted his hat back, squinting up. “What are y’all doing out here?”
“Nancy’s got spooked, and now she’s stuck in a tree,” Finley explained. “It happens sometimes.”
“Notoften,” Beth said quickly, glancing at Nancy’s parents. “Hardly ever, really. This is practically the first time all summer.”
Hetta’s face was puffy and pink from crying. She sniffed, wiping her nose with a disintegrating paper tissue. “Well, why doesn’t she just climb down?”
“Because she’sup highand she’stoo scared,” Beth said, pitching her voice loud enough to carry all the way across camp. “And she can’t move, so Uncle Conleth has to get her.”
“Which mighttake a while,” Estelle added, with equally significant emphasis. “Especially if shekeeps getting startledandjumps higher.”
“Ohhhhhhhh,” Hetta said, eyes widening. She raised her voice. “Be careful, Nancy! That branch you’re standing on looks awfully thin. I think it might break at any moment!”
More pine needles pattered onto Conleth’s hair.
“Oh no!” Nancy exclaimed, with a complete lack of any actual alarm. “Now I’m even higher!”
From his elevated position, Conleth saw Beth flash Hetta a thumbs-up. A belated realization hit him.
I am being manipulated.
“Where’s Archie?” he asked.
“Archie?” Beth made an exaggerated show of looking around, despite this being completely unnecessary for a pegasus shifter. “I’m sure he was right here a second ago.”
“Maybe he went to the bathroom,” Finley suggested.
