The stream gurgled by. Leaves hissed softly in the wind. There were no shouts, no moans, no sounds of two people cutting each other to pieces.
They can’t be fighting somewhere. Fights aren’t quiet things.
She turned and looked at Learned Edmund, who spread his hands helplessly. “I have no idea.”
“They have to be here somewhere!”
“Could one have killed the other?”
“We’d still find one of them, and a body.”
“Could one have stabbed the other and run? And the other gave chase?”
“I suppose, but—”
Slate stopped.
The discarded water bucket lay at the edge of the water. The ground was trampled and scuffled, pine needles kicked up in great gouts, which could have meant something or nothing at all.
“I’m no kind of tracker, but they were here and…something happened.”
“Brenner seemed angry with Sir Caliban,” observed Learned Edmund.
“Yeah, but if he killed him he wouldn’t try to hide it, and if Caliban killedhim,he wouldn’t try to hide it either.”
“What’s that?” asked Edmund, pointing.
She turned.
Something lay on the ground, a bit of gaudy green twine laced with small black and white feathers. The white quills gleamed, even in the failing light.
“Woodpecker feathers,” said Edmund, picking it up.
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea, but I’m guessing that they didn’t leave under their own power.”
“Hmm.”
She stared at the twine. It looked like some kind of bracelet, but it had been ripped off.
“Well,” she said. “At least there’s no blood. They took them alive, I think.”
“Should we go after them?” asked Learned Edmund.
“I’d love to. Pick a direction.”
“You can’t tell which way they’ve gone?”
“Can you?”
“No.”
“Well, then.”
They looked for signs, in a broadening circle around the river clearing. There weren’t any or there might have been dozens. The wood was full of things that looked like trails and weren’t. Any one of them might have been real, if they’d only known how to look.
They slogged back to camp. It was too dark to see, even if they knew what they were looking for. Slate dropped down next to the fire and put her face in her hands.
