“You’re so mean, Cordy,” said Em. She turned to Drystan and Rinka. “I liked your stories. If we swam up the river, could we come visit you someday? Our mom doesn’t like for us to go too far inland, but I bet she’d let us if she could come too and meet you.”
“I’m not sure how far the river is from where I’m going to be, but I’ll come back one day,” promised Rinka.
“Look, Cordy, there’s a whale!” said Em.
Rinka leaned over the side of the boat to get a better look. In the distance, a dark shape broke the surface, sending a burst of water into the air.
“It’s Charlie. Can you make it the rest of the way on your own? We want to go see our friend,” said Cordy.
“I’m sure we can manage from here,” said Drystan. They were only a few hundred feet from the river delta now. The land to either side of it was relatively flat, gently sloping up to cliffs on one side and mountains on the other.
“Thank you for your help,” said Rinka. The girls were already beginning to swim away. “I’ll call on you when I make it back to the sea.”
The girls waved behind them, too interested in the whale to give a proper goodbye.
As they rowed towards the river, Rinka could see a few small wooden structures on the side nearer to the mountains, boarded up and long since abandoned. If pirates had been here before, there was no sign of them now.
The river was wide and slow, the current weaker and easier to traverse than the rocking ocean waves had been. As they approached the abandoned town, they saw the ruins of a bridge and a disused dirt road leading out of town uphill and into a forest.
“What do you think?” asked Rinka. “Up the river or into the woods?”
“I vote for the woods,” said Drystan. “I’ve had enough of the water for a while.”
Rinka agreed. The road must have led somewhere once. Chances were, it would still. And although she was ready to help Drystan with the boat in whatever way she could—perhaps therewas some energy within her he could tap if nothing else—she didn’t want to end up in the same situation as the last night, his body so weak he couldn’t stay awake.
“Would you mind if I took a moment to rinse the salt from my skin and out of my clothes?” asked Rinka. They were still damp anyway, but at least the cool blue water of the river would get them a bit cleaner.
“I’ll do the same,” he said. He moved to the other side of the broken bridge out of view.
As she pulled the tangles from her red hair loose beneath the surface, she thought of Alison. She was due to meet her friend that very night, but she had no idea how far she was from Sudport, let alone Herot’s Hollow. She hoped she’d make it somewhere in time to at least send a pigeon before Alison began to worry.
The sun was still high in the sky, the air warm and breezy as Rinka donned her yellow dress once more. She caught Drystan stealing a glance as they met on the road.
He carried something in his arms—a folded sheet.
“I found it stuck under a rock,” he said. “I thought it might come in handy if we’re caught out at night.”
They made their way along the road and into the woods, walking for miles without meeting another traveler. The road was poorly maintained, covered in places with so many branches and so much debris that it was hard to see where it continued.
At last, just around sunset, the road left the woods into a clearing. There, it met another road, and this road had a signpost.
In the direction they’d come,Gull Bay—8had been scratched out.
To the left, it saidSudport—32.
“Well, we’re not making it back to pick up our things tonight,” said Rinka.
Drystan gestured to the signposts to the right.
Fossholm—7.
Herot’s Hollow—12.
“Seven miles. That’s doable,” said Rinka. “My friend Alison will be waiting there.”
But Rinka had not considered the terrain. The road up from Gull Bay had been mostly flat through the valley, but as they met the main road, it climbed into the aptly named Hill Country. Their progress was slow, slowed further by the encroaching darkness, the light of the full moon obscured by clouds that had rolled in from the sea.
Rain began to fall off and on, and yet Rinka pressed ahead.
