The thing is, I’ve never actuallybeento my destination. I’ve only glimpsed it once, fleetingly. But it lodged itself in my mind, a safe haven coloured by memory.Fox’smemory.
I hold on tightly to his hand, scared that if I relax my grip even a little I’ll lose him. That’s if I don’t manage to drown him first.
Focus, I tell myself.
My chest grows taut and my lungs scream for air. As I screw my eyes shut, I think of nothing else but where I wish to be, and will myself to go there with everything that I am.
It works.
The portal spits us out on to solid ground, then melts away into the earth. I’m flung on to my stomach, still clutching Fox, who lies sprawled on his back, Scout tucked under his arm, blinking up at the canopy of trees above. Chinks of honeyed sunlight filter through the branches, which sway gently in the warm breeze, casting dancing shadows across the forest floor. The air smells of damp wood and pine needles. Birdsong mingles with the babbling of running water and the soft tinkling of windchimes.
‘You did it,’ Fox says.
‘I did,’ I agree, a little breathlessly.
‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ I assure him, letting go of his hand and flexing my fingers. ‘Butwhatjust happened?Howdid King Balen discover where we were?’
‘One of the stable boys, by the looks of it. He knew you and Flint were missing and sold the information to a Ventalla spy. It seems all loyalty can be bought.’
I grimace. Grandmother’s never had much tolerance for turncoats. I imagine Caleb is now nothing but bones and ash.
‘Once my uncle realized you weren’t at a safe house, he began his search. Perhaps he knows of your connection to River. Perhaps, like me, he believed you may have sent the Eye to Brava. Regardless, he figured it out. Then he used the wind to spy for him.’
A shiver runs through me.
As Fox props himself up on his elbows, his gaze lands on something behind me. He stiffens in surprise. Slowly, I turn round.
I know at once that we are in Thorndale, a small, forest-wrapped province near the Wildlands border. I know this because there, nestled in the clearing with a moss-covered thatched roof and a faded buttercup-yellow front door, stands the Calloways’ cottage.
I feel myself clam up, suddenly nervous as I try to predict his reaction. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. This place is personal to Fox. It might dig up old grief he’d prefer to keep buried.
I’m so busy worrying that I may have overstepped the mark that I don’t notice the horse emerging from the trees, his dark mane still threaded with small braids.
‘Cedar!’ I exclaim. ‘What – I mean, how –’
‘I told you he knew where to find me again,’ says Fox.
‘So you were always planning on coming here?’
‘Yes, I was.’ His voice is light with incredulity. ‘But I didn’t realizeyouwere.’
‘Are you angry?’ I ask tentatively, as Scout fixes her beady green-gold eyes on me.
‘I …’ For once Fox seems at a loss for words. ‘I presumed you were taking us to the Lagoon,’ he says at last.
I shake my head. ‘Too obvious. Besides, you were right about there being a stronger connection to the past. You took me to Brava, so I … I thought I would bring you here.’
Fox gets to his feet. He rests his forehead briefly against Cedar’s, then walks away from me towards the cottage.
I curse myself. This was a mistake, a foolish misjudgement. If only I’d –
‘Aren’t you coming?’ Fox calls over his shoulder.
I exhale deeply, relieved.
As I get closer, it becomes clear the cottage is no longer lived in. The varnished wood is chipped and crawling with rampant ivy, and the door is so swollen with damp that Fox is forced to slide Silverclaw along the length of the frame just to prise it open. Several of the crooked windows are cracked, spidery veins spreading out across the panes, which are made from stained glass in varying shades of green, violet and sunset orange. A narrow path snakes through the overgrown grass towards a tiny outhouse I recognize as Fox’s grandmother’s workshop. Behind it, dangling from the overhanging branch of a tall oak on the bank of the Creek, are two rope swings. My heart twists painfully.
