Page 35 of The Wild Zone

That didn’t sound good.

Once we were away from arts and crafts, Silas crossed his arms and scratched his elbows, the way he did when he was worried.

“I’ve been out with the search party all day,” he told me. “We covered the entire valley. Katie, I couldn’t pick up Grant’s scent anywhere.”

I swallowed a lump (of clay?) in my throat. “Grant wouldn’t have just left.”

“I don’t think so either,” Silas agreed. “Remember how brave he was on the road?”

Images flashed in my mind: Grant jumping in front of me, protecting me from monsters, and then holding me while I sobbed that first night, trying to comfort me: Your family would want you to survive. The best way to do that is to get to camp.

“I remember,” I said. “But you’ll keep looking, right?”

Silas winced. He definitely didn’t seem like the same hopeful satyr who had escorted Grant and me to camp, promising me that everything would be okay. That the people at Camp Half-Blood would help me and keep me safe.

“I…just got news from the Council of Cloven Elders,” he said. “They’ve approved my searcher’s license. I’m supposed to leave on my quest for Pan at the end of the week.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. “Oh. Congratulations.”

During our trip to Long Island, Silas had talked about his aspiration to become a searcher. He’d shown me and Grant a map studded with satyr stickers, marking various spots in the country where he thought the missing god of the Wild might be. Apparently, every satyr dreamed of going on the quest for Pan, to find their patron deity and finally restore balance to nature. I had no idea if there was some personal reward for finding him. Maybe a lifetime supply of tin cans.

“You don’t look excited,” I said.

“I’m excited.” Silas’s voice sounded like he’d just won a lifetime supply of rat traps. “But I don’t feel like I should be leaving, much less celebrating…not with Grant missing. The rest of the search party, even Argus and the counselors…they all seem to believe that if we haven’t found Grant by now, we’re not going to. They think he must have gone home.”

I clenched my clay-crusted fists at my sides.

Argus had told me to leave the worrying to him. Now he was just giving up? And Clarisse had everybody convinced Grant had gone home so she could avoid getting in trouble for her little hazing excursion.

Silas was trying to read my expression.

“I’m not done looking,” he promised me. “I’ve got a few days yet. I’ll keep searching until the moment I have to leave. But, Katie, it would help if I had more information. Be honest. What happened last night? What were you all doing out by the woods after curfew?”

I breathed in deep…and held it.

I wasn’t sure I could trust anyone to do the right thing, but at least Silas was still trying. And I didn’t feel like I owed Clarisse enough loyalty to keep her secrets.

I told Silas about our run through the Wild Zone.

“Clarisse made a game out of it,” I said. “Now she’s trying to cover her own butt, and if the newbies say anything, we’ll get expelled for trespassing in the Zone.” I shook my head in disgust. “When that thing in the trees was stalking us, Grant stayed behind to fight it. I should have stayed with him.”

Silas didn’t disagree. My chest ached.

Silas pulled a wrinkled, well-worn atlas from the pocket of his cargo pants and flipped to a map of Camp Half-Blood. “Could you show me the exact path you and Grant took?”

I noticed there was no label where the Wild Zone should’ve been—it was just an innocuous expanse of little tree icons in the north woods. Nevertheless, I followed the line of the creek we’d stumbled across. I put my finger on the approximate point where Grant and I had gotten separated.

“Okay.” Silas tucked the map back into his pocket. “I’ll speak to Argus about this.”

I cringed. “But if you tell him we were in the Wild Zone—”

“I’ll keep your names out of it,” he promised. “I’ll just suggest that we need to search there, since that’s the only place we haven’t looked.” His expression darkened. “Even satyrs need permission to go into the Wild Zone. Most campers don’t know it exists. Even the dryads avoid it, and they’re tree spirits!”

“Do you know why?”

Silas shook his head. “But I’ll find out. In the meantime, please promise me you’ll stay away from the Zone, okay?”

Another person asking me to trust him.