The Disappearance of Ember Crow (3 page)

Daniel and Connor spoke as one. “Who?”

“She didn’t say. She didn’t say anything else really.”

My chest tightened in a familiar sensation, as if a rock was sitting on my heart. If it got much heavier, I wouldn’t be able to breathe.

“Do you know if she met up with the Serpent?” Connor asked.

I shook my head.

“If she’s still searching for him, we could try to find her at the next rally,” he pointed out. “And even if Ember – or the Serpent – aren’t there, there’ll be people at that rally who were at the last one. Someone might have seen who she was with, where she went.”

An idea. The weight on my chest grew lighter.

“Does anyone know when the next rally is?”

“A month and a bit,” Daniel answered. “We haven’t gone through the things in her lab yet either.”

Two
ideas. I scrabbled for another and found one. “Have you tried talking to the crows?”

“Not yet.”

I swivelled, scanning the trees.
There!
A big glossy one perched in the distance. A male, I could tell by the red eyes. I focused my attention on the bird and yelled, “Hey, crow!”

The crow didn’t move. He didn’t seem to know I was there at all. Or maybe he couldn’t understand what I was saying. It wasn’t always possible to communicate with someone else’s animal.

I tried again. “Ember’s gone. You must know that she’s left the Firstwood, and wherever she is, I think she might be in trouble. Can you help us find her?”

The crow just sat there, silent and – smug? I got the distinct feeling he was ignoring me on purpose, and he didn’t seem to be a bit concerned about Ember. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Crows weren’t Pack animals the way wolves were. They were independent, contrary creatures, and Ember was part-crow to them, like I was part-wolf to the wolves. They’d assume she was clever enough to take care of herself. Crows thought they were clever enough to outwit anyone or anything.

“We could get Keiko to talk to them,” Georgie suggested. “Or Coral.”

Those two were Chirpers, bird-speakers. I wasn’t sure they’d have any luck either. It was still worth a try. “I guess we’ll have to.”

“We could check the storage unit as well,” Daniel said. “I did search it after I found the note, in case there was something else there. But I could go back.”

I considered that. Ember had been inside the unit in the memory, although that had probably been before Daniel had gone through it. She certainly wouldn’t be there now, though, and I doubted she’d have been careless enough to leave something behind.

“We’ll start with the lab,” I said. Where Ember probably hadn’t left any clues either. “And then the rally.” Which was a month and a bit away. None of this was a very good plan. But it was all I had. I tried to think if there was anything I’d missed, and remembered something else. “What happened to the dog who brought the message? Is someone looking after him?”

“About ten someones,” Connor replied. “All of the younger kids.”

That was all right then. Tribe children knew how to take care of an animal.

“Ash?” Georgie touched my arm. “I could try to
see
.”

I glanced at her, and she added brightly, “Because if we knew where she was
going
to be, we could be there before she is.”

It was a nice offer, except I knew the limitations of Georgie’s ability. At any given moment there were thousands of possible futures, and it was hard for her to control which future she saw into, or for how long. Nor was it easy to interpret her visions.

On the other hand I wasn’t overwhelmed with options.

“That’s a good idea, Georgie. Any clue might be–”

I sputtered to a halt as a sudden gust of wind blew a leaf into my mouth. The wind grew stronger, and branches waved above me. This time I understood the words made by the rustling leaves.

Granddaughter, Granddaughter
…

The Serpent.
My
Serpent. The giant snake who lived in the lake and was my many-times grandfather. In the old world, the one that had been destroyed by the Reckoning, the Serpent had created my people, my “race”. It was hard to believe that humans used to care about things like different-shaped eyes, or different-coloured skin. Now all that mattered was the line between Citizen, Exempt and Illegal.

Grandpa had been trying to contact me for days, only I hadn’t understood. Or maybe I hadn’t wanted to understand. He was part of the human life that I’d been trying to leave behind. I was never going to forgive myself if he wanted to tell me something about Ember.

I shouted into the air, “I’m coming.”

Daniel eyed me warily, and Georgie with curiosity. They thought I was talking at nothing.

“It’s her grandfather,” Connor explained. “He wants to see her.”

How had he known that? Usually no one else could hear Grandpa. I stared at him, puzzled. He stared back, revealing nothing.

“Georgie and I can go to the caves while you’re at the lake,” Daniel said. “I’ll search the lab.”

“And I’ll try to find Em. In the future,” Georgie put in.

“Go ahead and try,” I told her. “But, Daniel, leave the lab to me. I was the one who was in there most, besides Ember. If there’s something out of place, I’m more likely to spot it.” It was a good reason, only it wasn’t quite the truth. If there were not nice things about Ember to be discovered, I should be the one to find them. Whatever they were, I’d understand, and I’d explain to everyone else so they understood as well. “Do the rest of the Tribe know she’s gone?”

“They know she’s away,” Daniel replied. “Not that she’s missing.”

“Then don’t ask the Chirpers to talk to the crows yet. It’ll panic everybody, and I doubt those birds are going to much help anyway. I’ll go through the lab first.”

Daniel nodded. He brushed his hand against Georgie’s arm, and the two of them walked away, strolling into the forest together.

I shifted to face Connor. “Can you … um …”

He folded his arms. “I am coming with you.”

I toyed with the idea of sending him back to the caves.
He won’t go
. And Ember had once said I should never give an order that I thought might not be obeyed.
Yeah right. Be honest, Ash. You don’t want him to leave
.

My gaze shifted to Pack Leader, who was still sitting beneath the tree. He rolled to his feet and came over to butt his head against my leg. Telling me I had to go back to being human. He’d always known that I would, I realised. It was why he’d stopped me from hunting. The Tribe didn’t eat the flesh of animals. We couldn’t. It would break the Pact I’d made with the trees when I’d first come here, to care for the forest and all the life in it.

I stared down into Pack Leader’s yellow eyes. For over a month, I’d run with him. It had been glorious. But it wasn’t my world. Reaching out, I brushed my hand lightly over his ears. “In another life.”

His jaw dropped into a grin. For a second, I could almost see it, an existence where I’d been born into the clarity of thought and intensity of sensation that was wolf.

Then he turned away from me, and loped back to the den.

I turned away from him, and strode into the Firstwood.

We walked through crisp morning air, Connor matching his pace to mine. I stole a quick glance at him. There was something different about how he looked, something not quite right, only I wasn’t sure what. I tried to puzzle it out. His hair was falling over his sculpted face as usual, and he was wearing what he always wore, the greeny-brown shirt and pants that he’d dyed himself. The colour made it difficult to see him against the trees. Connor tended to think in terms of a defensive advantage, a habit he’d got into when he’d been an enforcer … and it dawned on me. It was the way he was
moving
that was wrong. Too tense, too contained. Exactly how he’d walked when he was an enforcer.

Connor had worked for the government for years, pretending to be a Citizen, all part of a plan to strike back at the man who killed his mother. Then that man died of a stroke and Connor had joined the Tribe. He normally moved easily here, weaving between the trees and loping across the ground with the rise and fall of the earth. The only other person who fit in so completely with the Firstwood was … well, me.

Now he was separate. Walking
in
the forest and not with it. Keeping too many emotions shut away.

Or maybe he was in pain.

Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, “Is your arm okay?”

“It’s fine. Penelope Mended it. You know that.”

Eight words, and every one bitten out.
I shouldn’t have asked about his arm
. “You don’t have to come with me, you know. I can do this alone.”

“Yes, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you don’t want me around.”

“Because it’s dangerous for you!” The memory of blood and splintered bone flashed through my mind. My stomach lurched. “I
broke
your arm.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” he replied in a tone edged with impatience. “Your ability was going haywire; you weren’t in control.”

“You think that makes it better? Being out of control of an ability like mine?”

Sleepwalking was a powerful but unpredictable talent. When I used it, I experienced everything as part of a vivid dream, and whatever changes I made in my dream really happened in the world around me. Except since I always thought I was only dreaming, and didn’t know I was affecting reality, I could decide to do some strange things.

And now I wasn’t having dreams at all. “The nightmares … Connor, I can’t tell a friend from an enemy when I’m Sleepwalking anymore. I could have snapped you in half, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

He choked off an incredulous laugh. “So your solution was to leave me? Do you really think that didn’t
hurt
?”

I swung to face him. “At least you were safe.”

“I never asked you to keep me safe!”

“You never had to,” I shouted. “I could have killed you!”

We glared at each other, caught in the same tangle of anger and pain we’d been in before I went to the wolves. I’d left because I was terrified I’d do something to him that a Mender couldn’t heal. I was still terrified. He still wasn’t. “Connor, I can’t … Ember’s missing, and I have to see my grandpa. There isn’t time for this.”

In my head those words had sounded reasonable. Out loud they sounded like an excuse.

He stepped back, jaw clenched, and gestured in the direction of the lake. “Go ahead, Ashala. Run away. Again.”

I snarled at him, an instinctive wolf reaction to someone prodding at an unhealed wound. Then I stomped off into the forest, leaving him to follow. Hoping he wouldn’t.

Not a bit surprised when he did.

We went on in angry silence. When we reached the water I strode right in, as much to get away from Connor as for any other reason. “Grandpa?” I called. “Are you there?”

Everything was quiet. The lake rippled where I’d disturbed the shallows but the purple depths of the centre were still. Was he angry because he’d been calling me for a while and I hadn’t come? Either that or I was doing this wrong. My grandfather lived here and spoke on the wind, but I’d never actually seen him appear in this world. The first time I’d encountered Grandpa, I’d been close to death. I’d met him in the greater Balance, the place where everyone’s souls go when we die. Or at least, that’s where I thought I’d been. The whole experience had been pretty weird.

I waded in further. “Grandpa! Come out!”

Was that movement beneath the surface? I took another step.

Something seized hold of my leg and yanked me under.

Water rushed into my mouth and up my nose as I was dragged through the lake. I choked, flailed and stupidly tried to yell. Then whatever was pulling me along let me go. I was deep underwater, only I wasn’t drowning.

It should be impossible to breathe. To float, neither rising nor sinking. To see as clearly through water as I would through air.

Except nothing seemed to be impossible when it came to Grandpa.

Light shone and eventually resolved into a single sinuous shape. The shape coiled and curved until I was staring into the reproachful eyes of an enormous blue-scaled snake.
You did not come when I called
.

“I know. I’m sorry, I was–”

And you are throwing away my gift
.

“You never gave me a … oh.” He meant Connor. Because Connor had died when we escaped Detention Centre 3, and it had been grandfather, working through me, who’d brought him back to life.

We have been speaking, he and I. You should not have left him
.

“I was trying to protect him!” I was getting
really
tired of having to say that. “And since when do you talk to Connor anyway?”

Grandpa tilted his massive head to one side.
He is of the forest. You are of the forest. You will both be needed in what is to come
.

I wasn’t sure what that meant, and I didn’t want to talk about Connor. “Listen, about my friend Ember–”

He interrupted.
I have been travelling
.

A picture of a giant snake slithering through the streets of Gull City flashed into my head. Except that was ridiculous. I wasn’t sure how he moved through the world, but he had to do it in a way no one could see. “I hope you had a good trip, Grandpa. About Ember–”

I am concerned about this world. So are the others
.

He was trying to tell me something in his usual cryptic way. I pushed my worry for Em aside for a moment. “Others?”

Ancient beings from the many lands of the world before. I was not the only old spirit to come through the great chaos. None of us wishes this world to become like the last one
.

The great chaos was what Grandpa called the Reckoning, the environmental cataclysm that had destroyed the old world. “You do know everything’s different from how it was before, right?” I wasn’t sure how much he understood about the way things were now. After he’d sung the Firstwood into life, hundreds of years ago, he’d gone into a deep sleep, and he’d only been awake for about six months. I tried to explain. “The only reason the, um, great chaos happened at all was because people abused the environment and broke down the life-sustaining systems of the Earth. No one does that anymore.”