Ben Dover's Arc

Chapter 62 of 150

Ben stayed on the frost until his hands stopped shaking. The crate was safe in the fold. Joe was gone up the draw to watch the ridge. Amber had slipped south to check the tree line. Lolly stood a few paces off, water still running from her hair, the gray-blue creature at her heel. Everyone he needed was somewhere else, and he had no way to call them back. He counted what he could not do. He could not signal Joe without noise. He could not chase Amber without leaving the crate. If scouts came down the slope now, he would face them alone with a hidden box he could not move. The others had scattered on his orders. That was the problem he had made. "Lolly." He kept his voice low. "I need them back. Before dark." She wrung her sleeve. "Both?" "Both. Quiet. No shouting." She looked at the creature. The creature looked at her. She pulled the red pot from under her coat and turned it in her hands. Water beaded on the clay and ran down her wrist. "He drinks from this," she said. "He'll find anyone whose track it's crossed today." "Both of them crossed the mist." "Then he'll find both." She tipped the pot. The creature lapped once, twice. Its coat darkened further, if that was possible. She murmured something Ben did not catch. The creature slid into the brush without sound. Ben waited. He watched the ridge. The voices up there had gone quiet, which was worse than shouting. He put his hand on the pine boughs over the fold and felt the cold wood. Joe came first, down the draw at a crouch. He raised two fingers. Two scouts on the ridge, moving east. He knelt beside Ben and said nothing else. Amber came second, from the south, breath tight. "Line of five heading up the road," she said. "Not ours. Not the herbalist's colors either. Someone new." "How far?" "An hour if they keep pace." Ben looked at the three of them. Joe, Amber, Lolly. The crate at his back. He was not alone anymore. He had used the last hour of cover to pull his people in, and it had worked. "We hold here till full dark," he said. "Then we move west along the fold. Joe scouts ahead. Amber takes the rear. Lolly stays with me and the crate." Joe nodded. Amber nodded. Lolly wrung her sleeve again. Water pattered on the frost. "New men," she said. "Not the ones from the shrine." "I heard." "Then the fold won't hold past tomorrow." "I know." Ben looked west through the pines at the failing light. The crate was hidden. His people were together. A second faction was climbing the road. He had traded one problem for the next, and the next was already close.