My lips parted in surprise. “Kendric? She’s a Kendric?”
“Aye. Elda’s daughter. Didn’t ye know?”
“No, ma’am. Never heard tell of it.” That meant the old woman was Fagan’s granny. Did he know it? No, I knew he didn’t. Yet, in the very heart of him, he’d known her for a kindred spirit and been drawn to her. Why had the old woman never told him so herself?
Iona drew back from Fagan, looking up at him again. The shame was clear on her face and the sorrow, too. She touched him again and spoke to him too soft for us to hear, standing where we were on the porch. Fagan stood still beneath her touch, saying nothing. Lowering her hand to her side, Iona stepped around him and walked slowly up to Bletsung’s house. She stood at the foot of the steps, eyes downcast, mouth working. Letting out a shaky sigh, she raised her head.
“I reckon there’s truth in what ye say. He canna come home.” The cost of her admission was there to behold. She looked old and worn and hopeless.
Bletsung looked down at me in faint surprise and then back at Iona. “He can stay here as long as he likes, Iona.” She hesitated and then added with deliberation, “And ye’re welcome here, too.”
Iona Kai’s eyes flickered in surprise. She lowered her head briefly, staring at the ground. Then she raised her eyes once more and shook her head. “He canna stay here either, Bletsung.”
“Will ye hold your bitterness forever?”
“It ain’t that. I heard Brogan saying last night he was coming here.” Color flooded her cheeks. “I dinna know he’d come already. It bodes no good. I thought the most he’d do is whip him, but I can see now he’s past reason. No, the boy’s got to leave. He’s got to hide somewhere Brogan canna find him. I dunna know where that could be, but I’m terrible afeared what Bro-gan’ll do if he finds him.”
“So he’s coming sure?” Bletsung said, clearly wishing it was only a thought in Iona’s head.
“He’s coming. I don’t reckon he’d harm ye,” she said, the poison still in her veins. “His feelings toward ye ain’t much changed, even after all these years.”
“Ye never had reason to worry.”
“He’s a mon strong of mind and set on a path. He called Fagan a Judas and Cadi the goat who led him. I thought it was the whiskey speaking, but it ain’t. He said last night if Fagan’d been there, he’d have pinned him to the wall with his hunting knife. He’s been talking and acting crazy since he went down and killed that man by the river. He says he’s gonna put an end to the mon’s lies.”
“They weren’t lies, Mama,” Fagan said, coming to stand beside her. “He spoke the gospel truth.”
“It don’t matter if it was truth or no.” She looked up at Blet-sung, beseeching her. “Ye know him as well as I, Bletsung. When he gets summat in his head, it’s fixed forever. He doesn’t know when he’s gone too far. I canna bear to see more harm done to the boy, and I don’t want Brogan having more blood on his hands.” She turned to Fagan and grasped his arms. “Ye’ve got to go, Son. Ye’ve got to go now.” She wept bitterly. “And ye’d best take the girl with ye.”
Bletsung released me and came down the steps. “Ye canna go back to him, Iona. He’ll know ye’ve warned the boy, and he’ll kill ye sure as shooting.”
“Where else can I go? Back to Mama? We ain’t spoke a word in eighteen years.”
I saw the question flicker across Fagan’s face. “What’re ye talking about, Mama? Your mama died years ago. Ye said—”“Stay here with me, Iona,” Bletsung said.
Iona drew back from her. “I canna stay with you! I’ve loved Brogan Kai all my born days, and it’s ’cause of you I ain’t even had a corner of his heart.”
“He married ye, didn’t he?”
“He needed sons.” Her face was ravaged by warring emotions—love, bitterness, despair. “Truth have it, if I died today, it wouldn’t make one whit of difference to him.” She looked at her son, her mouth trembling. “The reason you and your pa’ve never gotten on is ye take after my father. Donal Kendric was the only man who ever stood against Laochailand Kai.”
“Miz Elda?”
Iona Kai’s eyes were awash with tears. “I’m sorry, boy. Your pa made me promise never to tell ye.”
“If that be the way of things, dunna sacrifice yourself to the devil!” Bletsung said.
Iona turned and glared up at her. “He ain’t a devil! He ain’t! He’s just a man who’d do anything to get what he wants, and it’s all coming back on his head to roost!” She covered her face and wept bitterly.
Bletsung looked at Fagan and he shook his head, bewildered. He put his arms around his mother; she leaned into him, her fingers grasping at his shirt. He looked over her head at Bletsung, shocked at what had poured from her. He clearly didn’t know what to do or say to protect and comfort her.
“Bring her inside,” Bletsung told him quietly. “I’ll keep her here with me. I’ll hog-tie her if I have to, but she ain’t going back to him. One look at her face, and he’ll know what she’s done.” She stood back for them, following them up the steps. “Ye and Cadi get some things together and go hide in the root cellar. It’s cut into the mountain just back of the house.”
“That won’t do,” Iona said, hiccuping with sobs. “It won’t do at all. He’ll look there. He’ll look everywhere. He knows Cadi’s here and reckons Fagan ain’t far away. He says there’s a bond between ’em and he means to break it. They’ll have to go o’er the mountains to Kantuckee.”
“They’re children, Iona! Would ye send them to their deaths? There’s painters and bears and snakes. There’s Indians as well, some with long memories of the things done ’em. And if that ain’t enough, fall’s coming, winter soon to follow.”
“If they go, there’s a chance. If they stay, there ain’t no hope for either one of them.”
“The easier way is through the Narrows and down the river to the Blue Ridge . . .”
“I’ve kin in Kantuckee, remember,” Iona said. “One of my brothers would take ’em in, I’m sure.” Her mouth trembled as she looked at Fagan’s stricken face. “Ye’ve more kin than ye’ve ever guessed. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“We can make it,” Fagan said, giving an air of boyish confidence and bravado.
I knew a better place to go, but said nothing. Not yet. One word of it and Iona Kai would come undone again and make matters worse trying to hold us back.
“The Lord is with you, Katrina Anice,” Lilybet said and beckoned me from the doorway. “Go now.”
“We have to go.” I grasped Fagan’s hand. When I pulled at him, he gasped in pain. “I’m sorry, Fagan, but there’s no hope for us if we do not obey the Lord.”
Iona looked from me to Bletsung. “What’s the girl saying?”
“It’s too soon,” Bletsung said, distressed and wanting to detain us. “Ye’ll need food and something to keep ye warm at night. Ye can hide in the forest and come back when ye know it’s safe. Wait a few more days.”
I looked into Fagan’s eyes. His fingers tightened around mine. “We’re going now,” he said.
“I know the way,” I told him softly.
We were at the foot of the steps when I saw Brogan Kai coming up from the creek. “That way,” I said, pushing Fagan toward the sin eater’s path.
“Fagan! You Judas!”
“Don’t look back and don’t stop!”
“Run, Cadi,” he gasped. “I’m not going to make it.”
“Brogan!” Bletsung came down the steps.
“Keep going! Keep going!” I urged Fagan, slipping my arm around his waist and giving him as much support as I could. He stumbled once, almost taking both of us down. As I helped him straighten, I glanced back and saw Bletsung struggling with Brogan, trying to hold him back. He flung her aside and came after us. The look of death was upon his face.
“Oh, God,” I prayed. “Oh, God, help us! Please help us!”
We had reached the trees, but I knew Fagan would never make the climb. He was already winded, rasping fro
m pain, pale and sweating.
“Fagan!”
Strength poured into my arms and back as I held him up and kept him moving. A heavy mist came down, seeping through the tops of the trees until it lay heavy around us. It swirled softly about our legs as we followed the path upward. I kept expecting the Kai to burst upon us. My heart drummed wildly in my ears. “Don’t give up! Keep on!”
“Fagan!” The Kai’s voice came eerie through the mist. “I’m going to find you, boy!” I could feel the blackness of his wrath. “And when I do, ye’re going to be sorry you was ever born!”
Fagan tripped over a root and fell hard. “Go on, Cadi. I can’t make it.”
“You have to!”
“You’re safer without me. Go on.”
“I’ll wait until ye’ve your breath back.” I looked back down the path, my heart pounding in my ears. Any second, the Kai was going to come through the mist and do to us what he’d done to the man of God.
“Go on, I tell ye! My father’s the best tracker in these mountains.” He shoved me roughly away from him. “Go on!”
“I won’t! I won’t leave you!”
“I’m going to find ye, boy!” The Kai’s voice was further off, coming at us disembodied through the mist. How long before he found us? I dashed the tears from my eyes and tried to get Fagan up again.
“Ye don’t listen worth nothing, do ye?”
“If ye’ve got breath enough to talk, ye can walk. Now, get up! Come on!”
“What do you think ye could do if he finds us, aye?” he said, managing his feet. “Ye’re no bigger than a mite.”
“Save your breath.” I grunted when he stumbled against me.
We kept to the path as we climbed. We were both parched when we reached the waterfall. Fagan sank to his knees, white-faced and exhausted. He drank his fill of cool water and lay back on the moss-covered ground, eyes closed, unmoving. My thirst quenched, I let him rest briefly while I stood guard, watching the trail. I hadn’t heard Brogan Kai call out in a long while, but that didn’t mean he’d not found our trail. I could only hope his wrath would give way to his fear of the sin eater.
There was no mist where we were, but I could see it still thick among the trees below us. I could see no further than the trees just below us it was so dense.
“We have to go on, Fagan.” It was harder to get him up this time. He was tight-lipped, saying nothing now, and I knew it was taking all his determination to put one foot in front of the other. At the rate we were going we’d never make it up Dead Man’s Mountain by nightfall.
We weren’t even a quarter mile up the path from the waterfall when Fagan’s last bit of strength gave out completely. He sank to his knees again. He gave a gasp of pain when I tried to help him up. “Can’t . . . ,” he said, his head drooping against my shoulder.
“Fagan?”
When he didn’t answer, I knew he’d fainted. Easing him back, I held his head in my lap. “Fagan?” He was so white, I thought he’d died. “Fagan!” Laying my hand on his chest, I could feel his heart beating slowly. He was still breathing. “Fagan, I canna do it alone. I’ve got to get help.” He made no response.
I heard a branch crack not far away and caught my breath. I couldn’t leave Fagan on the path for his father to come upon.
Looking around frantically, I wondered what to do.
“Hide in the cleft of the rock.”
I recognized the voice, though it was like the sound of many waters. I knew it and obeyed. Grasping Fagan under the arms, I dragged him toward the rocky side of the mountain. The fallen leaves rustling beneath him sounded loud in my ears. Could the Kai hear it, too? I reached the rocks and pulled Fagan into a wide crevice. If his father came upon us there, we’d be trapped and easy prey for his wrath, for there was no escape. Stone rose above and around us. When I had Fagan all the way into the cleft, I stepped around him and pressed myself against the stone so that I could peer out and watch the woods.
The Kai appeared on the path below. Head down, he was following our trail like a hound to the scent. My heart stopped, for I could see how dragging Fagan had left a clear path straight to our hiding place in the rocks. I knew the Kai would soon be upon us like a mad dog ready to tear apart its prey.
He came to the spot where Fagan had fallen and stopped. My heart fluttered frantically within me, like a flapping bird, wings beating to escape its fate. The Kai stared at the ground as though he could not make sense of the signs. Straightening, he looked around slowly, his head lifting as though taking scent from the air. He frowned, perplexed. When he looked toward the rocks, I pressed back further and held my breath.
God, please, help us! I don’t want to die! I don’t want Fagan to die!
Silence. Nothing but the soft puff of wind high in the trees. Not even the insects moved.
He was waiting.
And watching.
I breathed shallowly, mouth open, straining to hear.
A twig snapped.
I could hear heavy footsteps approaching the rocks. The closer they came, the harder and faster beat my heart. The Kai came so close I could hear him breathing through gritted teeth, like a beast hunting its prey. My heart thundered in my ears. He began to move away again, passing so close to me I could smell his sweat.
Silence again.
I peered out cautiously. He was looking around the area, finding nothing. I could only wonder, for even I, poor tracker that I was, could’ve found our trail easily from the path across the leaves to the rocks where we were hidden. Had God put scales over his eyes so that nothing made sense to him?
Glaring around the woods in frustration, the Kai gave a black curse. He looked up the path, and something flickered across his face, stripping away the wrath and giving me a glimpse of the fear that held him from going further up the mountain. Kicking the dirt angrily, he turned and headed back down the mountain trail, slapping leafy branches out of his way. The mist closed behind him, and the forest sounds began once more.
I slid down the rock and hunkered there in the cleft. Gratitude filled me until my throat closed with tears. God had made the mist. I knew he had, though others later tried to convince me it was a coincidence. I knew the Lord God Almighty had protected us. Fagan and I had been in the midst of desperate trouble, and the Lord himself had stretched out his hand and covered us so that the Kai with all his tracking skills could not find us.
I leaned against that cold stone, my hands pressed against my heart, and knew I was loved. “Oh, Jesus, Jesus . . .” My heart was bursting. I longed for the Lord to be right beside me so I could throw my arms around him, so I could clamber onto his lap and stay there safe forever.
Fagan groaned softly, and the ecstasy of the moment evaporated like the mist that had been a wall against our enemy. Fagan could not make the climb up the mountain, nor could we go back. I knew from whence would come our help, for the Spirit of the Living God was whispering to me: Run. You will not grow weary or tired. Run . . .
And so I did, not the least worried about leaving Fagan alone. Surely God would put angels all around him. I ran the rest of the way up the mountain to the sin eater’s dwelling place.
“Sin Eater!” I cried out, coming to the mouth of his cave without calling out a hello first. “Sin Eater!”
“Don’t enter in! Stand where ye be.”
Never one to listen much, I entered in anyway and heard a scrambling. It was a moment before my eyes adjusted to the dimness and I saw him huddled against the back wall, covered over with a worn blanket.
“Ye canna come into this place, Cadi. Go back!” Edging to the right, he felt the bed and found his leather hood, snatching it beneath the blanket covering.
“I need your help, Sin Eater.”
“I canna help ye, child! I told ye before. Now, go away and leave me alone!”
“Fagan’s fainted. He’s just down the mountain, hidden in a cleft in the rocks just past the waterfall.”
“What’ve ye done, girl? Wait and take him back
down.Neither one of ye should be here. This is the mountain of the dead.”
The Spirit stirred within me. “Get up, mon! Stop cowering in the darkness! Ye will no longer sit like a pile of dry bones. You will stand up and live as you were meant to do!”
He rose, the blanket dropping away as he quickly pulled the leather hood over his face. “Are ye mad? Think what you’re doing. What put it in your mind to bring your friend to me, knowing what I am?”
“Aye, I know what ye are. Ye’re a man like all the rest!”
“Not like the rest. I’ve eaten sin twenty years past! I am sin now. Dunna ye understand yet? It’s overtaken me. And it will overtake you if ye do not go back where ye belong.”
I stepped forward, hands at my sides, chin jutting. “Have ye forgotten ye sent me to hear the word of the Lord? Well, I heard it!” I went out into the light.
Hungry and thirsty for it, he followed. “And?” he said, his very stance speaking his eagerness to receive the word of the Lord as well.
“I’ll not speak to you again until Fagan’s safe inside your cave.”
He uttered a frustrated cry. “Trouble hovers over ye like a black cloud!”
I didn’t argue. I simply led him down the mountain, glad my back was to him and he couldn’t see the smile on my face.
Fagan was where I’d left him, still unconscious. The sin eater did not come inside the cleft, but stood gazing in at the boy. I could see his eyes fill with compassion, but he made no move to do anything.
“Ye’ll have to carry him,” I said.
“I’ll not touch the lad and bring more sorrow on him!”
“Then what? Leave him here? There’s thunder in the distance. It’ll be raining soon. He’ll get wet. He’ll get sick. Maybe he’ll die. Ye want that on your head along with everything else?”
“I thought ye said ye’d not talk to me again until I had the lad safe inside my cave.”
My face grew hot and I pressed my lips together, glaring up at him.