So she stole the book from him, and ran away with it.
But she did not steal only a book from the ogre: she also stole a child, because she was carrying the ogre’s baby, a baby she could not let him possess because she knew he would consume it. Yet neither would she let him have the book. It was all that could save the ogre, and she wanted him to be punished for his crimes. Without the fragments, the atlas would never be complete, and the ogre would be damned.
The girl attempted to remove the fragments, but they held stubbornly to the book’s spine. Touching them made her sick, and the longer she touched them, the sicker she became. She began to fear for her unborn child, in case some infection might find its way from the book to her womb.
The girl tried to burn the book, but it would not catch fire.
And the girl tried to drown the book, but it would not sink.
And the girl tried to bury the book, but the earth would not yield to it.
By day the girl traveled. By night, she examined the book, and the more she saw of it, the more frightened she became. She understood that if the ogre captured her – as it seemed he surely must, for the baby was heavy inside her, and she was so very tired – he would take both the book and the child, and his triumph would be complete. So the girl found someone to accept the book and guard it, while another, similar volume was substituted, and she moved on with her unborn child. Once the baby was born, and was safe, she would try to find those who might know how to get rid of the original forever.
The girl moved north, ever north. She was given the name of a woman who could help her, and stayed with her for a while, but soon the girl became afraid. What if the ogre had followed her trail? What if he knew of this woman, and those like her? So the girl booked passage on routes she did not intend to use, leaving false trails so that she might safely follow another path.
A man agreed to transport her across the border in return for most of the little money she had left, and she sat alongside him on his journey through the dark. But there was something of the brute in this man too, and he reached for the girl as they passed through a great wood, reached for her with the claws of a wolf.
‘Kiss me,’ he said. ‘Kiss me, so that I may know you love me.’
But the girl would not kiss him. She fled from the man with claws for fingers, and found herself lost in the woods. Her belly was hurting, so she lay down on the forest floor. The baby was coming, but something was wrong. The pain was too great, and the blood—
Oh, the blood.
She saw the lights of a house through the trees, but could not reach it. She tried to call out, but the wind howled her down. And just as she thought she must surely die out there in the cold, and the baby with her, a man came walking, his daughter by his side. The daughter had a little medical knowledge, and together she and her father brought the baby – a boy – into this life. They saved him, but they could not save his mother.
Before she died, the girl made them promise to tell no one of her or the baby, for the child was at great risk from his father. They should raise the boy as their own, and hold in trust only some small possessions that once belonged to his mother – a Star of David on a chain, a book of stories – until the time came for him to learn the truth.
Then she kissed her son, and closed her eyes, and the best of her departed. She was buried in another region of the forest, far from the house of the man and his daughter, and the daughter raised the boy as her own, because she had long wished for a child but had despaired of ever receiving such a boon.
And she named the boy Daniel.
It was dark by the time Holly Weaver finished recounting her involvement in the tale, to which Parker added what he had learned from Leila Patton, with conjecture to fill in the blanks, although he did not share all of this with Weaver, and the full truth of the story would not be known until much later. He lit the lamp on the bedside table, and wondered anew at the strangeness of the world.
‘How much have you told Daniel?’ Parker asked her.
‘Nothing – yet.’
‘Do you think he’s guessed something of the truth?’
Holly nodded. ‘But I’m afraid to talk to him about it,’ she said. ‘I’m scared he’ll hate me.’
Whatever came next, Parker knew, it would be difficult for all of them. Who could say how the boy would respond to the revelation of his birth, and the lies that had been told to protect him?
‘You have hard times ahead,’ he said. ‘The only consolations I can offer are these: Karis Lamb may have given birth to Daniel, but you’re his mother – the only one he’s known, and the only one he’ll ever know; he’s very young, and the young are resilient; and Moxie Castin is the best lawyer in town, and a good man. He may pretend otherwise, and do a fine job of it, but it’s the truth. A promise made to a dying woman doesn’t absolve you of any crime committed as a consequence, and the law frowns on secret graves. Moxie’s on your side, and he’ll do his best to convince the police that you did the wrong thing for the right reasons. But people have died because you hid Daniel, and some of those deaths could have been prevented if you’d come forward sooner, when Karis’s body was first found. I can understand why you chose not to, but it doesn’t change that fact.’
‘I can’t lose Daniel,’ she said.
‘We’ll see what we can do to make sure that doesn’t happen.’
He stood, and Holly Weaver stood with him.
‘What now?’ she asked.
‘You’re going to stay here for tonight, and Louis will remain with you. You’ll be safe with him. I may take over the watch later, just to give him a break, but you’d be surprised how little rest he needs. Meanwhile, Moxie will consider how best to open discussions with the police. You should probably speak to Daniel tonight, because the Office of Health and Human Services will become involved almost immediately. It’s possible, even likely, that your son may be placed in foster care for a time.’
Parker used the word ‘son’ deliberately. He knew that Moxie would too, throughout what was about to unfold. Ultimately Moxie’s task would be to convince a judge that no one’s best interests would be served by separating Daniel Weaver from this woman and her father, or by putting anyone behind bars. Parker knew that Moxie was already lining up a child psychologist and a specialist in family law to assist with the case.
All because of a Star of David carved on a tree.
‘And my father?’ said Holly.
‘I’ll check in with Julia Hancock, but my instinct would be to tell the police as soon as possible that we have you and your son in a safe place. We’ll advise them that you’ll consent to a interview tomorrow in which you’ll share with them all you know about Karis Lamb, but we have some concerns for the safety of your father, and would like their immediate help in tracing him.’
‘He’s in trouble,’ said Holly. ‘I know it.’
‘He may be,’ Parker conceded.
‘He’s the most reliable man I know. He calls if he’s going to be late coming home from the store.’
‘If someone has taken him, then it’s not in their interests to hurt him. They’ll want to use him as leverage.’
‘To get to Daniel?’
Parker saw no sign of deception or artifice in her.
‘I don’t think they ever wanted Daniel,’ he said. ‘They’re looking for a book stolen by Karis.’
He watched the cogs turn in her mind.
‘A book was taken from my son’s room last night. It belonged to Karis.’
‘It’s not the one they want,’ said Parker. ‘It may have resembled it, but that’s all.’
‘So where is the version they’re looking for?’
‘Somewhere else,’ said Parker neutrally. ‘But if they have your father, it’s important that they continue to believe you might know the whereabouts of the original.’
‘Who will they contact?’