Trickster's Girl: The Raven Duet Book #1

CHAPTER 10

LAUGH LINES CRINKLED AROUND THE old woman’s eyes, though she rose to her feet with an ease that belied the sagging breasts and wrinkled skin. The warmth in her expression reminded Kelsa of her grandmother, who now lived in D.C., but who’d made cookies with her, played d-games, and still sent exactly the right presents at Christmas.

The old woman clearly had Raven pegged. Kelsa let go of the rock.
“Raven sent you?”
“Of course. He had to give me the sense of that medicine pouch, or I wouldn’t have been able to locate you. And heedless as he may sometimes be, he knows it’s not safe for you to travel alone.”
Relief flooded in. Kelsa hadn’t wanted to admit how frightened she’d been. “He said he had allies, but he never told me who they were. Will he be able to get away from the police?”
“If that isn’t like him.” The old woman shook her head. “Raven’s heart’s in the right place, most of the time, but I wonder about his head! Suppose you got separated, like now? Suppose you needed help? You need to know who his allies are.”
Kelsa couldn’t have agreed more.
“Eagle and I are foremost among them,” the old woman went on. “And Fox, Salamander, and Wolverine. I’m Otter Woman, though you’ve probably guessed that already.”
The woman seemed completely unconscious of her nudity, but the wrinkled skin was beginning to show goose bumps. She looked to be about Kelsa’s size, and while therma knit and rainwear weren’t as good as tempcontrol bike gear, they were much better than nothing.
“Raven’s way too arrogant.” Kelsa dug into the bike’s pack. “I kept telling him I could work better if I had information. But he will be able to get away, right?”
“Of course,” the old woman assured her. “But it might take a while. He could shapeshift through those bars anytime, but before he does that he’ll have to dominate one of those policemen into turning off the security cameras—and that’s not something they’d ordinarily do. I expect he’ll catch up with us sometime after we cross into Alaska. But you still have the catalyst, don’t you?”
“Of course.” Kelsa handed Otter Woman a stack of clothing, then pulled out the medicine pouch to show her.
After a blink of surprise the old woman began to put on the shirt. “Well, I’m glad Raven wasn’t carrying it! That would stop us right here. Would you like me to keep it safe for you? If we lost that little bag…”
Catastrophe. But Kelsa had been carrying the pouch for so long, she was reluctant to give it up. The control-freak side of her, but still…
“Raven said carrying it would make it easier for me to use,” she said. “And after all, he’s the one who ended up in jail! But I’m glad he won’t be there long. I wouldn’t like to leave him in trouble, even if he is an arrogant jerk.”
The old woman’s warm laugh rang out once more. “I’d have said ‘arrogant young fool.’ But as for leaving him, he’s the one who sent me to guide you until he can rejoin us. So don’t feel badly about leaving him behind. You look exhausted, poor girl. The police have set their trap on the road ahead—they’re not looking for you until just before Hope Lake. We can camp right here tonight.”
***

Not having lived on it for over a week, Otter Woman dug into peanut butter and crackers with relish. “This nut stuff is very nourishing. I’ve never eaten it before. And you’ll need the energy, my girl. We’ve got to go a long way back for the tree calling.”

“Back?” Kelsa, who’d been folding up the tent, turned to stare. “I can’t go back through Deese Lake; the police may be looking for me. Why should we go back?”
“I can take you around the town,” the old woman told her. “But we’ve got to go back. The best place to call on trees, and all the living green of this world, lies on the other side of that … what is it called, Bug Pass? There are other places along the ley where you could call on trees, but the ancient grove is … well, it’s special. I can’t think why Raven took you past it.”
“We were arguing.” Kelsa fought down a pang of guilt. “He may have thought I couldn’t focus, or something.”
“Perhaps that’s it.” The old woman nodded wisely. “But it’s still the best place for the calling of trees, so back we go. Don’t worry about the police. As I said, they’re not looking on the road yet.”
Kelsa wondered how she knew. Perhaps this Eagle was scouting for her, or some other ally. Unlike Raven, Otter Woman would be smart enough to accept help. Still…
“I’d rather keep moving north,” Kelsa said. “If we go back, it will give those bikers more time to catch up.”
Her skin crawled at the thought. The old woman might be smarter than Raven, but fighting against a biker gang, Kelsa would rather have a strong young man on her side. Of course, Otter Woman might be able to be a strong young man if she chose to.
“The bikers? Oh.” Angry contempt swept over the wrinkled face. “Don’t concern yourself with those useless creatures. They’re probably still groaning over their hurts and hiding their precious drugs on the other side of the border. They’re no match for me.”
Raven wasn’t the only one with an arrogant streak, but in this case Kelsa found it reassuring. “Well, if the best nexus is behind us … All right. How are we going to get around Deese Lake?”
***

It turned out to be easier than Kelsa expected, though it took a long time. The old woman guided her for almost a mile through the brush-choked tangling woods to a fishing trail that followed the Cottonwood River, and then ran along the far shore of Deese Lake itself. It was even slower going than the potholed road, but Kelsa was accustomed to wrestling her bike over mountain trails. She was almost sorry when, in the late afternoon, the old woman instructed her to turn onto one of the paths that led back to the Cassiar Highway.

Kelsa rode back up the other side of Gnat Pass, taking the stretch where she’d blown out her tire at a cautious crawl.
It felt wonderful to reach the place where the new paving began, to increase speed till the wind tugged at her clothes, and to sweep around the curves. For once, the road was dry.
It was just past dinnertime when the old woman tapped her shoulder.
“Slow down!” Her voice was as thin as a bird’s, and she shouted over the wind. “We’re almost there.”
Kelsa slowed obediently. There was still no traffic to speak of.
The small white sign, Ancient Forest Trail, was so unobtrusive Kelsa wasn’t surprised she’d missed it before.
There wasn’t even a paved parking area beyond the shoulder, but a swath of rocky earth had been graded out of the base of the hill, and Kelsa pulled the bike over and stopped.
It wasn’t raining, but when she took her helmet off the air was soft with moisture, caressing her skin like Joby’s baby fingers. Her hair would frizz up like a clown’s in this much humidity. Stupid as it seemed, she was glad Raven wouldn’t be there to see it.
The old woman dismounted the bike with the same surprising grace with which she’d ridden all day. She hadn’t demanded to drive, either.
“This small forest has never been cut.” Otter Woman gestured to a rugged-looking trail that ran up the slope. “It’s not large, just a cleft in the hillside. I suppose it was too steep for them. A few years ago one of your nature tribes took control of the land and forbade anyone to cut the trees. Some of them are almost a thousand years old.”
“How do you know all that?” Kelsa asked curiously.
Otter Woman looked surprised. “It’s on another sign.” She pointed up the trail.
Raven would have pretended some mystic source of knowledge, or at least been amused by such a literal answer, and Kelsa felt a flash of regret for his absence. Not that she missed him. And he should be back soon, anyway.
An uphill scramble from the road brought them to the top of a small rise, where a more or less flat plateau held a large sign that confirmed the old woman’s information. It also displayed a trail map with three loops.
“Which one do we take?” Kelsa asked.
Otter Woman shrugged. “Whichever holds a tree that speaks to you. That’s what’s needed.”
Kelsa turned back to the sign, waving off the mosquitoes clustering around her. Thank goodness her father had insisted on keeping her repellant shots up-to-date.
“Big Tree Loop sounds promising.”
“Then Big Tree Loop it is,” Otter Woman said. “You go first.”
This forest had survived because its slopes were too steep to log, so it was no surprise that the trail was steep too. Steps cut out of fallen logs and wobbling rocks alternated with flat patches, where plank bridges kept Kelsa’s feet out of the bog. Even though they wouldn’t bite, the mosquitoes were attracted to her body heat and swarmed around whenever Kelsa stopped to catch her breath. She noticed that they didn’t bother Otter Woman either, but that was no surprise.
There were more open places than Kelsa had expected. Places where some ancient giant had crashed down, letting in swaths of sunlight that glowed on the ferns and the floating, thorny beauty of devil’s club.
Crude wooden signs marked forks in the trail. Almost any of the towering cedars, whose ribboned bark ran up hundreds of feet before the lacy foliage appeared, would have done as far as Kelsa was concerned.
She was beginning to tire when she spotted three huge trees standing together. Kelsa stopped, bending her neck till she could see the sunlit branches far above—all healthy, as far as she could tell. When she stepped off the trail, the damp loam of the forest floor bounced under her feet like the floor in a really good gym.
The forest wasn’t silent. Water trickled through a dozen streams, mosquitoes hummed, and wind sifted through the branches above. But its soul was utterly still, with the quiet aliveness of trees.
“Here,” Kelsa said. “This will do.”
The old woman nodded. Kelsa untied the neck of the medicine bag, and then folded it into her pocket.
In Raven’s presence, she might have felt silly performing the obeisance to trees her father had taught her. But she thought the old woman would understand, and she swept her hands up and around, ending in a deep bow.
“Greetings, your majesty.”
The cedar’s spirit felt different from that of the great cottonwood back home—older, more self-contained, but not unfriendly.
Kelsa laid her hands on the smooth bark. Despite a level of humidity that made her sinuses run, it felt dry under her palms.
For trees, the words came to her easily.
“Child of time, watching the ages pass. Part of the life that breathes for all the earth, breathe for us now. Heal and be strong.”
She cast a generous pinch of sand over the tree, then replaced her hand against the cool trunk. The scent of cedar and wet green life filled her lungs. Kelsa’s sense of the forest’s spirit was as strong and deep as ever … and nothing changed.
No welling of power. No surge of reaction. Nothing.
Kelsa turned to the old woman, dismayed.
“Is this the wrong tree? I didn’t feel anything. No ley power at all.”
Astonishment swept over Otter Woman’s face. “You can sense the ley? Raven didn’t tell me that.”
Raven, who’d been so surprised by her ability to feel the blast of power through the nexus, hadn’t mentioned it to his allies? Raven, who’d taken Kelsa right past this place. Raven, who hadn’t tracked them down in a full night and day in a form he could take safely even in Canada.
Cold certainty swept over Kelsa. This forest wasn’t on the ley at all, and Otter Woman had brought her back here deliberately.
She wasn’t Raven’s ally. She was the enemy.