Nicci listened to the silence punctuated by stray breezes and the rustle of twigs. She narrowed her eyes, sensing movement from something larger than a lizard. She and Nathan were instantly alert, while Bannon kept plodding, distracted by the scenery. Then he also stopped. “What is it? Are we being stalked?” He drew his sword.
“I don’t know,” Nicci said. “I heard something.” She remained motionless, extending her senses, trying to pick up on some unseen threat.
They waited in tense silence. Nathan frowned. “Actually, I don’t hear anything.”
Suddenly, they heard a burst of bright and refreshing laughter, the high voice of a child. All three looked at the rocks overhead, the smooth bluffs marred with occasional blind ledges. A young girl stood up from a hiding place above. Small-statured and elfin, she looked about eleven years old.
“Been watching you for a long time.” She placed her hands on her hips and giggled again. “I wondered how long it would take for you to notice. I was going to surprise you!”
She looked like a waif dressed in rags. She had an unruly mop of dusty brown hair that was styled more in tangles than curls. Her honey-brown eyes twinkled as she regarded them. She had caramel-colored skin and a triangular face with a narrow chin and high cheekbones. Her arms were wiry, her legs spindly beneath an uneven skirt made of patchwork cloth. Four large lizards dangled by their tails from a rope tied around her waist; the lizard heads were smashed and bloody.
“Wait for me,” she called. “I’m coming down.”
“Who are you?” Nicci said.
“And why have you been spying on us?” Nathan demanded.
Like a lizard herself, the girl scrambled down the rock wall, finding hand-and footholds that were all but invisible, but she displayed no fear of falling. Her feet were covered with moccasins made of rope, fabric, and scraps of leather. She dropped the last five feet, landing in a resilient crouch on the rocks in front of them. The lizard carcasses at her hip flopped back and forth.
“I am spying on you because you’re strangers—and because you’re interesting.” She looked up. “My name is Thistle.”
“Thistle?” Bannon asked. “That’s an odd name. Is it because you’re prickly?”
“Or maybe I’m just hard to get rid of—like a weed. I’m from the village of Verdun Springs. Is that where you’re going? I can take you there.”
“We’re not sure where we’re going,” Nicci said. “Are you all alone here?”
“Me and the lizards,” said Thistle. “And there aren’t as many lizards now because I’ve had a good hunt today.” She squatted next to them and opened a pouch on her other hip. “I don’t often see people. I’m usually the only one who goes out exploring. Everyone else in Verdun Springs works all day just to survive.”
She tugged open the pouch’s drawstring and pulled out strips of dried, grayish meat. “These are yesterday’s lizards. Do you want some? They dried all afternoon, so the meat will be just right.” She put a strip into her mouth, seized it with her front teeth, and tore it into shreds. As she chewed and swallowed, she kept holding out her other hand to extend the offering of meat.
Bannon, Nicci, and Nathan each took a small portion of dried lizard. Bannon looked at it skeptically, but the wizard munched away without hesitation. “My uncle Marcus and aunt Luna taught me about hospitality,” said Thistle. “They say we should be kind to strangers because maybe they can help us.”
“We might be able to help,” Nicci said, thinking about her broader quest. “First we need to learn what happened here. How far is your village?”
“Not far. I’ve only been out two days, and I have enough supplies for a week. Marcus and Luna won’t be expecting me back home yet.” Thistle’s grin widened. “They’ll be surprised when I bring visitors. You sure you can help us? Can you stop the Scar from growing?” She gave them a frank assessment, then sniffed. “I don’t think you’re strong enough.”
“The Scar?” Bannon asked.
“She must mean the desolation,” Nathan said. “The whole valley ahead.”
“We call it the Scar, because that’s what it looks like,” Thistle said. “I’ve heard stories of how beautiful the valley used to be when I was just a baby. Farmlands and orchards and forests—they even had flower gardens. Can you imagine?” She snorted. “Flower gardens! Wasting water, fertilizer, and good soil just to grow flowers!”
Nicci felt sad for the girl, and her innocent comment was a poignant indication of what sort of life the people in her village must be enduring as the devastation expanded.
She continued to chatter. “If you can save us, if you can break the Lifedrinker’s spell and bring the fertile lands back, how I would love to see it! All my life I’ve dreamed of making the land beautiful again.” She sprang to her feet, ready to go. She trotted off, calling over her shoulder, “Do you really think you can destroy the Lifedrinker?”
“Who is the Lifedrinker?” Nathan asked.
Nicci cautioned, “We did not promise we could do anything.”
When the girl shook her head, the tangled brown curls bobbed about like weeds. “Everyone knows about the Lifedrinker! The evil wizard at the heart of the Scar who sucks the life out of the world to feed his own emptiness.” She lowered her voice. “That’s what my uncle Marcus says. I don’t really know anything more.”
“Won’t your uncle be worried about you alone in the wilderness for days?” Nicci asked.
“I can take care of myself.” Thistle set off with a pert stride, skipping over the stones. Without slowing, she bent to snatch rocks in her right hand and kept moving down the wash, knowing that they would follow. “I’ve raised myself since my parents died when I was just a little girl. Uncle Marcus and Aunt Luna took care of me, but they didn’t have any extra food or water, so I have to feed myself most of the time, and I try to bring in enough to help them.”
Thistle jerked her head to the left, focused on a flash of movement she had spotted. Quicker than even Nicci could see, the girl hurled the rocks. They clacked, clattered, and struck their target, and she bounded ahead and squatted down to retrieve a small lizard she had just killed. Thistle held it up, pursing her lips. “Almost too tiny to be worth the effort.” Nevertheless, she tucked it among the other carcasses at her waist. “Aunt Luna says never to waste food. Food is hard enough to come by these days.”
The energetic girl led them along at a pace that Nicci had trouble matching. Nathan and Bannon started to slow down as they trudged over the rough rocks. Thistle scampered along, overjoyed to have company. “You’re very pretty,” she said to Nicci. “What is your home like? Where do you come from?”
“I am from far to the north,” Nicci said. “In the New World.”
“This is the only world I know. Are there trees where you live? And water? Flowers?”
“Yes. And cities … and even flower gardens.”
Thistle frowned. “Flower gardens? Why would you leave such a nice place to come here?”
“We didn’t know we were coming here. We’re on a long journey.”
“I’m glad you came,” Thistle said. “You can fight the Lifedrinker. You’ll find a way to restore the valley and the whole world.”