“That would be the lake outside Ortley. We’re close.” I halted her with a hand on her arm and released a heavy breath, rubbing at the back of my neck.
She lifted her face up to me. I knew she wasn’t going to like what I was about to say. “Perhaps I should go into the village on my own.”
She looked stricken for a moment, and then her expression cleared into a neutral mask. “You’re leaving me out here?”
“We’ll find someplace safe for you to hole up—”
“Are you coming back?”
I stared at her, stunned. “You still think I would leave you?”
“You never wanted me along.”
“I’m not abandoning you,” I replied quickly.
She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her body. “I’m sorry. I know that—I just don’t want to stay out here alone.”
Almost in response, a dweller cried in the far-off distance. The sound was common enough and far enough away that it hardly even made me flinch.
“Luna, there will be soldiers there. To say nothing of mercenaries . . . desperate people who would do anything for a month’s ration. If anyone realizes you’re—”
“I’m going with you.” That stubborn chin of hers went up.
“Luna—”
“It’s dangerous everywhere.” She held her arms out wide at her sides. “What makes you think nothing will happen to me out here?” She stepped closer and seized my hand, clasping it in both of hers. I stared down at our hands, her pale, small fingers wrapped around my bigger ones. “We need to stay together, Fowler. Don’t you see that? After last time . . .” She gave my hands a squeeze. “We’re stronger together.”
I gazed into her earnest face and felt my resolve crumble. “Come on then.”
She started to pull her hands from mine, but I tightened my grip around one of them and held fast. Without looking at her face again, I turned and led the way, weaving back through the woods, straining my eyes for the first glimpse of civilization in the thick press of giant trees.
They spotted us first. A soft swishing whispered on the air. I looked up. A silhouette swung across the night, vaulting from one tree to the next like some sort of tree monkey. I instantly dropped her hand.
“Something is above us,” she pointed out.
“Smart,” I murmured, watching the body deftly maneuver between trees. “It’s a man. He’s swinging from tree to tree.” Aside from branches, various pegs and boards of wood stuck out from the trees, giving him plenty of places to land—a well-arranged system for spying on anyone or anything on the ground.
“A man?” she echoed.
“A watch, I’m guessing. Come on. Let’s follow.” If he’s tasked to report interlopers, then he’d be heading back to the village now.
I lost sight of the figure as we moved deeper into the woods, and, according to Luna, closer to the smell of water. The watch was gone, but the forest felt like it had its own eyes now. Our progress was being monitored.
“Remember, you’re no longer a girl,” I whispered, assuming we weren’t going to be alone much longer.
We were moving uphill now. Her pace slowed. Our breaths fell a little faster and I had to resist reclaiming her hand. If we were still being watched, holding her hand might not help convince them that she was a boy.
“Fowler,” she gasped. “I can smell . . . dwellers.”
“We’re close,” I called back. The gold light bleeding onto the dark horizon told me there was something just beyond the rise.
I could almost imagine the village ahead, a smaller version of Relhok City, the great walls protecting its citizens. The lookouts on the battlements would see us and lift the gate so we could take shelter within. I saw this all in my mind’s eye.
Eager, I pressed on, reaching the top of the hill. A large platform appeared in the sky, built into the tops of the trees. “Whoa,” I breathed, gazing up in awe. So this was how they survived. “They live in the trees.”
Never, since I left the capital, had I seen anything like it. It was a vast village. A true city in the trees. I gazed at the underbellies of buildings and paths constructed around the elaborate network of trunks and branches.
There were a few big houses and buildings, but most were small, no more than shacks similar to the lean-tos that had been erected on the outer edges of Relhok City. A jumble of shanties that didn’t look fit to sleep a dog. It was the kind of place Bethan had lived in. Her image rose in my mind, her face an elusive smudge of features. I remembered her eyes had been blue, but knowing and remembering were two different things. I couldn’t see them in my head. Not her blue eyes. Not her face.
Brown-black eyes set within a pale face swam in my mind. When I closed my eyes at night, it was Luna’s face I was coming to see.
I shook off the distracting thought and continued to assess the mad jumble high above, looking for a way up. All the structures were interconnected with paths of wood planks. Light spilled from the buildings and out the cracks between the planks.