Wait. She was? “No splinters?”
“There were splinters. But there was a lot more of you.” He tipped his head toward the trail. “Move, Blake. Somebody has to make sure you don’t walk off a cliff.”
I got moving.
We didn’t say anything else on the hike back to hutquarters, but Marcus stood by and waited when I stopped to heave on the side of the trail. All three times. It was a huge step for me and Death.
Huge.
I still felt shaky when we got up there. Jode, Bastian, and Daryn were gathered at the stone circle around a fire, which had become our usual spot at the end of the day. It was only five or so, but it felt much later. The shadow of the mountain had already fallen over the clearing.
“Gideon, look at this!” Sebastian lifted a guitar in the air. “Dare got it for us!”
A guitar?
And Dare?
What?
I told him I’d be right back, then I jogged to the hut and changed into a fresh shirt, wrinkled but mostly clean, and did a quick washup before heading back outside. There were two unclaimed stones around the fire on either side of Daryn, which was perfect. Exactly where I wanted to be.
I didn’t know what my plan was. All I knew was that something had to change. And I was pretty sure that I was the something.
“You’re going to like this, Gideon,” Jode said, flashing me a wry grin. “Sebastian here would like us to form a boy band.”
Bas was bent over the guitar, tuning it. For over a week, all I’d heard was wind, fire, our weapons colliding, or our voices. By comparison the guitar sounded clear and rich, like my hearing had just gone high-def.
He looked up, grinning at me. “Think about it, G! We can be the Fjord Horsemen!”
I laughed, and then listened as the guitar story came out. While I’d gone on my recon hike, Jode and Daryn had walked down to the tourist station. Daryn had struck up a friendship with the attendant there, a woman named Isabel. As they’d left, Daryn had convinced Isabel to give us the guitar, which some tourists had left behind.
“Isabel?” I asked, glancing at Daryn. That name sounded familiar.
She nodded, and then I knew. The Seeker she’d told me about, her friend, was close by.
“The guitar’s missing a string,” Daryn said. “That’s the only downfall.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Bas said. “It’s awesome.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Daryn tugged her sleeves over her hands. “I wasn’t sure if any of you played, but I figured it didn’t matter. If you practiced a little bit every day, you could learn. Or if one of you had some experience with musical instruments from their career, or as a hobby or whatever, maybe that person could teach the others, assuming his methods of instruction weren’t totalitarian and inflexible. Or just flat-out rude. And that the other people, who might also benefit from learning to play, didn’t interfere and create additional problems by being obstinate, negative, or easily discouraged. Anyway, I thought you’d all enjoy it.”
The four of us looked at each other. We’d just been gently but thoroughly dressed down.
Bastian started plucking a tune, stumbling as he adjusted to the missing string. The thinnest string was gone, I noticed. The one that should’ve been at the bottom. But he adapted quickly and his fingers moved faster, playing a song that was like a chase, the notes running up and down and back up. We listened in silence as he made five strings work together. Work together really well to create something complete.
We got it. We heard her message loud and clear.
Bas started up on another song. I wanted to keep listening, but I had something I needed to do first. “Daryn.”
She turned sharply to me, surprise in her eyes.
“Walk with me?” I asked.
She didn’t say a word, just stood.
We took a trail that went up the mountain, instead of the more familiar one to the practice area. My heart thudded as we walked. It’d been over a week since we’d been alone and I had a ton of things I wanted to say. I tried to get it into some kind of order.
We stopped when we’d reached a smooth ledge. The sound of the guitar was quieter in the distance, but still clear.
“Isabel’s here,” I said. “Something going on? Do we know anything new?”
“No.” Daryn crossed her arms. “She’s just reinforcement. She’ll be there to help, if we need it.” She paused, toeing at the grass. “I didn’t know she’d be there until I saw her. It was good to see her.”
I could relate to that. I’d wanted to look at Daryn for days without checking myself, or overthinking it. Now she was right here, and I went right into binge mode on it. I couldn’t look away from her. I’d missed talking to her. I just wanted to be around her again.
“You have such a knot on the side of your head,” she said. “When are you and Marcus going to … What are you looking at, Gideon?”
“You. I’m looking at you.”
Her eyes started to shine with some emotion that made my throat go raw.
“How am I looking?” she asked.