Page 146 of Moon Chosen

“Why did you do that?” Mari asked, feeling breathless.

“I’m not sure,” Nik said.

She pulled her hand from his. “Well, good-bye.” This time when she turned away, he didn’t try to stop her.

Mari made it quickly to the other side of the creek. Pausing for just a moment, she turned, expecting to see Nik’s back as he hobbled away. He was standing exactly where she’d left him, and he was watching her. Self-consciously, she lifted her hand, waving at him.

Instead of waving back, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the water. “I said I’d tell you the truth, and here are two truths! One—I would give my world to have a Shepherd like Rigel choose me. And two—Iwillsee you again. That I promise!” Then he turned and limped into the waiting forest.

Mari didn’t allow herself to watch him, or at least not for very long.

39

The rest of Nik’s journey home was exhausting, painful, and entirely too silent. He should have been excited to get back to the Tribe, but the truth was the closer he got, the more his mind was at war.

He’d found the pup, but he didn’t have the pup.

He’d found the cure for the blight, but he didn’t have the cure.

And he’d found the girl on fire, but he didn’t have her, either.

“Sure, yeah, I could announce the truth to everyone. Then what happens?” Nik reasoned aloud. “The entire Tribe demands I find Mari and bring her, the pup, and the cure to them.” He shook his head. “IfI found her again, and that’s a big if unless Mari wants to be found, she wouldn’t agree to come to the Tribe.” Nik scowled to himself, imagining what men like Thaddeus would do. “They’d bring her to the Tribe, willing or not. Rigel would protect her. Who knows where that would lead?” He shuddered, remembering too well the terrible story his father had told him about Galen and his Orion. They’d both been killed—both. And they had been full members of the Tribe, Companions, respected by all. “What would they do to Mari?”

No. There had to be another way. Mari was smart and compassionate. Once he earned her trust, made her understand that he and his father would fight to change things for the captive Earth Walkers, then he believed she would share the cure for the blight with him.

“I need time. Father will help me. He and I will figure this out.” And that meant he couldn’t tell anyone except Sol about Mari’s ability to heal the blight. “So, where have I been? How do I explain not being dead?” Nik limped forward, thinking… thinking…

He found the answer as he topped the ridge on which spread the Tribe of the Trees. Standing there, catching his breath and admiring the majesty of the Tribe, Nik understood what he had to do.

Nik had to tell the truth. Or at least as much of it as he could without putting Mari’s whole world in danger.

He limped to the lift and tugged on the chain. From far above a voice called, “Who goes there?”

“Davis?”

There was a long pause. “Nik?”

“Yes! It’s me!”

The lift immediately began to lower, and as Nik climbed in it and ascended he could hear Cammy’s excited barking. As soon as the door to the cagelike lift opened, a blond blur ran to him, leaping around and huffing as the little Terrier greeted him.

“Cammy, it’s good to see you!” Nik bent stiffly, petting the canine.

Then Davis grabbed him in a bearlike hug, making Nik laugh while he grimaced in pain.

“Sorry! Sorry. Are you hurt? They said you’d been killed, so you have to be hurt. Sorry, didn’t mean to grab you like that!” Davis babbled and he pumped Nik’s hand in a less painful greeting.

“I’m okay, or at least I am now. It’s really good to see you, Davis.”

“Sol’s going to be beside himself when he sees you. Come on! Let’s get you to your father.”

“Wait, Davis. Where is Father?”

“Oh, bloody beetle balls, what’s wrong with me? You need to see the Healers first. You’re standing, but you look like you could fall over any second. And what are you wearing? Can you walk? How badly hurt are you?”

“Okay, one thing at a time. I can walk, but not very much farther. I can make it to Father’s nest, though. Do you know where Father is?” Nik repeated.

“I think he’s on his platform, taking in the last rays of the setting sun.”