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She barely slept, trying to come up with a way to meet the woman again, to ask more questions, but when she awoke from her last uneasy doze, her father was already ordering everyone to hitch up their wagons.
Had he been suspicious? Or had he simply been in a hurry to get to this meeting? She couldn’t be sure and now it was too late.
Or was it? If she and Merry could get back to Jaelle, maybe she really could help them. And maybe it had been long enough that her father wouldn’t immediately know where they had gone. It had taken them two weeks and another stop to get to this camp. The wagons didn’t move much faster than a person walking, but it would still take them two weeks to return – two weeks in open country where they would be far too easily spotted. At least if they followed the caravan route…
She quickly pulled out one of her precious maps. Yes, just as she remembered. There was a shorter route leading back through a pass in the foothills - a route that no one ever took. It had been several years, but hadn’t she asked her father about it when they traveled this way before? And he’d adamantly refused to consider it.
“Too dangerous,” he said, looking unusually grim.
“I don’t understand. The river winds around a bit, but there should plenty of space for wagons to pass next to the river –”
He backhanded her.
“I said it’s too dangerous.”
He had stomped off without any further explanation, but Reggi, an older woman who had been with the caravan for a long time, had been more forthcoming.
“They call it Ghost Valley. Because of all the people who went in and never came out.”
“Ghosts? You can’t be serious.”
The old woman shrugged.
“You get to my age, you see a lot of things. Place doesn’t feel right to me.”
Reggi stopped traveling with them the next year, settling down on the coast, but Katerina could still remember the way her face had sobered as she added, “Best to avoid trouble.”
No doubt Reggi was right, but she was already in trouble. The pass through the valley would be shorter, it would provide more shelter, and with any luck it wouldn’t occur to her father that they might go that way.
Mind made up, she blew out the lantern, then climbed into her bunk and waited. The time ticked slowly by but eventually the flap was pushed aside and the reek of whiskey wafted into the wagon. Her father chuckled and stumbled away. She waited as patiently as she could until she was sure everything was silent, then threw back the covers and went to her sister’s side, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Merry’s eyes flew open, wide and startled in the dimness.
“Time to go,” she whispered.
CHAPTER3
By the time the sun rose, Katerina and Merry were already well into the pass. Getting out of the caravan had been easy enough. She knew the guards’ routines like the back of her hand. Merry hadn’t even questioned her, layering on her heaviest clothes as Katerina retrieved the travel bags she had concealed in the storage beneath her bunk. Although she had assumed it was too late to return to Jaelle, now that one chance of escape had presented itself, she had been determined to be ready. She’d gradually been adding to her stock of hidden supplies, and she’d even managed to hide away a few coins. Her father kept the strongbox in his own wagon, but she’d snagged a few coins while she was doing the books. Not very many, but at least it was something.
She’d gathered everything that she could think of that might be useful but wouldn’t weigh them down. She’d hesitated the longest over her small collection of books. They had been surreptitiously obtained over the years, but they were heavy and she had memorized almost every word anyway. In the end, she only slipped her favorite into her pack and traced her hand lightly over the others, fighting back the urge to cry. Finally, she’d pulled blankets from each of their beds and made a blanket roll for each of them. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.
Merry had followed her silently until they reached the entrance to the pass, the lights of the caravan a long distance behind them.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” her sister finally asked.
“Father has decided to marry me off.”
Merry’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that a good thing? To finally get away from him?”
“No. He wasn’t a nice man.”
“He still might be better than father. And maybe I could come with you –”
“No, sweetheart.’’ She shuddered at the thought of her sister within Guyten’s grasp. “Father would never have let you go, and I don’t want you anywhere around him.”
“Who was it?”
“Guyten.”
