I dropped my gaze. The word death echoed in my head. My mouth felt parched. Swishel must have known exactly what would happen to her if she helped me escape. She could clearly read these terrible symbols and she had seen them. I couldn’t help but wonder why she would sacrifice herself for me. Why didn’t she try to save herself too? It didn’t have to end that way. She really was dead.
“You know the one whose life was spent,” the man continued, “but it was not you who caused it. I can see it on your face. So if it was not you who committed the crime, who was it? Whose fate lies on your skin?”
I backed up against the tree’s trunk once again and shrugged, my shoulders rubbing against the bark. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”
The human smiled, but it was a strange smile, almost forced. “Let me help you. I can read the other symbols and help you interpret them. I can show you what your future entails.”
Swishel had told me I was too young to be burdened with the symbols’ meanings. She was wrong. I wasn't the little kid who had been brought to the Iron Gates ten years ago, and as an adult I deserved to know what the symbols meant. I looked at the man trying to help me. But then I remembered another piece of advice Swishel had left with me. It was so important that she had told me in person and in the note. I wasn't supposed to trust anyone.
“That would be great,” I replied to the stranger, hoping my hesitation didn’t make him suspect me.
His eyes were suddenly full of lust and excitement. “Indeed,” he said. “Follow me to my village. It's just a short stroll from here. I can give you some food and water. It seems like you’ve had a long journey. Everything will be okay now. A beautiful young woman like yourself is not safe in these parts. No one will try to hurt you anymore.”
I had never said anyone had tried to hurt me. Swishel had told me that many people would attempt to, though. Smiling, I nodded at the stranger.
As he stood up to make his descent, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the rock that Breghton had given to me. I had held on to it all these years, never forgetting his memory. Before the stranger even knew what I was doing, I threw it at his face. He ducked out of the way and laughed a crazy laugh. But the laughter quickly faded as he lost his footing on the branch. Unluckily for him, there was no owl to catch his fall.
“Chinook!” I yelled as loudly as I could. My eyes looked up at the empty sky, hoping he would reappear. “Chinook, please! Help me!”
I heard the thud of the man's body hitting the hard ground. He moaned from the base of the tree.
“You stupid little bitch,” he said, resentment filling his voice. He got up slowly, limping. His left leg twisted at an awkward angle. I grabbed my satchel and started climbing up the trunk of the tree as fast as I could, grabbing branches, hoisting myself higher and higher.
“I would have spared your life,” hissed the man. His voice seemed close.
I looked down and saw him climbing up after me.
“I just wanted to have some fun with you. But I am a man of little patience,” he continued. His voice grew deeper and more menacing. “You have left me no choice. I’d rather just take your ashes anyway. I will burn you alive and collect a handsome sum for your remains."
I kept climbing, but his laughter was growing louder. He was gaining on me.
"Such a waste of your pretty little body, though. A pity indeed. I'll just have my way with you until you beg for death.” The man started laughing his crazy laugh again. It was even worse than Mortwar’s. It made my hair tremble.
Just before I reached the very top of the tree, his clammy hand wrapped around my ankle. I clung tightly to the rough bark. My nails dug into the wood as he tried to ri
p me from the tree’s trunk. My small stature put me at a disadvantage.
"Struggling will make this worse for you!"
I kicked my free foot at his hand. This just caused his grip to grow tighter. He yanked my ankle down, and pulled me lower. I could feel the splinters jabbing deep into my fingertips as I started to slip. His hand slid up my leg and he grabbed my thigh fiercely.
"You're mine now."
A high pitched squeal made my hair stand on end. Chinook swooped down from above, a small basket hung around his neck. He made the strange noise again. It was unlike any sound I had ever heard an owl make before. Chinook wrapped his talons around my arms and carried me into the morning sky, with the stranger still grasping my leg. I began pounding the man’s hands with my free foot. He slid back down to my ankle, but then dug his nails deep. Chinook dove down lower, and rammed the man against the top of a tree. He toppled onto the upper branches, screaming in pain, as his curses disappeared into the wind.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and I was panting, struggling to find my breath. I rubbed at my thigh and ankle with the bottom of my boot in an attempt to remove the feeling of his hands on me. I had always thought that brutarians were the worst kind of people, but this human was just as vulgar and vile as Mortwar. Being outside the Iron Gates was no better than being imprisoned behind it. I had barely escaped being raped and murdered. Chinook had come to my rescue just in time and Swishel had advised me well. The stranger in the tree had wanted me for the gift I possessed, but he must have been wrong about the symbols describing my fate. And his ramblings about selling my ashes were nonsense. He was clearly a loon. Yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that he was telling the truth. Swishel had mentioned that my mother warned her old village of what was to come. It was as if she had predicted the Great Ravage that Breghton had told me about. The symbols on my body had disappeared after my dream of Swishel dying. Even though my mother didn't have strange glowing symbols on her body, there seemed to be truth in what the human said.
We flew for miles with me dangling below Chinook. The morning air at that altitude was cool. I longed to feel the warmth of Chinook's feathers.
I looked down past my feet at the land speeding below us. The trees of the forest were long gone. They had been replaced with rolling hills of green grass. We were flying even faster than yesterday. In the far distance, I saw a large mountain range coming into view. As we got closer, I noticed that the peaks looked very similar to the ones that surrounded the Iron Gates, but the mountains seemed only half as tall and they were gray instead of black.
Wind rushed around me, biting my cheeks with the bitter cold air. My teeth began chattering. The warm sun had disappeared behind menacing clouds, and the shadow of Chinook’s wings blocked any heat I could have gained from it anyway. Raindrops started falling, smacking me on the face. A streak of lightning shot through the sky in front of us, followed by a rumble of thunder from above. Chinook hooted softly. The rain started to fall faster and Chinook soared downwards. He flapped his wings and flew to one of the only trees in an otherwise empty field. Below us, the tall grasses swayed eerily in the increasing wind. He dropped me on a branch and I shimmied as close to the trunk as I could. We were completely hidden behind the yellow autumn leaves.
Chinook hooted and lowered his head. The basket slid off his neck and caught on a branch. He opened one of the flaps with his beak and pulled out a small package before hopping over to me and placing the bundle on my lap. I pulled the brown string to unwrap two sandwiches. I lifted the top piece of bread on one of them and saw the eggs scrambled just the way I liked them.
“How did you know?” I asked Chinook. "And where did you get all this from?"
He looked at me quizzically and flapped his wings, splattering water off the sides of him. I was too hungry to worry about what unfavorable things Chinook had done to come about this food. It was just lucky that whoever he had snatched it from liked the same food as me. I took a huge bite of the sandwich and gulped down some water that Chinook had taken out of the basket. After finishing the first sandwich, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Chinook was eyeing the second sandwich. He stayed quiet, but I could tell he wanted it for himself.