“Jae,” Pete’s worried voice said. “Jae, get up.”
“What?” I mumbled, sitting up.
“Sage isn’t in camp,” he said.
“What?” I repeated.
“Sage is missing!”
Everyone in the tent woke up and started scurrying around. I leapt out of the tent after pulling my boots on. Heather, Emily and Serenity were huddled over a spot by the fire and Pete and I went to them.
“What are you looking at?” Pete asked.
“Sage woke up last night and I gave her some tea. Her mug and half a cup of it are on the ground,” Serenity informed everyone.
“Sage!” Argus yelled, looking down the path the way we’d come. I turned around to see Sage walking up the path towards us. She was wearing the same clothes she’d been in yesterday and her hair had been hastily tied back. Heather rushed out to meet her and they walked back.
“Sorry, guys, I didn’t realize I’d be gone that long,” Sage mumbled as we huddled around her. “I felt sick and I thought I’d puke in peace, away from people.”
“D’ya want me to check ya out?”
“No, I think I’ll be fine,” she said. “I was just a bit nauseated. It’s probably nerves, or something.” I could tell by her face that she didn’t believe that, and neither did Pete or Heather.
“Are you sure, Sage?” Pete asked.
“We need to get ready to go,” Sage ordered, stopping the conversation. We all knew better than to press the point, and dressed.
“What do you think is wrong with her, Argus?” Landon whispered, even though Sage was across the path in the women’s tent.
“There’re a lot o’ things that can make a person nauseous and ill,” Argus said, tying up his bedroll and minimizing it.
“What do you think it is, though?”
“It could be a number o’ things. I’ll be keep’n a watch on her, though.”
“If she says it’s nothing, then we don’t have to worry,” Pete said, pulling a loose cotton shirt on. “She’s strong and if she says she can handle it, then she can.”
“If she’s so strong, then does she usually get queasy when she’s nervous?” Austin asked. He was already packed and ready, but was waiting at the mouth of the tent for the rest of us. Pete clamped his mouth shut, so we all knew the answer.
“Boys! Hurry up!” Heather’s pleasant tone called at us. She knocked on the side of the tent, causing the entire thing to shake.
“We’re coming!” Jason assured her, pulling off his light pants and quickly pulling on sturdier pants. I quickly changed as well, and then pulled on my shoes.
Outside the girls’ tent was already packed away and Emily was passing out small egg-stuffed bacon sandwiches.
“Sage wanted to get moving as quickly as possible,” she explained as she handed it out.
“Is she ready to move already?” Jason asked, taking his food. “She just threw up.”
“I’m fine,” Sage’s stern voice said from behind us. Emily handed her a sandwich. “Thanks, Em. We should all get going as soon as possible. We can eat and walk at the same time. The next challenge has something to do with… ah, the legend says this.” She cleared her throat. “You will find yourself in a marshland of sorts. Keep moving onward towards the water, and do not dally long. You may find safe camp upon the large rocks that are there, but watch your step as you travel the swampy muck.”
“Why does it have to be so confusing?” Michal, the other truth seer, asked. “Why can’t it just say ‘hey, you know what, there’s going to be a swamp with some icky mud, but the big rocks are safe, so try to stay on those, if you can.’ Wouldn’t that be a lot simpler?”
“With ‘icky mud’?” Emily giggled, handing out second sandwiches to some of us. I took a second. Michal shrugged while taking a bite. We all started walking, Serenity putting out the fire behind us, and I watched as Sage pick out the bacon in her sandwich and throw them on the ground.
“Sage, are you throwing out your bacon? Carson asked, astonished.
“I’m not used to meat yet,” she replied coolly. She sped up to avoid talking.
“What’s her problem?” Carson asked.
“She’s been through a lot, remember,” Serenity scolded quietly. “She had a nightmare last night, about the Hole, I don’t doubt, and us being hard on her doesn’t help anybody.” Carson looked down sheepishly, like a scolded child. My respect for Serenity doubled. We kept walking, and I could smell a salty tang the farther we walked, as if we were getting closer to some ocean or sea.
We stopped for lunch and I was overheating. Austin and Pete had already pulled off their shirts, and I followed suit. The sun was steaming down on us, evaporating whatever we sweated. Emily and Serenity worked together to make a cold lunch of iced cider and turkey sandwiches.
~*~*~
The cool turkey tasted amazing. I was so famished I may have eaten anything, actually. Well, maybe not bacon. I loved bacon, but I could hardly stomach it this morning. I remembered having it every birthday before the Hole. It was the one thing that Dad had always promised: bacon for breakfast.
“Sage, you hungry?” Heather asked. I had already finished a sandwich.
“Starving,” I replied.
“I thought you weren’t used to meat yet?” Pete asked skeptically, afraid of angering me. I shot him a glare.
“Apparently being hungry changes that.”
Serenity passed me another sandwich with a worried look. I ignored it and ate my second sandwich then drained the cold cider.
“Sweetie, do you need anything else?” she asked. I shook my head. “Well, do you want…”
“AH!” Emily squealed. She jumped onto the other side of the path from where she was sitting. She stared wide-eyed into the forest. Everybody grouped around to look too.
Sitting on a fallen tree, nearly out of sight, was a dark-cloaked woman in a forest-green dress. She was bent down over an old wooden tub and a washboard, scrubbing a stained blue blouse. Her hair was hanging down on the side of her face in lank, gray strands. Her eyes were red from crying and set into an ancient, withered face. She dropped the blue blouse and pulled a gray t-shirt out of a tattered bag. This was also stained. While she washed she sang, but she didn’t sing words, just notes. The notes sounded almost like an owl singing, calling to its own. When she put the gray shirt into the tub she pulled out another shirt, a white muscle-shirt.
“What… who… what is she?” Emily asked, frightened. “You… you said that the forest isn’t safe, but she’s in there.”
“It’s a banshee,” Carson said, awed. “She gives warnings and…” The awed expression slid off of his face. “She gives warnings and foretells death through her song.”
“Death?” Jason asked. The banshee had started washing another shirt, this one was red. When she put this shirt into her tub she stopped singing and pulled her dark hood up. Her sad, red eyes looked over at us, and then she picked up her washing tub and walked away, deeper into the forest.
She had washed four shirts, one woman’s blouse and three men’s shirts. That meant one girl and three guys were going to die soon. Or maybe that meant only those people would. I did the math in my head, but it didn’t work out. Four subtracted from twelve made eight, and eight couldn’t make it. At least five people were going to die.
If the banshee was right, I corrected myself. A feeling of dread curdled in the pit of my stomach.
“We should keep going,” I said into the silence. It took a while for people to start moving. Emily and Jason stood transfixed, staring at the spot the banshee had been. Carson had his eyes closed and looked like he was praying. Serenity had her eyes closed as well, but she seemed to be concentrating on something.
Heather let out a small sob. We all turned to look at her; her eyes were now as red as the banshee’s had been.
“People are going to start dying now, aren’t they?” she sniffled. Peter took two long strides towards her and hugged her to him.
“Sweetheart, remember what we’re here for,” he murmured quietly, but his deep voice carried to everyone. “We knew that it was a possibility.”
“But… but… I don’t want anybody to… to die,” she insisted into his shoulder. “I’ve gotten to… to like everybody.”
“We like you too, Heather,” Austin said. “We’ll be alright.” She turned her hopeful eyes to him and nodded solemnly. She took a few deep breaths.
“Pete, I think you found my nickname.”
“I guess I did,” Pete smiled weakly. “It fits for you, Sweetheart.”
We all got ready to move again, but this time nobody talked. The mood was thick and sad, weighing us down. The sun didn’t seem so hot anymore, even if we were all sweating through our shirts, or in the guy’s case, just sweating. We had nine tasks left.