Miki, Shorty and their remaining air and water-wielders were already at the meeting spot, their numbers significantly degraded. The rest of the Earth and fire-wielders joined them soon after. Ash didn't dare take inventory of how many more they'd lost.
"Where's Gus?" she said as Ollie arrived, panting, next to her. "And Oroton?"
"Gus lost his temper and tried to burn a group of Establishment soldiers without backup," Ollie said. "He got shot in the leg. We concealed him as best we could. Oroton stayed to bind the wound. I think we managed to steer the soldiers off their trail well enough. As long as we remain the bigger target, they should be fine."
Ash craned her neck to the top of the spindly treetops to hide her worry. They couldn't go back. The next part of the plan required her skill as a fire-wielder and she needed to focus. Still, she couldn't clear her mind of the closed expression on Gus' face when he'd seen her and Eli holding hands.
They called the trees 'Springybarks' because of their long, lean trunks and flexible wood that could bend in the highest velocity winds without breaking. Shorty went first, commencing the climb they'd been practicing all week.
Halfway up, his monkey agility faltered. He swiped droplets of rain from his eyes and re-adjusted his footing, only to lose a hand grip and slide a few meters. They'd practiced the climb dozens of times and with all kinds of handicaps. They'd done it timed, blindfolded, with fake injuries, with extra weight on their backs. But never in the rain.
The Springybark glistened like skin covered in sweat. If Shorty was struggling, how were the rest of them going to make it?
Ash transferred her fire-twirling chains around her neck and hooked the tie of her robe around the tree. She climbed, using the tie to bind her to the trunk and the tension to pull her up. The other Wanderers followed, much slower than they'd been in training. Ash's muscles quivered so violently, she wondered how the roots hadn't come loose as a result of her shaking.
Somehow, she made it to the top, followed by Gunner, Eli and Miki. Using their combined weight, they bent the Springybark across the river—treetop meeting treetop. One-by-one, the Wanderers leaped across and shimmied down the tree on the other side of the river to safety.
The soldier's booted marching drew dangerously close and there was only one Wanderer left to complete the climb.
"Come on Jacob. Just like in training," Shorty said as the hook-nosed boy clung to a knot in the wood a few meters down, trembling.
Jacob didn't move.
The tramping footsteps came closer still.
"Come on Jacob. Climb!" The panic in Apple's voice caused Jacob to let out a mewl of distress.
"Grab my hand, Jake," Shorty said, shimmying back down the trunk and reaching out his hand, just as a gunshot ripped through the clearing and took a slab of bark off their tree only a few meters from Jacob's feet. The shock caused Jacob to flinch, and, losing grip, he slid down the trunk another few meters. Shorty followed close behind, arm still outstretched. "Quickly," he said between gritted teeth. "Grab my hand."
The second gunshot cracked the tree right next to Jacob's arm, flinging chips of bark into his face. Ash watched in a haze of disbelief as Jacob's arms gave way, and he fell.
Like a fledgling bird falling from its nest, Jacob landed in a crunch of broken bones below, arms and legs making a death angel in the rain-soaked foliage. For a moment, nobody moved, just stared at Jacob's crumpled body as though expecting to wake up at any moment to find it had all been a nightmare.
The silence was broken by Apple's cry, long and hollow as Miki's had been when they'd lost their sailboat to the whirlpool. Her cry was followed a punctured instruction from Eli. "Climb!" he yelled. "Quickly!"
They climbed, faster than ever before, making it over the river just as the soldiers burst into the clearing. Their commander, a hulk of a man, took one look at his surroundings and said, "Surrender and live."
Eli gestured for his fire-wielders to take up their chains. By this time, Ash's fingers were swollen with power.
"Leave us and live," Eli said.