The Child Thief

“Good,” Redbone said. “We’re going on a little adventure.”

Nick didn’t like the way Redbone said adventure.

“We are going foraging,” Sekeu said.

“Give you a chance to see some of the sights,” Abraham added and gave Redbone a wink.

“Dirk and Dash are coming with us,” Redbone said to Sekeu. “Be here in a sec. Just as soon as Dirk finds his sword.”

“What, again?” Abraham asked. “How do you lose a sword? Kid would lose his butthole if it weren’t attached to his ass.”

Redbone laughed out loud at that, showing all of his teeth. He seemed to always be wearing that wide, fierce grin. Nick felt that grin combined with the dye, or paint, or whatever it was he rubbed on his skin and hair to make it red, made him look like a real devil. Then there was that ridiculous red bone, the one tied into the topknot of his wild, tangled hair, like something out of the Flintstones. Nick figured if he were to ask—which he had no intention of doing—that ridiculous bone would have something to do with his nickname. Up close, Nick couldn’t help but notice all the scars on the boy, and wondered how many scrapes and challenges this whacked-out kid had been in. One particularly nasty-looking scar snaked lengthwise right down between his squinty, fiendish eyes.

Abraham, other than his missing hand, had very few scars. It was his golden eyes that made him so striking, contrasting sharply with his dark skin. Nick didn’t believe he’d ever seen a person as dark as Abraham; his skin was almost raven-black. Abraham wore a scruffy bowler hat dressed up with black feathers and beads, and a tight- fitting pin-stripe dinner jacket with the sleeves cut out.

Two more boys joined them; one hopping along as he laced up his boot.

“Nick,” Sekeu said. “Meet Dirk and Dash.”

Dirk’s scalp had been shaved; jagged ritual scarring spun away from his eyebrows and along the side of his head. He was a bit shorter than Nick, square-jawed with a hefty build, reminding Nick somewhat of a bulldog.

Dash pushed a clump of blond hair from his face and stared down at Nick. He was almost as tall as Redbone, had a slight underbite, and a head full of long, greasy hair. Bits of bone and metal jutted from his ears, nose, eyebrows, nipples, and Nick didn’t want to imagine where the hell else.

Dirk and Dash cocked their heads from side to side and began to click their teeth.

“No,” Sekeu said, and whacked Dash.

Dirk snorted.

“Hey,” Dash said and jerked a thumb at Dirk. “What about him?”

Sekeu whacked Dirk. Dirk frowned and whacked Dash. Then the two boys were punching each other, and Redbone and Abraham had to separate them.

Ignoring the ruckus, Sekeu went to the wall and tugged over a basket of mangy-looking hides. She handed one to each of the New Blood. “Put these on.”

Nick held it out before him, unsure just how one went about putting on a hide.

“Just stick your head through that there hole,” Abraham said, then added, “They’re for camouflage.”

What are we hiding from? Nick wondered, but was afraid to ask.

By the time Nick got the hide situated, Sekeu handed him a belt. The belt looked ancient, the leather cracking and flaking. It was wide and studded with rings of tarnished brass. Nick noticed intricate swirling designs all but worn away from the years of abuse.

“You have to earn the right to carry a sword,” Sekeu told them as she plucked four spears off the wall. “For now, you are permitted spears.”

Nick noted that the Devils carried a long knife on their belts and a short sword slung across their backs. Dirk and Dash brought along spears as well.

Sekeu tossed Nick a spear. It was heavier than the practice spears, the staff a bit thicker. It felt smooth and true in his hand. He admired the sharp, jagged edge of the spearhead.

Danny was staring at his spear with a sour face. “What do we need these for?”

Nick could’ve answered that one, recalling the claw marks on the door.

“In case we are attacked,” Sekeu said.

“Attacked?” Danny stammered. “Huh? By what?”

“Monsters,” Redbone said, his eyes serious.

SEKEU SLID THE bolt over and pulled the heavy round door inward.

Nick was surprised to find himself eager to venture out. The last time he was out, it had been too dark to see anything, and the time he peeked out the door, well, he’d been too scared to see past his own shadow. But with all the Devils coming along, all armed to the teeth, he didn’t feel scared, he felt an odd excitement.

He glanced at Redbone, Sekeu, Abraham, Dirk, and Dash; they looked alert, dangerous. Not a group he’d want to run into in the forest.

They shuffled out single-file; Nick following Redbone. He took in a deep breath and the musky smell of damp earth filled his nostrils. He peered around the tall boy, eager to see the forest.

The door thudded shut behind them and the heavy bolt clacked into place. Nick stared at the deep claw marks on the door and swallowed loudly. He glanced up and realized that the fort—at least part of it—was actually in a tree, a huge tree that appeared to have grown right out of the stony cliff face, its thick roots and vines twisting around the boulders like a massive octopus. It towered above them and he could see a few lookout stands here and there among the limbs.

They crested a short slope and Nick got his first clear look at the land of Avalon. He couldn’t have told you exactly what he’d envisioned, but the scene before him wasn’t it.

Gray saturated everything, dull and rutty, like the skin of something long-dead. Where was the thick, flowering undergrowth, the giant trees alive with purple monkeys and floating butterfly people, as in his dream? There were no magical creatures, not even a pixie. For that matter, there wasn’t a sign of any living creature of any sort. Not so much as a bird or a bug. The landscape laid out before him was composed of barren sooty earth and the carcasses of once mighty trees. Thorny vines snaked around jagged stumps and huge briar patches formed daunting barriers in all directions.

They marched over the rise and down a crooked, uneven trail, crawling over and under the fallen hulks of rotting trees. There came the occasional break in the low-hanging clouds, and Nick could make out steep, rugged cliffs just beyond the forest.

Redbone fell in beside him and they brought up the rear of the troop. He stared at Nick, that weird grin on his face.

Nick smiled back once, hoping this would placate him. Redbone reminded Nick of the crazy folks that talk to you on the street, the ones you quickly learned it was best not to make eye contact with.

A dense fog swept across the trail, momentarily obscuring the path.

Redbone began making low ghost sounds.

“Silence,” Sekeu called from the front of the troop.

Redbone stopped at once but his crazy grin never wavered. He gave Sekeu a sieg heil salute and winked at Nick.

As they moved along the path, Nick noted a few trees—usually the larger ones—that still held a bit of green in their uppermost branches. Curiosity got the best of him and he asked Redbone in a hushed whisper: “Is the forest dying?”

“Man, all of Avalon is dying,” Redbone answered, seemingly pleased as Punch that Nick wanted to talk. “They call it the scourge. Even in the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen this forest go from a thing of beauty to the way it is now. Each time we go out for berries, seems we got to trek farther and farther north.”

“How long you been here?”

“Man, that’s hard to say. Time’s different here, y’know. I do know it was 1974 when I left the human world.”

“Whoa.”

“That’s nothing. That cat Abraham, he left the human world way back during the Civil War. He used to be a slave.”