Susan’s eyes were open now. He saw her looking past him, fixed on something — a scattering of pebbles. With all the effort he could muster, Max focused on those stones. Move them! he told himself. Use the wind the way Susan did! The air whined thinly, and the dog bristled.
Think of the stones! He thought of wind hitting the smooth curves, finding the grooves, diving from the trees to lift them.
Was he imagining it or had the air sizzled? Now Nell and Jean, too, were looking at the stones.
Wind, he thought as loudly as he could. Wind!
The pebbles jumped in the breeze, and a gust lifted them and flung them at the dog holding Kate. One, two, three. The fourth was bigger than a pebble. A good-sized rock, it popped from the ground and hit the animal squarely in the ear. It yelped.
The soldiers jumped, and the knob-nosed man’s jaw dropped. He gaped at Max.
“You — did you do that?”
The younger soldier glared at his companion. “Shut it, you!”
But Max seized the opportunity.
“Yes! And we’ll do more if you don’t leave us alone! I’m warning you!”
He wondered how menacing he could sound, still on his knees with a dog clamped to his arm, but the first soldier lowered his musket slightly. The second only tightened his grip.
“Quiet, discard!” he said to Max. “You’ll be sorry for it soon enough. There’s more coming to help us. The searchers are spread out all across the mountain. You’ve got nowhere to run!”
But Max thought he talked a little too much for someone completely sure of himself. He stared back at the man, trying to look confident.
“You’ll need help,” he said. “Didn’t they tell you what happened in the city? Didn’t you hear how we got out?”
His words hit the mark. The knob-nosed soldier blanched. The younger one glanced at his companion uneasily.
“You! Lift that weapon! It’s like they told us, a harmless trick. You afraid of wind now?”
From the corner of his eye, Max saw Kate trying to squirm from under the dog’s paws. It growled warningly.
“But there’s stories,” the first soldier was saying. “Old ones. There’s worse they can do if what people say is true.”
The second soldier’s laugh sounded forced. “Does this one look like he could do worse? Those are nothing but village tales. You idiots from the edges all tell tales.” He shook his head. “Who told you that one, your grandmother?”
“Grandfather,” Knob-Nose said.
They argued some more, and as they did, Max looked around. A silvery beech stood a few feet from him. One of its branches hung strangely, and after a second, he spotted a crack running through it. Damaged in the storm, he thought. He caught Susan’s eye, nodded toward the tree, and raised an eyebrow. She looked and answered with the faintest nod. Next she got Nell’s attention, and showed her.
It was easier this time. Max called back the feeling of the wind against his cheek and thought of the storm he’d seen, the wind thrashing through the trees, flattening the leaves, making the branches bend . . .
Again, that tickle along his skin. Leaves fluttered, and the tree swayed. After a moment, he could hear the waterfall sound of air in branches, followed by a crack. The branch snapped and spun from the tree, whirling toward the light-haired soldier.
It clouted him sharply on the side of his head, and he fell like a stone.
At the sound of wood on bone, the older man jumped as if he’d been the one struck. He dropped his gun, and it went off with a bang, narrowly missing Max and the dog. The animal yelped and cowered, and Max rubbed his newly freed arm.
The soldier looked down at his colleague, stunned.
“It’s true, then! The stories!”
He looked at Max, and all the color had gone from his face. After a moment’s hesitation, he snapped his fingers, and the dogs came to him, leaving the children alone. He muttered a command, and the animals lay obediently at his feet. He bent down beside them, never taking his eyes off Max.
“You one of them, then?”
The tone of the question was so unexpected that Max stopped rubbing his arm and just looked at him.
“One of who?”
“The powerful. Heard talk of them when I was a boy, but I thought them all dead now.”
Village tales, the other soldier had said. Max looked over and saw the blond man safely out for the moment.
“Well, we’re not dead,” he said firmly. “And you can see we’re powerful. You’d better let us go if you don’t want more trouble.”
The man hesitated, and Max concentrated with all his might on the fallen limb. It stirred. The soldier jumped, then nodded.
From behind Max, Susan said, “Where are the other searchers?”
This time, when the soldier hesitated, Max felt the air buzz and saw one of the stones rise. He suppressed a smile at the look on the man’s face. Good for you, Susan!
“All over these west woods,” Knob-Nose said hastily. “From here and down. We were ready to give up when we caught your scent again. Hard for the dogs with the bitter ground here. It fouls the air, too.”
“Okay, then,” Max said. “We’ll go, and you can say you couldn’t hold us.”
Another hesitation, another nod. Max got to his feet, wincing at the ache in his knees. Kate had already managed to back herself up to where Jean stood, as far from the dogs as possible. They started to move back into the trees, eyes on the dogs and the unconscious man. The animals growled softly.
“Wait!” the soldier called.
Max’s stomach dropped. He tried not to show it on his face.
“What?”
The knob-nosed soldier looked red now. He whispered to the dogs and then let them go. Max froze, but they only turned and ran down the mountain, back the way they’d come.
The soldier
