“I can’t quite figure youout. You’re an enigma. You see the world differently than anyoneI’ve ever met. Do you have a plan for escape?”
Michio almost smiled despitetheir situation. “If I did, I wouldn’t broadcast it with guardssurrounding us.” He added, “There’s a higher power that’swith us now as it has always been. It guides me in all my actions.”
“Perhaps there’s a greaterpower, but I have no way of knowing one way or another. Furthermore,I’ve seen nothing to indicate this power is good and everything toindicate it’s evil.”
“You’ll be shown.”
***
Toemekaglanced around the forest, wondering how to escape. Her eyes landedon an enormous tree and she nudged Erling’s shoulder, pointingupward. Wecan hide in the canopy,she said telepathically.
Erling gazed at the branches highabove and nodded. Itcould work.
She crept over to the nearby treeand curled her hand around a chunk of rough bark. It was strong andthick. She reached above her head and pulled herself up, testing itsstrength, then found more handholds and footholds in the bark.Scaling up to the branches would be difficult, but not impossible.Once she reached the first branch, climbing was easier. She continuedto ascend, going upward from branch to branch. Finally she paused andglanced down to see Erling coming up behind her. A wave of nausearolled through her when she saw how far it was to the ground. A fallfrom this height would kill her.
Before long, they were high inthe tree canopy, surrounded by a thick covering of leaves. Toemekakept climbing until the foliage was so thick she could no longer seethe ground below. She stopped and took a drink from her flask. Erlingclimbed onto the branch beside her.
“They won’t find us here,”he said.
“They might. Let’s keepmoving.” She pointed to a neighboring giant tree. “The branchesfrom this tree intermingle with that tree’s branches. We can travellaterally, going from one tree to the next. Let me check for thedirection of Kossel.” She looked at the GPS on her watchcommunicator. “This way.”
Toemeka began walking along abranch heading toward the general direction of the farmhouse. Thebranches were so large it was easy to keep her balance. As she wentfurther, the branch narrowed and she glanced back at Erling.
“This might not be strongenough to support both of us. I’ll go first.”
“Be careful.”
Toemeka balanced on the branch asit became thinner. It dipped lower from her weight and she grabbed anoverhead branch to keep from falling. As soon as she was within reachof branches from a neighboring tree, she leapt onto a new branch. Thelimb bobbed down, then up, then stabilized. She walked toward thetrunk of the new tree until she reached a thicker part of the branch,then looked back at Erling. He started after her. The branches saggedeven more under his weight, but he jumped nimbly from one tree to thenext and caught up to her in no time.
“This might just work,”Erling said. “The soldiers are searching on the ground and we’reup here. I feel like we’ve joined a band of banchin,” he said,referring to the orange-furred animals with long tails chattering atthem from neighboring branches.
“It’s a whole new world uphere.” Toemeka looked around at hundreds of purple birds perched inthe branches surrounding them. “Erling, I have a gut feeling Michioisn’t dead. We have a strong inner bond and I’d know if he was.But I can’t reach him telepathically. I think we’re too far apartand too many negative emotions linger in the air from the attack onthe Owayan camp.” A gust of wind blew through the tree and Toemekatightened her grip on the branch.
Erling looked pensive. “Howabout Jake? Do you sense he’s alive?”
“I don’t have the sameconnection to Jake. Should we go back? Maybe they’ve been capturedand need our help.”
“Rochambeau is searching foryou. My top priority is ensuring you’re out of his hands. He haspsychic powers and these trees won’t keep him off our trail forlong.”
“We can’t desert our teammembers.”
“Why don’t we continue onuntil it’s dark? Then we can find a place to sleep in the trees.After resting, you’ll have a better chance of contacting Michiotelepathically.”
“All right, but if I find he’sin trouble, I’m going back.” She began climbing from limb tolimb, encircling the tree trunk to the other side, then walking alonga branch toward the neighboring tree. Erling followed her lead.
After a while she asked, “Doyou think we’ll make it back to Jaipar?”
“We have a fighting chance.”
She thought of Baymond with aheavy heart. She missed him so much it hurt. “Do you regret leavingKoriann?”
“It doesn’t do any good tolook back. I made my decision.”
As the hours passed, Toemekabecame increasingly tired and hungry, but the thought of Cadmus ontheir trail kept her going.
Before sunset, Erling spotted ahuge bird’s nest on a branch above them. “That looks like a giantnight buzzard’s nest. Their young are usually out of the nest bythis time of year. It’ll be a good place to spend the night. Wewon’t have to worry about rolling over in our sleep and falling outof the tree.”
“I don’t know if a raptornest is the best place to spend the night. What if they’re stillusing it?”
“Then we’ll leave.”
They climbed up the trunk untilthey reached the limb the nest was on. As they neared the top of thetree, a cold wind blew strongly. There were no branches overhead tohang onto, so Erling sat down on the branch and crawled out. Toemekafollowed, trying not to think about how high up they were or how easyit would be to fall.
The huge nest was built into acrotch of branches. It was densely woven from sticks and padded withleaves, moss, down and tree cotton.
“It’s in good shape andshould be strong enough to hold us,” Erling said. “I’ll testit.” He held onto the branch and crawled cautiously into the nest,then bounced up and down a few times. “It’s safe. Come join me.”
Toemeka scrambled into the nestand sat down, finding it surprisingly comfortable with down featherslining it. “This nest is huge. It must be nine feet across.”
“Plenty of room for both ofus.”
Toemeka took a drink from herflask. “My water’s nearly gone.”
“So’s mine. Tomorrow we’llfigure out how
