8 Gone is the Witch (17 page)

“Now wait a
minute,” said Carlos.

“No,” said Tony. “She’s right. He could be an asset, especially if he
can help us cross that bridge.” Tony looked back over the expanse of the gorge. “There’s no telling how long it might take us to find another way across.”

Carlos shook his head
and looked away.

“All right then. It’
s done.” I turned back to our visitor. “Guess if we’re going to travel together, we should properly introduce. Do you have a name?”

“No
,” he said. “Not need name.”

“You
do if you travel with us.”

Carlos said,
“We’ll call him Joel.”

I
regarded him curiously. “Joel?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because he looks like a troll.”

“Oh, I get it. Joel the troll, eh?”

“Yeah.”

“Not funny.” I asked Tony, “Any suggestions.”

“
How `bout Jerome?”

I knew he was referring to one of my little garden gnomes back
at the house. “Jerome?” I said, smiling.

“Yeah.”

“I like,” said the little shrimp, obviously not fully appreciating the demeaning comparison.

“You do?”

“Jerome good name. I call you Jerome.”

“
No, Jerome. I already have a name. It’s Lilith.” I reached out and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.” Carlos was standing closest, so I started to introduce him next. “This is––”

“
You Carlos. I know.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I know all name.” Jerome shook hands with Tony and Ursula. “You Tony. You Ursula. I follow all the day. Hear names. Jerome smart.”

“Great.
” I walked to the edge of the clearing and picked up Jerome’s spear. Returning it to him, I said, “Then you should also know I’m a witch.” I handed him the spear. “If you do anything stupid with this, I’ll kill you. If you double-cross us, I’ll kill you. If you so much as look at us the wrong way, I’ll––”

“You kill me.
I know. You kill my life. Scary witch.”

“That’s right
, you little shit. Scary witch will kill you. Do we have an understanding?”

Jerome
grabbed the spear and cradled it to his body. I noticed his eyes had morphed back to the gonzo alabaster swirls with whirling green orbs. His skin also changed, molting into browns and grays with specks of black, matching the ground he walked on.

“
Jerome like you,” he said, and I could see his long spiny tail whipping up the dirt behind him.

“Yeah?” I patted him on the top of his freakishly large head
. “And I like you, Jerome. At least I think I do. So don’t fuck it up.”

Tony cleared his throat
. “That’s nice. Everyone likes everyone else. I think we better get going now. Jerome, you said there’s a secret to crossing this bridge?”

“
Is big secret.”

“
Let’s hear it.”

He walked up to the
bridge. “Better I show.”

If I didn’t see it with my own eyes
, I might not have believed it. Without hesitating, he stepped onto the first sleeper. Then, with both hands clutching his spear, he ran full speed ten yards out and ten yards back. Upon returning to solid ground, he looked up at us and grinned. “See? We cross. Is no thing.”

Carlos said, “You ran. That’s the secret. Right?”

“No!” He shook his head. “Dat not secret. Secret is no touch rope.”

“That’s it?” asked Tony.

“Dat secret. Touch rope, bridge fall.”

“That’s so simple.”

“Simple and stupid,” said Carlos. “Who would build such a stupid bridge? Isn’t that what hand ropes are for?”

“Maybe in the real world,” I said. “But you forget. Here
in the ES, you need to expect the unexpected.” I pointed to Jerome. “You, half-pint. You’re going to lead the way. Carlos, stay behind him. Ursula and I will follow you and Tony will take up the rear. Remember everybody. Don’t touch the ropes. Y`all got it?”

They all did. At least they all said so.
Funny how soon one forgets.

Chapter Nine

The trek across the bridge seemed a lot further than I expected
, perhaps because we were moving so slowly. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to cross a rope bridge with the wind whipping, the boards swaying beneath your feet and your hands unable to touch anything.

We were
barely halfway across before I realized how fast Jerome was moving. Only ten yards separated Carlos and Tony, with Ursula and me in the middle. Yet Jerome, with his prehensile tail helping him to balance, had nearly completed the journey.

“Carlos, pick up the pace!” I yelled, hoping he could hear me above
the howling wind and the rush of water below. “I don’t want Jerome left alone on the other side!”

It was too late, o
f course. Jerome finished the crossing way ahead of us. We found him waiting with one foot on the last sleeper and one hand poised inches above the hand rope.

“
Jerome?” I said. We stopped single file on the bridge with Jerome just beyond Carlos’ reach. I wiggled around Ursula and Carlos and held my hand out. “Jerome, what are you doing?”

“I drop you,” he said. “I
drop you now!”

“
Jerome. Why are you doing this?”

“
You take me. I go witchew.”

“What do you mean? We
are
taking you with us. I thought we worked all that out.”

“No. You sa
y only Dark Forest. Dat not good. I want fortress. I go witchew.”

“
Jerome. Let us off this bridge. We’ll sit down and we’ll discuss everything.”

“
No! You promise now!” he said, stomping his foot. “You take me.”

“For crying out loud,” said Tony.
“Tell him he can come with us.”

Carlos
was clearly getting irritated with the whole thing, too. “Yeah. Come on Lilith. Get him to let us off this bridge. We’ll thank him and then we’ll beat the snot out of him.”

“Carlos
.” Tony warned. “You’re not helping.”

“Tony, the little
bastard’s got it coming.”

“
Jerome, listen to me.” I inched forward, but stopped when I saw his hand dip closer to the rope.

“
No come closer! I drop you. Is long way down. You see.”

“I thou
ght we had an understanding.”

“
I have understand. You take Jerome to Dark Forest. Then you no take more. I go witchew far.”

“
Right, and we also had an understanding that I would kill you if you tried anything stupid like this.”

“Kill him now,” said Carlos. “Clobber him with a
zip ball. You can do it.”

“I can,” I said, still looking at
Jerome. “Maybe not before your hand touches that rope, but before I fall in, I’ll fry you like a strip of bacon.”

“You
no have to.” Jerome made a concession by lifting his hand a full twelve inches off the rope. “You no need fall. You no fry me. Promise you take. I let you off.”

“Do it,” said Tony.

Carlos said, “No. Stand back. I’ll do it.” He pulled out his Glock and took aim at Jerome’s head. “I’ll drop him like a stone. Lilith, you should duck, though. This might blow your eardrums out.”

“Carlos!” I turned and gave him an elbow to the gut, droppin
g him to his knees. “Okay, look.” I returned to Jerome. “You can come with us. I promise. No tricks.”

He eyed me with unwarranted suspicion. “Ye
s?”

“Ye
s. Really.” I reached my hand out again.

“You swear witch’s honor?”

“Witch’s hon... How do you know about that?”

“I get round.”

“Fine. Witch’s honor.”

He reached
out, shook my hand and then backed away to let us pass. I crossed over onto solid ground. Carlos was still on his knees, blocking Ursula and Tony’s passage, but he appeared to have caught his breath.

What happened next, I swear happened in slow motion. I mean, maybe it didn’t, and it only seemed that way, but
I know that in the ES, anything is possible.

I had just turned around after stepping off the
last rung, when Carlos, in an attempt to stand, inadvertently reached up and grabbed the hand rope above his head. The bridge immediately buckled, the sleepers dropped out from under Tony, Ursula and Carlos. Almost as quickly, Jerome lashed out with his tail, striking Carlos’ hand like a whip.

I
nvoluntary reflexes took over. Carlos’ hand came off the rope as if struck by lightning. The bridge reacted in kind, whiplashing back into position like a rubber band and catapulting the three of them up onto the ground in slingshot fashion.

I ran to Ursula first. She seemed shaken, but unscathed. “You
all right?” I asked, helping her back to her feet.

“Aye,” she said, after standing and brushing herself off. “But for the softness of the ground I might have broken
a bone.”

“Soft ground, my ass,” Carlos complained. “You landed on me!”

“Tony?” I went to him next. He was slower than the others in getting back to his feet. “You okay?”

“I’m fine
,” he said. I helped him over to a large boulder where he sat and began working a sprain in his ankle.

“
Jerome,” I said. “That was quick thinking. For a moment, I...” I turned around, but he was gone. “Jerome?”

“Hey, where’d he go?” asked Carlos.

Ursula looked about. “I cannot but imagine.”

“He was here a second ago.”

“He’s still here,” I said. “I bet he’s hiding in plain sight. Camouflaged.”

“He is?”

“Jerome?” I started toward the most obvious hiding place, the green foliage immediately to the left of the bridge. “It’s okay, Jerome. You can show yourself. We’re not upset. You did a good thing. Isn’t that right, Carlos?”

“Yeah,” Carlos answered. “Although you didn’t have to hit my hand so hard. I think I have a barb stuck in it. Have you had your rabies shots?”

“Carlos!”

“Just asking.”

“Jerome, what you did was good. You saved their lives. I’m going to forgive the blackmail thing. What do you say we just start over fresh, all right?”

“You mean?” came a voice from a completely different place than where I was looking.

I turned and headed toward a scrawny scrub of brush beside the boulder Tony was sitting on. “Yes. I mean it. Now show yourself.”

Amazing how the little shit could do what he did. Until he moved, I could
only see dried twigs and dead branches on a backdrop of pebbles and dirt. When he stepped out onto a patch of ground surrounded by live vegetation, he stuck out plain as day.

“
Amazing,” I said. “How do you do that?”

“Is hunting trick
. No thing fancy.”

“Effective. I don’t suppose you go hungry much.”

“You make joke?” He stepped back and splayed his arms. “Do it look I eat well?”

I raked
him over with my eyes. “No. You look like a bag of antlers. What’s up with that?”

He turned his gaze to the ground and kicked at the dirt with his foot. “I
not good hunter.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Dat my job, I hunt. We all have job. What is hard for understand?”

“Who’s we?”

He pointed at his bony chest. “More like me.”

“
More from your village?”

“No village. Unit.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“
Is complicated. You no mind.”

Tony said, “I’ll tell you what’s complicated, figuring out where to go from here.” He got up from his seat and hobbled over to me.

“You sure you’re okay?” I asked him.

He set his hand on my shoulder
, but didn’t shift much weight onto it. “Yeah, I’m sure.” He gestured into the dense patch of trees before us. “Which way now?”

I looked at
Jerome. He pointed into the thick of it with his spiny tail. “That way Dark Forest.”

“Then we go,” I said
, stepping aside for Jerome to pass. “After you.”

“Why
for after me?”

“Because
, I can’t keep an eye on you if you’re following.”