Crossroads of Canopy (Titan's Forest #1)(53)

“Audblayin’s bones,” she swore again.

Another sharp crack. Another single, hard shudder of the tallowwood tree. Ylly and Oos cried out in unison as the river’s flow was disturbed, but it wasn’t the head of the giant lizard; rather, it was the yellowrain log tilting, hitting the roof, and then sliding away.

They were all sprayed with water. Then there was only the river as there had been before.

“They did it,” Unar said, feeling weak with relief.

“I’m trapped here forever,” Oos said with despair.

“Is that your baby?” Frog asked Ylly, already shrugging off the fact they had all faced certain death. Even if they had climbed successfully, they would have reached the barrier to Canopy and then what? The demon could have eaten them at its leisure.

“She’s mine now,” Ylly said, holding Issi tighter. “Her mother let her fall.”

“So did mine,” Frog said. “I mean, she did not throw me off with ’er two hands, but she wanted me to fall. She wanted sons. To help ’er, see. She was losin’ her sight and knew she would not be able to do ’er job for much longer. Why put all that effort into raisin’ the wrong sorta child?”

“That’s horrible!” Oos exclaimed.

Frog looked sidelong at Unar.

“She knew I would not be able to do the work,” Frog went on. “She already had one useless daughter, and she thought I looked … small. For my age.”

Unar’s face flushed with shame. She’d just told Frog that she looked small for her age. Before she could apologise, Esse and Bernreb swung in through the river, detaching their harnesses from the rope at the required moment, only to stumble heavily into the others. The tiny room was full. Unar heard someone’s feet kicking the water buckets and the rattling of shelf contents being upset.

“Move,” Bernreb gasped. “Further inside. Go!”

“You’re back,” Unar said, squeezing out from between Esse’s sodden, heaving-chested body and the wall with her tooth-marks in it where she’d come through the waterfall too fast.

“You could win the crown at Loftfol with a cut that quick,” Frog said, skirting Bernreb’s dripping shape to follow Oos and Ylly down the hall. “Treasure.”

“To Floor with Loftfol and its crown!” Esse wheezed. “Where is Marram?”

“Not here,” Unar said.

“Do not,” Bernreb told Esse, gripping his shirt in a giant fist. “If he did not fall, he will come. If he did fall, you cannot help him. The best place to wait is in front of the fire.”

When they were all in the hearth room, Bernreb regretfully moved Hasbabsah’s chair back from the fire. She didn’t move; hadn’t moved for some time, except to breathe. Now there was room for all of them to cluster by the heat.

“That old woman stinks,” Frog observed.

“Show some respect, child,” Ylly said.

“Whose house is this?”

“It is mine,” Esse said. His tone did not invite further conversation, but Frog did not fall silent.

“Have I monsoon-right, then? It seems I am trapped here with you people.”

“No,” Esse said, at the same time as Bernreb said tiredly, “Yes.”

“No,” Esse said again.

Finally, there was silence. Steam rose from Unar’s Gardener’s tunic. She shifted her feet, turning each side to the fire as the other grew too hot. Beside her, Oos did the same thing. Her eyes looked glazed, the skin of her bare feet wrinkled by the water. She smelled of blood, and Unar couldn’t tell if it was a failure of the dried moonflowers or the wound along her arm.

Ylly made a meal for Issi. When the baby was full and sleeping, she made a meal for Esse and Bernreb, too. Unar didn’t feel like eating, but she scrubbed the last of the demon dung off her hands before making herself chew some dried fruit and sweet gobs of insects trapped in sap. Oos coaxed a little water into Hasbabsah and changed her clothes underneath the blanket. For once, Ylly didn’t criticise her, but helped lift Hasbabsah’s dead weight.

“You are angry with me,” Frog said to Esse at last. “What have I done?”

Esse roused himself. He’d been staring at the wall, as if he could see through it to a place where Marram was napping in a hollow to refresh himself before flying home.

“Somebody cut the crown from that yellowrain tree,” he said. “Today. This morning. The cut was fresh. Then they cut the tree again, at the base, so that it would fall. Was it you?”

Frog looked incredulous. “Does it seem to you that I could cut a tree down by myself? If I could, my mother surely would have kept me.”

“The top of that tree was in Canopy when the sun rose. That means the person who cut off the crown was there, too. And you have the colour of a Canopian.”

“She speaks like an Understorian, though,” Bernreb said gruffly. “Like she was raised in Gannak. And she has the snake’s gift.”

“Too young,” Esse said, his eyes sparkling with displeasure. “Who would give them to such a young girl?”

“I am ten,” Frog said, glaring at him. “I earned them. I did not climb into Canopy. I cannot climb into Canopy. I do not know who cut down that tree any more than you do. I was with my adopted family on the outskirts of Gannak when the tree fell. I thought I would follow it a little way to visit my friends in the palm-oak. Since the monsoon started, we had received no birds from them. Now I know why.”