What Doesn't Kill Her (Cape Charade #2)(37)

“A stick!” Rae yelled and broke away to grab a broken branch off the forest floor.

“Good girl.”

“I’m going to use this as a walking stick. It’s too long. I’m going to break it. Wait, Mommy.” Rae swung the branch as hard as she could against the trunk of a tree, missed and whacked Kellen across the thighs.

“Ouch!” Kellen said.

Rae’s eyes filled with mortified tears.

No. No crying. Kellen was proud of her calm when she said, “That didn’t work too well to break the stick, but it would hurt an attacker.” She rubbed her leg. She could feel the bruise rising. “Try again and hit the trunk this time.”

Rae did. The end broke off. She said, “Mommy, I’m sorry.”

“I know. You’ll be more careful in the future. Now you have a great walking stick and you can hike even faster!”

“Yeah!” Rae ran about twenty feet up the path, Kellen hot on her heels, before she slowed again.

Kellen figured, Keep up the conversation. “What if you want to whack a bad guy in the mouth and break his teeth? Could you find something to use?”

“A rock!” Rae looked hard for a rock and finally scuffed one out of the hard-packed dirt.

“You’re good at this! What if a man was running at you, going to hit you with his fist?”

With awesome calm and logic, Rae said, “If he was fat like Zio Placido, I’d climb a tree.”

“If you’re fast enough, that might work. If they manage to grab you, break off a branch and poke them in the eyes. Never stop fighting, Rae. Never give in to the bad guys.”

Rae stopped in the middle of the path, turned and faced Kellen. “Mommy, why?”

“Why are we talking about this?”

“Yes. Aren’t you going to take care of me?”

“For as long as I’m able, I promise.” Kellen urged her to turn and walk up the path again. “But I won’t always be where you are, so you need to learn to take care of yourself. Come on, let’s go.”

“And if you’re hurt, I need to take care of you.”

Uh-oh. That wasn’t at all the conclusion Kellen wanted her to draw. “You’re little, and what’s really important is knowing there’s no such thing as a fair fight.” Kellen got to the heart of the message she wanted to convey. “There are only fights you win and fights you lose. Once a fight is started, if you lose it, you’re going to get hurt.”

“Daddy says instead of fighting, to use my words.”

“Good advice, and I agree.” Sometimes it even worked, and those were the times when the fight didn’t start. “I don’t think we can talk to these guys who are chasing us. There are more of them, they’re men and so they’re bigger and stronger than we are, and they have a lot of guns and mean fists.”

“I want to take karate!”

Kellen imagined solemn children in white gis and white belts, lined up and listening to their master. “That’s a good idea.”

“Grandma says little girls don’t take karate, and she says anyway I don’t listen.”

Kellen made a note to herself to have a talk about karate classes for Rae. “How will you learn to listen if you don’t try?”

“Yeah!”

Kellen managed to carry the discussion for another half hour and an arduous uphill trek. Then the path straightened and conversation moved on to:

What are we having for lunch?

I’m tired of peanut butter.

Are we there yet?

I’m not tired.

What’s for lunch?

I’m bored.

Why did we eat all the huckleberries?

What’s for dinner?

Are we there yet?

By late afternoon, Kellen knew she needed to find someplace for them to stop, to rest, to be safe, because apparently the headhunters had decided to let Rae drive her crazy to make their jobs easier.

Things were working out for the Mercenaries.



18


Kellen found her a place to rest and be safe in a small flat spot cradled at the top of a cluster of boulders ten feet above the surrounding forest floor. Up here, the rainwater had drained away from the sandy soil, leaving it damp but not unpleasant. Up here, Rae couldn’t ask if they were there yet, because obviously they weren’t, and even if hoards of mercenaries attacked, Kellen could hold them off for quite a while before she ran out of ammunition.

But mostly, in an hour it would be dark and she could roll out the tarp and her one-person sleeping bag, hide with her kid for the night, eat and sleep and refresh. If they put in some hard hiking the next day, even with constant questions and conversation, they could reach the Restorer and...

She looked at her daughter, drooping against the trunk of a tree. “Come on. It’s like we’re birds, and I’ll help you get up there to our own private nest.”

“I don’t need help. I’m not tired.” Rae sounded cranky.

“I know. Let’s get up there and eat and sleep.”

“I’m not tired!”

“But Mommy is.” Kellen pushed Rae up the steep, narrow, slick path to the top. Then dragged herself and her bag and the head up after her. That head was really starting to creep her out. No matter which way she stashed it, eyes stared at her, either the maiden, the mother, or if she caught an unlucky glimpse, the goddess. She was going to be so glad to deliver that thing to the Restorer...