Garibaldi, Sallina, and Baat had followed Dan along the base of the cliff. He shone his light ahead of him on the sand. Apart from Dan's light, there was no light at all. The night sky was black. Sallina could not even see the clouds. A chilly wind blew up the beach.
Dan pointed his light behind a large boulder.
"Here!"
Hidden between the large boulder and the bottom of the cliff, was a narrow staircase. The steps were cut into the black rock of the cliff. Dan began to climb them. He held his light in one hand, pointing backwards, so that it shone upon the path behind him. He himself felt the ground ahead with a bamboo stick.
Sallina, Garibaldi, and Baat followed Dan, one after another. On their left was the wall of black rock. On their right, was the drop down to the beach. Dan climbed slowly. He took one small step every second. When Sallina came too close, he said, "Stay back from me, Miss."
The wind blew harder as they went up the stairs. It pushed Garibaldi backwards, then forwards, and sometimes tried to suck him away from the cliff. Garibaldi could not see how high above the beach they were, but he could hear the waves crashing below him. Earlier that day, when he had watched the cliff from the deck of the Reliant, he guessed it was twice as high as the Reliant's main mast. He was sure he would die if he fell off the stairs. He leaned upon the cliff with his left hand as he took each step.
In places, Dan's light made the stairs glisten, and in these places, the steps were slippery and wet. In one place, Garibaldi stumbled. He thought he was going to fall off the cliff, but he did not. He landed upon his knees. He crouched on the ground. His arms and legs felt stiff, and his heart was beating fast.
Baat stopped and looked back.
"Hurt?" he said.
Garibaldi shook his head and stood up. He remembered that it was too dark for Baat to see him shaking his head.
"No, I'm not hurt. Let's keep going."
"You come?" Baat said.
"Yes, I come. You go."
Dan was ten steps ahead of them and there was hardly any light on the steps for them to see. Baat went forwards, and Garibaldi followed. He felt for each step with the tip of his boot before he put his foot on it. He held onto the jagged rock of the cliff with his left hand.
Sallina had more light to see by than Garibaldi. She was behind Dan. The back of her head was aching, but she did not feel cold any more. The climbing was making her warm. Watching Dan in front of her, she could tell that his clothes were wet. She could hear the water squishing in his boots, and see it dripping from inside his oilskins. She thought he must be very cold and uncomfortable, with his wet clothes rubbing against him as he climbed.
"Are you cold?"
"Don't think about me, Miss," Dan said, "Just make sure you stay on the stairs."
There was grass at the top of the cliff, and the wind was blowing hard from the sea. Dan stood on the grass waiting for them, pointing his light at the last of the steps.
When they were all standing beside him, he covered the light. "All well?"
Garibaldi was warm and breathing deeply. He felt good. He was glad he was not on the steps anymore. He felt awake, and ready for anything, so long as it was not climbing stairs along a cliff in the dark.
"I'm fine," Garibaldi said.
"I'm okay," Sallina said.
"Now we'll find the path and head east," Dan said, "Is that clear?"
"Yes," Garibaldi said.
Sallina said, "And when we come to another path turning left, which will be north. We take that path. It will lead us to the road to Prudence."
"That's right, Miss Sallina," Dan said. "Any questions?"
"No," they said.
Dan uncovered his light. "Follow me."
They followed Dan along a muddy path that lead along the top of the cliff. The sea was on their right. Every now and then, they heard waves crashing on the shore below, but most of the time all they heard was the wind blowing around their heads and whistling over the top of the cliff.
"Hold on a moment," Sallina said.
Dan stopped. Sallina kneeled down and tightened the laces on her boots. Dan shone the light at her feet. The heel of her left foot was rubbing against the back of her boot, and one of her right toes was getting sore
When she was finished, she stood up. "Thank you, all set."
"Are them's new boots, Miss?" Dan said.
"Yes," Sallina said.
Dan started walking again. Sallina could see him shaking his head.
Maybe I'll get a few blisters, Sallina thought, from the new boots. But blisters will get better, and they won't stop me walking.
"Does anyone live out here?" Garibaldi said. He had to speak loudly so Dan would hear him over the sound of the wind.
Dan said over his shoulder, "Farmers. Don't shout."
"Is it forest or fields?" Sallina said. She looked into the darkness to the left of the path, but she could see nothing. There were no shadows of trees, and no lights from houses.
"Fields. The farmers are asleep," Dan said.
Sallina heard Garibaldi grunt behind her. She and Baat stopped and looked back. Garibaldi had tripped over some kind a rock in the path. Dan shone his light upon down the path. Garibaldi was standing up with his hands covered with mud.
"You fall again?" Baat said.
Garibaldi wiped his forehead with his hand, which left a big mud smear above his eyes. "Yes, I fall again." He wiped his hands on his trousers. "I'm fine. Keep going."
Sallina reached up and wiped the mud from Garibaldi's face and kissed his cheek.
"Come along," Dan said.
Sallina bumped her toes against rocks and felt her boots become entangled in thorny vines. She was glad she was wearing them. They protected her feet. But when the path went down towards a little creek, she squealed and slipped down the bank. Dan caught her when she reached the bottom. She felt his hand on her back. She stood on the wet stones of the creek beside him.
When Dan caught her and pushed her up again, she felt like she was on the swing in her garden at home.
"Thank you," she said.
"If you can manage it, Miss," Dan said, his voice coming from the darkness, and his light shining on the stones, "Don't be squeaking like a mouse, or making any other noises like that. I don't want anyone knowing we're on the path."
"I'll try."
After another few hundred paces along the path, Sallina began to wonder if Dan had missed the turning they were supposed to be looking for. She remembered when Garibaldi had missed the turning in the forest when they were riding to Godiva.
Dan stopped. "This is the turning."
Another muddy path led off to the left. They turned onto it and walked away from the sea. The wind grew less strong. Now they could hear their boots sucking and scratching in the mud and rocks of the path. Up ahead of them, Dan's light moved back and forth.
Sallina felt cold again. Her left sock had slipped down into her boot. She wanted to stop and pull it up, but she did not want Dan to shake his head at her again. Dan did not want them to speak, but he was shining a light on the path. Why was that? Surely anyone nearby would see the light and know that someone was on the path? Sallina thought about asking him, but she decided not to. He was in a bad mood, she was sure of it, and he would not want to answer.
It started raining. The rain trickled off her hat, down her jacket, and onto her oilskin trousers. It made pools in the mud. Her body and legs were dry, but the water seeped through her boots and into her socks. At first she was glad, because the cool water made her toe feel better. But after a while the wet sock started rubbing all her toes at once.
"I have to stop," Sallina said, "My socks are slipping down."
Dan turned around and shone his light upon her feet. "You mean your new boots are causing you problems."
"No," Sallina said, "I mean my socks are slipping down."
"Whatever the problem is, it's going to keep happening. Take care of it. I don't want you limping if we have to run."
Sallina pushed her fingers into her boots and pulled up her socks. "I'll be fine."
Farther along the path, they walked right between a farm house and a barn. Dan shone his light on each building. After the house, the path turned into a lane made of stones pressed close together in the mud. The stones were easier to walk along, because they stood out of the mud and water. Now that her boots were no longer getting stuck in the mud, Sallina's feet hurt less.
The lane came to an open place, and they saw lights twinkling far away to their left. Dan stopped and took a drink of water from his canteen. Sallina was not thirsty, but she drank from her canteen anyway. Sallina thought it was strange that they were drinking from their canteens when water was falling from the sky, and dripping from their clothes.
"Is that Prudence?" Sallina said.
"No," Dan said. "It's Faith Town. The Endurance is there. We're looking west across Faith Bay."
"Where does the path go from here?"
"North."
Sallina looked east. She saw flashes of light on the undersides of the clouds far away.
"Look," she said. "Look at the sky over there. It's like lightening, but there's no thunder."
"It's fireworks," Dan said. "The ones they have at the end of the circus."
Some of the flashes were pink, some green.
"Good news," Baat said. "Circus today, not tomorrow."
"Yes," Dan said. "They did it even though it was raining." He laughed. "It must have been messy work in the arena." Sallina wondered why he laughed. Why was it funny that men were fighting to death in mud?
The wind started blowing harder, and the clouds dropped lower. They could not see the flashes any more.
"Time to go," Dan said.
There lane grew wider. They passed houses and barns. After a while, they saw a light ahead of them. It was a lantern hanging from a pole. Dan walked up to the pole and stood in the light of the lantern. There were houses and shops pressed close together on either side of the lane. Their doors were shut. The windows were closed with wooden shutters. A sign hanging from one building said, "The Nail and Hammer". Sallina thought that sounded like the name of a tavern. But the tavern was closed.
Dan continued along the lane. At the edge of the lantern light, the lane crossed a large road. Dan walked into the middle of the road and stopped. He looked up and down. The surface of the road was made of mud and small, sharp, stones. It was wide enough for two carts to pass one another.
"Where is everyone?" Sallina said.
"At the circus, I'm guessing," Dan said, "Or asleep. Maybe it's a holiday."
Garibaldi pointed to the right. "We go that way."
Dan nodded. "Yes, we go east."
They started walking. Soon they left the light of the lantern behind them. They walked side by side with Dan's light shining in front. It stopped raining. There were breaks in the clouds above them.
Dan said, "I'm going to turn off the light."
The light disappeared and it was dark. After a few seconds, Sallina could see. There was starlight shining down through the breaks in the clouds, and the light of the stars was enough from them to see the road. Because the road was flat, they could walk without worrying about tripping over things. Sallina looked for shadows on the road, but there were none. She looked behind her for her own shadow, but there was none. It had been a long time since she had been for a walk in starlight with no moon. She looked up at the sky. It made sense that there were no shadows. The stars were little lights all over the sky. They were shining from every direction. But she was surprised that she had never before noticed that there were no shadows in starlight.
Ahead of them they saw lights on the road, moving closer.
"People coming home," Dan said.
When the lights were a hundred steps away, Dan said, "Let's hide." His light shone on the ground, and they followed him off the road, over a grassy ditch, and through a gap in a hedge. They crouched in some mud and ferns.
They heard shouting and laughing. They saw yellow light shining through the hedge. They each found a hole in the hedge to look through. The road was crowded with people. Some were dancing and skipping. Some were lying in carts asleep. Some of the carts were pulled by donkeys, but most were pulled by people. There were people walking arm in arm, as if they would fall over without one another's help. Some people carried oil lamps in glass bowls, others carried large candles in glass jars. Everyone wore masks. Some of the masks were simple pieces of cloth with slits for eyes. Others were hats and visors combined, with feathers and sparkling sequins.
"They waited for the rain to stop," Dan said, "And came home."
Sallina was sure the people could not hear him, but she was surprised that he spoke without whispering.
"All drunk, all crazed from the circus," Dan said.
"They look like they're having a great time," Garibaldi said.
"They are."
Sallina guessed that three hundred people must have gone by, all in one, long group stretched out along the road. The last of the group went by slowly. Some were far behind.
"Put your masks on," Dan said, "there will be people on the road from now on."
With the help of Dan's light, they took out their masks and put them on. Sallina pulled hers down over her eyes and reached up to feel if the rabbit ears were sticking up straight. They were. She smiled.
Garibaldi's mask was a leather band across his cheeks and his eyes. His chin was showing, but he thought it would be enough so that people who had never seen him before would not remember his face. Baat pulled his stocking mask over his face and made the holes in it line up with his eyes.
Dan put his mask on last. Sallina was expecting him to put on the simple leather mask Otis had made for him, but instead Dan took out something that was like the head of a wolf. He put it on over his head and looked out of its eyes.
"Wow, that looks so real!" Sallina said.
Baat laughed.
Dan stood up. "It is real."
"What happened to the mask Otis was making for you?" Sallina said.
"This is it," Dan said, "He didn't put the wolf skin on until later."
Dan stepped through the gap in the hedge, jumped across the ditch, and stood in the road. The others followed him. Sallina had a trouble getting over the ditch while looking down through the slits in her mask, but she managed. She stood next to Dan and tightened the string that tied the mask to her head.
"It's real?" Garibaldi said, "A real wolf head?"
"Yes," Dan said, "Killed the devil with my own hands."
Dan started walking, and they followed him. Garibaldi and Baat whispered to one another. After a hundred paces, Baat stepped closer to Dan.
"You kill wolf with hands?"
"Yes," Dan said.
"Good doing," Baat said. "Hard to kill wolf with hands."
"All part of a day's work."
Three people were coming along the road with a single torch. One rode on a donkey. She was a woman. The other two were men. All were young, and they had taken off their masks. They were singing. The woman had a bottle of wine in her hand. She waved the bottle as they came near and smiled.
"You're too late! It's over!" she said.
"No," Dan said, "You're going the wrong way. We're going to Faith Town. You're going to Prudence."
The woman looked back the way they had come. The two men stared at Dan. Dan kept walking right past them. As Garibaldi walked by the donkey, he looked up at the woman. She looked down at him. One moment she was frowning at what Dan had said, and the next she was smiling at Garibaldi.
"Hello handsome, you should come with us."
Garibaldi stopped. The woman reached out with one hand. Her hair was shiny and sparkled with sequins. She wore eye-shadow and lipstick. She had a cloak wrapped around her, but her feet stuck out from beneath it. Her feet and ankles were bare and white and clean.
She leaned out from the donkey her hand held out.
"Come on. Come with me."
Garibaldi ran forward to catch up with the others. Behind him, the woman laughed. How did she know he was handsome? He was wearing a black mask over his eyes and cheeks. Maybe she thought his chin was handsome.
They passed people in twos and threes, but no other large groups. Some people asked them for wine or money. Many laughed and told them they were going the wrong way.
"I'm getting tired of them saying that," Dan said.
Baat was walking next to Dan. "Kill one of them."
Dan laughed. "No, we're not supposed to kill anyone."
They passed more people who talked to them, and sometimes Dan answered. But Sallina said nothing. What was the point in talking to these people? They were all drunk. And anyway, she was still thinking about Dan saying he wasn't going to kill anyone because he was not supposed to. Was that the only reason he wasn't going to kill anyone? How many other things was he doing just because he was supposed to?
They passed a woman lying on the ground off to the side of the road. Dan took his light out and shone it upon her. He kept walking. Sallina stopped to look at the her. She wanted to make sure that the woman was breathing, but it was too dark to see. She hurried forward and caught up with Dan.
"What's the matter with her?"
"She's unconscious from drink."
"How can you tell?"
"I can tell."
"Will she be okay?"
"Most likely she'll be fine," Dan said, "It's wet, but it's not cold."
"Oh," she said.
"How are your feet?" Dan said.
Sallina's feet hurt.
"They're okay," she said. She rubbed her head. It ached. "My head still hurts."
Dan stopped. He stood in front of her, lifted her mask, and held his hand to her forehead. He leaned closer. He took his flashlight out and shone it in her face and eyes. She tried to lean away from him, but he grabbed the hair at the back of her head so she couldn't move. She was frightened. Where was Garibaldi? Why was Garibaldi letting Dan pull her hair?
Dan let go. He walked a few steps away from her and pointed his light at the road. She pulled her mask down and moved it around on her face until it was comfortable again. Dan turned around. Even though it was dark, Sallina could see Dan's hand upon his chin, up under the snout of his wolf-head.
"What is the problem?" Garibaldi said.
"The girl is sick," Dan said. "She has a fever."
"Do I?" she said.
"You did this morning," Garibaldi said.
Sallina frowned, but nobody could see her frowning beneath her mask. First Garibaldi didn't help her when Dan was pulling her hair, and now he was agreeing with Dan.
"She knew she was sick," Dan said, "But she didn't tell me because she thought I would make her stay behind."
Dan kneeled down and took off his pack. He looked through it with the help of his light. They heard a snapping sound, and some rustling. He closed his pack and stood up.
"And you, Garibaldi, you didn't tell me because you're scared of her." He shone his light upon his hand and held his hand in front of Sallina. There were two white pills on his palm.
"Take these," he said.
Sallina looked at the pills. She picked them up and put them in her mouth.
"Wash them down with some water," he said.
She took out her canteen and drank from it.
Dan put his pack on his back. "Okay, let's go."
They kept walking.
Half an hour later, Sallina began to feel less cold. Maybe the pills Dan gave her were working. He was right, of course, she knew she was sick and she came anyway. She wondered what was in the pills. Maybe they were valuable pills. Perhaps she should thank Dan for them. But she did not want to thank him because Dan should not have pulled her hair.
They came around a bend in the road and saw the lights of Prudence City. There seemed to be a lantern or a torch on every roof, and high above all the houses was the stadium, in the center of the city. Bright lights shone all around the top of it, sparkling in the night air. Most were white, but some were red, green, and blue.
"Wow," Sallina said staring at the city.
Dan held his hand out in front of her. "Stop!"
She looked down. There was something lying in the road at her feet. Dan shone his light upon it. There was an old man there, lying on his back. His eyes stared up, but they did not move. His mask was wrapped tightly around his neck. His trousers and boots had been pulled off and his bare legs were twisted and bent. He looked like a doll a child had thrown down on the ground. His skin was white all over, but his shirt was stained blood-red around his chest. One hand clutched the shirt at the center of the blood stain. His fingers were stiff, as if they were frozen.
Dan turned his light aside from the old man's face. He took Sallina's hand and lead her away.
"But..." Sallina said.
"There's nothing we can do for him, Miss," Dan said, "He's dead."