Page 42 of Mountain Captive

“I know all about you,” the man said. “The Exalted has asked me to keep an eye on you. You’re a lucky girl to be so fated.”

“Jedediah! What can I do for you?” Her father hurried to greet the man.

“You need to be ready to head out by one o’clock,” Jedediah said. “Cephus will be here then to tow your trailer. You and your family will travel in the bus.”

“I don’t want to move,” Elita said.

Both men turned to her. “Elita, hush!” her father ordered. “It’s not your place to question the Exalted.”

“Your father is right,” Jedediah said. “Your job is to obey. The sooner you master that job, the better for you and for the group. No supper for you tonight, to teach you to master your impulses.”

He exited the trailer, and Elita began to cry. Her mother came into the room. “What’s going on? Elita, why are you crying?”

“Jedediah was here,” her father said. “Elita told him she didn’t want to move. He said for questioning the Exalted, she was forbidden to have supper tonight.”

“Who is he to tell us how to discipline our daughter?” Her mother put an arm around Elita. “And she’s only eight.”

Her father looked troubled. “We can’t disobey Jedediah,” he said. “He’s the Exalted’s right-hand man.”

“I’m not going to starve my child.”

“She won’t starve. She’s gone longer than one night without food during the ritual fasts.”

“And you know I don’t agree with those either. Not for children.”

Her father glanced out the window. “Lower your voice. Someone will hear you. And get back to packing. They’re coming for the trailer at one.” The family didn’t own a truck, so they relied on one of the other members of the Vine to tow their travel trailer to the next camp. They would ride with other families in a converted school bus the group owned.

Chris’s mother frowned at her husband, then marched to the cabinet and took out bread and peanut butter. “What are you doing?” her father asked.

“I’m making a sandwich.”

“You can’t give it to Elita.”

“The sandwich is for me.” She spread peanut butter between two slices of bread, then wrapped it in wax paper and tucked it in her pocket. As she exited the room, she caught Elita’s eye and winked. Elita immediately felt better. Later on, when no one was looking, she knew her mother would give her the sandwich. Her father might believe in strict obedience to the Exalted, but her mother had different priorities, and Elita was one of them.

Chapter Thirteen

Rand was off work the next day and spent the morning doing yard work around the cabin while Chris worked on a new painting on the screened-in porch she had appropriated as a temporary studio. Every time he passed by, he looked up to see her poised before an easel, sometimes working with a brush or pencil, other times standing back and considering the work so far.

He could get used to her presence in his life, though he wanted more. An intimacy she wasn’t ready to give and a trust he didn’t know if he could ever earn.

He had just fetched a can of wasp spray from the garage to deal with a yellow jacket nest under the back deck when his phone emitted an alert. He checked the screen and found a message from the 911 dispatcher:Missing hikers, Guthrie Mill area. All available volunteers needed for search.

He went inside, still carrying the spray. He set the can on the counter and went in search of Chris. She had laid aside her paintbrush and was staring at her phone also. “Where is Guthrie Mill?” he asked.

She pocketed her phone. “It’s an old stamp mill for processing gold ore in the mountains, about ten thousand feet in elevation,” she said. “It’s south of Gallagher’s Basin.”

“That’s not far from where we were hiking yesterday.”

“Not far as the crow flies,” she said. “A lot longer if you travel by road. It’s a beautiful area but a terrible place to be lost. Lots of hazards.”

Rand thought of the first search and rescue training class he had attended, about the psychology of searches. “Let’s hope we can find these people before they get into trouble,” he said.

“I’ll get my gear,” she said, and left the room.

They met up at the front door a few moments later and rode together to search and rescue headquarters, where a crowd had gathered of both SAR volunteers and others who had gotten word of the need for searchers. “The 911 call came in at ten this morning,” Danny said when the SAR team gathered around him. “Two adults—a husband and wife in their forties, and their fifteen-year-old son. They set out two days ago to explore the area around Guthrie Mill. The neighbors noticed this morning they hadn’t returned and became concerned and made the call.”

“Are we sure they’re really missing?” Ryan asked. “Maybe they took off somewhere else and didn’t bother informing their neighbor of the change of plans.”

---