Page 57 of Concluded
“I’m ready now,” said Dee.
So was Achilles.
Together they stood.There was no point in wandering around blindly, so they just had to hope that Dee’s magic had placed them conveniently close to their target.
Achilles took a deep breath.“Hey!”he shouted.“Hello!Are you here?We’d like to help you.”His call rolled away as if they stood on a vast plain.
Nobody answered.
“Together?”Dee offered.
“Good idea.One, two, three.Hello!Are you here?”
The two of them together were greater than the sum of the parts.Not only was the shouting louder, but it had more depth.It felt more real.
This time, a response arrived like a whisper carried on a breeze.“You here.”
“What direction was that from?”Dee asked.
“Can’t tell.”Achilles said much more loudly, “Call again!”
There was a pause, then, “Call again,” weaker this time.
Dee made a frustrated noise.“What if that’s just an echo?”
“It’s all we’ve got.”But they needed more info to locate the source.From somewhere in the far reaches of Achilles’ brain, an idea surfaced.“Sing-along time.”
“What?”
Achilles cleared his throat and bellowed.“The other day!”
“Day.”
“I met a bear!”
“Bear.”
“What the hell, Achilles?”That was Dee, not the… whatever.
“Some things are easier if you sing.And boy, I’ve met some bears.”He continued the song, which he’d probably learned during some school event as a kid.“Out in the woods!”
“Woods.”
“A way out there!”
“Out there.”
When Achilles repeated the stanza, Dee joined him… and so did the faint third voice.So he continued.“He looked at me!”
“Looked at me.”
It was coming from ahead and to the right.He was almost sure of it.Joined with Dee—physically and vocally—he walked slowly in that direction, singing the whole way and listening for responses.And they grew stronger.Soon the third person was repeating the entire line, loudly.They sounded male.
Dee and Achilles got to the end of the penultimate stanza—“Caught that branch, on the way back down!”—and the answer came rightthere.
They tripped over something and landed in a heap on the ground.Achilles felt around frantically and nearly sobbed when he touched someone who wasn’t Dee.This someone was cold as the grave, skin stretched tightly over bones, and….“Feathers!”Achilles exclaimed.His heart was beating too quickly and he could barely breathe.
The someone was in a ball, cowering.
