Chapter 14
Regrouping
I found my companion in the woods, in the exact spot where I’d left him. Harry was chewing listlessly and barely reacted when I appeared.
“Harry,” I screamed, running toward him.
The pony looked up.
“I didn’t expect you back so soon. Did you check in all right?”
“Check in! I barely made it out.”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand, Ivan. Did you already find where he keeps the egg?”
“No.” I raised my hands in frustration. “He figured me out. I went in and it was still early, and the man we’d seen on the porch, he said he was one of the inn guests. And we started talking, and within seconds he knew Lisa had sent me. It was Quinn!”
“And then what happened?”
I coughed, remembering the man’s hands clenched over my throat. I reached for it and rubbed the spot where his fingers had closed off my airflow. “He tried to strangle me, and then he dragged me into this windowless room.”
“Wait, what?” Harry’s mouth hung open as he stared at me, wide-eyed.
“This is what I’m telling you. He locked me in this room, and I barely got out.”
“Did you whistle for me? I didn’t hear anything.”
“The room doesn’t let any sound escape, Harry. And it was completely dark. I only got out because of this.” I reached into my pocket and took out the feather.
“Well, I guess this is it then,” Harry sighed. “Can you call Lisa and tell her we’re coming back?”
“Wait, not so fast. I don’t think my phone works, either. It didn’t turn on in the room.” I reached for my phone and saw the screen light up. “Actually, I guess it does work. It didn’t in that room, though.”
“I’m worried. This place gives me the creeps,” Harry neighed. “It’s as if it is cursed.”
“I’m getting the same feeling. I figured, since it was once a mill, there had to be a creek. But there is nothing. No water supply next to it.”
“Let’s leave.”
“Not yet. We can’t go back. I haven’t even tried getting the egg.”
“You’re not telling me you’re going back there. What’s your plan? How will you even get in now that he knows who you are?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, scratching my head as I stared in the direction of the mill. From where we were standing, I could see the top of the mill wheel. A brilliant idea hit me at once, and I jumped up in excitement.
“What is it?” the pony asked solemnly.
“It’s what you said about the creek! Of course. The creek dried up, but the wheel is still there, so there has to be a way to get inside from the back, where the creek used to be. Right? Harry, you’re the best!”
“I don’t believe this. Are you really going to risk your life?”
“Quinn won’t expect me to come back, Harry. He probably still thinks I’m in that trap room.”
“And if he checks?”
“Well, if he checks and finds that I’d escaped, he’ll think I’ll be too scared to come back. But that’s where he’ll be wrong. I’m not afraid.” I rolled my shoulders back.
“I have nothing to say, just nothing to say.” Harry glared at me. Then, with a sigh, he turned away and put a huge heap of grass into his mouth.
“Harry, don’t worry, all right? I’ll whistle for you if I need anything. And if he traps me in the room again, I know how to get out.”
“Fine,” Harry said, still chewing. “So, is that your whole plan? To sneak into the inn from the back?”
“As soon as it gets dark, I’ll walk around back. I’ll climb in right there”—I pointed to the back of the house, to a lone window that was high above the water mill wheel—“and then take it from there.”
“And what if you can’t find the egg once you’re inside?”
“I’ll find it. Have some faith, Harry. Now, I need to get some rest.” I took a look around the meadow and found a shaded spot under an oak tree. “Right over there.” I pointed and headed for the tree before Harry had a chance to object. I made myself a pillow with the grass and promptly fell asleep.
I dreamed of being back home, in my village.
My brothers were mocking me, and then they kicked me.
“Dimwit, Dimwit, good-for-nothing Ivan, go make us some tea,” the two of them chanted.
I usually put up with their kicking and taunting, but this time I did something I’d never done before.
I rose to my feet and fought back. I hit Peter first, then Ilya, punching them each in the face.
“Ivan, Ivan, wake up,” Harry called, and I woke up. He was standing over me, his brow furrowed. “You were moving your fists in your sleep.”
“I was? I had a bad dream,” I responded, rubbing my eyes. I wasn’t about to tell Harry about my brothers.
“Why were you fighting in your sleep?” Harry refused to back down. “I know you by now. You’re not like this.”
“It’s just, you know, I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“And why not? You’re about to go fight some monster and you can’t even tell me about a dream? How am I supposed to help you if I don’t even know what to save you from?”
“Harry, it’s not like that.” I rose and scratched Harry behind the ears. “Quinn’s not a monster. He’s just a regular guy. But anyway, how about I tell you about my dream later? Isn’t it time for me to go?”
“Not quite yet.” Harry looked up at the sky.
Storm clouds were forming on the horizon.
They were a dark shade of gray. It was a color I’d never seen before.
Not back home. In Zorya, the sky was always cyan blue, bright and beautiful.
And only when the rain came, it turned a darker shade, with patches of purple.
The gray skies in Virginia seemed unusual to me, and I told Harry as much.
The pony responded philosophically, “You know, you come from some fairy-tale land and you expect things to work the same way. Gray. That’s the basic color of the sky. It’s as simple as that.”
“I don’t think so, Harry. The sky ought to be blue. More colorful. The only things that are gray are hares and rats, and it’s because they don’t want to be noticed.”
“Come on now, Ivan.” Harry dug his hoof into the ground, ready to start bickering with me again, but I resisted.
“Listen, Harry, how about I get ready to get the egg?”
My stomach growled, and I remembered I needed to eat something.
The plan I’d developed with Lisa, where I’d have my breakfast at the inn, had failed miserably, and I was grateful she had packed me some bread and water.
I’d reached into the bag and got out the bread, then chewed it in silence as Harry stood next to me, the expression on his face impenetrable.
* * *
We waited until it got completely dark, even the tiny sliver of the crescent moon hidden by the clouds. Rain started falling, and I shivered in the cold.
As I set out for the inn for the second time that day, I had no misconceptions about the danger I would be facing. The stakes were high. If Quinn caught me for the second time, he would kill me, I was certain, but I kept this to myself.
“If anything goes wrong, whistle right away,” Harry instructed me.
“Of course,” I promised and hugged him. This could be the last friendly face I saw in my life. And so what if it belonged to a horse?
“I’ll just hide here under the tree.” Harry moved closer under the branches of the sprawling oak.
How I wished to stay there with the pony. But I steeled myself and walked gingerly toward the mill.