“What is that?”
“That area’s been burned,” Astrid said.
“Burned?”
“In a long strip, see? Like it was burned from above.”
“Dragon,” Thaddeus said, staring back at the long, black ribbon of the forest, his voice a near whisper as a chill raced up his spine.
“I wonder if that’s where the dragon dropped the Bearagon and circled back to try and kill it.” She made a face. “I’m sorry. I know this is difficult for you.”
“I want to see it again,” Thaddeus said, reaching for the rudder.
“We can’t!” Astrid exclaimed and put both of her hands around his. “We’ll lose the wind!”
“But it’s my mother,” Thaddeus said. “It has to be. It could give us a clue as to where she was headed.”
“I know, Thaddeus, but right now we need to get back to your father.”
Thaddeus closed his eyes, still holding on to the rudder control, Astrid’s hands wrapped around his. He could feel the thrum of the wind as it pushed them along. All it would take was one slight adjustment to the rudder’s setting for him to circle the glider back around so he could get a better look at the burned patch of forest. But Astrid had a point. If they turned into the wind, they could lose altitude and crash into the trees, and then he certainly wouldn’t get back to his father in time. As it was, he was afraid he still might not make it soon enough despite them building the gliders.
He slowly released his grip on the rudder and allowed Astrid to take over once again.
“I’m sorry,” Thaddeus said, unable to look at her.
“There’s no need to apologize,” she assured him, coaxing the rudder a bit to move them out from behind Teofil and Dulindir. “You’ve got a lot of pressure on you. We’ve all lost someone now, so I understand how you must be feeling.”
Thaddeus gave a quick smile as he put his hand over hers on the rudder. “I know you do. There’s so much bad that’s happened lately, it’s hard to find the good.”
“This is something that’s good,” she said as the wind blew the hair back from her face and she smiled brightly. “Flying like this is a good thing.”
He smiled back. After checking the compass to make sure they were still on course, he watched the trees flow past beneath them. The wind felt good in his face as it dried the tears on his cheeks. Up ahead, Teofil looked back at him, a broad smile on his face and his hair in disarray from the wind. Thaddeus’s smile widened, and the heavy feeling inside his chest lightened. He wished he could have shared a glider with Teofil, experienced this flight alongside him.
Beside Teofil, Dulindir’s long blond hair rippled in the breeze, streaming over his back like a soft golden wave. Watching the wind ruffle Dulindir’s silky strands soothed Thaddeus’s troubled mind and he took in the scenery below. It was a beautiful view of the forest, stretching out beneath them in all directions. The leaves ruffled in the wind, and now and then Thaddeus caught a glimpse of the twisting, shimmering line of what he assumed was the Wretched River. From this height, as the sunlight sparkled off the surface of the water, it looked more beautiful than dangerous. But so many dangerous things looked beautiful from a distance.
Shouts from ahead attracted Thaddeus’s attention. Teofil and Dulindir were waving and pointing ahead. When he looked where they indicated, stomach tight with nerves at whatever might be coming at them, he was surprised to see the trees end abruptly at the edge of the grassy plains. From this height, it looked as if some giant being had drawn a knife between the two parcels of land, sharply delineating forest from plain.
“We made it!” Thaddeus said with a laugh. “We’ve reached the grass plain!”
“Thank Flora,” Astrid said. “Now we just have to fly along the edge of the forest to where we left Mum and your dad.”
Thaddeus checked to make sure the canteen was still clipped tight to his belt. “Any idea how far that is?”
“None,” Astrid replied as she slowly, carefully, adjusted the rudder. “Just tell me if I go too far off course.”
The glider banked in a gentle arc, following Teofil and Dulindir’s as they soared above the line of trees. Birds flew out of the treetops, startled by the shadows cast by the gliders as they floated overhead. Thaddeus made sure they were headed in the right direction, then pushed the compass deep into the pocket of his jeans so he wouldn’t drop it.
“There!” Astrid shouted, pointing to the land ahead of them. “The tall tree in the plains, remember it? I see it way up ahead in the distance.”
Thaddeus saw the tree as a vague shape on the horizon, and his heart pounded. He hoped they weren’t too late. They couldn’t be too late, they just couldn’t be. They’d gone through so much to get the water from the Well of Tears. It couldn’t end with them returning—in gliders, no less—to find his father had already died.
“We walked a really long way,” Thaddeus said.
“Makes sense now why my feet hurt so much,” Astrid said, and they both laughed.
“Ahead!” Teofil shouted back to them, pointing toward the tree.
“We already saw it!” Astrid yelled back. “You’re too slow!”
Teofil smiled and shook his head, pointing at his ears to indicate he couldn’t hear her.
“Just like a younger brother,” Astrid said with a sigh. She looked over at Thaddeus and asked, “Are you ready to land?”
Thaddeus looked at her, wide-eyed. He hadn’t even thought of how they were going to bring the glider back to earth.
“Did we build it for landing?”
“Jeez, have a little faith in us, huh?” Astrid replied, but then she frowned. “It might not be the smoothest of landings, but it’ll get us on the ground.”
Thaddeus craned his head around to look up at the wings. “Did we build spoilers into the wings?”
“Spoilers? Not sure what those are, but we do have these flaps to help us slow down. See?” Astrid tugged a short piece of rope, and the glider dropped twenty feet as its speed decreased.
“Too fast!” Thaddeus shouted, fingers tight on the supports near him. “Ease up, Astrid, ease up!”
She adjusted the flaps a bit more, and the glider continued forward, though lower now. They were flying below treetop level, the forest zipping past to Thaddeus’s left rather than beneath them.
“We have to descend slowly or we’ll crash,” Thaddeus said.
“Where were you when we were building the wings?”
“Probably building this compartment we’re in. Just be easy with that rope next time.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” she said in a snarky tone of voice.
Ahead of them, Teofil and Dulindir started to descend as well, a little smoother than Thaddeus and Astrid had. Astrid gently pulled on the rope, and the flaps came up, dropping them slowly toward the ground. The grasses rushed past beneath them, and Thaddeus feared they would crash nose first into the ground.
He kept quiet, however, as Astrid brought them lower and lower.
“We’re going to need to release our feet,” Thaddeus said as they neared the ground. The tree they had been aiming for was approaching fast, but he couldn’t see any sign of Miriam or his father. That couldn’t be good.