"What stone?"

"God has not given you a heart of fear," Lilybet said."And ye shall go two by two."

I sat up straighter, the fear and hesitance washed away, and looked across the fire at him. "I 'll go."

"Go where?"

391"Wherever you go, I 'll go."

The troubled expression dissolved. "That's my Cadi."

A smile spread across his face as he stood. "We'd best go now before Sim comes back. He'll only try to talk us out of going."

"He'll worry when he finds us gone."

"We'll leave word with Bletsung."

"Where are we going?"

"Miz Elda's the oldest living soul in our valley. Maybe she can give us some answers."

We were watchful but not afraid as we came down Dead Man's Mountain and stood at the edge of the woods behind Bletsung Macleod's house. Bletsung was at one of her hives, opening it."She's gone clean out of her mind," Fagan said.

"She's robbing that hive in broad daylight! She's trying to kill herself."

"No, she ain't." I caught his arm before he could barge out into the open. "She does it all the time. The bees don't mind."

We watched as the swarm rose like a cloud and then draped her like a shawl while she drained the amber honey into the jar. As she walked slowly away, the mass drifted away like a soft gray mist floating behind her. She saw us as she neared the cabin. Waving, she ran toward us. We met her on the path Sim 392Gillivray had worn going to his sitting place beneath her window.

"Is there no one with ye?" she said, eyes bright and eagerly glancing toward the trees.

"We're alone."

A faint frown crossed her face. "But where's ...

where's the sin eater? I have not talked with him in two days.""He went out this morning to check his traps. He'll likely bring ye summat for supper this evening," I said.

"I don't care about him bringing me something. Is he all right? Did ye not tell him what the man told you?"

"Aye, we told him," Fagan said.

And?

"He knows the truth."

"What did he say? What did he do?"

"He accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, ma'am."

"Then where is he? Why hasn't he come down off the mountain?" Deeply troubled, she looked between us.

"What's he going to do?"

"He didn't say, ma'am," Fagan told her. "Maybe he just needs more time to think.," She couldn't hide her disappointment. Forcing a smile, she patted Fagan's shoulder. "Well, at least you look better than 393the last time I saw you.""Feeling a sight better, too. How's Ma?"

"Not so good."

"She sick?"

"At heart, I reckon. I told her everything you told me about Jesus, and she's been crying off and on ever since."

Why?

"She won't say." She looked from him to me. "Y e need a good hot bath and hair brushing, Cadi. Y e're a sorry sight for such a pretty little girl."

"I was in a cave and bats were a swooping down on me and we found -"

"We'd best get going." Fagan drew me away.

"Would ye tell Sim when ye see him that we're all right?

We're going to my grandmother."

"Elda? Y e'd best be careful."

"We'll keep an eye out for Pa.""Maybe you should wait a few more days."

"She's probably worrying about us, and we've things we need to ask her."

Bletsung looked greatly perplexed, but asked no questions. She looked up at the mountain again, troubled. "I wish there was something I could do."

I knew the answer plain as day. "Y e can pray."

394She looked ready to cry. "I 've prayed long and hard over the years, darlin'. Maybe I 've been doing it wrong."

"Y e done it right," Fagan said, grinning. "Y ou and Sim's saved, ain't ye?"

"Reckon so, though it don't feel like it yet."

I tugged her sleeve. "Just tell Jesus ye trust him and ye're waiting on him to tell ye what to do."

She looked down at me and smiled faintly. "From the mouth of a babe I 'm taught, eh?" Something flickered in her eyes and she grew still, tears surging. "So be it,"

she said softly. I didn't know what I 'd said to bring that look of pain into her eyes.look of pain into her eyes.

"Come on, Cadi," Fagan said and walked away.

I followed after him, though I kept looking back at her.

We'd gone clear across the meadow, and Bletsung was still standing in the path where we'd left her, looking so forlorn, my heart ached. "Wait up," I said and ran back to her. "I love you."

She ran her knuckles lightly down my cheek. "I love you, too."

I hugged her tight. "God loves you, too, Bletsung. I know he does."

"I 'll hang on to that," she whispered brokenly. Kissing me on the top of the head, she 396set me back from her. "Y e'd best go on now.

Fagan isn't waiting, and I 've a strong feeling he's going to need you."

I wished he wasn't in such an all-fire hurry to find the truth about everything. I couldn't help wondering if some secrets were best left in darkness and some deeds done best forgotten.Y et, something inside urged me to catch up to Fagan and press on.

395.

Twenty.

Fagan and I followed the path on the north side of the forested stream. The rhododendrons had lost their clusters of rosebay and white, and the last of the summer cardinals, jewelweeds, and purple thistles were blooming along the bank and tucked into rocks and woodlands. A dozen swallowtail butterflies flitted from bloom to bloom. We reached the spot where the creek joined the river and followed along the bank to the stepping rocks. Fagan went first, and I stood watching him and wondering what he thought he was doing. We were heading across the river just east of Kai land. He paused on the table rock in the middle.

"Come on."

I came ahead, hopping from rock to rock, careless in my haste. I slipped once and sat hard on the rock, feet and legs getting wet.

"Careful!"I glowered at him as I picked myself up, rubbed my backside, and kept moving. "I thought we was going the long way around."

397He was taking us back by way of Kai Creek.

"We're safe."

"We'll be going right by your place."

"T ake my word for it."

"I t's too pretty a day to die," I grumbled. "Hush now. I can't put the feeling into words. But Pa ain't gonna see us. I just know it." We made it to the other side.

"Besides," he said, watching me make the last jump, "Pa'd expect us to go the long way round. I f he's waiting, that's where he'd be. Over there, on the north side where he can watch the trail along the river."

"I hope you're right."

We headed up the hill into the hazels, holly, dogwood, and huckleberry with the canopy of great chestnuts spreading above us. I t was cooler in the forest shade. A burst of flapping near stopped my heart as a turkey took flight from the leafy floor,startled from its foraging. Fagan grabbed his sling fromhisbackpocket, loaded a stone, and stopped its flight.

"What're ye doing?" I said, heart flapping within my chest like an echo of those wings before he wrung the bird's neck.

Fagan picked the limp turkey up by the feet. "A beauty, ain't he?"

How could he be so calm when I was expecting Brogan Kai to come charging out of 398the woods any second with those ham-sized fists of his? "What're ye going to do with it?"

"Dress it."

"Now? Give it to me." I yanked it out of his hands with both of mine.

"Hold up, now. Miz Elda don't like me bringing anything round to her unless I 've dressed it first."

Stopping, I turned round and glared at him. "We gonna hunt round and find a pot to scald it and then pluck its feathers, too?" Swinging around, I marched up the path, holding the bird by the feet while its headand body bounced against my back. "While we're about it, why don't we collect chestnuts and crack 'em so's we can make stuffing?"

Fagan fell in alongside me. He was laughing! I wanted to swing that turkey and clobber him with it.

"Got yourself a turkey, did ye, Cadi?" Miz Elda said, sitting in her rocking chair beneath the porch shade. I 'd seen the look on her face when she saw Fagan and his bruises. Something dark and fierce came into her eyes until she banked it.

Heaving the bird from my back, I whumped it down on her porch. "Fagan kilt it. Just like ye said, Miz Elda.

A Kai can't go anyplace without killing something." I was 399sorry as soon as I said it, ashamed into my bones.

"And he wasn't up to carrying it?"

"I was up to it." Fagan just looked at me.

"He wanted to dress it first." I sat down glumly on the bottom step, too tired and hot to go up yet. "I figuredwe could do the chore here and maybe live to eat it."

"Stop grumbling," he muttered under his breath. "I forgive you."

"Well, now, I do thank ye for the bird. I ain't had turkey in a month of Sundays. Go on in and stoke the fire, Fagan. There's water in the barrel. Y e con fill up the pot while ye're about it."

"Y es, ma'am. Y e want him dressed?"

"Easier if we scald him first."

Fagan lifted the turkey, went up the steps and into the house. I followed him part way, wishing I 'd said I was sorry before he'd forgiven me. I sat down near Miz Elda and leaned against the post in the shade. She leaned around, looking after Fagan. "Y e can cut off those wings and spread 'em out good in front of the fire to dry. They'll make right good fans."

"Y es, ma'am."

She settled into her rocking chair again, tipping it back and forth for a minute, saying nothing, watching me. I was too tiredme. I was too tired 400to speak.The yellow-brown thrushes, purple finches, and juncos were singing in the trees.

"Y e're in dire need of a bath, Cadi Forbes. I f your mother got a look at ye, there'd be an end to your visits."

"Ain't been time."

"Did ye find what ye was looking for, child?"

"Y es, ma'am, and more. We mean to tell ye all about it and ask ye some questions." Miz Elda leaned forward in her chair and put her hand on my head. "I was beginning to wonder if you and Fagan had been done in.

I took her hand in both of mine and held it against my cheek. "Near abouts." When I let go, she leaned back with a tender smile and rocked some more.

A hawk flew over, and three purple martins took wing so fast the gourds Miz Elda had hung from the barn swung back and forth. There was nothing like a family of martins to keep the hawks away from the barnyard chickens. Miz Elda didn't have a one to spare.She leaned around her chair again. "Don't put that turkey in until the water's boiling!"