Page 81 of Mongrels United
“Let’s see if we can find the Gray House,” she said.
“It’s way down that way,” Nash said, waving to their left. “But there’s supposed to be a stream somewhere around, up this end, and a little bridge over it.”
“Oh, let’s find that, then,” Grady said brightly. “It sounds lovely.”
Nash rolled his eyes. “Well, okay…” He tugged on her hand and stepped onto the path that curved around the base of the redwood.
They made no attempt to steal along the path. Grady chatted happily about inanities—tankball, the game tonight, Kailash’s training, how hard they’d all worked, how hard all her staff worked on the Bridge, how she couldn’t find a replacement for Vasanta, because no one seemed interested in hard work these days…and back to tankball, and the party they were missing, which, she hastened to add, she didn’t mind missing, not for this…
Nash said nothing. She didn’t give him many opportunities to speak, because she knew he was barely listening to her. She was also trying to listen to everything around her at the same time she was talking. Was that something moving in the underbrush? Or just a bird?
Did birds hoot like that? What sort of bird made such a sound?
The path meandered around trees and clumps of bushes, grew faint at times, and then broader and well cleared. Secondary paths branched off it and Nash would take them, leading them deeper into the forest. The heat of the day dissipated under the trees. The smell of fresh green growing things was thick in the air. And everywhere, there seemed to be an utter silence, as if they were the only ones here.
The path they were on was narrow and dived between two trees whose trunks were so close together, they had to pass through them one by one. On the other side, the path widened into a natural clearing, about five meters across and very roughly round in shape. The earth in the middle was covered in leaf litter, most of it brown and moldy, for the shade was thick here. More old school lessons stirred in Grady’s memory. The lack of light would explain why nothing grew just here. The canopy was too dense.
Nash used his grip on Grady’s hand to pull her into the center of the clearing, then around to face him. He pulled her up against him and bent to bring his lips to hers. He touched her mouth lightly. “Stay still, let me look around,” he breathed, his lips brushing hers. “I heard something, a minute ago…”
Grady put her arms up around his neck and held still as requested, with her chin up, as if they were kissing.
Nash began to wrap his arms around her, then stiffened. He gripped her arms, tore them away from him and spun her around him, putting his back where hers had been.
Then he shoved her away from him and spun, ducking as he turned.
The man who had been racing across the clearing toward Grady’s back tripped over Nash’s shoulder. But he pushed off the ground with one big hand, regained his feet and lunged toward Grady and clamped onto her arm with a painful grip.
The initial fright she’d felt disappeared. Calm spread through her. She could hear her father speaking about times that tested one’s nature. But mostly, she could hear Jack, whispering instructions in her mind.
Grady rantowardthe man who had her, two quick steps, then she pushed off with her toes, up into the air. It worked perfectly. And the man seemed to be reacting far too slowly, which gave her time to think things through. When she was in position, she tucked her chin into her neck and rammed her head forward.
She felt the impact against the top of her forehead, which hurt, but not as much as she thought it would. And she felt the man’s nose crunch under the impact.
His grip on her arm loosened.
Grady landed on her feet and put her hand down to steady herself on the ground. Her heart was screaming. So was the man who had just grabbed her. His hands were to his face, and blood streamed between his fingers and from under his hands.
“Grady, behind you!” Nash cried.
She spun, rising to her feet.
Nash was struggling with a second man and a third was racing toward Grady. She saw a lanky figure, a bony face, receding hair, and an almost feral fury in the man’s face. He held a knife.
Too close, she realized. And that froze her. Jack hadn’t told her what she could do for something like this.
The man raised the knife, ready to bring it down on her.
Phht!
The sound was low, almost silent.
A hole appeared in the man’s right cheek, just below the eye.
He dropped to the ground and lay still.
“Grady, follow the other one!” Nash shouted.
She looked around. The man Nash had been struggling with was running for the other side of the little clearing, while Nash stood with his hand against the back of his thigh.
