Free User Unfriendly by Vivian Vande Velde Page A

does that make?"
    Who knows?
I thought. She was always the one who was good at doing math without a calculator.
    "Can we get out early?" she asked. "Can I get out early? I'm sorry to be spoiling everybody's fun, but if you can't make this headache go away, I don't think I can stand four more days of it."
    We all looked at each other hopelessly. Even Feordin, who was mad at us, was clearly upset.
    "I'm sorry," Cornelius said.
    "
There's no way to get out?
" Mom demanded, sounding somewhere between wanting to cry and wanting to shake him.
    "Well, if we were at Rasmussem—"
    Almost everybody groaned. We
all
glared.
    "Well, now we know for next time. If we just leave someone by the equipment to—"
    "Quit while you're ahead," Nocona warned.
    "Sorry," Cornelius said again.
    "Well,
I
think," Marian said, "that we missed something."
    "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
    "
Obviously
"—how come, I wondered, girls always have to talk in that irritatingly superior tone of voice whenever they're explaining something?—"
obviously
Felice wasn't meant to have this headache for two days.
Obviously
we were supposed to pick something up at the town and missed it."
    And how come, even though she kept saying "we," I kept hearing "you bozos"?
    "What sort of something, Marian?" Thea asked.
    "Well, I don't know. Probably something magic."
    Robin said, "That's pretty lame, Marian."
    "Well, I'm not hearing anybody else come up with something better," she snapped.
    Oh-oh. Trouble in Love City.
    "Listen," Robin said. "Like Harek pointed out last night, we took one long side trip yesterday. I think we were supposed to find the cure yesterday afternoon, beyond where the bandits attacked us. If we get back on the road, we'll find what we need by noon today."
    "Yeah," Marian said, her voice getting louder and shriller. "Fine. But what if it's behind us?"
    "There was nothing in the town," Robin said, his snotty tone matching hers exactly.
    "But if there was, we'll be pretty darn far from it by noon today."
    The two of them stood glaring at each other.
    Cornelius started, "I think—"
    "
What?
" Both turned on him and he took a quick step back.
    "I think," he suggested meekly, "it'd be best to cover both options."
    "Separate?" Thea asked, her voice an incredulous squeak.
    "Well," he said. "Yes."
    We all thought about that for a while.
    "I'm so sorry," Mom said.
    "Shh, it's OK," Marian said. Pain that she was, I was glad she was there. Boys aren't good at comforting girls, and Mom needed all the comforting she could get. Marian stooped down to take Mom's hand, but what she said was for all of us. "I'll go back."
    I figured Robin was probably right, that the answer lay ahead of us, not behind. Still—just in case—I was glad when Nocona told her, "I'll go with you."
    "But you've been hurt," Mom protested. "What about your poor leg?"
    "Almost all better." Nocona flexed his leg to show her. "Injuries here heal real fast, or the game would drag." He seemed suddenly to realize what he had said. "Generally," he mumbled.
    "I'll go too," Feordin said in the uncomfortable silence. He glared at Marian and Nocona. "Keep them out of trouble." He glared at the rest of us. "Maybe find a replacement mace."
    Robin looked at me and Thea and Cornelius.
    "I'll go on," I said.
    "Me too," Thea said.
    Cornelius nodded.
    "Then we should go as quickly as possible," Robin said.
    I half expected Marian to back down, once she saw that Robin was going to be stubborn about it. But she didn't. We divided our provisions, gulped down another cold meal, packed the horses, then Marian, Nocona, and Feordin rode one way, and Thea, Robin, Cornelius, Mom, and I rode the other. And the worst part was my nagging fear that neither group was right.

    We backtracked over a part of the forest through which we'd already traveled—even though I'd been unconscious for the trip—and we were fairly certain that the whole bandits' fortress had been one enormous dead end. So—assuming there'd be